Although we have enjoyed NCL cruises in the past, this one will be our last for one reason: they did not stop trying to up-sell from the moment we boarded to the moment we debarked. Although a limited amount of such activity is expected, and even appreciated, during the cruise experience, this was excessive. The spa, the spa, the spa, casino "seminars," shore excursions, bingo cards, drinks, bottles of wine, soda bands, on and on.

Every time you turned around they were trying to get you to come out and spend more and more money. On several occasions, the bartenders "mistakenly" served, and charged for, two drinks when I had only ordered one. On very few occasions did we feel that we were welcome without our wallets. The staff was not there to serve but to see what else they could squeeze out of us. And despite NCL's now-compulsory, non-refundable tipping policy, we still faced a variety of self-addressed envelopes with "thanks you's" on our final night. That was the last straw.

The food was pretty good, and surprisingly, we found the buffet in the Garden Cafe to be really good. Service on the whole okay, except we feel the automatic tipping policy sometimes affected attentiveness. Read more