I had a lovely time with my husband but NCL is not my favorite cruise line. I was expecting more.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
In the main dining room service was often extremely slow and no one seemed to know what they were doing. There were multiple times where I got my meal cold. One morning at breakfast it was 20 minutes after we got seated before someone came over to get our order. It just always seemed so disorganized no matter how busy it was or wasn’t.
We went to La Cucina which was great. Service was spectacular food was good.
Buffet never seemed horribly crowded, and I liked the option of the outdoor seating.
Had the alcohol pass and that was nice to use. Drinks were great.
Taste
2 out of 5
Service was usually slow or not that great. Food was mediocre at best.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Not a ton to do but also not a lot of time given the itinerary. The pools were not even remotely refreshing they were basically hot tubs. Casino was nice but would open very late some nights due to Italian laws.
Epic Casino
5 out of 5
Had fun. Was not overly smoky which was nice !
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Burn the floor was great! You have to reserve tickets for it and you definitely should. Everything else can easily be a pass. The classics like the newlywed show are fun. One of the vocal artists who performed was great.
Magician/comedian was a whackadoodle.
Howl at the moon is fun!
Going to karaoke at the epic lounge is fun too.
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
Our room steward was phenomenal. She was excellent and so happy. I also loved my manicurist, she was so sweet.
Other ship personnel honestly looked like they would rather be anywhere on earth but the ship. They were so unhelpful, unfriendly, knowing where you needed to go for something etc. Listen, I’m. I am not expecting you to kiss my butt. These people were MISERABLE.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
I found the layout to be kind of confusing. Especially since there were no midship elevators.
Ship was well maintained and clean!
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
The cabin is extremely small. Comparing to a balcony cabin that I was in on a RCL ship in December. Cabin was clean. But what I don’t get is the toilet/shower situation! It’s so awkward.
Ship tip
If you want Wi-Fi but don’t want to spend the obscene amount use your allotted over the first few days and then around day 3 or 4 they offer a prorated rate that is so much cheaper than the initial package.
Spent the 15 dollars through NCL to get the shuttle bus to the main cathedral from port. From there we walked about a mile to the beach where we rented chairs and umbrellas for 19 euros. There were little restaurants too. Didn’t get into this port until 1 pm so we didn’t feel rushed or anything. The beach and water were beautiful. Uber worked well here too!
Cannes was so so pretty! I loved the port and it was also close to other places if you wanted to do that too. We chose not to do an excursion.
I will say that tendering at this port was a nightmare on behalf of NCL. The process was entirely unorganized. We reserved a tender for 10:15 but our group was called over an hour early. Then we get down there and they are just not even going by groups anymore even though they are still calling them. It took us over an hour to tender.
Rome was great! You’re about an hour outside of it. We chose to do an excursion through NCL that dropped us off and gave us a little over 3 hours of free time. We managed to see what we wanted to see and have some lunch. I wish we could have had two days in Rome so I could have done a little more! Uber worked for us here!
Loved Sicily! We did the mt. Etna tour and it was BEAUTIFUL. Driving along the coast through Taormina and up the volcano was so cool. It is a very long drive (about 2 hours each way) so you don’t get lot of time to spend up at Etna. But it was so so pretty.
Livorno was cute! We were going to do Pisa on day one since this was our overnight stay but we decided to just take it easy and explore Livorno and then return there for dinner. The cruise ship charges you 5 euros for a shuttle you have to take out of the port. It is not walkable.
Florence was also great. We did an excursion through NCL that was definitely more walking intensive than they had advertised. I felt bad because there were a lot of older people on the trip. The excursion was literally called “easy Florence” and I think we spent an hour collectively just walking to the bus and back in the 95 degree heat. It was a lot for some people.
Ibiza was nice! We opted to just walk around and explore because of the weather and due to some of the beaches being closed. There were tons of cute little shops, stores and places to eat. We took the shuttle transfer again from the boat for 15 euros but there’s also the option of a water taxi or regular taxi. The regular taxi lines were so long.
We got off the boat and did nothing here. I honestly can’t remember if there was anything to do. It was so damn hot and NCL had no shore excursion options.
Port was dirty. Just so so dirty. We originally had an excursion tour planned for Pompeii but it was going to be leaving at 1pm and the temp was over 100 degrees and we just decided to call it. Walked around for a bit and then got back on the ship and relaxed.
Thanks for your review. Great that your ports were fun. Too bad the cruise wasn’t as exciting for you. Reading your review and others I see several of the same complaints.
The heat being one of them.
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