We have cruised Norwegian 10 years ago on a cruise to Alaska. I was not a huge fan of Freestyle cruising, but it was in the early stages and I thought they would work out the kinks. I guess I was wrong. The only good service on this cruise was the bar service.

Embarkation was ok. No hang ups, but we did have to go down to the desk the next day for retake of pictures. We could get into our staterooms at 2 PM. The room was small, as was the balcony. (smallest I've seen), but that's ok, still adequate storage space. The bathroom had the largest shower I've seen on a ship, however, our shower was really filthy. Moldy grout and the floor was falling apart. I addressed this with Prem on Monday and heard from the hotel manager on Tuesday. He said the floor would be repaired Wednesday. They came Thursday to repair the floor, but it was dirty all week. (I talked to another cruiser who had a problem with a dirty shower also) We saw our cabin steward a few times and he always kept the room tidy, it was just the shower. Also, on the eleventh floor. They started unstacking chairs and dragging them across the floor above at about 5:30 AM. Very noisy.

Dining...The spirit has 6 private restaurants. There were 2 main dining rooms if you didn't want to pay the surcharge. We only used the main dining. Raffles was great for breakfast. Not impressed for lunch, and dinner was horrible when we ate there. We had breakfast in the Windows dining room one day and my breakfast was cold. Service in Raffles was poor. Never had anyone serving coffee in the morning. (refills). Just not the friendly atmosphere we are used to. It was the same in Windows and the Garden Room. They did there job, but not too enthusiastically or friendly. Since gratuities are charged to your account ahead of time, why bother. Those were higher than recommended on other cruises we have take also. I'm sure there is something included for a head waiter. Never saw one. When I complained at the desk about the lack of service I was told that I should have complained at the time. If I had, I would have spent a lot of time at the customer service desk. Please don't misunderstand, I am not a picky person, but I do expect some friendliness from the staff. Read more