SarahTiffany

I've been on cruises as a kid with my parents, but this was my first time cruising as an adult. I got a drink and specialty dining package as part of a promotion and it was great! All four of the speciality restaurants I attended were amazing and the drink package is definitely worth it! If I booked a cruise in the future and there was no drink package promotion being offered, I would still purchase the package. As for the food overall, the buffet and the free dining were delicious as well and I would be okay with not even dining in any of the speciality restaurants. The staff were so friendly and the service was on point. As an example, the water was not going down the shower drain (probably due to my hair) and I called housekeeping, who sent a plumber to fix the issue immediately. The housekeeping was okay, not immaculate, but our particular housekeeper (Arlene) was so cute and sweet. However, a few of my friends that had a different housekeeper, were not a fan of theirs. Which brings me to my main complaint. There is a daily service charge of $13.50 PER PERSON staying in the room, which I was told is gratuity for the housekeeper. I was not informed of this prior to the cruise, and a friend who cruised with Norwegian a year prior was not aware of this either, because she cruised in Feb 2015 and apparently this was just implemented in March of 2015. Now I had every intention of leaving a nice tip for my housekeeper before I knew about this automatic service charge and I understand that some people are cheaper and probably wouldn't even leave a tip, but that comes out to $95 for a 7 day cruise per person. So with a room of two people, that's a mandatory almost $200 service charge. My friends who were not fond of their housekeeper, we're not fond of this charge lol. Anyway, overall, I give it a solid 4 stars and would definitely cruise with Norwegian again (and will now be prepared for that service charge).