Great Itinerary...Average Cabin, Food, and Customer Service

I choose this cruise for the Solo Advantage and the Itinerary. I had been on the Star on two other cruises, but this ship is due for a complete overhaul, including Customer Service everywhere on the ship. I arrived at the Dock after touring Venice for two days. I was surprised at the "Warehouse Concept" for embarkation. No extras for Latitude Members. When I arrived on Board I went directly to the Versailles for lunch, I think I was the only one in the Restaurant. The waiters did not seem to want anyone guest there.

I attended a CC Meet & Greet at the Bier Garten since NCL will not reserve a private room for any group. We had to beg for extra chairs to sit on.

The Sail Away out of Venice was wonderful, but I found it difficult to take photos due to people with photo sticks.

My upgraded Cabin was a mid-ship Mini-Suite with Balcony on Deck 11. It was below the end of the pool on Level 12. So, I had no sleep the whole trip due to rolling, running, movement of furniture, etc. NCL Front Desk is useless when you complain.

Our 25 person CC Group met twice in Versailles for Dinner. CS there made it very difficult to arrange for a large dinner party and service was not up to expectations.

Food at the Market Café was just average and I felt like I was in a High School Cafeteria fighting not only for a place in line for food and then for a place to sit and eat. Members of our group meet a couple of times at O'Sheehan's and again, trying to get a waitperson to arrange for a table for 6-8 for almost impossible, and on one occasion the wait staff was difficult to find.

The Ports we docked at were all in my bucket list, but there was not enough time allotted.

The Athens Customs Dock was like a heard of cattle trying to get to 3 check-in areas. Fights broke out in the Terminal because some MSC Crew Members were trying to get to their ship; there was not a separate queue for Crew.

I arranged for Private Tours at all of the Ports except Kotor. This Ship Excursion was terrible because the tour guide was unable to get the radios to work with our headsets. I found out afterward, that all of the tours from the ship that day had the same issue. I went to Excursions to complain. I paid $70 for this tour and received a $9 credit.

I do have to wonder if NCL will stay the Cruiseline of Choice for my Solo Travels.

Cabin was more spacious than a regular Balcony. I did like the curtain that could be pulled to separate the main bed from the sofa area (if there were four in cabin). There was not a lot of space between the closets and the bed. There is a table with two chairs in an odd area. The Balcony was ok.