Have cruised with NCL many times (platinum latitudes) and have had a few hiccups but mostly smooth sailing. UNTIL the Eastern Caribbean. Arrived in San Juan a week early..had a wonderful time and often noted that the cruise ships all docked right at the historic district..and a short walk to the free shuttle. Imagine our surprise when we went for our ship and found it moored miles from anything (and I do mean ANYTHING). We had a really hard time getting them to take our bags (they said it was the first time they had handled it from here) and so we stood outside in the heat for a substantial period of time. When they finally did allow us into the building there was not even water for anyone other than VIP. By the time we got on to the ship we were hot, thirst and frustrated.

That began the problem. We had ultimate dining and we were only able to get reservations for one of the nights the others all restaurants were fully booked. We also could not use the ultimate dining for upgraded meals in the free restaurants (new thing..they now have expensive meal upgrades in the free facilities eg: 24.95 each). They were now also charging a $7.95 surcharge for room service.

The room, food and service were good and everything was spotlessly clean but we got off to a bad start. The entertainment was half baked to say the least and not up to NCL's usual standards (of course that has been steadily declining since the first cruise 12 years ago). Read more