Rob_H

Interior cabin decor.

Even if you get a confirmation, even if it appears on your vacation summary, check onboard that it is on your account by the end of the second cruise day. If it isn't, go to guest services onboard, and they'll ask you to email them all the data you sent for the shareholder request so they can follow it up with Miami. We've had to do this for 5 out of our 7 cruises so far this year. Most of the time, even if it's on the vacation summary, the credit is simply not applied to the account.

We didn't manage to book anything for this port, the overnight in Kauai. But we still had a great day. In the morning walked round to and spent time in the Marriott resorts, then walked to the lagoons and on to the lighthouse, good view (also a good view of planes coming into the airport). Called an Uber to get us back to the ship for $10. Took the Uber a while to find us down the dirt roads, but it saved us a long walk back! The Uber driver recommended Poipu Beach, so over lunch on the ship we worked out how to get there. Uber would be $40 each way. Google Transit (the "train" option on Google Maps directions) gave us a better option by bus. A bit complex with three buses but it all went smooth and we got there for $3 each (a $2 main bus and two 50c connections). Saw lots of great countryside and a few towns and villages on the way. We spent a couple of hours there, saw turtles in the shallow pool and rocks. Nice place, quite busy as it's a saturday evening. Towards sunset we headed home, again by bus. So nice to have an overnight and not need to rush!

The first four days are port days, so there's only one main theatre show, at 9pm. First night was a magician, didn't go to that. Last night was the production company with "worldbeat". Excellent and very professional, especially considering it's only their second performance of it in front of guests. It's a comedy illusionist tonight, we were eating instead as we got back late (it's an overnight port). The theater is fine, modern lighting and good sound. However, a couple of rows of loose armchairs have been placed in front of the first row of real seats. The people in them push them back, making the first row of seats unusable. I don't know what the purpose of that was, but the result is a net loss of seats so a few people can have armchairs. There are also some cabaret style shows in the spinnaker lounge, and music in the atrium, but really with ports we haven't been to much yet. Maybe there will be two shows on the sea days.

It's gone, along with the ship's wheel that was there. Might not even be an observation room. With 4 port days to start we haven't explored the ship much, I'll check more on our first sea day.

Just a few comments on the cabin and the renovation. It's certainly nice to have modern things, but there's a lack of attention to detail. We do understand that many of the rooms have been hardly used since the renovation, so they're still being tested by guests. As usual, we have an inside cabin (we'd rather cruise more than pay more, and this cruise is already at the upper end of our budget). There's really no shelf space, just four shallow drawers and a wardrobe. Top cupboards (closets) are filled with life jackets. Wardrobe is one door that is full height drop, the other only half height. The desk space has a shallow drawer. There are two european sockets, only one US socket, and two USB. There is also a USB each side of the bed, with room light switches and a small reading light. Our beds were separate when we got to the room, when they were pushed together the bulky chair in the room had only 100mm/4" left to get past it to the bed! We had to have the chair removed, simply didn't fit. Somebody didn't think when ordering them. Other little things: there's a minibar fridge with glass door. It's just filled with three tall bottles of purchasable water. The fridge and the covering door are installed opposite ways round so hard to open! I suppose half the rooms have it right! Doesn't take much effort to ensure the doors are correct. The bathroom sink has the tap (faucet) installed the wrong way round (red for cold, blue for hot). Silly little things but an indication of the lack of quality control on the renovation! The room TV signal breaks up on all channels, even the bridgecam, most are unwatchable. Poor quality cable probably. Reported it at guest services in first night, checked next day, no record of my report so had to do it again. Each time i had to queue up at the front desk, I tried calling them on the phone multiple times about this and other issues but the operator/guest services number is never (never) answered, even after letting it ring and ring... To be fair, guest services appear to be very understaffed, and also many new people with limited training. Not a big deal for us but completely failing to have anybody answering phones will make it hard for some.

We didn't plan very much for these cruises. At one time we were booked on four cruises on the Spirit in April and May this year but they were cancelled by NCL long ago, because Australia was shut. So we were doubtful these would happen. By the time the Spirit restart got real with the ship leaving Singapore for Tahiti, we were busy on a cruise. Which means we don't have a lot of tours booked, and there isn't a lot of availability. No worries, we're flexible and coming back again to each place on the May 31 sailing! For Maui, we looked at the "on your own" bus trip to Lahaina, but it had sold out. So we walked up to the bus station and got a day pass for $4, bus every hour that takes one hour. More flexible than the tour! Lahaina is a small touristy town, nicer than where the ship docks. There really isn't much available in each port, so we will have to try harder on booking stuff! Goes against our spur of the moment approach to ports, but needed.

Yesterday we (Rob and Yanet) boarded the Norwegian Spirit in Honolulu, for a 24 day back-to-back voyage to French Polynesia (Tahiti) and back. This is only the second cruise of the Spirit since her restart on May 7th (the last Norwegian ship back in service). I'm happy to (try to) answer any questions about the ship and the destinations, as we travel. We've been on the Spirit before, in October 2019, before the refurbishment. We arrived in Honolulu four days before embarkation, directly off a 35 day b2b2b on the Encore. It's going to be tempting to compare with that ship (and the Bliss, which we spent 37 days on in January and February) but I'll try to resist as they are a very different size and experience. We got to the port around 10.30. Boarding was the usual current process of waiting to have vaccine cards and test results checked, with no separate queue or priority for any level of latitudes membership. Once past that and security, there was a priority lane for latitudes which saved a little time. We were given boarding group A so after a short wait, with entertainment provided by some Hawaiian musicians and dancers, we got on board by 11.30. Lunch was in the Windows main dining room, service was excellent, providing a good first impression. The decor in Windows, and really most of the ship, is however quite bland. The elegant decor and beautiful Asian art of the pre-refurbishment Spirit has been replaced with an inoffensive and boring look similar to a modern budget hotel - lots of mid brown laminates and cream. Our inside cabin was ready by the time we finished, with luggage already delivered. The amount of space to store things in the room seems less than we remember before, it's now as bad as the modern big ships. No elegance or wow factor in the cabins for sure, bland again. There are 1100 passengers on this first leg. Surprising, as there are very few people on the roll call or on another social media group. There wasn't enough interest for a meet and greet, which would be awkward anyway as this cruise has day five as the first sea day. There are four port days in Hawaii, then four sea days, then four port days in French Polynesia. That's enough for an intro! I'll keep the next updates short, as things happen. Questions welcome!

We've been on three Panama Canal cruises this year, b2b with other cruises. Twice on the Bliss, once on Encore. For the Bliss, we did LA to Miami then stayed on board for the return to LA. A b2b like that is a great option if you really hate flying! Panama Canal cruises are really relaxing, lots of sea days to space out the ports. The average age is much higher than a typical one week cruise. One thing to note, both the Bliss and the Encore go through the new Panama locks. They're (arguably) not as interesting as the older locks that smaller ships like the Jewel use. Can't help on the Haven side of things, we book inside cabins to have more cruises instead. Hardly ever in the cabin anyway.

I haven't seen or heard of one. We're currently on the Encore. It wasn't mentioned at the Galaxy Pavilion when we went round trying everything.

We're on the Encore. The Galaxy Pavilion is $30 for an hour, more for longer. We won an hour's pass as part of our prize for winning the 9 day progressive trivia. We tried most things. The majority are just VR movies, flying you through a place with a bit of shaking. No interactivity. Plus a bunch where you just shoot anything that moves. Car simulators not great. The walk-through adventure isn't bad. I appreciate we're not the target audience, but it's not something we'd pay for. After the first couple of days of the cruise it's mostly empty, we were the only customers while there.

Capacity is around 2000 passengers so at 60% full (likely less) it would be ok. We're on the May 19 and May 31 sailings, the roll calls for them are very quiet As sbaker mentioned, we'll know for sure with the May 7 sailing, the first sailing of the Spirit since the shutdown, and the last NCL ship back in service. They are due to call at Bora Bora in a couple of days.