This was a "make-up" cruise for a COVID-cancelled trip and was overall an enjoyable experience (other than the arduous 24+ hour travel to Tahiti).
The only negative experience was the billing dispute that was not resolved (Latitudes discount not properly applied) and the indifference of the Guest Services
staff.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Since our cruise was only at 50% occupancy, embarkation was a breeze - no waiting, quick processing and we were on board in 10 minutes!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Everything was as expected - some great meals (Cagney's and Le Bistro), many OK meals and a few mildly disappointing meals (Asian restaurant and buffet). Drinks were fine as was the drink service..
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
There were a good selection of on-board activities.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The shows were generally good - stage shows were well done, but the comedians were not to our liking - nothing terrible, just not our style. Other music on the ship was OK, not outstanding.
Children's Programs
We were not travelling with children
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Our room steward was top-notch! Serving staff were generally very good - attentive and eager to help. The guest service staff were less than helpful - not willing to work to solve a problem with shore excursion charges.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
The Spirit is an older ship, but well maintained , clean and fully functional. We had no problems with the layout and enjoyed the smaller size of the ship.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
We were upgraded to a balcony room (11658) and it was fine. The location was far aft of the ship which made access to the restaurants and buffet very convenient,
Ship tip
It is a little tricky to find the "Taste" restaurant mid-ship, but it is worth the search since it is a smaller space and serves the same menu as the "Windows" main restaurant.
We found an independent tour operator at the port that gave us a good overview of the island - lots of great mountain scenery and some historic sites. One of the better ports.
One of the nicer ports we visited - less commercialized and a local tour operator was available. The pearl farm and vanilla farm were interesting to visit. A bonus was a surprise sighting of several whales breeching along the coast as we were travelling back to the ship! The tour guide stopped the bus for us to watch the impromptu show.
Unfortunately we did not find an independent tour, so only took the shuttle into town. The town was somewhat depressing - buildings in disrepair or empty and not too much in the way of shopping. Taking one of the ship's tours might have been better, but the prohibitively high prices discouraged us from booking them.
Smaller port with more beautiful scenery. We tried to find a tour at the cruise port, but there were no "independent" operators to be found. We ended up taking the ship's "glass bottom boat" tour that was entertaining, but a shorter duration than we expected.
We hired a taxi to give us a 3 hour tour of the island - roughly half the cost of getting on a big bus with 40 other cruisers. The high points were seeing sea turtles on the beach and walking to see the waterfalls.
We took the ship's (overpriced) island tour. It was OK - there were a lot of scenic views and included a boat ride to the "Fern Grotto" - scenic, but maybe over-rated.
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