A Little Good; A LOT Bad

We have sailed several times - most on NCL. We always select interior cabins because our goal is to spend as little time there as possible. We have been pleased with NCL in the past. In fact, our favorite cruise was a full transit Panama Canal cruise in 2009. However, this was our worst cruise ever and fr at least two reasons:

Embarkation, ports of call and debarkation were all "okay". Nothing to be blown away by but certainly adequate. Embarked from Venice, visited Malaga, Lisbon and Puerto del Gado. Even the very rough seas during the crossing was acceptable because the captain worked hard to avoid rough seas - unsuccessfully.

What disturbed us was that entertainment was very minimal and the quality was very poor. We have never been bored on a ship before this trip and we can no longer say that. I have never played so many games of cards with my wife as we did on this trip! Crew seemed to have too much to do to be bothered with keeping the passengers busy. WAAAAY boring!

The other problem was NOTHING was free! Bingo? Costs money. Gambling? Costs money. Ship tour? Costs money. Watch a movie on your stateroom TV? Costs money. Eating? Except for the buffet, main dining rooms and one quick restaurant, most venues cost money. I have a personal aversion to being offered food already paid fr in the tip cost, but having it implied that if I want GOOD food, I need to pay even more.

Paying the trip cost is not really the total cost of this cruise. You will be given many more opportunities to pay . . . and pay . . . and pay. Maybe some people welcome that, but we didn't. We made a mistake of purchasing $250 toward a future cruise too early in this cruise. Now I need to decide whether to blow that off or cruise just one more time in Norwegian - then, never again!