Customer Service/Embarkation/Disembarkation----The day before the cruise, my wife turned to me and said.........hey we never got any luggage tags or booking information from Norwegian, why I have no clue? I called them that night and was told to go online and print the information from the NCL web site, when I told the agent I had a computer virus and that the printer hook up was not working on my computer, I was told that I should go to a friends house and get a copy of my NCL booking from their computer (it was 10pm, so that wasn't happening). I was further told I needed the information at the dock or it would be a problem. This information didn't sound right to me so I called back and got someone else who told me to copy our information down and bring it to the dock along with our ID. At the dock it was confusing many people were there with no official booking information. NCL personal at the dock were saying that NCL is moving towards having people print their own information by computer because it's more convenient Well I don't know about that there were a lot of confused people upon entering the terminal but after your information is verified and you are directed to the correct lines we got through everything in about an 70 minutes which wasn't all that bad. Disembarkation We did the express carry off your own bags which I recommend to anyone who is physically able to do this. It is a bit of a hike to the front of the terminal but this is one thing NCL has right. Need a taxi ?...if there are long waits for taxi's on the terminal side of the port -trust me on this one- cross the street there is a taxi stand there, it will be on your right hand side. Start to finish 40 minutes because of Custom inspections. For those of you who have flights watch it.... Its up to you to go to the information desk before you disembark and get colored luggage tags. Remember color is also how you are disembarked from the ship so basically you are in charge of getting the color you need to coordinate it with your flights departure time. People who showed up later in the evening were told that certain color tags were no longer available. Passengers went into a rages stating they had early fights. Hum that doesn't sound like a vacation to me thats just added stress. Cruise lines normally match your disembarkation times to your flight schedule for you so you don't have to worry.

Ship Info/Staterooms-The ship is beautiful but tricky to navigate around. We had a mini suite which was spacious which had a bathtub/shower, beware the mini bar the prices are outrageous. Norwegian Cruise Line-Past posters from the 2/08 DATE WERE ON THE MONEY WITH THEIR COMMENTS ABOUT NCL. We will probably not be using NCL again because of the overall results of our trip. NCL it seems cares more about money and time constraints then costumer satisfaction. This became clearer and clearer as the trip wore on.NCL sought of shakes you down as the trip goes along as I will go on to explain in the pricing section and dining section. I would totally rather go on Royal Caribbean next time and pay more for my cabin then have NCL try to string money out of you and your loved ones while you are trying to relax and have a vacation. Service/Dining- I have never had so many negative encounters with cruise personal on a cruise in my life. Many of there workers just seem to go through the motion of serving you. Workers were rude, you couldn't find a worker for a cocktail on the pool deck, casino area. We ate at the Grand Pacific one night the meal took 2 hours to complete and we were never offered coffee with our dessert. Why didn't I ask someone for coffee because I could find him so after 5 minutes I gave up. There were no more two hour dinners for me on this cruise. when you don't get good service what do you do? I'll tell you what you do, you go take your tip money back. Well, there was questioning and batting of the eyes by the worker at the help desk. So I took the time to explain the meaning of the word TIP to her. Meaning I don't pay your salary and I am taking my tip money which I never authorized you to charge me...Back!!!Oh this must happen often because NCL now only allows you to pull your tip money back on the last day of the cruise you Can't do it before that... Hey we are not cheap- Ten dollar tip to every waiter that served us in the pay for restaurants which when you go to by the way they give u a menu which now gets you in the mood for what you want to eat (This is the shake down I can stand about NCL) my wife and I plan the food we want for each course. Waiter comes back and since we pick the Chateaubriand for two, informs us 10 more dollars per person on top of the 25 we were already paying per person to dine in Le Bistro-that now equals 35 per person plus drinks 120 dollar night on our vacation!!!!!Same deal in the Teppanyaki restaurant for the surf and turf. The blue lagoon is nice for a late nice snack and the service there was great. Guess who got tipped:)The taste of the food on the ship was very good, without the food the trip might have been a total bust. Our cabin steward and asst. were excellent, they got most of the tip money we took back. People who work deserve the tips and shouldn't suffer for others downfalls. Casino-Slot players beware tight slots!!!! You have a chance maybe to hit something on the last night. There was one 20,000 winner who was playing a twenty-five dollar a pull joker poker. Money goes to money As for the rest of the casino tight also, a lot of big losers walking around sharing stories. I will go into depth here a bit because my wife and I enjoy casinos and losing money we kind of expect to do, but here the bottom line is they don't know how to run their casino. Three days they want you to try and qualify into their blackjack and slot finals where only 6 people make the finals for each event. There is one 500 dollar prize to the winner of each tournament on the final day. So therefore they collect entries for three days and give the costumer back only 1 five hundred dollar prize for each contest. Royal Caribbean Has a winner each day and sometime even three places 1st, 2nd and 3rd it has a contest which means more sharing. Some money for the ship some for the costumer-which equals fun for the slot player and card players, not here. Texas holdem tournament 60 entry fee- I play holdem--- well then there is 30$ rebuys for an hour and 15 minutes and then after all that we are battling each other for several hours the last 10 of us sat at the final table. Well, the ship had the slot tournament coming up in 30 minutes so as per their rules they tried to make the blinds from 1/2 thousand to 5/10 in one jump which was putting the table chip leader all in right off the bat 1st hand. We all protested and said what about 3/6 we asked them. They told us there is nothing we can do for u guys and basically told us we can care less that you guys are having a good time on vacation and enjoying yourselves. So the ten of us took matter into our own hands and decided to split the 3800 in winning rather then live by their stupid rules. When ten people who are competitive decide to split a pot-there is something wrong!!!! We all didn't join the tournament they held the following Friday, nor did I join any of the our tournaments they had throughout the rest of the cruise. By the way I love tournaments!!!!!!!.A girl by the name of Divina in the casino, very rude on different occasions making inappropriate statements and it was a conversation that she had no business being in so I gently put her in her place) this argument carried over when she came to the craps table and told me I was not allowed to shake the dice in my hand before throwing them. Since i never played craps before I asked her why after playing and losing for the last 2 hours was this now brought to my attention since I won a big twenty dollars back while rolling -she told me its against the rules you can't do it raising her voice, i cashed out and left. Later in the cruise I found a big casino boss walking on the floor who then told me that she was incorrect in her statement and that the dice were allowed to be juggled in you hand before releasing them. Bottom line the casino is a wreck- Holdem players they have a 1/2 no limit game 10% RAKE but atleast u play with follow passengers which is fun. NCL's workers were a big part of our dissatisfaction in this cruise. The cruise lines poor planning and relationship with there customers are far behind other cruise lines. After bring up problems to crew members it was more like why are you bothering me then hey lets work on this and get it fixed. We will opt for other lines in the future.