We are platinum latitudes members on NCL, and we have always loved the freestyle cruise style of NCL. We have been on about 16 cruises with them, to just about everywhere they go, and this was one of our best experiences. The ship is an older one, but is in great shape. We travelled with our infant daughter and teenage son, so we had a wide variety of interests in regard to the cruise.

What really made this cruise for us was the service. Although service on NCL has never been terrible, we haven't been happy, particularly with the cabin stewards, on our last few cruises. It seemed like they were aware that they would receive their tips (i.e. "service charge" for us), regardless of the effort they made to do their job well. This cruise was a welcome improvement. The cabin steward was very attentive, and seemed to anticipate our needs before we asked. The wait staff were great, as were just about all the staff.

Our teenage son liked the teen program, but complained a bit about the youth leaders canceling programs all the time if they felt that not enough kids showed up. Also, they have (at least on this cruise), gone back to the limited hours for the youth programs to be open. Typically, on this cruise, they were open for a few hours, then closed for a few hours, following that pattern throughout the day. Over the past few cruises, we had been happy to see that the youth programs were open all the time, except on port days, and the kids could wander in and out as they chose. Also, the kids were provided with some free time, versus just scheduled program activities. Read more