Review of Spirit 7/12-7/20

[cpmken]

Wanted to post a review of our trip this past week. NY-San Juan-Tortola-Samana.

 

Travelled with a group of 11. Myself, wife, 2 boys (6&8) and 7 members of extended family. The 4 of us were in inside cabin 11531. I've sailed on Carnival twice before and my wife also took a 4th cruise (Also NCL but about 12 years ago). Figured this info might show why we did/liked certain things.

 

Perfect weather - a shower at sea and one in San Juan. Seas were generally calm.

 

Anyway - overall had a great time.

 

My kids went to the kids program on the first night and never wanted to go back (they wanted to do stuff with us and their cousins). I heard others say they never saw their kids for 8 days because they had a blast so don't judge the program by our experience.

 

Ate at Cagneys twice, La Tratorria once, Teppenyaki once. Windows, Raffles, Beir Garten and such otherwise. Cagneys was great, Teppenyaki was good, La Tratorria was disappointing. Tried room service for the kids one morning but the selection was so limited (rolls, fruit, coffee, toast) that it was useless in my opinion.

 

Service at Carneys was top notch. Our 2nd time there our 9:15 reservation was a problem because the party before ours would not leave the room (again - we had 11 so reservations were a must). Cagneys asked 2 other tables to move so they could make room for us in the main room (they have 2 private rooms for large parties). They comped us some drinks and bent over backwards which was nice but in my opinion they should have told the earlier group the table was needed and comped THEM. Mainly because we recieved dirty looks from the people who moved for our group. NCL was in a no-win and they did their best for us.

 

La Tratorria left us disappointed. One of our group asked the waitress for Chicken Parm without cheese and was told "No, it comes frozen with cheese on it then we bake it." No attempt to ask the chef, etc.. just "no". Found that interesting. I've made chicken parm at home and its actually quite easy to cook it without cheese. Just don't put it on. And we found it hard to believe it actually is frozen like that. If so that isn't the greatest way to impress the customer.

 

Teppenyaki was good.. the chef did a couple tricks with an egg and then said very little for the next 45 minutes. Food we all thought was good.

 

Windows and the rest were fine. Always able to get reservations when we wanted them.

 

Had an issue one night with Windows - Me and my BIL went in for dinner with shorts and were told that we had to put slacks on. OK, but what about the next night when 50% of the men in there were in shorts? No big deal but a bit of a lack of consistency.

 

The entire wait staff we thought was OK. However, except for Cagneys the waiters barely talked. We'd ask questions about where they were from and often recieved 1 word answers.

 

Room staff was good. Only issue was that we had to ask our guys for a towel animal for my boys after not seeing one for 5 days. No biggie. Cabin was fine. I had balconies on my other two cruises and honestly did not miss it at all. Inside cabin had the advantage of being darker in the AM which let the boys sleep longer than they might have with sunlight. Room was quiet - good location in my opinion. The carpeting issue on the ship people mention are too small to even bring up. We had to look to find a spot here or there that was a problem.

 

NY departure was awesome - Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, Verazzano Narrows Bridge. Kids were in awe.

 

On non port days we generally spent our days on the stern - deck 11/12. Easy to get chairs, lounge chairs if you were out by 9. Not as noisy as I expected by the kids pool. Others in our group went to the main pool during the day and almost always came back because of lack of spots to sit.

 

Things to do all day if you wished. Freestyle daily had more choices than you could possibly pick from. I had read elsewhere here that the main pool was very quiet. Found that to be 100% untrue... music everyday, volleyball games, etc. It was as busy as any pool/beach I've ever been on.

 

San Juan: 7 of us went into town, saw San Cristobel, walked through town, wife shopped, kids enjoyed the pidgeons (easily entertained!). Found it to be nice but cities aren't for me. Other 4 did the zip line... enjoyed it. They were told that a major expansion will be completed in 2009 which should make it even more exciting.

 

Tortola: We all went into town to shop before our excursions. Not many choices in shops but it was nice. My family did the Dolphin encounter and loved it. My boys were thrilled. 3 others did the Dolphin swin and also had a blast. By the way - booking on your own will only save you $10.00. You'll still need a taxi so there isn't a huge savings. Other 4 went to the Baths. By the time they left, took the boat ride, bus, and walk, they had less the 60 minutes on the beach. Found it crowded.

 

Samana: Highlight of our trip. We all went to Cayo Levantado and it is amazing. One of the nicest beaches we had ever seen. However, NCL did a lousy job getting us off the boat. We booked early and had 9am departure times (1st started at 8:30). Got to the theater at 8:40, had a seat. We found out that just above our ticket time there was another set of numbers - ours was 011 I think. Anyway, every few minutes we'd get the instructions on how we were to seperate our tickets and get on the tender which sat 40-50. Alls well and good we thought. Then she would say "I need 40 people who have 011 on their tickets". 200 hands would go up and she scan the room like a game show host looking for the next contestant. She take 2 rows from the center, 3 people from the 9th row on the left, the guys in the white hat on the end of row 4. Complete chaos. To top it off nobody checked their tickets for any numbers... the 10:30 people could have left earlier than us for all we knew. Then, she asks our section (on the left) for another show of hands for those of us holding 011. After she studied the group for a moment she said "thanks". THEN - a couple sitting in the back or the right section gets up, comes over and sits down right in front of us. Sure enough, when our time comes they just get up and stand in line. Can't blame him I guess because at that moment I told our group we were doing the same thing when the next group was called. We never had to be as inconsiderate because we were the next group called. But, is there NO way NCL could organize this better?? On the beach we thought of at least 10 or 12 and I'm not in the cruising business. Thankfully the island made it all good!!

 

Disembarking was easy. Our color was called and we were on our bus in about 45 minutes.

 

So, it might seem as I bashed NCL.. not true. We all had a blast but there were definately some bumps along the way which you get no matter how you travel.

 

Webtech1, Bumstead, Gima33 - it was great meeting you all. JackpotJohnny - WHERE WERE YOU??

 

Ken and Barb

[carontori]

A well balanced, informative review. Thanks!

[kat89447]

Great review. sounds similar to our experience and we had a similar group size. We did have a private room at Cagney's but you weren't missing much, very little room to move around the table in there. My dd wasn't a big fan of the kids club either but her two favorite things was the dolphin royal swim and the pidgeons. lol We must have fed those birds for an hour lol. Glad you had a good time.

[Chipster2]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. Good to hear that you enjoyed your time on the Spirit.

[bumstead]

Hey Ken,

 

It was great to meet you! We had a fantastic time! It was our first cruise so we had nothing to compare and the weather was perfect! The calypso music at the pool was mezmerizing! It was so relaxing to me. My teens were out later than us every night and they met lots of friends. My daughter cried when she had to say goodbye to some friends she met!!

 

We loved Tortola and would recommend the catamaran, snorkel and beach excursion. We also loved Cayo Levantando!

 

We ate at Cagneys once and the rest in the main DR or buffet. We have no complaints with the food. The stirfry was so good at Raffles. We had a larger inside cabin 9207 and found it to be plenty big for 4 of us. I also liked the shower, fair amount of pressure and lots of hot water.

 

We went to the shows and comedians, Dave Heenan is so funny! Quest was also fun to watch.

 

The staff was great. We had 6 towel animals. Tito and Nemencio were also very attentive and always worked around us. We would do it again for sure!

[phillyf]

Was there a charge for La Tratorria ??

[NCLPastNorwayCruiser]

Thanks for your review. We are going on 8/23, with 18 in our group, 10 adults and 8 kids, age in range from 3 to 16 years old. We also have a inside stateroom, on the 11th floor. I read in another post that there's only one outlet in the room and suggests to bring a surge protector to charge up the camera, camcorder, etc.... Do you remember if the outlet is two or three prongs? Also, did you have a fridge in the room? I ordered one and wonder where they will put it. We also have 4 in our room...did the lower beds become one big bed, and did both your kids sleep in the foldaway bunks? With a large group, could you make dinner reservation for Window/Garden? We want to eat dinner as a group each night and I cannot imagine walking up to any restaurant and ask for a table for 18!!!:confused: Any picture you can post? Thanks in advance for answering all these questions.

 

 

 

Spirit 8/23/08

Norway 6/90

[Toyz711]

this is the balcony room, but the outlets are the same...see photo. a regular outlet strip works fine. no frigs in any cabin under the suite level...if you ask for one and it's not there, just go to the customer service. you may want to call and have them email a confirmation for the frig.

group dining reserations: have you tried talking to the events coordinator for your ship..they may be able to set you up with reservations, for the main dining rooms. if not, talk to the matre'd as soon as you get on the ship...the times will be early or late, no prime time.

some cabins have the room to push the beds into a U shape, doesn't work in every cabin...but when it does, it helps.

[Disneygirl4ever]

Was there a charge for La Tratorria ??

 

We sailed the Spirit in June, and there was a cover charge for La Tratorria...it was $10 pp, $5 for kids.

[phillyf]

Thanks Disney Girl, how did you like the food ?

[MAUGUWI]

Hey How Was The Noise And Beds In 9207 Any Pictures?

[bumstead]

Hey Mauguwi,

 

The beds were fine. I don't think they were new but they were decent. New big pillows and white comforters. The cabin is at the back of the boat and we heard the engines all the time but it was not disturbing to any of the 4 of us. There was no creaking like I had read somewhere.

 

We were near the suites so I think the service may have been a bit better because of it. We feel like we were in a perfect location. Just step out the door turn right and then a quick left to the outside, about 15 feet away at most. Then up one flights to the kid pool area. It was very convenient for us. We got some good exercise when we went to the casino or Galaxy of the stars. The theater is below the cabin but it takes up two floors so under us was the upper seating area of the theater. We went to the shows so did not go to bed until they were over. It was very quiet.

 

Sorry I do not have any pics but it was plenty big for 4 of us. The floor space was great and the bathroom was very functional. My husb is 6'4" and had no problems. There were two single beds at right angles. A pull down above one and then a roll out bed from under that same bed which you could move anywhere you wanted on the floor.

 

I would recommend it!!

[Lau92080]

Hey great review, glad to hear you had a good time! I was wondering if 2.0 was started yet on the Spirit, we are sailing 8-23, and how stable is the ship in rough sea, good, bad, or ehh not so great? lol

 

THANKS!