We didn't choose this particular cruise, cruise line, nor itinerary, but were part of a group choosing the vacation destination. We went to enjoy our friends and our pastime of square dancing. We hoped to also enjoy experiencing a new cruise line with which we had not yet traveled. It was convenient to our home location as far as embarkation. The ship was clean and nice. There were more than enough activities and excursions to choose from.

As for the negative comments, we do have a few. Having been on 7 previous cruises, this ship had the WORST bar service. At any given time or bar, there was usually only 1 server and MAYBE 1 waiter serving the sitting area (if you could find him/her). We are not heavy drinkers so we didn't sit at the bar all day long and get chummy with the bartenders. But when we did seek to buy a drink, we couldn't get served in less than 20 minutes, usually much more. We did not buy the drink package, so you think they would be glad to serve us with the 20% auto-added gratuity! I have a HUGE problem with this auto added gratuity since the service was horrible (and I'm a patient person). I asked if I could have it reduced or put my own 'gratuity' and was told that I couldn't. Needless to say, I didn't order to many more drinks.

Being experienced cruisers, we are not a huge fan of the 'Anytime' dinner seating. There were multiple restaurants all serving the same meal that we could choose with Anytime seating, but the service was slow, we never had any great rapport with wait staff because it was always someone new. This was our first experience with 'Anytime' seating and we would not choose Norwegian since that's all they offer on this particular cruise. ON A BETTER NOTE, the food was probably better than other cruise lines, although we missed having lobster and escargot at the Complimentary dining like other cruises offer. It seems we are being coerced into 'buying food' at the specialty restaurants. That used to be one of the best features of a cruise, the 'Pay One Price' for this type of vacation experience. Read more