This month I was lucky enough to take a two week cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Spirit, covering an itinerary starting in South Korea and ending in Japan. I will do another post about the cruise in detail but first I wanted to introduce the ship.

Built by Meyer Werft in 1998 as SuperStar Leo for Star Cruises, Norwegian Spirit is the oldest and smallest ship in the Norwegian fleet. However, in 2020, just before the pandemic, Norwegian Spirit had a $100 million refurbishment which significantly modernised the onboard experience.

Norwegian Spirit ended up in the fleet somewhat by accident. A storm led to damage and partial sinking of Pride of America while under construction, SuperStar Leo was transferred from then parent company Star Cruises to cover cruises, while Norwegian Sky was allocated as Pride of Aloha to cover the cruises of Pride of America around Hawaii.

Norwegian Spirit is not a large cruise ship, with a tonnage of only 75,904 GRT and a length just short of 268 meters. The onboard capacity is around 2000, and the ship for our cruise was very popular with singles. Norwegian Spirit does have a sister ship, which was built as SuperStar Virgo, then Explorer Dream for Dream Cruises, later Resorts World One after Star Cruises bankruptcy during the pandemic and currently as Star Navigator for the revived Star Cruises. This design of ship was later evolved and enlarged to be the Norwegian Dawn class and later the Norwegian Jewel class.

The cabin had lots of storage and had been thoroughly refreshed during the 2020 renovations. I had a balcony cabin on single occupancy on Deck 11. The balcony was small but perfectly formed, I used it a lot to sit and read as well as watch the sailaway events. The bathroom too was smart and clean. The cabin was cleaned daily, and my cabin Steward was excellent and always friendly.

Norwegian Spirit is full of bars and restaurants. The ship benefits from two main dining rooms, Windows at the aft of the ship, ending at three huge Windows looking out the stern, and Taste, which is more midships. Both serve the same menus, but personally, I enjoyed the intimacy of Taste more than Windows, which is not what I expected before boarding.

As part of the deal, known as MORE AT SEA, I also got four surcharge restaurants included in my fare, and chose Onda, the Italian, Le Bistro, the french, The Teppanyaki and Cagney’s, the Steakhouse. My favourite was Le Bistro, where the decor of the room, the service and the food stood out. Le Bistro is facing the casino, which made our entertainment afterwards. The Teppanyaki was a great experience and was a form of entertainment we really enjoyed.

Norwegian Spirit has its theatre aft, which is a really unusual design for modern cruise ships, but the sloping seating gave excellent views, the only entertainment I saw here was from local bands and entertainers who had come onboard. For me a later meal with pre- and post-drinks, talking about what we had done in the day and what we had coming up tomorrow was enough entertainment.

My favourite bars were Spinnakers, a huge observation lounge at the front of the ship, which regularly had live music, but I most enjoyed the spaces above the bridge wings that allowed you to look down the length of the ship. At the back of the ship the bar the Great Outdoors gave an excellent view over the adult pool and was the perfect place to Sailaway. On the Top deck, there is Bier Garten, under a tent-like structure, which was perfect when the weather was mild. Later into the night, in front of the Casino is The Social, which was probably the most lively place on board. I also went to Henry’s Pub and Magnums but these were busy and harder to find seating in. Magnums being directly onto the Atrium, which in the 2020 refurbishment gained a huge two storey screen.

The Atrium for me is the beating heart of the ship, and Norwegain Spirit has a very pretty one with it rising all the way up to the pool deck. Located on the lower level is a Starbucks and your usual Guest Services and Shore Excursion desks. Upstairs is the previously mentioned Magnums and some shopping outlets. Sadly this huge two-storey screen is used for things like karaoke and games, which makes the area too loud, but that’s okay as there are plenty of other spaces onboard.

The food onboard was excellent, and I actually only used the buffet a handful of times as the main dining rooms were brilliant and the surcharge dining was spectacular. That being said the food in the buffet was very good.

The ship has two swimming pools, one midships, which is quite large and was often empty at the times I was using it, and one at the ship’s excellent terraced rear, which is the former kids’ pool, so it’s actually quite shallow and more for just cooling down than a good swim. The loungers around this pool were particularly comfortable.

During the ship’s 2020 refurbishment, the kids’ areas were removed and while the ship isn’t adults only, there is very little by way of kids’ spaces onboard. There may have been ten/15 children total on our cruise.

One thing I didn’t mention is the ship’s excellent wrap-around promenade, which was a daily highlight. It was great to be able to go for a walk after a meal, when I had probably eaten too much, or just to stretch my legs in the morning. It also gave an excellent view of the regular portside activities as we were arriving and departing.

Overall I really enjoyed the Norwegian Spirit, I like this size of ship and the onboard style. This was my first cruise with Norwegian and will not be my last. Next week, I will share an in-depth review of the cruise itself.

If you’ve been on Norwegian Spirit I would love to hear about it!

Thanks,

Liam