Overall disappointing, though with a few bright spots

I took this cruise in Jan. 2014 with my six year old son.  It was a gift and we had an OK time, but had I paid for it, I would have been disappointed, even with relatively low expectations. Clearly, given it was a 2 day cruise to nowhere in the winter, I knew that it would not be ideal for kids. This proved to be right, but even more than I feared. The outdoor deck activities looked fantastic but were not open due to the cold.  However, although there were quite a few kids on board, NCL made no effort to make up for the lack of outdoor activities by scheduling more indoor ones. In fact, some of the things we most hoped to do, like take a tour of the bridge, were not available. They also didn't offer room service on this cruise, had no family night party (something I hear they do only longer ones) and no fireworks. We did go to the Cirque de Soleil show which was WONDERFUL and the highlight of the trip, though $40 per person.

The food was good (though not great), even in the included restaurant, but the service across the board was terrible. The staff was clearly disengaged and with a few exceptions (our steward and a man working in the arcade), were mostly unfriendly. Though we LOVED sailing out of NY harbor at night past the Statue of Liberty, it was frustrating that even though a HUGE number of passengers were on deck, NONE of the bars were open on deck. This was not just poor service, but a missed revenue opportunity for NCL.

We knew a few other adult couples on the ship and they said concurred that service was poor, food was solid, and even for adults only, unless you wanted to be on a pure "booze cruise" where you simply eat and drink, this two day trip is not great.