My husband and 4 children, ages 11,15,18,21 took this cruise at the end of June. It was my fifth cruise on my third cruise line. This was our first time on NCL. I have to say, unfortunately, it will also be our last. The 15 and 18 year olds had a wonderful time. They pretty much had the run of the ship with their friends. They did not participate in any of the teen club activities, but made friends on their own and found things to keep themselves occupied. My 11 year old was looking forward to the kids club activites, but because I could not give her permission to come and go as she pleased (she was able to do this at 9 years old on Princess after I signed a permission slip) she opted out of the club all together for fear of being "stuck" there with me not knowing that she wanted to be signed out. NCL's policy is that all children 13 and under must be signed in and out of the club at all times. No exceptions. My 21 year old was bummed not to have any kind of activities or get togethers for young singles. He went to the two "singles-mingles" that they offered and they were both in a bar with 40+ year olds.
There is nothing FREE about Freestyle Cruising. To me it means "let's charge for what we always included and make people wait in line to get it". I tried 3 separate times for over a half hour each time to get into one of the two "no added cost" specialty restaurants. They were booked each night, and they only took reservations for that night and the next night, meaning I couldn't even book it for further into the week. The food in the main restaurants (Versailles and Aqua) was nothing more than mediocre and you will have to wait in line to get it. The Versailles dining room is on deck 6 aft, and it vibrates and shakes as if there is a freight train going through it. The water glasses were so HOT when they were placed on the table, that the water could not even be poured into them right away. Same goes for my salad plate. Every single time I ate there it was hot. Wilted salad is not something I enjoy. Courses were brought before previous courses were finished. The buffet service was brown, hot, and plenty of it. The best piece of chocolate I had all week was the brownie the AIRLINE gave us with our dinner on the way home! We ordered 3 bottles of wine over the week. They lost the last one in the wine storage area and you would think that we were trying to get something for nothing despite the fact that we could show that we had just purchased it the night before. If you take this cruise, order wine by the glass or finish the bottle. We had the waiter, busboy, wine steward and matre de at our table no less than 5 times that night, each with the same insinuating questions. I finally just said, bring us each a glass of wine and charge me and be done with it!! The best food we ate was the poolside barbecue they had at lunch every day and the fish and chips offered in the Blue Lagoon. There are 3 specialty restaurants where you have to pay an additional charge. They were largely empty.
We arrived into every port of our cruise late, with no apology nor explanation from the Captain.