Now, although the cruise was nice it just isn't as nice as Royal or Princess. Almost in every way Royal or Princess is just one notch better. We tried a NCL back in 2002 and at the time we thought the same thing but we decided to give NCL another try. We won't be doing that again--unless for some reason NCL is the only line with a particular port.

We get on the ship and notice that the ship is very beautiful. If you are only interested in the beauty of the common areas of the ship then NCL might be for you. We head up to the buffet and find the crowds hard to fight through--we try to find the other buffet and find that there is only one (besides a small area on the back of the ship which acts like a mini-buffet). The other lines we have been on always seem to have another place to go if one side is too busy--this just wasn't the same on Norwegian. We found the place on the back of the ship but it was limited in it's selection and the problem is that the selection in the larger buffet area was already lacking. The food was sometimes good but sometimes just fair. Overall food was one notch better on the many Royal and Princess cruises on which we have been.

The anytime dining doesn't accept reservations unless you are a very large party and we only had 5 people. We wanted to make reservations since my daughter is 5 and keeping her entertained in line isn't an easy task and coming to eat at 8 p.m. is also difficult because she is needing to sleep and gets crabby. The first couple of nights were painful since they kept recommending we come at the time the dining room opened but there was always a very long line and they just couldn't get the people through as fast as Royal or Princess. We did learn, however, that if you arrive about 45 min after they open the wait isn't nearly as bad. The food in the dining room seemed to be overall one step below what we have had on Royal or Princess. Read more