Great itinerary. Most everything else needs improvement.

We just wrapped up the 11-night Mediterranean cruise on the Norwegian Spirit, departing from Barcelona and wrapping up in Venice. Our ports of call were Marseilles, Monaco, Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Civitavecchia (Rome), Naples, Crete, Athens and then Zadar, Croatia. We had 2 at sea days. The itinerary was fantastic. We thoroughly enjoyed the ports of call but the ship itself left a lot to be desired. We have cruised several times before on Carnival. We had heard that Norwegian was nicer/better/posher than Carnival but found that was not true.

The ship is one of the oldest in the Norwegian fleet and it looks it. The carpets are shabby. Tile in the bathroom is old, cracked and mildewy. Paintings are faded and torn. Many bathrooms (especially by the Raffles buffet) are out of order or with locks broken. The ship needs major updating and renovation. It is the equivalent of a 2- or 3-star hotel (think an old Motel 6 in the U.S.) Don't expect posh. The only positive about the decor is that it was less busy/chaotic than Carnival. Carnival tends to overdo the decor, putting clashing prints on every surface. The decor was much calmer and more relaxing on this ship. 

The food (especially on the buffet) was very sub-par as compared to Carnival. The food tasted flat, poorly seasoned and looked and tasted as if it had been sitting out a long time. At the buffet, we found crew hair in our food many times (they do not wear hairnets). Some of the wait staff was very friendly; others were bordering on rude. The Windows and Garden Room sit-down restaurants had better food but it was hit or miss. In fact, the served the same dish two nights on the cruise. The first night it was delicious (best meal of the cruise) and the second night it was terrible. The desserts were typically lousy, but they do make a decent souffle and flan (called creme caramel on the ship) and the chocolate ice cream (scooped, not at the buffet) was good. The freshness and quality of the food also declined as the journey progressed. There is also a service charge of $7.50 for any room service. Note that the buffet and restaurants are not 24 hr. like some other cruise lines.

Sadly, the entertainment was also not anywhere near as good as Carnival. Certainly, we weren't expecting Broadway quality, but we were expecting more than every show being "amateur night." At points, the singing was equivalent to karaoke. The opera singer (don't remember his name) was decent, however. In the dancing shows, scantily clad dancers gyrated to choreography that looked like their previous occupation had been as exotic dancers (for the sake of my children who attended some of the shows, I wish I were exaggerating). If you are any bit conservative, don't take your children to the shows. The magician needs to practice more. The other passengers on the shore excursions were joking about how many mistakes he and his assistant made (another scantily-clad gyrator). They also need to tone down the sensual nature of the performance. Perhaps all of the entertainment gets a lot better with alcohol but we don't drink! Outside of the main Starlight Theater, some of the musicians were better. They had a Latin duet on there who was good. 

The children's program is quite good. They have lots of entertainment and fun games. It is well planned. "The General" runs a tight ship and he team, which included Abu, Toasty, Elf, Pocahontas and others, were very nice and competent. They had an adorable circus with the children. We did not use the children's program on Carnival so I cannot compare this.

We had dietary issues. The team of Nikola and Vuk who handled that were outstanding. If you have dietary issues, you can feel quite confident that you will not have to worry about that issue on this trip (granted, the food might not always taste the best but at least your diet problems will be in good hands.) Norwegian handled this much better than Carnival.

The shore excursions were great. The Norwegian team handled these very well. Everything ran smoothly every day. They were very professional. My only gripe is the price. Plan to pay more for shore excursions than you did for the entire cruise. Some of the tour guides were very knowledgeable and others were not. Some had good English and others had to read a pre-prepared script. The guides do not stick with you to make sure you know where you are going during the "leisure time" in ports. Pay close attention to your location and pick up time or you will get left. We had a few people nearly get left in Rome.

Our family has asthma problems. For that reason, we were annoyed by the amount of smokers who disobeyed the rule to smoke only in the "designated smoking areas." Sometimes we would even smell smoke in the cabin hallways.

The size of the cabin was exactly what we expected. Cramped but livable. The decor was dated and faded and the carpet and bath were dirty and in dire need of refurbishing.

Embarkation and debarkation were smooth and well-run. They did need more staff for embarkation as the wait was very long. But the staff member who helped us was very knowledgeable and friendly. Debarkation was a breeze; although, it was very hard to get from the ship into Venice proper. We walked because a water taxi is very expensive. Plan to pay a lot if you're final destination is Venice (a beautiful place to visit).

As is true with all cruises, the art auctions/sales are grossly overpriced and touting unknown artists. Beware. If you don't know anything about art, this is not the place to learn about art appreciation.

All of the shops on the ships are overpriced. Don't plan to get a deal on there. Carnival had better shops. Your best deals on the trip will be on more remote side streets in port. 

The library had quite a few books but limited times for check out. Plan in advance.

The cost of internet and phone calls is outrageous on the ship. Don't plan on using your phone for voice or text on the ship unless you're ready to shell out a lot of money. A better strategy is to contact your cell carrier and get Global WiFi enabled. Then you can text all you want including attaching photos to texts (according to most plans) once you are in most major ports.

The photographers on the ship were not nearly as good as Carnival. Make sure you bring a good camera of your own if you want good cruise photos. Typically we do buy several professional photos on Carnival cruises. We didn't buy any on this trip.

They do have a teen program on the ship but we did not hear good things about it or the lady Bubbles who runs it. She would take the kids to nightclubs/bars for dancing. She would close early without notifying parents.

We enjoyed meeting the other passengers on the cruise. Norwegian has freestyle dining. So unlike other cruise lines, it can be hard to meet new people. But we did meet people on the shore excursions and found that the people were very nice. We are on the younger side with children. Most passengers are older (50+, 65+). We did not meet anyone our age. Carnival definitely attracts a younger crowd than this ship.

We were surprised that some of the younger crew were using this as just a way to travel and get free shore excursions and did not take their jobs seriously. This showed in some of the sloppiness of work product that I mentioned above. This is directly from the verbal confession of some of the crew to us.

All in all, we'd give this cruise 3 stars. It was ok. The itinerary was great. Some of the crew was fabulous; others were downright rude and/or apathetic. The ship is shabby. The buffet food is mostly lousy. The restaurant food is hit or miss. The shore excursions were great. The childcare for younger children is reliably good. We loved Croatia, Crete, Nice, Eze, Le Castellet, Monaco, Rome, Pisa, Florence, Herculaneum and Pompeii. We found Athens to be very dirty (lots of sex shops as you drive through town; beware for children). All in all, we are taking away the love of the ports more than the love of the ship. We hope you do, too!