One story I really felt I needed to tell is: I left my Apple Watch sitting on the charger plugged in to the outlet. Which is I stated above is behind a cabinet door. I got off the ship and was in my car driving home when I realized I had left it in my cabin. I turned around and with the help of several very very nice workers, security people, and some ship officer in a white uniform were able to locate my watch and charger and brought it out to me where I was waiting near security. I could not believe they got it to me. I just knew they were going to tell me that I needed to contact lost and found and put in a claim request. They did this all while loading the next cruise guests on the ship. That was amazing customer service. I will forever be grateful to the kind people at the check-in area and security area who found my watch and brought it out to me. It took less than an hour for them to locate it and I would’ve waited three hours if that’s what it took so I was very grateful how quickly in my opinion they got it out to me.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
It was awful. I’m not completely sure what was going on but we got there about 1230 and the line was wrapped around the building. It was so hot and we had no cover over us. It took us about two hours to get onto the ship. Older people with walkers and wheelchairs were having to be pushed into shady area’s. They had to bring out huge containers of ice water and cups for us to drink. If they hadn’t done that I promise you people would’ve started passing out. I have no idea what was going on or what the hold up was because they never told us anything. I have never had that experience getting on a Royal Caribbean before so I don’t know if this is normal for boarding on a Norwegian. It definitely makes me leery to travel on this cruise line again because it was pretty awful.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
The food on Norwegian was amazing. The buffets were the best food I’ve ever had on a cruise ship before and the specialty dining meals were unbelievable. I don’t think I had a bad meal ever. Norwegian’s food is far superior to Royal Caribbean’s as far as I’m concerned.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
My big disappointment was the running track. On alure of the seas for Royal Caribbean the track goes all the way around the ship and you have a beautiful view as you’re running or walking on the track. This track is on one side of the ship and you literally see the lifeboats. That’s your view. And it’s very smelly. I was not impressed with that at all.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
The Cirque du Soleil show and dinner was awesome. It’s in a small-ish room and we were wondering how they were going to do it. But they manage to put on a great show and the icing on the cake was the amazing meal. It was a lot of fun. I highly recommend it.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Our room steward who was affectionately known as Harry Potter on deck nine was the best. He always had a smile, was always willing to help where you needed, he managed to keep our daughters room picked up when they didn’t. Everyone on the hallway knew him and addressed him by name even if he was not their cabin person. He was just that personable. We had great bartenders and we had not so nice bartenders. So we knew where the friendly ones were and that was where we did most of our hanging out and tipped them nicely at the end of the cruise.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
I was not impressed with the ship it’s self. It felt very closed in and a little claustrophobic. There was not just a big open area other than the pool deck. There was no grand looking floor like there is on allure of the seas or oasis of the sea. Like on deck five of a lore of the seas you look up three stories and it just seems huge and grand and beautiful. And impressive. Where deck five it was just a normal height ceiling and not much grandiose looking stuff. I don’t now I just have to say I’m not impressed with the look of the ship itself.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Cleanliness was good. Storage was awesome. The balcony was large and really nice. It was odd to me that the cabin below us had no cover over their balcony so when I was standing on my balcony looking out they could just look right up at us. Or we were looking right down on them I should say. I wouldn’t want to be on deck eight if that’s what I had to have. I will say that the beds were so incredibly comfortable. I slept better on this cruise then I do at home. Oh and be sure to bring an extension cord. Or two. You have one outlet. It is behind a cabinet door. It is not convenient or easy to get to. The room design is a little challenging. I definitely do not like how the toilet and shower are right when you walk in your door. I didn’t mind the sink being outside of that configuration but I do prefer to have a bathroom to go into as opposed to feeling like I was walking into a shower stall to go to the bathroom. I will say that the shower itself was very roomy. So I did like that. The sink was pretty small but we managed. The thing I liked about the cabin was there was a lot of storage space a great big closet and plenty of drawers and cubbies to put stuff in. I don’t like how the room design is where you can go in to some and right there is the bed. I don’t like having to walk around my bed to get to the sofa area. And more than that I don’t like how the sink is at the end of the bed. If that’s your room design. That’s how my kids room was designed. I had it where the sofa was first and then the bed. It’s just a weird layout across the board. The bathroom situation just completely throws it all off for me.
Ship tip
Eat at Cagney’s and go to the Cirque du Soleil dinner and show.
Tortolla itself was fine. We didn’t really do much on it because we did an excursion to Jost van Dyke which we loved. Might be the highlight of the cruise. We did a catamaran ride over there and wished we could’ve stayed all day. Two hours on the island just didn’t seem long enough.
Went to Coki beach. It was just OK. Extremely crowded. Our cabdriver was very very nice and very knowledgeable on St Thomas history. We enjoyed hearing her talk about that.
It was a nice island. Plenty of lounge chairs. Again the food was delicious and the Bahama mamas went down very easy. I do not recommend the swimming with pigs excursion. It was kind of lame.
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