We cruised mid January on NCL Spirit. A little background: This is my husband and my 11th cruise, and our children's 7th. We have cruised only on Carnival so far, but because of the itinerary, we decided to make a change.

After reading all the bad reviews about the Spirit, we were pretty apprehensive. We almost cancelled our cruise when we learned that our stop in Roatan, Honduras was now going to be 2 hours later than planned. This stop was one of the main reasons we booked this cruise. I called NCL and was told that we would get a $100 per cabin credit ($200 because we are in 2 cabins) due to this adjustment. I decided to go ahead with the trip.

We live outside of Houston, and so the trip to New Orleans was not bad. We arrived at the cruise terminal parking and took the elevator down to the embarkation area. It was a very easy process; it ran smoother than anything we have experienced yet. We were on the ship about 1 hour after parking. After receiving our 2 "children's lifejackets" (I was not thrilled about this, as in addition to the carry-ons we had, we now had to lug 2 life vests with us all over the ship), we went straight to Windows and had a very nice, quiet lunch. Our waiter was fantastic, and made an origami bird for our 12 year old daughter. He told us to ask for him at dinner that night. About that time, our cabins were ready, and we went to the room. I had bought sanitizing stuff as I had heard the noro virus was rampant the week before, and I was not taking any chances. In fact, we noticed that the ship was lined with stations to sanitize your hands. You couldn't go 50 feet without seeing one of their dispensers. Read more