I have sailed on Norwegian four or five times, so I had a pretty good idea what to expect this time and, indeed, this cruise conformed to my expectations. Basically, this is a medium giant ship with lots and lots of activities for kids - minigolf ( the course could use some rehab); ping pong; water slides; rope climbs, bingo etc. Family upgrade cabin 12772 has bunk beds below and from ceiling a la Disney, but very small and crowded for me and my 13 and 10 year old. Small balcony. Small and undistinguished bathroom. Generally clean ship staffed almost entirely by Asians who were universally polite and friendly, but frequentlyi lacking in fluent English - the absence of any cadre of Eastern Europeans in any visible capacity suggests that Norwegian is squeezing the pennies on staff wages. Oftentimes, our cabin was not even serviced until 1-2 pm. Oh well.

Buy the adult drink package and the specialty restaurant package. Not sure you really need the kids soda package, as nobody in the numerous bars and restaurants pays much attention to that. Fresh squeezed juice in the morning for an extra $3 is well worth it. Overall, the breakfast buffet was pretty good ( eggs and omelets made to order ), the lunch buffet was pretty bad unless you like hamburgers which were pretty good; the dinner in the two standard restaurants was OK, although the food generally showed up more warm than hot ( but I did like the "restaurant" character ), Cagney's was very good and all of us loved the Bistro. Can't stand the smell of stale smoke that permeates floors 6-8 from the casino. House cabernet was quite good and your alcohol package will get you top shelf drinks, although the wait times at the bars was sometimes excruciatingly long.

On "sailing " days, I tried to avoid the pool deck as much as possible as it is an unbelievable cacaphony of music, noise and pell-mell which is fine with my boys but not me. Get up early to "claim" your lounger as otherwise you will be screwed on those days even though lounger "claiming" is not technically permitted. Stay away from the pool deck on embarking day. The Carribean ports were standard fare and Ocho Rios has not improved. Read more