My husband and I earned a free cruise through the company for which I work through and were excited to experience freestyle dining, the Norwegian service and amenities. Of course, we were more excited just to get away and have our phones turned off for a week and alone time without our sweet toddler. We stayed at the Hilton Miami Downtown Saturday and were able to check in early, nap and enjoy some downtown culture before embarking Sunday morning.
Despite the embarkation staff telling us that our side of the embarkation was very busy, we didn't have to wait long and the staff was very efficient and friendly. We enjoyed an afternoon in the Garden Cafe while waiting for our staterooms to be prepared. My husband and I have a gluten intolerance and were a little nervous about having to eat salad the whole cruise (boring!). Luckily, I only had to wait about 20 minutes for a personal-sized gluten free pizza at the Garden Cafe.
One thing I noticed about Norwegian was how clean the ship stayed! My previous cruise, we constantly saw cups laying on the stairs. We did eat dinner at Taste the first night and was very disappointed. Our waitress was all over the place, she didn't know how to answer our questions about gluten free, it took forever to get our food, coffee, and anything else we asked for, and our food temperature was luke warm. She gave us our menu for the next day to pre-order but when my husband took a moment to think how to answer her, she went off to two other tables.
Clean, loved the large balcony, loved the jetted shower, the bed was comfortable even as a king, everything worked properly.
We disembarked on a different side of Cozumel than the cruise we took with Carnival so it was a shock to see we had to pay $35-40 to get to the beach when we were able to go to the beach off the port last time. Senor Frogs was an enjoyable experience, best guacamole I have ever had.
Loved the convenience of the dining on the island! White sandy beaches, you could snorkel off the beach if you wanted and the facilities were almost as clean as the ship! I heard that you aren't always guaranteed to get off here because the waves are too rough for the tenders to get to the ship. I'm very glad we were able to enjoy it. PS If it rains, it'll be over quickly. We were getting on the tender to go to the island when it was raining for 20 minutes. It was a blessing because about 300 people left the island at lunch time so we had no crowds!
We enjoyed walking the Marketplace Saturday night.