We will definitely try NCL again, but not over Spring Break. We enjoyed ourselves, but the sheer morale of the crew was lacking. We had sailed Disney 5 months ago and Carnival a year and a half ago. If we sail over Spring Break again, we will stick to Disney. I’m glad I didn’t bring my kids. The ship is pretty, and HUGE! Wi-fi surprisingly worked well! I had the free 250 minutes promo and logging in and out was super easy to endure you’re not wasting your minutes.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Super long lines, but they moved pretty fast. Longer than I expected since it was 1pm-ish.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Taste, Teppanyaki were GREAT, buffets were typical cruise ship buffets (good). I was most looking forward to O’Sheehans and it was THE MOST disappointing. We went there right after boarding and we got our apps, then food and drinks and the server NEVER returned. I was still hungry (after my puny chicken Caesar salad) and I wanted to order nachos and our drinks were EMPTY. That left a bad taste in our mouth for our FIRST experience onboard. Hungry AND thirsty AFTER leaving a restaurant. 2nd attempt at O’Sheehans later and same thing,..no refills on drinks and I wanted a dessert, but server never came back.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Saw a comedy show. I feel like there could be more DAY TIME activities.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
The room steward was great! John! Teppanyaki and Taste servers were wonderful! Bar staff was MISERABLE!! The lines for bars were ridiculous. None of them smiled or made small talk. Bliss bartenders were the ONLY ones to smile and be friendly and joke with us. PLUS, they walked around and asked us if we needed drinks (the ONLY way to get a drink with the Spring Breakers onboard). One bartender at the martini bar was straight rude to my husband. UBP wasn’t worth it.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Cleanliness was great. Design is quirky.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Size was smaller than expected. If we had our kids, it would have been tight. Bathroom design would be weird with more than just the husband and myself too. The bed is too short for my husband, but I found it comfortable. Shower is a little small, but we expected that. Balcony was nice. If we had been a couple floors lower, there is ZERO privacy...we looked RIGHT down at their balcony. The amount of storage was remarkable.
Ship tip
UBP may not be worth it, if you’re sailing over Spring Break.
Nice review! We found the curvy room layout to be a little odd also, and it made the bed seem short for me too. Been reading lots of reviews that talk about the slow bar service on spring break. Note to self: Avoid cruises during college spring break season. We've had the UBP on other cruises and really enjoyed it even though we're not big drinkers, but we were not competing for a bartender's attention with 2000 plus or minus drunk and partying college kids whose few social graces have been eradicated by fruity beverages. 😉
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