Norwegian Cruise Lines
Norwegian Spirit Cruise Review
Cruise To Nowhere

Mark Witzigman

This was our second cruise (although it was only a one night trip).  Our first cruise was on the Carnival Legend from NY to the Caribbean, in 2006.  My wife and I went on this weekend cruise to nowhere to celebrate her birthday.  I booked the cruise online very early, so the rate was really good.


We arrived in NYC by train and took a cab from Penn Station to the pier, arriving about 11:20.  The cruise terminal was very busy as Holland America and Carnival had ships boarding in addition to the Norwegian Spirit.  We sat in the waiting room about a half hour before being boarded.  The customs and security procedures as well as Norwegian’s check in went very well and we were on the Spirit at noon.  The rooms could not be occupied until 2:00, so we headed to the buffet for lunch.


The buffet was smaller than we expected and the food could be classified as just average.  We actually found the desserts to be below average.  When we were through, we explored the rest of the ship and made dinner reservations for the steakhouse.  We had looked at the menu for the main dining room and found the selections to be somewhat limited.


At exactly 2:00, an announcement was made letting everyone know that you could go to your rooms.  We were in a balcony room on deck 9.  It was clean, but we did find some trash on the floor between the bed and sofa.  We did not care for the layout of the stateroom.  This however is personal preference.  If the sofa bed was in use, it would make getting to the balcony difficult.  The room was a bit smaller than the room we had on the Legend.  The bed was also quite uncomfortable.


We settled in for a bit.  At 3:45, there was the announcement, covering all emergency procedures.  A drill was not required.  The ship was moving away from the dock at exactly 4:00, on time.  After we passed by the Statue of Liberty, we headed up to deck 12 where a poolside barbecue was going on.  We had some great ribs.  Then we headed up to the observation deck as we headed out to sea.


Our dinner in the steakhouse was not as good as we had hoped.  The food was on par with a number of the steakhouse restaurant chains where we live.  It was not bad food, but it was not exceptional. 


For entertainment, we went to the 9:45 comedy show.  This was very good.  Be warned, however, that you won’t be in you seat for 10 seconds before you are bombarded for drinks.  We had to tell 3 different servers that we needed more that a minute to look at the drink menu.  The 4th server just stood over us until we gave him an order.  Carnival does not push drinks in this manner.


All in all, the staff we interacted with were nice and pleasant (except for the pushy servers at the show), both on the ship and at check in.  One area where the staff (security) on board should have done something is- We went to the rear deck early Sunday morning to see the sunrise.  We found 2 passengers passed out in chairs.  In fact, one still was holding tight to a beer bottle.  I think these passengers could have been escorted to their cabins.


Would we sail NCL again?  I’d have to say no.  In fact, when I booked this cruise, I had booked the same room on the Spirit for the Florida/Bahamas cruise from NY, in July of 2008.  A short time later, NCL had a sale that brought the cruise down close to $300.  I was told that if there were any price drops prior to making my final payment, I would get the discount.  When I called, I was told this would not apply to this sale.  I asked about an on board credit and that was denied.  Finally, I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told they would not negotiate this issue.  Needless to say, I booked with Carnival once again and cancelled the NCL reservation.  NCL did not even ask a reason why.  I feel strongly they need to improve customer service and relations.