NCL Spirit 12/7-12/14 Exotic Western Caribbean Review

[zedneser]

DH and I are from Virginia. This is our second cruise with NCL and our second cruise ever. We arrived in NOLA the day before and spent the night at the Hampton Inn Convention Center. We didn’t do much in NOLA since it wasn’t our first time there. The next morning we were able to walk with our luggage to the pier. It was faster than taking the hotel shuttle.

Embarkation - We took the Riverwalk and arrived at 11am, getting through security was a bit of a mess. The line I was on was also the express line for passengers needing assistance; the security scanner kept beeping, slowing the line to a crawl. After a number of complaints another security checkpoint was opened and things sped up. The Latitudes check in was superfast. After getting our cards we had to wait a LOOOOOONG time to get on the ship. The little sign said 12pm, but we didn't get on the ship until after 2pm and we were the first number called. No announcements were made about the delay and several passengers became irate. It wasn’t until later we heard from other passengers that too few Customs Officials caused the delay. We didn't mind the delay, we were excited to get on the boat!

Cabin - We had an ocean view picture window cabin 5052. The room is small and a bit worn. Examples: There was no back on the remote and the batteries kept coming out, the trimming on the lamps were coming off, one shelf in the bathroom was hanging on one hinge, the red carpet was coming up in clumps and got over everything. One big gripe about the room, No refrigerator!! DH had to keep his medicine in the ice bucket. Throughout the cruise we had super slow cabin steward service. But when he did make the room it was always neat and tidy and the towel animals were great (dog, penguin and mouse). Overall, the room was very quiet and we had a nice view of the ports when we docked.

Ship - Overall I liked the Asian theme throughout the ship. It was kept clean and tidy throughout the voyage. Germicide dispensers are everywhere.

Food & Drink–

Raffles Court Buffet: Great for breakfast. Lunch and dinner selections were so-so.

Tivoli Pool: The food was so-so. The burgers were always cold due to the breezy weather. A better option is the Bier Garten Grill.

Windows Main Dining Room: Overall it’s pretty good. We liked it best as a place to eat lunch.

The Garden Main Dining Room: Best place to eat on the ship that doesn't have an upcharge. The gnocchi with the pumpkin/sage sauce is wonderful.

Cagney's Steakhouse: The service is wonderful. DH really liked his T-Bone Steak. It’s worth the upgrade.

Blue Lagoon Café: The food was so-so and the service was slow. Get your own menu and find a place in the main area for fastest service. Best menu item: cheeseburger.

Excursions-

All of our excursions were booked through the ship.

Costa Maya: Bacalar Highlights and Seven Color Lagoon - The first half of the tour was ok (bus ride & San Felipe Fort tour). Problems didn’t start until lunch when we were told we had to pay for our drinks which were not included in the expensive price of the tour. After that the tour went downhill. We didn't get to go in the lagoon (too cold) so we all agreed to see the sinkhole which wasn't that great either. The tour guide was terrible and didn't have a plan for this excursion. If he said “whatever you want to do, it’s your tour” one more time I was going to throttle him. Miraculously bottled water appeared for the drive back to the pier. Hmm... Why wasn’t it available for lunch? Steer clear of this tour!! When we got back to the pier we went shopping but found the prices way too expensive and the vendors very pushy and aggressive.

Santo Tomas de Castilla: Quirigua Archeological Explorer - Fantastic tour with Carolina as a guide, Trivia with prizes on the bus ride there. Carolina is very knowledgeable about the monuments. She even got the bus driver to stop the bus on the side of the road of the Iguana sanctuary. We didn’t get off the bus but we were able to see orange, green and brown iguanas in the trees. It was supposed to be a 4 hour tour that turned into 6 but no one complained. We had more than enough time to see all of Quirigua and tour the Jade Museum. Back at the pier shopped at the market and got our passport stamped. Don’t miss the sendoff!

Belize: Lamanai and New River Safari - Absolutely fantastic! The bus ride, the boat ride, the meal and the tour of the ruins were absolutely fantastic. Mario was very knowledgeable about the ruins and knows how to drive a boat. We stopped along the river to see some plant and wildlife. I didn’t go to the all the way to the top of the ruin (just until the ropes) but DH did. All in all we stopped at 4 ruins. We made it back to the pier with 45 minutes to spare and had enough time to shop (way better prices than Costa Maya) and get our passport stamped.

Cozumel: Playa Mia Deluxe Beach Break - Absolutely relaxing. The weather was a bit rough for the umbrellas, kayaks and other water toys and we had to sign our tickets to show that we understood these items would not be available. We were given the option to cancel and are so glad we didn't. The beach was beautiful, the waiters super nice and made sure we didn’t have to get up for our drinks. The buffet was good (nothing special) and there were a variety of drinks available, I just had margaritas, DH had a piña colada (too sugary) and then stuck to beer (Dos Equis). We had time to go back on ship, change and then do some shopping.

Entertainment-

At Stardust:

Jo-El Sonnier & Friends - His first show at the Stardust was fantastic. Second show by the pool was so-so, they played for an hour but Jo-El had his band mates play for half of the show. His last show wasn't so great. It was more for his fans than anything.

The Second City – We usually avoid comedians like the plague, but these folks were FUNNY!

Richard Burr and Josette – The magician's tricks were lame. Very simple tricks, nothing I haven't seen before.

On Broadway – It was OK. One singer in particular annoyed me because it sounded like she was singing out of her range. We did not see the second show “On the Radio”.

Throughout the ship:

Love Brothers & Lira – Cover band that played at Champagne Charlie’s. Very Good!

Joy – Jamaican band that played by Tivoli Pool. Very Good!

Newlywed/Not So Newlywed Game – Caught the replay on TV. It was funny.

Disembarkation-

Expected the worst but everything went superfast. We had 9:15am yellow tags (transfer to airport). There were 8 customs agents everything went smoothly. The transfer bus driver was funny and we were able to make it to the airport in 25 minutes and able to get an earlier flight home.

 

Overall, we had a wonderful time and would definitely recommend this cruise.

[Toyz711]

i agree, lamanai is outstanding. it's a great way to see the country, get some mayan history and see critters.

quiriqua is really different isn't it? very different mayan history lesson.

next time, if you do the spirit again, request a refrig before hand. they will put one in the cabin...i think they put it near the desk, where the outlets are? some people do request and get one, when they get on the ship.(depending on if one is found)

some people mistakenly thought that a refrig would be put in during dry dock. but to do that, they would have had to rebuild the ship :eek: and rewire the whole thing.

i like eating in the gardens, also...even thought it's the same menus as the windows, we just enjoyed the smaller room.

glad you enjoyed your cruise..sounds like you had some great tours.

[CanadianTwosome]

Hmmmm... sounds like the Customs people at NOLA may have learned a valuable lesson about staffing... I hope so for future cruisers!! :)

 

My husband LOVED that gnocchi and he's looking forward to having it again on the Pearl in a few weeks. It was his favourite meal on board the Star, I think, including Cagney's and Teppanyaki!

 

It's too bad about the fridge. I read on a thread a while back where the same thing happened to someone else after they had tried to ensure in advance that they would have one for meds. They complained and apparently they ended up with a staff member's fridge for the week! I think on the ships that don't have fridges in every cabin they should have a stock that can be moved into a cabin for medical situations. I remember that's how it used to be with some hotels.

 

All in all, it sounds like you had a great trip. Thanks for the review!

[zedneser]

Thanks for the tip about the fridge. We just assumed there would be one in the room based on our experience on the Star.

 

Lamanai was definitely the highlight of the whole trip with Quirigua not far behind!

[newmexicoNita]

DH and I are from Virginia. This is our second cruise with NCL and our second cruise ever. We arrived in NOLA the day before and spent the night at the Hampton Inn Convention Center. We didn’t do much in NOLA since it wasn’t our first time there. The next morning we were able to walk with our luggage to the pier. It was faster than taking the hotel shuttle.

Embarkation - We took the Riverwalk and arrived at 11am, getting through security was a bit of a mess. The line I was on was also the express line for passengers needing assistance; the security scanner kept beeping, slowing the line to a crawl. After a number of complaints another security checkpoint was opened and things sped up. The Latitudes check in was superfast. After getting our cards we had to wait a LOOOOOONG time to get on the ship. The little sign said 12pm, but we didn't get on the ship until after 2pm and we were the first number called. No announcements were made about the delay and several passengers became irate. It wasn’t until later we heard from other passengers that too few Customs Officials caused the delay. We didn't mind the delay, we were excited to get on the boat!

Cabin - We had an ocean view picture window cabin 5052. The room is small and a bit worn. Examples: There was no back on the remote and the batteries kept coming out, the trimming on the lamps were coming off, one shelf in the bathroom was hanging on one hinge, the red carpet was coming up in clumps and got over everything. One big gripe about the room, No refrigerator!! DH had to keep his medicine in the ice bucket. Throughout the cruise we had super slow cabin steward service. But when he did make the room it was always neat and tidy and the towel animals were great (dog, penguin and mouse). Overall, the room was very quiet and we had a nice view of the ports when we docked.

Ship - Overall I liked the Asian theme throughout the ship. It was kept clean and tidy throughout the voyage. Germicide dispensers are everywhere.

Food & Drink–

Raffles Court Buffet: Great for breakfast. Lunch and dinner selections were so-so.

Tivoli Pool: The food was so-so. The burgers were always cold due to the breezy weather. A better option is the Bier Garten Grill.

Windows Main Dining Room: Overall it’s pretty good. We liked it best as a place to eat lunch.

The Garden Main Dining Room: Best place to eat on the ship that doesn't have an upcharge. The gnocchi with the pumpkin/sage sauce is wonderful.

Cagney's Steakhouse: The service is wonderful. DH really liked his T-Bone Steak. It’s worth the upgrade.

Blue Lagoon Café: The food was so-so and the service was slow. Get your own menu and find a place in the main area for fastest service. Best menu item: cheeseburger.

Excursions-

All of our excursions were booked through the ship.

Costa Maya: Bacalar Highlights and Seven Color Lagoon - The first half of the tour was ok (bus ride & San Felipe Fort tour). Problems didn’t start until lunch when we were told we had to pay for our drinks which were not included in the expensive price of the tour. After that the tour went downhill. We didn't get to go in the lagoon (too cold) so we all agreed to see the sinkhole which wasn't that great either. The tour guide was terrible and didn't have a plan for this excursion. If he said “whatever you want to do, it’s your tour” one more time I was going to throttle him. Miraculously bottled water appeared for the drive back to the pier. Hmm... Why wasn’t it available for lunch? Steer clear of this tour!! When we got back to the pier we went shopping but found the prices way too expensive and the vendors very pushy and aggressive.

Santo Tomas de Castilla: Quirigua Archeological Explorer - Fantastic tour with Carolina as a guide, Trivia with prizes on the bus ride there. Carolina is very knowledgeable about the monuments. She even got the bus driver to stop the bus on the side of the road of the Iguana sanctuary. We didn’t get off the bus but we were able to see orange, green and brown iguanas in the trees. It was supposed to be a 4 hour tour that turned into 6 but no one complained. We had more than enough time to see all of Quirigua and tour the Jade Museum. Back at the pier shopped at the market and got our passport stamped. Don’t miss the sendoff!

Belize: Lamanai and New River Safari - Absolutely fantastic! The bus ride, the boat ride, the meal and the tour of the ruins were absolutely fantastic. Mario was very knowledgeable about the ruins and knows how to drive a boat. We stopped along the river to see some plant and wildlife. I didn’t go to the all the way to the top of the ruin (just until the ropes) but DH did. All in all we stopped at 4 ruins. We made it back to the pier with 45 minutes to spare and had enough time to shop (way better prices than Costa Maya) and get our passport stamped.

Cozumel: Playa Mia Deluxe Beach Break - Absolutely relaxing. The weather was a bit rough for the umbrellas, kayaks and other water toys and we had to sign our tickets to show that we understood these items would not be available. We were given the option to cancel and are so glad we didn't. The beach was beautiful, the waiters super nice and made sure we didn’t have to get up for our drinks. The buffet was good (nothing special) and there were a variety of drinks available, I just had margaritas, DH had a piña colada (too sugary) and then stuck to beer (Dos Equis). We had time to go back on ship, change and then do some shopping.

Entertainment-

At Stardust:

Jo-El Sonnier & Friends - His first show at the Stardust was fantastic. Second show by the pool was so-so, they played for an hour but Jo-El had his band mates play for half of the show. His last show wasn't so great. It was more for his fans than anything.

The Second City – We usually avoid comedians like the plague, but these folks were FUNNY!

Richard Burr and Josette – The magician's tricks were lame. Very simple tricks, nothing I haven't seen before.

On Broadway – It was OK. One singer in particular annoyed me because it sounded like she was singing out of her range. We did not see the second show “On the Radio”.

Throughout the ship:

Love Brothers & Lira – Cover band that played at Champagne Charlie’s. Very Good!

Joy – Jamaican band that played by Tivoli Pool. Very Good!

Newlywed/Not So Newlywed Game – Caught the replay on TV. It was funny.

Disembarkation-

Expected the worst but everything went superfast. We had 9:15am yellow tags (transfer to airport). There were 8 customs agents everything went smoothly. The transfer bus driver was funny and we were able to make it to the airport in 25 minutes and able to get an earlier flight home.

 

Overall, we had a wonderful time and would definitely recommend this cruise.

thanks for a short but very good review. I agree about the TV remotes but not about the cabins being worn. They have all new carpets, new beds, new linens etc. As for the TV remote, we had a similar problem. We had a back but it had been taped on so it only worked abut 1/2 the time. all we did was call maintainance, within a few minutes we had a new remote.

 

As for no refigerators, I think this might be the only NCL ship that doesn't have them in the cabins, my guess, it is due to the size of the cabins and layout. I wouldn't have wanted one in our cabin unless I needed it for medical supplies or something.

 

Nita

[dutrie]

How do you request a refrigerator ahead of time?

Is there a place on NCL.com to do this or must it be done thru your TA?

 

Thanks

[jp2001]

How do you request a refrigerator ahead of time?

Is there a place on NCL.com to do this or must it be done thru your TA?

 

Thanks

 

I think you can request one for your medicine but if it's for other stuff, I recommend that you bring a small collapsible cooloer and ask your room steward to keep is full of ice.

[kimgslead]

I called NCL direct to request a refrigerator. We sail next week, so I will not know for sure that this approached worked until then. I was told no problem and no cost!

 

Kim

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[newmexicoNita]

I called NCL direct to request a refrigerator. We sail next week, so I will not know for sure that this approached worked until then. I was told no problem and no cost!

 

Kim

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Kim, on our Spirit cruise I requested one for a client who needed it for medical reasons. I did this twice and was assured there would be no problems. He arrived, no refrig, but all it took was a phone call and they delivered one to his cabin.

 

Nita

[amy feigen-pilott]

Nita: Was there one "formal or not" night or two. Last time I was on the Dawn it was both sea days.... was it the same on the Spirit?

[kimgslead]

Kim, on our Spirit cruise I requested one for a client who needed it for medical reasons. I did this twice and was assured there would be no problems. He arrived, no refrig, but all it took was a phone call and they delivered one to his cabin.

 

Nita

 

Thanks... I will do that if we don't have a refrig...

 

We are currently on the road to New Orleans... drove all day yesterday, so we are only have 2.5 hours to go today...We leave on the cuise tomorrow!!

[PatnJudy]

Getting on the ship was a pain...we thought it poorly organized. Even with customs delays they could have coordinated things like special needs people (wheelchairs and small kids) being escorted a different route. Very little communication..even a bullhorn would have helped. Once on the ship everything smoothed out.

 

Dining: I found the best overall dining for everyday to be the Windows restaurant..same food in the Garden but was smaller and almost seemed to be the training room for wait staff. Don't get me wrong, it was still good, I just liked Windows better. I ate in the buffet ONCE for breakfast before an excursion and was unimpressed. I would have liked to eat there upon return to the ship during port days but it wasn't open. The ONLY place to eat was the small Blue Lagoon that served things like hamburgers and wings. Food was good but it was in the 7th floor passageway and was always crowded. It was the only place to get food 24 hours a day.

 

Drawer space was very limited, more so than other ships. We had a balcony room and the desk was separate, placed by the balcony. My wife used this for her vanity as the electrical plug was located there. I've had more convenient floorplans in inside cabins with the same amount of available space. It might have been the dead space created by keeping open space in front of the balcony doors. I've decided balconies are NOT worth any extra money, although I did use mine a couple times to watch us dock etc. Next cruise I'll go back to an inside cabin.

 

There is a TV in the room so you can watch some new movies, or CNN while relaxing after a busy day. But don't expect anything else of interest on it. They played the same show (Newlywed game) filmed the first night in an endless loop for the rest of the week except the last day when they substituted the debarkation talk. On another channel was a loop of the jewelry lecture. It doesn't seem hard to change out the video with new stuff every now and then.

 

This was the first cruise I did not see a single show. None looked appealing, but I did hear later a couple were good. i usually at least see the comedy shows and one or 2 others.

 

Another first for this cruise: The one thing that made me IRATE was that alcohol bought in port and impounded was not going to be returned until the morning of debarkation.It would be available for pickup at like 630. I'd always had it returned the night before so I could carefully pack it. Liquor bought on the ship itself WOULD be delivered the night before. I'd purchased 10 bottles and there was no way I could have managed to carry that. I like to carry off the fragile stuff I buy in port that doesn't pack well. I was upset and the cruise director was NOT very helpful. My wife wound up going to the reception desk and asking for an exception to have it delivered to the stateroom the night before we disembarked. Freestyling is nice but you shouldn't have to go ask for stuff like that.

 

Overall (and with the exceptions noted above) we had a good cruise. I have never been on a bad one, but it's the little things that grate. We picked this particular cruise because we had the Bank of America credit card points accumulated and because New Orleans is an easy drive. BUT those points are going by the wayside and Galveston is just as easy to get to.

 

One thing that made this cruise particularly fun was meeting a group of people here on the CC boards and then continuing that contact onboard.

[dutrie]

For those recently off the Spirit:

 

My wife and I are ballroom dancers, so I would like to know how the music is on the Spirit.

Are there opportunities for dancing? Does the ship orchestra play in any of the venues for dancing?

 

Also, on the Sun last year, one of the dance company couples gave dance lessons on the sea days. Is this available on the Spirit?

 

Thanks

 

David

[arielmurphy]

For those recently off the Spirit:

 

My wife and I are ballroom dancers, so I would like to know how the music is on the Spirit.

Are there opportunities for dancing? Does the ship orchestra play in any of the venues for dancing?

 

Also, on the Sun last year, one of the dance company couples gave dance lessons on the sea days. Is this available on the Spirit?

 

Thanks

 

David

 

There are opportunities for ballroom dancing, not a lot of fox trot or waltz - more like jitterbug, salsa - more uptempo dances. At this time they are not offering ballroom lessons. I remember almost 2 years ago on the Majesty they offered several classes - loved it. At the end of the cruise they had a Dancing with the Stars competition. Since 2.0, I believe, they have done away with this kind of thing, although for a few cruises in the summer the CD Darrin was teaching a few lessons, he is now on another ship.

[dutrie]

There are opportunities for ballroom dancing, not a lot of fox trot or waltz - more like jitterbug, salsa - more uptempo dances. At this time they are not offering ballroom lessons. I remember almost 2 years ago on the Majesty they offered several classes - loved it. At the end of the cruise they had a Dancing with the Stars competition. Since 2.0, I believe, they have done away with this kind of thing, although for a few cruises in the summer the CD Darrin was teaching a few lessons, he is now on another ship.

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Jitterbug, salsa and the like are fine, although we prefer the smooth dances.

On the Sun, Demitri and Olga, a husband and wife from Ukraine, taught both group and private lessons. They were wonderful. They taught cha cha and merenge

 

Too bad they have done away with the DWTS competition. I think that would be popular.

 

David

[zedneser]

Getting on the ship was a pain...we thought it poorly organized. Even with customs delays they could have coordinated things like special needs people (wheelchairs and small kids) being escorted a different route. Very little communication..even a bullhorn would have helped. Once on the ship everything smoothed out.

 

Dining: I found the best overall dining for everyday to be the Windows restaurant..same food in the Garden but was smaller and almost seemed to be the training room for wait staff. Don't get me wrong, it was still good, I just liked Windows better. I ate in the buffet ONCE for breakfast before an excursion and was unimpressed. I would have liked to eat there upon return to the ship during port days but it wasn't open. The ONLY place to eat was the small Blue Lagoon that served things like hamburgers and wings. Food was good but it was in the 7th floor passageway and was always crowded. It was the only place to get food 24 hours a day.

 

Drawer space was very limited, more so than other ships. We had a balcony room and the desk was separate, placed by the balcony. My wife used this for her vanity as the electrical plug was located there. I've had more convenient floorplans in inside cabins with the same amount of available space. It might have been the dead space created by keeping open space in front of the balcony doors. I've decided balconies are NOT worth any extra money, although I did use mine a couple times to watch us dock etc. Next cruise I'll go back to an inside cabin.

 

There is a TV in the room so you can watch some new movies, or CNN while relaxing after a busy day. But don't expect anything else of interest on it. They played the same show (Newlywed game) filmed the first night in an endless loop for the rest of the week except the last day when they substituted the debarkation talk. On another channel was a loop of the jewelry lecture. It doesn't seem hard to change out the video with new stuff every now and then.

 

This was the first cruise I did not see a single show. None looked appealing, but I did hear later a couple were good. i usually at least see the comedy shows and one or 2 others.

 

Another first for this cruise: The one thing that made me IRATE was that alcohol bought in port and impounded was not going to be returned until the morning of debarkation.It would be available for pickup at like 630. I'd always had it returned the night before so I could carefully pack it. Liquor bought on the ship itself WOULD be delivered the night before. I'd purchased 10 bottles and there was no way I could have managed to carry that. I like to carry off the fragile stuff I buy in port that doesn't pack well. I was upset and the cruise director was NOT very helpful. My wife wound up going to the reception desk and asking for an exception to have it delivered to the stateroom the night before we disembarked. Freestyling is nice but you shouldn't have to go ask for stuff like that.

 

Overall (and with the exceptions noted above) we had a good cruise. I have never been on a bad one, but it's the little things that grate. We picked this particular cruise because we had the Bank of America credit card points accumulated and because New Orleans is an easy drive. BUT those points are going by the wayside and Galveston is just as easy to get to.

 

One thing that made this cruise particularly fun was meeting a group of people here on the CC boards and then continuing that contact onboard.

 

We were considering buying alcohol on the ship and at port but decided against it because we didn't want to go over our luggage weight limit for the plane. After reading your review I'm glad we didn't. That would have been a nightmare getting it securely wrapped and in the checked baggage from the carryon before we got on the plane.

 

I wonder if it's a fleetwide change or just the Spirit? We're planning a Southern Caribbean cruise next year and would like to bring back some rum.

[ENGINEER]

Getting on the ship was a pain...we thought it poorly organized. Even with customs delays they could have coordinated things like special needs people (wheelchairs and small kids) being escorted a different route. Very little communication..even a bullhorn would have helped. Once on the ship everything smoothed out.

 

Dining: I found the best overall dining for everyday to be the Windows restaurant..same food in the Garden but was smaller and almost seemed to be the training room for wait staff. Don't get me wrong, it was still good, I just liked Windows better. I ate in the buffet ONCE for breakfast before an excursion and was unimpressed. I would have liked to eat there upon return to the ship during port days but it wasn't open. The ONLY place to eat was the small Blue Lagoon that served things like hamburgers and wings. Food was good but it was in the 7th floor passageway and was always crowded. It was the only place to get food 24 hours a day.

 

Drawer space was very limited, more so than other ships. We had a balcony room and the desk was separate, placed by the balcony. My wife used this for her vanity as the electrical plug was located there. I've had more convenient floorplans in inside cabins with the same amount of available space. It might have been the dead space created by keeping open space in front of the balcony doors. I've decided balconies are NOT worth any extra money, although I did use mine a couple times to watch us dock etc. Next cruise I'll go back to an inside cabin.

 

There is a TV in the room so you can watch some new movies, or CNN while relaxing after a busy day. But don't expect anything else of interest on it. They played the same show (Newlywed game) filmed the first night in an endless loop for the rest of the week except the last day when they substituted the debarkation talk. On another channel was a loop of the jewelry lecture. It doesn't seem hard to change out the video with new stuff every now and then.

 

This was the first cruise I did not see a single show. None looked appealing, but I did hear later a couple were good. i usually at least see the comedy shows and one or 2 others.

 

Another first for this cruise: The one thing that made me IRATE was that alcohol bought in port and impounded was not going to be returned until the morning of debarkation.It would be available for pickup at like 630. I'd always had it returned the night before so I could carefully pack it. Liquor bought on the ship itself WOULD be delivered the night before. I'd purchased 10 bottles and there was no way I could have managed to carry that. I like to carry off the fragile stuff I buy in port that doesn't pack well. I was upset and the cruise director was NOT very helpful. My wife wound up going to the reception desk and asking for an exception to have it delivered to the stateroom the night before we disembarked. Freestyling is nice but you shouldn't have to go ask for stuff like that.

 

Overall (and with the exceptions noted above) we had a good cruise. I have never been on a bad one, but it's the little things that grate. We picked this particular cruise because we had the Bank of America credit card points accumulated and because New Orleans is an easy drive. BUT those points are going by the wayside and Galveston is just as easy to get to.

 

One thing that made this cruise particularly fun was meeting a group of people here on the CC boards and then continuing that contact onboard.

 

Hey Pat & Judy

 

It was great speanding time with you on the cruise. Really enjoyed the beer tasting on the ship and at the ports. We had a great time and enjoyed our cruise to the fullest. Thanks for helping to make it a memerable one.

 

engineer

 

PS: For those reading tis thread. We were one of the couples on the not so newly wed game....They BLEEPED me on the first question.

[breezy10]

Hey! What's the Newlywed game and how do you get to play? We are leaving Sunday on the Spirit for our honeymoon! That sounds like fun? What's it like?

[ENGINEER]

Hey! What's the Newlywed game and how do you get to play? We are leaving Sunday on the Spirit for our honeymoon! That sounds like fun? What's it like?

 

 

It will be listed in the daily. It will probably be Monday evening in the Galaxy of stars (forward on deck 12) They will be looking for someone just married, so just make a lot of noise when Soosy (the cruise director) asks if there are any newly weds in the audience. You'll get on. It's a blast and you'll get a free bottle of champaigne for playing, and a free dinner in a specialty restaraunt if you win.......Good Luck

 

 

engineer