Overall, the cruise was good. This was our fourth cruise with Norwegian, and 12th cruise overall, the others being on Royal Caribbean(3), Carnival(4), and MSC(1). The ship and overall experience can be good depending on if you know what you will be getting. It was also nice for us being able to drive to the port instead of flying like we normally do. For our cruise next year we will probably go back to RCCL but would not hesitate to return to NCL if the price, itinerary and ship are right.

Dining: This was our first cruise on Norwegian since 2006, the long break being mainly due to food. After 2006, we swore off all NCL cruises because the food was so bad. However, after seeing this ship and a great itinerary, as well as seeing that NCL revamped their menus in 2014, we decided to give it a go. We're happy that we did. The food is significantly better, and selection much improved. I've never believed in surcharges on cruise ships, so we only tried the complimentary restaurants (Manhattan Room, Taste, Savor, O'sheehans, buffet, and Uptown Grill). Uptown Grill had amazing hamburgers, similar to Guy's burgers on Carnival, and is hidden and not usually too crowded. The buffet had standard issue food (made to order crepe station is delicious). The main dining restaurants were much different than the other cruise lines, in a negative way. The freestyle concept is misleading: if you do not make reservations, you will be waiting at least a half hour at peak times, waiters are generally uncaring as tips do not rely on service (many never even told us their names and disappeared and didn't refill water). However, the food was excellent.

Ship: The ship itself is beautiful, but the fellow passengers can be a different story. Almost every single passenger is from NY, NJ or CT(our home state). The rest seem to come from PA, RI, or MA. Pool chairs were a major issue, even compared with other ships, with many individuals coming out at 5:30am to reserve a chair, then returning to their room and going back to sleep. The one hour reserving chair policy was only enforced the last day of the cruise, and was not explained, resulting in some very entertaining fights between people who thought others stole their seats. For our July 1 cruise there were many people aged 21-26, who seemed nice enough, along with a bunch of families and couples. I'm pretty sure NCL opted for the cheap stabilizers, because the ship rocked more than previous ships on pretty calm water, still not a lot but more than usual. I liked it because it made me realize that I was at sea, but people who get seasick very very easily might want to look more into it. It's pretty negligible but noticeable. Read more