We thought this Cruise would be a good opportunity to try out NCL on a bit smaller of a ship. We liked that it was a 10 days and had lots of ports. Embarkation was easy & fairly quick. We tried to bring our luggage on by ourselves but were told three times we couldn't because of the size. Our two bags were not oversized. WTH? Then upon entering the terminal we saw several people with the same size luggage carrying theirs on. We ended up waiting until 6 pm to get our two bags. It was all downhill after that. The room with a porthole was adequate, decent size. No issues. Our main complaint is that the majority of the staff couldn't care less about being here. Poor attitudes, no smiles, almost like they were being held against their will. The head restaurant staff at the Palace never smiled nor greeted us, they bordered on rude. The wait staff is "ok" though they work at a snail's pace and seem most of the time to not know what you're requesting. Okay, let's talk about the food. All the food, no matter where we went was cafeteria quality at best. It wasn't very flavorful. We've never been so disappointed on a cruise. Royal Caribbean runs circles around poor NCL. I'm serious, the food should be in a school cafeteria. One specialty restaurant (La Bistro) was decent. Except for the fact of trying hard to make us tip even more above the 20% added gratuity. The bar staff for the most part were sullen and brusk. We were made to feel that we are doing them a disservice by asking them a question. Let me say, this was not an isolated incident with one crew member, it was the majority. Also in fairness I will add, there were many staff members that were friendly and kind, though they were the minority.

The entertainment? Garbage. If you can even call it entertainment. We know this a smaller ship, but c'mon, at least try. There was a comedian that was funny, (J.R.). The singing acts were poor. The only redeeming act was the live band Sonata. They were good. If it weren't for them, we would've jumped overboard. The "DJ" is a joke. Once he shows up, after the band leaves, everyone else leaves. Crickets on the dance floor. He won't take requests and plays the worst club music we've ever heard. I wouldn't give such a harsh critique if this was some "discounted" cruise, but it was not, it was close to $100 pp per day. We were charged "port taxes" on drinks long after we left US ports, but were never even told that we'd be charged at the time of our order. We brought this up with guest services & were told there was nothing they could do. I asked for the equivalent to be taken out of gratuities, which they said they would do, it's been 4 days, they've done nothing. The app (and their website) list the ports where they'll dock.. ie.. Puerto Rico, it says Amber Cove (it was NOT, it was Puerto Plata) we made plans according with this info and was rudely awaken with the fact that they lied and we needed to cancel and scramble to come up with something else.

Now, I will say, we spoke with many many other quests and this is a consensus. I'm not being rude or hyperbolic.. it's just the facts.