We were invited by a group of friends to join them for a 21 day Italy trip, ending with a 7 day cruise out of Venice. Of course, we said yes. We spent extra to book a mini suite since this was our first cruise. We immediately received an offer from NCL about bidding for an upgrade to a family suite. The scale was 0 to 1500 dollars. On a whim we bid 250. A couple days later, we were notified we got the family suite! Exciting. So,we got special boarding priorities, a butler, complimentary breakfast and lunch in a specialty restaurant every day. The suite was huge, floor to ceiling windows, huge bathrooom, espresso machine, it was great. The staff treated us like celebrities. The Ports were awesome, shore excursions were good, except for a couple which we could have done on our own. Now the negative, dining. Our specialty restaurant was exceptional. However we would eat dinner with our friends every night in complimentary restaurants. Without exception, the food was quite disappointing. Every complimentary restaurant served luke warm, mass produced food. One experience was a lite dinner of Coney Island hotdogs. A half hour later we were served cold French fries and hot dog. After sending it back, waited another half hour and served hot french fries, Luke warm hotdog. The cafeteria style buffet food was Denny’s quality. However spent about $50 in a specialty restaurant and it was excellent. Was quite disappointed, had always heard cruise dining was exceptional.