Norwegian Spirit Review

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Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Spirit
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jeph
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Feb 2012

This trip was planned more than a year in advance, to give myself a tropical getaway, inspired by the atrocious blizzard-a-week winter of 2010-11. (Of course, the winter in which the trip actually took place has hardly been a winter at all, with temps hitting a freakish 30 degrees above normal within two weeks of my return to Massachusetts! But no matter...)

As with any pretty much any cruise I take, despite having favorite lines, it always comes down to itinerary for me in the end. I had been to Cozumel before-- nearly every cruise to the western Caribbean hits that port-- but the others on the list were all new to me, despite numerous previous trips to the Caribbean basin. I could just as easily have gone from Tampa on the Star, visiting the same ports-- but the opportunity to make it a "two-fer", by starting and ending the trip from New Orleans, made the choice of the Spirit a no-brainer. I had long wanted to spend a few days in the city, and this was my first time there.

This was not my first time on this ship, however-- in the first part of Feb 2006, I enjoyed an 11-night cruise to the Caribbean on the Norwegian Spirit, including Dominica, Grenada, Antigua, and Tortola / Virgin Gorda, all round-trip out of NYC. That was the first trip in which the CC Roll Call message boards played a part; I spent my time ashore sharing rides and costs with my new Roll Call friends, and I'm still in touch with some of them. A number of the message board posters on this 2012 trip, the one I'm reviewing here, had done the same western Caribbean itinerary on the Spirit at the same time the year before, and liked it so well that this was their second time around. As you'll see, I found their advice about activities ashore very useful. (Since the Star will be doing this itinerary next year, as the Spirit moves to Europe to stay, I hope my review will at least help people in regard to the ports.)

Cabin Review

Cabin 4526-- a nice quiet location, and stable, even when the ship was doing a little rockin' and rollin'. With the bright sunshine, even the porthole provided enough natural light. Also close to the gangway on port days!

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