This was my first time on Norwegian and second cruise ever. I did like the freestyle approach though it can become crowded when everyone wants to eat dinner at the same time. Disembarkation was really fast since we could just walk off with our own bags. I and my 3 sons loved the onboard entertainment - all the performers were excellent and friendly when you ran into them onboard. I thought the service was OK. I didn't feel like I got much extra attention from our cabin steward and the servers were hit and miss (since you didn't generally dine at the same table). The bar staff were generally very good.

The food served in the Venetian was generally very tasty. We also tried the Brazilian steakhouse which was OK. The buffet was generally pretty well stocked and I could always find something I wanted to snack on. I thought the number of sponsored excursions to be fewer than my prior cruise but what was offered covered what we all wanted to do. The rest of the staff were always very friendly.

I really appreciated how they decorated the ship for the holiday and had some holiday themed activities. I did buy a birthday package (decorating my suite and a cake). It would have been nice if they gave us a choice on the type of cake. Overall, the ship seemed to be well maintained and clean.