We chose this cruise as it was leaving at the time we wanted and was going to some interesting destinations. As it was our first cruise we weren't sure what to expect. Overall we enjoyed ourselves....we found the food good to very good, staff very friendly, accommodation more than adequate and very much enjoyed our balcony view. We were lucky that we had great weather and calm seas. The entertainment, for the most part, was very good. We didn't use the shore excursions as we were told they were very expensive, but we were very pleased to find hop on/hop off sightseeing busses with multiple language tapes available in all the big cities. Our only complaint was that the bus tour in Cadiz was substandard. Not many points of interest or information was given out in the taped narrative and it was the most costly of the tours we took. There were not enough hop on/hop off busses laid on in either Oslo or Lisbon, necessitating long wait times.

Drinks on board (without a drinks or all inclusive package) were very highly priced. And there were only American beers available, constituting a very limited selection. Like a previous reviewer we found the coffee all over the ship (including the Java bar where one paid for the coffee) really horrible. We drank coffee at our destinations but not on board after several tries with disappointing results. We were overcharged, as were another couple we talked to......a 5x charge for the mini bar when we used it only once. We were told by the accounts department that we will be refunded. The overcharging did leave us with a bit of a bad taste in our mouths about ncl and we will probably try another company when we choose to cruise again.