Disappointed. Mediocre food, issues with our Guest Services on-board spending. Tours started late. Debarkation debacle.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Seemed fairly well organized - not too much standing.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
Worst we have had on Norwegian. In the serve yourself areas, nothing stood out as great. Selection mostly was the same daily. Dining room fare was fair, but selection still limited, food was not hot when served. We had to send one of our dishes back because it was cold and it came out cold the second time as well. French Bistro was better, but not up to par with specialty food we have had on other cruise lines. Escargot was not classic French, mussel sauce more like milk with little flavor. Lamb was good. Bouillabaisse had very little fish, mostly shrimp.
We expected to have a much larger variety of fish dishes overall, being on the ocean.
Previous Norwegian cruises we could get as much smoked salmon as we could eat, especially at breakfast, but it was not offered at all. And there was no chocolate except for a few cakes. What happened to Death by Chocolate night? We also would suggest fresh cookies every day.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
We enjoyed the Karaoke bar.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Entertainment was a mixed bag. we enjoyed the Sing-along with the pianist. The Guitarist songs all sounded like a lament, although others seemed to enjoy him. The Comedian was not funny at all and we left his show. The Singers and dancers were good and we enjoyed their shows.
Children's Programs
We did not take children.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Housekeeping was the best! Room was always clean and ready.
Wait staff: Our first evening waitperson, Julie, was great in the Palace dining room. The two other nights we dined in the Crossings and service was not enthusiastic.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Ship seemed well maintained and clean.
Nothing stood out on the ship as special.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Cabin was smaller than we expected. We had the beds split so we would have a place to stand. The cabin was always clean when we came in thanks to the staff. Beds were comfortable.
Havana has some really interesting architecture that's worth seeing as well as some old fortifications. We did an excursion in one of the old cars that drove us around the city. Look fast! They don't stop to take pictures often. We stopped at Hotel Nacional de Cuba for mojitos. The hotel was interesting, but the mojitos didn't have much rum in them. Our particular car had a transmission problem, but we crossed our fingers and made it back to the port. Did a walkabout the next morning and took some cool pictures. We had a disappointing breakfast at one of the hotels by the port.
We took a snorkel excursion. It was fun seeing the fish. The reef did not look all that healthy.
The guide was late and we stood around for awhile after he took our paper waiting to sign the excursion clipboard. We had to go find him as they were leaving because he almost left us behind. The boat was overloaded with people and the toilet plumbing was not working. We were dropped off at a point away from the ship and had to walk back.
Not a good experience here. We were hung up behind some people in the line who were having passport trouble. When we got off we were diverted and had to walk to an entirely different ship terminal before we could go through customs. The line was very long and we ended up having to carry our heavy luggage down a stairway.
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