My husband and I planned to go to a friend's Superbowl party and visit family in Florida in January to get away from the cold in the Northeast. We decided to add a relaxing cruise to our getaway. Five years prior, our large family had taken an NCL cruise from NY to Bermuda and did not have a great experience due to the LONG wait times for "free style dining" and very poor dining room service. We figured we'd give NCL since there was a special upgrade deal and onboard credit offer when we were looking to book a cruise which seemed to good to be true ($199 for 4 nights plus onboard credit).

We had a mid ship cabin on the 9th floor which was quite small but adequate to meet our sleeping and showering needs, and it was nice and quiet at night. Our cabin steward provided exceptional service. Beach towels were provided and exchanged daily which allowed one less thing to pack. We ate in the main dining rooms two nights where the service was great and we had no trouble walking in at the time we preferred and getting a table as long as we were willing to sit with other people. The first night we enjoyed the surf-n-turf dinner. The lobster tails were good size Maine lobster tails. In general we thought the portions were quite small, but you can order as many courses and dinners as you like so we did not starve. We ate in Le Bistro one night and were extremely disappointed in our meals. Our last night we ate at Cagney's which was great; the service was spectacular and the meals were top notch.

The sail away parties were a lot of fun. There was always a band and some type of BBQ or taco bar offered. We did not have any trouble finding chairs. Read more