This was our eighth cruise with NCL, several of which have been in the Caribbean. We chose this cruise because it offered a different itinerary than most available on NCL. We had already been to many of the usual ports that NCL stops at (at least once). Also, we had been on the Jade several years ago when it was still the Pride of Hawaii and thought it would be nice to revisit. We had never sailed out of Tampa before so that was also of interest.

Embarkation was smooth, although there didn't seem to be any advantage to being a gold Latitudes member in this instance. Disembarkation was pretty slow with lineups stalled for long periods.

We enjoyed revisiting this ship. It seemed well cared for but it was obviously in need of updating (which is scheduled for March, I believe). We were satisfied with the ship overall, including our inside cabin. We didn't indulge in the extra cost of specialty restaurants and were quite happy with the buffet and free restaurants. We enjoyed most of the nightly entertainment in the Stardust although some of the singing/dancing gets a bit racy for our tastes. Most of the musical entertainment around the ship was fairly good. I thought the main show band was pretty rough at the beginning but got better (maybe they were just thrown together before the cruise?). Read more