Norwegian Spirit Review
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This is our third cruise with NCL, and we have learned from past experience not to count on NCL for anything except an UPCHARGE and the ability to get you from your embarkation point to debarkation. That being said, we did enjoy this cruise the second week of December 2008 on the Spirit.
We spent three nights in New Orleans before the cruise. (Hint: Cab fare from the airport for two to the hotel downtown was $28 and tip...as opposed to $15/pp plus tip and a long wait for a ride with a bunch of people crammed onto the shuttle.) Loved every second of our time in NO, and will return one day. (Hint: get a day pass for the trolleys - $5/pp - and ride around the city to your heart's content! Great fun and a great way to see the city and figure out where you want to go and what you want to see! People are generally friendly and offer advice if they figure you are a visitor.
Embarkation was an absolute nightmare. This was inexcusable, considering NCL does this every stinking week!!! We arrived at the Port about fifteen minutes before the scheduled 12 noon check-in time, and had no trouble putting our luggage on a cart to be screened and loaded onto the ship. We entered the port, and then our problems began. Up an escalator, down a hall, and then a huge line of people. We had to pick a line, and then wait and wait, and wait some more. The screeners were quite slow, and people did not understand the process (about the same as getting through the airport). When we finally went through the screening, we were given a blue card with a number 1 on it and told to go sit in the orange chairs and wait to be called to check in. We waited an hour and a half (Cookies and Water were available, but you had to look for it), and then we heard NCL reps YELLING instructions to the huge crowd and pointing in various directions. We got up and went to the appropriate line for Latitudes members, and again did the cattle herd line. This took about a half hour, and as we reached the halfway point, an NCL rep came over and noticed that some of the people in our line had WHITE cards rather than BLUE cards, so those people had to go somewhere else (they were all thrilled). Just before we got to check-in, a man began using a Public Address System (WOW! WHAT A CONCEPT!) to speak to the crowd and deliver instructions. This could have been used MUCH earlier to give everyone the information needed. Once we checked in, we were told that we could have boarded earlier, if we had checked in immediately after clearing security. THAT would have been a nice piece of info to have PRIOR to our wait in chairs and another long line. We skipped through the lines of people who were being held back because of the photographers (UPCHARGE) who stopped everyone for a boarding photo. (We made it our goal through this trip to skip all photo ops - and we actually avoided ALL photos by the crew!! We highly recommend that everyone set this goal!)
Cabin Review
Mid-Ship Inside
We liked our cabin - it was not the traditional inside cabin, and we liked the fact that it was "sideways" along the interior hallway, rather than a deep cavern as we have had in the past. (We prefer inside cabins.) The inside wall of the tenth deck interior cabin we had was located alongside an open area above the public areas (decks 7 & 8), and therefore, there were no noises from that long wall. When you look up from those decks, all you see are fake balconies and mirrors. So it was pretty quiet, except for the one afternoon that a young couple decided it would be a good idea for their kids to run off some of their excess energy in our hallway. Tough to take a nap under those conditions, but except for the kids, we never heard anyone in the hallway. Because the cabin is "sideways", we had a hallway that separated the bathroom and the 6' closet, and we had more storage space at the end of that hallway. The bathroom was big, but it was a little musty smelling (although not enough to complain), with sliding glass doors in the wide shower stall, and plenty of hot water at all times. Good storage in the bathroom as well, and a half-hearted blowdryer on the wall that did the job, however weakly. There was a full-length mirror, a television with a rather shoddy-looking/acting remote (duct-taped together), a coffeemaker/supplies, icebucket and water glasses, two bottles of water (UPCHARGE of $4.50 each!) and an old safe with difficult to understand instructions, as the symbols were worn off the programming buttons. We had a desk/chair and several drawers in the cabin. We did not have a refrigerator. Because we had the bed as a queen, we only had one bedside table. We did have great cabin stewards, Edwardo and Rachel, and our cabin was tidied up every time we left it. We did not get clean sheets throughout the cruise, which was a little surprising based on prior experiences. Bed was very comfortable, although a couple of times, it began to separate in the middle. We had a flickering light one day, and called the problem in to the desk, and an electrician came and changed the lightbulb within a couple of hours. There was a phone on the bedside table, and according to the phone, you could program a wake-up call on it, but we never were able to figure it out. Better call reception for a wake-up, and ask for a non-traditional time, as you won't get a call at the hour or half-hour - these wake-up calls are done individually, not with a computer, so it takes time.