Many people we ran into said they would not cruise with NCL again, due to a variety of reasons. My wife said the only way she would cruise with NCL was if it was free. The cruise wasn't really bad, but it could have been so much better if NCL had communicated better and had better staff training. I kept feeling NCL was nickel and diming us. The poor communications led us to wonder if we were getting correct answers from the staff. I was in the market for a watch. NCL had many with "Sale" prices. They promoted "Duty and tax free". Nobody asked what we were bringing back on Disembarcation. So much for tax and duty free. I just didn't trust these were good deals. After arrival home, I looked up some of the watches. The NCL prices were higher than what was available in the US.
The cruise line never told us to bring small US bills. This is important as many merchants in the ports do not have much US change. Also for tips. You don't want change in the local currency.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
The pre-cruise experience was pretty weird. NCL encourages cruisers to book specialty restaurants, but does not list the menus. They encourage use of their app for communication on the ship, but don't mention it costs $10.00 per device.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
The main buffet was O.K. Promotional material listed different types of food for each night. It was hard to find a menu. I asked a Chinese person that was promoting the specialty restaurants. They had all the menus except the buffet. It was "Oriental" night at the buffet. When I asked what was on the menu, the reply was, "Oriental Food" Really? After additional questions I was told the menu would be posted after lunch. what's so hard about sharing menus with the customers? The buffet food was O.K. There were no dishes that stood out. There were many customers that I'm sure did not want to be adventurous in their food selections.
They had a person preparing Cobb Salads. The person told me they could prepare the salad, but were out of dressing, but I could get dressing from the regular salad bar. O.K. Then i saw a second Cobb Salad bar about 20 feet away. It had a full bowl of dressing. How hard is it to coordinate two salad bars 20 feet away from each other?
The speciality restaurants were very good and the service was excellent. They were at an additional cost. Usually $25.00 or ala carte. Mixed drinks were around $12.00 each. There were a few that were more.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
There were a lot of on board activities that were promoted every day. a daily schedule was delivered to each cabin every day.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
There were many entertainment choices. We liked Dueling Pianos.
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
Once on board, communications from the staff was pretty poor. Asking a staff member a question often got the response, "I don't know". No offer to direct a customer to someone that would know. this happened multiple times. I just got the impression the ship wasn't run well. It was more of a training issue than anything malicious. Did I mention that there were no North Americans on the service staff. The Chinese members had trouble communicating. Many customers had trouble understanding crew members accents.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
The ship was very clean. There were many hand sanitizing stations. Everyone going into the buffet were sprayed with a hand sanitizer. "Washy Washy". That was very good.
Many people were sea sick. The ship didn't appear to have stabilizers like some of the newer ships. Motion was up and down and side to side.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Small Small Small. There were other cabins that looked the same, but there was more room. This cabin was supposed to accommodate 4 people. I couldn't imagine 4 in this small cabin. 3 was very tight. We ended up passing things back and forth because it was difficult to move around in the confined space. Storage was good. All suitcases fit beneath the bed. Closets were large and there were plenty of drawers. The queen size bed was very comfortable. The couch bed was O.K. There were a lot of different light switches. Some were a little hard to find. The balcony was fine. Ours was one of the smaller balconies, but it was fine for us.
Ship tip
This ship bounces and moves side to side. If you get sea sick, you might want to choose another ship.
O.K. port. Lots of activities and good food and drink choices. Taxies are plentiful and fairly inexpensive. Have small US bills. Exchange rate is 1:1. Don't take change in Bahaman dollars. They are difficult to exchange.
This port was fun. there is a large shopping area open only to cruise passengers. Once outside the gate there are plenty op people selling tours and various other items. Some cruisers found them annoying. They are not very aggressive. Just keep walking. We were after Jerk Chicken. I found Pepper's Jerk Center. It was a short walk. Food was excellent. Highly recommended. There is a grocery store on the way that has a lot of Jamaican spices. Take small US bills. If they can't change a $20, they will want to give change in Jamaican. You don't want change in Jamaican. If you try to change it back, you WILL take a hit.
You will be approached by people offering to sell Ganga. Avoid buying from people outside the gate. If this is your pleasure, you will find many in town that will sell and roll high quality smoke. DO NOT bring any back to the ship. Not Cool.
We were told that our ship ID cards would work for food and drink on the island. they did work. what we weren't told was that the souvenir sellers wanted cash and would not accept ship ID cards. This was a big communications fail. My wife and I did not bring a wallet with us. We had to borrow money from friends.
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