Ben, please put me on your email list. and email me about this review.
Maryf@msn.com Thanks!
Benjamin Smith wrote:
> Mostly clear skies with 2 very short rainstorms. Full moon (big
> highlight for me). Calm seas. Hot weather.
>
> Family cruise for me but truly a family cruise. Very young clientele, at
> least 30 babies and 30 toddlers, and a whole community of teenagers.
> Some public areas repurposed. Family's response to cruising is mixed,
> perhaps sister is better off on a quieter ship but in no way has the
> cruising bug. Father enjoyed cruise to be at sea, and of course this
> cruise in no way compares to our HAL Rotterdam V cruise in 1970.
> Teenagers in family, 16-year-old, 14-year-old fraternal twins boy/girl,
> and 12-year-old responded like teens--no stars in their eyes. Lots of
> karaoke, to a fault, but more on that later.
>
> I like overall ship design but it has an obvious flaw--way too small
> pool area. Overall design works, IMO. Ship felt *very* crowded. Agree
> about theater seats being narrow. Great showroom entertainment, pretty
> typical entertainment from musicians onboard, lower-than-average pool
> combo. Ship feel eclectic, different feels depending on what part of the
> ship one is in.
>
> Saw Disney Wonder (like its appearance), Navigator of the Sea, Regal
> Empress, Carnival Fantasy. Ship goes to Nassau from 8:00 pm and leaves
> 12:00 the next day, which I found strange.
>
> Cruise service seemed spotty, have the feeling it may be subpar.
> Freestyle dining has multiple choices, but no jeans and t-shirts in most
> restaurants is enforced--sometimes. And there's an optional formal night
> with pics taken as well as suggested optional dress codes. We did
> Cagneys as a family and found service and food very good, wife enjoyed
> Salsas and I did not, we both enjoyed the Asian restaurant Bamboo,
> spotty service and food in Aqua, Impressions, and Venetian--the
> "regular" restaurants. Woeful food in buffet, utterly unpleasant
> environment. Blue Lagoon, the 24 hour grill/diner a hit, but service
> quite poor for this crew and one crew member was publicly reprimanded
> (saw this too on Galaxy, something I don't find professional--she should
> have been taken somewhere private, IMO). I don't cruise to eat or for
> restaurants, but for those that do, this ship has a variety of them and
> they are well integrated into the design of the ship. Aqua's placement
> requires going up to go down from the Venetian, or for those in cabins
> floors 5 and under. Doesn't bother me in the least, may bother some.
>
> Personally, don't like 90,000 ton ships, though I like this better than
> Celebrity Millennium class ships in terms of design and variety of
> public areas. Prefer 50,000 to 78/80,000 ton ships (HAL Statendam class
> to Celebrity Mercury/Galaxy, RCI Vision, Sun Princess sized ships).
> Don't see any huge improvements over this ship versus those built in the
> mid to late 1990s.
>
> Most enjoyed full moon, wraparound promenade, Star Bar, Spinnaker lounge
> --design and some of the activities. Spa staff and quiet spa area. Some
> crew members and talking to one of the entertainers.
>
> Least enjoyed: family cruising, mall-like atmosphere, crowded, pasted-on
> smiles and sing-song manner of many cruise members (though this isn't
> only an NCL crew problem), automatic tipping--depersonalized nature of
> dealing with tipping the staff. Lots of announcements and ridiculous
> amount of selling. Example, before the magic show an entertainment
> member pushed some sort of sales tickets on the audience, also all sorts
> of junk was all over the atrium to sell, and more as the cruise went on.
>
> My wife and I have to think about future cruising, the reality of
> cruising on mainstream lines versus what we want out of cruising, the
> effect of different itineraries and cruise lengths on cruising, perhaps
> non North-American lines that have a different emphasis than the current
> climate of cruising. We want another world when we cruise and this
> cruise was as much Jersey Gardens mall as any vacation we've been on. So
> where to go from here, I'm not sure.
>
> My wife and I both agree on our ratings. Notch below RCI, Notch and a
> half below Celebrity and HAL in overall quality. I think this may have
> been a substandard performing crew, and I'm not sure what NCL's style
> is. Have to think about it. I think NCL may do better on this same ship
> at other times when ship isn't as crowded, or on different itineraries
> with other ships, and I sure hope that NCL has made the pool larger on
> the Star and Jewel. (It seems to be small to allow for two huge suites
> on the top level of the ship).
>
> More later.
>
> Ben S. |