Let me begin by stating that this was only our second cruise with the first being last summer on the Caribbean Princess, so our frame of reference is with last year's trip in mind. By no way is NCL even in the same ballpark with Princess. The food and service on Princess was absolutely outstanding last year and they really set the bar high for our expectations from Norwegian.
Let's begin with the positives. The meal at Cagney's steakhouse, which we paid extra for, was indeed outstanding. I had a bone-in rib eye and I can say it was one of the best steaks I have ever eaten. However, the service was absolutely terrible. My wife was put off by constantly being called "my lady" by our waiter. They knew the service was poor so they threw in a couple of free lobster tails to make up for it.
Second positive-the day at Great Stirrup Cay was fabulous. The facility is wonderful and is even better than the Princess Cay private island we visited last summer. Nice white sand and clear warm water. Plenty of chairs to sit on. If you want shade without paying for a rented clamshell, you can pull up a couple of chairs under several palm trees. The food for lunch is prepared on the ship and brought over and is not very good (as I will speak to later). We visited with one of the lifeguards, Andrew from South Africa, who was very cordial and friendly.
The cabin was very tiny to say the least. I know you don't spend much time in the cabin except to sleep and shower, but there isn't even enough room to move around to the other side of our bed. The closets had a small safe and about 8 hangars. There was no small dresser or drawers to store clothes such as underwear, t-shirts, or shorts. The ship really shows its age in wear and tear apparent in the cabins.
Nothing really to say except that you'll experience long lines at Customs-which is everywhere isn't it?
We took a cab to the Port Lacaya market. Not much there but your average straw market tourist trap with the usual junk to buy.