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“We started out as having a bad time with NCL Cruises....”

written by smoothsailing on 27/12/2005

Good Points
Good crew and cruise director, good food, and a VERY good last minute deal

Bad Points
Skipped 1 out of our planned 4 ports due to hurricane damage

General Comments
We started out as having a bad time with NCL Cruises. We flew into Houston Bush Airport the day before, and stayed in the Mariott until the next day. Then, we purchased transfers to the port. We waited for hours for a bus to come. Finally, when it came, it made a wrong turn and cost us 15 minutes extra driving time.



Once we arrived at port, we got onboard very quickly(20 mins) and were in our room. 8221 was an average sized room, one with a pullout sofa and 2 beds so all 3 of us could sleep comfortably. Once we were organized and the mustering drill was completed, we started out around the ship.



It was an OK conditioned ship, but it could have been better. The lounge's sofas were sticky and sometimes even felt wet. We stuck to the chairs. But the food we then had made up for everything, and we were all good once again.



Our room steward was hilarious, always left little towel animals. And out hostess for The Terraces restaurant got to know my by my first name and called me Mr. Andrew for the rest of the trip. Excellent!



Cozumel tendering was a pain, and it was not at all worth it. The locals are very aggressive with their selling styles.



Roatan was great, but the town is very poor and run down with lots of cops and guns everywhere. I suggest doing what we did and go to 'Fantasy Beach'. Its a resort where you can go snorkelling and just lie on the beach. Driving there we saw real wild baby iguanas! Cool.



Belize was awesome. Outside of the gates it was scary, but we took a bus to go cave tubing and that was beyond cool. Two thumbs up!



Our last two days were at sea and nothing special happened except we were all informed Cancun was cancelled and so we all got a 12.50 onboard credit. Whoopie. I thought that they could have done better.



The entertainment, mainly the dancers and singers were great. You do not want to miss out! I got a picture with the captain while he was walking along the deck. It was the first time I had seen him, because I missed the Captains Cocktail Party, so this way I got a free photo (Friend took picture) and it did not cost me 15USD or what ever the ridiculous price was.



Overall, I thought it was a pretty good cruise, and I am going on a Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas cruise in Jan. Pretty good job NCL!