Have been on about a dozen cruises before and by far this was the most disorganised, overcrowded, and short staffed cruise I've been on. There were poor signs from the start with embarkation taking 2 hours. Hello NCL this is totally unacceptable. The reason why people go on cruise is to get away from this airport like chaos. The ship itself is due for a refurb next year and it certainly shows, as I found it hard to warm to the atmosphere, particularly with the overcrowding and the lack of bar service.

On the first full day's sailing I went to reservations to book our specialty dinners. We had pre purchased an Ultimate Dining Package and liked the idea of the flexibility and variety. However I found that unless you were prepared to eat at 9.30 or later most of the restaurants were booked out for the entire cruise. What's the point of promoting "freestyle dining" if you can't choose anything to close to where and when you planned.

So as a result we ended up at the French restaurant for 4 nights, the Italian for 1, the Brazilian for 2, and the buffet for when we couldn't be bothered for 1. The original plan was to try all 6 specialty restaurants. And the add to my slight annoyance at all of the dinners we went to the restaurants were less than half full. The reason for this was clear - they are so understaffed they were restricting bookings to a level they could cope with. The only saving grace was that the French and Brazilian restaurants were both outstanding. Read more