Just back from our 7 night Mexican Riviera cruise onboard the NCL Star. This was only our 2nd cruise, our first (and last) on NCL. We had a balcony cabin, port side, slightly aft. Our previous cruise was on Princess.
Let me start by saying that we are definitely NOT cruise experts. I was excited by the amount of "good" reviews I had heard from co-workers and friends. We were disappointed pretty quickly. Things seemed fairly disorganized from the start. We quickly interpreted "Freestyle" to mean "figure it out yourself" - front desk staff gave consistently inconsistent information. It also felt like we were getting "nickel & dimed" to death.
I'll start with the positive: the service was excellent! From the cabin stewards to the food workers, and everyone in between - every single person we encountered greeted us with a smile, a kind word & eye contact. Common areas were kept clean and tidy. The ports were beautiful, the excursions were good.