Worst cruise experience to date, though it wasn't horrible. Probably won't look at NCL cruises again though, but mostly because I didn't like the design of the ship nor the general ship philosophy. Never once saw the captain, didn't get the sense that the crew really wanted me to have a great experience.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Complementary dining was OK but not memorable. Specialty restaurants served, at additional cost, the kind of food I expect on a cruise.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Plenty of activities for familes and for people who wanted to drink and party late. For mature adults interested in informative and engaging daytime entertainment, not much. Most interesting were several different (additional cost) wine and spirits events.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Two big shows were good, but that was it for theatre events since they each played on two nights. Beatles group was entertaining, but their usual venue was WAY too small to be fun to attend. Likewise for comedy acts which needed tickets that sold out way in advance.
Children's Programs
Solo traveller.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Individuals did their best to meet usual cruise standards, but there were several failures, way more that I have experienced on other cruises (bed poorly made, daytime "make up" often very late in the afternoon, daily activities guide sometimes never delivered, poor restaurant service, very slow delivery of food in sit-down restaurants.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Ship was clean and well maintained. Ship layout with only two elevator/stair stacks for 4000+ passengers means there was always delays and crowds there. Main public area (678 Ocean) disappointing - small, not impressive). Complementary restaurants always noisy, most public areas noisy so that the size of the crowd on board was always foremost in your experience. Two best locations were the Observation Lounge (which only sometimes got crowded and noisy, though the opening at the bow down to the buffet meant there was always the sound of crowds, even if not in that particular room). The Waterfront is possibly the best feature on this ship and can be a great place to get away from the crowds.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
A bit more austere in decoration than I expected, but maybe I have been spoiled by Aqua class balconies in Celebrity ships? Otherwise, clean and had plenty of power outlets.
They do have exclusive events for solo travelers. And I feel like crowds are kind of the "price you pay" for the larger ships. They've refurbished a ton of the older, smaller ships very recently. Just my opinion though...
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