BrianC-80

Just got off the Star last week, and have been on it three times now. 

My favourite lesser used spot is the Mojito bar up on 14 midships next to Cagney's/Moderno. Exit the lifts, turn right and follow the wall around into Moderno. Warning though - pineapple and coconut mojitos will go straight to your head. 😉 

For one of the best easily accessible and crowd free view points, go to Spice H20 at the back of 13 and then walk up the outdoor stairs to 14 where the helipad is. You get a full panoramic unobstructed view from the back of the ship. 

Thanks! Bookmarked on Yelp for when we're there next year.

Would love to do that, but it's just too long to get off work. We've got a 14 day cruise coming up next year and that was pushing it a fair bit! But yes, the ports on that particular leg are just wow, and the Spirit is my favourite ship.

For those that can't find the Indian dishes in the buffet, look for the pile of poppadoms. They've been on every ship we've been on (and often eaten even when not eating the accompanying curries).

Yes we went to La Trattoria.

 

Firstly, the location. Yes, it's prt of the buffet, but it is fairly well separated. I don't find that a problem and the windows mean you can get good views. We went on a sea day, but I see it as somewhere quite good to go when sailing away.

 

As for the food itself, the Italian often gets a bad press round here. I have personally always enjoyed it as I really like the Osso Bucco, but when we first went a few years ago, neither my wife or son enjoyed theirs.

 

We tried it again when they changed the menus in late 2015 and have been back on every cruise since. We all really enjoy it now.

 

If you have a reservation then I would certainly keep it, especially on the Spirit where there are fewer options anyway. Don't worry about the location.

I second that. I'd not been to the Italian until the recent Spirit trip, and really enjoyed it. I had the t-bone for my main, and it was my favourite of any steak I had on the ship including two visits to cagney's and a the steak in Le Bistro.

Just got off the Spirit last weekend. Oh god it's been a week already. I need another holiday. What was I saying? Oh yeah, the Spirit - I've been on four Norwegian ships now, and the Spirit is probably my new favourite.

While there was no significant dry dock, they are making improvements to the ship. For example, our balcony cabin had a new carpet installed right before we boarded (we could smell the newness of it for a few days, and frankly they did a bit of a dodgy job with some carpet glue up a wall near my side of the bed). Not sure if they've made any changes to the general areas though.

The food was great in the speciality restaurants, and the same as normal in the MDRs. One thing to note is that they're using the slightly older menus. No lobster, but no upcharging for it in the MDR and some of the older dishes still being on the speciality menus. That was a delight, as I missed the lamb from Le Bistro last year, so I was pleased to be able to get it one last time. There's also a Blue Lagoon and a pub, having never had them replaced with an O'Sheehans. Blue Lagoon is a somewhat odd space, as it's relatively tiny, and a walk through area as well. But they served hand cut chips/fries, which I thought were the best on the ship.

There was only two downsides - the reservations in the MDR means that you pretty much always have a wait if you're turning up any time after 6. Ironically, the one time we made a MDR reservation, we missed it having been delayed coming back from an excursion (we overnighted in Haifa). The other issue was simply the level of peeling paint on the hull and promenade.

Staff were exceptional. We kinda felt ignored on the Epic apart from the terrific cruise director. It was the reverse on the Spirit - only the cruise director was a bit sub par. Perhaps it was simply because of Fernando, the deputy director, since he was so larger than life that he overshadowed the actual CD. Not that the CD was bad, just a little subdued.

But all in all, just take the Spirit to have the chance to sail on NCL circa 2012, and you'll have a great time. Already looking at the Spirit for our next NCL cruise next year.

Holly,

 

I actually have a picture of this "seagull" incident. We were on the same cruise as you just a few doors down. Our suite had a cool configuration so we had floor to ceiling windows that gave us a forward facing as well as side facing view.

 

We were in our room looking out as we were pulling away from one of the ports when my husband commented on these seagulls going crazy. I remember laughing a few weeks later when reading your Baltic cruise review that we were probably witnesses to this event.

 

Well wouldn't you know it, a few weeks ago I glanced up at our our digital picture frame (where hubby download all our cruise photos) and there are the seagulls in question. He completely forgot that he snapped a picture.

 

As soon as I figure out how to transfer the picture from the digital picture frame to my iPad I will post it for you.

Incredible! I have another seagull related neighbour story. Get this though - it's the same cruise. May 2016, Baltic on the Star. I remember the Fitchburgs being on our rollcall (so they've probably heard my complaint there!).

So we had an Asian family next to us. Never really heard a peep from them, and only had problems at sail away. Because they fed the seagulls. When I say fed the seagulls, I don't mean throwing some bread into the sea... no I mean they wanted the seagulls to eat out of their hands on their balcony.

Needless to say this made our balcony during sail away pretty uninhabitable. I've got a couple of photos somewhere although they're already on the forums in a couple of places somewhere already. They would like pieces of bread up on the balcony railing and then in addition to throwing bread, would hold it in one hand while trying to take a selfie with them in the other.

So we reported it. Nothing happened. Following sail away, they did the same thing again, and again. I finally got sick of it and took photos to guest services. Only then did they realise that they were actually trying to entice the birds onto the balcony itself. They finally sent someone around and we got to have our final sail away without our balcony being bombed by the feathered menaces.

Boy though, we got the real stink eye from them when they saw us after they got a talking to.

Yep, layers are the way to go. When we were there last year, it was absolutely roasting in Helsinki, but fairly chilly in St Petersburg. You can never tell.

I'd be pretty sure the site won't open for a ship during Easter, the biggest holiday of the year. You could ask: efahra@culture.gr

 

According to their website, the Archaeological museum is open until 17:00. It's a fantastic new museum, which holds all important finds from Knossos & all around Crete.

Thanks, I'll look into that instead.

Hey everyone,

So I thought I had plans for my upcoming cruise when we stop in Heraklion. We were going to jump on the bus and head to Knossos on the bus. Except I've realised today that I misread the opening hours for Easter Friday, and it's actually only open between 8am and midday, and we don't get in till 2pm.

That's fine, but then this really confused me. The cruise line (Norwegian) is selling excursions to Knossos. You know, the place that'll be closed while we're in port.

So a dual question - 1) Do you think it's likely that NCL has actually managed to get Knossos open solely for it's excursions, or they've simply screwed up and will be cancelling those excursions in about three weeks time?

2) What is there to do on Easter Friday in Heraklion instead?

Thanks,

Brian

We got an extra $100 off the price of the cruise. They said it was a free upgrade but the $100 was more than the upgrade. We were on the Jade 1/25/17.

Thanks!

So we're off in around 60 days on the Spirit, and want to wait until we've seen the ship for a few days before deciding whether we want to sail on her again in early 2018 in the Canary Islands. We've thrown around the idea of booking the next trip while on board since the website no longer gives you the full selection of cabins.

Then we remembered the CruiseNext Ultimate booking thing. We've already got CruiseNext deposits that we purchased on our last cruise (we already had the upcoming one booked), so the intention would be to use one of those deposits for the 2018 trip. From what I've Googled, I can only find that you get "an additional free offer". Anyone know what it is? Does it change?

We tried to do exactly as you're suggesting. The HDMI port is presumably on the back of the TV rather than the side, and so we couldn't access it.

On some of the smaller ships with only a couple of Teppenyaki tables, you can't book until you get on board. The Star happens to be one of them.

We didn't go straight from the airport to the ship when we were in Barcelona late last year as we overnighted in a hotel beforehand.

However, for the return leg we had an early flight. So we kept our luggage, walked it off ourselves and got a cab with the set price someone already mentioned. From the cabin to the airport was about 35 to 40 minutes. No queue for cabs, and tonnes of them. The trick is to walk off before they start calling departure tickets (or at least go in the first couple). At that time in the morning there was no traffic at all.

Really liked Spice H20 on sea days, the frozen drinks there were the best on the ship. However, for service, I liked the Casino bar - the one bartender there was grumpy as anything but was quick, efficient and always made drinks in the proportions I liked.

You know they can probably just call NCL and change the speciality dining to something else right? A travel agent placed us on drinks and internet, and NCL happily changed the internet to dining for us.

The pineapple is ace though.

I tried Moderno while on the Star and enjoyed it. However, I never got around to it when I was on the Epic afterwards.

My opinion on the Cagneys vs Le Bistro debate changed last week on the Epic, with the updated menus. The problem was that I adored the Le Bistro lamb dish that was on the old menu - and now it isn't there at all. I had the peppercorn beef fillet instead, which while excellent just wasn't the best lamb I've ever had.

So therefore I have to place Cagneys as the favourite instead, although even then I was a little bored of it having had it twice in a week and it too had a reduced menu. That chocolate cake though. Wow that's good.

I read on CC recently that NCL had discontinued lox/smoked salmon for breakfast in the Buffet on some of the ships. Any of you who just got off know if this breakfast item is still available?

I can't recall seeing it at the buffet from last week (I don't like smoked salmon, so I would have walked quickly past any station holding it), but I'm sure I remember it being on an eggs benedict of some description. If that's right, then I'd be surprised if they had it only for that and nothing else.

On the last cruise the upsale fairy called about four weeks out. They offered a price for a family suite - which we didn't want since it'd mean we lost our balcony (on the Star they have full length windows but no balcony). I said I was interested in an aft facing suite and they offered a price. I said another price and they went and checked and said they couldn't sell it to me for that price. No problem, we didn't have a deal.

One week later, they called back and offered me the aft suite for less money than I'd offered them a week earlier. Needless to say I took it. Sometimes you just need to get your name out there since they have quotas to fill and if they know you're willing to take it off your hands for a price then once the price drops to that value then they'll have an easy sale with you.

NCL are still selling cruises in that time period, though.

 

10 nights on 06 Jan from Barcelona

12 nights on 21 Jan from Barcelona

 

which just leaves a few days in between in Barcelona.

 

My cruise in April finally shows balconies available after them being 'sold out' for a month or two (but at double the price we paid back in February of this year!)

Something very dodgy is going on with those cruises. It's becoming to the point where I wonder if NCL are actively trying to deceive people. Because they couldn't possibly be so stupid as to continue to allow bookings for cruises that will certainly be cancelled. I mean, just how long are they going to let this continue? Will they bother to tell the poor people that are going to lose out on their holiday before final payment date?

And the budget, of course.

Also, are you staying only over a weekend, or during the week or a mix of both?

We were in 10228 back in May. Didn't notice any issues with roughness (although of course that can depend entirely on the weather).

The only issue was that twice during the 9 days onboard, the Spa decided to do some renovation work until 1 or 2am. Since you'd also be right underneath it, you would be affected by that if they pulled that one again.

Generally if it's going to be sold by weight then you'll walk up to a counter where there will be a selection of pizza on offer. You'll order by type and weight - there's quite a few of these counter style restaurants in most Italian cities (and in fact, there's one near where I work in London as well).

If it's a sit down thing with a menu, then it'll be an individual round pizza.