I am a great fan of NCL, well I should say I used to be then I found that they started to go downhill and tried RCI, Holland America, MSC and celebrity. I sailed back on NCL in September on Jade from Venice and had such an amazing time that I decided to go with them again from Barcelona for Christmas with my husband and Mother. Unfortunately the weather wasn't with us for the first 2 days and we had to reverse our itinerary so that we would have a more comfortable cruise. The captain was marvellous and all the crew having to change everything that had been planned, and the sailing was much better than it would have been. Of course you always get those people who love to moan, mainly because they have booked there excursions in advance with outside companies. I guess this would be worrying but all ships let the ports know and news soon gets round and usually all tours go off without a fault.

Well lets get onto the cruise itself. The service and the food , was one of the best I have recently received, but if I had not had an all inclusive drinks package, I would have been mad about the service taxes that NCL is now charging being in Spanish and European waters. I have never seen these type of charges before and would guess that the end f the bill might well be a lot extra. This wasn't just on drinks but anything you bought on the ship, so making the duty free shops not duty free at all.

Spirit is a lovely clean ship and has had the majority of areas re furbished , the shower was the biggest I've been in for an inside cabin. some suites on other cruise lines are smaller. I do get angry though that they still advertise an inside lap pool in the spa, when there isn't even any whirlpools. Don't waste your money on fillers for any frown lines as it just doesn't work and the 18% service charge makes it extremely expensive ! Lol ( just wanted to look fresher for Christmas day) I wish NCL would splash out some cash for retractable roofs on the pools, as they are spreading out into north Europe , and when it is cold you just cant spend anytime enjoying the pool area. Read more