Overall, NCL did a fantastic job on this cruise. Service was perfect. The only issue were the entitled guests that felt they could ignore the rules and not wear their masks or not wear them properly. That was very upsetting.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
The Covid test was done inside the cruise terminal with results in about 10 minutes. Get there as early as you can before the lines get long.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
We ate at 4 specialty restaurants and they were all perfect. We at at Cagney's, Ocean Blue, Food Republic and Q Smokehouse. The three free dining rooms were also excellent for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The buffet was fully open and had a great variety of food choices.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
Both slides were open, the race track was open, as were the virtual reality games and bowling.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The Jersey Boys and Six were both fantastic. Prohibition: The Musical was cancelled due to Covid cases in the cast, so we were refunded for that show. The DJ was horrendous, as most ship disc jockeys are.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Service was top-notch because we only had 1700 guests out of 4000 capacity. No issues with service or lines anywhere.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Ship was spotless the entire cruise. Crew were constantly cleaning.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We were upgraded to cabin 12844, which is identical to 8748, just on a higher level.
Ship tip
The Cavern Club and the Social Club are very small venues. If you want to see a show there arrive 45 minutes early or you won't get a seat.
This was a great port and even more so if you are LGBT as there is a huge gay crowd that goes to the gay resorts and bars there. Excellent food if you get off the beaten path an go into old town in the Romantic zone.
Great port. We hiked up to the El Faro lighthouse and the views were amazing. If you do the hike, skip the optional glass bridge, as it was a waste of time. We also took a 1 hour tour on an open air 2-seater vehicle which showed us the highlights in Mazatlan like the salt water pool in the ocean, the Devil's gates, the malecon, the Cathedral and other highlights. We also walked around the neighborhoods checking out the homes.
First of all, when you get off the ship they have buses waiting to take you downtown for $4 round-trip. Skip the bus and walk the three blocks to the downtown area. Although we liked Ensenada, the local are VERY pushy about buying their good and enticing you to go inside their shops. They are very aggressive and it ruined the experience for us. We also had a restaurant double charge us for food, after we ate saying the prices on the menu were wrong. That was a fiasco and as we were getting ready to summon the policia, they relented and reduced our bill. Total bait and switch. The area is really rundown, although it looked like they were making improvements which we should be able to see on a future visit. They also have one of the last remaining Sears stores that is still open.
Disembarkation was a breeze. Skip the long wait for the elevator outside the ship and walk down to the escalator instead. We also do walk-off, instead of putting our luggage out the night before and it works best for us.
I believe masks are only recommended on NCL. Many people booked them specifically for that reason. Perhaps, if it bothers you next time research cruise lines that require masks like they did for one that didn’t?
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