I must begin by noting that I would definitely take this cruise again. However, I have a limited window of opportunity for travel each winter, and learned onboard from the PCC that this itinerary will not be sailing after early January 2007. That is a shame, because the ports  St. Thomas, Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, Dominica and Tortola were each quite beautiful and unique from each other. The shore excursions were great! If you ever get a chance to helmet dive, take it!!!

This was my fourth cruise, the third on NCL. My two previous NCL cruises had been on the Sun, which is a nicer ship by far. They left from Miami. This cruise left from New York, and embarkation and disembarkation went smooth and quick. This was also a splurge on our part, since for the first time we had a deluxe penthouse suite  one of the four suites at the front of the ship. It was great. Large and clean rooms, excellent cabin, butler and concierge service, and two balconies. The room service menu was great, especially since we could order from any restaurant on board! However, my wife had read before the cruise that rooms on the front had balcony doors that would not open while at sea. I had our travel agent phone to see if this was the case, and he was told by NCL that this was no longer accurate. This was not true, and had we known this, we would have booked a different penthouse suite. It was a major disappointment.

I also must add that we encountered problems that we had never experienced before. We had pre-booked our shore excursions. My travel agent had phoned NCL to be sure that they had them. He was told that they did. They did not. Fortunately, we were still able to get our first choices. Next, I got a letter on board stating that some of our pre-registration information had not been submitted. I had copies of these with me. When I went to the desk, and after standing there for almost an hour, I showed them our completed forms, and the receptionist said that NCL had lost some of the information. I asked her why the letter had not included an apology, since it was their error. No response was given. And lastly, NCL lost my pre-registration for a Casino-at-Sea card. This was no big deal, but these three events made me wonder why they have us fill out all of this information ahead of time if they are just going to lose it. This aspect of NCLs service was not up to par. I also have to mention that the food in Raffles Court was, well, terrible. The salad bar consisted of lettuce, cucumber, carrot strips, and watered down dressings. Never were any other choices in sight. The hot selections were extremely limited. And, the layout of the room was very confusing. This led me to conclude that NCL wants its passengers to eat only in the specialty restaurants and pay the extra fees. Read more