My partner and I booked this cruise because of an Aquafest event onboard - their annual Hallowe'en cruise. It was my first time on Norwegian, and even though I prefer set table and set time for dinner, I was impressed by the "freestyle" aspects of the experience. (Not that the other lines are so overly structured as NCL advertises.) We did eat in the main dining room only two of nine nights though. The first night, when we were favorably impressed. Then the next to last night, and were unimpressed. The menus change very little from night to night in the main dining rooms. We did enjoy the specialty restaurants the other nights, despite the additional costs. I justified it as we had an inside cabin! We ate at Le Bistro three nights, because we enjoyed it the best. Ask for Ratayya for your server there. She is FANTASTIC! Also, Le Bistro is the best food of the specialty restaurants. (If you're still smarting at the French for whatever reason - get over it - enjoy their style of food - and find out that you eat quite a bit of it anyway . . . )

One very sour note . . . the vegetarian entree in the steakhouse has pickled onions in it, on top of saffron and an assortment of vegetables. I ordered it as a side, looking for some genuine vegetables (i.e., not potatoes) to go with my meal. I ended up getting a whole serving anyway (lost in translation?), and the saffron (the rarest of spices) was pretty overpowering. I was enjoying the carrots that came with it, and then ventured over to the pearl onions, only to find that they were pickled cocktail onions! Eeeeewww . . . At first I thought someone was being lazy in the kitchen, and rather than peel the little suckers he contacted a bartender buddy and obtained a large jar of cocktail onions instead. The maitre'd then approaced our table for the third time - all smiles - "How is everything?" "Would you like to taste this onion? It's a cocktail onion!" "Oh, Sir, the chef concocted the dish that way - with cocktail onions." His confidence only caused me to pursue this further: "Why in the world would he do something like that?" The maitre'd quickly feigned a cell phone call and hurried from our table.

If you eat at the Asian restaurant you can have both the sushi and the Asian fusion for one cover. We did that. Just don't eat anything from lunch to dinner! Actually, the entrees on the Asian menu were smallish, so the sushi made a great prelude. And, you can take your time. Read more