We hadn’t been with NCL before so took a break with them at the end of March for Sue’s birthday, departing and returning to Barcelona. We tagged on an extra night in Barcelona as we hadn’t been there before and we took the opportunity to use the hop-on hop-off bus to get around. To be fair, we used the bus in a few places to make the most of our time – they’re excellent value and a great way of doing justice to what is really a very short time on shore in any one place.
The pre-cruise was interesting as I was laid up in bed unable to walk – this led to me using a stick to get around Gatwick airport the evening prior to departure and only on the morning of our flight did my foot let me put reasonable pressure on it. However, it improved quickly enough for us to be able to walk up to 8.5 miles a day. I came back lighter than we went.
Norwegian Spirit is an old ship and some things are good, some not so good – best thing is to read comments on Trip Advisor and make your own mind up. There are things you learn which help but you’re not told about in advance, the most annoying thing being the amount you’re charged for shuttle buses to get you from shoreside to city centres – $15 each return – absolutely disgraceful. You’re pretty much consigned to having to use the shuttles as a number of the places we went to, we were berthed at least 5km away from the centre so either you’d have used up a lot of your day just getting there, or alternatively, some of the older folk not as healthy as us wouldn’t have even got there. Anyway, we have learned from that.
Here are a few images from the cruise :-