New York (Manhattan) to the Panama Canal & Central America Cruise Reviews

Background We are a couple in our early 70’s who have been on about seven cruises, most with Norwegian, but also with Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. We had a balcony cabin, Deck 9 midships on the starboard side. We traveled with another couple, also seasoned cruisers. This sailing elevated us to Latitudes Gold status with Norwegian. We secured what we thought was an excellent ...

This cruise had a great itinerary that started by leaving from NYC (no flying for us) and doing some really good ports including Turks & Caicos, the Dominican Republic, Curacao, Costa Rica, and a full transit of the Panama Canal. Then I learned from CruiseCritic (not from NCL!!) that Grand Turk and Curacao were replaced by Bermuda (which we missed anyway, due to weather conditions) and Catalina ...

Embarkation: No problems in Manhattan, took the train to manhattan, and $20 for a cab to the port. One of the fastest initial embarkations i've ever had... I say initial, because at Port Canaveral, all passengers were required to disembark and sit in a waiting area for several hours with nothing to do, especially if you had a late morning excursion. With hours of mindless waiting (in a Royal ...

About the Reviewer: I’m a middle-aged American male who traveled solo this trip. This was my 31st Norwegian Cruise Line voyage and my 55th cruise overall. I have sailed primarily on NCL with a handful of cruises with Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, MSC and Carnival. This was my eighth cruise back after the pandemic restart and my fourth back with Norwegian Cruise Line. My previous cruise was on the ...

If you are thinking of booking a cruise with NCL then just don’t, at least not before reading about the very poor recent cruise experienced and confirmed by speaking to over 100 people during the cruise This issues started about 4 weeks before departure. A quick email from the travel company, Cruise Nation in this case, ( who equally gave a very poor experience in so many ways), to say there ...

Excellent large ship, although I find the smaller ships to be much more enjoyable because they seem so much less crowded. Experience was typical of my expectations for NCL. Ship's officers and crew were very welcoming, which notably helped enhance the experience. Particularly noteworthy service was received from Vanessa O (bar waitress), Wayan R (Waiter), Minellie P (bar waitress), and I Kadek ...

We chose this cruise because it was one the first 14 day cruises available post CDC clearance and because of NCL's policy of 100% vaccinations for passengers and crew. We've had four cancellations in the past two years and were anxious to get back on the water. Several topics to note: 1. The Covid testing procedures at the terminal were an inconvenience but pretty efficient and well worth ...

This was our 11th cruise on NCL. We chose it because we wanted to do a full transit of the canal. First off, the cruise was 20 days. We booked a port balcony cabin on deck 10 somewhat forward. This was our third time on the Gem, a ship we really like because it has excellent public spaces (Spinnaker lounge, outdoor fantail dining, promenade deck) that the larger NCL ships don’t seem to have. ...

We just got off the Dawn today. We were in cabin 10706 balcony cabin. It was a great room. Comfortable close to the aft elevators and very quiet. A lot of people said the crew was very unfriendly. We found the opposite. The crew was awesome and very helpful. We did not find a ship in disrepair. It is clean and very nice. We loved Bamboo and the Pub Osheas. Go there for breakfast. It’s quieter and ...

I am very experienced cruiser, more than 20 with different companies. Almost every step or category was poor enough to regret taking this cruise. Booking through Expedia was hard sale, showing absolutely no cooperation neither from Expedia, nor from NCL side. NCL representative was unprofessional, giving wrong information about type of cabin assigned (it was at the time when it could ...