Just got off the Gem New Years cruise from December 26th to January 2! We had an amazing time with very few complaints, or rather, suggestions. We have been Princess loyalists since 2002 when we went on the Grand Princess for our honeymoon. We wanted to do a cruise that year but were worried that we'd get stuck sitting with others for dinner if we went on another line. We're sociable people, but we like quiet romantic dinners. Princess had Anytime Dining so we went with them. We weren't aware that Norwegian did Freestyle as well. So six Princess cruises later and hearing lots of negatives about Norwegian, we saw this Florida to Bahamas cruise that left out of our backyard (NYC) and decided to book it. I never really pay much attention to either very negative reviews or very positive reviews. Some seem way too biased in one direction to be reliable. I'm glad to say we experienced absolutely NONE of the negatives I always heard about. We were dropped off at the pier by my father-in-law. I had him let us out a little before where everyone else was unloading as it was very congested right in front of the doors. We just walked a little and walked right in. There was a long line for security, but it moved very quickly. We were given number 77 to board. About 1:00 pm they started calling from 22. They did skip large chunks of numbers and they called 77 and all the rest at about 1:45 or so. We walked right onto the ship, got our glass of complimentary champagne and headed up to the buffet. (This was the first of many times we encountered the dining staff armed with a bottle of alcohol hand wash and the automatic hand sanitizer dispensers.) I didn't plan on doing this as I heard about how crowded it is on the first day and there aren't enough seats. This was true, but not a big deal. We then went down to the Grand Pacific and the hostess gave me a pager. We didn't walk more than 10 feet away when the pager rang! We went into the dining room after doing washy, washy and sanitizing our hands, and had an amazing first lunch. If the quality of the food on this first day was an indication, we knew we were in for some good food! We were cruising with my sister in law and brother in law on this cruise. As an aside after my father in law dropped us off, he drove back to the Bronx and my brother in law and sister in law were getting ready to leave and he dropped them off at the pier as well. Very nice of him! If you are lucky enough to have somebody drop you off, it is VERY convenient. He enjoyed watching the ship sail away while he stood out in the pouring rain near the U.S.S. Intrepid. After our lunch we sat at the Java Bar on deck 7 in the atrium. This is a very nice area with lots of comfortable seats and couches and the very large screen TV. The screen showed a few movies throughout the cruise as well as Monday Night Football and the college bowl games. At other times they showed weird images of skydiving and other assorted images to different types of music. I think the screen could have been better utilized. Maybe music videos or more movies would work well. But this area became one our favorite places and meeting points throughout the cruise. As we waited for my in-laws to board I sat down and ordered my first of many buckets (helmets) of beer. I was served by the charming and warm barmaid, Cris from the Philippines. She called me by name from that first bucket on through the whole rest of the cruise even when she saw me in other places. She was always smiling and made a difference in our cruise. She received a STYLE card and a little extra cash as a result. If you go on the Gem tell her Freddie, Lou, and the Twins say hi! While sitting at the Java Bar, we got to hear the wonderful singer/guitarist Randon. He did party/cruise standards like Margarittaville, New York State of Mind, etc. My in-laws boarded right near us, they had a few drinks with us and the cabins were ready. We all dropped our luggage off and they grabbed some food as we headed to the sail-away party. They usually have it on the pool deck if weather permits. This evening, weather certainly did NOT permit. It was raining sideways, brutally cold, and windy. They still had a great sail-away party in Spinnaker's lounge where I added to my many buckets of beer! It was a very nice touch on Norwegian's part as the ship passed the Statue of Liberty. One of the show singers sang the National Anthem and it received a very nice ovation. Nice job! As we passed under the Verrazano Bridge, which is usually one of my favorite parts of the cruise, I had to brave the elements and go outside. My in- laws had never sailed out of New York before and I wanted to see them experience it. It was really amazing as it was dark out already and we got some great shots. It was worth the cold and pelting rain!!! My wife decided she would forego it this time. (But as I write this, she is at the NY Jets game where it is 7 degrees! Go figure!) Hey I went out for a few smokes and after the second bucket of beers, I didn't really feel the cold anymore, anyway!! We went to Magenta that night for dinner and had absolutely no wait, just like every other night to follow. Maybe it depends on when you go, but we never experienced any type of line or wait. We did go a bit later between 7:30 and 9:00, so maybe that's why. Either way, it was good. After dinner we walked casually around the ship and had a drink at a few different lounges. My brother-in-law loved the cigar lounge and I stopped in here before or after dinner a few times to have a smoke myself. We ended up in Spinnaker Lounge again and had a blast with the rock/pop/dance band Prism. This night was a welcome aboard party and it was packed. This is where one of my suggestions comes in. We were having a blast and the place was packed. It ended abruptly at 12:30 to a full house. They said the party was moving down to Bliss Ultra Lounge. Had they kept this party going, they would have been selling a ton more drinks for 2 or 3 more hours. Most people wanted to stay in this place, but the lights went on and they started cleaning up. We did head down to the Bliss Lounge and it was crowded, but not really with people that were in Spinnaker. It was a much younger crowd here. I am in my mid thirties, act like I'm in my twenties (ok-5, lol) and my whole party could pass for mid to late twenties, but we felt out of place in Bliss. The drinking age on the Gem was 21, but 18 and older could drink with parental permission. This meant that there were 18 year olds buying for 15 and 16 year olds. I wanted to hang out and party, but them cutting the party at Spinnaker caused me and doubtlessly countless others to end the night earlier than we probably would have. I'm sure there are reasons like workers ending their shifts, but keep some of those workers on and I'm sure drink revenue would certainly make up for it, and the workers should be compensated for longer hours if they choose to work them. If it is to give these workers a bit of a break, then I fully understand. The second day was a sea day. I slept late as my slight cold/winter allergies and night before's partying took a toll on me. We had a late breakfast at the Great Outdoors which is aft on deck 12, behind the Garden Cafe buffet. This area had a very nice selection for breakfast and a nice seating area outside. It was still a bit chilly, but not unbearable and we ate outside. We walked around the ship some more and explored. We got excited that it felt so much warmer outside than the previous day and sat on a couple of lounge chairs for a few minutes. Once the wind picked up a little, it made it a bit colder. We went back inside after walking a few windy laps on the walking/jogging track. Had lunch from Garden Cafe and brought it out to Great Outdoors again. As the day went on you could feel it gradually get warmer. We went into Spinnaker in the afternoon and all four of us fell asleep in those funky bed type lounge chairs they have in there. I had my headphones on and while they were playing bingo, I had no idea as it was drowned out by Bon Jovi! That night we had dinner in the Grand Pacific dining room for the first time. As mentioned we had eaten our first lunch there. It is a very nice dining room and this is the dining room they request no jeans in. We went in dressed very nicely and did see some people in jeans. But I have to say, nobody looked un-presentable or sloppy. Towards the last night of the cruise, we went in wearing jeans and were far from alone. I definitely enjoy this about Norwegian. It is NOT so ultra casual as people look like slobs. But, people are dressed in what they might wear to a decent family type restaurant on land. Some people of course were dressed to the nines every night. We fell in the middle. I loved not taking a suit. After a nice evening of making our rounds through bar city on deck 6 and then onto Spinnaker followed by Bliss, we called it a night as we were going to hit our first stop at Port Canaveral, Florida the next morning. We wanted to be rested to see Mickey, Goofy, Donald, and company. We had a transfer-only excursion to The Magic Kingdom for Monday. I bought the Disney admission tickets in advance online for much cheaper than buying the whole excursion (transfer and park admission) through Norwegian. I would have even considered renting a car and driving for much cheaper, but buying the transfer through NCL gave me peace of mind in case there was a delay getting back to the ship. It was well worth doing it this way. We boarded the bus at about 1:00 pm or so after meeting in The Stardust Theater at 11:50am. The theater was full of people going to Kennedy Space Center, Disney, and Universal parks. They were pretty orderly and it probably made sense to do it this way as it streamlined people off of the ship instead of everyone getting off at once and causing chaos at the bus area. We got to the Magic Kingdom at about 2:00. The bus driver announced to us that it was closed because it was full, but not to worry. Even when we got to the front gate, the attendant let the bus in, but said the park was closed because it was full. The driver told us to still not worry. He then dropped us off at the entrance area to get on the monorail. We did this and got right into the park with no problem using our credit card type admission tickets. The park was jammed. We heard the lot that holds 80,000 cars was full. I believe it. However, it was about 65 degrees out and very comfortable, so it wasn't like being in a jammed park at 95 degrees. We walked around and my wife was as happy as one of the 6 year olds that she teaches!! I was so glad we got in with no problem. She loves Disney and was looking so forward to it! As soon as we got in, she took a picture with Pluto and I had to stand in line with families and 3 year olds to get the pictures. Priceless. Taking pictures with characters was the norm throughout the day. They even have photographers around the park that give you a photo card. Each picture you take, you hand them your card and they scan it when they take the picture. You then log-in online and view your pictures. The ones I took came better, so we didn't buy any. We went on a handful of rides as the lines were so long. I was using an APP on my I-Phone that told me the line times and it was very accurate. We really just enjoyed a very nice day of walking around, but in the future I will probably get the express pass where you go back to the ride at an assigned time. It would allow us more rides in less time. But we had a great time. It got chilly at night and the sweatshirts we bought at the gift shop came in very handy. It was a very nice experience walking through Disney in December and seeing it all decorated for Christmas. It was a very memorable night, especially when they started blowing man-made snow off the top of the buildings on the main street. Nice touch! We met the bus in the lot and had a noisy ride back to the ship. We were so tired and were amazed that many of the kids on the bus back were not as pooped as we were and were singing and chatting up a storm. I guess the roles were reversed and we adults get more tired from that type of day. When we got back onto the ship, we quickly just changed our shirts and met my in-laws at the Magenta dining room for another nice dinner. They had gone to Universal that day and had a great time, so it was nice talking about our days and relaxing on a nice evening. My brother-in-law and I went up to Great Outdoors while the ladies looked at photos in the gallery. We enjoyed some beers and a few smokes in the meantime. You can smoke on one side back there. It was empty at night usually. We did our rounds of Bar Central and then hit Spinnaker for 80s night. It was another night where it was fairly busy and could have stayed open a bit later. Oh well, we headed to Bliss and left there a little early as it was very crowded and young. The next day was Great Stirrup Cay, the NCL private island. You had to get tender tickets from the shore excursion desk. They started at number 1 and we had 9. I have been to Princess Cays a few times and if I'm not wrong, Princess lowers their lifeboats as tenders. NCL only had two double-decker ferry boats going back and forth. It took long to get everyone off the ship and then back on. I'm not sure if anything prevents them using lifeboats, but it was very quick and efficient for Princess. Not a very big deal, but just a suggestion. It took a very long time, but we found a nice spot on the pool deck in the sun on a lounger and waited for our number. We made our way down and got onto the tender fairly quickly. The tender ride is about 5 minutes and it was a nice day so not too bad. When we got to the island it was very crowded. We got something to eat and we sought out very scarce chairs. None were to be had, so we laid out our towels and laid near the water. I bought a bucket that went down very easy in the warm sun. It felt amazing and so strange that I was on this warm beach on December 29th. I could get used to it. At this point, some chairs opened up, and we hopped in. About an hour later, we decided to move to the other side of the island near the food and restrooms. We found a spot and the bar waiter that we ordered from couldn't find us, even though we told him where to look for us! Anyway, I found him and it was getting close to departure time and we were going to start chugging all the beers. We were saved when one of the tenders apparently broke down and the line got longer as they had to use only one. A little more time on this tropical paradise was nice. We took the ferry ride back to the ship and while the ladies went to get ready for the evening, I headed to the Great Outdoors for a few beers and to see the ship sail away. From back there, we were able to see the private islands of the other cruise lines, particularly RCCL. You can see that they are not very populated if at all. It looked pitch black as the ship was leaving. That night we met up in Bar Central before dinner and went to the Grand Pacific for another fantastic dinner. We were seated tonight at the table that we would end up, coincidentally, being seated at for the rest of the cruise when we went into The Grand Pacific. That must be where the most tables for two are. It was a great table right at the aft windows, center ship, overlooking the wake. It was a great spot to look out while enjoying a great meal. After dinner we headed up to Spinnaker. I believe this was the night they had the scavenger hunt which was pretty funny. We hung out for some more live music from Prism and when that was over (too early again,), we headed down to Bliss. There was a teen gathering still in progress. I think this should not happen. Adults are not allowed into the Leopard Lounge (teen club), so they should leave the adult clubs exclusively for adults. OR they should have made the event in Spinnaker run later. We walked around the ship a little longer and then headed back to Bliss. The event was supposed to have ended already, but it was still filled with younger teens. We ducked into a little side room in Bliss and waited until the teens cleared out. By then we had gotten tired. Everyone headed back to the cabins, but I made a pit stop at The Blue Lagoon for a grilled chicken sandwich after 1:00am. The trappings of 24 hours of food on a cruise ship!!

The next day was Nassau. I did lots of researching what to do here and even that morning, we didn't decide what we were doing until we got off the ship. We all wanted to see The Atlantis, but didn't want to pay the high excursion price for a day at the beach. The ladies weren't going to do the water park and neither was my BIL. I would have, but it was not a deal breaker for me. I had heard of a deal at the Comfort Suites next to Atlantis that offered a deal if you rented a room, you got full access to Atlantis. We took a cab to Comfort Suites and went to the front desk. They do allow all access to Atlantis if you get a room here, but they have a two night minimum at more than $400 a night. No thanks. We decided to just head to Atlantis and see if they had a day pass for cheaper. In the cab there, the driver saved us a lot of money. He told us if we were only interested in the beach, he'd take us to a free beach. My in-laws were interested in the Dig. He told them it was only $35 for that. We decided to split up and we went to Cabbage Beach while they went to the Dig. Best decision we made all day. (Thanks, Bahama John!)We stayed at a great beach, rented chairs for $10 each, and bought a few sodas. It was a nice place. My wife took a walk and came back and said she was able to see some of the Atlantis, so we packed up and took a walk down there. We were able to walk around much of the Atlantis property without a wrist band. We saw the lagoon, crossed the rope bridge, saw Hammerhead Sharks and Baby Sting-rays. We saw a lot that we wanted to see without paying. We were even able to buy a hot dog and fries from one of the concessions. I am glad that cab driver saved us about $150 a person. If we wanted to use the waterpark, then we would have coughed it up, but there was no need to spend any money to do what we did that day. The cab fares were reasonable as well at about $4 per person pretty much anyplace we went. After some walking around Atlantis, we walked through the casino and some of the stores and then hailed a cab right out front. As another side note, and an unfortunate one, we were docked that day next to the RCCL Monarch of the Seas. We had seen her earlier in Port Canaveral which was her home port. When we got back to NYC, we read a news story about a woman who jumped overboard when the ship left Nassau on the same day. It was reportedly the wife of a RCCL crew member. Very sad story and I'm sure it saddened the many crew members and passengers aboard that ship. What a shame. When we got back on the ship, we grabbed some food from Topsiders Grill near the pools. They had a similar selection as The Great Outdoors would have: burgers, hot-dogs, fries, salad, pastas, chicken, vegetables, etc... A good enough selection for when the main buffet, the Garden Cafe, was closed. We had another nice dinner in The Grand Pacific that night. I forget what I ate most nights, as I ate so much. I should have noted it somewhere. I have to say I didn't have even one bad meal. Food is subjective, but I cook myself, come from a family of very good Italian cooks and eat all types of food. I really liked the food. Some of the portions were tiny. My wife ordered a scallops appetizer that we were actually laughing at due to its size. But I did order an extra appetizer on most nights and one night I was bad and ordered two entrees when I couldn't decide. The next day was New Years Eve. We didn't do too much during the day. We went and watched the belly-flop competition at the pools, only because it was comfortable out and we knew it would only get colder. It didn't get colder that day, but it started to pour hard. We were worried that the New Years Eve party on deck would be cancelled. Staff was saying that they didn't know. We went to Spinnaker where they were having some sort of dance lesson so I left and went to buy some t-shirts. They had a buy 2 get 1 free deal and the shirts were decent so I took advantage of the deal! We decided we would get ready early and meet up for dinner earlier than normal to get a jump on our NYE partying. We didn't know if we were going to buy champagne bottles or by the glass. My BIL and I are beer drinkers and the girls drink wine and champagne. We figured we'd see how the night went. After a very nice dinner in Magenta with a great waitress whose name escapes me, us guys hit the cigar lounge, while the women sat outside of the lounge and watched Randon perform with his guitar. This really is a nice little lounge area with couches and soft chairs. Then there is Magnum's champagne bar, Malting's whiskey and beer bar, and Shakers martini bar. All of the bars are really one area in the middle. They are one large bar, broken into three. On the other side of these three bars is another lounge area which is connected to Maltings. This is really a nice little area and each bar does have a different selection of what its intended specialty is. I am a smoker and enjoyed this area as it was right outside of the cigar lounge and we'd have a few drinks and I'd sneak in for a smoke now and again. I heard from non smokers that the smoke was not too noticeable. This says a lot as this area is also right near the casino. I have to admit that it was definitely smokey in there, so if smoke bothers you, avoid it. It is also one deck down from the promenade deck where I would smoke. The girls had ordered a few glasses of champagne. They then decided it was more convenient and economical to buy it by the bottle. So they bought the first of a few bottles that evening. I didn't think I'd be drinking only champagne that night, but got a decent deal when we went up to the pool deck New Years Eve party. Prism was playing and it seemed almost all of the passengers of the ship were up here. This was a New Years Eve I won't soon forget. The rain had stopped and it was in the mid 70's. People were dancing and having a great time. I walked around the pool deck while the ladies danced. Close to midnight, waiters were going around with glasses of champagne. I grabbed a few for our group and we got together for the countdown. The noisemakers and hats were provided by the ship. We got hats at dinner time in the dining room and they provided noisemakers as we were leaving Bar Central, but also up on deck. The captain made a speech from the bridge, but it was very hard to hear as people were blowing noisemakers. After the captain's speech, they started blowing the ship's horn. I believe this was the correct midnight, but for the sake of having a countdown, the cruise staff started a 10 second countdown. Everyone counted along and went wild at 0. It was great to be in such a great place on NYE with my wife and in-laws. I also enjoyed seeing a lot of the crew from a variety of different departments, some in their work attire, some in regular clothes, enjoying themselves. About this time we decided we needed another bottle of champagne. I went to where they were selling them from the hot tub. I was going to buy a certain bottle my BIL recommended, but the salesperson told me he'd sell me a magnum of the same brand for $130 and I'd get another bottle for free. At this point, it seemed like a good deal as the bottles were expensive enough and this was a pretty good deal. My BIL who knows more about champagne said it was a good brand and the deal was pretty good. It was much better than if we were going to keep buying glasses or one bottle at a time. I had to wait a little while as they got the bottles from Bliss on deck 7, but they brought it back and put it into ice for us. We grabbed an ice bucket each and walked back to where the ladies were dancing. It was around this time that the party was about to wrap up and it was ONLY 12:45am- on NEW YEAR'S EVE!!! When the band finished their last song, I and the guy next to me started chanting "5 more songs! 5 more songs!" Cruise director Andy was NOT amused by this. He kept trying to shoo people away and sell everyone on the party at Bliss. We fully intended to go to Bliss, but this party still had legs and should have gone on!! He begrudgingly told the band to play some more and they did one more song!! Almost both decks were covered with people, and they pulled the plug on the party. I can't even begin to wonder how much more they would have made if the party went even just 30 minutes longer. So we were forced to go to Bliss, which we enjoyed, but for a much shorter time than if we were on the pool deck. All in all, it was a great night. I only wish it was a little longer. The next day, the champagne kept me sleeping a little later than I wanted to, but we packed our stuff and walked around the ship one last time. It got quite a bit colder and we couldn't really go outside. We were pretty lazy as we would normally be on New Year's Day, but it was still a nice enjoyable day even though we were getting off the next day. They were showing the college bowl games on the big screen in the atrium and it was crowded. We met for a few drinks with Cris in the Java bar and bid adieu to her. It's always sad saying goodbye to people who really made your vacation something to remember. I guess it means we need to book on the Gem again soon to see her, Matt in Spinnaker (Yeah Baby!!), Randon, Prism, and many others who made our cruise a great one. Of course we ended the night in party mode and started in Spinnaker. They had karaoke, which had I not been sick, would have done every night. I felt so much better by now, so I decided to sing a Bon Jovi song. It was lots of fun. We stayed to see The Second City Comedy Troupe. It was packed in there. It was pretty funny, but not side stitch funny. It made me laugh though! The farewell party, though short, was fun. Prism did a short, but good, set. It was time to leave Spinnaker soon enough and we said our goodbyes to the band. They got a STYLE card for entertaining us just about every night. And they were nice people as well. We then headed to Bliss where there was the Toga party going on. It was fun, although we didn't wear togas. The drinks were going down very nicely, but at a point we had to say goodbye to Bliss one last time. Before bed we made like lots of Bronx nights in the 90's and hit the diner after partying. Really it was The Blue Lagoon, but it felt like one of those nights. The next morning we woke up at 8:45. We opted for self-debarkation and it was a good choice. We got ready, went to breakfast, but the buffet was jammed. We got our food and went out to eat at the seating area of The Great Outdoors. It was FREEZING!! Welcome to New York!! We ate quickly and went inside and found my in-laws. We took our time eating and then went to our rooms for our luggage. We took the elevator up to hang at Java Cafe to wait for my in-laws. Once they got there, it was literally like walking out of a hotel. We didn't have to look for our luggage in what looked like pandemonium! We went through customs in no time and were out on the street. Guess what? It was snowing!!! Again, Welcome to New York!!

Random thoughts: So we had an amazing time. I swore when I started this review I wasn't going to do a point by point comparison to my Princess cruises. I'm sticking to that, but will point out some things that were different or the same. They may be for better or worse. We joked that the ship should've been called the Norwegian Germ! They were very germ phobic and anytime you got on or off the ship, went to a dining venue, or blinked your eyes, they wanted you to washy, washy/ smiley, smiley,/ happy, happy. I have no problem with this. I do think having servers at the buffet is not a bad idea as well. However, keeping salt and pepper shakers and no ketchup and mustard in the buffet was a little overboard. I know there were reports of people being sick the few cruises before us, but people get sick, it happens. If everyone keeps their hands clean and take other precautions, you should be ok. They did let us serve ourselves and put shakers and condiments back on the table when we got to Nassau, day 5. There are things that people are bound to touch like menus that are passed to everyone. Unless I don't know and they are sanitizing them between uses, what's the difference in keeping shakers and condiments on table? This really was not a big deal and we thought it actually pretty funny. It made for good conversation and even the staff thought it was funny and made sarcastic jokes about it. I guess in the long run if it kept me from getting sick it was worth it. If washy, washy makes NCL happy, happy, I'll do it with a smiley, smiley on my face! As I stated, I heard negative things about NCL Freestyle. I love Anytime on Princess and I can now say I might like Freestyle on NCL even more. We didn't do any specialty restaurants as we LOVED all of our meals in the dining room. We never experienced a wait. There are TV screens near dining rooms that give estimated wait times. I think they may be a bit off. Some said the main dining rooms were full, but we walked up and were seated right away. Maybe they do it to slow people down from going all at once. The ship was very nice. The bathroom was a plus. The shower stall was a little bigger than on Princess and it had a glass door as opposed to the curtain. It also had a handheld shower head! Awesome!! The inside cabin was an adjustment as we usually get balconies, but with cold days going and coming and it being our second cruise, inside cabin this time. It was clean and comfortable, thanks in no small part to our great stewards, Gioffre and I think his assistant was Mark. I tipped a 20 when we fist met as he went out of his way with his hands full to get me a bottle opener. I also tipped him at the end another 20. This was of course in addition to the tips charged to the room. I have to say that this ship may have had the friendliest staff I ever encountered. Everyone you saw repeatedly would greet you by name and always a smile. Even the captain was walking by in the atrium one evening and we took a picture with him. He was very friendly and even pointed out that the flash didn't go off and posed for another. Little things like that stick with you. The buffet was a little hectic on most sea days, especially upon embarkation. On that day only, we then just went to the Grand Pacific dining room for a great lunch. It was a bit confusing at times what buffet was open at what time. I like that Princess keeps the buffet open 24 hours. But Blue Lagoon is there to serve late night hunger. Relaxed dress code was something we could get used to. I may leave the suit at home on my summer cruise on the Caribbean Princess. Again, people were not dressed like slobs, just not as dressed up every night. There were jeans around at night, but there were also people dressed smart casual. Nothing that was very noticeable. On "Dress Up or Not" night, there were more people dressed up than I thought there'd be. One night, my brother in law felt out of place in jeans, but it wasn't the more formal night. My wife thought there were more vegetarian options on Princess. She did temper this by saying that vegetarians who ate a wider variety of food than her probably would think the selection is just fine. She is not just a vegetarian, but not a very daring eater and pretty much sticks to her favorites. This being said, she enjoyed everything she ate and never went hungry. I have 6 Princess cruises under my belt and one more booked. I do get some perks that would take me awhile to catch up to on NCL, but I am thinking long and hard about booking the same cruise for next Christmas vacation. The only thing I am considering is the weather, which of course the cruise line doesn't control. I may just rather fly somewhere much warmer and be in the warmth that much sooner! Entertainment was pretty much the same as Princess. I caught some of a 70's tribute show and it was entertaining and well put together. It featured TV themes and other 70's pop culture references. As mentioned, Prism was very good and we had fun with them almost every night. They appealed to a broad spectrum of people. Cruise director Andy was good, but I feel some of the events being cut short are in his control. He was very visible and seemed to truly enjoy his job, but I think he needs to reconsider the timing of some events and when to end them. Also, there were some events that said "11:00pm until whenever.." sometimes whenever was 20 minutes after it started. I couldn't comprehend this. I'll wrap up by saying that I never, ever expect perfection on a cruise. It doesn't exist. Therefore I am never disappointed. I have never had a bad cruise. I was a little under the weather on the start of this cruise and still had a blast. It would really take a lot to ruin a cruise for me. Two thumbs up!