My dad’s cruise on the NCL Spirit

We went on the NCL Spirit on the 6th March for a 10 night cruise. The cruise started in Barcelona, called at various ports in Spain, Madeira and the Canary Islands before returning to Barcelona. My first and overall comment is that this cruise was fantastic. My opinion was probably influenced by the fact that the weather was lovely – warm and sunny with calm seas – for virtually the whole cruise, nevertheless the whole experience was great as I will explain below.

We went to Barcelona a day early, so as to have a night in the city. This was a good decision, and I would recommend anyone to spend at least one day there before the cruise – a beautiful and very interesting city, though take care. It would seem that it’s Europe’s pick pocket capital! We did meet one poor lady who had her bag snatched. Don’t let it put you off going, but do take care.

The port was just a short taxi ride from the hotel and checking- in at the ship could not have been easier. The bags were taken to your cabin for you and we were pleasantly surprised by the size of our stateroom. We had an outside one with a window. It had all the usual necessities but most importantly a quite large shower cubical in the bathroom with a very powerful shower and plenty of hot water!! Our only slight disappointment was that there were no drink-making facilities in our stateroom, though I understand they did have these in the balcony rooms. I loved the size of this particular ship. A medium sized vessel, it was large enough to have ample facilities and small enough to be friendly. We often bumped into people that we had chatted with before, which was nice, and made some new friends.

We had booked both the ultimate beverage package and the ultimate dining package. I found it a bit of a weird idea that you have to take your room cards, firstly to where one would book a drinks package on the ship in order to get a little sticker on your cards, then secondly over to where you would book a specialist restaurant to get another little sticker on your cards. With everything else being so well organised you would have thought these stickers would have been put onto your room cards on checking in? Never mind.

From now on the whole cruise was just plain sailing. Ha-ha. At each port there were several coaches ready to take you into the resorts and bring you back. All the staff on board ship were excellent, without exception. There was a fine selection of drinks, all included with the drinks package. The restaurants were amongst the best that I have ever eaten in, and I have eaten in some of the best. My favourites were the steaks at Cagney’s and the lobster in the French bistro, but we were spoilt for choice. You could not fault the cuisine in any of the restaurants.

I regret to say that we did not go to see a show. We should have done, but we’re having far too good a time with the live entertainment in all of the various bars on the ship we just couldn’t spare the time! When we arrived back at Barcelona my only regret was that we could not stay on the ship and go around again.

I would like to extend a special thanks to our room steward Bayu (who was brilliant) and Jocelyn Lanoria our favourite bar tender.

Ready for the next one now Richard!!