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I.  Background Information.    
  We continue to be a couple in our mid-30's to early-40's, and have cruised on 8 separate occasions with this being our 8th cruise.  We have cruised on Norwegian Cruise Line in the past, and have cruised on several of the other cruise lines as well, which include Princess, Carnival, Holland America, and Royal Caribbean.  That said, we have a pretty good comparison to measure this cruise against the others we have been on, in a relative sense.    
  This was a 13 - night repositioning cruise that sailed from New York City to New Orleans, during the dates of October 18 - October 31, and it circled the Caribbean passing thru the Northeast, Southern, and Western Caribbean.    
  II.  Hotel Information.    
  We arrived at New York's LaGuardia Airport, and were scheduled to be picked up by a free hotel shuttle bus to be delivered at the Best Western City View Inn, at Long Island City, New York.  This is in Queens, New York.  The shuttle bus failed to pick us up, but the hotel management compensated our costs for renting a taxi cab in the end.    
  This hotel gave the most perks I've ever had, furnishing us with all kinds of snacks during the afternoon, including fresh-baked cookies, chips, salsa, danish, muffins, lemonade, iced tea, nacho chips, potato chips, & popcorn.  Adding to this, the hotel provided FREE computer use, whereby internet was free to use, and they even provided 2 computers to use for FREE, in the lobby!  It was a GREAT value, costing us ONLY $133!  For New York City, that's a GREAT PRICE, with all those perks, including transportation costs, too!!    
  III.  Travel to Port of Embarkation.    
  We rented a limousine car that cost $30 to the port of embarkation,  (a bit pricey, I thought, but had no other choice) & the Manhattan cruise ship terminal.  Travel went okay, until we reached nearby the cruise ship terminal when traffic became a jam.  We waited for about 15 minutes just to get to the top of the cruise ship terminal.  2 ships were due to leave that day, our ship and another Norwegian ship.  The drive must've taken about 20 - 30 minutes with the traffic and traffic lights.    
  IV.  Ship Information.    
  The Norwegian Spirit is a 1999 build, so it's now 9 years old at the time of this writing, November 2, 2008.  The public area rugs were showing signs of aging & peeling.  The GOOD news for future cruisers is that CURRENTLY, AT THE TIME OF THIS WRITING, November 2nd, 2008, the Norwegian Spirit is in dry dock being re-furbished and renovated, in Mobile, Alabama.  It will remain in dry dock for a period of 3 weeks, while it is being refurbished.    
  The size of the ship is 76,800 gross tons and seats 1,966 passengers.  It has a length of 880 ft, and a beam of 106 ft.  There are 13 decks to the ship, and has 882 crew members.  There is one children's pool with 2 small waterslides, and one adult pool on deck 12, the Tivoli Pool.  The ship has a hair dryer in each room as well as a locked safe, and coffee maker in the room.  There is no refrigerator in the inside cabins.  There is 24-hour room service, and a 24-hour cafe named Blue Lagoon.  It has 5 specialty restaurants which includes Teppanyaki, Shogun, Cagney's, Le Bistro, & La Trattoria.  Shogun is sub-divided into Asian Fusion, Sushi, and Teppanyaki.  The ship has somewhat of an Asian theme to it, particularly seen in the public areas.    
  V.  Staterooms.     
  We paid for an inside/interior stateroom.  I found that our interior stateroom on deck 10, is among the smallest staterooms that I've ever stayed in, RELATIVE to the other ships that I've been on.  The living space is nearly non-existent, and was extremely cramped.  The shower area, on the other hand, was among the largest showers that I've been in, with a rectangular configuration.  Most other shower stalls have a square configuration or circular configuration.  So, in summary, the interior, inside staterooms are much more cramped than other inside staterooms on the many other ships I've been on.  I cannot comment on the other staterooms, as I did not participate in any housecalls on this cruise, (cabin crawls).    
  We first slept on the old, unreplaced, thin mattresses on our first 2 nights on the Norwegian Spirit.  However, by the 3rd night, our old mattresses were suddenly replaced by 2 new, thick, high-quality mattresses    the kind of mattresses you'd find at your house.  This is part of the upgrade of the Freestyle 2.0, in providing every cabin stateroom with a NEW mattress.  Freestyle 2.0 also provides you with a courtesy cup of champagne when first boarding the ship on embarkation day.    
  VI.  Dining.     
  The dining in the main formal dining rooms, namely the Windows dining room and the Garden Room dining room was the HIGHLIGHT of this cruise.  I thoroughly enjoyed the food in these main formal dining rooms.  I seldom ate in the Raffles food court buffet, except during breakfast.    
  The waffles with the banana compote was absolutely to die for!!  It was spectacular!  You could get this item either in Raffles OR in the main formal dining room during breakfast.  Also, the blueberry compote on the pancakes was equally as tasty, as the banana compote.  This was a very big highlight and I highly recommend trying these 2 compotes on your waffles and pancakes!!  You will be so happy and delighted that you tried these items on the menu!!  I had waffles nearly every day at the waffle station, and put on the cinnamon with sugar, or banana compote, blueberry compote, or strawberry compote on a routine daily basis.  It was fantastic.    
  During dinner time, I always made it to Windows, the main formal dining room.  I was always happy with the meal that I had.  The only weakness was the desserts.    
  Every night there was ALWAYS just ONE dessert that was really awesome and fantastic.....HOWEVER, a person would need to TRY & SAMPLE all 5 desserts to find out WHICH ONE was the awesome dessert.  Since I always sampled about 4 - 7 desserts each night, I always found the really great dessert.  However, I'm a rare breed, and most people will only order 1 - 2  desserts.  Resultingly, just by chance and probability, most folks would probably get a dessert that was mediocre or below average.    
  So 4 times out of 5, you'd find that desserts were a weakness on Norwegian Spirit, as a lot of the desserts had little taste to them, except as noted when I found the 1 out of 5 times where there was an awesome dessert.    
  I seldom ate lunch at either Raffles or the main dining room, so cannot comment on this area.  I did have ice cream and cookies many times, and found both of them to be really good, except specialty ice cream such as the Cinnamon ice cream and Macadamia Nut ice cream for which both these flavors were really weak.  Consider putting butterscotch or raspberry toppings on top of vanilla ice cream which could be found in the main formal dining room and the Raffles buffet.    
  The hot wings and burgers in Blue Lagoon were delicious, especially the hot wings, which had a lot of fire to them.  If you're sensitive to spicy food, then steer clear of the hot wings, and settle for a tasty cheeseburger instead at the Blue Lagoon, an eatery open 24 hours, and was very popular during my cruise.    
  The meals were definitely the highlight of this cruise on Norwegian Spirit.  I especially enjoyed the chocolate fondue on the Chocolate Buffet that was given towards the end of the cruise between 11 PM - 12 AM, Midnight.    
  VII.  Activities.    
  Daytime activities I found were a little bit lacking.  There was frequently the opportunity for tasting different drinks, but this required a fee of $15, for which I wasn't about to pay.  Then there were spa lectures as well as ports of call lectures.  I did attend these lectures on occasion.  Mostly there were trivia games, for which I'm not interested in, and also Bingo, again I'm not interested in either.  These are the usual things that show-up in any cruise line.  I'd have liked to see more creative activities than just the usual things such as these.  It would be nice to have some of the evening entertainment shows be re-directed in to the daytime activities.  I do recall a few sea days in which I felt there was nothing interesting going on.    
  Don't be fooled by the statistics that the ship advertises a movie theatre.  Instead they turn a SMALL conference room in to a make-shift theatre, and there is NO stadium seating.  The movies are played on a small flat-panel LCD screen, and there's the problem with people's heads that get in the way so's where you can't see anything unless you're in the front row.  How to get around this??  Your stateroom shows other movies on your TV routinely throughout the day, so that's an alternative option.    
  VIII.  Children's Clubs.    
  There are children's activities on board the ship, whereby they can play video games in a large video game hall on deck 10, aft, along with other activities.  With this, there is also babysitting of the kids, and the service turns in to a pay-as-you-go, AFTER 10 PM up to about 1 AM.  Before that time, I believe the service is FREE of charge, but you'll have to check on this for ground-truth information.  I do know, though, that there are plenty of children's activities onboard this ship that will keep the kids entertained, in their own world, while the adults can relax and have time to themselves.    
  IX.  Service.    
  The service aboard this ship was better than the industry average, I'll say.  Many was the time that I was greeted in the hallways throughout the public areas, more so than I can say on other ships/other cruises that I've been on in the past.  In the dining areas, I've never seen such teamwork of associates as I've seen on this cruise.  Service in the Raffles buffet was extraordinarily excellent.  Dirty dishes were pulled away from my table promptly, when I finished each dish on a routinely consistent manner, from day-to-day.    
  Only a few times was there slow service that I observed in the Windows dining room / Garden Room dining room.  Sometimes service was terribly slow, but it seemed that as time wore on, the service became better, and much quicker.  There were times when we had our meal completed in 50 minutes, even with all that which I ordered.  Other times when I was seated with a team of 8 - 10 people, we didn't get out of there until 2 - 2 1/2 hours later after we first sat down.    
  Service at the Blue Lagoon was prompt, even in spite of the crowded folks that kept the place busy.    
  So I cannot find any fault, nor any problems with the service aboard the Norwegian Spirit during our 13 - night cruise.  This, too, can be considered a highlight of our cruise as well.    
  X.  Entertainment.    
  There was plenty of evening entertainment to keep anyone busy between a usual game show at 830 PM to a dance party at 10 - 1030 PM, to the evening shows in the Stardust Theatre at 730 PM & 930 PM each night.  There was plenty to keep a person occupied AFTER 7 PM.    
  However, BEFORE 7 PM was a different story.  For that, I'll redirect you to Roman Numeral VII, Activities, above.    
  One of the weaknesses of the entertainment category, was that I did not care for the same performers on stage being "re-cycled" from night to night.  We saw a couple of the same comedians perform twice, the same magician perform twice, the same pianist perform twice, the same singer perform twice, the same ventriloquist perform twice, and the list goes on & on.  Why not get us NEW performers each night??  Why is there this recycling of the same people over and over again??  It shows that NCL is being cheap in not bringing in new performers from night to night.  It's like eating left-overs every other night.  I want a NEW show each night and not the same leftovers, so this was a disappointment, and I'll have to knock-off some points for this.    
  Several years ago, the Norwegian Wind brought aboard some native dancers & singers indigenous to the local port of call for entertainment.  This did not happen on this ship, and it was predictable what each show would be like, particularly when they re-used the same performers over again, so this was disappointing.    
  Both comedians were only mediocre, with Sasso being the better of the 2.  The singer, was average and mediocre, too.  I felt that the magician was a highlight of the entertainment & he was probably the BEST magician that I've seen in all my 8 cruises, so he was definitely a GREAT performer.  The hypnotist show was kind of cheesy and not real.  She also put on a show twice, just like the others-too much of the same thing, which was a disappointment.  The Home-Free A capella group was an interesting group to hear; but once was enough, there too.    
  XI.  Shore Excursions.    
  I had a great time in Samana, Dominican Republic, St. Thomas, Roatan, & Cozumel.  This means 4 out of 6 ports of call, (shore excursions) were successful for me.    
  We ran in to a big disaster on shore excursions in Belize.  It's understandable that tours got cancelled because of floods occurring in Belize; however, these ship-sponsored tour excursions could have been handled better by the ship.  For instance, I got my first 3 choices for tour excursions cancelled.  2 of them were cancelled the day before reaching Belize.  The 3rd tour was cancelled the day thereof.  This is the part where the ship could've handled things better by giving more advanced notice of this tour cancellation.  We had to rush & make a quick, hasty decision to re-book another tour excursion, as most all the tours were cancelled.    
  I had another tour cancellation made in Aruba, and was given a few days advance notice about this one which was better, as it gave plenty of notice to re-book or otherwise re-organize plans.    
  In Roatan, we booked the Jolly Roger Catamaran & Gumbalimba Park.  This was an outstanding tour excursion.  We stopped at a decent snorkeling location, and then in the Gumbalimba Park we had giant parrots, McCau's, (sp?), that we could interact with and take photos with.  Then we got to interact and play around with howler monkeys that jumped from our backs to other backs while they looked for small items on us to pick-pocket.  This was the most unique experience I'd seen.    
  In Samana, we booked the Salto El Limon Horseback ride.  The El Limon waterfalls were absolutely breath-taking, with wonderful photo opportunities.  The waterfalls were the highlight of this tour!  There was even an opportunity to swim at the base of the falls, too, in the small pond!    
  In St. Thomas, we booked Coral World.  We had the chance to feed stingrays & pet nurse sharks.  It was interesting to see the iguanas, too, as we looked upon other wildlife.  The submersible tower took you downstairs to observe other marine life, while you could also see the helmet divers go down around 20 ft. or so.  Coki Beach was right next to Coral World, and I'd have to say that this was THE MOST beautiful beach, and all sandy too inside the water, and outside the water, with fish near the beach too for observing!    
  On my own, I booked a parasailing tour in St. Thomas as well, and this was the icing on the cake, for sure!    
  In Aruba, we went to the beach there, after I visited a college buddy who lives there.  There was no ship-sponsored tour nor private tour I booked there, as the Sailing on the Mi Dushi got cancelled because the boat was inoperable.  This was a disappointment to me as I was looking forward to snorkeling at 3 different stops.    
  In Belize, after having 3 of my top-most tours cancelled, we reluctantly booked the Altun Ha Mayan ruins & Belize City tour.  I booked this tour mainly for HER, as I had no interest in looking at a bunch of old rocks, that don't mean anything to me in this modern-day world.  This tour was lousy.  We did not even stop in Belize City to look around.  The bus simply whizzed us thru the city without any stops, so I was not pleased with this.    
  Finally, in Cozumel, we chose an ATV tour to the Jade Caverns.  This was a tour that we've not done before   ATV'ing.  It became easy to rev thru the trails as we made a couple stops to get off the ATV.  It was most enjoyable when we whizzed by on the trails on the way back to the station where we began, as I got the hang of the motorized sport later on during the event.  Afterwards we walked around on the streets of downtown Cozumel, where I found a restaurant that served us fried Plantains.    
  XII.  Disembarkation.    
  Disembarkation came terribly slow for us in New Orleans.  The only way we could speed-up the process was if we rented a porter's help, which I finally did, as the wait became much too long.  I don't ever recall having to wait this long, standing in a line just to claim my luggage.  I don't believe this to be the fault of NCL, and believe it to be more a problem of the port authorities who live in New Orleans, who are contractors, rather than this being an NCL operation.  Accordingly, although I will rate this low, I will not remove points in this area for the overall ranking score as I don't believe this to be an NCL handled operation.    
  XIII.  Summary.    
  In spite of the few areas that I indicated some disappointments, I still believe my experience on the Norwegian Spirit was a positive experience.  It may sound negative in a couple spots, but I believe it to be a positive, overall, and this shows in my overall final rating given.  I participated in several of shows, including the family feud, the Secondhand City Review, the hypnotist show, and the Adult Quest show.  This participation served to enhance my cruising experience.    
  The food onboard was a GREAT highlight, as was the service, and a few of the tour excursions as well.  I had no MAJOR problems anywhere on board regarding service, nor the food, nor even the tendering we did from the ship to the shore.    
  The ship is a pretty one inside, which is better than what I can say about the Carnival Freedom & the Holland Zaandam.  I enjoyed the ambience onboard the ship, just about everywhere I walked aboard the ship, and I'm pleased to recommend Norwegian Spirit to anyone who is looking for an enjoyable vacation aboard the Norwegian Spirit.    
    
  weatherguy      

That's the Spirit:  Circling the Caribbean, NE, South & West

We are in our mid 60's and this was our 7th cruise, second on NCL.  Enjoy train travel so we Amtraked from Indiana to Newark, NJ.  Spent the night at the Fairfield Inn.  Nice clean room for under $130.  Hot breakfast included.  Saved a bundle by not staying in NYC.  Carmel Limo delivered us to the Spirit at 11:30 and we were on board a few minutes after noon.    
We were greeted by members of the crew and were offered a glass of champagne.  We went to our cabin to drop off  the carry on's.  The cabin was ready and we programmed the safe and headed to Windows for lunch.  Raffles was also available as well as Cagney's for suite passengers.     
The NCL Spirit is ten year old and is starting to show her age with a little rust here and there, carpet in a few places that needed to be replaced and my biggest grip was some of the windows in the public areas had moisture between the glass that has either fogged or discolored them.  She went into dry dock following our cruise for three weeks having an engine replaced and I hope they will take care of the rust, carpet and windows.  We found the ship to be very easy to get around.  It has three sets of passenger elevators and never had to wait long to get from one deck to another.  The air conditioning throughout the ship was excellent.    
Our cabin was just right.  Plenty of room in the closet to hang 13 days of duds for two.   Nice shelf above the hangers and five open shelves on the side of the closet.  Another cubby hole below the TV and 5 drawers below that.  Brand new mattress and plenty of room under to hide all the luggage that arrived before 2pm.  Nice little desk and a small couch that turn into a  twin size bed.  No refrigerator.  But could get one if requested.  The bathroom is divided into three areas with sliding glass doors.  Liquid soap by the sink and shower, shampoo/conditioner and body lotion all by Elemis.  The shower was large enough for a fat man.  Here is a hint on shower operation.  It turns on and off on the left, set the temp on the right.  For the balance of the cruise only use the left.  Look up and there's the cloths line.  The balcony was as expected, two comfortable chairs and a small table.    
Let me take a few moments to tell you about dining.  Our first lunch was at Windows.  We were joined by another CC member and all had very tasty entrees.  We had breakfast most mornings here.  The menu is not that extensive, but has all the basics.  They set up a buffet for fruit, cheese, rolls, cereal and jams. A couple of times they under cooked  fried eggs and omelets.  When that happened we just went up to Raffles.  Most of the time when there we ate outside overlooking the stern and the kids waterslide and pool.  Our CC group of  thirty,  had dinner at Windows three times.  The Maitre d, Edgar, set aside three tables for us and we enjoyed the special service they gave us.  One of our group required a special diet and Edgar made sure his meals were special.  One of the nights we had lobster.  A little on the stingy side, only gave us one-half of a tail.  I asked for a second and had it in no time at all.  We also took a glass of wine, from our cabin, with us to dinner quite often.    
Raffles, three eggs stations, three fruit stations, four coffee (great coffee), tea, juice stations, bacon, sausage, hot toast, pan cakes, hash browns, fried potatoes, waffles, bangers, biscuits (hard like hockey pucks) & gravy, a large variety of sweat rolls and things like herring, salmon, kippers etc.  To have breakfast here was a little hectic, but once  everyone got use to the variety, locations and discovered they were not going to run out of food, things calmed down.  It sure would be nice of the folks that come to the buffet would learn to use the hand sanitizer,  not to use their hands to pick up food, lick their fingers, cough, think they are the only ones in the area and be considerate of others.  We found ship to extremely clean.  No Nero virus on our cruise.      
Dinner at Cagney's twice.  The Maitre d, Roman is one of the reasons our cruise was so special.  He treated us like old friends.  We would see him in Windows or Raffles in the morning and he would go out of his way to make us feel welcome.  He would carry my wife's plate for her, he would seat us, he would make sure ever thing was just the way it should be and he always called us by name.  My wife called him Romeo.  He told her that Romeo was his twin that worked during the day and wore a white uniform.  At night, Roman wore black in Cagney's.  Make sure to have the shrimp cocktail, they are as large as the ½ lobster tails we had at Windows.  The food at Cagney's was very good, and our server Bethel was outstanding.  The chef, Dante came to our table the last night of the cruise and told us he had seen us at Le Bistro the night before.  He then went over to Le Bistro and got their chief, Robert and brought him over to see that we did not always eat at Le Bistro. What a pleasure to have Dante, Bethel and Roman to make our meals at Cagney's extra special.      
We also had dinner at Le Bistro twice.  Don't tell Roman, but the filets were better than Cagney's.  The wait staff here are great and on our second visit they remembered our names and what we had last time for dinner and drinks.  I was kidding them about that great Jamaican coffee and asked for it with desert.  Our waiter brought us a couple of small wine glasses of 151 rum with a teaspoon of coffee, whip cream, grenadine and sugar on the rim (don't get a flame close to this drink and thank God they were small glasses).  I asked for it and they made it special for us.  I really don't know if the is a after-dinner drink call "Jamaican Coffee", but there is now. Here you can see the galley staff preparing the meals. The Chef Tourmant is Robert.  He spent as much time with us as he did  running the galley. What great dinners we had at Le Bistro. Thank you Robert.    
The Garden has the same menu as Windows.  It is a smaller room and only open for dinner.  If you go here ask to be seated in Orlando's section.  He and his assistant, Abhay are the very best of the wait staff in these two restaurants.  You will also find them in the morning at Windows or Raffles.  Abhay is 22 and from India, he is the hardest worker with the biggest smile on the ship.  He really charmed my wife. She wanted to take him home.  That would have been O.K. with me, but they wouldn't let me take his place and work for Orlando.  Our CC group also had dinner here the last night at sea.    
We had lunch a few times at the Bier Garten.  Make your own burgers, hot dogs, German sausage, sauerkraut, potato salad, coleslaw, pickles, cheese and fry's.  This can all be washed down with a Helmet of Beer.  Six Heineken  $25.80.  They also had Bud Light on special, buy 5 get 2 free.  Lots of choices of beer.  Did Henry's Pub a few times and enjoyed the Fish and Chips, popcorn, pretzels.  Wife said the wings were boring.     
We did not eat at any of the Oriental restaurants or the Blue Lagoon, but heard the food was good and fun places to eat.    
  Casino has a load of "One Arm Bandits" Craps, Roulette, Black Jack and Poker.  Wife said the machines were tight.  I only play craps and roulette.  Watched "0" come up four times in a row.  Needless to say, I was not wise enough to put any money on that non-number. Get a new "Players Card" and the give a $20 for $10 slot play, there is a $5 match play in the coupon book and a few other deals.    
We went to a couple of great shows, the Magician and the Hypnotist.  Heard from others that some of the shows we missed were very good also. Loads of activities such as BINGO and Trivia.   Bands and groups playing everywhere.    
We arranged our own shore excursions with other CC members..  Did Godfrey in St. Thomas, half day with  Aruba Fantasy tours, Lamanai Mayan ruins in Belize, Cozumel Beach Break, and in Roatan, Fins and Flippers, our favorite.    
When arrived in New Orleans and NCL did a great job getting us off the ship,  U.S. Customs did a lousy job clearing everyone.  It took over one hour from the end of the gang plank to the customs desk.  You would think, when customs knows 3000 people are going to come ashore starting at 8am they would have more then eight stations to handle the crowd.  Good thing we didn't have to catch our train, back to Indiana, till 1:45pm.    
We were pleased with NCL and The Spirit.  Would take this ship again and highly recommend the cabin, food, entertainment, activities and especially crew.    
Coasty      

13 Nights to Circle the Caribbean, Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat

We were on the Lucky cruise which left NY on August 23. We beat out rain and Hurricane Gustav.  Embarking: The Spirit was late coming into port..we go there about 12:00 and were told we would not be able to board until 1:00...no biggie..every thing was orderly and what I expected...My 5th cruise...We were on board by about 1:30...Knew from this board to go to windows for lunch...NCL was directing everyone to Raffles...Windows was not crowded and the 6 of use were seated right away and had a very nice lunch. While we were at lunch the announcement came on that our cabins were ready.  Cabins: I must admit that the cabin was nicer then i had been lead to believe by some reviews. The striped bedspread was gone and just a strip of ii remained. The lovely white duvet cover was just perfect..I have to say we were very lucky on the 3rd or 4th day of the cruise we got the new mattresses.YEAH...OUr Room Steward was great and we had 5 towel animals when our beds were turned down.  Food: I must admit the food was just OK..we ate in Windows and the Garden for most of our meals. The service was fine and the waiters were for the most part friendly..as was all the staff on the ship. The food was nothing special but I found something to eat at every meal and of course  never missed one. The cold fruit soups were to die for...and got one whenever I could. We didn't eat at any specialty restaurants...so can't tell you about them.  Entertainment: I was happy with almost everything we saw. It was what i expected aboard a cruise ship. The Broadway Show was good...Second City was fantastic and saw them 3 times...The Radio show was good also..The magician was also very good...I somehow missed the other comedy shows..late dinners I think. Don't miss Second City really thought they were great!  Ports: got to every port early even though we only had 3 engines.   San Juan: was lovely when wee first disembarked we walked up to el morro to see the fort..it was very very hot but worth it ..on the way did did some shopping or looking..at 6:00 we had an evening tout with Debbie from the legends tours..she was terrific and so informative..she even told us how to take the best pictures..  Tortola: Went on the NCL tour of Bath..was amazing to see..we had to take a boat and then an open air safari type truck to get there. We went to the first beach looked at all the huge rocks and swam a little..then it was off through the caves to the second cave...definitely worth the climbing and you should make sure you do it. Then back to the ship.  Samana: We took the NCL Mangrove, Rain forest, Cave and Beach excursion...we took a boat to explore the mangroves and rain forest.. we were able to get out on the small island and explore the caves...we even saw bats...then it was back on the boat to the most beautiful Beach Cayo Leventado..It was great and the water was clear and warm and perfect.  Pool: The pool was nice but really too small for the amount of people on the ship..good time to go was very late in the afternoon otherwise hard to find chairs..The children's pool was great and the kids looked like they were having a great time. I know that I read that there was no music at the pool ..I guess NCL must have read the board cause there was music up on the pool deck everyday.  Spa: There is no spa package on the Spirit..you were able to use the facilities whenever you wanted. No spa pool except the Aqua pools..I had a massage and it was fantastic...love my massages!  Disembarking: This was also fine we chose the last possible time to get off the ship..there was a little waiting but that is to be expected. We found our luggage and went to the car that was waiting for us.  Hated to come home and hated going back to work..needed more cruise time..The only problem that we had was my DH left his suit in the garment bag at the pier...It ended up costing us $75.00 to get it back. Oh well live and learn  This was a great cruise and lots of fun...We were lucky cause in San Juan it had poured the whole day before we got there and in Samana we came the day after Gustav...Weather was beautiful..and I got a little too much sun..can't wait for my next cruise..maybe the Baltic      

Wonderful & Lucky Cruise

We just got back from a 6 night cruise to Bahamas on Norwegian Spirit traveling were 10 of us all together with 2 inside staterooms, 1 ocean view, and 1 balcony. Here is my review on the whole experience...... 
Embarkation..New York we arrived at approximately 12:00 with a car service, checked in and were on the boat by 1:30 we went right to raffles for a wonderful lunch buffet. the whole process ran very smoothly for us. 
The boat itself was absolutely beautiful. I read all these reviews before we went and was a little nervous after reading the bad reviews but I have to say between all of us we really had very little to complain about. 
We ate at almost all the restaurants on board. Raffles buffet had so much food and it was very good, the two main restaurants windows and the garden room were "okay" I wasn't really impressed with either one especially at breakfast. i felt the portions were small and the food not hot enough. Cagney's steak house was excellent, as was La Trattoria and Shogun. We never got to go to Teppanyaki as it was always booked. My advice stick with Raffles for the most part it was crowded but the food was very good. 
Our itinerary was supposed to have our first stop at Port Canaveral but due to hurricane Fay, the port was closed and we had to go straight to Nassau. this was fine by me since I actually wanted to spend more time in Bahamas but i can only assume there will be alot of people upset about this since there were alot of excursions in Florida. We arrived in Nassau at 8:00 am instead of the scheduled 1:00 so we did some shopping (the stores are right off the boat) Once you get passed the people pushing you to do their tours ad hair braiding the streets with the stores were actually very nice. We also did the Dolphin swim at Blue Lagoon Island we had a WONDERFUL time it was awesome I would HIGHLY recommend it. Others in our group did the glass bottom boat and were not really impressed. My daughter and her friends went to Senor Frogs at night at said they had a wonderful time. 
We arrived at Grand Bahama Island the next day at 7. Alot of excursions were canceled here because of the rough waters.. we chose to do the Eco horseback adventure which was not canceled, we enjoyed it but we felt it was just too long (2 hrs) and we booked it specifically because we wanted to go onto the beach with the horse which we weren't able to do because of the rough water. 
The pool on the boat was nice, a little small and it can get crowded but that's to be expected. 
The crew were very nice and friendly and never had a bad experience here. We spend alot of time in the casino and won $300 which was nice. 
The pictures that they take on the boat were very expensive $25 for an each 8 by 10 but they do a nice job. 
The drinks I didn't think were too expensive with auto gratuity it was $2.00 for soda and around $8 for specialty drinks 
The cabins were actually bigger than I expected and very nice the bathrooms were tiny but still nice. 
We went to 3 of the shows and they were all wonderful. 
There were alot of different activities going on during the day and night but we really didn't participate in any of them. 
all in all the complaints we do have are minor.... they took a long time to clean up room service plates from the hallways, the pictures were expensive, and the two main dining rooms were not impressive. 
But none of these minor things will deter us from cruising with them again We had a wonderful time and can't wait to cruise again. 


wonderful 1st cruise with Norwegian Spirit!

My husband and I were looking to experience our first cruise and researched each and every cruise line before we booked an Eastern Caribbean cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines on the Norwegian Spirit. Even though we read countless bad reviews about this cruise we booked anyways because we figured we would decide for ourselves. Let me tell you that it was worth every penny! Because we were celebrating five year our five year anniversary and had not vacationed since our honeymoon we decided to invest in an AD suite which included concierge and butler service. I'm not sure about the service provided to those who booked cabins which did not include this service however we took full advantage of having these wonderful people help make out cruise experience a wonderful experience. 
Embarkation 
We arrived pretty early at the terminal in NYC and were probably one of the first ten people there. We waited a very long time to board the ship because the cruise before us had some bad weather and we heard that they even had to bypass one of the ports. We were supposed to start boarding at 10 am however the ship did not arrive until about 11 am. when we started to line up to board it was a mad rush to get in line. My husband and I were upset because we were one of the first at the pier however were pushed aside by a mad rush of people and would've had to wait in the long line until one of the pier employees saw us and put us in a special line because she had seen we were there so early. After checking in we were brought to the VIP lounge where the people who had booked suites were able to wait with drinks and a snack while the other people had to wait in the long line to check in. We were greeted by our concierge, Humberto, in the lounge and he went over all of the services that was offered to the suites. My husband and I took advantage of this service already and had Humberto make a reservation for us at Le Bistro for 7 pm that night. Another perk of being in the suites was that we were the first ones to board which enabled us to be the first ones in Raffles, the buffet, to have lunch while we waited for our suite to be ready. It was not more than a half an hour until we heard the message that our suite was ready. 
Cabin 
When we first walked into our suite we were impressed! The suite was nicely furnished and very spacious for just the two of us. Waiting in our cabin was a complimentary bottle of red wine, sparkling wine, and a bottle of evian water (which my husband and I mistakenly found out that if you purchased a bottle of evian water on board it was worth $5). Also we found there were several request cards on our table which we could request fruit (we picked bananas and were given about 6 for the week) as well as snack request cards and in room dining breakfast cards. The snack cards listed several snacks we would order every night for 5 pm or 10 pm. The snacks included chocolate covered strawberries, brownies, veggies and dip, potato chips, assorted cheese and crackers, tortillas and salsa, and a soft pretzel. You could order as many as you wanted and we opted to order one snack for each of us every night at 10 pm. 
The snacks and food were brought to our cabin by our two butlers, Jose and Denny. They were always prompt with the food and always willing to fulfill our every request. Excellent service! 
Staff 
Out stewards, Mariano and Erika, were awesome! Our room was always clean and they supplied us with fresh towels twice a day. We looked forward to going to our cabin every night after they had turned down our cabin because we always had a friend, towel animal, waiting to greet us with small treats such as mints and even cookies! 
Now we have read that some people have said that the staff on this ship are not very accommodating however we found that every one went out of their way to make our vacation a wonderful experience. For example, my husband and I went to Windows one night for dinner and it was very busy. A waiter, we are sorry to have not remembered his name, came over to us to serve us so we didn't have to wait because the waitress who was supposed to wait on us was very busy with large parties. When my husband ordered the lobster and grouper dinner this waiter said to my husband that the lobster was small so he said he would bring my husband two dinners. Needless to say my husband finished both dinners and loved every bite of it. 
We also took full advantage of the concierge service as well. Humberto was wonderful and made every dinner reservation for us and we never had to wait longer that two minutes for a table. On the second to last night of the cruise my husband wanted to make dinner reservations for both nights, one at Cagney's and the other at Le Bistro. He called Humberto early that morning to make the reservations and Humberto told him that reservations were filling up fast but he would do everything he could to get us in those restaurants. Later that afternoon my husband and I were just walking around the ship and passed the restaurant reservation desk and my husband decided to see how hard it was to make a reservation using this service. When my husband asked to book a reservation for Cagney's that night he was told that it was full. My husband then used the ship phone next to the reservation desk and called Humberto. Humberto told him that he was able to make a reservation for us at 7 pm that night. 
Food 
We ate at Raffles only for lunch the first day and dinner one night. Raffles can get crazy because there are people going every every direction. The food was good though but I don't think we would have gone there at the busy dining times because it became frustrating just walking through Raffles to get to the pool with all of the people there. 
We only ate at two specialty restaurants, Le Bistro (French restaurant) and Cagney's Steakhouse. The cover charge was worth every penny! Food was excellent and service was top notch! 
Excursions 
We traveled to San Juan, Tortola, and Samana. We only booked excursions in Tortola and Samana and opted to venture on our own in San Juan. The excursions are pricey however I would not want to book an tour outside of NCL because if you are late the ship does not wait for you versus if an NCL excursion is late the ship will wait. 
We have only been back home for 24 hours however we are already looking to book a cruise next year on NCL! It is worth every penny! 


norwegian spirit- wonderful first cruise experience

The review written by "huntingvly" pretty much describes our trip the following week! We left NY on August 9 with the same itinerary. We, too, traveled with a family group of 17. We were told ahead of time about the itinerary change, though, and we were given the option to cancel. The reason for the change was that one of the ship's engines wasn't operating at full capacity and it was going to take longer to get to and return from the Caribbean. As a result, we had approximately 6-8 hours at each port, hardly enough time to really explore. 
Our complaints centered around three things, the excursions, the dining service, and the lack of cleanliness. We encountered discarded food, dishes, and glassware in passageways, on staircases, and in the elevators. On previous cruises, there were staff constantly picking up, wiping down, and vacuuming. Not this one. 
The dining staff was stretched very thin, and on several occasions, our meals arrived cool or cold. This happened mostly at breakfast, when the dining room was nearly empty, so I can't imagine what the problem was. The dinner we had at Trattoria, one of several pay-extra restaurants, was mediocre at best, and the service was downright neglectful. But the worst experience was our excursion on Tortola. Because my husband and I are both senior citizens (63 and 73), and my husband has balance issues, we chose a "deluxe beach resort" excursion because it was advertised as a Level 1 excursion (easy walking) with a sandy beach or swimming pool option. When we arrived, our walk to the beach was not on a level walkway. At the beach, to get from the beach chairs to the beach itself required maneuvering down a steep sandy slope with no railing to hold on to, certainly not an easy task for someone with balance problems. But the worst part was getting into the water! You could not take 2 steps without encountering large, sharp rocks. In addition, the large waves created an undertow that exacerbated any balance problems. Trying to get out into a depth of water that was swimmable, I fell several times and ended up with a good-sized bruise on one ankle and scraped skin on both legs. The waves were often very large and powerful, and we were knocked over many times. My husband never made it further than 10 feet from shore, and even then was knocked off balance by the undertow and hurt his shoulder. The swimming pool option, we learned, required walking up two flights of stairs, and there were no refreshments available, not even water. On our return to the ship, we went straight to the excursion desk, but it was not going to be staffed until evening. We did go back and give one of the reps an earful, and her response was incredible. After complaining about the rocks in the water, she said, "Yes, but the beach was sandy, was it not?" We did write a complaint and received a 15% discount off the cost of the excursion. We are not settling for that, but at least someone read our complaint. 
So, "Latitudes" members or not, we will not be returning to NCL. 


Never again!

First-Time Cruisers vs. The Norwegian Spirit

This was my 25th cruise and I have been on all the major lines except Princess. For the last four years I have cruised twice a year. My last few cruises were on the Queen Mary 2, Explorer of the Seas, Disney Wonder, Costa Magica, NCL Dawn & Spirit (one night). For this trip I sailed with my family: mother, father, and two sisters (one 23 and the other 15). They too have cruised over 20 times.
 
EMBARKATION
We did roof top parking at the NYC pier. We live 20 minutes away in suburban NYC so we drove in. Once in the pier (which was fully redone- pier 88) we waited about an hour to board. This was nothing out of the ordinary but it went by quick and we were on the ship and headed straight to our cabin. We got on around 2:30 or so.
 
CABIN 
We had two Category E oceanview rooms with picture windows on deck 5 next door to one another. Cabin#s 5550 & 5552. The cabins were nicely furnished and small which is a staple on most cruise ships. Having sailed the Spirit before on the one night I know that some of the rooms were worn and these two were a bit as well. Nothing big but they could use new rugs. We had new beds and I loved them! Very nice. In the room I was in we had a third person sleeping in the open up sofa bed. This can obstruct the passage to the bathroom. The cabin also had a bunk as well. I would say if you are traveling with three use the bunk instead. My sistser is not fond "heights" plus there was not a rail guard on the bunk so she did not want to use it. Nevertheless the room was relatively fine but I found a few things that I did not care for such as a dirty condom in back of the sleeper sofa. Only reason why I went back there was to get something that fell and out I came with that plus some dried cheerios, bracelet, an earning and a shower cap! I never did let the steward know. It did not ruin my trip but I do think that is sloppy housekeeping to say the least. I know the stewards work hard for no money but they should take a look behind things once in a while.
 
FOOD
To me it was average. Nothing really stood out except the cookies and pretzel rolls at the buffet. Loved them! Buffet food was just that buffet food I ate here for breakfast and some lunches. Dinners I took in Windows and the Garden Room. Windows was a lovely room - bright and airy; while the Garden Room was small and dark looking. I found the selection to be average I liked what I ate but again nothing really stood out. The first night I ate at Shogun and generally enjoyed what I had.
 
PORTS
I have been to most of the ports already but enjoy going back. San Juan I walked around the old town. Tortola I took the beach escape excursion to Cane Beach. It was a lovely stretch of beach though it seemed crowded. In the Dominican Republic I did the Cayo Levantado excursion which was excellent. As many posters have indicated in these forums it is a beautiful place and it was HOT too. I ended up returning early to the ship. I did not want too but I felt like I was cooking!!!! I was very lucky to have perfect weather for the entire cruise. The sun was always shining and the sea was smooth. Very enjoyable, you can't ask for better!
 
ENTERTAINMENT
I am not one for floor shows so I don't go to salute Broadway and the 70s and the 80s and the 90s. But I did see Second City and I love them. I saw them in Vegas and on the Dawn and the shows they do don't disappoint! I did see the crew show and thought it was enjoyable. There was a lounge act - pair of singers of which I forgot their names - who were excellent. I have to look there names up on the Freestyle Daly. When I unpack I will find them. They were superb and the women had some voice. Overall I liked what I saw but I do think that too many daytime activities focused on buying something. More on this....
 
WHAT I LIKED
-I like freestyle this was my fourth time doing it and it always works for me. Two nights I waited 10-15 minutes, otherwise my entire family of 5 never had a problem. I know some have had different encounters with freestyle (including some clients of mine) and I can see that the Spirit had more lines than I can remember from the Dawn but I honestly can say it was a pleasure for my family! I like to eat when I am hungry. 
-I like the size of the ship. The Spirit is now considered average size but it makes getting around easy.
-I love the walk around promenade. I think those days of promenades are numbered on the new ships!
-And I loved the back of the ship - all of those terraced decks are wonderful places to sit back and relax in the sun.
 
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER
Don't kill me over these comments! 
- think that NCL has become the leader in surcharges and commercialism onboard. Having cruised recently on competing cruise line such as RCI, NCL definitely has increased the number of surcharges for their restaurants and so many daytime activities focus on revenue generating. I understand they are a company and need to make money all of the cruise lines do but I feel based on my experience with many different lines that they lead the pack. Maybe RCI has done this as well recently but the last time I cruised with them which was six months ago they did not. Yes, RCI and other lines have the art auctions, wine tasting and a surcharge restaurant or two but I felt NCL has more of this. One thing in particular is NCLU which is an enrichment program they have been touting to the travel agent community for months. My rep from NCL came in and spoke of it. Most days they had 4 or 5 NCLU "enrichment programs" and only one or two was free the rest had $15 surcharges because they involved alcohol. The same with the restaurants they now have made all specialty restaurants fee based. I understand it is higher quality food but remember you do pay for the cruise which does include food. What I did find was that the service in Shogun was very good while the service in the free or included restaurants was poor. I want to make it clear that this did not make my vacation poor it just gave the cruise a "cheap" feeling to it (and that is clearly my opinion). I want to make it clear that NCL is not the only line who does this all major mass market lines are similar in that they want to generate a lot of onboard revenue; I just felt that it was more on NCL.
-As I stated before I thought the dining room service in the included restaurants was poor. Waited over 20 minutes to get menus one night, wrong orders and almost all the waiters don't even introduce themselves. I hate to sound nitpicky but if I go to a neighborhood Applebee's of TGIFriday's the waiters introduce themselves. This is not a big deal but just an observation. 
-The ship is a really a very nice handsome vessel that I think is even a bit classier looking then the Dawn. I just think they should give her one of those big makeovers and she would be a knockout. I know she is going in for a November dry-dock but she could benefit from a big overhaul just to give her that a fresher look. That does not mean they should do away with some of the Asian dEcor. I like it!
-Lastly NCL has abandon the comment card select people from the cruise will be emailed a comment card and the rest can just mail in their comments to the corporate office. I do not care for this.
 
All in all I had a great time and hate to be home! Please don't think I am NCL bashing because I know some people in this forum may take it that way. I cheerlead for NO cruise line! I have favorites like Celebrity but I do not intend to offend diehard NCL fans. Just giving my opinion on the ship as both a travel agent and frequent cruiser. I would recommend the ship to anyone looking for a three star, three star plus experience she is not a 5 star ship and was never meant to be. I like NCL and think they have a good product but I feel that they nickel and dime you more so than others. Nevertheless, NCL is a viable product in the mass market cruise business which mainly include their biggest competitors Carnival and Royal Caribbean. I would definitely cruise with them again, may not be my first choice but I am always up for variety!!
 


Caribbean Escape from NY

Getting on board was a little bit of a pain mainly because there were 2 ships in at the same time (Spirit and Dawn). Also this is New York where it is always a bit of a mad house. Room: It was bit small for 3 adults. We had a room with balcony. If there was only 2 adults it would be a bit more comfortable. The room staff was great. They were very courteous to the passengers and the room always was done on time. We went to breakfast and by the time we got back the room was made up. Food: The food wasn't bad. Only problem we had was on Monday night we went to Windows about 7 o'clock and there was a 1 hour wait or longer. Only night we went to Windows. So my advice would be either make reservations for Windows or go there before 6 or after 8:30pm. Went to Garden for dinner and it was very good. Food was good. But again, try and make reservations. Breakfast at Windows was good. Never a wait and waiter staff was good. Arrived there for breakfast about 9:00. Cagney's also was great. But make reservations. The Italian rest. we really didn't care for. Food was so-so. Raffles buffet was good. The Blue Moon cafe was great for lunch and mid day snacks. At night try and make it to Henry's Pub. Great singer and very relaxing. The Bier Garten on deck 13 was outstanding. Beautiful view and we had a lot of fun with the waiters . Food also good. Port Canaveral: I just stayed on ship while wife and daughter went to Cocoa beach. They said it was nice. Would recommend it Nassau: Great...We did a snorkel trip and it was great. Beautiful ride on catamaran to snorkel location and lots of time under water. Would recommend it. That's the only excursion we did there. Freeport: The ship should have stayed in Nassau for another day. Nothing to do there but shop in little shops right off ship. Didn't make any excursions because only there for 5 hours and didn't think there would be enough time. Pool and hot tubs: The pool was good but to many kids at hot tubs. Should limit them to their own on back of ship. All in all we all thought trip was Great. There were 12 in our party and all said we would go again. Next year maybe Bermuda on the Dawn. 





Nice Cruise

Here's our long and boring cruise synopsis. We had a great time and it is hard to be back at work! 
Travelers were myself (41), DW (42), and DD (17). 
Saturday, July 5th - Flew to New York City (nonstop on Delta) and stayed in Times Square at the Marriott Marquis. We just hung out in Times Square. We had a wonderful room with a view of Times Square. DW and I really enjoyed seeing New York again - DD couldn't way to leave! She says she prefers her suburban life over the big city. She usually had a death-grip on the back of my shirt as we went exploring. 
Sunday, July 6th - We got up early and rode the subway to lower Manhattan and went to the "ground zero" site. We thought it was important for DD to see it. We wandered around lower Manhattan. We were very impressed by the little church and cemetery across the street from the "ground zero" site. We rode the subway back to Times Square, packed up, and got a taxi to the cruise ship pier. The pier was packed, as there were two ships (Spirit and Dawn) loading passengers and leaving New York City that afternoon. We finally got on board and explored the ship. The ship was originally built for the Asian market, so it has a very Asian look and feel to it. It is very nice, and we were very happy with our selection of a ship to take DD on for her first cruise. The ship sailed from Manhattan at 4:00 PM, down the Hudson River, past Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and under the Verazanno Narrows Bridge and out to the Atlantic Ocean and then south. We had a nice dinner in the Windows restaurant which overlooks the wake of the ship. After dinner, our luggage was delivered to our stateroom and we put our things away. Our exciting evening consisted of going to bed early, as we had been up and about since 6:00 AM. 
Monday, July 7th - We spent the day at sea. We really enjoyed the day relaxing. We ran on the treadmills (DW made me exercise every day on this trip - how rude is that?!). It was very warm and windy outside - well it's always windy on a ship that is moving. The ship sailed along the eastern seaboard towards Florida. That night there was a musical production in the theatre, which we really liked. 
Tuesday, July 8th - Our ship came into view of the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. When we were about an hour from the port, the ship sailed through a "swarm" of jellyfish. It was very interesting to see. The ship pulled into port at Port Canaveral around noon, we rented a car from Budget and drove to Sea World in Orlando - about an hour away. It poured rain on us all day while we were at Sea World, but it was okay. I was glad we hadn't planned a beach day. We just put on ponchos and trudged on. All the exhibits are under cover so actually the rain made it not as hot as it usually is in Orlando in July. We had a great time at Sea World, and it was the perfect venue for a rainy day. Many people from the ship went to Universal Studios and the various parks at Disney World. Most people use the ship's buses to go to the parks (for a huge fee), so we decided to get a car and head off on our own. It worked out perfectly. We got back to the ship around 8:30, and had a nice dinner at the Garden Room restaurant on the ship. There was a "White" party that night in Galaxy of the Stars that we went to, where I discovered that I am really old and crabby - the music was just too loud! They were taking family portraits, and we had one done with us all in white. It turned out really good and we bought a set. It wasn't any more than having a good picture done ashore. There was a comedy show in the theatre that night, but we got back to the ship too late to see it. 
Wednesday, July 9th - The ship arrived in Nassau, Bahamas, at 1:00 PM. The ship has a bridge observation room where you can watch the crew. As we pulled into Nassau, I went to watch the crew, and it was amazing to watch. The ship - 880 feet long by 105 feet wide was crewed by only two men as it pulled into port. They turned the ship around and backed the ship into the pier without assistance of tugs or pilot boats. It pulled in alongside the Royal Caribbean ship Serenade of the Seas. We spent the afternoon shopping and sightseeing in Nassau. DD bought a purse and some jewelry at the straw market - a large swap meet where - according to the women who are selling stuff there - everything was on sale just for that day. DD learned how to haggle and walk away. We dropped all of our stuff off in our cabin, then headed off for the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island by taxi. Atlantis is beautiful and HUGE. We went to the beach, and walked around the grounds there. We could easily spend a nice vacation there in the future. We had a nice dinner again at the Garden Room restaurant, then went to see the magician in the theatre. It ended up being a late night, which didn't bode well for the next day. We really enjoyed Nassau. 
Thursday, July 10th - The ship pulled into Freeport, Bahamas (Grand Bahama Island) at 7:00 AM. The ship was only in port for six hours, so we wanted to head into town early, which was a mistake, as nothing opened until 9:00. We took a taxi to Port Lucaya, which is the tourist area of Grand Bahama. We went to the beach at the Sheraton and Westin. We did a little shopping, then took a taxi back to the ship. Our cab driver drove us all over the western end of the island, and showed us things he taught were interesting. Grand Bahama took a direct hit by hurricane Wilma in October 2005, and the island still hasn't recovered from it. Many homes are abandoned, and much of the vegetation has been destroyed. We didn't care much for Grand Bahama, which could have been because we were there so early, or because we didn't go on an excursion. We got back to the ship, took a long nap to make up for the late night, had a nice dinner, and went to see the musical show and comedian that night. 
Friday, July 11th - We spent the day at sea heading north to New York City. Once again, a nice day at sea. There was a really good up-close show with the magician who did some incredible card tricks. We had a last night nice dinner, then attended the crew show where some of the crew from all over the world share talents from their home countries. It was a lot of fun and pretty interesting to see. The crew hailed from 58 countries. We reluctantly packed up for the ship docking in New York on Saturday morning. 
Saturday, July 12th - The ship docked at 10:00. We left the ship at 11:30, went through customs, and took a taxi to a place that would let us store our luggage for the day. We then walked to Times Square (only a few blocks), went to see Wall-E, then did some shopping in Times Square before picking our luggage up, and taking the New Jersey Transit train to Newark Airport. We caught our flight home at 5:30 PM and were home around 9:00 PM SLC time. 
We had a great trip. We ate too much, lost a little money in the casino, but thoroughly enjoyed the week away from the phone, email, and work. 
I would highly recommend this ship. It had an incredible children's play area with a waterslides, and a pirate ship pool on the back of the ship. There were 11 restaurants on board, although we didn't eat at all of them - French, Asian, Steakhouse, Italian, fast food, two main dining rooms, buffet, a poolside cafe, sushi, and teppanyaki, as well as 24-hour room service. We didn't pay any extra for food on this cruise and we enjoyed ourselves just fine. Food is very subjective. For us, dining in the main restaurants was great. There were also many drinking establishments, as well as two big nightclubs and a big theatre. There was also a full gym, big swimming pool, game rooms, card rooms, and a spa. There was a lot of the ship we never saw. DD wasn't interested in the teen group, which was fine. We enjoyed her company when she wasn't complaining about being seasick. I think it was more homesick for friends and her cat, than seasick! We bought DD a Teen Passport, which gave her 20 drinks/smoothies, and she had about fifteen. She loved the strawberry/banana smoothies from Champagne Charlie's. We were in an inside cabin on the 5th floor. We really liked our cabin with upgraded linens. DD slept on the trundle unit on the floor. She didn't want to sleep on the bunk. We had enough room for all our stuff - we packed pretty light. The bathroom was fine - I really liked the size of the shower and the door instead of a curtain. We had a wonderful cabin steward, and had towel animals four nights of the six. Our cabin was always cleaned and beds made, which was all we ask for. If we were on a longer cruise, it could have become claustrophobic, but for six nights it was fine. The ship has a great movie selection on channels 15 and 16. The shopping was fine, we bought some trinkets. 


Great time in spite of teenager!

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