Of our numerous cruise experiences, this was our fourth one with NCL and ranks in fourth place of our NCL experiences. This was our third time on the NCL Spirit. This time we saw signs of the need to update and refurbish. Carpet is spotted and stained and coming apart at seams in places. Attention to detail for the passenger was lacking in many regards; especially for persons with disabilities. Miscommunication and bad information was provided several times by impatient NCL employees. The detail of providing for an outstanding cruise experience just did not exist in the same way as we have experienced previously on NCL. In speaking with other passengers with disabilities, we discovered this theme repeating among many of them. There was limited assistance and sometimes none for embarking and disembarking the ship. Sometimes when the elevators were closed for disembarking purposes we had to walk extensively out of the way to another elevator series.

We followed NCL instructions for getting assistance to disembark at the final port but never received assistance. In order to meet our connection time, we hobbled of the ship among the last passengers to leave the ship. We nearly missed our connection because of incorrect information provided by a young NCL officer who was rude and impatient with people with special needs. He blamed the problem on NCL not providing him with sufficient personnel and wheel chairs and took no ownership of resolving the problem.

Internet access was an expensive joke. When you sign up for wireless service they don't tell you until afterwards that it does not work well in cabins because of "all the walls." You need to be in public space which is not necessarily convenient depending on what you need to accomplish on the internet for business purposes. I am still addressing ship phone charges for times when our cell phones were not connected. Read more