Not as good as previous NCL Cruises

Great Job

Overall the food on this cruise was overcooked, under seasoned and served not at proper temperatures. We ate in the specialty restaurants, dining rooms and the buffets. At the main dining rooms, the hot food didn't seem to be served that hot and the cold food (like ice cream and salads) wasn't cold. At the Asian Restaurant (Shogun), we were pleased with everything but the main courses, which were way underseasoned, overcooked and the meat was the chicken and octopus were like rubber. The food on the buffet was average at best. It just seemed like they were going for quantity rater than quality. Breakfast had most of the usual stuff was plentiful (bacon, egg station, sausages, etc) What was missing was 1) real fresh fruit (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries). All they had was pineapple, apples, oranges, bananas, and under ripe cantaloupe, and honeydew melons. 2) smoked salmon (only available mixed with cream cheese!) and quality deli meats and cheeses (Prosciutto, mortadella swiss cheese etc). At lunch and dinner the chicken and fish were overcooked, and seemed to be held on heat tables too long. In general most of food was under seasoned. Then instead of prime rib at the carving station, they had round (one of the least flavorful and tough meats!) The food at the Italian specialty restaurant was downright bad. The calamari was way overcooked, the filet minion was so tough it was not eatable and the veal was just plain tough. The French restaurant was OK, but nothing to write home about. We had great success at the Barnaby's Steak House. All the food was cooked to the proper temperatures, well seasoned and the wait staff were wonderful. It was the highlight of the dining experience. Everything there was good so that we went back on our final night! As far as drinks are concerned, that service and our experience at Barnaby's is the reason this review is a 2 and not a one star. As apposed to other cruises we have been on, drinks were readily available. The bar and wait staff were outstanding. I have to also credit the wait staff throughout the ship. They were well trained and did a great job. Overall,They had staff walking though the dining rooms to see if "everything" was OK, but it just seemed like no one was back in the kitchens tasting the food and keeping track of what was coming out to the tables. We did write a complaint late in the cruise, and the manager did come to discuss the issue with us and provided a bottle of wine as apology, there was really little that could be done at that stage. We just wished it didn't have to come to that! Hopefully NCL will go in and figure out what is wrong and fix it.

Dessert demo, casino, listening to music in the various venues. Compared with other NCL cruises we have taken we were surprised at the limited amount of activities that were available for free (other than bingo or other activities that required additional fees). We realized this was a smaller ship, but that shouldn't limit having a few more food demos or movie nights or other activities. It wasn't warm enough for the pool so we can't say anything about that.

This is a mixed review. The stage shows were OK. There were 2 of nights of the 4 singers and 8 dancers doing a show one of which was staged pretty well. The other was pretty boring other than the Irish dancing at the end that was outstanding. There was one night with a group called the Fly Boys, a quartet that were very talented, but the show was so AWFUL that people were getting up and leaving in the middle of the show! Then there was one night with a solo singer and a night with a violinist that were just OK and a night with a magician that we didn't attend. There were two nights that were highlights One was a night with two aerialists that put together a very nice "Cirque du Solet" type show with limited staging. Then on the last night they had put together a holiday show that was absolutely wonderful. We wondered why they didn't put more effort into the other nights. The other live music that was in the other areas thoughout the ship was really very good and why this overall review is a four star. We would give the stage shows a 2.5 and the lounge acts a 5.

Everyone on the ship was top notch.

Overall the ship layout seemed to be good, other than in one of the main dining rooms appeared to be over the engines so there was always engine noise in that area of the ship. Our room was on deck 10 so this didn't cause us any problem, but I could see that it might be a problem if you were on a lower deck. The common areas were very clean and well maintained. This is one of the things NCL seems to do very well at.

The bedroom portion of the cabin seemed to be a bit smaller than we have had on the newer bigger ships, but the bathroom seemed bigger, which was nice. The cabin was very clean and our steward did a great job keeping it that way throughout the trip. We did hear of other cabins having unresolved plumbing problems but we didn't have a problem.

Good job!