The problems began on the day of embarkation. I had a cabin with my adult daughter and grandson. It was announced, before the cruise departed Miami, that we would have a safety drill wherein we were to gather life jackets and report to our assigned location. We were not told the location of the assigned location, so just followed the crowd. We were also not provided with 3 lifejackets, but only 2. Despite my 3 requests for an additional jacket, both prior to the drill and following the drill, we did not receive the additional jacket for two days. A MAJOR SAFETY ISSUE!
Then there was the quality of the food and the poor dining service. The food was less than memorable. The presentation of the food was good, but the taste was lacking. We tried some of the specialty restaurants and found them to also be disappointing for the same reasons. Regarding the service, we found that it was very slow. On a number of occasions, it took over 90 minutes to get our meals completed due to the service (and we are fast eaters). This meant that we were often unable to get to the auditorium to see the shows in a timely manner. At one of the breakfast meals in the Indigo Restaurant, it took 30 minutes just to get a cup of hot chocolate (made from packets!). One evening we had to wait approximately 15-20 minutes to be seated in the Summer Palace and were given beepers to alert us when the restaurant would be ready for us. This was unacceptable considering that the restaurant was not even 1/2 full and the servers were milling about.
Bar service was also poor. My adult son was also on this cruise and ordered a "blueberry specialty drink". It had been advertised on flyers throughout the ship (each day had a different specialty drink). He was told that the drink was unavailable because there were no blueberries! So why offer the drink? On another occasion, he ordered a strawberry daiquiri and was told that they couldn't make them. How difficult is it to produce a daiquiri? Another incident occurred on the deck over the pool. My daughter and I were sunning ourselves on chaise lounges. One of the NCL employees was collecting dirty dishes and drink glasses. She managed to dump the collection of dishes/glasses over each of us and I ended up with liquid all over my legs. The employee didn't so much as apologize. Approximately 20 minutes she returned with a cloth for me to wipe up the mess.
We had a balcony cabin and there were two adults and one child. The cabin was very small and space was cramped. When beds were opened up in the evening, there was very little room to move about. There was not enough closet space for the number of people that we had residing in the room. I had expected the balcony to be larger. It was really only big enough for two.