Norwegian Star Mexico Riviera 2/5/06

Before I booked the cruise I had concerns. Can a person who loves mid-size ships and traditional cruising find happiness going freestyle on a large ship? Am I going to miss the set dinner hours and the security of knowing with whom Im dining each night? Will the service be impersonal and reservations impossible to come by? Will the food in the specialty restaurants be worth the extra money? If you like a review that is one paragraph long the answers are: yes, no, no and definitely yes. If you interested in more detail, read on.

Ive done just under 20 cruises on the major standard, premium and several of the luxury cruise lines. On my last two cruises with Holland America and Celebrity I ended up changing tables because of (how does one say this nicely?) less than desirable tablemates. That is the risk with traditional cruising; bad assigned tablemates can make a cruise a miserable experience. While its not the end of the world to move tables, I always felt sort of guilty about it, hiding from the people at my former table the best I could the rest of the cruise. With freestyle I theorized I could control my own destiny, and that of my friend who was a first time cruiser. Read more