The Spirit is leased to Tui (Marella) from Louis, a Cypriot company. At the end of its life with Tui it will return to them, either to be sold, scrapped or retained, or even be leased to another company. It could end up being part of the Celestyal fleet.
We really enjoyed our fortnight around the Spanish Coast and even visited a Spanish enclave in Morocco. Highlights for us was a trip to the Alhambra in Granada, and Barcelona.
It was lovely to meet staff who had been on the ship for a long time. Some had even done 15+ years on this ship. We have previously done cruises from Limassol, 5 on the Spirit as last minute bargains and one on the Majesty. The most we ever paid was £250 for a week.
Our first cruise was on the Majesty. It was thanks to someone posting on cyprusliving that we went on it. On the Wednesday before it was due to set sail, it was advertised as £250 per person. By the Friday the price had gone down to £190, so we booked it. That got us hooked and we have been on quite a few since. We did Norway for a fortnight for less than £50 per night, by booking a last minute deal with iglu.
On the Spirit we always had the same cabin stewards, Mary and Sami. Mary was from the Philippines and Sami from Eygpt. On the first day I asked an Egyptian waiter that we knew where they were and I was told they had transferred to another company. However, our new cabin steward looked familiar, and we soon realised that she has been our steward on our first cruise on the Majesty. Nina had come onto the Spirit at the beginning of this season, transferring from the Majesty.
Some of the staff may transfer over to other Tui ships but others wish to remain with Louis. It must be an uncertain time for them.
We met a cyprusliving member, andypandy, on our first cruise on the Spirit. An interesting person to talk to and we wonder if he is still in Cyprus. in the past there were quite a few members or posted about cruises. We think it is fantastic that we can afford to go on a cruise as a few years ago it would have been out of our price range for a holiday.
It would be wonderful if Louis took over the ship again and based it in Cyprus for part of the year.
Finally, a few pictures of the ship and staff. The entertainment team was the best we have seen so far. The crew welcomed pictures to be taken and asked for them to be posted on social media sites.
- IMG_0975 (800 x 449).jpg (104.21 KiB) Viewed 1882 times
- IMG_1249 (800 x 449).jpg (88.11 KiB) Viewed 1892 times
- IMG_1255 (800 x 449).jpg (100.21 KiB) Viewed 1884 times
