This cruise was not up to the usual NCL standards. Even though they say the boat is refurbished, it is still an old boat with not many restaurants and amenities. The lack of activities and mediocre entertainment did not make up for this. The itinerary and staff were the only good thing. Everything else was either mediocre or as bad as the smell in our cabin.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Fast and easy. Probably the best part of this cruise.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The food in Crossings was better than expected most nights. There was always something we liked. We went to Cagney's 3 times. The first time was wonderful. The second time not so much, seafood was over done and sides were cold. Third time was very good. I ordered the trout which tasted like salmon, it was cooked just the way I liked it. We didn't enjoy anything about La Cucina.. None of us enjoyed our dinners and the service was mediocre which is disappointing because we've always enjoyed LaCucina on other NCL cruises. We decided to switch our 2nd reservation there to Cagneys.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
This is an older ship with not that many options. We liked the pools, and hot tub. My husband enjoyed the golf cage. They had a pickleball court, but it was either too hot or too windy to use.
Entertainment
2 out of 5
The shows were mediocre at best. One night the show was a game show you had to pay $25 to play. They did not get enough people to play so they switched it to trivia. Trivia is the show?
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Friendly and attentive
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Cabin / Stateroom
1 out of 5
The cabin smelled. Who knows what it was, maybe mold, maybe something in the pipes?? We called Guest Relations and a team were sent to deep clean it. The cabin smelled ok but as the days progressed the smell came back so we called again and they did something to make it not smell as bad. After that it felt like our cabin steward worked harder to make it not smell but, it always had a faint smell which we lived with till the end of the cruise. They should have fixed whatever was making our cabin smell and not just keep washing the smell away.
Our friends stayed in an inside cabin a couple rooms down and they had no smell. It was interesting the same smell would come and go at the end of our hall too.
Ship tip
This is not a new ship. It doesn't have the amenities of the new ships and the mediocre entertainment doesn't make up for it.
This is an uninhabited island off the coast of La Romana DR you have to tender to. We brought our snorkels and snorkeled near rocks and saw some fish but nothing spectacular. NCL did not provide food or drink while on the island.
We took a taxi to Mambo beach. The lady at the information booth said to walk across the floating bridge and catch a taxi on the other side because it would be cheaper. So we did that and it was $5pp to get to the beach and $8 to come back. The beach had a sea wall around it making the water calm and warm. Lots of shops and restaurants.
We took a taxi to Eagle Beach which is a beautiful white sand beach. The only negative was they wanted $50 to rent a beach umbrella and chair, so we sat on our towels under the trees which was very pleasant.
We took an NCL beach excursion that went to Harbor Lights. There were sea turtles off shore that you could take a boat to see for $25 – which we didn’t do. Later people who did it told us they saw lots of turtles. Wish we had done it.
We took an NCL Catamaran / Snorkel / Sail excursion that was tons of fun. We saw lots of fish snorkeling. They served lunch as we sailed past The Pitons. The ride back was fun with music and rum punch.
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