First time cruiser. Crew were generally great and biggest asset of NCL. However, not relaxing as anticipated... Boarded and had to wait from midday to 8pm for room so could not shower or change clothes. The "all inclusive" but pay for some things was confusing, as were complementry (or not) shows and dining, especially when online account showed charges that subsequently disappeared. Because we were on excursions every day we did not get good value from the included "all inclusive" dining or extra charge "ultimate Drinks" package. Lifts were frustratingly slow and overcrowded. Top Decks with outside areas overcrowded and more like a Butlins holiday camp than luxury liner. Had an outside balcony but room service was nearly $8 a go, so enjoying the outside that way not really an option. Customer Services queue was usually long and slow, and much time was wasted mainly because access to decent information online was poor. Fid was okay. Overall the experience fell short of expectation. The ability to hop off hop on at ports is good but we went with another (recommended) excersion company. The NCL excersions in comparison were very very expensive but I cannot comment on their quality. Don't do every stop because it is very tiring. Internet was blisteringly expensive at over $240 each for the week. It was the premium service but that was not really an option because the other (still chargable) options provided extremely poor (unusable) bandwith. In the library there are Desktop PCs and or but no scan capability. The desktops were useless, even when using premium internet account. Could not even check in with Airline and print boarding card - something I imagine many would want to do.

I get the attraction of cruising but it was just too busy - good for the cruise line but not great for passengers. If I go on another cruise I would not go cattle class. I would probably choose a ship with a higher ratio of staff to passenger and a higher quality of service so that I can truly relax.