We took a 1-night Cruise to Nowhere on board the NCL Spirit. We had in the back of our mind that we would look at booking the 9-day Extended Caribbean cruise in the spring, if we liked the ship. Overall, we were glad we had the chance to "preview" the ship. It felt rundown and the service was lacking. Servers were not especially friendly and were also very difficult to understand. We dined in the Shogun Restaurant which I definitely do not recommend. Even with a surcharge, the food was not good. We really are not picky and are very understanding diners...both of us work in the food industry. My husband's entree came out 10 minutes after mine and was not even close to what he ordered; the waitress did not seem to understand when questioned. The sushi was not even served cold.
We had an inside cabin on Deck 10. It was fine for 1 night. Typical inside cabin. Beds were not very comfortable.
I think we will stick with Royal Caribbean. Probably if we had not ever been on a cruise before, we would have found this to be more acceptable however, after the outstanding service and surroundings on RCCL, this just does not compare.