Sailed Holiday cruise, which was impacted by winter storm Elliott, no fault of NCL. Smartly, NY closed the harbor so the Ship could not sail until the next morning, and it was a good thing! Embarkation process was easy. However please read, and take your chances if you book: Very Understaffed ship, yet the ship sailed full, possibly over booked. The ship was unbelievably crowded. NCL did not have enough sufficiently trained staff to service a packed Holiday Cruise. Many of the staff were new to their jobs and thrown out into their jobs, not properly trained, many are unprofessional, did not know what they were doing, overworked and overwhelmed.

Next: The food is HORRIBLE!!! The buffet is very crowded, hard to get a table, and due to the the freezing cold the guests did not dine in the unheated deck tables, causing huge congestion in the cafe. Some families reported that they got food poisoning or gastrointestinal illness. Due to the large passenger count, the Free Style experiance was not freestyle, long lines, up to 2 hrs to maybe get into the Noodle Bar. Without a reservation, the MDR gave out pagers as reservations took up most tables. The overcrowded ship is not an exaggeration.

Bland entertainment & activities, lot of small bands in the little venues, some were good like Howling at the Moon and the Reggae band. The Million Dollar Quartet was good. There is an Escape room activity that had long lines, and a fight ensued. You can’t get into shows as they must be booked as soon as you get on board, you must go on standby, so get your tickets as soon as you board. There is water constantly on the deck that the staff was always sweeping it off with brooms. If you have kids, note that the ropes course was closed. NCL cancelled 2 of our excursions, and many other peoples, so left with nothing to do on 2 port days. NCL also cancelled the stop at Great Stirrup Cay as supposedly water was too rough to tender, instead they dropped off a woman at Nassau for medical treatment, then we went back out another day at sea. The drink package is what kept many people happy, so intoxicated people all over. Read more