Best:

1) The food was excellent.

2) Our bartender on the deck 9 "All Around the Town" sports bar was TOP NOTCH. Even remembered our names after the first night. She is server #638. I don't know her name. Tell her Deanna and Mike sent you from the Bermuda cruise in Aug of 2003.

3) Service was usually prompt and courteous. Room service happened in less than 30 minutes, vs. Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas - 1:45 minutes.

4) NCL offered a professional photo all-inclusive package for $149.99. Well worth the price. We got over 60 photos (we attended almost all of the photo shoots) for the low price of $149.99. Surprisingly, out of over 1000 passengers, only 35 signed up for this. The photos cost from $8.95 to $19.95 per photo, depending upon size.

5) Fastest Embarkation/Express Disembarkation I've ever seen, airline, or cruise ship.

Worst:

1) This was my honeymoon. I was in the casino playing the quarter push machine where you feed it quarters and it pushes your winnings' over the edge. Anyhow, there was a front slot and 2 side slots. No instructions or rules were printed on the machine. Anyhow, my new wife and I played about $20-30 worth of quarters to get the "free bottle of champagne" token to drop down the side chute, where it was headed to begin with. We finally managed to finagle it down the left side slot. I was overjoyed, though I could have purchased the same champagne for about $20.00 onboard...the cheapest of course. So, I look into the drop chute for my free champagne token, which is nowhere to be found. I inform the attendant, who is no help at all, almost not caring, telling me the side drops go back into the machine. I was not satisfied at this point and asked to speak to the casino manager. He also did not seem at all sympathetic towards my cause. I informed his that this was fraud and false advertisement, since no statement about the side drops was posted on the machine. He still didn't seem to care at all. I informed him that I would take it up with the reception desk and corporate email to NCL. I also informed him that I would sail Royal Caribbean next time, who wouldn't lose a customer to a bottle of free cheap champagne....their loss. I am a businessman and I wouldn't lose $2000 a year for a $20 bottle of cheap champagne.

2) I realized when we booked the cruise that this was a refurbished ship, however, it was noisy to say the least. I was on deck 8, right below the main stairwell to deck 9 and right below the sun deck, with unattended bad children ( I have 4 boys by the way) running full force right above us on the metal deck. Sounded like they would come through the floor. Plus, the people next door...their kids were using the couch backs, which swung up and away for you to make the bed as football practice thingies ( the things they tackle when they practice). I thought they would come thought the wall at times. I got to the point that I was pounding on the wall to get them to stop.

3) There was not much in the way of food after 9:30 PM. You would have to wait until 11:30;12:00, at which time they would have 1 buffet in the casino....sandwiches, cheese, fruit, and some kind of meat on a stick. Usually, either that line would be super long, or before you got to it, there would be nothing substantial left.

4) The only free drink included on board was Unsweetened Iced Tea, and Water. On the 2nd to last day, it was impossible to find regular sugar packets, vs. the raw kind, and on the last day, they must have run low on lemons, because they didn't have them available for iced tea. They supplied lemon juice packets. Only the privileged beer drinkers during the day were allowed lemon. They had run out of lime by like the 3rd day. My wife does not like Iced Tea, nor water. We purchased the soda card, but that cost $28 dollars. They should offer lemonade as an alternative, as RCCL did year before.

5) The front of the ship (large open space with a small crew only pool or Jacuzzi) on the shipboard channel was unavailable to guests. That sucked. When I was on RCCL, the front was the best part of the ship to look at the stars.

6) The ship was kind of crowded. It was difficult to find a pool/Jacuzzi towel at nighttime.

7) Almost didn't get on the ship. I was born in Wurtzburg, Germany in 1968. My birth certificate states this, but also states that it was on a US military base (US Property). I didn't bring my expired passport as suggested....my fault. They declined entry. My wife had a cow and they spoke the to US customs agent, who said it was okay for us to board. Go figure, I had the same documents as I did on Royal Caribbean, and had no problems with them, besides the 1.5 hour boarding wait time.

Anyhow, that's my review. Any questions or comments, email me at mlcottle@yahoo.com . Thanks.

Computer Mike