Spirit Cruises operates in eight major cities along the East Coast, and they offer Valentine’s Day cruises in every one of them (with the exception of Boston this year because of ship renovations). You can therefore take Valentine’s Day cruises in Baltimore, Washington DC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Norfolk, New York, New Jersey, and (normally) Boston. Spirit Cruises is therefore a major Valentine’s Day cruise provider, and along with Hornblower it is probably one of the two largest providers in the United States. Below we give an overview of Spirit Valentine’s Day cruises, explaining what is available and how you can go about booking one.
The Valentine’s Day cruises in each city vary, but every location has at least one dinner cruise. Dinner cruises are definitely the most common type of Valentine’s Day cruise, although in some cities Spirit also has “early dinner cruises” (from 3:30 to 5:30 PM) and even offers a few lunch cruises (noon to 2:00 PM). (We noted in our article about Valentine’s Day brunch cruises that you rarely see holidays that are celebrated with breakfast or lunch, and that instead brunch seems to be favored alternative to dinner, but Spirit bucks the trend, although they too offer a brunch cruise in Norfolk.) The dinner cruises all last three hours and most start at 7:00 PM, although a couple start at 7:30 PM and one (in Baltimore) starts at 6:00 PM. Essentially all of the Spirit Valentine’s Day cruises feature meals that are served as buffets, and in fact the only non-meal cruise we could find was a late-night sailing in Norfolk from midnight to 2:00 AM. Most of cruises are, not surprisingly, on February 14th, but in a few cities there are cruises on the 13th, and the brunch cruise in Norfolk is on the 15th. The prices for these cruises varies fairly widely, but in general you can expect to spend somewhere around $50 per person for a non-dinner cruise, and you’ll probably spend at least double on a dinner cruise.
What we have said so far is of course just a smattering of details, and if you want the specifics, you’ll have to visit the Spirit Cruises website. On this site page, you’ll see a drop-down menu that lists the name of every city Spirit Cruises operates in. (Note that New York and New Jersey are grouped together under “New York Metro,” and in general both cities are for the most part treated as one entity by Spirit, even though the NYC cruises depart from a different port than the New Jersey cruises.) Once you select a name, you’ll be brought to a page that lists information about all the Spirit cruises out of that city. If you are on the site sometime around Valentine’s Day, there will be some information prominently posted about Valentine’s Day cruises in whatever city you selected. If not, you can hover over the “Cruises & Promotions” tab, and this will bring up a list of all their specialty cruises, including Valentine’s Day cruises. When you click on “Valentine’s Day Weekend Cruises,” you’ll see a list of all possible cruises, and a link below each listing to book online. The overall Spirit Cruises site is quite well organized and easy to use, so we trust you won’t have much trouble finding your way around and booking a cruise.
If you live in any of the large East Coast cities mentioned above and you are looking for something beyond a simple dinner out, a Valentine’s Day cruise is a good option to consider. You can still get a good meal and have a few drinks, but you get to do it while sailing on the water looking at the night skyline. For other ideas, check out our more general article on Valentine’s Day cruises.
