Spirit amenities

[Cortney]

Hi all! Hope you had a wonderful holiday!

Usually I book cruises so far in advance that I know the ships inside and out before we set sail, but this year's cruise was a little more spur of the moment, so I feel behind.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me about the Spirit's gym - is it comparable to the Gem's? (I have a feeling I know the answer to this.) Any other cool public spaces/can't miss specialty restaurants?

Thanks!

[Cortney]

Anyone, anyone?

[Cruise Fanatic]

Perhaps this will help.

[Cortney]

Thanks...I've seen that page, but was hoping for some first person accounts.

[weitzwb24]

Cortney I am going on the same cruise, depending on when your going in Feb, I will report back when I get home on Feb 1st.

7-Day Exotic Western Caribbean Round-trip New Orleans Ship: Norwegian Spirit
Embarkation: Jan 24, 2010 - New Orleans
Disembarkation: Jan 31, 2010 - New Orleans

[Cortney]

That would be awesome! I'm going Feb. 7-14, leaving for New Orleans from Michigan Feb. 4!

[Cortney]

Enjoy your cruise! You're so close! :-D

[weitzwb24]

Just got back, the gym had 8 ellipticals, 10 treadmills, 2 recumbent bikes, and 1 upright bike, also weight machines and free weights.

Few tips about the ports, you have been to Cozumel so you know the drill there, but if you have not been to the east cost, I highly recommend renting a car/scooter and taking a trip around the island.

Costa Maya is small where you are dropped off, was hit hard by hurricanes and they are still rebuilding, I recommend doing something here such as taking a taxi to the south its less then 4 miles but the beach is amazing, I do not know what it is called, we went snorkeling here by booking with people in the main port for $20 a person and taxi was $3 down and $2 back. The beach was great, if you feel like a beach day I would do it here for $5 a person.

Santo Tomas has absolutely nothing at the port, it is an industrial district. I highly recommend doing an excursion here threw NCL or threw the people right when you get of the boat (inside the gates). We rented a taxi with 12 other people that happened to want to go as well for $15 each and got it for the whole day. He took us to the local town of Puerto Barrios and showed us the open markets and cemetery's and such, we never got out though don't know how that would fair. The taxi driver didn't seem like it was a good idea. I enjoyed seeing Puerto Barrios just from the car though. The taxi drive then took us to local waterfalls these are the falls that NCL sells an excursion as "Las Escobas Waterfall Voyage" they charge you $69 per person we got to go for a $8 entry fee, on top of renting a taxi for $15 a person, great deal here! If you want to rent a taxi they quoted us $25 each for 2 people or $20 each for 4 people, we just happened to get lucky and get 14 people. The taxi driver we had was good, I would recommend fining 2 people on the ship and go as 4 just for safety, we never felt unsafe though. We did not do it but a couple we knew from the trip went on a boat ride up the local river, they loved it, they did not book it threw NCL. One final tip if you are still reading this, right before the boat sails away go look on the docks, the Guatemalan people all come to sing and dance, all the taxi drivers line up and flash lights 4 ways and honk their horns to say goodbye.

Belize was fun, we booked the Wildlife Adventure threw NCL, so I can not give you any tips on booking your own in port to save money. What I can say is Belize you have to tender too, and if you book with NCL you get off on the first set of tenders so you do not have to wait to go to port. Also a lot of people did Cave Tubing of some sort there is a lot of different versions, they all seemed to be happy as were the people that did the Beach Break, the beach break was on a small island not the mainland. As for the Wildlife adventure, it was a little pricey at $95 a person but we loved it and would do it again. It is a 6 hour excursion where for the first part you take a boat 20 miles up river where on the way they point out wildlife and talk about Belize. We saw manatees, monkeys, crocodiles, bats, many birds, and many green iguanas(the green iguana is almost in mating season so the males have all turned bright orange, very cool to see).

As for the boat, being in four ports is so tiring we mostly relaxed after dinner talking to people so I can not say much for the shows. The one show we did go to was called "The Quest" it was on the last night. We had a great time, bit of caution though, when they say adult content they are not lying, if you are offended by the chance at possible nudity do not go, otherwise we laughed very hard.

There are many dining options, we only ate in the two main dining rooms and Cagney's Stake House. The two main dining rooms always have the same food, so it is where you like best or what is less full. Cagney's was a good meal but we taught the $25 per person cover was two step for what you got. The La Trattoria Italian place was only a $10 cover, we wish we got to try it but ran out of time. I would only recommend other than the main dining rooms if you want something more romantic or different. The food in the main dining rooms was more then enough.

Hope you have a great time, if you get a chance report back, or I will just check your blog too I guess.

[Cortney]

Awesome! Thank you so much!

We're getting nervous about the weather reports - looking cooler and rainier than expected. How was the weather?

We're planning on hitting the beach in Costa Maya. We have an NCL excursion to Las Escobas waterfall in Guatemala and cave tubing through cave-tubing.com in Belize. We're going to Nachi Cocum in Cozumel...

I really appreciate all the great info...

[weitzwb24]

We had sunny days and 70-85F temps the whole week, we really lucked out , our last sea day was about 50F and windy.

I wish you the best of luck, I cant wait to hear about your report when you get home. I will be praying for good weather for you.