My wife and I have being cruising with our children for over 6 years. We have been on Celebrity (big mistake to go Celebrity for your first time as it sets the bar really high), and then NCL 3 other times - The Spirit, The Sun and The Sky. We chose NCL because of the Freestyle option. It fit well with our family schedule, in terms of eating. Last week was the first time my wife and I experienced a cruise by ourselves. We selected the 3 day itinerary on the Sky out of Miami. We overnighted at The Sofitel in Miami - which was an incredible experience (the highlight of our trip). Embarkation on to the Sky was simple and quite fast. Agents were pleasant and informative.... and that's when everything went down hill. The New Freestyle 2.0 experience is supposed to bring you a glass of champagne after you get your hands sanitized! Never got that.... to get to the lobby, you had to walk through an area that resembled the straw market in the Bahamas. NCL was peddling everything from wine packages, spa packs, commemorative cups, booze, excursions, products, free cruises, gems. These were hard sales and reminded me of getting off at ports of call like Jamaica and Cozumel. After making it unscathed through the flea market, we went to the Palace for a quick lunch as our room was not prepared yet. The host at the Palace suggested the buffet for lunch, as it was the same food. I told them that the we did not want buffet and wanted to sit down instead. The food on the Sky was moderate - equal to a family chain restaurant. The service however was below standard. My feeling is, is that since staff know there is automatic gratuity then they have no drive to provide any type of decent service. Saying that, when you enter a pay restaurant like Cagneys (The Steakhouse) not only does the quality of food increase substantially, but so does the service. The price for dinner for two, with 2 glasses of wine and tip was $70.00. Pretty steep considering you are already paying for food you are not using. The evening show celebrating rock superstars was Walmart quality at best. Nothing too innovative. I wish I would have spent the extra money and gone on Celbrity or RCCL. The additional 230.00 spent on tips, premium restaurant would have been better spent on a qulaity experience. The old saying you get what you pay for is very true.