I traveled on the Norwegian Spirit on July 15, 2007 to Florida and the Bahamas. I have now been home a total of six hours, all of which has been spent posting this review as often as I can so that no one else gets stuck on this ship. Having traveled on more than 65 cruises on all the major cruise lines, including NCL (pre-freestyle), I was expecting a wonderful vacation. I was greatly disappointed from beginning to end. This is a ship that normally carried approximately 2,200 passengers but was filled to capacity with 2,600 passengers. The only positive comment I can make is that the disembarkation system when we arrived back in New York was well organized and extremely efficient. Here are some of the negatives:

* Childcare/Activity Program - the brochure spoke of a wonderful childcare center with activities for all ages. My five year old granddaughter was traveling with me and so I was pleased to see there would be facilities for her and activities to take part in. The ship was traveling to Port Canaveral (with shore excursions to Disney) so there was a strong child presence on board. What is not told to you is that the children's facilities are not accessible unless you are willing to leave your child was a counselor. There is no way to spend any time with your child nor are there any "family" activities. When we inquired as to when my granddaughter could play in the ball area and craft area, we were consistently told the only time would be 5:15 - 6:15 - clearly dinner time for most families. The room sat dormant for much of the cruise because an activity was going on in another section of the play area. This idea of having anywhere between 40 - 80 children with two counselors may be fine for someone who does not really want to spend time with their children and is looking for a 16 hour babysitter, but for those families that want to vacation together, this system is extremely ill-conceived.

* Wet and Wild Pool - in addition to the childcare center, there was a children's wet and wild pool with a hot tub. Wild is a perfect word. There was no supervision whatsoever of this pool for the entire duration of the cruise. Though signs were clearly posted stating that this section was for children 2 - 12, there were adults who spend hours at a time in the hot tub. There were numerous times where there was upwards of 70 children jammed into this pool, many of whom were older than the 12 year old limit and paid no heed to the smaller children trying to enjoy themselves. This section is much too small for a ship that is going to attract children due to the Florida port of call. Read more