Nice enough ship, decent itinerary, but nothing special about NCL versus any other cruise line.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Fairly quick and well organized.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
"Freestyle dining" is a great concept, if only it worked well in practice. The food was uneven - we had some of the best prime rib and ham we've ever had on board, and some of the most mediocre everything else. Most of the time, the food arrived lukewarm. The buffet is on par with other ships, i.e., meh. Forget Ginza - dry chicken cubes in the Kung Pao, dry meat slabs in the chow fun. Couldn't get reservations at any other specialty restaurants.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
A fair amount of music around the ship, but not a lot for adults to do. More activities geared towards families (maybe to be expected as it was a Christmas week cruise), but still not a lot of them, even on at-sea days. The casino, though, was awesome. This is the only cruise (and I've been on 25+) where I came away with more money in my wallet than when I went in, like $500 worth (starting from $40). The few times we attended things hosted by the cruise director ("Tom!"), we were underwhelmed. He seemed to be phoning it in. For example, he rushed through NCL's version of 'the newlywed game,' taking barely a half-hour for the whole thing. On other ships, it's one of the highlight games and a good cruise director makes it last at least 45 minutes, possibly an hour. This guy barely engaged with the participants.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Shows in the theater were pretty good; best choreography we've seen on any ship. Magician was good, and especially liked that he held a little 'workshop' a few days later to show how some tricks were done. Great idea. The aerialists were awesome, too.
Children's Programs
Um, we have no kids?
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Most of the staff we encountered were very nice and friendly. We only met our cabin steward once, and that was because we didn't see where the 'do not disturb,' 'turn down,' and 'make up' signs were (this was our first time on an NCL ship, so didn't know about the rotating thingy on the room number).
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
A little weirdly laid out. On lots of decks, you had to know which side of the ship to walk on to get from one end to the other; many decks ended in "crew only" signs. As for the common areas, the public ladies' restrooms were atrocious. Rarely saw anyone cleaning them, there was always water and paper debris on the floor, and in at least 2 of them, there were broken toilets that were never repaired. Despite the signs on the back of the door showing that someone had been in the room hourly, they sure looked like all the person had done was sign his/her initials.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We had the opportunity to upgrade to a mid-ship mini-suite at a discount. The cabin had one of the more interesting floor plans we've seen. The bathroom was well designed; shower + tub to the left, toilet to the right, sink in the middle, with the shower and the WC having sliding doors. A solid door to the shower is much better than the shower curtain that sticks to your legs while you're trying to clean up. The closet was actually in the room, with the door facing the right side of the bed, which was good, as it avoided needing a lot of hallway space. On the other hand, the doors opened right up to the bed, so you had to maneuver carefully when two people were trying to get clothes out. Also, there is no light in the closet - we needed the flashlight app on our phones to see what we were doing. Finally, beware of cabins on deck 11 - many of them are just below the Market buffet on 12. We heard a lot of traffic from above 24 hours a day (probably why we got such a good deal on the upgrade).
Ship tip
Don't expect greatness. In some ways it's better than other cruise ships, in some ways it's about the same, and in a few cases, it's worse.
Accidentally signed up for a bus tour instead of a walking tour. It's a young town, not much history, designed for resort travelers. Every bus stop was right by a makeshift market with locals selling all sorts of crap.
This town was great. We took a walking tour of the Old Town and had an awesome guide, Akino. Lots of history here, lovely architecture, and while there are locals trying to sell you stuff, they're not as aggressive as in Puerta Vallarta. Great town, really good shrimp.
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