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We just returned from our first cruise to Alaska, which was aboard the
Norwegian Spirit. The ship itself is lovely, and Alaska is beautiful. Having
said that, we found the food on the ship to be mediocre to bad, unless you paid
for the specialty restaurants that had a surcharge, or ate in the Blue Lagoon
Café, where you could get made to order items. My husband and I are cruise
agents, and it was our 5th cruise on NCL, and in all probability, our last - if
you haven't already booked, I'd recommend taking a different cruise line. If
you have, then be prepared to either eat in port, or in the Speciality
restaurants. On "formal" night (formal dress is optional), I got the lobster -
and it arrived undercooked, with a black vein running through it (yecch!), and
raw looking claws. Normally, either the maitre'd or the waiter removes it from
the shell; not in this case, which several passengers commented on. So I ended
up sending it back (I've never done that before), and got the beef wellington,
which was okay. The pastries and breads were good, as was the Chocoholic
buffet. I wouldn't recommend the specialty restaurant, La Trattoria, which is
up in the Bistro restaurant - the staff there is Filipino who use Italian
phrases (doesn't suit the mood); they were not courteous, and never asked if we
needed anything once our food arrived (hardly any customers in the area). The
food looked and tasted as if it came out of a Chef Boyardee can, and we only
about a third of it. I ordered the cheese, foccacia bread and fruit to end the
meal and received a few slices of cheese leftover from the lunch buffet, kind of
dry; 5 crackers instead of the listed foccacia bread; and 7 grapes. We also ate
at the buffet restaurant one evening when they were serving an Asian layout -
the items that should have been crisp and dry, like egg rolls, were soggy and
wet.
On a positive note, we found the entertainment throughout the ship to be very
good, and all of my bar drinks were good, especially the pina coladas (on
previous cruises, the quality has occasionally varied from bar to bar). One of
our favorite spots was The Café', a coffee bar / full bar in the atrium, behind
the staircase - great service, great for people watching, and just looking out
at the sea when it was too cold or rainy to stay outside.
To answer your question about the drink card for cokes - I bought about 4 cokes
during our cruise, and they only cost about $1.63 per drink, so unless you plan
on drinking a lot of soft drinks, it might be better to buy them by the glass.
The other thing that was bad was one of the shop clerks in the Columbia Emeralds
gift shop - I took my sister in to look at some tanzanite/diamond earrings that
I was interested in, which matched my wedding ring. As they were somewhat
pricy, I made the comment to my sister that I wouldn't want to pay more for the
earrings than we had spent for the ring. At that point, the sales clerk, Ms.
Casimer, made the comment that the stones in my ring were poor quality. I told
her that I had the ring appraised in Atlanta, and she said the appraisal was
based solely on the diamonds, which it wasn't, and again said that the tanzanite
was poor quality. I then told her that she was speaking of my wedding ring, and
asked if it was the policy of her store to insult the customers' jewelry. I
have addressed this issue with NCL and Columbia Emeralds, but wanted you to be
aware of her rudeness, as it was totally uncalled for.
Having said all of this, we did have a fantastic time on the cruise, because we
were in Alaska, seeing all the wonderful sights, and having all of the great new
experiences. We did not let the above ruin our cruise.
Jane Bresler
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