DH (Wolfie48) and I just returned from a cruise on the Spirit with 26 of our friends. Here is a review of some of our activities, but with such a large group, we tend to do less around the ship and spend time with our group instead.

Embarkation was really easy, we left the Holiday Inn Bayside about 10:00 and parked across the street from the pier and walked over, dropped our checked luggage with the porters in the middle of the pier (the ship was on the far side of the pier away from the building). We waited inside for about 30 minutes and then started going through security and checking in. Fortunately we were in the first row of seats so were able to check in right after the VIPs and handicapped and since the computers were down and they were doing everything manually. I think the people at the end of the lines had to wait quite a while. We then waited for 15 minutes or so inside and then they started boarding, we had to walk back outside across the pier to the ship. We had several cruise newbies in the group and we were hoping we could enter directly into the lobby for the wow factor, but that was not to be. Since the Spirit had just returned from dry dock, there were no passengers disembarking, so we were able to go right to our cabins and drop off our stuff and then we met up at the fantail bar for drinks and lunch.

The ship was in really good shape and had new carpeting almost everywhere (lots of carpet fuzz balls all the time). Some said the mattresses were not new as promised, but our bed was very comfortable. Everyone in our group was very happy with their various cabins (several suites, but mostly balcony cabins, and one interior). We had happy hour every day, mostly in our cabin (7258 with the extra long balcony), but also in a couple of the suites. We were very near an elevator/stair area, but heard no noise. Since we've never been on the Spirit before (the Pride though), it was hard to tell what was new as a result of dry dock. There are 2 new flat screen TVs at the fantail bar that had sports and/or news on all the time. The aft adult hot tub was out of service after the first day, but the pool was working. The weather was pretty cold the first and last days, but quite warm in the ports. The ocean was extremely smooth, almost lake glassy sometimes. There was a bit of movement on the last return day, but not bad at all. Read more