So it was our 1st cruise so I cannot compare, but overall we had a really good time onboard.
Staff is really nice, food is OK, entertainments are good.
I already miss our "apero" moment every evening on the Waterfront, such a nice place!
Too bad the management took 5 days to solve our issue with our cabin...
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Fast and well organized. We've checked in for an early embarkation. We entered the ship around noon and had our cabin ready before 2PM.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Food was OK.
We had dinner in all main dining rooms.
Taste and Savor are quiet.
Manhattan can be loud, ask for a table next to the windows if you don't like too much noise.
O'Sheehan is very loud too (next to Atrium)
Large choice of food at the Grand Cafe buffet. You can always find something appropriate to eat, no matter your diet.
We ate once at the Ocean Blue, it was good.
Overall, food quality was better than I expected.
Shakers Martini bar was nicely located on the Waterfront. Having a late afternoon cockail was a must! Waiter Jeet was so nice to us :-)
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
Waterslides were awesome, especially the free fall!
Ropes course was really funny too.
Never had to queue ;-)
Entertainment
5 out of 5
We saw Burn the Floor and Six, 2 great shows. Book them on your 1st day on the ship !
Magician David Ka was also good.
Blaze band was an amazing band.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Overall pleasant and polite.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
Toilets around pool and buffet were often dirty because some people are ... well... dirty...
Seems that flushing requests too much effort!!
AC is way too cold all over the boat.
Smoking in the Casino should be prohibited.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
ah ah here we go with the "down" thing !
How first cabin, 5210, had an AWFUL smell, a mix of dirt and old chemical products coming our from the AC system.
We told directly the guest services but, because of full occupancy, we couldn't have another cabin.
Our cabin attendant sincerely did his best to arrange the smell as much as he could but it remained terrible..
5 days later we finally moved to another cabin (10104), which was waaaaay better !!!
Views from the island are beautiful, but streets are overcrowded.
We took the 1st tender (please book it directly on your 1st day!) and took a boat to visit Oia to avoid the big crowd at the Cable car.
Then we came back with shuttle from Oia to Fira and walked down to the pier
The only shore excursions we booked with NCL to avoid traffic in Athens + queues at the Acropole.
We had the "Acropolis and leisure"
Guide Artemis was really nice and helpful.
If you've never been to Malta before, stay at La Vallette to visit St John Co Cathedral and the nice walk around the town. You don't need to pay for an excursion to do it...
Don't stay in Messina, not very interesting.
Take the train (15 mn walk from the pier) and go to Taormina, really beautiful !
It's 1 hour from Messina.
We stayed on the boat because we were sick. For the record, we have been tested positive to Covid when we came back yesterday. Actually, everybody was coughing when we left yesterday morning...
Glad you enjoyed it. Looks like a great itinerary. Sorry for the bad smell. It seems NCL concentrated on their specialty restaurants and kind of neglects MDR food. That’s OK most of the time because most of their fares come with free specialty restaurant meals.
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