Norwegian Spirit Mediterranean 10 day cruise

Norwegian Spirit Cruise Review to Europe - Western Europe

Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 127

Overall rating:

3.6 out of 5
Verified Review
Norwegian Spirit

10 Night Canary Islands & Morocco (Barcelona Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 06, 2014

Ship: Norwegian Spirit

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 4508

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 9 years ago

Review summary

There were pros and cons to this cruise. 

Pros:

Excellent food in the cafeteria's dining room.

Freestyle cruising, which allowed for more choices on board.

Excellent friendliness and service from all of the Filipino staff, and most of the other staff; the Brits were somewhat rude, however.

There were great excursions offered on this cruise.

Embarkation and debarkation were very simple and easy.

Jefferson was a particularly talented and very nice musical artist on board, and made for some of the best entertainment option available.

The cruise ship allowed guests to bring in a bottle of wine free of charge, which was an exceptional perk.

Cons:

The stateroom was exceptionally cramped and not adequate for 4 persons.  This, in spite of booking and paying for a larger "family" room.  Which I do not believe we received.  The upper bunkbed was dangerous as it tilted towards the floor, and the exit door and way to washroom were blocked by placing the cot for the 4th person across the entire tiny cabin, making a hazard for anyone getting up in the night.  I have never been in such a tiny room before.

There was extremely limited selection on the TV channel for English speaking guests, and only 1-2 movies were offered in the theater the entire 10 day cruise.

The food was not of very good quality in the more formal dining rooms.  I am not talking about the specialty restaurants, I am talking about the formal dining options offered to all guests. Here, the food was a real disappointment, although the atmosphere and ambiance in the formal dining rooms was excellent!  So that means you could choose to eat good food in a noisy, crowded cafeteria, or choose to dine in a wonderful atmosphere with poor quality food in the Windows or Garden dining rooms. The cafeteria provided excellent and tasty meals, but it was often so crowded it was hard to find a seat.

It was tough to get a plumber to respond to our room.

Room service from the cafeteria was generally very prompt and excellent (all except once).

The pros overall outweighed the cons.  I would definitely recommend this cruise to others, but would suggest bringing on board your own movies and entertainment, as your choices in this arena will be very limited.  I would also advise to definitely NOT book a room for 4 persons on this ship.  You will spend a miserable vacation in your cabin.  Book 2 rooms instead if you have 4 people traveling.  All of the service staff are exceptionally nice, making for a very enjoyable interaction with your servers, but some of the staff with higher pay grades are much less friendly.  Its generally easy enough to avoid these people.  I would go on the same cruiselines again because I enjoyed it so much, and now that I know what to expect and plan for, I could make the next cruise even better. 

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
Cafeteria had awesome food!!, but were crowded and noisey. Formal dining rooms were not good quality food, these were somewhat disappointing, although they were not crowded and had a wonderful atmosphere.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
For a small ship they did pretty good and we were never bored. Enjoyed the music, library, game room, theater and the freestyle meals. Also, there were a variety of health and spa options, art auctions, and performances during the cruise.

Entertainment

3 out of 5
Poor movie selection for English speaking guests, only offered 1-2 movies during the cruise in the theater

Children's Programs

dont know about children's programs

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
The "Chef's surprise" girls were sooo wonderful, Jefferson (musician) was exceptionally talented. Our cabin stewardess Nina from Bosnia was very nice and hardworking.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5
the cabins were very cramped and tiny. There was definitely not room for 4 people in our "family" cabin.

Cabin / Stateroom

1 out of 5
Very crowded, upper bunk tilted towards the floor. Toilet didnt flush properly, there was room for only 3 persons in this cabin, but by putting a somewhat uncomfortable cot squeezed into the space between the two floor beds and the bathroom, a 4th person was able to stay in this room. However, their bed blocked the exit and route to the bathroom, meaning anyone getting up in the middle of the night had to crawl across them, waking everyone. I would not recommend this room to anyone expecting to accommodate 4 people. The porthole was so small it was really useless, and certainly not worth paying for.

Ship tip

Check out Jefferson's musical performances, the lounge with karaoke and great viewing from deck 12, and the spa offerings. The art auction is also interesting, but the artwork offered is probably a bit "weird" for most tastes. Internet is EXPENSIVE, so keep that in mind if you have work to do.

Ports of call

Barcelona, Spain

5 out of 5
Barcelona was a wonderful city to explore, which we did on our own.

Casablanca, Morocco

5 out of 5
The local meal was amazing, and a trip to the markets. Wish we would have had longer in the market and skipped the department store and the tomb of some king and his concubines.

Funchal, Madeira

5 out of 5
Beautiful Island, wish we would have had more time here.

Santa Cruz De Tenerife, Canary Islands

3 out of 5
Not really anything special here, would have preferred to stay longer in Funchal.

Arrecife, Lanzarote, Canary Islands

5 out of 5
Not a pretty place, but one of our most interesting stops. The fire mountain and volcanos were really worth the visit. There is nothing much in the city here to see, though. If you stop in Arrecife, the volcanos are truly the thing to see. They were much better and more interesting than I suspected they would be.

Malaga, Spain

5 out of 5
Beautiful city to see and spend time in. Also, this port gives an opportunity to have a guided tour of the Alhambra, which is one of the highlights of the trip. Definitely worth while. Would have liked 2 days in this port.
Was this review helpful? 74

Be the first to comment