At first I was a little nervous reading all the negative reviews, however we had a wonderful time. We have also been on several other cruises. Third with Norweigen. We were a family of five, ages 23-74.....We drove from RI to NYC and arrived at noon....check it was approx. 1 hour total and were in our cabin at 1....Then we went to main buffet,,,,it was so crowded couldn't find a seat and decided to go to the Manhattan dining room for a buffet, no problems there...then explored ship, went up to the sail away party, nice very cold and windy...Our first day at sea was cold on the water, we barely went outside..We had four gorgeous sunny days...beware of the sun very strong. The ship is beautiful and large. Our cabin was perfect, a little small. Balcony really small. The location was great below buffet and the pool, so we walked a lot...the ship only has two sets of elevators one in the forward and one in the aft. So try to get close to them..

Food was good, not great but something for everyone. We ate in two specialty ones...Cagneys steakhouse was excellent...the Japanese not so good, nothing like the hibachi at home...We tried wasabi the sushi bar, great and reasonable, also the noodle bar the same...

As far as the smoking on ship, yes in the casino you could smoke but you couldn't smell it everywhere like some reviewers have said. Casino nice size, didn't win anything... Read more