I've cruised 3 times before: on the old Big Red Boat, Carnival and Royal Caribbean. All of those are known as "value" priced lines. I was expecting something really special from Norwegian, and was disappointed. Not that it was any worse than the other lines, I just didn't think it was much better, especially for the price.

The low points: Embarkation was chaos. I had heard Norwegian had implemented a better method of embarkation, but if they did, I couldn't tell. (Note: if you drive and plan to park there, even though the website says they take credit cards, they don't. Have enough cash to pay for parking up front.)

Food was still plentiful, but the quality was lacking. If you wanted to have anything decent, you had to pay the extra fee to go to a specialty restaurant. In fact, I got the impression that the standard dining rooms intentionally lowered the quality of their food in order to get guests to pay the additional fee. Also, since dinner was split between so many restaurants, each one had far fewer dishes to choose from, and there was no variation from night to night in the menu choices. The two best were Chin Chin and Cagney's. Le Bistro was a disappointment, and we cancelled our second reservation to go there. While Mama's Kitchen was free, it was also sub-par. I did enjoy the option of dining when you want, and also the tables for two. The room service menu's, however, were very limited, especially for free items. Another silly note: The mojitos are a standard drink on the menu, and they are delightful. However, be sure to ask if they have mint at the bar. One time I waited 20 minutes for my mojito, and just as I had given up, it came and I didn't want it anymore. Apparently the waiter had to visit several other bars to find mint. Also, note that a 15% tip is automatically added to every drink, and if you don't pay close attention you might not notice. It's quite subtle. Read more