If you're cruising out of L.A. (San Pedro) try the Holiday Inn San Pedro one mile from the docks. Catch the Blue Shuttle ($17 one way) from LAX to the hotel door. Holiday Inn okay. Has a shuttle ($5.) or take a taxi ($7.85.) to docks. Breakfast quite good and the ambiance of the breakfast room is 16th century Spanish which fits in well with San Pedro. For dinner the night before try The Acapulco restaurant (about a mile walk). The food is fabulous and so is the view. Good service. When we left the cruise port on NCL we could see the Acapulco perched on the dock.

That enjoyable meal made the food on NCL all the more wretched. Left dining room twice from dinner after waiting an hour to be seated the food was so bad. Cafeteria food on 12th deck worse. Room service 24/7 but manager told me food was frozen and pre-packaged so take what you get. Even McDonald's lets me have food 'my way' and this is worse food and served 'their way'. You know the food is bad when conversations start spontaneously with "What do you think of the food on this cruise"? Susan from Georgia summed it up best when she said: "we all went to the trough". Is it possible the food is wretched to force people to eat at one of the 10 specialty restaurants? I ask because on the inhouse NCL TV the ad says: "If you want BETTER food" go to one of our specialty restaurants. These cost $15 to $25 extra.

While I'm told I can eat anytime. The dining room hours are: 6:60 to 9:30 am, noon to 1:30 and 5:30 to 10 pm. They don't take reservations but don't try to avoid the line-ups by going at 5 pm because groups of 10 or more have reservations and one waits for 1/2 hour to 1 hour anyway before entering. Line-ups in dining room every night. Cafeteria food inedible, however, one can get a fresh ceasar salad, however, don't show up after 3 pm after shore excursions looking for lunch. Closed. Breakfast ends at 10:30. On other cruise lines the hours of operation are clearly stated and the food is great. Carnival is in the same price range but the staterooms are bigger and the food is much, much better. Holland America and Royal Caribbean are more expensive but the service is unbeatable and so is the food. Princess left the same LA port as NCL and visited the same ports in Mexico. Their food and service is better, too. Read more