What's the expression? Glutton for punishment? Never again wasting good vacation time going out of NYC in winter. My own fault, but traveled with a non flying friend, MY THIRD NORWEGIAN CRUISE. No complaints on drinks and food. No complaints for dinner, although agree that the buffet for breakfast and lunch left something to be desired...so we headed for the dining room when on board. Everything else on this cruise was pretty awful. I have been at least 3 times on Holland (best treatment), and 3 times on Carnival. No comparisons here, so here goes!

Norwegian has ALWAYS nickel and dimed you to death: selling ripoff chits and bingo cards and extra dining options and wine tastings; okay no one is twisting your arm but there is not a lot to do. You CAN just go and sit on the deck (weather permitting, and our cruise weather was either rainy, windy, cloudy and, oh, did I say,windy?) and go to the dining room and eat some more. Aside from the shows which were okay, and casinos smokey, not a lot to do while at sea or at night. Just spend more money. Bar? Gamble? Bar? The incessant advertising for NCL on the room TVs was so repetitive it was ridiculous, and no real US news. (Holland gives a NYTimes page synopsis daily; oops, no comparisons.).

I don't think I have ever been on a Caribbean cruise ship that had no steel drums. Their idea of a deck party was 45 minutes of one cent/five cent/ten cent/dolla. They have gone from 20 waiters bothering you in an hour to one that could not be found; you'd be better off going to the bar yourself and I did. Read more