Spirit Tips

Our best Spirit tips:

- Get cabin 6535 (or 6035) if you can. It is a HUGE inside cabin. The four of us were very comfortable for a GREAT price!!! We had a queen bed, one trundle and one pulman and still had plenty of room to walk around. It would actually sleep 5 - we did not use the fold our sofa bed.

- There are made to order dessert crepes every night in Raffles with various fruits - YUM!!!

- There are made to order quesdillas in Raffles most afternoons - also YUM!!!

- Le Bistro is half price the first night. Our kids were only $3.25 since they are normally only $7.50. Great price for their filet mignon!

- If GSC is too crowded for you (it was for us) stay onboard or go back early and enjoy the pools and good restaurants without the crowds.

- Speaking of pools, just MOVE the offending towels on "saved" chairs. We did and no one ever came to say we were in "their" chairs.

- Biergarten is a GREAT place to hang out. Nice tables and shade, cool breeze and bar service and snacks nearby (try the cheese spread for the pretzels and breads!)

- Disney in the rain is still Disney! We bought NCL transfers to avoid Orlando traffic and missing the ship, but bought our park tickets online and did "Will Call." Saved alot of money that way.

- If you want to REALLY play at Atlantis, book a room at Comfort Suites Paradise Island - got an internet rate of $200 with AAA ($236 with tax). We taxied over, checked in and out at the same time and got wrist bands to use the pools, slides, beaches, etc for about the same price as the ship's shore excursion with aquarium only access. Sure wish we could have stayed all day!

- Loved Affinia 50 (before) and Marriott Courtyard Midtown East (after). Both had queen size beds and nice, newly renovated rooms. Great midtown locations and good prices for Manhattan, too. Ask about the American girl pricing at Affinia 50. It was less than the other rates we saw and our daughter got a special AG treat. We got $207/night with AAA at Courtyard.

- Don't forget your passports, but if you do, Continental has a service called QuickPak and they can get them to the nearest airport on the next flight from your hometown for $65. Good to know!

;) thanks for the tips...we go out of New York and have not gone on her we may at some point.....wonder what the balcony rooms are like ????????

Thanks for posting the tips. I love to read al I can about the ship and ports we will be visiting.

Sweatpea-2 IThis will be my first time in a balcony, I will let you know what it's like when we return.

jmalstrm- We are booked at Comfort Suites,and can't decide whether to cancel. Did you have enough time to enjoy ATlantis? Also I've read ou can't get a pool chair after 9AM, is that so? Finaly,where to eat/drink there that is not outrageously priced? (Think I read somewher on a review a soda was $8)

Thanks.

We really enjoyed Atlantis. We went there knowing we had limited time and decided to be happy with it. We don't regret doing what we did. Our kids are 9 and 12 and loved the pools and slides and lazy river. Go online and print a map - then remember to take it with you. That place is REALLY big!

We got off the ship asap and taxied over. We found chairs no problem near the pool with all the slides - not on the front row, but close enough. Spent most of our time in the pools, on slides anyway, so I guess we were some of those infamous chair hogs! Ended up paring down to one chair to put our stuff on.

We spent $12 on 3 cokes, so yes, the food etc. is pricey. We had the wonderful waffles at Raffles before we left the ship, so we just had cokes at Atlantis and then had quesadillas at Raffles after we got back to the ship and then a later dinner that night (skipped the GSC party and enjoyed a quieter ship.) There is a sandwich type place near the slide pool. Could share something there and then eat on ship later. In the village in front of Atlantis there is a Subway and a Quiznos. I'm sure you could get reasonable food there if you wanted to. Could probably even buy it on the walk over from Comfort Suites and sneak it into Atlantis in a beach bag and eat on property.

FYI - the water toys at the lagoon are extra $. Also, don't worry about getting ship towels to take. Atlantis gives you towels when you check in at the pool hut to get your wrist bands.

Thanks for the tips! The transfer only to the park in Orlando seems like a good idea.

Balcony rooms are a little smaller than most balcony rooms-depending on the category of course. We had a queen bed that we separated-left little room for anyone else but the couch did open to a twin but there would have been NO room to maneuver if it was left open. The balcony was small, just two very uncomfortable chairs-one had arms, one did not and a small table. Most of the other balconies had better chairs (we did not notice this until the last few days)

What cabin were you in?

Im booked on the Spirit for this coming Sept. and Ive got one of those HUGE cabins (6035), can you tell me if the bathroom is set up like all the other insides? Speaking of bathrooms, my cabin is right below the public casino bathrooms, will I have to bring earplugs from all the constant flushing??? Should I change cabins??? HELP!!!

This cabin was great (for 4 people!). The bathroom had the large shower, but not the separate room for the toilet. Not a big deal for us. We did not notice any flushing from above, but we were in 6535. I would not change cabins - it does not get any better than this for an inside. Here are a few pictures to show you what it looks like.

Jon

That's a pretty big inside cabin. How did you know which cabins our big and which are not? It's too late for my Spirit sailing but I'm searching now for an April 1st sailing and this info could help!

Thanks

We started by looking at deck plans. We noticed two cabins that appeared to be larger. We found a website that gave sq. footage for each cabin on a ship, and sure enough 6535 was 200 sq. ft., the others only 150. Then, my wife did a Cruise Critic search on the stateroom number and ship and found a thread where a family descibed the cabin and how big and large it was. Not an easy process, but it paid off for us.

Thank you for posting the pictures of this cabin. It really IS huge! I just hope I dont hear constant flushing from those public toilets above MY cabin (6035). BTW, how was the location? Noisy? Motion? Thanks again for all your info.

This web site can be used to figure out the size of a particular cabin on a ship. http://1stmatecruises.com/nclcabins/

TVLady, I can't stress how MUCH larger our cabin was than the other inside cabins. KEEP 6035 AND PACK EARPLUGS JUST IN CASE!!! Personally, I'd even take that one over a balcony if I had more than 2 people.

One of the room stewards from down the hall was in our room helping me with a laundry order one day (Wednesday before noon - fill a bag for $18) and he even commented that this was the biggest cabin on the whole floor.

We had 2 tall adults and two big kids. We were very comfortable, but would have been miserable in a standard cabin. If there are more than 2 of you, stick with a good thing!!! If you've seen the threads with pictures of standard cabins with 3 beds open, you'd choke! They are literally 3 beds across with NO extra room at all! We had sleeping for 4 available at all times with plenty of room to spare and it wouldn't have been too bad even with the sleeper sofa open as well. Our cabin steward mentioned they'd had 6 in there with a crib. That would be tight, but how great for a big family! I didn't think they'd let you book more than 4 in an inside cabin, but guess there's ways around that????

We enjoyed the location. It is just behind the forward stairs. We sailed through tropical storm Alberto and did not notice much motion. Those higher up and forward, did. It is very convenient to Blue Lagoon, the sports bar and the lobby. For any cabin on deck 6 you have to use the forward stairs (look for the red carpet). The restaurants are on the aft end of this deck, so you cannot access cabins from mid or aft stairways. We did hear some noise in stairways at times, but nothing to be concerned about. Don't forget that any cabin can have things above or below that may make noise. Earplugs are cheap and take up very little space in the suitcase. I did not need them - I ALWAYS sleep like a baby on a ship - especially in an inside cabin!

Thanks for the link and the tips. This is something I might look into when booking my next inside cabin instead of the gty I book most of the time.

We started by looking at deck plans. We noticed two cabins that appeared to be larger.

How did a cabin appear bigger in the deck plans? Where these the NCL deck plans?

Thanks

Judy,

Go to NCL.com

Click fleet

Click Spirit

Up on the top is "Deck Plans" click it.

When you see the side view of the ship, click on a floor # and that deck plan appears. You can go up and down a floor from there.

Go to deck 6 and look up 6035 in the center towards the front. You can tell that is is bigger than the other cabins.

Your cruise is really coming soon. You must be soooooo excited. Say Hi to your mom for me.

Take care

Jeanne

Will do! After I posted I checked on the deck plans and saw that it did look a lot bigger.

I'm really getting excited now, I just need to start getting ready.

I'm praying for clam seas so Jerry doesn't get scared to cruise again.

With all the rain we're getting it might be dry then! lol