Interesting Adventure

Norwegian Spirit Cruise Review to South Pacific - Tahiti

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 9
Helpful Votes: 275

Overall rating:

3.9 out of 5
Verified Review
Norwegian Spirit

11 Night South Pacific: Kauai Maui & Moorea (Papeete To Honolulu)

Sail date: October 22, 2023

Ship: Norwegian Spirit

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 9503

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

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.

Ports of call

Papeete, Tahiti

3 out of 5
This is a typical tropical island port with beautiful scenery, but too commercialized for our taste.

Moorea, French Polynesia

4 out of 5
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.

Raiatea, French Polynesia

4 out of 5
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.

Hilo, Hawaii

2 out of 5
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.

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

4 out of 5
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.

Kahului, Maui

4 out of 5
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.

Nawiliwili, Kauai

4 out of 5
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.

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
Again, with the ship only 50% occupied, disembarkation went quickly and smoothly.
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4 Comments

cruising2004    1 year ago

Thank you for your detailed review.

Gwbigdog    1 year ago

Thanks for sharing

bubbles60    1 year ago

Glad you had a good trip. We prefer NCL over the other main line cruises.

javawoody    1 year ago

Wonderful itinerary , thanks for sharing

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