Norwegian Cruise Line - Spirit Review

The Spirit is part of the Norwegian cruise line. I have sailed on her twice; once to Alaska with my husband and the last time to the Caribbean with the entire family. She now departs out of New York and New Orleans.

All areas are rated 1-5 stars

Cabins ***

The Spirit offers six basic cabin types ranging from insides to suites. We had outside rooms with adjoining ones when we had the kids. As expected, the cabin space is tight. They do have sliding doors on the closet which helps and with freestyle dinning; you can leave the formal wear home, giving you more dresser and closet space!

The bathroom has a partially hidden toilet and the nice sized shower unit, with a sliding door. The beds are nice and firm with space under them to store your luggage or items brought back from the Ports.

Dining ****

All NCL ships have Freestyle dinning. What this means is that you can choose where and when (within serving times) you wish to eat.

There is a choice of seven restaurants, including three alternative (fee) restaurants. The two main restaurants, The Garden Room and Windows both serve the same dinner menu which changes daily. Windows also serves a sit down breakfast and lunch.

The three alternative dinner restaurants; Cagney's (Steakhouse), Shogun (Thai/Japanese/Chinese) and Le Bistro (French Gourmet) all require reservation and charge a per person fee. The Raffles Café is a buffet during breakfast and lunch, turning to La Trattoria (Italian) at night. Both the Blue Lagoon and Room Service open 24 hours and have non-changing menus. During lunch, The Grill (by the pool) offers Veggie burgers as well as beef.

Freestyle also allows you to choose if you want to wear formal and semi-formal clothing to dinner which around 1/3 do. That being said, you are not going to see torn shirts and overalls at dinner! Shorts, tank tops, flip-flops and ball caps are not allowed in any of the dinning rooms.

Personal Viewpoint: La Trattoria has excellent calamari (stop for some after a show) and the Shogun has wonderful duck. The Bristo is wonderful but, not for small children. They have wonderful escargot and a tasty chocolate fondue which comes with a pineapple "boat" filled with nice size chunks of fresh fruit. Ask for some cheesecake to go, so you can enjoy it later in your cabin later!

My family prefers Freestyle dinning over traditional. My husband and I can get a table for two or the whole family can sit together at a larger table. Guest, who want to meet others, can always ask to share a table with others - it's a win/win situation!

Entertainment ****

The Stardust is the ships nice 1,000-seat theater which is designed so everyone has a good seat. They have the regular cruise entertainment ranging from singers to Comedians (Adam Ace was great) to novelty acts to full blown cast productions.

There are a few of lounges playing live music nightly, a DJ spinning late night tunes and a Disco - a few of the places have dancing space available. And don't forget, the ever popular Karaoke!

Toddlers *****      Grade Schoolers *****      Teens ****

The Spirit is truly set up for families! They have an intense children's program for kids aged 2-16. Older kids have there own disco and video arcade but it is the younger ones who score here! Not only do they have a great inside playroom (with climbing areas and a ball jump) they have an amazing outdoor area! Their own pirate themed little water park - (and hot tub) surrounded with a cave filled mountain, a couple of slides and even water shooting pirate cannons!

It is worth mentioning here that the Spirit has one of the few kid clubs that accepts toddlers in diapers, paging parents to change them. Kids of all ages will appreciate the relaxed dinning times and dress codes.

Personal viewpoint: If you are traveling with children, try to hit the earlier shows (the usually play twice a night) as there will be more families in the audience and the comedians will have a bit more G-rated material.

Adults *****

The Maharaja's casino offers slots, tables and a few tournaments. On the Alaskan trip, I won over $1,300. But only donated on the Caribbean trip!

The Spirit has a large swimming pool along with four nice size hot tubs. There are also two heated lap against-the-current pools inside the fitness center along with up to date fitness equipment. The Sports Deck has an outdoor jogging track, basketball court and a golf cage.

For a fee you can get your hair and nails done, take a yoga class or have your teeth whitened! For a real treat there is the Roman Spa which offers a nice variety of options.

Crew *****

The Spirit's crew is very diverse, friendly and work hard at making everyone from toddlers to seniors to feel comfortable. The entire ship is spotless and the crew works very hard at keeping it that way. Room-service is timely and will let you know up front how long it will be. They should be tipped a few dollars when they arrive.

All of NCL ships take out $10 per person, per day ($5 for kids up to 12) gratuity which is automatically put on your shipboard account. Kid club staff should be tipped separately.

Overall *****

There are many things I like about the Spirit starting with the Asian influence (and art) found throughout the ship. I like the diversity of the staff, the freestyle dinning and the large selection of daily activities that accommodated all ages. The only change I would like to see would be to move her back to the Seattle/Alaska! If you get a chance to sail on the Spirit grab it, you won't be sorry!