We've been on an NCL cruise before and loved it, but most of the time on this cruise I was thinking maybe we should try Royal Caribbean. Overall, the food was not up to par. There were a few nights where it was great, but most nights, I felt that the food selections were not as elegant or up to expectations. My favorite part of cruising is usually the food as you often don't have fine dining 7 days in a row, but on this cruising it wasn't much fine dining.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Food was often overly salty or overly sweet. Some entrées were excellent but some were complete duds.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
The entertainers that were brought on were wonderful and very entertaining. However, the Norwegian Productions were terrible. Very awkward and boring. The sound technician also makes the sound so loud it either crackles in the speakers or deafens you.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Overall, service and staff was great except on the occasion where we found hair in our water and no one even said sorry. We had complete silence while they slowly changed our water glass.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
The hallway outside our room always smelled like urine or dead fish. The room was fine but at night I heard a water dripping noise so that got annoying fast.
Ship tip
Aqua dining room is much nicer and their chef is much more skilled.
Did the Cave Tubing and Zip Line excursion, cave tubing was great and different. But zip lining was mediocre and a waste of time. It was an hour drive each way, so we didn't have any time to see the port.
No one thinks of going to a water park in Mexico, but it is totally worth it. The zip lining is amazing as was it nice to have a park open and never really having to wait in lines.
Great shopping to do right by the port. There's a great taco joint just a block or two a way. Literally a sign that says "Tacos", it's near a Lobster Shack.
Loved Royal Caribbean Freedom Of The Seas. Sailed last May. Food was great for the most part. Really liked the Windjammer, ate there often. Dining room food was good. Chops Grille was good but not worth the $35 per person. Desserts were yummy however . We got the Ultimate Dining package on the Norwegian Star for free as part of the package. Looking forward to that in April. Carnival Liberty had good food too when we sailed in 2014.
We sailed Royal Caribbean two years ago and thought the buffet was the worst experience ever. Long lines and food quality horrible. The fine dining however, each night was better than Norwegian. We have sailed Norwegian 3 times and will not go back to Royal Caribbean as our Norwegian experiences were better.
The overall NCL experience has declined. We did specialty restaurants each night. RC does have better food, but keep in mind that preparing food for thousands is going to be of lesser quality than prepared for a small group.
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