The Motel 6 of cruises offering just the basics

A basic cattle call without even water provided for almost two hours, and personnel could not even read their own writing.

This is the third time we were on NCL (of 10+ cruise experiences), and food service is now seriously lacking with poor preparation, poor presentation, extremely little variation, an emphasis on economy with inconsistent cooking, with very poor service. As is typical in the mainstream cruise industry, food is managed by European cooks who have no knowledge of American food. As a metropolitan novice foodie, I was extremely disappointed with the cooking. Despite a claim that all food is made to order, nothing came fresh but rather sat around cooling down before service. Starting with Ginza Japanese restaurant, gyoza (they call them potstickers whether steamed or fried) appeared to come from a frozen bag, as did the egg rolls. Calamari was deep fried but still soft with a non-crispy batter. The stir fry, whether beef or chicken was a mixing of very large chunks of unmarinated meat sitting in various vegetables. With no marinating and sliced way too thick, the meat was excessively tough and plain and could have been used in any type of cuisine, mixed with vegetables which were consistently sitting in a food warming pan for too long. Chow Fun was more like pho (a soup) and udon noodles tasted more like very thick uncooked spaghetti. Asian spices for anything were lacking. NCL should have their cooks sample the Panda or any Asian super buffet in the US for guidance. The main dining rooms provided limited offerings with little adornment - basically meat, a scoop of sauce, a scoop of starch and a scoop of vegetables. Most entrees lacked salt while others were way too salty, and soups were often oversalted. There were no over the top appetizers or desserts - no souffles, no exotic things (like escargot). O'Sheehan's provided very good wings in a variety of sauces (bbg, buffalo, thai chili, jerk), fish and chips (looked and tasted like deep fried premade boxed fish) and fries which usually had been sitting around for a while, Ruebens which were inconsistent with different assemblers placing beef and sauerkraut differently which came with fresh potato chips. Fajitas appeared to be the kitchen's left over sliced meat ends which sat until mushy in a generic non-latin "sauce". The nachos inexplicably was assembled with the cheese sauce under the chips with some bacon and canned jalapenos sprinkled on top with a dash of sour cream (This must be Irish style nachos). Unfortunately, they do not wipe the tables or chairs well and service was lacking - they wanted to sell drinks, but did not want to refill water, and dessert took what seemed like forever. The buffet was unexceptional with breakfast being to consistent with no variation in menus day to day - everyday had the same fruits (with a shortage of bananas), same meats, same breads, same everything for the whole trip. It would have been nice to get different sausages, variations of egg benedict, any corned beef hash, ... There were no real juices - you need to purchase them - with flavour enhanced water provided at the dispensers. Dal, curry, Indian breads, and other Indian food were always available. Food is shut down like clockwork which interfered with our sleeping in since if we arrived towards the end of breakfast hours, they would stop serving, and lunch would not start until much later. Other ships offered a rolling phase in for the lunch menu which would have been better. Throughout service hours everything was consistently preheated a long time and was no longer fresh when put out. Asian congee was just boiled rice with NO condiments and NO Asian things to add which would have been cheap and easy to provide (My dog would enjoy this, but not me). They did have soft serve though with no goodies except for chocolate and butterscotch syrup dispensers. The crepe station was good with Nutella, canned strawberry or blackberry mix or chopped cantalope and honeydew. Basically, the food served might appeal to a passenger base from rural America without access to a variety of restaurants or even national chains (like Chipotle, Taco Bell, Panda Express, etc), but for someone used to eating at a variety of restaurants in a metropolitan or even suburban area, the food falls short. The cooks apparently never sample their own food.

There were a few enrichment lectures (generally in the morning before we get up), but most everything else was based on revenue generation. After nine each evening, the pool and hot tubs were vacant, so we were able to privately enjoy the hot tubs each night, but this might have been because on our cruise, the average passenger age was 63.9. It might be different on other voyages (the cruise after us had an average age in the low 40's). This cruise was much more hard sell than other cruises we have been on.

Since the different cruiselines introduced travelling entertainment which change at port, there has been an increase in variety and quality in general.

NCL is casual, but staff is also casual. Unlike other cruiselines where staff seem encouraged to interact with passengers, here, staff seemed afraid to interact, instead being standoffish. It was disappointing that they did not want to engage (It is a delight to talk about diverse backgrounds and experiences). It was enjoyable talking to the lifeguard in late evening (we were the only ones on deck) to talk about the young 22 year old Argentinian's aspirations to become a plane pilot, work, personal life (girlfriend) and car desires (we own a Tesla) - it brought a personal touch to an otherwise anonymous vacation.

The ship is getting old with nonpassthrough on some decks.

Based on the different textures, this cabin went through 3 "renovations". It was designed for three occupancy with a rock hard convertible sofa and a pass through (locked for us) to the adjacent stateroom. Since it is forward, there was little engine noise or vibration and the gentle sway while underway was relaxing. The balcony was filthy and paint showed an attempt to cover up the rusting structure. Balcony chairs made echoing noise whenever moved - we heard each time someone in a nearby balcony adjusted their chairs, and talk outside echoed loudly to the neighbors. The washroom had partitions between the toilet and sink which might be useful if fully occupied, but for a couple, the partition made the toilet area very tight (think airplane toilet). The showerhead leaked sideways and needed replacement. USBs were useful though we did not notice the ones near the bed under the light sconces. The Samsung TV was appreciated since it provided USB ports which read music and video files from our USB's and had HDMI which we did not use. It was nice to watch our media on the TV rather than on a computer.

Ship should attempt to coordinate with Customs since there was a substantial backup to get through. In customs, we learned that our enhanced drivers licenses are useless here. Our last cruise on a different line provided complementary luggage handling through check in at the airport (and checked in for us, providing us with boarding passes), a strong incentive to use that cruiseline (which we have already scheduled for this summer).