No doubt about it, Alaska summer cruises are a well oiled machine, a veritable ballet of ships sliding into and out of tight moorings in ports anxious to receive the motherlode of cruise ship visitors. The logistics of the operation are impressive and it is to the credit of NCL that we never felt pushed or crowded or overrun either on board or on shore.

The cabin service was always gracious and efficient.

The crew cheerful and helpful. My one complaint centers around the dining rooms, in particular, Azura. Meals were rushed even during non-peak feeding. The menu did not mark items that were obviously the vegetarian entree of the day so even when we asked the servers if an entree was vegetarian they replied "no" because it lacked the little (V) next to the description. The wine steward was a an object in constant motion and very hard to track down. These are little quibbles but they turned our expected dining experience into something pedestrian and unlike previous NCL experiences.