Ok but not excellent

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 13

Review summary

Note: the "*" at the end of each paragraph are on the scale of * to ***** (five being the best) Arrival: Check in was fast and efficient. Once on board the rooms were not ready and hardly any room to sit down at the garden cafe as most people went there not being able to go to their rooms. Our luggage did not arrive in the room until about 7pm (we were at dinner at that time)** Room: Bathroom nice and for us big enough. The shower is well equipped and big enough for a standard size person. Living area:The closet doors overlap when open and not easy to access contents. Suitcases are stored under the bed, as such hard to store or retrieve. The bed is very comfortable as are the pillows. In our unit was a large sofa which is a hide away bed for extra person, with no coffee table. (a cube under the makeup table served as seat and table) The hair dryer was in an awkward position installed under the countertop with a short cord which did not flex sufficiently when standing. Our balcony on the 9th deck had an extended large ledge which was the roof of the "Waterfront" area on deck 8 below and because of that we did not have the feeling of sitting at waters edge. Overall the cabin is satisfactory. **** Restaurants: Freestyle, no reservations needed. Got used to it and it is not as much of a inconvenience as we thought. Savor was our favourite but we also dined at the "Manhattan". All the restaurants included with the cruise package are excellent in decor, quality of food and especially service.( The Manhattan was noisy however due to the design of the dining room)***** Specialty restaurants: We used 4 of them. LeBistro *****, Tapenyaki ****, La Cucina *** The Cagney's ***** Garden Cafe: We are not fans of buffets style eating because of witnessing a lot of food being wasted by guest who's eyes are way bigger than their stomach. Due to closer of the other restaurants during certain hours, we did visit the Garden Cafe a few times. Overall selection and quality is good, but compared to other cruise line only a 3.5. Entertainment: Staff especially the cruise director, Silas and his crew a very definite ***** Venues: Atrium a very bad design for most of the performances. For the most part way too small, foldable chairs have to be brought in, the bar in the back is noisy interfering with the performance or presentation, some people have to stand obstructing the view of other guests. * The Carvern: no dance or very little dance floor available when the band is playing. * The Q, same thing.. people dancing in the aisle making it hard for the waiters to serve.* H2O, excellent, outside but late for the old folks like us.. for the most part starting at 10:30pm*** Theater: Some excellent programs. For most of them no reservation required so be ready to arrive 30 min before show time, bonus you can order and enjoy a drink while waiting: ***** There were plenty of other venues which we did not visit. Observation deck, deck 15. beautifully appointed with cold buffet for lunch and dinner as well as a bar. The front of the deck has spectacular views but the lounges are limited so you have to be prepared to wait and act fast if one becomes available. Bad part of the observation deck is the temperature. Very nice in the front, but uncomfortable cold on the sides of the deck. *** (This cruise for us was the Panama Canal transit, unfortunately it was hard to get a decent place to watch it even though we came down at 6am. (Some people slept on the lounges to assure a place.) Overall we found the ships AC set to cold for our liking, but some other people may have been ok with that) The "Waterfront": A very beautiful area to relax, watch the ocean and have a drink, read or play cards.***** The pool deck: If we were pool people we would give it a definite ***** (from what we saw the guests all had a great time) The would go for the waterslides***** The race track: Unique and fun, but the staff is not particularly compassionate for old people. The help they provide is minimal. The cotton toque does not fit smaller heads and the helmet makes difficult to put on your glasses as the visor was difficult to open. I guess if you are willing to give it a few tries it will work fine. Venue***** staff *** Caution using the info sessions. They are hidden sales tactics for all kind of medical and cosmetic products. Other cruise companies give you a chance to see behind the scenes free of charge. Norwegian is charging. (We were told by other guest around $75) -* We asked to have a tour of the "Haven" floor to decide if we wanted to consider the Alaska cruise on this ship. They told us no except after all the guest from the floor have gone. Not practical as we had a flight to catch. There was a lot to like about the ship and the service, but, as they say, would you recommend it to your friends? Perhaps, if you are a family with children or are a pool person. Otherwise No.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Panama Canal Transit

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Disembarkation

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