In my opinion, NCL's standards have dropped considerably. There were a lot of times that my husband and I sighed in disappointment. The food in the dining room, was not up to fine dining standards. Fish that was WAY over done, finding a piece of shell in the escargot (and being told "that happens"), not much variety considering it was a 10 day cruise. The shows in the evening were just so-so, children allowed in the lounges after 10pm, smoking areas were almost non-existent, no dress code enforced in the dining room (pajama pants and flip flops). Getting on and off the boat went very smoothly. Richard, the cruise director, was great. Mark Anthony, our cabin steward, did a fantastic job. We felt that the service staff (bar tenders, wait staff, etc) just didn't seem to be a friendly as in the past, but then again, if you know that you're getting a 20% tip without even trying, why would you go above and beyond. This was our 4th cruise with NCL, we will give some serious thought to which cruise line to take next time. This cruise actually made Carnival not look too bad.