We took an 11 day cruise out of New York to the Caribbean. This was our first cruise on NCL we have done several cruises on Carnival in the past. We were thoroughly impressed with how friendly and upbeat the staff was. From the people cleaning floors to the managers everyone seemed happy to be there and happy we were there. It really set a nice tone for the trip.

The ship was very clean and thy were subbing different parts of it everyday. Ceilings, floors, tables everything was cleaned nearly everyday.

I hope this review is helpful, i want to try to compare the two cruise lines a bit just so you can get a feel for the difference before you get on. The variety for places to eat and the expansive dinner hours means on NCL you never have to worry about standing on line. You could go to any place you wanted with no reservations and just sit down and eat. Yes there was a small contingent of people who insisted on standing on line just for the sake of doing it, i meant to ask if there were from carnival. They would line up a half an hour before the dinning room would open and wait, we would just come back when they opened and sit down. So on carnival you have a assigned table and waiter and dinner time. We have had cruises where that worked out good, great table great waiter time worked for our group. Well we have had cruises where that did not work, crappy table bad waiter, always late. On NCL you do not have a certain waiter or table or time, which meant we could spend our day how we wanted without worrying about making it to dinner. Also we sat in many different places most of which were great but we did not get stuck somewhere we did not like or with someone we did not like for the whole trip. Now some of the waiters were great some were not, just like carnival but you are not stuck with them. Also on NCL you could eat with people you met without it being a big deal or alone if you wanted. That is something we could never do on Carnival. Read more