This was our first Norwegian cruise; but we are experienced cruisers having enjoyed Princess, Regent, and Royal Caribbean in the past.  I learned that FREESTYLE Cruising means, free of taste in the dining rooms, free of all your money in the bars, and free of memorable experiences when you get home.  They are bunglers in every department.  The embarkation was painful and very disorganized in Valparaiso.  They just tell you what to do but don't tell you why.  The ship is adequate and pretty clean.  Our cabin with a balcony was small but organized.  However, they haven't upgraded the TV's in 10 years and they only get a few stations which was hard when there were days and days at sea.  The ship charges you $12 per person per day for gratuities, so nobody on the ship had to work very hard because their tips were assured.  It is pretty disheartening.  I never saw such a bunch of sad-sacks, unhappy servers, cross faces and bad attitudes.  They were just not memorable crew members.  The nicest person I enountered was a brand new manicurist in the spa who actually spoke to me and I actually tipped her.  The crew in charge of the desks, the computers, etc. were extremely rude most of the time, arrogrant and just not friendly or willing to serve.  The computers are a big JOKE.  OLD, no memory, very poor connection speed, gummed up keyboards, and highway robbery rates- $1.00 a minute while you waited for them to connect.  It was sad.  Nobody used the casino because the machines were rigged.. I mean the casino was EMPTY most of the time, even at night.  There were a couple of awesome ports on this trip- but the ship bused us to one town 20 minutes away and charged us $10 each and there was nothing to do there on a Sunday nor any excursions.  In the evenings the ship did have good entertainment, I thought.  We really hated the food in general and besides a lack of portion size, it was just odd and nothing memorable.  The buffet was poorly structured and you couldn't walk around it at prime times and if you did manage to get a plate of food.. you couldn't find a table.  They've really got some problems in that area.  We just ended up with room service as you could get served.   I am definitely not going to go on any more cruises with Norwegian as Princess and Royal do a better job.  This ship could use some upgrades.