Prior to embarkation, I studied the make up of the ship and its construction. We discovered that this ship was built in 1998 and was geared to sail the Far East and its decor mirrored this design. The ship was dry docked in 2008 for renovations, however, the renovations are in dire need once again. The ship is falling apart. We spoke with many members of the cruise and discovered that they were experiencing several issues with plumbing, accommodations, and faulty wiring. Our state room was relatively small. I truly understand that the staterooms on ships are extremely small; however, our previous cruises with Carnival and Royal Caribbean proved to be a bit larger. In past cruises, we understood that the beds were pushed together to create the pseudo queen bed, which was fine. On the NCL Spirit, the beds were pushed together but never stayed that way.

The food for this cruise was extremely salty or lacked taste. I must admit that I would have to begin taking blood pressure medications mixed with a diuretic to offset the amount of salt intake on this cruise line. I guess they could be cooking their food with the sea water; thus, providing us with beneficial sea salted cooking. As with all cruises, the buffet leaves little to the imagination. If eating in the buffet area, rest assured that you will receive the same foods on a daily basis. Raffles dinning area was always busy and provided a plethora of food, but by day 5 of eating in this facility, you wanted something different. Other dining on board included a multitude of additional pay specialty restaurants, including a steak house, Sushi Bar, Teppanyaki, Asian, Italian, and French restaurants.

During our cruise, we enjoyed the food of the Steak House "Cagney's", which I believe is a Chicago steak house. The steaks were great and this was an additional cost of 25 dollars per person. Steaks were prepared appropriately very nice atmosphere. Included in your cruise, you are provided with two semi-formal restaurants, Windows and the Garden. NCL prides itself with "Free-style" cruising. On other cruises you needed to set a time to eat on the cruise line, limiting your eating times to either 6pm or 830pm. You would sit with individuals for the entire cruise. Unfortunately for my wife and I, we were generally sat with extremely obnoxious individuals that wanted to talk about how much money they made or how important they were. We were on the cruise to meet people and have a leisurely time. With the "Free Style" cruising, you decide when and where you want to eat. If you meet individuals on the ship, you can meet up with them for dinner if you wish. It is a great perk for this ship and cruise line. Read more