Norwegian cruise was lacking

Norwegian Spirit Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 38

Overall rating:

3 out of 5
Verified Review
Norwegian Spirit

12 Night Grand Mediterranean (Venice To Barcelona)

Sail date: November 14, 2014

Ship: Norwegian Spirit

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 9 years ago

Review summary

There was a lot about this cruise to recommend it. Primarily from a customer service point. As this was a birthday cruise for myself the hotel director Tony found out about it and went out of his way to make it special. He understood customer service and managed his employees with a graceful touch. Unfortunately the food on this cruise is terrible. I am someone who does not generally care about the food and I found it severly lacking. As someone with Celiac disease I found my options non existent. The staff was very poorly educated about how to handle this and they were not willing to special order anything. I had to preorder my meals in the dining room the day before. As I am on vacation I do not want a schedule of any kind.  The entertainment was definitely geared towards an older crowd. There was not that much to do especially on sea days.  There was a new bartender, Johann who was excellent. He went far beyond in his quest for customer service. He cultivated a strong following but apparently this was a problem with the existing staff and then they made it the customer problem by not waiting on you. Extremely unprofessional. The itinerary was good but everyone was surprised with an extra sea day right at the beginning. We left port in Venice at 1:00 am and it showed that day and the next one a sea day. Somehow everyone didn't know we left port at 1:00 am and were at sea 2 more full days.this was key as well because it put us in Rome on a Sunday, which means a lot of the Vatican, etc... Is closed.  I have done several cruises with Royal Carribean and feel they do a better job in the same area. If not for Tony and Johann's excellent customer service I would be left with an overall bad review

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5
terrible food, no options for Celiacs

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5
lacking variety

Entertainment

1 out of 5
not much to do

Service and Staff

3 out of 5
tony and Johann were amazing. However some staff were very unprofessional

Ship Quality

1 out of 5
NCL Spirit needs refurbishing

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Ports of call

Venice, Italy

5 out of 5

Piraeus (Athens), Greece

3 out of 5
Acropolis underwhelms. Protests had most of Athens closed down

Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey

5 out of 5
ephesus is a must see

Istanbul, Turkey

5 out of 5
very interesting city

Mykonos, Greece

3 out of 5
beautiful as expected but in November ig is closed down with nothing to do

Naples, Italy

3 out of 5
jumping off point for other places. Took a water ferry to Capri. In November they don't run to Poiistana

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

3 out of 5
port for Rome. Not much there

Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy

3 out of 5
port for Pisa, Florence, cinque de terre

Toulon, France

3 out of 5
typical french Rivera town

Barcelona, Spain

5 out of 5
barcelona is just an interesting place with so many different things to do
Was this review helpful? 38

Be the first to comment

Other reviews of this sailing