We traveled on the NCL Spirit in July 2011, out of New Orleans. Our group consisted of my parents, myself and my two, teenaged sons. The Spirit was a perfect trip for our small multi-generational group. The many ports of call had plenty of activity for our teens. The ship provided enough quiet time for my parents.

We enjoyed the free-style type cruising, sometimes eating together as a family and sometimes in smaller groups, whether it was for breakfast, lunch or dinner. We did eat at the steakhouse, Cagney's, which was excellent and well worth the up charge. We also ate at the Asian restaurant, which had decent food but poor service, so I feel was not worth the additional charge. We wanted to eat at Teppanyaki but it was virtually impossible to get a reservation. We ate a lot at the buffet, as it was very convenient and almost always open. The food here was typical buffet - sometimes good, sometimes not so good. But there was something for everyone. Overall, the service in all the restaurants was very good.

We had two balcony cabins on deck nine, which was very convenient in mid-ship. The elevators could be slow at times, which was tougher on my parents. We usually walked (up to twelve, the main floor for buffet/pool/etc) or down to seven (restaurants/lobby area) without any issues. It probably helped burn off some of the calories! The cabins were adequate as we spent relatively little time in them. The cabin stewards were pleasant and keep the rooms in decent order. Our cabins were very quiet at night. Read more