This was my first cruise aboard a Mega-ship and I will not do it again. UNLESS YOU WANT TO TIME PARTYING WITH 4300 OF YOUR BEST FRIENDS - DON'T DO IT. I will not cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines again.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Best ever Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Loved the Manhattan Room and the Asian restaurant and noodle bar. Buffet was always way too crowded, and for the size of the ship, way too small compared to other and smaller cruise lines I have been on.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
My daughter and I purchased the spa package and found: glass bottles around the pools and water areas; "quiet area" was not and no one was policing what was happening;and when we reported "stuff" on the floor in the women's aroma therapy room, the response we received was tepid at best. It looked as if someone had hurled on the floor, and it seemed as if no one at the front desk cared.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Loved the Cirque dinner show and Pricilla Queen of the Desert
Children's Programs
We traveled with my two granddaughters, ages 19 and 15. There was nothing they could do together for the "tweens" so they just did things on their own together when they wanted to.
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
Wait staff in both the Asian restaurant and the Manhattan room were exemplary. Staff at the Garden Buffet were simply overwhelmed. Our room steward was very obviously frustrated with us, as we had 4 in our cabin, and because of early morning excursions and the choice of early dinners (dining) and early bed, it was difficult for her to coordinate the bedtime set up o our cabin on her schedule.
Ship Quality
1 out of 5
Too few restrooms for the number of people on board the ship (and restrooms also poorly marked and not easy to find, too small for ship capacity). Not enough elevators on board for the number of passengers. Too often the elevators would fill up on the 15th floor (pool and buffet) and no one on the lower floors could get on. So frustrating waiting for 15 minutes to go down (or up) and my daughter has a disability and could not take the stairs,
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Just ok. I was allergic to something in the air of the cabin that amplified my asthma and made me "puffy". Outside I would recover, and then wake up coughing, wheezing and puffy again. Had our cabin steward check for feathers and there were none, so not sure what made my asthma bad, but on board, I was uncomfortable.
Ship tip
Unless you enjoy cruising with 4,300 other people who are feeling cramped, and crabby - DON'T DO IT!
We got on the cruise from Rome, and actually did two days of excursions on our own prior to getting onto the ship. Loved Rome, saw the Colloseum, Forum and Palatine Hill; took a full day hop-on/hop-off bus tour and received group tours of both Pantheon and Vatican City and that was great.
No excursion here. We were in port during the yearly Cannes Film Festival and the town was crowded. Took in the Farmers' Market and walked the alley-way just a couple of blocks off the main port road. Here we had a lunch of crepes and found a couple of chocolate shops - both important on my 19 year old granddaughter's bucket list.
Bad Hop-On/Hop-Off experience. This was a rainy cold cruise, unusual during the month of May in this part of the world. We caught a hop-on/hop-off bus outside the terminal and do not recommend this type of excursion in Mallorca. The tour was not through the ship and was run poorly - too many people - too few buses, buses not maintained for sound.
Beautiful and vibrant port city. We took a semi-private tour to Montserrat Monastery, there we were able to tour the church, take the furnicular rail up to the top hiking area where we hiked down for about an hour, took in the local street market around the church and then took the gondola down to the parking lot below. Full day and we loved it - all 4 of us.
Took a private excursion through Trip Advisor which was wonderful with Marco as our driver. We were scheduled to see the Ercolaneum (Herculaneum), Pompei, and travel to Sorrento for lunch. We did the Ercolaneum first and were there on our own for about 1.5 hours and met back up with Marco, our driver to head to Sorrento. Because there were 5 large cruise ships in port the Amalfi coast road was a stopped traffic jam, so we headed up into the hills of Positano where we stopped for a 5-star - 4 course lunch in a beautiful restaurant surrounded by restaurant gardens and high over looking the coast line - Simply Amazing! We were then taken to a Lemoncello factory tour and then given our free time in Sorrento. Because of the traffic, we were given the choice of Pompeii or Sorrento and we chose to spend time in Sorrento instead of fight the traffic back to Pompeii earlier. Loved this tour.
Again, too few elevators for too many people trying to disembark at the same time. It seems like all had headed up to Floor 15 to have breakfast before getting off the ship, and every elevator coming down was too full for 4 of us with luggage. Again, frustrating, especially since they closed off at least 2 elevators coming and going into the Garden Buffet during disembarkation.
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