Very dissapointing!

I am an experienced/avid cruiser. This being my 7+ cruise . 5 of which were on the Royal Caribbean. I was ready to start a new relationship with NCL, as It had been recommended by friends. Well for starters, My first day and or hour was a disappointment. I am a foodie- it is important that the food be good and well presented, neither was the case. I found the first lunch/afternoon meal to be tasteless, lacking variety and poorly done. - the bread was hard the food had no taste lacking in salt and or spices. chicken was not appetizing. the people we saw and heard from also had concerns.by the 5th day we all agreed this was the worst spread on any ship. - there was no midnight meal, something we all look forward to either. If you wanted to eat something different you had to pay for It. - even the it was not special, more like room service on a bad day.

My stateroom was smaller than we expected form a balcony suite. A sofa blocked the small closet and there was no drawers to speak of. the send day I noticed we had ONE towel for two people! his response was - there were not enough towels imaging that.. I spent a lot of time asking my stateroom attendant/person to pick up room even three hrs later. and checking on missing items which we would be held accountable for.

The crew in the Garden café walked around aimlessly - they were not trained properly and seemed to not understand the concept of cleaning or attending guests.

On one occasion I asked for a cup of coffee from a person walking with a carafe's, she simply walked away. some were chatting in areas were you would expect them to pay attention to guest.

On another occasion a friend had asked for help carrying a box he had brought in one of the ports and the crew member just said he could not help - he was too busy. walking away.

The Savor dinging room had two hostesses whose job seemed to be to monitor who comes in, not to their liking. They were extremely rude to many. although I enjoyed the Manhattan room the menu consisted of three items each - appetizer/main course and dessert - I received a good steak but was confused as to the three onion rings on top. no mushrooms/gravy but Good steak. the wait to be served was long though. as it seemed to be for all dining rooms.

The best thing I had was the sushi - Wasabi - of course I had to pay for that too.

I would say for those that enjoy gambling it's good.

For those that enjoy Latin music - forget it. not one area was set aside for that.

The shows were ok but paying for a show was not my idea of being entertained on a cruise ship.

note - most of the crew members were 90% Philippine - which was hard to understand and you never knew if they were talking to you or about you, some were downright rude to most, and not in a good way. It made for a very uncomfortable walks thru areas at times..

BTW - the cruise director was barely seen except when he/they were doing a show on TV.

I must say the ship is beautiful, but poorly trained staff and crew members, did not help it.

Be alert and check everything before leaving rooms.