Spirit Western Caribbean/Pre-Mardi Gras Cruise! 2-12-12 With Pics!

[Cubechick]

Belize

 

 

Belize was our least favorite stop. Not that we didn't have a good time, but there was no "wow" factor here. The area is rather swampy and depressed.

 

We booked a cave-tubing excursion via the ship and although it was fine, the timing seemed to be "off" for our group. Not the fault of the tour operators, but it affected our experience.

 

The day began with us meeting at the Stardust Theater at 9:45 as instructed. Our tour was called first and we were the first to follow the shore ex person to the tender. There was a wait while the tender filled, a 20-minute ride to the port, then another wait once we arrived at the pier. We boarded the bus, and yes, we waited.

The ride out to the river is about 75 minutes. But several of those minutes are over some of the most rutted roads I've ever seen, which slowed our progress considerably. Not to mention being very uncomfortable as we were in an old school bus with the suspension being a thing of the past (not that school buses are known for their suspension!). When we arrived at our destination, we were informed that we'd be eating lunch first (adequate...chicken wings, beans and rice, plantains, hamburgers). So we were over 2 1/2 hours into the excursion before we actually did anything.

 

 

Our busload was divided into small groups of eight, and we picked out our tubes, helmets, and life jackets before beginning the walk to where we would finally start tubing. It is about a 30-minute walk and fairly easy going (excepting the three river crossings which are a little tricky due to the current).

 

 

The guide stopped and pointed out several vegetative items of interest. Unlike our trip to Hawaii last year, where most of the plants and bugs don't have natural enemies, and everything seems to live in harmony, Belize was the land of "It's poisonous", "It bites", "It's like being bitten by 500 hundred fire ants all out once", "Oh, we have a number of those snakes...highly venomous", "That tree sap? It makes you feel like your skin is boiling and peeling off". Seriously. This was the tour of don't touch a freakin' thing.:-) On a good note, the weather was fantastic and none of the bugs we heard about were out biting!

 

At last, we arrived at the river and got onto our tubes. We had to form a human chain, linking your feet under the armpits of the person in front of you. Not anyone's favorite, but effective at keeping us all together.

 

 

 

Floating through the cave was neat. Extremely high ceilings, so no claustrophobia, and just interesting. Rock that sparkled when light was shown on it, formations that took on human and animal form, areas where the cave ceiling had collapsed letting in plant life and vegetation. Truly beautiful.

 

 

After we exited the caves, the guide let us free float down the river. I didn't see another guide do that, and before we reached the base of the river, he had us link up again, stating that the wind would make free floating difficult. I didn't notice any wind to speak of which leads me to believe that he wasn't supposed to let us go like that. I'm glad he did though...even though I was steering challenged and kept bouncing off of things I was trying to avoid. :-)

 

 

 

Back at the parking area, there were changing rooms and shops to check out. As usual, we had to wait the longest, as we were the first back to the bus. And we also had "those people" on the bus. You know them. They see that a busload of people are waiting, but they take their own sweet time, wiping off their feet, putting on sandals, chit-chatting, and generally just moving as slow as molasses. I swear we are always on tours with "those people". Finally, they boarded the bus and we were able to leave. Hallelujah!

 

Arrived at the pier about 45 minutes before the last tender and paused to have a local beer (Belikin) before leaving Belize behind us. I did enjoy the cave tubing, but wished so much time hadn't been spent standing around. I have a feeling if we'd booked this independently the tour would have gone smoother because less people would have been involved.

 

We were beat by the time we returned to the ship and cleaned up, so it was the buffet for dinner. No pizza at the buffet! I guess NCL wants you to spend the $5 on pizza delivery. I was really disappointed as all I wanted was a couple of slices of pie and a salad for dinner. I don't think you should be forced to order an entire pizza when you only want a slice or two (I did notice pizza at the buffet for lunch one day, but it wasn't available at snack time). That disappointment aside, the food was good. There is always a nice variety and some really good Indian dishes available.

 

Tomorrow, Roatan (our favorite stop)!

[Seago2]

Loving your pics! Just want to say that I have done cave tubing twice (through Reggie, aka "the REAL Reggie"). No meal, no waits as we take a minivan to the site. But last time- I saw a tarantula as big as a salad plate walking around on the stacked tubes. "ah yes, TA-ran-toola" says Reggie:eek:. So I hear you on the natural elements! :eek:

[www3traveler]

Cubechick,

I had so much fun on the Spirit in January that I am going BACK on the 18th of March. Will have a different Captain but he is also an old friend. I met him a little over a year on The Gem and he was Staff Captain then.

Have you thought about submitting your pictures to Porthole magazine?

[my_crib_too]

Thank you for taking the time to post this. I am really enjoying your vacation. :)

[Cubechick]

Loving your pics! Just want to say that I have done cave tubing twice (through Reggie, aka "the REAL Reggie"). No meal, no waits as we take a minivan to the site. But last time- I saw a tarantula as big as a salad plate walking around on the stacked tubes. "ah yes, TA-ran-toola" says Reggie:eek:. So I hear you on the natural elements! :eek:

 

I laughed out loud when I read this. :D

 

Cubechick,

I had so much fun on the Spirit in January that I am going BACK on the 18th of March. Will have a different Captain but he is also an old friend. I met him a little over a year on The Gem and he was Staff Captain then.

Have you thought about submitting your pictures to Porthole magazine?

 

I haven't heard of Porthole. Thanks for thinking some of my pics are good enough!

 

Thank you for taking the time to post this. I am really enjoying your vacation. :)

 

Thank you for the kind remarks. :)

[Cubechick]

Roatan! We loved Roatan!

 

We had to tender at this port (Captain Lars says the ships that call here rotate and it was our week to tender) and although they just used the ship's lifeboats for this, it was only a five-minute ride to the pier, which wasn't bad.

 

For this island we had booked with a private tour operator, Rony and had chosen his West End Kayak and Snorkel excursion. His is the same company used by the ship, but by booking with him directly we saved $10 pp and were in a group of ten people instead of the 27 that would arrive from the ship later in the day! Rony met us as promised outside of gate number seven. The trick though, since gate number seven has no signage facing the pier, is to keep walking past the buildings, past the shops until you arrive at the street. That is gate number seven. We were off of the ship before anyone as Belkys got us onto the first tender, and had to wait for two more people to arrive. As soon as I saw them I recognized them as from our roll call. Darn it! If I'd remembered they were on our excursion I could have taken them off of the ship with us. No matter. They snuck onto a tender loaded with people taking a ship's excursion and weren't far behind us.

 

Rony speaks excellent, American accented English, although he insists he's spent minimal time in the US (he did spend four years working for Celebrity though). He told us a great deal about his island as he drove us to the West End.

 

We arrived at the Cannibal Cafe (owned by Rony's mom) which would be our base of operations for the day.

 

 

Our first activity was snorkeling and we were assigned to Quentin (who worked for NCL for seven years) and the four people he'd picked up from another ship. They provided snorkel gear (including vests) for anyone who needed it. They also had lockers for you to put your gear in and had someone on the beach to watch small items (like glasses) while you snorkeled. They took safety seriously, having one person in the water with us in addition to Quentin and a third guy in a kayak who could take anyone back to shore if needed (or just give a swimmer a rest). As you didn't take a boat out to a snorkel site, I could see that this precaution was necessary (and one of our group did need to hang on the to kayak toward the end of the snorkel). It was necessary because you did a lot of swimming. I mean a lot of swimming as Quentin hollered, "Vamanos!" and lead you from one spot to the next. I'm used to snorkel excursions being on boats that take you to a spot and you pretty much float around for an hour or so. This was a full hour of swimming, so be forewarned that you need to be a decent swimmer if you take this excursion (one of our group did stay on shore as he wasn't the best of swimmers). I'm afraid that snorkeling in Hawaii spoiled me for snorkeling elsewhere as that was just so beautiful with it's vibrant colors and tremendous amount of marine life. But this was pretty good with many reefs for fish to congregate around. The highlight was two turtles that we saw.

 

Our guide touching one of the turtles...in Hawaii, if you saw a turtle you weren't allow closer than ten feet!

 

Back across the street at the Cannibal Cafe it was lunchtime...although it was only 10:30 in the morning! Actually I know I was pretty hungry after all of that swimming and judging from the silence as everyone chowed down, others felt the same. Today, lunch was a huge platter of fresh fruit and, like Nachi, chips and salsa and quesadillas, but OMG were they delicious! The salsa was fresh and fruity, the chips fried to a turn, and the quesadillas loaded with fresh peppers and onions and melty cheese that stretched for a mile when you took a wedge from the platter. YUM! I'm salivating just thinking about it!

 

After lunch we grabbed our paddles and life preservers and walked across the street again to the waiting kayaks. The kayaking was shorter than I expected. We shot along the edge of West End Bay for maybe ten minutes and parked at a beach where we would spend forty-five minutes hanging out, drinking beer (Salva Vida!) and fantasizing about buying a party boat that we noticed was for sale. (Quentin was all ready to go into business with us, LOL.) If you wanted to continue to kayak around the bay you could, and some of our group chose to do so. The weather was perfect this day without a cloud in the sky. As I sat on a dock, soaking in the rays, I had to stop and actively think about it to remember that it was February! Although we're having a mild winter back home, it was sure nothing like this!

 

 

Rony was waiting for us at the Cannibal Cafe and those of us on the Spirit agreed that we wanted to walk around for thirty minutes or show and do a little shopping (thankfully no one in our group were big shoppers).

 

 

On the way back to the ship, Rony took us to a scenic overlook where we could see three ships at Coxen Hole where we tendered to. There were of course vendors at the top of the hill, but what amused me was that while we were there, a guy pulled up on a moped to deliver Chinese food! I wish I'd had my camera out for that one!

 

 

 

We were back at the ship by one, shopped a little at the many shops at the pier and decided to stop for another Salva Vida before we got back on board. It was just too nice a day to rush back to the ship and we were really enjoying our visit in Roatan. It was just an excellent stop and for the most part a very pretty island.

 

 

Taking advantage of our access to the concierge, we made reservations for the Garden main dining room that night. I had no idea whether it was necessary or not, but we all felt that since we could make reservations, why not?

 

We arrived as two giant parties were trying to be seated. On party of nine was trying to just walk up and were being told that there would be at least a thirty minute wait. The other party of eight had reservations, but was stuck behind the other people. Belkys was at the podium and spotted us immediately. She whisked us past everyone and to our table. Sometimes the suite perks are really nice. :-)

 

During our last cruise aboard the Star we ate in the MDR several times and found the quality of food to be very good. The Spirit did not disappoint. I like the method that NCL has settled upon with one side of the menu being a static menu and the other side offering daily specials. I do think they succeeded in accomplishing their goal of improving food quality in the MDR.

 

Tomorrow Costa Maya!

[tee3240]

Spirit Libra Suite - 9710:

 

Nice pics, thanks for sharing. Especially liked the ones of the chocolate buffet!:D

[tee3240]

Loving your pics! Just want to say that I have done cave tubing twice (through Reggie, aka "the REAL Reggie"). No meal, no waits as we take a minivan to the site. But last time- I saw a tarantula as big as a salad plate walking around on the stacked tubes. "ah yes, TA-ran-toola" says Reggie:eek:. So I hear you on the natural elements! :eek:

 

OMG really? A tarantula? :eek: Now I know I will never go to Belize! I'm arachnaphobic!

[snorklinbarb]

Hi Cubechick,

 

Enjoying another one of your wonderful pictorial reviews. You do such a great job!

 

Just to add to the Belizean stories, I took the ship's tour to Lamanai Ruins which requires an hr ride (in one of those comfy buses:rolleyes:) and then a little over an hr on the river to the ruins. At the ruins, an army of fire ants attacked our ankles while we were under one of the trees in the jungle (with howler monkeys overhead). Boy they were really nasty - red, itchy eventually but initially hurt! And I had applied bug stuff.:eek:

 

You brought a smile to my face hearing about Captain Lars. What a great gentleman with such a sense of humor. The cruise on the Pearl through the Panama Canal last Apr. was extra special with him at the helm. Plus his wife was onboard so he had something to comment on after giving us the weather & safety announcements.:)

 

How cold was that water when you went cave tubing? Not sure about that free float stuff. I think I'll stick with snorkeling (and seeing a turtle is getting to be more and more of a treat).:D

 

What's your next adventure?

[Seago2]

OMG really? A tarantula? :eek: Now I know I will never go to Belize! I'm arachnaphobic!

 

It's exactly as cubechick says- the walk up river the guides tell you all about the wonderful berries you can eat, then take a bite of one, then say, "here- try it! But it's very bitter, and looks just like the terribly poisonous ones. Try it!"

 

On and on it goes, bugs, snakes, floods, bats, spiders. But you don't think about these things when you're floating- you're just trying not to bang into rocks or link your feet into some guy's armpit;).

 

Butts up!

[Cubechick]

Hi Cubechick' date='

 

Enjoying another one of your wonderful pictorial reviews. You do such a great job!

 

Just to add to the Belizean stories, I took the ship's tour to Lamanai Ruins which requires an hr ride (in one of those comfy buses:rolleyes:) and then a little over an hr on the river to the ruins. At the ruins, an army of fire ants attacked our ankles while we were under one of the trees in the jungle (with howler monkeys overhead). Boy they were really nasty - red, itchy eventually but initially hurt! And I had applied bug stuff.:eek:

 

You brought a smile to my face hearing about Captain Lars. What a great gentleman with such a sense of humor. The cruise on the Pearl through the Panama Canal last Apr. was extra special with him at the helm. Plus his wife was onboard so he had something to comment on after giving us the weather & safety announcements.:)

 

How cold was that water when you went cave tubing? Not sure about that free float stuff. I think I'll stick with snorkeling (and seeing a turtle is getting to be more and more of a treat).:D

 

What's your next adventure?[/quote']

 

Ugh about the fire ants, Barb! We were lucky...we were traveling during the dry season and barely saw a bug let alone being bit by anything.

 

I don't know how adventurous it is, but leading into Memorial Day we're headed to Key West for a few days and decided to tack a three-day Bahamas cruise on the Sky at the end. (Figured, why not since we'll be down there anyway??)

 

After that it'll Bermuda on the Dawn in September (no flying, YAY!!).

 

How about you?

[Cubechick]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing. Especially liked the ones of the chocolate buffet!:D

 

The Spirit does the buffet the best! They do it in the Windows dining room instead of up at the buffet like the rest of the ships. Much more elegant this way!

 

It's exactly as cubechick says- the walk up river the guides tell you all about the wonderful berries you can eat, then take a bite of one, then say, "here- try it! But it's very bitter, and looks just like the terribly poisonous ones. Try it!"

 

On and on it goes, bugs, snakes, floods, bats, spiders. But you don't think about these things when you're floating- you're just trying not to bang into rocks or link your feet into some guy's armpit;).

 

Butts up!

 

I forgot about "butt's up", LOL. :D

[www3traveler]

Porthole magazine;pothole.com It is cruise magazine based out of Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

[Cubechick]

For Costa Maya we had decided it was time to see some Mayan Ruins. We chose the Chacchoben Ruins solely based on the fact that it was a four-hour tour to see them instead of six and a half hours for the Kohunlich Ruins. Research indicated that the extra time on the other tour was bus time; no thank you!

 

Our instructions were to meet on the pier at 9:45 (yay, no tendering!), so we took our time in the morning, although we did have breakfast at the buffet which we usually do when we're in a hurry (we ate there every morning we were in port). This tour operated with efficiency. When we arrived at the appointed place at 9:40, one group was already being lead to their bus. After maybe ten minutes our group was taken to our waiting coach. The large, comfy bus was such a pleasure after the school bus in Belize!

 

As promised the drive to the Chacchoben ruins took about an hour. Our tour guide, Diana Garcia Reyes was excellent (it turned out she was the first guide to ever do this tour and she trains everyone). We learned a lot about the Mayan culture and the Mexican culture as well. The ruins were just wonderful. I was really glad that we went to check them out, as this was a first for us! The weather continued to bless us with a wonderful, sunny day. No rainy season yet, so no bugs and little humidity. YAY!

 

 

 

 

And a couple of more pics...

 

 

 

This really was an excellent tour!

 

 

Costa Maya is only in existence as a port of call for the cruise ships, so there isn’t an actual town here. There are plenty of shops and a Carlos and Charlie’s and a Senor Frogs of course. All of these people come to work here just for the ships so how could we not spend some money? Carlos and Charlie’s fit the bill with a big plate of nachos and a couple of cervesas (Dos XX this time). There might have been a couple of tequila shots in there as well.

 

 

(I think we corrupted our little bear!)

 

Believe it or not, we were pretty active this evening! First we went to Champagne Charlie’s for a before dinner drink. Actually, we had gone here every night…I don’t know why I hadn’t mentioned it. They have entertainment here, but usually not anything I care too much for. Standard “easy listening” type stuff, but too loud for you to be able to carry on a pleasant conversation. Tonight was different! Some of the members of the orchestra were there to play New Orleans jazz and blues! The moment DH sat down, a grin split his face. The music was so good and the musicians so talented! It made me want to blow off dinner (or have a pizza delivered!) so we wouldn’t have to leave. It reminded me of going to Fat Cats on the Epic and listening to Slam Allen. I wish NCL would present more entertainment like that across the fleet!

 

Dinner was again the in the MDR and was very good. Had a humerous moment when I ordered a bottle of Pouilly-Fuisse. A confused bartender sent our waitress back to us wanting know if I wanted the white or the red. LOL. I assured her it only came in white. She seemed skeptical until she returned with the bottle I’d requested and said that the bartender was new.

 

We were in our normal kicked-back mode when we remembered the Chocoholic Buffet was coming up. We ran down to meet up with Belkys who let us in for a sneak peek. The Spirit presents the Chocoholic Buffet in the Windows dining room. It’s so elegant compared to the rest of the ships who hold it in the buffet. After we had taken our photos (which I'll have to post separately), I had stopped to chat with our butler. While speaking with him, another guest came up and said that we were turning around and heading to Cozumel for a medical emergency. I had noticed that we had slowed down, but had no idea that was why! Back in the stateroom the navigation channel sure enough showed us making a u-turn! DH went to watch the process, which took awhile. Never did find out what happened.

Tomorrow Sea Day…gotta pack.

[Cubechick]

Here's a little food porn. As I stated, the Spirit's Chocoholic Buffet is the best (at least on the Norwegian fleet!). It is held in the Windows MDR and they have a film running showing the making of the buffet...cool...so much more elegant than the buffet restaurant being the venue!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Craving any chocolate yet?

[snorklinbarb]

Hi Aimee,

 

Interesting about the Choc. Buffet being held in the DR. Like you, we've only seen it in the Garden Cafe for quite a few yrs now and it certainly has lost some of the elegance of the past. We were told the reason had to do with health requirements to have nose guards over the food. So it's surprising that you experienced it the "old" way.

 

Speaking of old ways, didn't realize any of the ships had muster still outside! Guess we've gotten spoiled to just reporting to a restaurant or theater.

 

Bob and I chose the Kohunlich shorex one time in Costa Maya as we heard it was more extensive (but somewhat less excavated). If you have a chance to do other Mayan ruins in Mexico or other countries, they're all so fascinating and each one has its special features. The day we went to Kohunlich (long ride like you say) I think we were the only bus but we heard several hundred guests went to Chaccoben. Was that your experience? Our shorex was excellent except for the pathetic box lunch. Fortunately we had a read a CC review and knew we would not be pleased with 2 pcs of white bread, a pc of ham and a pc of cheese along with a sugar drink flavored with lime, mango, orange. It didn't say anything about taking non-meat, non-fruit items off the ship and we were the envy of our bus having our own little picnic along. The description did state "box lunch" but it was meager and tasteless at best.

 

That music session sounds great. Speaking of Slam Allen, checked his calendar but couldn't find out vacation dates. Last yr Bob found him at Terra Blues in Greenwich Village and spent a wonderful evening listening to Slam. We're hoping with Breakaway maybe Slam will home base in NYC instead of Miami? (fingers crossed)

 

Up next for us is Jade in Apr. on a Barcelona to Venice repo. Bob's never been to either city so we're spending three nights in each. All new ports for us - Messina, Sicily - Koper, Slovenia - both Dubrovnik and Split, Croatia. It will be great having a Croatian HD onboard!:D

 

Pls say hi to Chris and also your cruising friends we've met before (sorry first names escape me this early in the morning!)

 

Aw, your review is almost over....hate the packing to go home!;)

 

Thanks again for a fantastic review & pictures!

[ortho_rn63]

Thanks for posting this great review and pics!! We are going to be on the Spirit the end of March and this is just getting me more excited!!

Thanks for sharing!!

[Cubechick]

Hi Aimee' date='

 

Interesting about the Choc. Buffet being held in the DR. Like you, we've only seen it in the Garden Cafe for quite a few yrs now and it certainly has lost some of the elegance of the past. We were told the reason had to do with health requirements to have nose guards over the food. So it's surprising that you experienced it the "old" way.

 

Speaking of old ways, didn't realize any of the ships had muster still outside! Guess we've gotten spoiled to just reporting to a restaurant or theater.

 

Bob and I chose the Kohunlich shorex one time in Costa Maya as we heard it was more extensive (but somewhat less excavated). If you have a chance to do other Mayan ruins in Mexico or other countries, they're all so fascinating and each one has its special features. The day we went to Kohunlich (long ride like you say) I think we were the only bus but we heard several hundred guests went to Chaccoben. Was that your experience? Our shorex was excellent except for the pathetic box lunch. Fortunately we had a read a CC review and knew we would not be pleased with 2 pcs of white bread, a pc of ham and a pc of cheese along with a sugar drink flavored with lime, mango, orange. It didn't say anything about taking non-meat, non-fruit items off the ship and we were the envy of our bus having our own little picnic along. The description did state "box lunch" but it was meager and tasteless at best.

 

That music session sounds great. Speaking of Slam Allen, checked his calendar but couldn't find out vacation dates. Last yr Bob found him at Terra Blues in Greenwich Village and spent a wonderful evening listening to Slam. We're hoping with Breakaway maybe Slam will home base in NYC instead of Miami? (fingers crossed)

 

Up next for us is Jade in Apr. on a Barcelona to Venice repo. Bob's never been to either city so we're spending three nights in each. All new ports for us - Messina, Sicily - Koper, Slovenia - both Dubrovnik and Split, Croatia. It will be great having a Croatian HD onboard!:D

 

Pls say hi to Chris and also your cruising friends we've met before (sorry first names escape me this early in the morning!)

 

Aw, your review is almost over....hate the packing to go home!;)

 

Thanks again for a fantastic review & pictures![/quote']

 

My best guess with the Spirit still doing the Choc Buffet in the MDR is that they don't have any kitchens up at the buffet. Maybe it's logistically too difficult to try and move all of that food and carvings through the elevators? Whatever the reason, I'm glad!

 

Wow, that lunch sounded great, LOL. If I recall the reviews I read indicated things haven't changed much! ;)

 

Your cruise sounds wonderful. I'm hoping to talk Chris into a Med cruise someday!

 

Wouldn't that be great if Slam ended up on the Breakaway??? We'll keep our fingers crossed on that one. Of course we're assuming that the "Away" ships will have similar entertainment to the Epic...it'll be interesting to see what NCL considers considers successful enough on the Epic to put on the new ships...

 

I will of course say "hi" to everyone for you! I'm glad you're enjoying my review! I'll jot down the final chapter tonight. At least packing in print isn't as bad as in real life! :D

[Seanote]

Thanks for the review. The pictures are great!

[Beaver1975]

Funny story about the Chocoholic Buffet...Cynthia and I were walking around taking some food porn pictures and this little old guy walks up to me and asked where I got the wine because he did not want to miss out on free wine.

[Cubechick]

Funny story about the Chocoholic Buffet...Cynthia and I were walking around taking some food porn pictures and this little old guy walks up to me and asked where I got the wine because he did not want to miss out on free wine.

 

That is pretty funny! :D

[Cubechick]

Last day(s)…boo!

 

On a good note, it was Cagney’s for breakfast and lunch. Yay! At breakfast I had the Fruits de Mer…I actually don’t like scallops but love the sauce and the brioche. Next time I’ll be smart and ask for it without the scallops!

 

Lunch was the regular Cagney's menu and I was finally able to have my asparagus salad, along with shrimp cocktail. I decided to have a cheeseburger, and asked for a small side of the cheesy polenta that comes with the roasted chicken. It was just about a perfect meal and the service was great for this last hurrah!

 

 

I cracked open the wine that came with our basket for being Platinum and started packing. Having some wine makes this process easier! I had purchased packing cubes for this trip and found that this was a good move. I tucked all of the clothes I needed for our three days in New Orleans in a cube. When we were able to unpack at the hotel the next day, I just pulled out the cube and stuck it in a drawer. Viola! No rummaging through the suitcases trying to find stuff. Brilliant! Packing went surprisingly well and we were ready to relax before dinner.

 

Tonight we decided to meet in Henry’s Pub before dinner. For some reason we hadn’t been to the pub all week (and I really like the pub!), so I made a point of going there. Well, here was the quiet we were missing at Champagne Charlie’s. We grabbed a booth and had our libations and nice conversation.

 

Dinner was Le Bistro where we would use our Platinum certificates. We were given the complimentary wine list where we ordered a bottle each of white and red. Naturally they were out of the white I wanted…until our waitress snagged a bottle for me from the display case. Victory! I ordered the mushroom soup, escargot and the tenderloin. They brought out the mushroom soup and OMG! DH and I looked at each other and grinned. It was lacking the bread bowl, but this mushroom soup was THE STUFF! A few years ago NCL monkeyed with the recipe for their mushroom soup. They eliminated the bread bowl in favor of more elegant presentation, but the soup was also changed. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the super-rich creamy version we’d come to love. What we were eating was definitely that old super yummy recipe! I really hope this means that they’ve reverted to the original recipe. I can live without the bread bowl if the soup is going to taste like that! The rest of the meal was what we’ve come to expect from Le Bistro; wonderful escargot and perfectly cooked filet mignon.

 

A final walk around the ship and it was back to the cabin to finalize the packing and put out the bags. There was time for a final Jacuzzi before calling it a night.

 

 

 

 

Tonight was the only time I had any problems with vibrations in the aft of the ship. The ship was going full out to make up the time lost due to the medical emergency. It wasn’t so much the vibration itself that was disturbing; it was the rattling in the cabin. It made for a restless final night. I should have gotten up and found my ear plugs and all would have been well.

 

The last morning we had breakfast at the buffet even though we were going to take our time getting off of the ship. We knew we’d never be able to check in at our hotel, so there was no reason to rush.

 

We killed some time chatting with new and old friends in the atrium and around 10:00 Belkys escorted us off of the ship.

 

The only thing that made that final moment palatable was the knowledge that we had three more days of vacation to go! Mardi Gras, here we come!

 

We will miss the Spirit when she goes to Europe. I think she’s a really special ship with a great crew and I’m glad we got to sail her again before she leaves us.

 

Now, to ward off Post Cruise Depression, I'm off to work on our next trip!

 

Thanks for reading!

[Seago2]

Wow, those last pics make me really miss the Spirit. Maybe I have a fourth trip in me, for old time's sake.

 

Love your review. Your pics are to die for :)

[hawaiideb]

We sail in 12 days! Thanks for getting me really excited!

Debbie

[Cubechick]

Wow, those last pics make me really miss the Spirit. Maybe I have a fourth trip in me, for old time's sake.

 

Love your review. Your pics are to die for :)

 

You won't regret it! She's great!

 

We sail in 12 days! Thanks for getting me really excited!

Debbie

 

Have a wonderful time!