NCL Spirit: Likes and/or dislikes of the Spirit

[TrueNorth74]

Just got back from a Western cruise on the Spirit. This was our ninth NCL cruise, and the worst by far. Nothing all that wrong with the ship itself, but the crew just seemed to have completely checked out. Normally we see crew go out of their way to make it a pleasant trip -- we saw virtually none of that in any of the common areas. Plus, the food and food service were dreadful, both at the buffet and in the specialty restaurants.

[alwalaska]

Just got back from a Western cruise on the Spirit. This was our ninth NCL cruise, and the worst by far. Nothing all that wrong with the ship itself, but the crew just seemed to have completely checked out. Normally we see crew go out of their way to make it a pleasant trip -- we saw virtually none of that in any of the common areas. Plus, the food and food service were dreadful, both at the buffet and in the specialty restaurants.

 

I'm sorry to hear that. Do you know if they recently had a change in the hotel manager or anything like that? I find I can sail on the same ship 9 months apart and have a totally different experience and a lot of it seems to be tied to upper management changes.

Edited December 19, 2015 by alwalaska

[econ]

Just off the Spirit today & the staff was incredible. It was nearly a perfect cruise except for the tenders - which seemed slow & inefficient. Highly recommend the Spirit!

[jvsnana]

I agree with Econ...great cruise with wonderful staff! We are sitting in the airline terminal right now reviewing the great time we had. The ship is a bit worn around the edges, but overall a very elegant, pretty ship that we enjoyed very much. We would sail her again in a heartbeat:)

[alwalaska]

Would you all please summarize any of the following that you had experience with?

 

• What ports were tendered?
  
• What was the process at each tender port? Was GSC different from Grand Cayman?
  
• If we don't have a shore excursion booked, when can we plan on getting off at Grand Cayman?
  
• Any must sees on the nightly music groups and individuals?
  
• How hard was it to book specialty dining once on board?
  
• Any dailies you could post?
  

 

Thank you!!! Good luck getting you land legs back. :)

[dexddd]

Would you all please summarize any of the following that you had experience with?

 

• What ports were tendered? Grand Cayman and GSC - both used larger tenders
  
• What was the process at each tender port? Was GSC different from Grand Cayman?
  
• If we don't have a shore excursion booked, when can we plan on getting off at Grand Cayman?
  
• Any must sees on the nightly music groups and individuals?As mentioned above. IMO the acrobat show was the best. The comedian had a rough crowd in terms of trying to be relevant to the age groups.
  
• How hard was it to book specialty dining once on board?
  
• Any dailies you could post?
  

 

Thank you!!! Good luck getting you land legs back. :)

 

See couple items in blue above.

[TrueNorth74]

Can't give you much info on the tendering, as we had excursions booked and a priority pass besides. I do know that you could get tender tickets the day before, so it would depend on how early you were in line for tickets as to whether you could get an early tender. I'm trying to block out the GSC tender, they made the stop despite the risk of rain, which turned into a small tropical storm around noon. Trip back was the most miserable boat ride I've ever had.

 

For specialty dining, our experience was book immediately when you get on board or risk getting shut out entirely. I've never seen the restaurants so heavily booked. I suspected it was due to people getting the UDP and booking more tables than normal. We tried to move a couple of times (booked in advance online) and were stonewalled.

[Vol fan]

Can you tell me what the Entertainment was onboard? NCL has limited info on this subject.

 

Thanks

 

The Production Shows were great. The singers and dancers are all very good and there were three shows for our 7 day cruise Dec 5.

 

Also, we got to the port about 11. We were checked in and ready to board in about 20 minutes, but there was a surprise health inspection (this is a standard practice) so everyone was delayed for about an hour.

Edited December 20, 2015 by Vol fan

[dexddd]

They had a crew party in Raffles Terrace on the Costa Maya day last week from 11-2 (roughly) for getting a 100% score on their last health inspection. They had steak and lobster. We could smell the charcoal being fired up around 10.

[judyf]

Looking for tips on Grand Cayman. I know we tender, I have no tour booked. It is possible to get off and find a tour there at the pier. We do not want to do any water activities. I asked on the port board not many results.

 

Thanks in advance for any tips.

[dexddd]

Looking for tips on Grand Cayman. I know we tender, I have no tour booked. It is possible to get off and find a tour there at the pier. We do not want to do any water activities. I asked on the port board not many results.

 

Thanks in advance for any tips.

 

They have the typical people right when you get off the tender asking if you want to do an excursion. There are booths as well as people walking up to you. What are you looking to do?

[alwalaska]

Thank you all! We will make reservations right away to use our two free passes. I wish we could use them to make reservations online.

 

For the tendering, we are platinum, so that should help, but we'll still watch for the tickets and all.

 

I know things can change in the next two months, but was there an acoustic guitar player in Henry's Pub or somewhere else? That is usually one of our favorite places to chill in the evenings.

[alwalaska]

Which dining room is the one where you can wear nice shorts?

 

Have there been any changes to the dress codes? Is Le Bistro dressy required?

 

Any rumors when the new menus and new a la carte specialty dining pricing will roll out to the Spirit?

[dexddd]

Thank you all! We will make reservations right away to use our two free passes. I wish we could use them to make reservations online.

 

For the tendering, we are platinum, so that should help, but we'll still watch for the tickets and all.

 

I know things can change in the next two months, but was there an acoustic guitar player in Henry's Pub or somewhere else? That is usually one of our favorite places to chill in the evenings.

 

I was only in Henry's a couple times, both fairly quickly so can't answer that. They did have a 3 or 4 person reggae band that played around the pool and on GSC.

[dexddd]

Which dining room is the one where you can wear nice shorts?

 

Have there been any changes to the dress codes? Is Le Bistro dressy required?

 

Any rumors when the new menus and new a la carte specialty dining pricing will roll out to the Spirit?

 

I'd have to double check, but from memory Garden (central location) was the more casual of the two MDR. Windows was the one that had the fancier (if you can call the pretty relaxed code that).

 

I was going to ask about the ala carte and forgot. They had at least 17 different dinner menus and our week had no sequence to it. They had (IIRC) two lunch menus in the MDR - LunchA and LunchB.

[coscab]

On the Dec 12th sailing we saw shorts in the MDR the first night, maybe they let it slide because people might have said they didn't get their luggage yet? We only went to MDR that one night so can't comment on the rest of the week. We were behind a couple with children when we showed up for our resv in Le Bistro, the man had shorts on, he was asked to leave and return with pants, his family was seated and they waited for him.

He came back with pants in hand and stood their in his underwear waiting to be seated!:eek: (just kidding, he had them on):)

[dexddd]

Usually on the first night they relax the code even more. We did talk to one guy who went to Windows with a hat on and they asked him to take it off.

[alwalaska]

I'd have to double check, but from memory Garden (central location) was the more casual of the two MDR. Windows was the one that had the fancier (if you can call the pretty relaxed code that).

 

I was going to ask about the ala carte and forgot. They had at least 17 different dinner menus and our week had no sequence to it. They had (IIRC) two lunch menus in the MDR - LunchA and LunchB.

 

Thanks. The more casual was Garden back in 2011 as well. Do you know if the different dinner menus are the ones that have been out for over a year, or the new ones that they are rolling out? There looked like there were some really nice options on the new ones, but I loved a couple of items on the always available on the old ones that don't seem to be on the new ones. I guess that is always the case with change. You like some and you don't like some.

 

On the Dec 12th sailing we saw shorts in the MDR the first night, maybe they let it slide because people might have said they didn't get their luggage yet? We only went to MDR that one night so can't comment on the rest of the week. We were behind a couple with children when we showed up for our resv in Le Bistro, the man had shorts on, he was asked to leave and return with pants, his family was seated and they waited for him.

He came back with pants in hand and stood their in his underwear waiting to be seated!:eek: (just kidding, he had them on):)

 

Good to know about Le Bistro. We will bring one pair of nice slacks each to carry to dinner. :)

[umpy10]

Likes & dislikes of the Spirit...............hmmmm ?

 

Likes? ..........We loved everything on the Spirit. ! ! !

 

Dislikes ?.............Not on the Spirit right now, wish we were. ;)

 

cheers...the Ump...:D

[dexddd]

Thanks. The more casual was Garden back in 2011 as well. Do you know if the different dinner menus are the ones that have been out for over a year, or the new ones that they are rolling out? There looked like there were some really nice options on the new ones, but I loved a couple of items on the always available on the old ones that don't seem to be on the new ones. I guess that is always the case with change. You like some and you don't like some.

 

 

 

Good to know about Le Bistro. We will bring one pair of nice slacks each to carry to dinner. :)

 

I basically consider them the "new" ones I've seen posted mid-summer and forward (there aren't a ton of them that I've seen). I took pictures of most of them plus the posters they had of the meals and what they were supposed to look like. Some of the photos aren't the best as they were in a narrow area of the galley when we did the behind the scenes tour.

 

They had the same menus in both MDRs. They had at least 17 dinner menus and the sequence on ours (other than maybe the first night) was not in any order I could discern. They had the regular mains in the lower left corner. They had a beef burger slider I think every night but at least most nights. So if you see a menu with that on it you are probably looking at one of the new menus.

[Wayfairers]

I was disappointed with our NCL Spirit cruise - our first NCL. We took a Venice-Barcelona-Orlando cruise Oct/Nov 2015. The ship was ok, our cabin steward was amazing, but we found a cooked bug in our food, the buffet was consistently opened late and closed early, the servers weren't all very nice, we had no hot water for 5 days, and the list goes on. This was a terrible introduction to NCL and I am not motivated to ever book NCL again. Granted, the cruise from Venice to Barcelona was better than Barcelona to Orlando - I understand there was a crew change in Barcelona. But, still, Very disappointing.

[Tyskie]

I was disappointed with our NCL Spirit cruise - our first NCL. We took a Venice-Barcelona-Orlando cruise Oct/Nov 2015. The ship was ok, our cabin steward was amazing, but we found a cooked bug in our food, the buffet was consistently opened late and closed early, the servers weren't all very nice, we had no hot water for 5 days, and the list goes on. This was a terrible introduction to NCL and I am not motivated to ever book NCL again. Granted, the cruise from Venice to Barcelona was better than Barcelona to Orlando - I understand there was a crew change in Barcelona. But, still, Very disappointing.

 

To get a good taste of NCL you might want to try some of the newer/larger ships. We prefer the Jewel class ships but with the BA & GA they have the WOW factor. I would give NCL another try before crossing them off your list.

We mainly cruise Princess & NCL.:D

[Podie]

I just got a great deal on the Jan. 30th Spirit cruise so thank you all for your comments. I'm generally a Celebrity RCCI cruiser so this will be interesting, to say the least! I understand shorts are just fine in the casual dining room?

[Wayfairers]

To get a good taste of NCL you might want to try some of the newer/larger ships. We prefer the Jewel class ships but with the BA & GA they have the WOW factor. I would give NCL another try before crossing them off your list.

 

We mainly cruise Princess & NCL.:D

 

 

Thanks for the tip, but one reason we chose the Spirit is the size of the ship - we prefer the smaller ships. I heard several people on board say it was so bad because of the age of the ship...I don't think that is a valid excuse. Do you quit maintaining your home just because it is older? No, so that is no reason to not clean stains out of carpet or replace it, not fix obvious maintenance problems, etc. Plus, the age of the ship has nothing to do with the crew's attitude issues. Anyway, I am glad that some people enjoy sailing with NCL and it is good to know they maintain some of their ships. You never know, we might have occasion to give them another chance - we had a terrible first Carnival sailing and have since used them quite a bit and had good cruises.

[Tyskie]

Thanks for the tip, but one reason we chose the Spirit is the size of the ship - we prefer the smaller ships. I heard several people on board say it was so bad because of the age of the ship...I don't think that is a valid excuse. Do you quit maintaining your home just because it is older? No, so that is no reason to not clean stains out of carpet or replace it, not fix obvious maintenance problems, etc. Plus, the age of the ship has nothing to do with the crew's attitude issues. Anyway, I am glad that some people enjoy sailing with NCL and it is good to know they maintain some of their ships. You never know, we might have occasion to give them another chance - we had a terrible first Carnival sailing and have since used them quite a bit and had good cruises.

 

Seems to be the most experienced staff is on the newer ships, sad to say