As a first time cruiser, I had average expectations going into this experience. However, upon arrival into the port of New Orleans for boarding, I was quickly impressed by the efficiency of the NCL embarkation process. We arrived at the port at 11:45 am on Sunday, February 7th and were on board exploring the ship by 12:45 pm. We enjoyed a lesuirely lunch at the buffet Raffles, and were in our stateroom by 2:00 pm.

Our inside stateroom was located on Deck 5 and was pleasantly larger than I expected. We had an excellent room steward named Richard who went above and beyond in servicing us. Our luggage was outside of our room by 3:00 pm, and we were unpacked and ready for the mandatory safety drill by 4:00 pm. At 5:30 pm, we dined at Windows as the Spirt pulled away from New Orleans.

The NCL Spirit has a lovely Asian inspired theme throughout the ship which was very charming. The formal night (or not) occurred on our first sea day, Monday evening, and it was enjoyable. We took some great pictures that we ended up purchasing from the photo gallery the next day. Read more