My husband and I took this cruise to celebrate his military retirement. Both of us were looking to just take it easy and relax. Embarkation was easy and well organized. We arrived around noon and didn't wait long to get on the boat. Of course we were hungry and instead of going up to the Garden Cafe on Deck 15th, we went to one of the Complementary Restaurants on Deck 6 ( on the advice of one of the staff who greeted us on arrival). Glad she suggested this since it seems like almost everyone charged the Garden Cafe on arrival. My goal was to avoid the crowds!!

We then went by and signed up for the Ultimate dining package...although there are 7 specialty restaurants you only get to choose 5 when you pay for specialty dining package...surprise! You get to see the Illusionarium show, with dinner, for "free" on Sunday night when you purchase Ultimate dining plan. Show was good, dinner was marginal at best. Favorite specialty restaurants were..Teppanyaki (our personal favorite), Cagney's and Le Bistro. Moderno had slow service and we ended up leaving before trying all the "offerings" of the Brazilian style steakhouse. La Cucina was nice as well with outdoor tables if you like. We ate at O'SHeehan's twice. Service was very slow here, seems understaffed and the food was ordinary. The first day, in the same area where we signed up for Ultimate dining, you could also sign up for the beverage packages (we skipped this since we don't drink) but we did purchase water, yep you have to purchase water bottles unless you want to drink tap and you are not allowed to fill up your personal water bottles at the drink stations. The water bottles are delivered to your stateroom the first day. They are large water bottles and 12 lasted us the whole week but cost a pretty penny.

Next up, the Thermal Spa... I saw a few postings about the thermal spa before our cruise on the Norwegian website so was really looking forward to this. What I didn't realize and they didn't really specify is this...If you are in a spa balcony room or the Haven you get to access the thermal spa. All others must pay $200 per person for 7 day access. Of course, once we toured the area, and since I wanted peace and tranquility, not the cattle car experience, this was a must have for me. Next time I will just book a spa balcony room...which probably has the $200 per person neatly tied up in the price and I won't feel like I have to pay extra for everything, wink, wink! BUT the thermal spa was worth every penny we spent. With limited access and all the wonderfully relaxing features, this place hit the spot. We spent a lot of time here...especially on sea days. Can't say enough good things about this place. Read more