This was our first cruise, and it was a good experience. Embarkation was the rockiest part of the whole week - it got better once we got on the ship! Our favorite parts were the excursions - we were not sure if we should have booked one at each port, but as it turned out, we were glad we did (although some seemed fairly pricey). Great selection of food and entertainment.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
Due to some technical difficulties we had to wait in a very large holding area for about 3 hours before being able to board the ship along with everyone else on the ship.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Quite a variety of restaurants were available. We were disappointed that we were not able to get a reservation at a couple of places - my advice would be to reserve very early. The ship's buffet (Garden Cafe) had quite a variety of dishes available, and a special each evening (i.e. Caribbean night, Asian night, etc.)
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
The water slides that were open were a lot of fun. During the main part of the day, the pool areas were extremely crowded - mostly with people sitting around the edges with drinks.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
We sampled most of the free entertainment on the ship - Rock of Ages, a magician, a comedian, dueling pianos, and an escape room-type experience. They were all very enjoyable.
Children's Programs
Had no children with us.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The staff on the ship were uniformly helpful, courteous, and friendly.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Once we caught on to the layout of the ship, it was easy to navigate. We appreciated that each elevator lobby had a list of all the main locations, and a map of the floor that you were on. The common areas were clean and well-maintained.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
This was our first cruise experience, so we have nothing to compare our cabin to, but it seemed to be a reasonable size. We enjoyed the balcony. Only complaint was the toilet - at first we couldn't get it to flush. Eventually, we found that slamming the flusher was the secret to making it work.
Ship tip
We really appreciated that for each excursion, NCL set up a booth just off the ship to hand out towels for anyone going on a trip who would need them.
Our Miami excursion was at the end of the week since our flight out of Ft. Lauderdale was not until 8:45 p.m. We did the hop on-hop off bus tour of Miami, and didn't have to lug our luggage along. It was very convenient.
This was the only excursion we booked not through NCL. We booked a tour of the Old Town through Shore Trips. We had a great tour guide - it was just the two of us on the tour - and felt like we learned much more and saw much more than we would have on our own.
We took an excursion to snorkel on St. John's. The beach (Trunk Bay) was gorgeous, and the snorkeling was great - only complaint was that we would have like more time to snorkel.
We took an excursion to snorkel at Norman Island. We made 2 stops - one where we snorkeled right off the boat, and for the second we went to a small beach where there was some snorkeling available off to the side. Again, we had much more time available at the port, would have liked to had more time at the beach. Walked around some at the stores once we got back to Tortola.
Our excursion was to Blue Lagoon Island for a dolphin encounter, snorkeling, and swimming. Unfortunately, due to water conditions, the snorkeling area was not available. The dolphin encounter was pretty awesome - as a group of 10, we probably had about 15 minutes with the dolphin - each of us had a chance to hug it, dance with it, etc. Tons of lounge chairs were available. Unfortunately, many of the umbrellas were missing the pin needed to hold it open.
Disembarkation was much more smooth than embarkation. We did have to stand in line for some time, but I can understand that it takes awhile to get all those people off.
Thanks for this thorough review! I didn’t know there was an escape room on the ship! Can you tell me a bit more about it. I know my bf will be wanting to do this for sure!!!
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