Good food & entertainment. Bar service slow. Stirrup Cay was once again missed due to rough seas. Build the dock, NCL!
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The food we had in all 3 free dining rooms was mostly good. Shrimp fettuccini was one of our favorites. The Buffet had good variety. I would like to see a larger salad bar with more greens. Also some steamed broccoli, asparagus, would be welcomed. I didn’t feel there were enough healthy vegetable options. We booked dinner at the supper club. The chicken parm was great, and the show was as well. We ate at Food Republic for our specialty dining this cruise. 7 out of the 8 sharable small plates were very good.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
We like to sit outside in the sun on loungers and read. We spent our on-ship days in Spice H2O. The pool area is very small. We didn’t like the design. Spice H2O (adults only) was good but very crowded with lounge chairs inches away from each other. The grotto in Spice was a nice feature and a good way to cool off.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Choir of Man is fantastic. Supper club was wonderful. There was a Fleetwood Mac tribute band that many people were unable to see because the venue used was WAY too small, and there were only 2 shows offered. I enjoyed all of the performers. My husband enjoyed about half of them.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Room steward: We felt like we were an after-thought. We had an inside cabin. Our room steward didn’t stop by to introduce himself and he didn’t leave us a card with his name.
Waiters: we had great service in all sit-down restaurants
Bar service is extremely slow and the bars need at a minimum 2x the staff. I hate spending my valuable vacation time waiting in lines. However, by not adequately staffing the bars, Norwegian saves money given most adult passengers purchase the “free at sea” drink package.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
The pool area design is not great. The common areas should be larger. Our cruise had over 5,000 passengers as there were many families on board.
Cabin / Stateroom
2 out of 5
The size (inside cabin) is not great. It is a standard size in the industry though. I was worried it would be hot (this was our first inside cabin). It cooled nicely. The bathroom is a decent size. There is a good amount of storage in the bathroom and the rest of the cabin. We placed clothes on the night table shelves, and they had a lot of dust on them from the back of the shelf. Same thing happened in the wall cubby space. The bed had a gap in the middle, from where the 2 beds were joined into 1 and one side of the bed was lower than the other.
This cabin is right under the bar area (with wooden floor) of the buffet. So beginning at around 6:30 am each day we heard chairs constantly being drug across the floor. That said, this cabin is in a great location for the buffet, pool, American Dinner and Spice H2O, so we would select it again just for that.
Because NCL has failed to build a dock, tenders are required. And for the 2nd time in a month for us (we took 2 cruises within 30 days) the seas were too rough to tender. NCL was given permission to build a dock but they have yet to announce plans or any sort of timeline. I LOVE going to GSC, but all too often it gets cancelled. I’d prefer that they just stop including it on itineraries, and just dock in Freeport so we can get beach time.
People need to look at the forecast for Florida in the winter. We do get cold fronts. When we do GSC will be canceled it happens more from December to early March every year.
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