Having sailed with Norwegian previously in 2010 as a teenager, I was eager to see how Norwegian's 'Freestyle' approach worked as an adult. For the most part it was great, lots of food choices and many bars and shows to choose from. Embarkation was straightforward, however having booked everything myself separately, I was unaware that you had to get a shuttle from the bottom of La Ramblas to the ship. Checking in and setting up onboard account was easy, we just put down a credit card as it was the easier option for us (saves queuing up on the last night to pay in cash). Once onboard we got straight in to our cabin (with 3 different embarkation ports it meant cabins were available a lot quicker than on previous cruises) and our bags came quickly. We had an inside cabin on deck 14 which turned out to be greatly beneficial for the pool and buffet as they were only one deck up. Having seen a lot of grumblings about the layout of the cabins with the shower and toilet on each side of the stateroom I was sceptical as to whether I would like the cabin, however there was a lot of space to move about and we preferred the ability to use each separately.

We ate at the buffet the first afternoon and found a great deal of choice with many different kinds of food. Something for everyone. We continued to eat at the buffet each morning for breakfast as it was the most convenient and my oh my I have never eaten so much in the mornings before. If you are an egg fan, do check out the omelettes which are made to order with a variety of ingredients! Exceptionally tasty, although queues can be a bit long but they are worth the wait. As for meals at night, we gave the speciality restaurants a miss as we were happy enough with the menus in the main dining rooms and The Noodle Bar. Although the menus were the same in both dining rooms, we preferred Manhattan to Taste as we felt there was a better atmosphere as sometimes the dancers from 'Burn the Floor' would do a small performance or there would be live music. There was a lot of choice for main courses however starter wise unless you were a fish fan or cold soup, sometimes the options were minimal but there was always something for everyone.

Entertainment was first class and very impressive. We saw 'Burn the Floor' which was stunning and I've never seen dancers enjoy their job so much. Wish we could have seen it again. We also watched 'Priscilla Queen of the Desert' which was outstanding, shorter than a show on land which meant a lot of songs in a small space of time but didn't hinder the performance at all. We spent a lot of time around the pool area and was always able to find a pair of deckchairs and we were sailing at full capacity. We thoroughly enjoyed using the flumes also! Read more