Overall I thought it was a beautiful ship and was well laid out! My 14th cruise (2 Princess, 3 Carnival, and 8 Royal) I considered myself Loyal to Royal, but after sailing them post-Covid and my first Norwegian, I may have a new favorite cruise line! You could tell some staffing issues (bars only have one bartender at times) but the crew was high spirited and doing the best with what they have! Jeff, the assistant cruise director should’ve been the cruise director, he was fantastic! I will definitely be sailing with NCL in the not so distant future!!
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Embarkation was simple! Despite not starting the process until noon, we were group 17 and on the ship by 12:30PM! Security and checking in was efficient, and enjoyed the photo opportunity and water stations in the terminal.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Overall food and beverage I thought was great! Breakfast at Garden Cafe was your standard breakfast, and it was actually worse in Savor! I had the Eggs Benedict in Garden Cafe and they were perfect, but then in Savor the eggs were over cooked and the English muffin was inedible.
Lunch we ate at Garden Cafe, great variety of options for everyone! Food Republic, amazing, but can easily rack up the price if not using a speciality dining. O’Sheean’s was good, the chicken wings everyone raves about were baked and chewy. Blue cheese burger was yummy, along with the Reuben! Lunch on Great Stirrup Cay was good, it was nice to see different options on the island
then there was on the ship.
Dinner we ate in Manhattan Room, Tase, Savor, Bayamo and Cagneys. Cagneys easily is my favorite steakhouse out of all the cruise lines! Bayamo was good, slightly disappointed in the entree selections. Main dining room I would have preferred to see different options (lamb, veal, lobster)
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Pools were crowded (of course) had no issues finding a seat though! The “adults” pool is 8 feet deep and salt water, a lot of people sitting on the edge and not actually in the water.
We did not get a chance to do any of the water slides, but the ropes course was a first for me and terrifying while also exciting and thrilling!!
There was always something happening around the ship and not enough time to experience it all.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Choir of Man is hands down the BEST stage show I have ever experienced in my life! They invited the audience on stage 15 minutes prior and poured us free beers to include us in the pub atmosphere. There was not a set change or any costume changes, which goes to show you don’t need a huge production to have an outstanding show!
I saw both of the adult comedians, the first was very good, and the second was awful. Blamed the crowd for being tired, but in reality we weren’t laughing because he wasn’t funny!
DJ was great! We thought Starbridge was meh, and they performed in The Manhattan Room during dinners.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
You could tell the crew was short handed, but overall was not a bad experience!
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Cabin was large and spacious, loved the large bathroom of the club balcony suite.
Our cabin steward was not very good, we had the same sheets on the bed the entire week (we could tell by the stains on the comforter that were there prior to us arriving) and we never saw him to mention anything to him. We did call housekeeping to mention it and ask for our robes and more pillows, but the sheets still remained the same.
Ship tip
Make sure to book your dining 120-125 days in advance, and your entertainment 21 days in advance! A lot of entertainment filled quickly, but standby was always available and majority if not all made it into the shows.
We had an itinerary change, due to port congestions.
First day we left Miami, about 9PM the captain tells us due to a medical emergency we are going to make a pitstop in Freeport, then continue to Puerto Plata. The seas were too rough for the medical evacuation so the decision was made to sail full speed through the evening, and full sea day to get into Puerto Plata around 2AM.
We were able to start getting off the ship at 7AM and they moved our all aboard time to 3:30PM. The port was beautiful, some shopping at the terminal and it leads into this free pool, lazy River, shopping plaza area which was just incredible!
At. Thomas was a lot of shopping, unfortunately it seems that downtown has not recovered well from COVID and hurricanes. Lots of jewelry shopping!!
San Juan was great
great Stirrup Cay is EASILY my favorite private island (Labadee, Coco Cay, and Princess Cays)
An absolute nightmare!! I have never experienced a disembarkation like this!
It was nice that Norwegian allowed you to pick your own luggage tag colors and pick when you get off the ship, but they had disembarkation deck 7 aft and deck 7 forward. The aft line started in the Manhattan Room, had several switchbacks in the restaurant, and came out through the entire casino and wrapped around the atrium where it met the line for the forward disembarkation. Elevator banks were crowded and a mess, they kicked everyone out of cabins by 8:30 but did not even start self assist until 8! Leaving everyone to certain public spaces, I could not even find a bar to sit at that was open! We finally stepped off the ship at 10:30, which explains why we embarked so late!
Another tip!! With your beverage package you can get two drinks at a time! If you only one want drink, you can get a double pour or your drink and a shot of something else at the same time!!
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