Having been lucky enough to have sailed on over 15 cruise lines through my job over the years (travel writer) I am in a position to compare. Remarkably I had never been on an NCL ship until February this year when I went on a 9 night cruise on the NCL Spirit. Having read the cruise critic reviews as I always do before I book a cruise I was surprised to see a contrast of great reviews mixed with some quite poor ones which seemed incongruent to me. So I went on board with low expectations but was delighted to find what a treasure the Spirit is.

It was built in a day that they spent a lot more on design and fittings and at that time it was the most expensive ship to build of its type and size. With around 2000 passengers that for me is the perfect size as I am not a fan of the huge 5000 plus ships a few of which I have been on in the past couple of years.

Having eaten in every restaurant in the ship I felt the food was very good as was the service and as most cruise critic reviewers said the staff were incredible friendly and helpful. I was surprised at some of the negative reviews as trust me for the cost of the cruise the food was much better than most other cruise lines at a similar price and even better than some of these huge glossy ships which cost more. Read more