Read all about it, plenty here!.

Well; ...* Food was marginal. Lots of food but....some not fresh , some under cooked, meats, chicken, fish, etc. .  Some had no flavor, some even smelled bad and could not be eaten (chopped meats like salisbury and burgers) All came frozen originally and sat overnight or longer before serving. People wasted a lot because of this. Others also complained, specially men in bathrooms, passing loud gas and blaming the food. This happened on two different evenings at two different locations.  You don't get to hear about this often, I never had before!.  This lower quality foods are served even in the fancy restaurants, even when charging a 'supplement'.  What makes them 'fancy' is the service provided by the excellent crew acting as waiters and servers.  

*Drinks; charged extra $ for soda, water bottles, etc. could not bring even unopened soda or water onboard, Customs made us actually throw those away.!!.  ( so we had to buy them from NCL ). Even fast food restaurants provide a soda fountain for customers to serve themselves to save on employees, while NCL gets to charge that extra cash for having a crew member serve it to us.  Different strategy. The Wine and alcohol drinks are overpriced while mixed drinks are coming from a pre-mixed bucket. 

*Cabin; weird, 2 people could not walk around each other, it's a 'modern' rounded furniture setup with very bad lighting, like from Ikea. Sink was the size of my open hand, splashed all over while the faucet has a raised stem to control the flow that pokes you in the right eye when washing face!. Had to use a washcloth, even a Dr. friend had to do the same. Cabin smelled of body odor from previous guests, housekeeping sprayed some masking smell juice but later smelled bad again. It was mostly those old pillows, asked for different ones but the next night, they smelled the same nasty way. Made up my own pillow with an NCL towel rolled up and a t-shirt as a pillowcase. Put those smelly pillows in the closet to keep the odor down in the cabin. It was that bad!. 

*Smoking section on open deck 15 was always messy and filthy. Rest of ship was 'shipshape'.

*Captain ran the Epic aground by drifting towards your own Great Stirrup Cay while raising anchor. ended right by the entrance for the tenders, made a mess of the sand and grass bottom there, used the bow thrusters to turn the bow to windward, away from the entrance while pushing away with both props ( which he was sandblasting away) and blowing out the sand from underneath.  Have pictures of this. I am a Captain also and I would have had the forethought of the wind or currents, even on a very calm and windless day as this was, pushing the boat towards the shallows, specially with all the other navigators and shipmates he has on the bridge to help. Bet he could not handle my personal cruising sailboat, handling sails and lines and anchor chain on his own, imagine navigation without all those electronic gizmos... bet he could not have!.

*Kelly told us we could bring one bottle of wine per person, but forgot to tell us that NCL has 2 young guys charging $15 each bottle to go past the gate!. $$ is the motivation again.

*Picture with the Captain;.. so, we get all dressed up, beautiful gold dress and tuxedo for me, pose, smile... young girl flashes picture in a hurry and glare on my face ruined the moment and the expensive photo. Cannot repeat that moment, would have to get another cruise, dress up all over again, stand in line and hope for a better photo ?. 

Lots of people, as expected, always in the way, as in the shopping malls, elevators always filled, good for NCL busine$$. 

*Parking; Oh, $128 to park a small car out in the sun for 7 days for the seaguls to practice their skills. Abusive... no, not from the seaguls; but NCL should not be competing with Disney to see who can get higher prices. $$.

*Crew; Absolutely wonderful group of well mannered, courteous hard working and polite young people wishing to help and make us content, and they do. They are the ones that keep the passengers wishing to come back and keeping everything spotlessly clean, kitchen, walkways, chandeliers, walls, above and below decks. they give 12 hours a day, split in weird shifts to accommodate us passengers and they work 7 days a week, hard work, but always smiling and pleasant, all of them. That's what makes... ' a cruise ! '.. it's their service toward us. They are a big asset to the corporation, they all make our time there and our money spent, feel more acceptable. 

*We as passengers, on several days, here and there, compared different cruise lines and all agreed that we were 'nickel and dimed' for shows, meals and drinks and excursions and everything on NCL much more than other cruise lines. Most said that Celebrity was best, Disney was supreme but expensive and that Carnival compared a little better than NCL for what we get, while comparing food, cabins, parking, drinks, shows, entertainment, excursions, etc.  Most said they would not return to NCL. That was the concensus of many on several different conversations with different people that had cruised many times before. As for us, we might try Celebrity next time, have been on Carnival several times and have cruised on smaller ships here in the US, South America and in Europe. All were better, even Carnival, at least we were not being forced to buy stuff while onboard and stiffing us on parking and many extras.  NCL left us with a feeling of getting into a big mouse trap and left very little space for we, the mice. The corporate side of NCL seems greedy towards taking advantage of the guests for their money and advantage of the crew for their need to please us.

Otherwise, the weather was good, Tortola and St. Thomas very nice still and the crew...just fantastic!.  Also, Kelly, who guided us with the ticket purchase, was very friendly and helpful.

You asked for a review and comments:  Hope you learned what others may not tell you.  Apply these pointers and minimize the defects to improve your fine ships and your brand.  No charge to you for this, my service and advise.      Gus Alvarez (813) 471-7042

PS, I'd bet that you are going some type of sales pitch at the end of this questionnaire or some way to keep getting stuff from us, email? home address to sell something?. Will see.