My aunt took our family, five adults and two children on this cruise to celebrate her 75th birthday. My wife and I cruised on the NCL Pride of Hawaii in 2007 for our honeymoon and everything was perfect on that cruise so it was my idea to cruise NCL again but this cruise left much to be desired. NCL assured us when we booked the cruise that we would all be close together. We had a balcony state room next to my sister and her husband and their children but they placed my aunt in "The Studio" which was on the same floor but requires keycard access so we were not able to get to her room to escort her to meals and other activities. My aunt has some mobility issues, she can get around OK but it would have been nice to be able to get to her room plus she wasn't able to use the studio lounge since it was upstairs. The hurricanes caused a change in itinerary after we booked so even though they dropped the price significantly for last minute bookings and were offering all kinds of onboard credits they would not change or upgrade her room assignment even after changing our itinerary to what should have been a much less expensive cruise.
When we arrived our state room was dingy and had not been properly cleaned and something was splattered on the cabinets and curtains. Mark, our room steward was excellent and addressed all of our concerns, but as new as this ship is it should have been much cleaner. We received dirty glasses and silverware on several occasions. We noticed a good deal of coughing and sneezing from the food service and other staff and sure enough my wife and I both caught a cold by day 4.
NCL is now charging a $14.95 per person per day "service charge' to cover gratuities. I generally tip well, but the service we received was not worth what they were charging. The restaurant service was extremely slow. We were seated right away but it took 2-3 hours to get through most meals from the time we were seated. I prefer to tip as I go based on the quality of the service. The last time we cruised with NCL they had not yet instituted the automatic service charge policy and I feel the service was much better (although in fairness we were on a much smaller ship then.)
Room was dirty with something splattered on walls and curtains. Mark our room steward was excellent and addressed all of our concerns but they should have cleaned the curtains and wiped down the walls before we embarked.
Boarding went smoothly.
Great shopping, taxis are overpriced but you can walk to the public beach about 1KM away from the port.
Port was over priced and had a smell of sewage in the air.