As a disclaimer, I have been on 6 cruises all on Royal Caribbean, and this was my first time on another line. My wife has cruised on Royal and Carnival. I'm not sure if it is NCL or just them working the bugs out of a brand new ship, but the whole cruise was just a bit "off."

The only high point of the cruise was the food. We ate at Cagneys, Le Bistro, and Teppenyaki. I had lunch at the Garden Café and in the main dining room, Taste. I food the food at each venue to be excellent. It was my first experience with "Freestyle" or whatever you wish to call it, dining. I can see the upside in being able to go when you want, but I missed having table mates to share the experience with. Also, many menus were ala carte. I absolutely hated seeing prices on a cruise ship menu. Part of what I love about cruise vacations is NOT seeing prices on a menu :). Now I've done specialty venues on RCI, and I understand the "cover charge." I'm fine with that, pay it or not. But this cruise seemed to have almost everything with an "extra" charge. Dinner show? Extra charge. Room service? Extra charge. Adult pool? Extra charge.

Let me tell you about the service. Terrible. The worst, period. They were understaffed and those that were there were not helpful. Embarkation was annoying. We arrived early and found the line to be short. However, with only about 5 parties in front of us, we waited almost 30 minutes. Once at the desk, it was apparent that this was our agent's first day ever. And maybe the first time ever using a computer. Each step in the process required her to walk over to another agent to ask how to do it. It took forever and was frustrating. Read more