This is my 2nd NCL cruise and I would say they did a good job generally but I might have had a better experience with a smaller ship on maybe an Oceania ship. NCL gets you there and sells you the excursions - at inflated prices- for you to get the feel of the country. Oceania gets you closer to a city port, avoiding tendering, gives you a substantive lecture pre-arrival so you have some feel for the country before you land, and have more than just panoramic blah tours available. You want to know about the cruise stop, don't ask the excursions team they know what's in the book and no more the basics are on a board in front of guess services and that's it.

Even when passing the glaciers in the Beagle Channel it took about half -hour for Jeymi our cruise director to get on the spekaer and provide some detail behind what we were viewing. I got much more taking HAL in Alaska and taking Oceania exiting Venice and coming into Lisbon.

The food was fine but basic and lukewarm. I went to Versailles 1x and refused to go again because the food and service were below par for me. Aqua service was much better but again the food meh. On a South American cruise you practically toast a piece of Chilean Sea Bass and put it on a plate as an entree???? Glad I had the Specialty Dining as a perk because I would have been pissed if I had to pay for most of those meals. Skip Moderno and do Cagney's, Le Bistro was also pretty good food but poor service. Cuchina ... any self respecting restaurant in Little Italy would shut this joker down! Read more