I cannot believe a cruise line like NCL would actually book cruises on a ship that was not in proper working order or staffed with a well-trained crew. I think the only reason they did so was due to the advanced publicity they received from the Regis and Kelly Show. There were many minor problems too numerous to list in great detail but here are several that seem to stand out. The restaurants ran out of menu items on first day of the cruise and several other items in the days that followed. The food service in dining rooms was extremely slow and seemed rather disorganized. They seemed to be trying several different procedures to improve the service and even rearranged tables but things never seemed to be working as they should. Several times my food was not prepared as ordered and one time it was actually cold - not lukewarm or room temperature - cold.

The food in the buffet was good. The bakery was especially tasty. Unfortunately you always had to go looking for silverware if you were lucky enough to find a table that was cleaned off. Personnel working in the buffet seemed very understaffed and overwhelmed. Supervisors walked around seemingly taking down notes but no improvements could be noticed. One of the ice cream machines broke the first day of the cruise and remained that way for the remainder of the cruise. Frequently the ice machine and ice tea and juice dispensers were not working.

Mechanically there were also problems. There were many contractors on board still working on problems and installations. The air conditioning went out for almost a day and a half. Sometimes there was no cold water, other times there was no hot water. The spa in the back deck of the ship never was operational. There was also a terrible smell in the back by the main restaurants which we were told came from a downdraft from the smoke stacks. There was no navigational information available on the room television and we were told it was not operational yet. Read more