Norwegian Spirit Review
Rating by category
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I have previously sailed twice with Carnival and once with RCL and had great experiences on each, with the RCL ranking a notch above the other two. As this was my first experience with NCL I was both excited and anxious for this trip. I will preface the review with my family and I had a great time on our vacation.
We travelled to New Orleans the day before the cruise and stayed at the Holiday Inn Downtown Superdome location. The decision was made primarily on the fact that they offered complimentary shuttle service to the majority of NOLA areas we were interested in visiting, complimentary shuttle service to the pier, and complimentary parking in their parking garage. That said, the day of the cruise we checked out of the hotel at 10:15, shuttled to the pier, arriving at about 10:30 and by 11:00 we were checked in and seated in the waiting area. We were on the ship within 30 minutes where we were welcomed by cheering crew members and an impressive atrium area. Upon embarkation there are areas for shore excursions, specialty dining, art auction, golf lessons, basically everything you might need. This is good as the state rooms would not be ready until 2:00 and this information is regularly shared over the ship's communication system.
As for the ship, overall, she is in very good shape. The Spirit was well kept in the majority of areas and they are borderline germaphobic on this ship with sanitizers and such throughout. After embarking and taking a quick look around we went to have lunch at the Raffles buffet. In my opinion the buffet was lacking. The food selection was decent but the food was average at best. That said, it is a buffet and unless you are some place like Vegas a buffet is just that. If you spend any time in or around Raffles the terms "Wakey Wakey", "Smiley Smiley", and "Washy Washy" will become a punchline by the end of your cruise. We ate at Raffles only a couple of other times and more so out of necessity (which I will explain later) than anything else.
Cabin Review
Family Inside
We had an inside stateroom in the back of the ship on deck 9. I do not recommend anything on deck 9, Aft (rear), starboard (right when facing forward) as it is directly under the kids club. This was my error in booking this room and not a knock on NCL although I think the kid's club could take some measures to mitigate the stampeding elephants heard on my ceiling nightly. Generally the room was adequate. There were a few minor problems that were resolved within 24 hours after I left my "Dear Prem" note. Prem is the hotel director for the Spirit (at least for our cruise). The stateroom appears to be the area where the Spirit does show her age a bit. Nothing to ruin a cruise over but worth noting that there was some rust/water stains in the bathroom, some staining on one of the walls (appeared to be red juice of some sort) and things of that nature. Additionally, the room sleeps four but they pull one bed out from under another and someone basically sleeps on the floor. The two twins either could not or would not be pushed together to make a full/queen so the sleeping arrangements were not ideal. They are replacing the phones in all of the staterooms so we received a new phone. We had a broken leg on the desk which was repaired and a lipstick stain on the desk chair which was re-upholstered. As a result I felt very comfortable with the condition of the ship, the stateroom steward's service, and NCL's ability to resolve issues quickly and effectively.