We chose this cruise for a first time family vacation with 4 siblings and their spouses. My husband and I recommend it because we had a very positive experience on the Jade last year. We were very disappointed with the food, the level of service we received and all the additional charges. We had previously arranged with our cruise consultant to disembark early in Naples and even though we were assured everything was taken care of, the guest relations had no record of our request.
The food in the Irish Pub, Chinese restaurant and the Manhattan dining room was disappointing. Also was the fact that there were items with additional charges on all the complimentary restaurant menus (such as lobster) which we did not experience on the Jade last year. The UBP was included with our price and we paid the additional service charge for it but we could never get anyone to take a drink order unless we stood in a long line at the bar. The bar tenders were very unhappy because they appeared to be unable to keep up.
The excursions were over priced so we took care of booking all of our own. There were children playing and splashing in the H2O adult pool so we had to ask an officer to deal with it. It was embarrassing to recommend this cruise to our family, when 4 of the 8 had never cruised with NCL before. As a result we will not bother to take a chance on them again.
Cabin was a balcony and our room steward was excellent. The layout and bathroom was not easy to navigate.