This is our 6th cruise, first time sailing with Norwegian Cruise Line, January 1-9th, 2007. This is also my first time writing a review. I feel there are many issues this cruise line fails to disclose to potential travelers and perhaps this review will help the public make a better, informed decision about Freestyle Cruising. I'll start my review about the ship, and then go into its itinerary.

The ship was set to sail at 4 pm. There was no wait at 12 noon to check-in and then we were directed to continue with the boarding. Despite being told 3 out of 4 times by NCL Reps that we needed notarized letters from the absent parent so that our kids could travel, no one asked for them! Lucky, I took the time to read the policy on the ticket contract stating that one parent was sufficient and nothing further was needed. Moving along.  When we passed a double set of doors into the next room, we were given a Group Ticket #14 and told to wait until our group was called. It was at least another 30 minutes to board, because they were only on Group #5. There were no chairs to sit on, people were packed in the room sitting on the floor so be prepared even when you arrive early enough to avoid this. I would suggest checking in by 11:30 am. Once we got into our cabins about 2 pm, we were rushed sifting through all their information and then into the practice drill. The person that took our bags at curbside before noon stated they would be at our cabin within the hour. Our bags were at our cabin 3 hours later. I went through these drills on 6 cruises, so I felt I could miss this drill. I started to unpack our 6 bags for our 2 cabins. They didn't clear the cabins as they did on Carnival or Royal Caribbean before letting everyone go back.

The Freestyle Dining was more like Freestyle Confusion. We decided to take our time in making reservations at the 4-5 specialty restaurants, only to discover that ½ price nights quickly sell out for families larger than 2 people! The specialty restaurants are really necessary if you ever want to dine between 6-8 pm and avoid the hour long lines at the main dining rooms. On the 2nd night, we made reservations on the port days where you need to be back on the ship earlier. We figured that by the time we got on the ship, we would be famished and too exhausted to wait in long lines at the main dining rooms so that worked out very well. An additional incentive is to make the reservations at 5:30 or 6 pm and the cover charge is ½ price except for 2 restaurants as long as you don't deviate from the menu. If you start adding, changing and substituting their set menu, rightly so, there is an additional charge on top of the cover charge. On the Zihuatanejo night, we tried Japanese food at Ginza with excellent service. On the Cabo San Lucas night, we tried Cagney's Steakhouse for ½ price cover charge and well worth it! I must admit that we were worried about the bad reviews of the food in the main dining rooms and discovered that the food was well prepared and better than other cruises we've been on. It was far from bland. Another plus are the free cappuccino's in the Aqua or Versailles Dining Room (breakfast, lunch and dinner), but you need to ask for them. Royal Caribbean charges for these, but Norwegian and Carnival do not. There was no wait between 8:30 and 9 pm for the Versailles (the larger and more formal dining room) and the menu every night was absolutely fabulous. The bland was only breakfast! It was the same breakfast no matter where you went every single day. Read more