To set the stage, we are a 62 year old, newly retired couple completing our fifth NCL cruise. Our life style consists of only North America travel and we always choose family style restaurants, medium priced hotels (3 and 4 star) etc. Gourmet food and expectations of 5 star service with staff fawning over us, are not in our past, but if you would like an average person's view of this cruise ship... READ ON!!! Overall impression was good, but we do note a few areas where we have enjoyed other NCL ships better.

The ship is big and very new and modern. We mostly choose NCL mainly because of their Free Style Dining option that allows us to eat in the Garden Cafe buffet area (just great!!) or one of the three main dining rooms (Manhaatan, Taste & Savour a bit formal for us) or O'Sheehan's 24 hour location on deck 7 ... a good informal option but staff need to be a bit more welcoming like they are in all other dining areas. We enjoy cruising but do not want to restricted to a formal dining room with a set eating time, and a table shared with folks we do not know. As fast food and family style diners, we will not presume to rate the food other than to say it was as good or better than any that we have had on any ship. NO, we do not sail on the "top priced ships" geared for gourmet tastes and staff pampering!! Don't buy a Toyota expecting a Bentley.

Let's look at the cruise in sequence. Embarkation was very smooth, with an efficient registration and quick loading of the ship. We were on board by 11:00am for a 3pm sailing. Despite the over 4000 passengers, the process as just as smooth as smaller ships we have been on. Rooms were ready before 1pm. Read more