Spirit Thanksgiving 2005

[alioness]

Very well said.

 

On a different note, I'm so grateful to have sailed into NY. What a city. It was an incredible experience. I want to go back now and get to know the city, it's people and it's ways. Somehow I'm sure we'll manage to get back there.

 

May all your cruises be wonderful

[Mr_Rusted]

My wife and I did the 2004 repositioning from San Fran to Miami. It was the most enjoyable 16 days I have had at sea. We loved everything about that trip. That is why we booked the Spirit for Christmas this year, then added Thanksgiving a few weeks ago when I had some extra time open up.

 

To say the cruise was really bad would be inaccurate. It was a disappointment for us compared to last year, but that did not make it a bad cruise. I chatted with a lot of folks and heard two different stories. There were some problems in the main dining halls, but nothing major. Overcooked steak, OK, send it back! Get another. Last night at sea, the folks next to us raved about all their meals. Other thought the general food was poor, others though it was OK.

 

Personally, while it was not up to the trip of last year, it was still good.

 

We have known one of the maitre D's for three cruises now. I told her about some of the things I saw and she will follow up.

 

As for the sewer backup, it did not bother us, but it did bother friends of ours. Someone put something in the system and it jammed. It has happened before on NCL to us. Likely that was a guest generated problem, not the cruise line. In a 2 hour outage, after docking, they apparently fixed it.

 

The rocking was a bit of a problem. I have been in two open oceans in that ship and it was not a rough at the two nights down and first night back. The waves were officially 4-8 feet, not 3-4 as someone else mentioned. The last day was very smooth when the ocean smoothed out. I suspect there may have been a problem with the stabilizers or it was not the right kind of conditions to use them. Still, it is part of what you get at sea. I cannot fault NCL there.

 

What I can fault them on is NOT informing the guests of the rocking and why the pools were not filled for more days. It would not take much to make an announcement or deliver a paper to each cabin saying why.

 

We did notice a drop in the level of service in the Bistro. Again, not that the service was bad, it was good. But it was not great like it was last year. The "teamwork" and coordination we saw there a year ago was missing this time.

 

One of the problems with freestyle cruising is that all the tips are pooled. This promotes mediocrity, not better service. If their end of cruise tips will still be about the same regardless of performance, then we loose a little of the high end performance you see with seating times on other lines. It is a little less caring because they do not need to work at their best to get their tip money.

 

We always have out gratuities removed from out bills. We tip the cabin folks ourselves, usually near the beginning the trip. Talk about better service! We also carry a few envelopes with us for meal and leave anywhere from $5 to $20 in the envelop at the end of the meal. If the service was on the better side, we ask for that server again. Believe me, they are happy to see us back and our service is much better. Cost is about the same, with better service, after have taken the auto-gratuity off the bill.

 

One of my disappointments is that the orchestra was now only 5 pieces!! That is a quintet, not an orchestra. Piano, bass, drums, trumpet and trombone. No reed player. It has a huge impact on the music other then the production numbers. They use mostly canned soundtrack supplemented by the local players. I love all live music, but cutting out the sax player was a disappointment. They had a wonderful opera singer on the trip, and she deserved a much larger band to work with. I had no problem with the level of musicianship of any of the players. They all had pretty decent chops.

 

If you like to play Texas Holdem, they now have one table. If you are NOT a regular player, then you best avoid the game as the regular players will clean you out. If you are a regular player, be prepared to be very aggravated. They treat the poker game as just another table game. They are very SLOW in everything they do and do not follow standard rules of any casino that spread poker. Accept the fact that they don't really understand how to run a card game, and you can make a lot of money from the folks that I advised above to avoid the table in the first place......

 

As for the crew rotation, that is a year round thing. They only time there is a lot of new crew is when a ship starts out for the first time. After a little while standard rotations start so the new and old hands passing through even out after a while. I only saw a very few of the crew that was less then nice. Unfortunately one of them was a poker dealer.....overwhelming majority were very nice. The biggest problem was English as a second language, created some situations where you simply could not ask a question. They just could not understand. But guess what, that exists on EVERY ship!

 

If you are in the Windows dining area, ask for a table with Kenneth from Jamaica. He is warm, fun, knows a lot of history and will not only give you great service, but will pick up on your mood and tell you a story or some interesting info on one of your ports for some other place he might have visited. He is one of the handful of waiters I asked for by name. The other two have moved to the Jewel. They are Melvin and Melroy in one of the specialty restaurants.

 

The one small problem my wife had could not be fixed. In the back of casino by the night club is a bank of penny slots. The bank against the back wall with the "train" bonus promotion is very HOT most of the time. There is a venting problem of some sort. That is also why the drink servers in the casino tend not to patrol that area. Every other place in the ship was a nice temperature that we experienced.

 

As mentioned at the top, my wife and I will also be on the Christmas cruise, with two adult daughters. To be fair, we will wait until after we return from that cruise before we decide if the Spirit stays on our list of preferred ships.

 

Sorry to run on so long, but I read a lot of points I thought should be touched on. My wife and I have done about a dozen cruises each, with a good handful on NCL.

 

Smooth sailing everyone, I'll let you know how the Christmas sailing goes !!!

 

PS: We will book our specialty restaurants first day this time. I suggest you do the same.

[annie m]

"The rocking was a bit of a problem. I have been in two open oceans in that ship and it was not a rough at the two nights down and first night back. The waves were officially 4-8 feet, not 3-4 as someone else mentioned. The last day was very smooth when the ocean smoothed out. I suspect there may have been a problem with the stabilizers or it was not the right kind of conditions to use them. Still, it is part of what you get at sea. I cannot fault NCL there.

 

What I can fault them on is NOT informing the guests of the rocking and why the pools were not filled for more days. It would not take much to make an announcement or deliver a paper to each cabin saying why. "

 

This was the point that I was trying to make - you just said it much better. I was on the Dawn with 18 ft seas during a storm in April and it was not as bad as this.

[lessthanjakegal]

I haven't had a chance to read through all of these posts concerning the Spirit Thanksgiving cruise, however when I get a moment sometime this week I will post a review...and *gasp* it will be positive....so prepare yourselves and keep your eyes peeled if you are interested in the Spirit.

 

We had a great trip, dealt with the rocking, ate until we couldn't fit into our clothing, and lived to tell about it.

[pratzert]

I've been reading the posts and reviews concerning the Spirit for many months now.

 

And it's amazing how far the spectrum goes. I was very confused before sailing too, and thankfully, we had a wonderful time on the Spirit.

 

I don't know if everyone is just so passionate about their experience that they exaggerate one way or the other or what it is ?

 

Even MORE confusing is that you read these differing reviews from people who were on the SAME sailing.

 

Read and make up your own mind.... but I appreciate the fact that the reviews and comments vary like night and day and make it hard to decide which Cruise Line and ship to book.

 

I will say again.... we had a great time, with a "few" things that "could" have been better, but overall.... well worth the price of admission !

 

Tim

[blueinspades]

We sailed the Spirit at Thanksgiving after choosing the 4 star ship for its itinerary and convenience to home. We have sailed on 5 star ships that are by far better ships from Princess and Celebrity with better values, entertainment and food. All ships are subject to rough seas, it is part of the sailing experience. I use the patch which has always helped me.

 

I like the boards for all the positive and negative comments and try to find the common thread. Most things are subjective like food and entertainment but when many people say the same negative things there has to be a reason. If the negative is something I care about, then it is a factor in my decision to choose a ship. We never had a perfect sailing but some surely do stand out in my memory as being a better experience than others.

[logcabin]

When will the Spirit be back from their latest cruise? I am curious to read the reviews from that one and see if things have imporved.

[WaldosPepper]

Just three more days to wait! She's returning from an 11-Day Western Caribbean on Dec. 8th.

 

Either one of two things will happen:

 

1.) There'll be a mad rush of reports on how horrible the trip was.

 

or

 

2.) It will take a few days for anyone to post at all, because they're deliriously happy, thoroughly exhausted from having so much fun, and haven't got the faintest idea that the prior sailing caused so much ado!

 

We'll know soon! ;)

[Nectarologist]

I think the Spirit is back on Dec. 7th or 8th. I looked yesterday for new reviews but then realized they are on the longer trips (10 or 11 days).:)

[Don Haynes]

From what I read on another thread involving the Dawn, during this past weeks cruise southbound of New York was very rough..... I'm sure we'll read about the rough voyage south with the Spirit too.... However, we'll soon learn whether the Atlantic calmed down any during the rest of the cruise when the ships finish their current cruises.... Rough seas is almost a given cruising out of New York during the winter....

[jeannep]

I've never been on a "bad" cruise. How can eating all day, being entertained all day, playing games, seeing new ports and relaxing whenever you want, be "bad"?

 

Jeanne

[Ctrain246]

Obviously, due to a rocking ship the pools weren't filled everyday, but I cannot believe the seas were calm if the ship was rocking so much as to not be able to fill the pool? If so, the only conclusion is possibly the stabilizers were not fully effective. On my Alaskan cruise we hit some high seas, but the ship didn't rock. The Spirit has the best stablizers in the cruise industry......

 

Don,

 

It not only rocked - it would come down with a thud. While trying to dry my hair I had to hold on!!

 

I am making this reply based on info given me by a friend who was on the Spirit during the Thanksgiving cruise. I, for what it is worth, am a CCL devotee.:)

My friend said the ship was "Bumpier" than he has recalled on past cruises. He speculated this may have been because the captain had the "Pedal to the medal" so to speak, due to a change in the order of porting. As have other people he mentioned the stabilizers possibly not being used due to the high speeds.

My friend also mentioned that the ship rocked so much that the pool became a wave pool, tossing water several feet into the air. My friend said crew members jumped into the pool and began assisting people onto the deck, so as not to have someone crushed.

Additionally, my friend said that were what he referred to as "City kids" :confused: running roughshod throughout the ship. With all this said my buddy said he has never had a "Bad" cruise, and said he and his family throughly enjoyed the trip and plan to cruise in Alaska soon.

I hope no one looks disfavorably upon my imput, as an intruder from the other side.;)

[rickiris]

I was on the cruise with my wife and and 7 year old.

 

We had been on 2 previous 7 Night Cruises out of New York in November on the Dawn.

 

Getting on and off the Spirit was great...

 

The the 2 + days at sea to St Thomas was a little rough. I would have liked a stop in Florida or South Carolina to break up the long haul down to St Thomas, even if it added a extra day to the cruise. I was also disappointed that 5 ships were in St Thomas and 6 Ships in St Maartin, I think better scheduling should have been done by NCL for a ship with only 3 ports of call. I think the stop in Berumda on the way back to NY was a good way to break up the time at sea.

 

I did not like the food on the buffet (the Dawn was better) and didn't feel that they had good selections for the childrean. The Dawn had a small area set aside for the children with Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, fries etc. I know the story about the ship being designed for the asian market, but they didn't have the same selections as the Dawn. We ate in the Windows on Thanksgiving Night and thought the food was very good.

 

We liked the fact that most of the games in the video arcade were free throughout the cruise.