My husband and I have cruised 5 times but this was our first with NCL. We were a little apprehensive about freestyle cruising. The embarkation was relatively painless in New York. The parking is conveniently on-site. Almost immediately the freestyle atmosphere is felt from the moment you board. Hint: Lunch is served in the Venetian dining room if you board early enough so don't worry if you get there early. Enjoy this gorgeous dining room! Our room steward said this was his first cruise, but he was terrific! The ship is extremely clean and I cannot overstress how difficult this is to achieve with freestyle cruising. Many cruisers just bring jeans, shorts and t-shirts, that's it and do not use the dining rooms at all. But they must eat in the buffet in order to do this. I did miss the standard formal night for all. Many did dress, but a lot didn't. The ship is a little confusing to find your way around, but it is a beautiful ship. Don't miss taking a peak in the Bistro Restaurant at the original pieces of art by Van Gogh, Monet and others. That alone, for us, was worth the trip. The dining was exceptional. We did not try any of the specialty restaurants as we were perfectly content with the dining room menus each evening. If you are not adventurous in tasting new foods or combos then the buffet and specialty restaurants are for you. We preferred the Venetian dining room and if you fall in love with a particular wait team, ask for them when being seated and the host/hostess will try to accommodate you. Also, the Impressions dining room is beautiful and a little more intimate. Was not impressed with the Aqua restaurant. Wait staff on this ship were terrific and friendly. No bad attitudes found whatsoever.
As far as entertainment goes, the large shows mirrored other ships, except for the first night where a juggler/comedian act totally enthralled the entire audience. Other than that, the hour long gyrating dancer shows get a little stale. On the other hand, the lounge performers were the best we had ever heard. Top acts and we looked forward to seeing them every night. One big criticism we do have with Norwegian is the amount of smoking allowed on the ship. We wanted to see a tribute to Tina Turner in the large Spinnaker's lounge one evening but could not stay due to the haze of cigarettes. We feel that if smoking is allowed in the small lounges, so be it. But not in the larger shows that people may want to bring their children to. We even had to endure smoking during the art auction because it was held in the same lounge. That was a major negative with us.
We did three shore excursions on this trip. Tried the jeep excursion on Grand Bahama island and had a ball. You do feel kind of silly in the jeep convoy on the main highways, but the locals would all stop and let us pass like you would for a funeral convoy. Loved the day on the private island (Great Stirrup Cay). They have a terrific little barbecue and anyone can snorkel as there is a lifeguard posted always keeping track. Only complaint is that they do not offer guided snorkeling tours (even though the NCL description of the snorkeling excursion did state this.)