Ship: Beautiful and big ship, one of few NCL ship with huge observation lounge in the front (other than Haven Lounges), where light meal/snack and a bar was open most of the time. This is where the Glacier Bay NP rangers hosted presentation overlooking the Glaciers from 8-noon. ship layout with one central point with two elevator banks on forward and rear. As typical there is no indoor pool/Solarium which would have been nice in 40s in Alaskan cruise. This being fairly a new ship with refurbishment in 2022, I thought ship would be smoother but in cabin 13*** which is right by rear elevator (2/3 of ship), I felt ship vibrate throughout the trip, standing still, I felt like I was a vibrator. The vibration was mostly throughout the ship more noticeable in center to rear in every floor. The fitness center was small but has about 3 dzn cardio machines and about a dzn workout machine, full rack of free weight and virtually no extra room for stretching or individual work out. Unique to this and Encore(?), it has a very decent go-cart track, $15 for about 10 min ride, it was nice but the speed seems to be limited by central controller, where at the beginning no matter how hard you press the accelerator, it wouldn’t move until they give you the power then suddenly pops forward and if you drive fast, they seem to throttle you back. 8th floor has various restaurants and boardwalk, forward port side had District brew which has several specialty beers on the tap. We avoid 8th floor in the center due to heavy cigar smoke near Cavern club area.

Cabin: in Fam Bal 13***, was by far the smallest room I have been onboard with virtually no storage space. Other than closet with 4 shelves, there are no real drawers in the cabin. There is two large drawers under the couch but it had couch cushion when converted to a bed, main desk/vanity had two area with shelves but one was just enough to put clothes other with about 3-inch width, it really didn’t serve much. The bathroom actually had more storage space than the room! Bathroom size avg but sink was big enough, and shower actually had enough space to move around. Although nearby elevator it was far enough no noise yet quick access to most rear of the ship facilities (2 floor up for Fitness and Spa, elevator down to 7 for Main dining, 6th for two alt main dining Savour and Taste. This is one of few rooms that narrow mid ship expand to wider body thus giving you extra 20 sqft of balcony space with forward view. With the latest change, the daily gratuity is $20, which is almost 35% increase meanwhile you get only 1 room cleaning a day. (get the math, 35% increase to get half the service? This is not just NCL but others are MSC already cutback when I was on Seascape on Mar 2022) I don’t really mind on cleaning but making up bed should be done 2x a day. With bunk dropped from the ceiling and couch being a bed, you really don’t have any room to lounge and move around in your room.

Dining: Main cabin dining presentation was good, food was very mixed some good some bad. One biggest gripe was all chowders/creamy soup had one flavor, no matter which soup (clam chowder, Salmon Chowder, etc) I had it always tasted like a raw flour and had small rump of flour floating. I don’t think the chef on NCL knows the concept of roux for chowders. If due to dietary restriction, veg oil can be used for roux. Service was mixed as well, sometime decent other times not even getting a water or see a server for 20-30 min. Buffet was set up with similar food on both sides. starting with drink station, cold food (right side had desert with ice cream section) that connects to middle that served egg stations in morning, pizza/burger bar in the afternoon and dinner. Burgers were good, sometimes bit dried out. My biggest gripe on the trip, for a person who eat pizza every other day, I only had a slice in this trip and honestly can say out of Carnival, RCL, MSC and NCL, NCL by far has worst pizza! Sauce, cheese, toppings were good, not like MSC quality was there, but the DOUGH was not to my liking. Crush cooked well but when you bite into it, you get doughie middle. So you got neither crispy nor soft crust. Should add more yeast to proof the dough. Across that center section will be hot food and carving stations (egg and hot breakfast in the morning), similar set up forward except, left side will have Indian food section and right side with Asian food (had one type of noodle soup, one stir fried item, one stir fried noodle and rice), food quality is very lacking. Like the food you get from cheap Chinese carryout in a bad neighborhood. Indian food was decent in taste (I am not a fan of Indian food but as a foodie I will always try different food.) Other free meal places are at the 15th forward for Observation lounge where they usually have drinks and light finger food/fruits. Local bar has various bar food which also was hit and miss. Wings were ok I prefer more deep-fried type, had hotdogs and bugers which was good. Fish and chip was weird as when you bite into it you will only find inside with half empty. They could cut back on amount of fries with food to cut back on food waste as we left about 2 large McD portion of fries with 3 orders we had. if you choose to have a dining plan (2 meals) or purchased a plan, you have access to Cagney’s Steakhouse, Ocean Blue Seafood, La Cucina Italian, Los Lobos Mexican, Le Bistro French, Q Texas Smokehouse, Food Republic Fusion, Teppanyaki, American Diner. For me, paying almost $50 for a meal to have Teppanyaki (typical in my area for $40 a meal), Mexican, or American Diner for burgers didn’t make sense. So I opted for Cagney and Food Republic. Cagney, with a meal plan, you get 1-App, 1-Salad or soup, 1 main course, and 1 dessert, and you cannot combine 2 meal plans for a Porter House. As you can see from the menu, steaks weren’t either Prime or Choice and my opinion, I have had better steaks at Long Horn/Outback than here, the meat was flavor less and was not juicy even at Med rare. This was the same for Prime rib, NY strip, and Filet Mignon. Fries and veg were good, but the baked potato were not. it was a lump of potato in a nice dish, you cut it and a server will load the toppings but my potato was not hot enough to melt the butter and was dry. I also tried a NY Stip in main restaurant and I like the free steak better than at Cagney’s. Food Republic was a good choice, each meal plan will give you any 4 choices from menu. They had 10 diff rolls, varying Asian food and some Latin fusion food. Rolls were good but rice was too wet and over cooked (you shouldn’t be paying to eat at a sushi restaurant if rice is like this, wet and busted/broken due to overcook) cut back on water by 10% should solve this problem. (I would cut back by 15% and after cooking pour mirin/rice cooking wine to simmer in room temp.) Most of other food was acceptable although bit off from authentic, especially spicy Korean fried chicken was not very good. But, I do recommend this place for varied food. Hint: you cannot make pre-reservation for this place, but you must make reservation at Teppanyaki restaurant for Food Republic as this place is small and is always packed. Next time I will opt for Q-smokehouse instead of Cagney’s. Read more