Trying to get 3 families together was a challenge and this cruise fit the timeframe as well as being a great destination. The ship was smaller that what we were used to which was a nice treat but we missed some of the activities of the larger ships. The ports in Norway were amazing so the limited activities was not a big deal but would not want this ship on a transatlantic cruise or itinerary with a large amount of sea days. The staff in the restaurants and bars were fabulous. If you are on this ship make time to do the teppanaki and request "Velmond" (I think I got that right), he was the outstanding member on this cruise. He wa such an entertainer as well as cooking a great meal. The other highlight was the Elements show. If you only see one show on this ship, then this is the one. I had read many good reviews on this show and it did not disappoint. I loved not having to sign a receipt asking for another tip every time I got a drink (they do not make you sign for every beverage when you have the beverage package). As the tips are charged with the beverage package, no one was asking for another tip, although there were a few that provided exceptional service and we were happy to give them something extra at the end. The service from the bar staff was prompt and friendly. The Java cafe staff was always entertaining and made you feel so welcome. Our stateroom attendant was good, being friendly and always checking in. I loved the fitness center and did a workout every day of the 9 day cruise. There were lots of machines. The ladies welcoming you into the spa thermal suite were helpful and the thermal suite was amazing. That was definitely worth the cost. Unfortunately we had an issue with our travel agent (United cruises) and they did not load some offers that should have been on my account. NCL did everything they could to help and I appreciate the time they spent. We unfortunately had an issue with out stateroom bathroom and noticed it the minute we got into the cabin. There was a leak which had to be sewage behind the wall. It was not fixed until the second day and we could not use the room until the third day without feeling nautious. We could not "air it out" as the smell overtook the cabin. Fortunately I had purchased the thermal suite and could use their bathrooms and shower (they were one floor up from ours). The weather was fabulous so we could leave the balcony door open which helped. The ship was sailing full so they said there was nothing they could do and may have actually done something if it had lasted longer. These things do happen and I appreciate the repair crew and my stateroom attendant for getting a special cleanser to try and mask the smell and continually cleaning the area to try and help. I do feel that they should have refunded my thermal suite fee or at least comped our dinner one night. Overall, the smaller ship worked great for a port heavy cruise (7 port days and 2 sea days). The servers (buffet and bars) were some of the best we have had. Yes, everything you have read about the smoke from the casino is true..and it does make its way into neighboring bars, wish they would improve the ventilation. We were able to plan routes without going through the the casino. Read Less

Wanted to see the fjords and always liked ncl. Jade was recently refurbished and looks great. Ports were small but really enjoyed them. Seems they have cutback on the latitudes party. No more prizes and it is now early in the day when you are less likely to drink. Appetizers were cubes of cheese only. Very poor way to treat best customers. Show us you really care and make our experience special. As I remember we use to have two parties and one the captain was there. This party was a waste of time. Cruise critic party was pretty much over before it began. Officers introduced themselves then left did not stick around to talk. We noticed little things that were special are disappearing. No more crew show and other shows cut out. We still like the freestyle dining. Speciality restaurants were all excellent main dining room good. Shows were excellent except the magician very amateurish almost embarrassing. We would like to continue to sail ncl but make platinum members special and don’t cut back. Read Less

We chose the Jade for the itinerary to Norway and the North Cape. We have cruised with NCL and other cruise lines many times. Cutbacks in the regular Dining Rooms was very evident. Food selection and service was poor. Thank goodness for Cagney's Steakhouse and the Italian specialty Restaurants. The Pub (O'Sheehan's) was an excellent lunch eatery with good service. Entertainment was good and had a nice variety. Casino was adequate in size and games. The Fitness Center was a good variety of equipment and trainer was well involved Shore Excursions was priced very high. The stores had a average selection and were over priced. NCL is even charging a $7.95 room service charge for each occasion used. Latitudes program benefits have been decreased as well. NCL built their reputation with us as a cost/value cruise line in the past. This is not evident today based on our last two cruises with you. NCL can do much better as experienced in the past. Read Less

We recently sailed on the Norwegian Jade from Southampton to the North Cape, leaving June 17. We enjoyed it, especially the opportunity to explore Northern Norway, a land of magnificent scenery, charming villages and interesting history. Here are some of the things we liked the most, compared to other cruises we’ve been on: 1. The roomy bathroom. Compared to other cruise ships, this was almost a regular bathroom. If you drop the soap in the shower you can pick it up without getting out of the shower. This may not seem like a big deal but compared to the torturously small bathrooms on other ships this seemed luxurious. 2. The big theater. There was plenty of room and lots of good seats. We could show up just before the show and get good seats together with no problem. On Princess we always had to waste an hour each evening holding seats in the theater. 3. The European style coffee machine in the buffet. This machine individually grinds and brews a nice cup of crema-topped Americano any time you want it, and it’s complimentary. 4. The bonus of four dinners at the specialty restaurants. These restaurants were very beautiful, with lovely service and excellent food (except for the lasagna at La Cucina). We enjoyed the opportunity to try our favorites, which normally would have been a splurge. Here are some of the things that were disappointing: 1. No lectures or anything else related to our destination. Last year we took a Princess cruise around South America and they had local performers, including a pair of terrific tango dancers who gave lessons, knowledgeable lectures about each upcoming port (with no mention of ship’s tours or shopping) and naturalist narration when cruising straits or glacial areas. We were looking forward to something similar or better from Norwegian Cruise Lines on their own home turf. There were none of these. Even the gift shop was oblivious to where we were, selling flip-flops, tank tops and Caribbean souvenir cups to people going to the frozen north. The only acknowledgement of where we were was a hokey “ceremony” for crossing the Arctic Circle, which happened several hours before we actually crossed. 2. Flakey service. Much of the service was very nice and professional, but too often it was inexcusably messed up. We got off to a bad start when we first boarded, eager for a nice lunch in the main dining room. An employee greeted us but could not tell us how to get to the restaurant. He eventually found it on a map and told us it was on the 6th floor. He did not tell us that we could get to it only from the 7th. We found it eventually and ordered lunch. I ordered a second starter as my main. They brought both first courses, then my second course, but they never brought my husband’s second course. This type of thing happened other times. Often three of us would be served their main course, but that of the fourth person would only come much later. 3. Spend! Spend! Spend! There seemed to be too much emphasis on selling to us. The tour of the ship emphasized things that cost money. The port lecture just described the ship’s tours (nothing we didn’t already know from the website). There were interminable announcements over the public-address system. I stopped opening the door to listen to them, because they always seemed to be about Bingo, or something on sale in the gift shop, or how we could save $500 on our next cruise. The raffle at the theater brought to mind a struggling non-profit desperate to raise a little cash. 4. No electricity at bedside or, in fact, anywhere on that entire wall. We had to run a cord across the room (and cover it with a bath towel to avoid a trip hazard) for my husband’s CPAP machine. Read Less

We chose this cruise from Hamburg to Southampton mainly for the price in high season as the next cruise return to Southampton seemed to double in price. We also liked the idea of taking in the sights of Hamburg pre cruise as this was somewhere we had never visited. Emabarkation was quite smooth taking around 40 minutes at around 1130AM. We chose Jade also because of her recent refurb which to be honest we found to be a bit of a disapointment nothing on-board gives you the wow factor, some of the public rooms where nice but nothing special. The ship as a whole was ok but to be honest would I remember any of the venues in a few weeks? I would have to say no. All of the Special Dining venues where excellent including Cagneys, Le Bistro, Tepyanki and Moderno's. Didnt do Le Cucina as to me this was just an extention of the buffet(Garden Cafe.) with mediocere decoration and few table cloths. This comes to my biggest bug bare of the whole cruise the Garden Cafe, plainly not big enough when this size ship is full with to many large tables taken up by so few, on two occasions found myself leaving after walking the whole length of Garden Café twice with no joy trying to find a table. Human beings need some form of organisation at the food counters and having remote islands does not work! People bombarding you from both sides as you try and work your way across. Mayhem. Do yourself a favour avoid the cattle market and just go to the Pacific Dining Room or O'Sheehans for breakfast as these where both excellent with O'Sheehans having the smaller choice of the two. The two shows we did where both good but be warned arrive early for Elements as I would say the first 8 seats from either side of the theatre are pointless with very little view, we saw lots of people just getting up and leaving due to the poor visibility in these areas. Also arrive early for the Bingo & Raffle in the Spinnaker Lounge(Nice View). as fights broke out over the seating and security had to be brought in to remove some passengers, well it all adds to the entertainment. We did not use any of the ships excursions as we found them very expensive so planned all of our excursions privately online before the cruise. Service was excellent in all of the bars, Pacific Dining Room, Jasmine Garden, O'Sheehans and all of the extra pay dining venues. Our only let down was the Alizar dining room with long waiting times for food, cold food and for some reason unhappy staff. Ports of call where all fantastic with the exception of Kristiansand found it to be a bit dull compared to all of the other stops. Our two teenagers absolutely loved the Teens club, Entourage and where there every moment they could. Both the teens said this was the best cruise they had been on! We enjoyed the cruise but this was mainly because of the great friends we made and beautiful locations. We would travel NCL again but maybe on one of the newer/larger ships with hopefully a bit more pizazz. Read Less

Norwegian fjords sounded exciting and they were. Sad that apart from Bergen, the other ports were very boring. Food was excellent in the buffet but the seating was always cramped and not much fun except outside. The Brazilian and Japanese speciality ding experiences were tremendous, the French left a lot to be desired. Not a lot different from the buffet. Entertainment was appalling. Comedy Illusionist evening (Magica) was most pathetic show I have ever seen. Crude and unprofessional. Insulting to guest on stage and basically one trick. The "big" production ELEMENTS relied on the magician again and the dancing was school level stuff. All very poor. To describe Elements as "a Cirque du Soleil-type show" really is beyond belief. As long time fan of Cirque there is no comparison whatsoever. Bars are good, drinks excellent. Daytime activities suit the 70 year old who were definitely the predominant age group. No Films in the evening? Read Less

I have been on many cruises, but had not been on NCL in many years before deciding to give them another try because I liked the itinerary. I wasn’t crazy about the ship, which was very smoky, and the food wasn’t very good. They also confiscate all liquids every time you get back on the ship. I won’t be coming back to NCL anytime soon. Embarkation Our flight arrived in Copenhagen early in the morning, and we were met by NCL reps before we even had our bags. We had the NCL transfer, but one person in our group was not on the manifest. We were told that our transfer would include a 2 ½ hour tour of the city on the way to the pier, which was a very pleasant surprise. We got to the pier around 10:30. Our luggage was taken off the bus for us and delivered to the cabins around 3:00. Check in was very quick, although the rep did not know how to register a credit card. We then had to wait in chairs for about an hour before we could get on the ship around 11:30. The cabins were not ready until 1:00. The middle elevators were not stopping on all floors, which created some frustration for passengers in wheelchairs. Boat drill was the shortest one I’ve ever been to. Cabin The cabin had probably the least amount of useable storage space I’ve ever seen on a ship (we were in a balcony – I visited an outside cabin that had much better storage). There was only one tiny nightstand, with a little shelf and no drawers. The 3 drawers in the cabinets were smaller than normal. There were 4 shelves but the top 2 were too high to use unless you are tall. The majority of the storage space consisted of shelves INSIDE the closet. Yes, you will eventually discover that there is a light in the closet but even with it on you pretty much have to crawl into the closet, pushing the hanging clothes and shoes aside, to get at anything. By turning the shelves 90 degrees, they could easily have designed the shelves to open into the hall inside the cabin instead of inside the closet – just a really stupid design flaw. Our cabin was smoky for most of the trip, despite smoking not being allowed in the cabins. We could not figure out where it was coming from, and neither could our steward. This was very annoying. The shower was fine, with a glass door, although I didn’t like the shampoo, which did not foam up. Our cabin steward didn’t give us any bar soap until day 9 of the cruise. There is very little storage space in the bathroom and the electric socket did not work. Dividing the toilet from the sink with a glass door didn’t seem to accomplish much apart from taking up space and the door rattled with the ship’s movement. There were no amenities apart from a tube of runny lotion. The glasses in the bathroom were dirty. As for the rest of the cabin, the tiny loveseat was really well worn and hard as a brick. The TV was smaller than usual and was not interactive. The peephole in the door was so high that most women would not be able to use it. There was an odd little kitchen-type table with a hardback chair that we didn’t use much, and a light by the mirror that was too dim to be of any use. The cabin was pretty quiet, we had no trouble putting our luggage under the bed, and the bed itself was excellent. Disappointingly, the chairs on the balcony did not have backs that recline. Our cabin steward was a mixed bag. At first I was really impressed that she had noticed on embarkation day that the minibar was missing items that we shouldn’t be charged for, but then we never got a second beach towel, the glasses in the bathroom were filthy, and sometimes we got a bathmat and sometimes we didn’t. She also came very late on sea days – sometimes mid-afternoon. It was disappointing to come back to our cabin after lunch and find it still hadn’t been serviced even though we put the sign out. Ship I didn’t love the ship. There were fewer lounges than normal, and there is really no place to sit and quietly read a book or do a puzzle apart from the library. There is no lounge up top with panoramic views like on many ships. We quickly stopped going to Gatsby’s lounge because smoke poured in from the casino next door. The coffee lounge was popular but it was usually completely full and definitely not quiet. It could also be cold and smoky due to the doors out onto prom deck. The 5 O’Clock lounge had good natural light along the windows but the chairs are hard. The main lounge had trivia or other activities going nonstop on sea days. The only other option was the window seats lining the busy hallways, which weren’t quiet or comfortable. I think all the other space that many ships have for public areas was taken up by the pay restaurants. On this ship we spent a lot more time in our cabin than normal. There was always a TV blaring in one elevator bank. One thing I really liked were the visual clues to help you navigate your way around the ship – the carpet in most of the corridors had fish all swimming towards the front of the ship (except for the red herring, of course!). The carpet on the stairs is color-coded to tell you whether you are at the front, middle, or back of the ship. There is a nice library with honor system checkouts and a swap. There were a lot of German books in the swap. This is the only ship I have been on that confiscates ALL liquids every time you get back on the ship. Even though the captain had announced at one point that the desalination equipment on the ship was malfunctioning and therefore the tap water was not great, you could not bring your water bottle back on board without emptying it first, and you can forget about buying a few sodas in port to drink in your cabin. They even confiscated sealed bottles of water that they had sold to you a few hours earlier. This alone would keep me from coming on NCL again. There are better ways to spend my vacation than trying to remember to empty my water bottle every time I get back on the ship. The captain (Matthias Andersson) was fantastic. He kept us well informed and gave a little talk every time we came into a new port with information and history of the area, which I really enjoyed. He also gave a talk on the Vikings on the last sea day. Entertainment The lounge singers and bands were good to excellent, and most of the shows were good, including the production shows. Steve Rawlings and Yuri & Nato were pretty bad. Unlike most ships, you get a real show on the first and last nights instead of some awful variety show. The game shows were painfully slow and sometimes the volume was painfully loud. Be aware that the Perfect Couple show is pretty risqué -- on most ships that would be a late-night, R rated show. CD Mark was average (he tends to talk too long after the show) and his assistant Adriano was really annoying – he was always SCREAMING into the microphone about Bingo. Overall, I thought the staff on this ship had a little less English than on most ships. We also found it hard sometimes to figure out from the newsletter descriptions exactly what the entertainment was and whether it was a production show. Sometimes the crossword puzzles were photocopied so poorly it was almost impossible to read them. In one port, the staff had clearly re-used an old newsletter without updating it because the sunrise and sunset times and the weather for that port were all wrong. O’Sheehan’s has 4 TVs in the bar but don’t expect to watch anything other than soccer. Friends of ours went in one night when there were only a couple of people in the bar. They asked the staff to turn one of the TVs to American football and the staff refused. Food & Drink Neither the food nor the dining experience were very good. Maybe the quality of the food declined when they decided not to have a dress code for dinner (even shorts are allowed in one of the dining rooms). We had reservations for one of the two main dining rooms most nights. Sometimes we still had to wait because our table was not ready. I thought giving people black napkins when they are wearing dark pants was a great idea, but it only happened once or twice – most nights nobody offered. The hostesses in all the DR’s we ate at seemed stressed out and overworked. We never got a warm greeting or a smile. The food itself ranged from pretty good to pretty bad, and it wasn’t always hot. My husband ordered the escargot but most of them were actually mushrooms they were trying to pass off as snails. The desserts were probably the worst we’ve had on a ship. The kitchen over baked all the cakes and brownies and seemed incapable of preparing anything that is supposed to be creamy, especially on the buffet. Gnocchi or tortellini that should have been in a creamy sauce were dry in the pan. The cheesecake was not creamy. The pecan pie had none of the sweet gooey stuff that makes the pie so good. The meats in all of the curries and stir fries were overcooked. You could also predict that once something new appeared on the menu (green beans and sausages come to mind), you were going to see it on every lunch menu and every dinner menu for days until they use it all up. The best meal at the buffet was breakfast, where the selection was pretty good and they had sweet rolls and pecan rolls under a heat lamp every day. However, the seating at the buffet left a lot to be desired. Square and rectangular tables are lined up end to end, which makes the place seem very institutional. Worse, the tables are close together, so once all the seats are full the chairs are back to back – you can’t walk between them – so if you sit at the windows, you can’t get out without making everyone else in the row get up. At peak times there are not enough seats. There is soft serve ice cream. The beverage selection in the buffet was good, and they don’t come around and hound you to buy drinks like on so many ships. We also liked the caddies on the tables to hold the condiments and the napkins and silverware. The sangria at the buffet was pretty good, too. Some of the restaurants can’t seem to decide what they want to be. Ginza dining room serves sushi and sake and has a tepanyaki room, but the waitresses wear Mandarin collar dresses and the bulk of the menu is Chinese. At Ginza, I thought the staff was just OK but the food on the regular menu was very good. O’Sheehan’s was set up as a pub, but the food arrives in a metal basket reminiscent of a clam shack. The basket is hard to work with if you need to cut your food. The portions are on the small side but the food was pretty good. It was really nice to have a sit down alternative to the zoo at the buffet, but the service at O’Sheehan’s was not great. You get greeted with a demand to see your card (even though there is no charge), instead of a smile. After you sit down, the service turns into chaos, especially if it is busy. After your waiter takes your order, you may never see him again. You may not get your beverage until the end of the meal. Someone other than your server brings your food, and if you have any questions or problems that person just tells you to talk to your server. I had one server misunderstand me when I said one more person might join us later. She announced that she wasn’t coming back until the other person arrived even though we wanted to order. I tried in vain to flag her down every time she walked by our table but she refused to look my way so I eventually had to get the manager’s attention. He just passed us off to a different waitress. The servers seem to assume that you will eat your entrée and leave. If you want refills or dessert or anything, you will have to hunt them down. O’Sheehan’s really needs to take their service up a notch. Aqua dining room is much smaller (or therefore much less noisy) than Versailles, although the menus are the same. Aqua was sometimes so dark it was hard to read the menu. They close the blinds so you can’t see out, which sort of makes it feel like you are below ground. Versailles has a back wall of windows over the ocean but it is very large and can be very noisy. It would be nice if the menus grouped together the “always available” selections instead of lumping them in with the changing selections. The appetizers and entrees ranged from pretty good to pretty bad. Some of the entrees looked good but turned out to not have much food – I had a Cornish hen one night that literally had only a couple bites of meat on it. Sometimes the food was OK but just looked unappetizing – a piece of white fish with white rice and cauliflower. We don’t normally get a beverage package but one was included in our booking and we thought it was more generous than what we have heard about beverage packages on other lines. There was no dollar limit on it. We were told that top-shelf spirits were excluded, but we never ordered anything that wasn’t covered. This ship serves Pepsi, not Coke. Excursions The excursions were well run and the descriptions were pretty accurate, although some of the buses were too full. The shorex staff was good and they were well organized in getting everyone off the ship. The tendering operation was also well run. A major pain is that if you pre-book excursions online before the cruise you have to call them to cancel – they really need to fix their system so that you can easily cancel shorex online, like all the other cruise companies I’ve used. Disembarkation The disembarkation process was easier than on most ships. They don’t deliver stuff to your cabin – just check the screen by the desk and take whatever color luggage tags you need. However, the cabin steward was knocking on our door before 7 even though we did not have to be out of our cabins until 8. We walked off with our own luggage and there was a long window in which we could do that, which was convenient. What was incredibly inconvenient was that they limited one set of elevators to only certain floors. That meant the central elevators were so jammed you couldn’t get on them if you weren’t on the top floor. If you are not able to carry your own suitcase down several flights of stairs, this was a problem. We got our own taxi to the airport. Read Less

We choiced this cruise because of the itinerary. We've always wanted to see the Norwegian Fjords. We got the ultimate drink and dinning packages. The wine choices were very iimited with less than average quality. We felt we were nickeled and dimed to death when the ultimate drink package does not include bottled water; $6+ per liter bottle. The food choices were plentiful, but the quality varies from restaurant to restaurant, and from each visit. You can order lobsters at the specialty restaurants without any surcharge, but you'll have to pay $24.99 more if you order a lobster at a regular restaurant. What? Most of the shore excursions were poorly organized. Standing in long lines and fighting to get on buses, so that my husband and I can sit together is not my idea of a fun vacation. The entertainments were very good and plenty of choices. Overall we had a good time, and it was great to see the Norwegian Fjords. Read Less

We did the 14-day Norwegian Fjords & North Cape (we did not do the Baltic Capitals). We have been on over 50 cruises, on most of the major lines. Norway was a Bucket List item and we were pleased with the itinerary and generally pleased with the cruise overall. However there were several specific things that dragged down the rating to just Average. The Star has been well-updated in many ways; I don't think it feels 15 years old. Decor and furnishings have been appropriately replaced and redecorated. However, important features for an itinerary like the North Cape are lacking--in some cases because they've been removed in a refurbishment. For example, a large section of the Marketplace Buffet has been given over to Teens and Kids areas--almost completely unused on the "special" itineraries the Star is now sailing. Gone are the outdoor eating areas on the back of the Marketplace, and a portion of the starboard side of the buffet area, which causes the remainder to be crowded almost all the time. A huge "missing venue" is the upfront, upper deck lounge that is so well used on most Non-Caribbean cruises. Virtually every RCCL, Princess, or Celebrity ship I've been on has such an all purpose "lounge with a great view." The Star does not, making it a POOR choice for the Fjords/North Cape itinerary (it would be equally poor for Alaska). The result is that sitting in the Marketplace at the table is your only choice. The most disappointing aspect of the this cruise was the execution of Shore Excursions by NCL. Compared to competitors, NCL seems to take a "vendor" approach. They sell the excursions to guests, take minimal responsibility for smooth execution, and simply "pass the buck" on any complaints, pointing at the independent contractors at each port who actually provide the service that NCL sold and put its name on. Excursions were poorly organized, leading to long lines and pushing and shoving among guests as they tried to board buses (at several stops). The excursions were usually behind schedule. Stops were sometimes eliminated or substituted with no explanation. In one case a large portion of the described excursion was simply not delivered. The excuse was "Corporate writes those descriptions. We have nothing to do with them." There seemed to be a general disconnect between the On Board Staff and NCL Corporate. No issues with food quality or dining experiences. We mostly ate dinner in the Main Versailles dining room, and a couple of times in Aqua. NCL's food has improved in the last year or so, since the merger with Oceania & Regent. O'Sheehan's Grill is a good alternative to the Buffet, especially for breakfast and off-schedule meals. Our cabin steward was excellent. And overall staff attitude toward customer service was also very good. No complaints. Entertainment varied by source. The singers/dancers/production shows were excellent. The supplementary headliners were very average: a British comedian, a jugglar, a Beatles tribute band, a couple of singers. House bands were also average--not memorable in any way. The American cruise director did not seem to seek out passenger contact or feedback. The Captain was very good in his occasional PA updates, localizing his comments to the itinerary. We'll likely cruise NCL again, but will more carefully check the ship's features. Its newer ships don't have some of these issues. The Norway Fjords itinerary is wonderful, probably the most beautiful landscape we've ever visited, ranking with New Zealand and Alaska. Meanwhile, Celebrity and Azamara remain our favorite lines, with Princess and RCCL also ranking very high. Read Less

So. We were on Norwegian. To Norway, right? What a disappointment. Not one meal, not one night's entertainment was devoted to NCL's home country. We were on the Star. Is this ship tired. The sofa in our mini-suite was threadbare on the edges. The carpet appeared worn, and the bathroom shower door was rickety. The public spaces were -- ummm -- well-used, and in some areas, the carpets were filthy. We were put off by the look and smells in the World Market Cafe. Reminded us of a hospital cafeteria. O'Sheehan's was worse. The tables were sticky, sometimes greasy and more than once our silverware was dirty. Be prepared to wait in lines at Versailles. Our ship wasn't full and every meal we ate there meant a 20 minute wait in line. I talked to the restaurant manager and he said it was because we all came at once. Not really. I came at various times. Same story; a wait. Because my sis and I booked a mini-suite for about $2000 each, our package included meals in the specialty restaurants which were actually good. Servers were a lot of fun. However, as we were in line for the emergency drill, we learned the passengers in the next cabin had initially booked an inside, lower-deck room, only to have been upgraded for the sum of $399 each, and their college-age daughter was on board for free. Disappointment! We quickly tired of the ship's continuous shilling, attempting to get us to buy art, massages, items from the gift shop. I suspect this incremental revenue offsets the low cruise fares, but still, it is tiresome. Now. What about those pricey optional tours. Really, the only way to see the sights in Norway so you're stuck. But don't expect the guides to be knowlegable or informative. They are neither. More like minders than guides. Expect the woman who led the grand tour of Copenhagen from ship to airport. She was superb. So, if you book NCL here how to look at it: Compare the experience you'll have with seven nights in a Hampton Inn, dining in chain restaurants where the service is OK. Know the people in the next room are getting your same deal for significantly less. Sigh, and enjoy Norway. Read Less

Took a 14 day cruise to Norwegian Fjords and then on to the Baltic for a 8 day cruise. Had an aft facing suite on deck 8, but it was only equivalent at best to a balcony stateroom on other lines. NCL lost our pre cruise booking information and we had to spend a long time at the boarding counter while they rectified their records. Once on board, the very same records were lost again, and even though the staff were most apologetic, all of our prepaid, prebooked items were lost in the system. Even when I corrected the information and it was rechecked at HO in Miami, once again all information was lost. Lots of sick people on board with the flu (still). Ship is getting pretty tired. Staff on the whole were good, with some excellent staff members in the Aqua dining room. Food was really good, even in the general restaurants, but especially in the specialty dining. Butler service in my opinion was not much good. On board entertainment was excellent and tours were generally of good value, but some were stretched to fill in the time with useful content. It was just so frustrating to have to keep reminding staff of the very same oversights again and again. I have cruised with 3 other lines and found them to be of better value, if you can source the destinations you want, I would travel with another line. Disembarkation was easy. Fitness centre was pretty good, with a number of the usual machines. The spa staff were great, and we enjoyed some delightful spa treatments on several occasions. These services are always expensive on board, but standard was really good. Read Less