Sailed on the 8/21 sailing as Hurricane Irene started her approach to the U.S.; as we were on the Western Caribbean route, we were plenty far away from any effects.
Stayed Saturday night at Wyndham Whitney via Priceline ($60 with all fees/taxes), great location. Only blocks away from Mother's Restaurant, locally known for great gumbo and their bread pudding was pretty good too.
NCL Spirit docks at the Erato Street Cruise Terminal, which is right next to Julia Street Cruise Terminal. If you are walking (like we did), do NOT go through the convention center, it will just be a long ass walk. Instead, walk along Julia Street towards the river and just past the Riverfront Street car stop, look towards your right and you'll see a narrow road that runs the length of the river. Take this road, walk 5 minutes and you'll be at the check-in and taxi drop off. We only found about this after the fact, when we walked the entire length of the convention center, couldn't find the terminal, and then hailed a taxi. For $14 (rip off) and a 3 minute ride, he dropped us off where we needed to be, which sucks because we were so close to it already.
Nice location, equidistant to each elevator. A little small and a little worn, but since we didn't spend much time in the cabin aside from sleeping it served us just fine.