Norwegian Spirit Return!

We returned late last night from our Norwegian Spirit cruise to Costa Maya,
Guatemala, Belize, and Cozumel. We had a very enjoyable cruise and were
extremely surprised about how good the food and the service were...It was
far from all the negative things that we had been hearing about NCL. The
only complaint was that more than 1/3 of the ship's passengers were small
and mid-size children with teens, high school and a few college aged kids
mixed in. That meant that many of the parents thought the cruise was a baby
sitting service. That meant a lot of running in the halls...even in the
buffet.... plus elevator games.
Even some of the responsible parents complained.. The first two days were
the worst, but then I think Security stepped in and things calmed down quite
a bit. The moral of the story is: Try not to cruise too soon after Christmas
and over New Year's. We still had a great time and as soon as I catch up on
reading all the snail mail and doing all the laundry, I will post a summary.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!
It will be a cold night in San Antonio...27 degrees is predicted! Brrrrrr!

--Jean

On 1/4/2010 9:01 PM, Jean O'Boyle wrote:
We returned late last night from our Norwegian Spirit cruise to Costa Maya,
Guatemala, Belize, and Cozumel. We had a very enjoyable cruise and were
extremely surprised about how good the food and the service were...It was
far from all the negative things that we had been hearing about NCL. The
only complaint was that more than 1/3 of the ship's passengers were small
and mid-size children with teens, high school and a few college aged kids
mixed in. That meant that many of the parents thought the cruise was a baby
sitting service. That meant a lot of running in the halls...even in the
buffet.... plus elevator games.
Even some of the responsible parents complained.. The first two days were
the worst, but then I think Security stepped in and things calmed down quite
a bit. The moral of the story is: Try not to cruise too soon after Christmas
and over New Year's. We still had a great time and as soon as I catch up on
reading all the snail mail and doing all the laundry, I will post a summary.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!
It will be a cold night in San Antonio...27 degrees is predicted! Brrrrrr!

--Jean


I'll take your 27 degrees if you'll take our 2 degrees, with an even
lower wind chill!!! Welcome back.

Marsha

"Marsha" wrote in message ...
..
I'll take your 27 degrees if you'll take our 2 degrees, with an even lower
wind chill!!! Welcome back.

Marsha


OH, MARSHA! No thanks! 27 is bad enough!!!! Where do you live? Double
Brrrrrr for you! Thanks for the welcome back and stay well and warm!
--Jean

I second marsha's reply,brrrrrr. baby it's cold here





cruise lover(~~~~~)






..

On 1/4/2010 9:01 PM, Jean O'Boyle wrote:
The moral of the story is: Try not to cruise too soon after Christmas
and over New Year's.

Shouldn't it have been obvious that if you cruise on a mass market line
like NCL during Christmas week that the ship would be full of kids??? I
don't like unruly kids either but I don't understand your comment about
the "many of the parents thought the cruise was a baby sitting service".
Were you expecting the kids to stay with their parents all day? The real
issue that the kids were not supervised and the parents didn't care. Or
maybe NCL didn't have enough activities to keep them otherwise occupied.

But the bottom line is if you didn't want to be on a ship full of kids,
you should have waited until after the holidays were over.

Bill

"Bill" wrote in message
...
On 1/4/2010 9:01 PM, Jean O'Boyle wrote:
The moral of the story is: Try not to cruise too soon after Christmas
and over New Year's.

Shouldn't it have been obvious that if you cruise on a mass market line
like NCL during Christmas week that the ship would be full of kids??? I
don't like unruly kids either but I don't understand your comment about
the "many of the parents thought the cruise was a baby sitting service".
Were you expecting the kids to stay with their parents all day? The real
issue that the kids were not supervised and the parents didn't care. Or
maybe NCL didn't have enough activities to keep them otherwise occupied.

But the bottom line is if you didn't want to be on a ship full of kids,
you should have waited until after the holidays were over.

Bill

Bill, I see you are your usual pleasant self.
1. It was our 49th cruise and we have cruised during every month of the
year, so we don't need your advice as to when to take one. As it happened,
it was the only time of the year that one of our children could get away
from his medical research and being an avid scuba diver, we took this cruise
during that particular time for our first time; thus my remark about the
moral of the story.

2. The feeling like being a baby sitter statement was made by an exasperated
crew member who was constantly asking children to stop running up and down
the hallways...In between that, there were elevators that were out of use
because a group of children would get on one and a group on another and see
who could get to a certain level first...the doors would open, the kids
peeked out and then spying the other group, would select another deck to get
to first while people were standing waiting for elevators...If you don't
call this "baby sitting" by the crew, I disagree...Apparently after numerous
complaints, Security started monitoring that area closely and it pretty much
stopped...It was a case of unruly children whose parents are off doing their
own thing and expecting the crew to take over and look after their kids. It
is irresponsible and dangerous.

One about ten years old, while running, ran into a woman carrying coffee;
another group of four with their parents sitting right there, were doing
somersaults in the buffet; which came to an abrupt stop when the 5-6 yr.old
struck a little toddler who was at another table, but standing by and
watching, in the head with his feet. The adults members never apologized.or
said a word...just sat there while it became very quiet...for about 3
minutes..You never know who your fellow passengers are...there could be
child predators on board for all you know, why think that a ship is a safe
haven for children off on their own?

We were phoned on the next to last day of our cruise and asked how we
enjoyed our cruise and if we had any suggestions or complaints. I told her
that we had had a very enjoyable cruise; listing all the things that had
impressed us and that our only complaint was the unattended and unruly
children. She replied that it was the single largest complaint they had had
and that some of the parents were talked to but it seemed useless as they
had to speak to some of them several times.

I love children...have five of my own, but when we went on a cruise as a
family, grandchildren and all, we did things as a family or had them
enrolled in activities. The teens had frequent scheduled reporting times and
set curfews when they weren't with an adult member of the family.. The NCL
Spirit has a lovely children's pool and hot tub and organized activities
plus video games so they certainly cannot be blamed...they tried.

--Jean

Jean O'Boyle wrote:
"Bill" wrote in message
...
On 1/4/2010 9:01 PM, Jean O'Boyle wrote:
The moral of the story is: Try not to cruise too soon after Christmas
and over New Year's.
Shouldn't it have been obvious that if you cruise on a mass market line
like NCL during Christmas week that the ship would be full of kids??? I
don't like unruly kids either but I don't understand your comment about
the "many of the parents thought the cruise was a baby sitting service".
Were you expecting the kids to stay with their parents all day? The real
issue that the kids were not supervised and the parents didn't care. Or
maybe NCL didn't have enough activities to keep them otherwise occupied.

But the bottom line is if you didn't want to be on a ship full of kids,
you should have waited until after the holidays were over.

Bill

Bill, I see you are your usual pleasant self.
1. It was our 49th cruise and we have cruised during every month of the
year, so we don't need your advice as to when to take one. As it happened,
it was the only time of the year that one of our children could get away
from his medical research and being an avid scuba diver, we took this cruise
during that particular time for our first time; thus my remark about the
moral of the story.

I think you and Bill agree, though Bill claims you should have expected
what you got. But apart from the unruly kids, apparently you were
surprised by better than expected service and food. How do service and
food compare to Oceania, Celebrity and HAL? Do your comments apply to
the food in the two main dining rooms? Is it no longer true that you are
more or less forced to go to one of the many service-charge restaurants
to have a decent meal?

Jean O'Boyle wrote:
We returned late last night from our Norwegian Spirit cruise to Costa Maya,
Guatemala, Belize, and Cozumel. We had a very enjoyable cruise and were
extremely surprised about how good the food and the service were...It was
far from all the negative things that we had been hearing about NCL. The
only complaint was that more than 1/3 of the ship's passengers were small
and mid-size children with teens, high school and a few college aged kids
mixed in. That meant that many of the parents thought the cruise was a baby
sitting service. That meant a lot of running in the halls...even in the
buffet.... plus elevator games.
Even some of the responsible parents complained.. The first two days were
the worst, but then I think Security stepped in and things calmed down quite
a bit. The moral of the story is: Try not to cruise too soon after Christmas
and over New Year's. We still had a great time and as soon as I catch up on
reading all the snail mail and doing all the laundry, I will post a summary.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!
It will be a cold night in San Antonio...27 degrees is predicted! Brrrrrr!

Welcome home Jean, sounds like a good cruise overall. I am wondering did
you eat only in the main dining room or did you try some of the other
restaurants on the ship?

sue

Cruise Crazy wrote:

We will be on Regent Seven Seas Navigator in a few weeks and will be
going to Costa Maya. All the excursions seem to be water related and
since my husband has skin cancer, we wondered what else there is to do
there. What did you do?

Check and see if there are any excursions to Mayan Ruins. They used to
have them from Costa Maya, but I don't know if they continued with them
after rebuilding.

sue

"peter" wrote in message
...
Jean O'Boyle wrote:
"Bill" wrote in message
...
On 1/4/2010 9:01 PM, Jean O'Boyle wrote:
The moral of the story is: Try not to cruise too soon after Christmas
and over New Year's.
Shouldn't it have been obvious that if you cruise on a mass market line
like NCL during Christmas week that the ship would be full of kids??? I
don't like unruly kids either but I don't understand your comment about
the "many of the parents thought the cruise was a baby sitting service".
Were you expecting the kids to stay with their parents all day? The real
issue that the kids were not supervised and the parents didn't care. Or
maybe NCL didn't have enough activities to keep them otherwise occupied.

But the bottom line is if you didn't want to be on a ship full of kids,
you should have waited until after the holidays were over.

Bill

Bill, I see you are your usual pleasant self.
1. It was our 49th cruise and we have cruised during every month of the
year, so we don't need your advice as to when to take one. As it
happened, it was the only time of the year that one of our children could
get away from his medical research and being an avid scuba diver, we took
this cruise during that particular time for our first time; thus my
remark about the moral of the story.

I think you and Bill agree, though Bill claims you should have expected
what you got. But apart from the unruly kids, apparently you were
surprised by better than expected service and food. How do service and
food compare to Oceania, Celebrity and HAL? Do your comments apply to the
food in the two main dining rooms? Is it no longer true that you are more
or less forced to go to one of the many service-charge restaurants to have
a decent meal?

Hi Peter,
I feel that Bill comes off as curt and critical in his posts to most
everyone on this group.
Of course I expected families with children during this time of the year,
but not as many with the economy as it is. The cruises tend to be higher
priced during that period of time and it was disturbing that so many of the
youth were not supervised and were so disruptive.

The food, especially in the buffet, compared very well with Celebrity and
HAL....not quite Oceania but much better than on RCL. I realize that
tastes in food are subjective.
I was surprised that they had two Eggs Made to Order Stations and saw many
scrumptious combinations of omelets. The ingredients were of a good variety
and in bowls from which you could choose whatever you wanted. They also had
Eggs Benedict. There was French toast, waffles, pancakes with toppings of
strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, a banana compote that was simply
delicious ( I chose it everytime) and whipped cream. It was the first cruise
that we have taken that they had peanut butter along with different jellies
and jams next to the toast and bagel area. They had smoked salmon and bagels
every morning and lots of fresh fruit...cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, a
bowl of cut up fresh fruit that included grapes, along with peaches,
apricots which were of a canned variety. They had bowls of dates, figs,
prunes (both dried and fresh) along with dried fruit assortment of apple
rings and apricots. The scrambled eggs were prepared nicely...not real dry
as they often are on cruises. The coffee was very good...Ed thought it to be
the best coffee he had ever had on any other cruise that we have taken.. I'm
not a coffee drinker, except for a cup in the morning, but this time I had
two cups each morning and some at night...They had orange, cranberry and
apple juice from the machine along with skim, regular and half and half
milks and creams. Also packets of hot chocolate and different teas.
A separate station made fresh carrot juice, celery juice, watermelon juice,
fresh orange juice, tomato and some different fresh fruits alone or mixed.
There were bowls of different vegetables and fruits that you could choose
from for them to blend together right in front of you...a made to order
drink.

The service varied from very good, as our cabin stewards, to from good to
mediocre, depending where and when you were eating. The buffet food always
was very good. Sometimes I think that prepaid tipping brings out the slacker
in the not too ambitious . What makes me think that is because of the
different service levels that we encountered...

The food in the dining room was also quite good...escargot, delicious French
onion soup, cold soups and the sirloin steak was also very good. We did
think the variety of dishes could have been more, but we always were able to
choose something that we liked...there was a menu that was available every
night if you did not like anything that they offered for that specific
night. We ate in Cagney's Steakhouse on New Year's Eve and the steak I had
there was comparable to the one I had had in The Windows Dining Room, one of
the main dining rooms. The service in Cagney's was impeccable but too much
food! I could not begin to finish it all. The shrimp cocktails in the dining
rooms were tiny tasteless ones. The shrimp cocktail in Cagney's was
humongous! At least five inches in length...no exaggeration...never saw
shrimp that size..even those from the Gulf in Texas!

Of all the restaurants, including The Garden Room, (the other main dining
room) my favorites were The Windows and Raffles (the buffet) They also had
a 24 hr. restaurant, the Blue Lagoon, that served many varieties of food
consisting of hamburgers and fries, different soups and chili as well as
some Asian food. That place was packed every time we went by and it was
right next to the Sports Bar which also had tables that were being served
with dishes from the Blue Lagoon.
And in answer to your last question, no, we did not have to go to a
specialty restaurant to get good food.

Got carried away and almost wrote my entire cruise report...sorry!
--Jean