DISCLAIMER: First time cruiser, I booked this cruise soley because it had exactly the itinerary I wanted or else the fam would never see a Greek Island. So, I went into this cruise not real jazzed about the whole cruise thing, and came out with a better taste than I went into it with. I still prefer other modes of vacation travel, however.

In all, this was an excellent cruise experience, and many seasoned cruisers we talked to agreed this was one of the better cruises they had ever been on. Of note, many schools in Southern Germany let out on a mini-holiday on the Friday before the sailing date, so this cruise was very attractive to that market, so we sailed at 104% of capacity with a heavy complement of German families, which was nice, and lent a more cosmopolitan and refined atmosphere to the clientelle. It seems that many of the American Cruise lines are trying to expand into such markets, and I got the sense that NCL may have specifically spruced up some problem areas for this particular cruise, to ensure our European guests would go back home with good feedback. SHIP: Youngest daughter's first impression was "somebody obviously had a sale on Discount Tacky Carpet!" Well, lets just say the decor in some areas was loud and edgy. Most areas, however, were really lovely and well appointed. The ship itself was immaculate - even the common restrooms were always spotless. STATEROOMS: I felt they were very nice. Well maintained and stewarded. We had ample storage space. Beds were of average comfort. FOOD : The food exceeded my expectations. I thought it was always quite good. We ate in the Tappanyaki grill one night and it was the best Tappanyaki I've ever had. We ate two meals in the Main Pacific Dinning room which was very nice, except that the transition from the main course to desert was very inefficient and slow. but wait times for tables was not excessive. For most meals, there is an abbreviated buffet line with made-to-order omletttes (for breakfast) called The Great Outdoors, with a patio setting, on the fantail on the 12th deck and this was very popular as the weather was so nice and the setting was magnificent whether the ship was moving or not. There is nothing like having a leisurely lunch out here while watching Crete fade into the distance. STAFF/CREW: Top notch - always smiling and greeting everyone. Always patient with dumb questions and helping the confused. I often observed supervisors discretely pointing out small corrections to staff members, so the attention to detail was evident everywhere. BEVERAGE: A major disappointment. While the food service was so great, the beverage service was a serious joke: 1. Simply obtaining a drink of tap water was an ordeal for most of the ship 2. Beers for $5 a bottle were sold "buy 6 bottles for the price of five" and they had the chutzpah to call this $25 manuever "Free Beer" 3. Coffee and milk ran out several times during peak breakfast servings. The seving staff, when asked about this, simply shrugged their shoulders and said, "We're out' and then 30 min later the supply would be replenished. No hurry, I guess. 4. In the main dining room, orders for drinks to the servers had to be passed on to designated beverage servers. Our orders for beer or wine were missed on several occasions. 5. Fruit juice was available for breakfast, but for other meals the choice of complementary beverages was tea, coffee, water. Tough luck if you are a kid who wants something else. Juice water and ice were only available at a few stations, so one dad trying to get his family juice could easily bugger up the beverage porcess for 100 guests. 6. This is my favorite: Many guests signed up for the NCL sponsored Santorini wine tour excursion; heavily promoted by NCL. During the wine tour, the Greek winery offered the group opportunity to buy discounted wines, which many did, only to have the purchased wines unceremoniously confiscated by the Nepalese ship security guards. Of course, they were returned at the end, but Good Grief! this was a SPONSORED WINE EXCURSION. 7. NCL, with great fanfare, had a bottle of gratis house wine ( acceptable quality) in our stateroom. So in the dining room, I asked for a glass of the house wine. "oh, we don't serve that here" was the answer. What? House wine is OK to give me for free but I can't get it in the dining room? So I asked for the next least expensive wine on the list. "oh, we just ran out of that!" Grumble. I guess everyone has their pet peeve and this one sure tweeked my nose. I've never been to an "All-inclusive" resort where I've spent msot of the week chosing between paying top dollar for Miller light or just staying thirsty. This problem will give me pause to cruise with NCL again. EMBARKATION/DISEMBARKATION: Walked on/Walked off. Really, Not a single glitch or delay. A complete change from what has been reproted on prior blogs. I specifically asked the staff how they fixed the boarding problem and they said, "What borading problem?" However, port information from the Miami office was non-existant. The Miami people flatly said they didn't have any information about getting to the port facilitiy other that for those coming straight from the airport and too bad for those who may be coming from a hotel in Venice. Tendering in the ports was well run. Shuttle bus service on Mykonos and Crete were well run. ENTERTAINMENT: A major plus. We had music acts and a Cirque du Soleil type show. We enjoyed them. One of the music acts was a sort of music from around the world revue which had a tacky Disney knock off for China, but they made up for it when two of the perfromers from the UK who obviously had serious Irish step dancing training really let loose with a Riverdance -like sequence. Very well done. A Philipino band performed at poolside most afternoons and did a good job. Activites like Bingo and Karaoke were pretty well run and attended. FACILITIES: A really well designed and spotlessly cleaned excersize room was run by the Greek-Australian Steve and the Mexicana Alejandra. I specifically wrote them up for running an outstanding service. No extra charge and you could use it all you wanted. Stationary bikes, treadmills, ellipticals, wieght machines, free weights, and many aerobics classes. DW also used a week long spa pass and disappeared in there often and was very complementary of the spa staff. Nice layout of plenty of deck chairs and daybeds on the sundecks and poolsides. We could always find some open chairs, although a stated 30 min rule was ignnored and should have been better enforced. OVERALL: A superb cruise and I recommend this for anyone wanting an East Med cruise. Again, I had the sence that NCL was trying to put their best foot forward and it showed. The significant irritation about the beverage service aside, everything else was really well done.