Spirit of Adventure review versus Minerva 2

[mancunian]

We have just returned from our cruise on Spirit of Adventure, preceded by a week land tour in Sri Lanka and 3 nights after the cruise in Singapore. We enjoyed these pre and post holidays very much and are very glad that Saga do these at reasonable cost as does Orient.

 

My review of the cruise itself I will do comparing it with Minerva 2 because I know many people want to know about Spirit, and many more are looking for an alternative to Minerva and it may help you to decide.

 

The Ship. We liked the ship very much, my husband in fact loved it feeling it was a real ship and not a floating Hilton Hotel. It is small and old but we thought that the work that had been done on it was very good. We perhaps had reservations before going on looking at the webcam of the cabins which on the 360 degree rotation looked very small indeed. However, in practice they were a reasonable size and well appointed. We particularly liked the nautical theme of navy and white striped blinds and white pillowcases and duvet covers with navy piping and the beds were comfortable. We thought the dining room was well spaced compared with most cruiseships and that the verandah cafeteria was very well done and not cramped some of the seating being in quite large bays. The library was brilliant but I will come to that under entertainment. Minerva of course was a floating Hilton - nice but we felt very impersonal.

 

The Crew. What can I say. Spirit certainly won this round. The whole thing was led by Neil Horrocks, Cruise Director and Martin Breen, Captain who must be the youngest duo on the seas but really excellent. They both were friendly and outgoing and clearly love their jobs and were keen to give the passengers the best cruise possible and to make the ship a success. The Filipinos were very friendly and could not do enough for you. To the rather crusty old gentleman we met on Minerva last year who told the table that he never jokes with the staff, I would say he would definitely not like Spirit. It is very like Swan Hellenic used to be in the good old days of Orpheus and Minerva 1 and felt quite housepartyish. Because of its small size you got to know everyone quickly.

 

The Food. I have to say Minerva wins this round. I know that many people can and do eat for England on a cruise, and also like to try more unusual foods. But I also know that over the last 5 years many people like a smaller, simpler diet. Breakfast and afternoon tea were fine. Lunch was either a formal lunch in the dining room with no light option or the Verandah. This was fair enough but was still slanted on choices towards hot food. I felt that the Salad Bar options were not that good and the same things (eg smoked salmon, nice as it is) appeared too regularly. Dinner was even worse for me because on many days there was not a straightforward roast/simple casserole and veg style option. We therefore ended up most nights eating upstairs so I could select a mix of the simpler things. In one sense this did not matter except that we would have preferred to eat in the dining room at night. I do think with three options on the menu, one option should be kept simple, or as on many ships the menu should say grilled chicken and/or salmon, baked potatoes and steamed veg are always available. I would make the point here that I am not overly fussy - I have not had this problem on Marco Polo, Artemis and Minerva which all have a simpler option.

 

Entertainment. I definitely felt Spirit scored here. We had the three mainstream lecturers, Swan Hellenic style - an ex ambassador, a cambridge professor and a BBC documentary maker. They in fact may well have been Minerva lecturers because I know a lot have moved across. In addition to this we had art classes (which I believe have been on every cruise). Anyone can go but it is intended mainly for beginners so do give it a try - great fun. On our cruise we also had three lecturers from the Antiques Roadshow - Hilary Kay, David Batty and Ian Harris and they each gave I think two lectures, plus an antiques boatshow where passengers could show their treasures, plus an antiques Call my Bluff, and finally an antiques quiz on what we had learnt during the cruise!!! We also had other musical and trivia type quizzes. The trio gave five classical concerts and we had during the cruise two singers on board - Robyn McQuorerdale and Stuart Gillies. They changed over half way through the cruise which I thought was good because we got to see them both. We had local show on board one day. There was also cinema under the stars, a pianist in the yacht club and dancing. The library was superb as indeed were the ones on Minervas I and 2. We thought it was very well stocked indeed with comfortable chairs, chess, jigsaws and computers for email and internet. Then of course there was Jeffrey, a charming Filipino who was in the library to help those technologically challenged (of which there seem to be a lot of us), and to look after our photographic needs. There was a briefing room off the library with four laptops and if you bought a £1 disc in the shop Jeffrey would download or help you to download your photos and have a look at them. He also gave digital camera talks and the ship also had a supply of digital cameras which you could hire for £1 a day to try digital photography or in my case to let me hire a camera as mine had packed in on day 2. Jeffrey had endless patience with everyone and would have a row of people in the briefing room requiring help. You could also borrow DVDs from him to play in your cabin. I definitely think every ship should have a Jeffery.

 

Jeffery was just one of the nice extra things you don't usually get. How many ships have you been on where the Captain stands at the top of the gangplank to see you off on excursions. Half way through the cruise we had a short questionaire to fill in. Yes, I know have a groan. But it was a really good idea because Neil the cruise director read them all and tried to put right what he could. They really seemed to want to know what we thought. On excursions disembarking from the ship was very well organised, and you were given bottles of water which were free (unusual these days). You had one or two escorts from the ship on each coach and they distributed wet flannels, wet wipes and Werthers Original Toffees at some point during your trip. My husband was convinced they used Werthers as ballast on the ship they must have such large stocks! When you came back on board there were cold flannels and iced water to greet you. I mention all the things in this paragraph because they are generally unusual but we thought very good touches. Oh and you also had binoculars in your cabin like Swan Hellenic.

 

Excursions Somebody has said on the board that Spirit's excursions are not as good as Swan Hellenic. We actually thought they were very similar. A slightly different pattern - Swan Hellenic have largely stopped day excursions with lunch (except Kuala Lumpur) and squeeze two short excursions in the day with a quick lunch stop on board. (Very quick in some cases as a couple of times we have got a sandwich from the dining room to eat it on the next coach. Spirit had four full day excursions on this cruise with lunch. On the other days passengers had one excursion but it was generally quite long starting early and getting back to the ship for about 1.45 pm. You could then have lunch and decide whether to go on shore yourself or hit the deck. The last three ports - Penang, Port Kelang and Malacca we did on both Minerva and Spirit so a direct comparison is possible. At Penang Swans did a city tour of museum, temple and Chew Point in the morning and the Botanic Gardens and Butterfly Park in the afternoon. Spirit did either a tour of Central Penang in trishaws or the Botanic Garden/Butterly Park. We chose the latter but because it was a long excursion we also got a ride through the hills and circled Penang. At Kuala Lumpur Swan did two day trips - one to KL which we did and the other to a Mosque which was closed, and a country park and there should have been lunch but something went wrong. Spirit amazingly for its size did three different day options for KL. Actually disappointingly there was a fourth option available to be dropped off and picked up in KL which we would have preferred having been there before. It would be good if this fourth option became official next time. Malacca was very similar - Swan's had a choice of two morning excursions, Spirit three. Not much to choose between them though I must say we liked being back on a small ship as you did not have a fleet of buses on excursions.

 

Organisation on board. Spirit was better. As I have said already very good disembarkation in ports and a captain and cruise director who tried to have their finger on the pulse at all times. This is where we feel Swan had slipped latterly. Our only bad comment here about Spirit was the Shore Excursions desk who gave us a very bad start to our cruise. For some reason our excursion options had not come from Head Office and they seemed reluctant to print more tickets so for four days we had endless trips to try and get our tickets. This came to a head when we got on a coach without tickets in sit in fashion. This annoyed my husband very much but upset me.

Apart from that everything was very good.

 

Head Office organisation. The original booking was good but we were not over happy with Saga by the time we went away. They did not get back to us about queries, we were given the wrong terminal at Heathrow, we did not receive the details of our week in Sri Lanka and we were not given information about the change in itinerary. OK it was a difficult time in Sri Lanka politically and we are inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt as Neil contacted them about these points and both through him and directly to us since returrning they have gone through all the points. They do seem to have taken our comments on board and we will definitely sail with them again. I do have to say that Swans were not better in this respect having sent us a chinese visa form to fill in when we were not going to China, and joining instructions for a Quebec add on when we were not doing the add on. The difference here was they were not apologetic or even interested.

 

So you pays your money and takes your choice - or rather you don't because of course Minerva is finishing. Unless you hate the idea of a small, older ship I urge you to give it a try. I would also mention that we have also been on Discovery - the third ship in the triangle. We went in the first year, and we have wondered I must say not overenthusiastically about going back. I would definitely try Spirit of Adventure first.

[dougnewmanatsea]

It is nice to finally have a review of this ship... I suspected she would be very good, but now I have confirmation :) .

 

I hope to be able to give her a try sometime.

 

It sounds like the only hitch was the food - regular Saga menus I've seen (ROSE/RUBY) have offered some fairly "simple" options - but I guess with the smaller galley (and thus smaller range of choices) on SOfA, these have been eliminated.

 

As for the head office... I have not had many dealings with Saga so I can't comment on them but generally speaking I find that many cruise lines are much better at running ships than they are at customer service.

[wynkys]

Thank you for your comprehensive review and you have certainly whetted my appetite to give Spirit a go.

Their itineraries are very appealing and I particularly like the fact that they don't repeat ports on subsequent cruises such as those up and down the Amazon.

 

Wayne

[fenella]

Mancunian - glad you enjoyed your cruise aboard Spirit.

Whilst I agree with most things you say I must state that I really enjoyed the food. The evening meal in the main dining room was always elegantly and competantly served by a smiling waiter and I found that there was plenty of choice and on the whole I enjoyed the food.

Can I just add to your review of this ship. Having travelled alone I found it an ideal ship for the single traveller above the age of 50. There were many other singles and there was a very friendly atmosphere. Also with open dining I got to know nearly everyone of the 350 people on board in the two weeks.

I have been on my own on a large ship and was very lonely. I would speak to someone one day and then never see them again!

I will certainly sail with Spirit again.

[mancunian]

Hi Fenella

I would certainly agree with your statement about singles. Not only were there quite a few singles but even when they were not together they seemed to integrate really well with the couples. We were joined serval times by singles and I guess as you say it is probably again to do with the size of the ship. Even with open sitting on a larger ship it may be days if ever that you see that person again. Somehow you tended to see people everyday which gave the houseparty atmosphere.

 

I hope I have not given a wrong impression with the food. It was not bad, just that I think more care could be taken with menu planning. I noted with interest on day two that someone on our table said to the waiter that she was sorry she just did not like anything listed and could she have something simple. He said you can always order something simple the night before but not on the night. But how do you know the night before. I just found it easier to browse the menu outside the dining room and if I knew I was in trouble to go up and select bits from the different options. The main course upstairs is the same but obviously self service style. I think the whole thing would be solved for cruisers and the staff if there was a simple option like grilled chicken and baked potato that cruisers know they can fall back on.

 

Shortly after your review we discovered that some friends of ours had been on the same cruise as you. They are regular cruisers on Marco Polo, Saga Ruby and Saga Rose and they had told us that it was the best cruise food they had ever had. Now whilst I say it was OK except for simple options I could nevery classify it in those terms and I wonder if the chef/budget/something has changed since then. We will never know. It will certainly not stop us cruising with them again though.

[fenella]

Hi Mancunian

Yes I agree that couples did mix easily with the singles and as you say there was certainly a house-party atmosphere.

The chef has changed since my cruise in the summer.

I get this info from reading the captain's blog on Spirit's website.

Also Neil was the Assistant Cruise Director on my cruise with an older chap being the Cruise Director. I thought Neil had a great sense of humour.

Also we had the same Captain, Martin Breen, who was great. He has had a couple of months off between my cruise and yours.

I expect all the crew have time off and maybe the original Chef will come back. His name was George, he was from Birmingham and he was also very young!

[hybrn8]

My friend and I (two ladies) are going over to England in July to do the two week coastal voyage to Norway. We are thrilled to learn that you liked the ship as much as we believed we would! A couple queries, however: open seating dining work as well as we hope? no-one gets really dressed up, do they? Thanks for that. My favorite, and sorely missed ship, was the Song of Flower. I have high hopes that I may have found her replacement in the Spirit. Anxious to take our trip!

[mancunian]

Hi there

Open seating dining worked well. The ship was not full on our voyage - possibly because of the visit to Sri Lanka and the trouble there. The dining room was never anywhere near full - partly because of the above, partly because so many people liked eating out on deck upstairs. When you go in they will ask you at the desk what size of table you would like to be placed at and there was never any waiting. People who wanted to eat in the dining room generally all arrived within an hour of one another presumably to take advantage of the entertainment afterwards. One quirk of SoA was that the maitre'd would tell the waiters which table and each lady would be taken in on the arm of a waiter.

 

No it was not overdressy. Apart from 2/3 nights which were formal, out in the Far East the rest of the evenings were smart casual. The formal nights some men wore dinner suits, some did not. On this particular occasion my husband did not because we were staying in Sri Lanka before and Singapore afterwards and he did not want to bring two jackets. The women on formal nights varied considerably - a few wore long evening dresses but I would class most as just cocktail wear. Overall it was not as dressy on formal nights as say on P&O.

 

Make sure you do a review when you return. We are in Norway the month after you but on P&O Artemis which we had booked before we went on Spirit of Adventure, but we hope to return to her next year.