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Norwegian Spirit Cruise Review

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 18

Overall rating:

3.5 out of 5
Norwegian Spirit

12 Night Australia & New Zealand (Sydney To Auckland)

Sail date: December 23, 2023

Ship: Norwegian Spirit

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 6066

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 10 months ago

Review summary

The cruise is not clean and full of people. A lot of people got sick in the end.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5
Food is great at the beginning, but after day 6, food starts to taste extremely salty, I tried the soup from the locals, 2 main restaurants, the garden cafe, and it tastes super salty.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
Because this cruise sailed between Xmas and New Years, there are party events on board.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

4 out of 5
My room attendant is excellent, he is polite, and he clean well.

Ship Quality

1 out of 5
Small ship, but we know this before booking. I rate the hygiene terrible because I don't think they do enough general public cleaning and sanitizing. We got sick from the cruise during New years events. Also, the gym is always full of people during the day, so expect people to spread germs and viruses in the gym area despite providing alcohol wipes. I know by the end of the cruise, a lot of people start coughing when we disembark.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5
Cozy room enough for two, room attendant is very helpful and friendly. The room sometimes can hear upstairs and next door noise during the night. The window is hard to see out of because of the dry sea water. I saw them cleaning the day before disembarkation but still ended up the same.

Ship tip

Avoid the 2 main restaurants(Windows and Tastes) during rush hours, they will take a long time serving the food.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Cruise Doubtful, Dusky & Milford Sounds

5 out of 5
Not a sunny day but have another vibe with mist and rain.
Thumbs Up

Sydney, Australia

5 out of 5

Melbourne, Australia

3 out of 5
Make sure you have enough time to get back to your cruise!
Thumbs Up

Tauranga, New Zealand

5 out of 5
Spend the entire day in hobbitan, and take 1.5 hours to get there from the port. But it's worth it
Thumbs Up

Picton, New Zealand

4 out of 5

Napier, New Zealand

4 out of 5

Auckland, New Zealand

5 out of 5

Port Chalmers (Dunedin), New Zealand

4 out of 5

Disembarkation

1 out of 5
A lot of people didn't fill the authority custom form when they disembarked, which caused long queues to get off the boat. No cruise staff was checking until the queue was long, and they found out why, then they make public announcements to make sure people fill in the custom form
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9 Comments

Gwbigdog     10 months ago

Thanks for sharing
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1960cruiser     10 months ago

I was on NCL Spirit and had a great time and it doesn't matter which shop or where you go, germs are everywhere. You are cruising with over 2500 people and around 1200 crew, which is perfect environment for germs to spread, especially when people don't do the simplest things to prevent them. Overall, people are nasty, and it's not hard to tell when people using restrooms who don't wash their hands, since you can hear the sinks running. In my experience at least 50% don't wash their hands. If you are a germaphobe then cruising is definitely not for you.
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Niavlys     10 months ago

Lots of comments these days about cleanliness on Carnival cruiseship...
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WorldCrusinJW     10 months ago

Cruising might not be best vacation for a germaphope.
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karlgrgurich     10 months ago

Yes. Sadly lots of respiratory viruses everywhere. And unfortunately, being in close quarters with so many people, and little to no precautions, it’s a risk on every cruise
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javawoody     10 months ago

Thanks for the review, but can’t fault the ship, germs come from everywhere
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cruising2004     10 months ago

Hope you feel better soon! Sorry this cruise was not the best experience.
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kdlady     10 months ago

Anyone could've picked up a bug in port as well - not everything is the cruise line's fault.
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enjoyurdaysmile     10 months ago

In general, with people on board, yes, lots of germs, no washing hands in general, people probably not covering their mouth when coughing/sneezing, flu/ cold season, people will get ill. The Spirit is the smallest of them ships in the NCL fleet. I was on that ship in 2006, 2007 twice and in 2008.
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Other reviews of this sailing

Loved the Norwegian cruise experience!
The ports were amazing, the cruise ship, not so much.
Great cruise