Norwegian Spirit Review
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I will begin this review by saying that I have traveled NCL before departing out of NYC and was not impressed. I was bored out of my mind on sea days and felt that the food was lackluster - at best. I was hesitant to select this cruise, but gave it the benefit of the doubt because it was leaving out of the magnificent port of New Orleans and it was the tail end of Spring Break, so I didn't think we would be subjected to such ridiculous sea day activities like fruit carving and napkin folding.
My group and I arrived at the port before noon and since I have ridden on a Norwegian cruise before, we didn't have to wait in the long standard check in line, but got sped through priority boarding (Sweet!!). After checking in and getting key cards, we had to sit for less than ten minutes. They called us to board and the ship was stunning. Unlike the standard garish cruise ship décor, the Spirit was very understated and classy with very nice details all over the ship -- asian inspired sculptures and carvings all over the ship and on each stairwell landing. The main atrium where you entered was open for five floors up and they had faux windows with silk vines in window boxes under each. We immediately signed my 16 year old up for the soda card and signed ourselves up for a pub crawl on Monday afternoon (five bars with at least five drinks for $25). We got a schedule and a ship map and walked around -- going first to lunch at the buffet and checking out the pool. After lunch, I signed my son into the teen club and visited the spa for a spa tour and did an orientation on freestyle dining. I'll get into a rant about that in a minute. There was a lot of stuff scheduled for that first afternoon and it was a little overwhelming and just impossible to get to everything you wanted to do. Around 3:30, we got to go to the room, but our luggage wasn't there yet. We settled in a little and then it was time for the emergency drill. After the emergency drill, we were able to chase down the porters that were delivering the luggage and point out and retrieve our own luggage and lug it to our rooms.
The inside rooms on ships are always small and this was no exception. However, usually when there are four people to a room, there are two sets of "bunk" beds on each side of the room. In this room, there was only one lower bed on one side, an upper and lower bunk on the other side, and a pull out mattress from under the bunks. I don't understand why there weren't two upper bunks. Had I been aware of this set-up when I was booking, we probably would have booked two seperate rooms. Then, because the ship used to sail in the far east before NCL bought it, there was only one standard US outlet and two foreign outlets and the hairdryer in the bathroom blew nothing more than a gentle breeze which wouldn't even dry your hands. Absolutely useless. Since the electricity running through the rooms couldn't accommodate the wattage of American hair dryers, you couldn't even bring your own. I liked the set up of the bathroom. The shower seemed roomier than on other cruise ships, and there was a glass door rather than a useless curtain. Because of this, all of the water was contained when people showered and didn't soak the rest of the bathroom floor. Another thing I didn't like was that the bathrooms are equipped with dispensers for shampoo and shower gel and usually it's shampoo/conditioner, but this was only shampoo. After sitting in the pool or hot tub or swimming in the sea, hair gets lots of knots and it's impossible to get those out with shampoo only. -- no iron in the room. You had to ask to borrow one. Other than that, the room was fine. There were a good amount of hangers in the closet, and we each took a closet cubby and a drawer for clothing storage and there were shelves in the bathroom around the mirror. The light in the cabin was terrible for makeup application. Carnival supplies a lighted, swing-out magnifying mirror in the bathroom, and I did miss that on this ship. We were able to store our suitcases under the bed, so that helped keep the room tidy too.
Cabin Review
Mid-Ship Inside
The inside rooms on ships are always small and this was no exception. However, usually when there are four people to a room, there are two sets of "bunk" beds on each side of the room. In this room, there was only one lower bed on one side, an upper and lower bunk on the other side, and a pull out mattress from under the bunks. I don't understand why there weren't two upper bunks. Had I been aware of this set-up when I was booking, we probably would have booked two seperate rooms. Then, because the ship used to sail in the far east before NCL bought it, there was only one standard US outlet and two foreign outlets and the hairdryer in the bathroom blew nothing more than a gentle breeze which wouldn't even dry your hands. Absolutely useless. Since the electricity running through the rooms couldn't accommodate the wattage of American hair dryers, you couldn't even bring your own. I liked the set up of the bathroom. The shower seemed roomier than on other cruise ships, and there was a glass door rather than a useless curtain. Because of this, all of the water was contained when people showered and didn't soak the rest of the bathroom floor. Another thing I didn't like was that the bathrooms are equipped with dispensers for shampoo and shower gel and usually it's shampoo/conditioner, but this was only shampoo. After sitting in the pool or hot tub or swimming in the sea, hair gets lots of knots and it's impossible to get those out with shampoo only. -- no iron in the room. You had to ask to borrow one. Other than that, the room was fine. There were a good amount of hangers in the closet, and we each took a closet cubby and a drawer for clothing storage and there were shelves in the bathroom around the mirror. The light in the cabin was terrible for makeup application. Carnival supplies a lighted, swing-out magnifying mirror in the bathroom, and I did miss that on this ship. We were able to store our suitcases under the bed, so that helped keep the room tidy too.