A generally splendid experience.
Norwegian Spirit Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern
7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)
Sail date: January 16, 2016
Ship: Norwegian Spirit
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 10080
Traveled as: Singles/Friends
Reviewed: 8 years ago
Review summary
This was my fourth cruise overall, and my third on NCL, with the first two being on the Breakaway and the Getaway, much larger ships, and I greatly enjoyed my cruise on the Spirit as well. I was surprised to see how many people were on "back-to-back" cruises, though I could understand why. The decor of the Spirit is reminiscent of the heyday of liners, with a more classic, more "elegant," feel of greater intimacy than I felt on the larger ships, and I have no need of climbing walls or zipropes across the stern, etc. I tended to alternate my time between my own balcony and the open terrace at the stern of the ship, behind the Raffles buffet.
Service generally was quite good, as was the food. A major drawback, however, was the great difficulty in getting reservations for the times that I wanted for the specialty restaurants, even trying to get them before departure. For the Bistro in particular, the ONLY times that I was able to sign up for, as a party of 1, were 5:30 or 9:30 p.m. Part of this was inherent in the fact that the specialty restaurants are necessarily much more compact than in the larger ships. But not for EVERY night! (I was able to work around that, for the most part, though.)
I enjoyed the shore excursions at the three ports, although there was woefully inadequate time in Nassau, with the ship sailing at 3 p.m., even though there were two full sea days before the next port.
These points, and others indicated below notwithstanding, I did greatly enjoy my cruise, as evidenced by the fact that I arranged for deposits for four future cruises.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Try to make reservations for the specialty restaurants as early in your planning as possible because they tend to fill up fast. If you have to, make a reservation for later in the evening than you would really like, so that at least you will have the opportunity to enjoy the experience.