Background: This was my third time cruising (but first time with NCL). In my party of 9, my bf and I were the only experienced cruisers. We picked this ship because of its price and also the itinerary where we had never been before. Freestyle Cruising was another reason why we picked this cruise (my dad hated to wear suits). I had 3 seniors in my party and 4 young adults.

Embarkation: Well, among my experiences, this was not the worst but it was not nice neither. I took 2 taxis to get to the pier from the LAX airport. It was quite freaky that the taxis went on different ways on the highway. My taxi driver told me that the other one went on the wrong way, but actually, he was the one heading to the Long Beach pier (I saw the Long Beach road sign, but I didn't know the road in LA). After we struggled a little and called my bf (he was on another taxi) back and forth, we were back on track. Not to mention his driving style, I would thank god for arriving the pier all in one piece. We arrived at 1:30pm and spent about an hour for the line-up. I guess it was normal. The only complaint I had at this point was there was NO air circulation (I am not asking for air conditioning) in the hall at all. And later on, we found that there was a couple in our party got their pictures switched on their sea pass and it created quite a bit trouble when it got to the port-of-calls.

Dining: I would say it was the WORST out of my travel experience (even worse than those all-inclusive resorts). From the service to the appearance of the food and to the taste, it was the WORST! The service was extremely slow, which made us missed 2 shows. We went down to the AQUA at 5:30pm (once it opens) and we were still waiting for our desserts at 7:40pm. When we mentioned (not complaint) to our server, she told us that if we were rushing for a show, we should inform them in advance. After I informed her that we were in a hurry, she brought us our desserts in 10 minutes. My grandpa ordered a chocolate ice-cream and it was ALL melted. I am not exaggerating it and I really hope that I can post a picture here. I took a picture of it and showed it to the front desk staffs, they all guessed it was a mousse or milk shake. It really ruined our appetite and it might cause sickness with melted ice-cream. On the other day, we had breakfast in the main dining, we were left alone for more than 1 hour after we placed the order, with no coffee, no tea, no bread at all. We did not say anything to them until we got our first dish which was a WRONG order. The server ran away after he put down the first 2 dishes. We stared at the plates and another server came over to ask us if we needed help. I told him that those were not our order. Then he took them away, actually aside, to the dirty dish table. We were left alone again for another 30 minutes and we were unattended at all. I tried call our server and he looked away and pretended he did not see me. After the second server talked to their supervisor, we finally got our order and they sent 3 servers to serve our table (but the first one disappeared!) I didn't complain about it right away since I did not want to ruin our day. Blue Lagoon was great but the oil got old and dark after the 4th day. Market Cafe was a bit smelly and we did not visit too much. I wanted to try the Sushi bar but after I tried the so-called "hand-roll" at the main dining, I would save my money for a real Japanese meal when I come back to Toronto. I think it is a problem created by the freestyle cruising. In the traditional cruise trip, servers always know that customers need to attend to the show and the time management should be well controlled. Cabin: Our room steward was nice and hard working but the equipment in the room were aging. There were marks on the blankets and beach towels. That was pretty nasty. It was weird that they did not put away the ladder of the upper bunk for us when they cleaned the room (Royal and Carnival did). That was not a big deal anyways. Read more