I am a fairly new cruiser. I went on a 3 day cruise with Royal Caribbean in January and became addicted! I subsequently booked 3 more cruises for the year. Thank God, I booked the other 2 with Royal Caribbean because they are the gold standard. I waited too late to book my birthday cruise in March and being Spring Break as well, prices were literally an arm and a leg. However, Norwegian seemed like the cheapest offer based on my travel agents pricing. And it included an ultimate beverage package with a balcony room on a new ship, so I'm thinking win/win. Boy was I wrong!

The first thing Norwegian does wrong is embarkment. My God! Can you say stress? (Yes, the first of many stressors.) more waiting, followed by more waiting. Every step of getting onboard is like pulling teeth. And the beginning of realizing the staff know NOTHING! I swear if you ask any Norwegian employee anything too complex they smile nervously and blink. Like is that standard Norwegian policy taught in orientation?

We get onboard and rooms which were suppose to be ready by 1-1:30 weren't ready until after 2. Not terrible or too bad, we'll just have a drink and get food. We'll revisit the drink later. Bags get there around 8 pm. -_- The food was okay I'm the buffet. But I realized it was to encourage dining in speciality restaurants. However the food in the main dining was exceptional! Like really good! And the menu had finer foods but generous portions that for a lesser refined palette like mine, still was tasty. (My hubby and mom are chefs and I can eat cheese pizza and mango smoothies for the rest of my life.) Drinks were the best thing on the cruise. We found the best bartenders and they took great care of us! Water slides were fun too and lines were never super crowded. And we had nice destinations, Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios, Cozumel & Stirrup Cay. Read more