Iceland and Norway are great places to visit, at least once in a lifetime, but do it on some cruise line other than NCL! The hot springs and waterfalls are numerous and many are spectacular. Each of the small towns are unique and interesting. The larger cities have some very interesting sites to see, both in the city and in their surrounding areas.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
This was one item that NCL seemed to have organized for the benefit of its customers. We boarded at our scheduled time with less than 15 minutes of administrative "boarding" actions necessary.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
The buffet had ok breakfasts, and bland, uninspired lunch and dinners. The main dining halls had nothing special with one exception...they did have a very good prime rib dinner one night of the cruise. Specialty restaurants had different menues, but the food was not very special, and we, and some other cruisers suffered from suspected food poisoning on one occasion, which was reported to the ship's medical office.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
Too cold for the pools. too cold for deck activities. Maintenance was often blocking the walking deck. The workout machines were usually fully occupied. Many other activities (art auctions, bingo, casino, children's arcade) seemed to be just money-makers for NCL.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Stage shows were by the ship's band and singers and dancers were quite good. The entertainer who sang Billy Joel songs was outstanding. Other stage shows were OK.
Children's Programs
We were not children!
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Room service was at best adequate, nothing special! Timing was not consistent.
Bar service was fair to ok at most bars, with the exception of O'Sheehan's, which was very good. The Cruise Director was uninspiring, had no personality, and seldom
gave useful information about the next day's itinerary.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
The ship was adequate, but had nothing to brag about!
Cabin / Stateroom
2 out of 5
This was just a larger cabin with a small sofa and a small balcony. The ship had a lot of these larger cabins, and there was NOTHING SPECIAL about this cabin that made us feel like we were in a suite that we had paid a lot extra for! NCL suites are NOT good value for the money!
On this cruise, NCL changed the itinerary 5 or 6 times and totally removed Greenland from the itinerary. New ports, or new dates for existing ports and tours were added at the last minute, making planning very difficult!
Ship tip
NCL will not deliver what they initially advertise, and will not reimburse you for anything, even when they cause the damage or make the unplanned changes. Unless you plan all your own activities and arrange shore activities with non-NCL vendors, you will be disappointed in most of the overpriced NCL offerings. Upon disembarking, they damaged our luggage and refused to provide even minimum compensation, even though we filed an online damage report as we were still on the pier as we left the ship at 3:15 AM for the transportation to the airport that we had paid NCL to provide.
When we got off the ship, the NCL shore excursion person on the pier was worthless... had NO CLUE where we were to meet our tour transportation. The Valley of the Waterfalls tour was provided by local residents and was very interesting, but expensive.
We did an interesting Bird safari here. It was a long, uninteresting bus ride to get to the port where the charter boat took us around an island that was home to thousands of birds.
Ship arrived late at night and we had to disembark at 315 AM to catch the air plane that NCL arranged. No time to see anything! put our luggage out late at night, and picked it up on the pier, damaged! at 3 AM.
Had to disembark at 3:15 am. Found our DAMAGED luggage. Had to search for the NCL personnel who were supposed to be on the pier to help us. Finally got a security person to give me a card saying that I should report the damage to an NCL address on-line...did that as we stood in a queue for the bus to the airport, which was ill prepared for all the passengers arriving for the 6 AM flight, where I was charged extra because I had to check my damaged hand luggage,
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