OVERCROWDED AND UNDDERWHELMING

For a brand new ship the studo cabin's condition was pretty shabby. I requested and got a change in our cabin steward, the first one did not clean the room thoroughly or restock it. The heat malfunctioned and was never fixed, despite 3 or 4 attempts by ship crew. The cabin was freezing. That was on top of our having to line up in NYC's freezing, sub-zero degree weather for 2 hours to check in our luggage. The ship had arrived late and so deboarding and boarding/checkin occurred simultaneously. It was 2 hours in the cold to check our bags and another 1 1/2 hours in the terminal to check in and get our admission card. Guest Services were clueless; even they who supposedly spoke English did not understand English. The management of the hotel at sea is clueless and needs to be changed. They were slow and inefficient at responding to complaints. The ship was overcrowded, and the waits long for everything. Food was bland and monotonous; it seemed as if we were being served warmed-over leftovers from the days before. No fish, just chicken, pork and "beef".. Menu was more to the liking of kids who had ample pizza and burgers and ice cream. A 3 PM departure did not happen, until close to 7 PM. Already late, due to strong winds, the ship was slowed down--which put us in the first port at night--missing a rendezvous I had planned with friends in Orlando. We couldn't get off the ship until the next morning, in Port Canaveral, the equivalent of a parking lot--nothuing to do. Without compensation, for the second year in a row, the private island port was canceled; we proceeded to the Bahamas, which was only mildly cool to warm, at best, not balmy weather..The crew seems fixated with themselves, and self-absorbed. That goes for the top echelon and not just for the peons who service or don't service the tables. With bad weather, there were not enough tables in the buffet cafeteria and virtually impossible to get reservations to other venues at reasonable times. Once we were in the sun there was hardly space to sit and relax in the sun, the decks are that narrow! There are no quuiet spaces aboard. The entertainment in the theater was so awful. The cast of "Rock of Ages" was pathetic. "Burn the Floor" dancers were atrocious. Why have the same shows every year? They change the casts, why not the shows, too? The cleanliness of the ship's public spaces has deteriorated, and there is hardly any enforcement of sanitary conditions at the buffet, where passengers bring their own nasty bottles and jugs and place them at the nozzles of the beverage machines in order to carry with them juice and lemonade and other drinks. The only saving grace about this trip was the captain; he came off through his reassuring booming announcements about safety procedures and course changes, as competent and wise. Norwegian offered no apologies or comepnasation for the inordinate delays in boarding and departure, for keeping us out in freezing weather for 2 hours!!! to check our bags--or for the abruot change in our itinerary.