Consumer Review:All the food in the dining places that you could eat, which were included in your package price, was merely warm.This was especially true in the Ruffles Buffet Court. Though there was a variety of food, it seemed that by the time you sat down to eat it, the food was just warm. I would not say this was due to the lengthy food selection process but the fact that the foods were not being heated as hot as they could be. The 2 sit-down restaurants you could go to had vertually one and the same menu with just a few exceptions so that wasn't much of a choice (and day after day there were very few changes to the vegetables, meats, appetizers, etc). At least one Grill (Blue Lagoon) you could go to the food was cooked to order so the meal was hot. The other outside grill made McDonalds look like a 4 star restaurant. At times throughout the cruise they set up buffets (like by the pool) which was a nice touch. You could also opt to go to restaurants at which they asked for a "cover charge". These ranged from 10 dollars per person to 25 dollars per person. Of course the food, selectiion, and service was excellent there. Which leads me to ask, "Why didn't we get this type of food in more restaurants because we paid GOOD money to get it and we shouldn't of had to pay MORE to get a delicious variety of food?".
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Consumer Review:As my husband and I are world travelers, we were concerned about the restrictions that we believed being on a cruise would have. We finally listened to our friends who told us it wasn't like that at all, and booked a cruise for our 10 year anniversary Freestyle cruising with Norwegian was the way to go. Much more freedom to do things than we had anticipated. They kept you busy on board with such a variety of choices of things to do that we never had a chance to get bored while at sea. When we chose to we didn't have to do anything but sit on our balcony and enjoy the view. The food was of much better quality than many well known restaurants that we have been to. The service folks on board were exceptional in the way that they took care of their passengers. We booked all of our shore excursions through NCL and they were better than we had hoped for, plus the tour guides were outstanding. Can't say enough about the cruise. Since we have no other cruises to compare it to we can only hope that our future cruises are as great as our first was. We will be sticking with Norwegian no matter where we decide to go. Thanks for such a great first time, from the booking of the cruise to the demarkation back at port it couldn't have gone smoother.
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Consumer Review:Beautiful Ship...Very nice pool area with the 4 hot tubs....friendly, friendly staff, but was a little disappointed that so many of the restaurants had the surcharges
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Consumer Review:Embarkation was delayed because of late ship arrival. Resulting 3 hours in lines was not a good way to start a vacation. We later found out that the delay was due to a medical emergency so was understandable, but still unpleasant. NCL Spirit is showing her age. One of our cabins had the shower floor retiled mid-trip as it was disintegrating under bare feet. TVs are 14" CRT type making text virtually unreadable, no interactive features, etc.
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Consumer Review:Embarkcation was great, disembarkcation was terrible. They did not call the ticket color in order, We picked a time for 8:30 and got off the last. The loudspeaker announcements were also hard to interpet, With all the noise they were mufffled and everyone was going around saying "What did that Say" Next time we will take our own luggage on and off. Those people went first. All the other services were great, they were friendly and helpful all the time. We would go again if we could scrape up the money to do so. Since this is on the negative side for review it should not be put on your website. We have no wish to deter people from NCL in this economy.
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Consumer Review:Everyone was so polite and pleasant. Our room attendents were wonderful, very attentive and happy to please. The cleanliness was exceptional and the room very comfortable. The meals were tasty and healthy and good portions. Next time I would make reservations at the restaurants, although the wait was never outrageous. The wait staff was great. The excurtions were well organized and pleasant and informative and fun. My first real cruise was a success.
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Consumer Review:excellent cruise....only one complaint...no juices supplied throughout the day for small child unless charged. need more juice or punch drinks for teenagers
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Consumer Review:Food in the main dining rooms were awful. It's a shame to have to pay extra on a cruise for meals you should be getting in the main dining.
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Consumer Review:Food was never hot enough. Shore excursion expensive should have done on own, cheaper that way. Not aware of the graturity daily of 12 thought it was 10.00.
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Consumer Review:Free style cruising is not an improvement as far as we are concerned. We found the service in the dining areas to be inconsistent. There seemed to be a lack of training. There was no consistency with the plating of food either. The plate portions would not necessarily be the same at the same seating. Ordering tea seemed simple except you never knew if you were getting a cup or a pot or got to select your tea or were just offered a bag. The problem with taking a cruise where most of the clients are older is that the vast majority want to eat at the same time which causes a "clog" at the dining venues. We found the drink prices to be inconsistent also. The same drink was 4 different prices. We only visited one speciality restaurant. It was good, not outstanding. We also got tired of all the additional costs and pushing of lottery tickets. I understand that the cruise line is needs to make money but the additional costs got tiresome. We did have a great time. We found the ports very interesting and the Canadians were extremely warm and friendly and would go out of their way to help you. The staff of the Spirit were very nice and friendly. Our cabin team was GREAT and kept our cabin cleaned and well cared for. We had an outbreak of Norwalk virus and the staff kept on top of it, pushing hand sanitizer and extra cleaning. All in all the cruise was good. We will probably not use NCL again. We find we like RCL the best. We wanted to try freestyle and we did. It's not for us and that's OK.
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Consumer Review:Freestyle dining rocks! We felt overall food standards were not quite as good as Carnival's main dining but the flexibility to eat at different times and in one of several restaurants more than makes up for it. Also, the buffet was much better than Carnival's. The staff were friendly, the ship was well presented and the entertainments were fun. If you have young children (under 2) then it does severely curtail your experience on ship but you can still see the early show (sit up at the sides so that you can leave early if the child has a breakdown). The restaurant staff were amenable to us taking our 1-year old in - they always had a high chair and pampered him - loved it!
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Consumer Review:Great stewards and fast room service! Customer service could have been more friendly and helpful. Very limited hours to speak with agent about shore excursions. Cruisers don't want to get up to speak with agents at the crack of dawn after staying up for all the entertainment. By the way, the entertainment was wonderful and not to be missed. Great food, except the speciality steak house. (Cover charge $25.00 for Average steak) We will cruise again and already have put the deposit down and received $100.00 credit for onboard bill.
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Consumer Review:how can you dine when you want if you have to wait 30 to 40 minutes with a beeper to eat. we could not eat when we wanted to almost none of the 14 nites we cruised. we finally gave up and went to raffles court and ate cafeteria style almost every nite. the cruise line nickel dimed us to death. there is no encentive to provide good service because you never have the same wait staff for any meal. they double dip on the gratuities. on embarkation day the people leaving pay for that day and the people coming on also pay for that day. . i'd rather eat at a predetermined time and have the same staff and get good service than ever do freestyle again. there was an overwhelming disgust of the system shared by many cruisers.
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Consumer Review:I found the food to be incredibly salty. No fresh baked pastries was a disappointment. There were no specialty coffee deals (espresso, cappuccino). Steward failed to deliver services on 2 occasions. Wines were overpriced and we hated to be bothered every 2 minutes for bar service. They were very aggressive. There should be a no smoking night for the casino. Cruise parking was advertised as $15 per day turned out to be $16.00 per day. Regarding the stateroom, I called Norwegian the day before departure and was told that they provide shampoo and conditioner. This was not the case, only shampoo. When I complained to the staff, I was told the conditioner was in the shampoo, which it was clearly not. The line dance class only lasted 20 minutes. Salt water pool was a nice touch. Medical services was excellent! Embarkation and disembarkation was excellent.
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Consumer Review:I found the Norwegian onboard service to be not as good as when I took my first cruise on Holland America. This was my honeymoon and my husband had never been on a cruise, so I was bragging to him about all the little things that make it special, but we didn't have those on Norwegian. No evening mints on the pillows. Not even a souvenir pen in the cabin. No towel animals until the third night (I had given up hope that they even did them). On Holland America our room steward was there every minute, knew our names etc. On Norwegian, we saw the steward the first and last day and that was it. The food was so-so, nothing to brag about until we ate in the Steak House for an upgraded price. We ate there two nights and it was the best food we had the whole trip. Excellent food and excellent service there. We also upgraded by eating in the Italian and Asian restaurants and they were nothing to brag about either.
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Consumer Review:I love the Norwegian Free style cruising. Very easy and relaxing. Not thinking about what to wear for dinner.This suit's my lifestyle at this time. This was my fifth year taking the same cruise. I intend to take again next year.
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Consumer Review:I really enjoyed every single aspects of the excellent customer services on the Cruise. However, it would be much better if the food were less salty!!!!
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Consumer Review:I would love to go back to Bermuda but not for the week that we went 5/21/ - 5/28/2010. On May 24th it is a major holiday called Bermuda Day which is a celebration of Queen Elizabeth's Birthday. The whole island shuts down. It is very hard to travel anywhere on the island due to the parade. There is no shopping at all because all the stores are closed. The only place to shop was Kings Wharf where we were docked and it is limited.
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Consumer Review:most of ships crew spoke and understood very little english. or spoke with a very strong british accent
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Consumer Review:My daughter and I both had a wonderful experience on the NCL Spirit. The wait staff was always very attentive. I was actually amazed that everyone remember our names. The cabin was very nice. The specialty restaurants were fantastic. I would certainly consider cruising with NCL again.
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Consumer Review:Norwegian was not as friendly as others we have been on. Food was OK. We did not like the "extra charges" that they had. The price was truly not "all inclusive". We would not rush back to cruise with them again.
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Consumer Review:Only wish there were more cruises out of Boston. Norwegian has a great reputation and they have really fantastic entertainment. ( the only thing that bugged us was the constatnt asking about purchasing drinks)
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Consumer Review:Our biggest problem was the size of the Stateroom. We paid extra for a balcony with 3 people. When the bed for the third person was set up, you could not access the balcony, in fact in general, the room was way too small for 3. Actually consicering other cruise lines we have sailed with it, was small for 2. The advertising for the room was deceptive and the ship seemed unconcerned except to suggest we get a bigger ship on future cruises. Also, the entire cruise felt like a big hustle to squeeze extra money out of us from the time we got onboard until we left. The final slap in the face is the $12 per person, per day add on for tips. It doesn't matter if you were satisfied or not (and we were not), they took an additional $84 each. I doubt we would book with NCL again.
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Consumer Review:Our first cruise went off without a hitch. It was easy to book online, the communication before we left was thorough and easy to follow. We will be cruising again next year and will book our cruise through Direct Line Cruises again.We enjoyed the free style of Norwegian and will probably stay with them unless there are other companies that offer free style as well.
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Consumer Review:Overall experience was pretty good. My husband and I were utterly shocked to hear that smoking is allowed in cabins. We checked in a cabin that had a severe smoking smell. The management and staff were pretty good at cleaning it up. It took around three days for the room to be somewhat smoke free but as non smokers we could still smell it. Food was generally good but lacked variety at times. Staff were very helpful and professional and the ship cleanliness was impeccable. We were also shocked to be charged $12 per person per night even for our 3 year old son, it amounted quite a bit at the end of our 7 day cruise. We would have probably tiped the same amount it is just not right to assume that everyone is willing to tip like that,
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Fast Facts: Norwegian Spirit
First launched in 1998, the Norwegian Spirit was originally part of Star Cruises (NCL’s parent company). But, as demand for “Freestyle Cruising” quickly blossomed in the United States, the ship was renovated and re-christened as part of the NCL fleet. However, despite two refurbishments (most recently in 2008), she has still maintained many of the defining characteristics that put the Spirit in a class by herself.
Although the hull dimensions and décor are somewhat unique on the Norwegian Spirit, the amenities are classic NCL “Freestyle”. There are 14 dining options so guests can enjoy a different culinary experience every day and night. In addition to the Garden Room and Windows main dining room (which provides breathtaking ocean views while guests feast on 5-course meals), all guests can enjoy (at no additional charge) the casual Blue Lagoon Café (which is open 23 hours a day), Raffles Court Terrace (featuring buffet style dining) and the outdoor Bier Garten Grill (German). In addition, there’s an even wider variety of specialty restaurants including Cagney’s Steakhouse, La Trattoria (Italian), Le Bistro (French), Teppanyaki, Shogun (Japanese, Chinese and Thai). And, if you’re still hungry, there’s complimentary 24-hour room service to your stateroom.
With accommodations for 2,018 guests (based on 2 passengers per stateroom), the Norwegian Spirit offers a full range of staterooms and suites. Standard interior staterooms (149 square feet – no window) can accommodate up to 4 guests. Ocean-view staterooms (157 square feet) accommodate up to 3 guests. Moving up to standard balcony staterooms (201 square feet including veranda) which also can accommodate up to 3 guests, the Spirit also offers rear-facing Penthouse Suites (436 square feet) and Owners Suites (605 square feet) which provide unparalleled views from private verandas at the rear of the ship.
Among the 10 different bars and lounges onboard the NCL Spirit is Henry’s English Pub (with big-screen TV allowing patrons to watch the latest sporting events), the appropriately-named Galaxy of the Stars Observation Lounge and Maharajah’s Casino bar where guests can enjoy libations while trying their luck at the gaming tables and machines. Then there’s the Stardust Theater (featuring spirited production shows and other live entertainment). For a relaxing message or an invigorating workout, try the Roman Spa and Fitness Center or, for the children in your life, there’s Buccaneer’s Wet and Wild pool area, Celebrity Teen Disco, a video arcade and a complete childcare center for different age groups.
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