We have cruised about 15 times and have been on NCL for several. In general this is a great cruise because of the venue -- Hawaii is beautiful.

However, the food and service in the two main dining rooms was very disappointing. The food was mediocre, not bad, but special requests were not honored. I ordered a steak one night and requested it very rare. It was well-done. Since we were in a hurry to get to the show because the service had been so slow, I didn't send it back. Each experience was different, but in general the service people seemed totally overwhelmed. The service was slow and spotty. The only night we got good service was the night most people were off the ship at a luau. As I said, we have cruised with open seating before and never experienced such ineptitude.

We went to Cagney's steakhouse, East Meets West for sushi/sashimi, and the Moderno churrascaria. Cagney's was good, East Meets West was wonderful and Moderno started well (great salad bar), but the beef and lamb selections were tough and way oversalted, to the point of being inedible. We went to Cagney's for my husband's birthday and I alerted them on the way in. They let us all order dessert before bringing a cake which we couldn't eat because we were too full. We did take it back to our cabin to enjoy another night. The morning buffet was just fine! Read more