Vacations are officially over until May. What a crazy couple of months! I'm happy it's February 1st.
My husband and I went on a 4 night Bahamas cruise last week on Norwegian Cruise Line. It was our first time sailing on NCL. I've heard really good things about it, so I had high hopes. While we both enjoyed our time away together, we did not enjoy our experience with the cruise line. Even the check-in process before we got on the ship was frustrating to us, so we were already in sour moods before taking our first steps onto the ship. After checking in, we were directed to the back entrance of the ship. I have to admit, one of my favorite parts about a cruise is walking into the grand atrium for the first time and being welcomed by the friendly crew. This did not happen...any of it. To regulate traffic, they were directing some people to enter through the atrium, and others to enter through the back of the ship where all the muster stations are. We didn't even get a single "welcome aboard". Very disappointing. Since it took almost an hour to check-in, we were starving, so we were trying to make our way to the top deck to get some lunch. There were absolutely NO crew members around to direct us where to go. Finally, we stumbled upon a set of elevators that took us to the top deck. The rest of the cruise was pretty much the same.
NCL's motto is "Freestyle Cruising", which to me means THEY don't care what you do. There are no assigned dining times, you just show up "whenever" and do "whatever" you want. I thought I would like this, but I really did not. We ate at the sit down restaurant twice...once for lunch and once for dinner. The service was horrible. At lunch, the beverage guy never came around...not once. Our waiter never made eye contact with us...not once. In fact, I asked him a question and it took him a couple seconds to realize that I was waiting for a response, to which his response was, "what?" The only nice meal we had was one we paid $20/pp for at the Brazilian restaurant where they bring meat to your table. Excellent!
Their private island was about 95% under construction. I'm sure it will be nice once it's completed, but right now it looks like a dump. Piles of sand everywhere with big machinery driving all over. Had to walk past a village of port-o-potties to get to the nature trail. No thanks. I think we spent a total of 15 minutes on the island before we caught a tender back to the ship.
We are not drinkers, so my husband got a soda package. Every time he went to ask for a soda, the bartenders seems put out by it. AND the pool bar and the bar back by the buffet closed before 8pm every night. Who closes a bar on a cruise ship before 8pm? NCl does...and this is why.
It seemed like everyone on the ship was above 50 years old. I think we were the only ones playing BINGO that were younger than about 65. I did win on the first night, so I'm good with that.
I'm happy we didn't bring our son with us. The kids section of the ship was still undergoing refurbishments, so I'm not sure what he would've been able to do. AND no swim diapers are allowed in any of the pools, not even the little kiddie splasher pool, which was the size of a bathtub. Also, there was no kids food on the buffet. I was expecting to see mac n cheese or chicken nuggets everyday, but there was nothing my son would have eaten.
I will say that the staterooms were rather large. We were in an inside stateroom and it was very spacious. I did enjoy not having to shimmy around all the furniture.
Overall, NCL was a big fail.
We are throwing around the idea of a cruise for our anniversary this year. It will either be a Disney cruise on the Magic or Royal Caribbean. Still figuring out pricing and schedules. Of course we would prefer a Disney cruise, especially since they decorate their ship for Christmas and have special Christmas activities during December. It might be nice to check out Royal Caribbean since they were voted #1 for kids and families. Decisions decision!
