I went on this cruise with my parents, aunt, and my sister and her family. My husband thought that a week on a ship sounded like a nightmare so he didn't come with us. Originally my parents wanted to do the cruise as their 50th wedding anniversary party but it was postponed due to covid, so they chose this trip instead. They sailed on this ship a few year ago in Alaska and had a great time so they wanted to be on this ship again. Also all of the adults except me and my brother-in-law have some kind of mobility issues ranging from severe to mild, so we chose a cruise because it is fairly accessible and we tried to choose shore excursions that would also be easy for everyone. That didn't always work out as planned, though.

First the parts I liked. I enjoyed being on the water and being outside on the decks. Although I'm originally from the US I currently live in England so the sun was especially welcome. The food in the specialty restaurants was excellent and I sampled a number of fancy cocktails and wines that I wouldn't normally drink thanks to the beverage package I had. The selection in the buffet was good, especially the Indian dishes, which was an unexpected touch. It was nice to be with my family but have my own space, and my teenaged niece and nephew enjoyed being able to run around the ship without us worrying that they would get lost. I had a studio room which was slightly odd in that the lounge was almost always empty and they took away the water dispensers at night, but I liked the smart TV with the faux window. In the early mornings I would open the faux window and turn on the bridge cam on the TV to get a sense of what the outside was like. I enjoyed hanging out in the observation lounge and every location we visited was beautiful to look at. The crew was all very pleasant and helpful, and the rooms were kept tidy every day. We gave the steward an extra tip for dealing with my sister's room as her kids created an instant mess when they unpacked. The shows were fun and not the kind of thing I would normally go to see, so that was a nice change of pace for me. I only managed to make it to one of the events for solo travellers but I did appreciate that they had them.

And now the not-so-great. On the first day the sea was too rough to tender, so we missed our big beach day. Of course this wasn't the fault of Norwegian, but it was a bit of a bummer. But after two days of being at sea we were all ready to get off the boat and look around. We booked some excursions through Norwegian because of the promise that they would hold the ship if we were late as well as the understanding that they would be suitable for those with mobility issues. My aunt in particular used a scooter to get around because of her joint problems but of course she was not able to take this with her on the excursions. This ended up being a problem at times even though we were careful to choose trips that were described as easy and had checked with Norwegian that they would be suitable. At one stage we had to flag down a taxi to take us all back to the ship even though we had been assured at the start of the excursion that we would be taken back there. It would have been impossible for my aunt to walk the short distance back to the ship from where we were. On the day that we split into two groups and looked around Tortola on our own I had a much better time. I went to the Governor's House museum and a regular local supermarket, and I didn't feel that I was a "captive shopper" without any time to look around the town. The excursion we did in the Dominican Republic felt very rushed in the parts that were meant to be historic while the parts where we visited jewelry shops and a rum distillery felt like an endless sales pitch. It ended up getting back to the ship very late so we had only a few minutes to look around before we had to get back on board. On the last day we planned an excursion to the Everglades, but our flights were changed and we no longer had time to do it. We tried to switch to a Miami tour but that was cancelled. Fortunately my sister was able to change her family's tickets to leave ealier, otherwise they would have been in the airport until 11pm with nothing to do. Read more