Great Solo traveler cruise director; natural trip through the fjords, but I was sad to miss most of Iceland due to weather. Missing two ports because of weather isn’t something NCL could have prevented.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
I stood in line in the rain, outside, for nearly 4 hours! By the time I got on board and visited my stateroom to freshen up, I missed the muster drill.
And the Canadian declaration forms were really forced upon us prematurely. Canada wasn’t visited until the second week of age cruise. So why did we have to fill out the forms at embarkation?
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Food was excellent. I do think the shape of the chocolate dessert at le Bistro is amusingly provocative.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
There were many fun things to do but not enough for the at sea days. Too many people crowded in to them whereas if there were more choices, people might not have been so crammed.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
There were several shows that were really good and there was a variety. I do miss the musicals though.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
I had no problems with staff, but people in my peer group had several issues with the excursion department. There was a lack of excursions and then the staff were rude to the point that one of my friends brought a senior staffer with her to address an issue.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
The ship was very clean. The ship is older so the design does feel dated, but the size was very nice. I usually didn’t feel crowded in with everyone except on the at sea days. (See above)
Cabin / Stateroom
2 out of 5
The Good :
The cabin was fine overall. A little dated in style, but had the essentials and was kept very clean by my steward.
The Bad:
Despite the ship’s diagram looking like there is open space above the cabin, it is directly under some very loud commotion every night until early morning. 1-2 AM.
One night, the next door cabin to mine described the noises as a “roller derby”. And it’s right over your head. Every night.
First and foremost, there are only TWO public toilets in the port. One’s about a mile (at least it felt that way) from where you tender in and is at the museum.
The open air museum was nice, and self-paced relying on multilingual descriptions of the buildings, contents, etc., which in one way was nice. You got to go through at your own pace. There was no tour guide to describe the exhibits or answer questions which I did miss.
The port was great. Not enough time. Thank goodness I’d been before because my tour missed two stops due to time constraints. (Some due to us arriving late and another due to a union dispute that led to workers deliberately slowing cruise travelers to make their point to another cruise line.)
I messed up by not going on an excursion. I mistakenly thought there would be a different port to visit and I had an excision planned for that day. Unfortunately, the next port and excursion were canceled due to weather.
It was pretty. There wasn’t a lot to do but my taxi/tour guide was informative and friendly.
I skipped the fur factory but I heard after that the gift shop there was the best one.
Be sure to bring euros. A couple sites were euros only, including the museum and a ferry ride to the fishermen’s island. You could use the ATM, but you’d need to withdraw a minimum of €100.
That “open space” above your room that sits between the French restaurant and the Italian restaurant is probably a kitchen for those restaurants. Whenever there is something other than staterooms above yours, you could hear noise. Research the location and always bring ear plugs.
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