This wasn't my favorite cruise but most of that was weather related. It was cold, windy, and rainy, the remnants of a hurricane that we couldn't have predicted months in advance. We weren't able to go into 2 of our 6 ports, also hurricane related. The ship itself is fine. Food was wonderful(except coffee...NCL coffee tastes like dirt), entertainment only so-so, staff was mostly great.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Other than 2 hour bus trip from JFK to pier embarkation went well
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Food was great! We ate several times in the main dining roooms and had great service and great food. We ate in 4 specialty restaurants and had the same great experience. We mostly ate breakfast at the buffet. No complaints.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
It was too cold for the pool or really anything outside related. We did enjoy the miniature golf course a few times but had to contend with the cold and wind.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Musicians were okay. Stage shows were a bit disappointing.
Children's Programs
No kids with us
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Staff for the most part were very friendly, helpful, and accommodating.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Nothing to complain about.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Good size, love having a balcony. Always kept very clean by the room steward.
Ship tip
Visit the observation deck. Great place to sit and read or people watch. Often times there are snacks available.
We enjoyed this port the best. We did the hop on, hop off bus excursion. We could go at our own pace and get port information as we rode. It also included admission to the Maritime Museum, which was interesting, and The Citadel, which was huge and also interesting. We visited the beautiful public gardens. Also very much enjoyed walking along the boardwalk area, full of restaurants and shops, and beautiful views of the water.
Nice area. We did another hop on, hop off bus excursion but because we didn't arrive into port until the afternoon we didn't really have enough time to get off the bus much. Thankfully our bus did do a quick 5-10 min stop at a couple of the places so we could get off and take pictures and then get back on and not have to wait 30 min for the another bus. Most places in town closed before we were able to explore too much. They do have a very cool waterfront container village with shops and little places to get food in repurposed shipping containers! They stayed open later for the ship passengers but still closed hours before we left port.
We did a Highlights and Lighthouses tour. Good introduction to the city. Once again we didn't arrive in port until the afternoon so we didn't get to do much shopping after our tour finished because shops were closed. We did go to a restaurant and had a Maine lobster roll. So yummy!
Least favorite port. There was nothing within close walking distance. I did the Duck boat tour which was fine. It was cold and raining the entire time we were in port so it was difficult to get good pics without getting wet. The bus also didn't stop at any places. My husband took a cab to Fenway Park and very much enjoyed the tour at the park. Unfortunately then he wasn't able to find a cab back to the ship and called me in frustration to get him an Uber, which worked fine.
Getting off the ship was okay. We had plenty of time to have breakfast before our color tag was called. But once we were off ship it was chaos. The pier workers acted like they had never had a ship come in before. It was just a herd of people with no line markations or signage of any sort. They just kept yelling at people to "keep left". There were buses going to 3 different airports but they weren't marked. It was insane!
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