This was our 4th NCL cruise and 10th cruise total. We had an early time to check in at the port but then had to wait two hours to embark. I guess they are trying to stagger folks but I don't think we would have shown up that early had I know we wouldn't be able to get on for 2 hours. We got the Ultimate Beverage Package and certainly enjoyed it. We had an inside room this time. We are definitely used to having at least a balcony but the folks we were traveling with only wanted to pay for an inside and we wanted to stay close together. It was actually fairly large with quite a bit of storage and shelf space for being an inside room. The ship layout could be a little confusing but we eventually learned our way around. The entertainment was great! We loved all the shows and also the karaoke, bandaoke (we had never heard of that before), the White Hot party and Sailaway party. That was all a great time.

The food was just okay. Our first night we went to Aqua and dinner took almost 3 hours (and we left before dessert so we could get seats for the show). We watched other tabes sit after us and leave before so I think it was just our table. We also never got refills of water. We had great experiences in both main dining rooms every night after that so I'm not sure what happened there.

One thing that is disappointing is the lack of special dishes on their "formal" nights. Most other lines do something extra nice for entrees and desserts those nights but not NCL. Also I was under the impression that the Venetian was the more formal of the two and had a dress code but that was never enforced so even the dress up or not night had folks in their tshirts and shorts there. Read more