Norwegian Jewel - Review - 11-Feb-2006 Sailing (LONG)

I’ve received so much help and information from this group that I feel
compeled to write up a summary of our trip in the hope it will add to the
knowledge base and, possibly help others.

We sailed on the Norwegian Jewel’s Eastern Caribbean itinerary leaving
out of Miami on 11-Feb-2006.

The group consisted of 8 people in their 40’s/50’s. We are all related
(2 sisters + husbands, brother + wife & cousin + husband) and refer to
these trips as the sibling’s vacation. We live in different areas of the
country (Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, & Rhode Island) and do something
special every other year. This is the first time our trip consisted of a
cruise. Everyone has cruised before, but 6 of us hadn’t done so in quite
some time (10 years or so). Four people had been on Carnival and two
RCI. One couple has been on 3 other cruises in the past 5 years - a
Carnival and 2 Holland America’s. For all, this was the first
‘Freestyle’ type.

We had planned our trip to start on Saturday, 10-Feb, with a night out in
Miami Beach. Little did we know how fortuitous that decision would turn
out to be. One of the couples is from the Northeast and was able to
calmly fly out Saturday morning before the big Nor’easter.

Saturday night was spent at the New Circa39 Hotel in Miami Beach. An
okay place. Nothing to shout about, but it was clean and we were able to
walk to the boardwalk and enjoy a few tropical drinks on the beach before
dinner. Dinner was at Joe’s Stone Crab. Another just okay place from
the food quality standpoint. The atmosphere was unique and enjoyable,
however. The wait was nearly 3 hours. I wouldn’t say the food was worth
that kind of wait, but there are some places that you feel compelled to
experience at least once. This was one of those.

Sunday – Embarkation Day:
We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and then grabbed a couple of
cabs to the pier. We arrived about 11:30 AM. The place was pretty much
empty. We had to scare up a porter and noticed there seemed to be only a
couple bag bins in use yet. When we went inside, they had the full
complement of check in folks manning the counter, but only a dozen or so
customers going through the process. It took all of 10 minutes or so to
check in, have our boarding photograph taken, pick up key card and
proceed onto the ship.

We went up to see if our cabin was ready and were surprised to find that
it was. We dropped off our carryons and proceeded to check out the ship
a little while stopping at Spa to make appointments for those planning to
use those facilities, stopping at a bar to purchase Soda cards ($40.25)
for those who felt they’d be drinking enough soda to make that pay, and
then we proceeded to the front desk to make our Specialty Restaurant
reservations. With a group of 8, we felt the need to do this early to
improve out chances of having our desired times available. This, more or
less, took care of all our boarding ‘to do’ list and it was only about
12:30! We decided, we might was well eat. After all, what is a cruise
all about anyway? While walking around the ship we noticed that one of
the main dinning rooms (Tsar’s Palace) was open so we decided that
sitting down and being served was better then a buffet, so went in and
sat down.

After lunch it was back up to the room to unpack. Just as we got there
our bags arrived. Our room was a mini-suite on Deck 11. It was gorgeous
in appearance. This is the same type of room we’ve had on Holland &
Carnival, so comparisons couldn’t be helped. The muster/safety drill was
held in the show lounge, which made for a very comfortable experience

After unpacking, it was time for drinks and then dinner. We went to the
other main restaurant (Azura) for our first dinner. We found the
selection fine and the food quality very good. The seas were a little
bumpy and since this was the first night out it took a bit for us to get
our sea legs. One in the party wasn’t feeling well and skipped dinner.
The rest of us did our own thing, drinks, turn in early, hit the Casino,
etc.

Ship Impressions:
Overall:
Being a new vessel, there isn’t much to say about wear and tear. There
wasn’t any. We all found the décor very pleasant. All of the comments
were extremely positive. This ship had been featured on Good Morning
America the week before so we had a close up preview of the most of the
different venues, etc. and found it to be very much as it had appeared on
TV. Interestingly, the ship is very one sided. Almost all the
walkways/entrances are on the starboard side. The venues themselves may
go from side to side, but there were only a few places where you could
walk around a location or area on the port side.

I wouldn’t say it had any one ‘wow’ factor, but all the venues seemed to
be elegant/tastily done. Most anywhere you went, you felt high scale,
but comfortable. The various bars/lounges were as comfortable as you
would expect. In one particular lounge (the Martini Bar) every time you
walked by the wait staff tried to persuade you into sitting down and
having a drink. And, if you were there having a drink, they were
constantly pushing bottles of wine. You can buy a bottle in one venue
and have it stored (or take it with you for that mater if you are heading
off to dinner) for future use in another if you don’t finish it. A nice
feature, but I got tired of being asked every time I walked by. And, as
I mentioned above, there was no alternate route except to go a different
deck. The Casino was this deck as was the entrance to the Stardust
Theater – the main production show venue. Speaking of the casino, it was
nicely laid out and a good size. You didn’t feel cramped. The Stardust
Theater was absolutely gorgeous. It was 2 stories, stadium seating and
only had poles on the extreme sides. One of the best show viewing venues
I’ve seen on a ship! We only went to a couple of shows and I would
characterize them as standard cruise productions. They were
entertaining.

A couple points of note were the cell phone and Internet services. NCL
(or at least the Jewel) had some sort of deal with Cingular such that we
had full cell service through out the entire trip. This applied whether
we were at sea or in port. And, there were no surcharges. We have a
standard nationwide plan and all of the calls we made were treated just
as they are at home. Mobile to mobile applied, as did roll over minutes.
As far as Internet goes, this ship had great wireless coverage in most
all public areas as well as full Ethernet access in the staterooms.
Except for just a couple of times when it bogged down a bit, it was very
speedy. The Internet Café was rather limited (only about a half a dozen
workstations) and was located in a hall way of sorts, but with the
excellent coverage through out the rest of the ship, there didn’t seem to
be a backup for access.

Dining:
The two main dinning rooms had very contrasting decors. They were both
on deck 6. The Tsar Palace was at the back of the ship and had large
floor to ceiling windows and great views. It was very ornate. Azura was
mid-ship and had small rectangular windows and a modern type décor. They
both had the same menu. On alternating days one or the other was open
for sit down breakfast/lunch. The Garden Café (buffet) stretched along
the starboard side of the ship from mid-ship to the stern on deck 12.
The There were multiple identical serving stations and seemed to work
very well with the flow of people. Wrapping around the stern was The
Great Outdoors. It had many tables arranged like an outdoor patio around
a bar area and also included another serving line from the buffet. A
very pleasant place to enjoy breakfast, a snack and/or a drink. There
was always some type of food available. They also had soft serve ice
cream machines available 24/7.

Specialty Restaurants:
Before I get into specifics, I want to mention that they did have early
bird specials. I’m not sure about the first day, but for the rest of the
cruise, the first hour (typically 5:30 to 6:30) was half price. We
weren’t expecting it based on an earlier comment from a cruiser in
January, but when we arrived at Cagney’s for our 6:30 reservation on the
second night our waiter informed us that we just made the deadline and
all entrees were half price ($7.50 instead of $15). Overall I don’t
think we missed a specialty restaurant except for the 24 hour dinner type
venue called the Blue Lagoon. Our group pretty much had the same
impressions of the different venues. The most enjoyable, by far, was
Cagney’s Steak House. One couple actually went there three times! The
rest of us went there twice. Not only were the steaks great, the service
was fantastic. Next in order was Tango’s Tapas (Latin/Tapas cuisine).
It’s a no extra charge venue but we found the service and food absolutely
excellent. They kept the nachos and Tapas plates coming while we enjoyed
our drinks and when the main course arrived, it was great as well. The
next best was the Teppanyaki Room in the Chin Chin Asian Restaurant.
Entrées here varied in price from $10 for single items, then $12 for
combinations, and $15 for what they called the Imperial Feast (three
items plus sushi). There was also a surf & turf item (beef & lobster)
for $15. It was a lot of fun being entertained by their knifes and
spatulas clicking and waving around. The food was very good as well.
Next was Le Bistro, the French restaurant. Here entrées were %15. The
service wasn’t a good/fun as Cagney’s and the food was very good, but not
great. Finally was Mama’s Italian Kitchen. Here the group really
differed. Those having anti-pasta from the cart, indicated that the
selection and quality was excellent. Those having one of the ‘create
your own pasta’ dishes felt they were excellent. The rest of us had
either chicken parm or a salmon dish and weren’t overly impressed.

The Cabin:
The Jewel’s mini-suite room is long and narrow. The bed is in the middle
of the room and stretches from one side to the other. There is a very
short space between it and the side wall so it was a little cumbersome
getting around the end of the bed to go from the front of the room to the
back. Holland & Carnival’s rooms were a little squarer, making the
movement around the room easier.

The bathroom was nicely appointed but small. It was split into three
areas. As you enter, there was a toilet area on the left, the sink
straight ahead and the bathtub/shower combination on the right. Both the
toilet area and the tub had sliding glass doors to allow privacy in each
of those areas is so desired. There was really only room for one person
to be in any one of the three areas at a time. Again in comparison,
Holland/Carnival had more room.

Storage space was just fine. There’s a full floor to ceiling closet with
plenty of hangers and 4 larger drawers on the outside. For the tow of
us, that’s all we needed. Our suitcases fit fine under the bed. The
closet is a little cumbersome to use however, as it is parallel to one
side of the bed. Only one person can be searching out clothes and/or
dressing in that area at a time.

The back half of the room has a couch (would become the third bed if
needed) along one wall (the same side as the head of the bed). On the
facing wall there was a combination desk and additional storage drawers
unit. It contained the TV on a high shelf, the safe, the refrigerator
mirror. This unit also contained the hair dryer which turned out to be,
no real surprise, very weak by at home dryer standards. There were 2
chairs at the desk. Having 2 chairs at the desk made it awkward.
Realistically only one person could sit there and we were always moving
the other chair around but there seemed like no convenient place to put
it as it was always in the walking path or in front of the couch. The
door to the balcony takes up the back wall. This is a full length
window/sliding glass door. It easily stays open on its own. The balcony
holds a lounge chair, a small table and a regular chair.

There were two complaints I heard through out the week regarding the
rooms. First was the lighting. It seemed like folks could never see
well enough for any sort of close work (makeup/shaving, etc.). Second
was the lack of a sheet for the bed. The beds themselves were extremely
comfortable to lie on – supportive, yet not slabs. They have a
blanket/quilt type thing covered by a full sided fitted sheet instead of
a separate sheet and blanket. It was much like a large pillow case over
a quilt. I know there’s a name for it, but I don’t know what they’re
called. The main problem was that this didn’t provide any middle ground
for sleeping temperature. You either slept under a full blanket or
nothing and for two people with different temperature needs; this made it
difficult to find the right balance.

Monday – At Sea:
Our first day out, was a sea day. We started with Room Service. It was
delivered promptly and as ordered. Some of the group had early Spa
appointments so they were up and out first. I had planned to go to the
gym (this ship had a fabulous workout/exercise area with a dozen or so
brand new private TV treadmills and a like number of other machines) but
as I walked up there I noticed it was pretty nice outside so I went
looking for the jogging/walking track instead. I figured if it was
crowded or cumbersome I could go to the gym, but otherwise why waste an
opportunity to be outside. It turned out to be well laid out with just a
couple of people walking/jogging so I stayed. It wasn’t until later in
the week that I learned Deck 7 had a full promenade where you could walk
completely around the ship. The total distance was approximately 1/3 of
a mile. For just walking, this was a much better place to go.
The spa folks returned around noon and they, along with most of the rest
of the group, met at Tsar’s Palace for lunch. The rest of the day was
spent just relaxing. Sea days are the best!
Dinner tonight was at Cagney’s. Our reservations were for 6:30 and we
were immediately seated upon arrival. It was during the waiter’s
introduction that we were informed that the learned that our meals were
half price due to arriving during the early bird time period (5:30–6:30).
This was unexpected good news. As mentioned above, I had read a previous
review where the person indicated that NCL had stopped this practice, so
we were totally surprised. At any rate, they (NCL) easily made up the
$7.50 savings by our totally enjoying a couple of bottles of wine and,
later, cocktails. Also, as I mentioned above, this was the best dinner
venue of the week. The entire group totally enjoyed the food, service
and atmosphere. All the steaks were absolutely fantastic!
After dinner some folks went to the casino and others just chilled out.

Tuesday – San Juan, Puerto Rico:
Today we are scheduled to arrive in San Juan a little after noon. The
casino had a Texas Hold-em tournament this morning. A couple of us
considered it, but decided against joining because they were going to
allow buy back’s. To us, that made it less of a tournament and more of a
highest bankroll wins event. So, we passed. Instead we met for
breakfast at the Garden Café (the buffet). The selection was good and
the lines not very long. They had multiple omelet/fresh egg stations and
things moved quickly. We were all scheduled for the San Juan Old and New
tour, which left right after docking, so we agreed to meet for lunch in
the Tsar’s Palace and proceeded to do our own thing until then. Lunch
was great, again (do you get the feeling that this trip is beginning to
revolve around food?) and afterward we proceeded to disembark and get in
line for our tour. This was a very popular tour. The line stretched on
for, what seemed, forever. Eventually we made it to the front and
boarded a bus. The tour started out real good. We stopped at the old
fort and were able to walk around for nearly an hour. Very interesting
site and great views as well. We then boarded the bus and headed
downtown. Here is where things started to go downhill. Traffic was
absolutely horrible. It took about an hour to go a couple of miles. You
couldn’t understand the guide real well as the bus’ intercom wasn’t
working well. After going through the new section of town we were taken
back by the fort and offered to chance to get out and explore on our own
or go back to the ship. This tour was to have other stops, but they
skipped them. We never did find out why. Two of our party put in a
complaint and the entire group ended up receiving a 33% refund.
Tonight is Valentines Day and 3 / 4 of our group had made reservation at
the French restaurant (Le Bistro). We all agreed later that this venue
wasn’t up to the same quality as Cagney’s. The food and service were
okay, but not overly memorable or enchanting as you would have expected
of a French Bistro. Again, after dinner some folks went to the casino
and others just chilled out.

Wednesday – St Johns, Antigua:
Today’s planned activities included golf (Jolly Harbor) for one of our
party, a 4x4 tour for another and everyone else explored on their own.
We met for breakfast at the Garden Café again and then went about our
individual schedules. Any day on a golf course is better then most other
places. The course wasn’t anything spectacular, but we got in 18 and had
a good time. The couple on the 4x4 indicated that excursion was
enjoyable as well. A portion of the group just went into town to do a
little shopping and stopped for lunch/drinks at a local establishment and
had a good time as well. Another part of the group also went into town
but didn’t find anything of interest so they just went back to the ship
and enjoyed a day onboard. Tonight was Mama’s Italian Kitchen for dinner
and, as mentioned above there were mixed felling about this venue. After
dinner the group took in the show. It was a 70’s review called Band on
the Run. One of the group is an ardent Beatles fan so he rallied the
group to see this show. As mentioned above the theatre layout was great
and the show standard cruise fare, but entertaining. After the show some
folks went to the casino and others just chilled out.


Thursday – St. Thomas, U.S. V. I.:
Today was designated shopping day. The ladies in the group planned to
spend the morning at Havensight Mall and come back for an afternoon
activity, yet to be determined. The guys decided to walk downtown,
figuring a little exercise wouldn’t hurt, and see what’s about. Then
head back to the ship around noon to catch up. Once downtown the plans
changed. As we walked along the harbor, we saw an absolutely gorgeous 3
mast schooner tied up with a sign on her side advertising day sails.
Their standard schedule was to go out at 10, 1 & 4. Since we had to be
back on board by 3:30, it didn’t look like this was going to work out.
One of our group really wanted to go out, so he decided to see if they
were flexible. By now it was after 10, so that meant they didn’t have
any takers for the morning sail. Maybe they’d be willing to go out at
12. The owners were working on deck so he approached and asked. They
weren’t willing to change the sailing time. We re-grouped and decided to
ask if they’d do a mini sail at 1 if there were not other prospective
customers. They agreed to think about it and suggested we come back at 1
and check with them. We went and grabbed some lunch and came back. No
other passengers showed up so they agreed to have us back by 2:30. We
figured wither walking back or taking a cab (with traffic and all) this
should be plenty of time. In the meantime we’d been in contact with the
ladies and, to put it mildly, they were freaking out a bit about us
cutting it so close. The owner agreed that if time got tight, he’d take
the dingy and drop us off as close the pier as we could get We were a
little nervous, but this was a beautiful schooner and we wanted to give
it a try. So, off we went. What a glorious time! Once out of the
harbor, the wind was up and the seas swelling. It was a great sail. We
went out for 45 minutes then turned around and came back. We tied up at
2:30 on the dot. As expected, traffic was rather backed up so we hoofed
it. We got back to the ship about a quarter after 3. Perfect timing.
From the guy’s standpoint, it was the best day of the trip. As we left
St. Thomas a couple of us enjoyed the sail away at The Great Outdoors.
The music was fun, the weather great and a crowning end to a great day.
Tonight 3 / 4 of us (the other couple went to Cagney’s for the 2nd time)
went to the Teppanyaki Room in the Chin Chin Asian Restaurant for dinner.
Originally this venue wasn’t on our wish list so we hadn’t made
reservations the first day. We decided to try it after walking by a
couple of times and thinking it looked fun. By the time we decided to go
there the only reservation they had was 9:30, so we had a very late (for
us anyway) dinner. As mentioned above, it was entertaining and the food
good.

Friday - At Sea:
Didn’t do much today, just enjoyed the relaxing day at sea. Some of us
went to the pool, others relaxed inside. This morning was Tsar’s Palace
for breakfast. The food was good, but the best part was being able to
relax and have it served instead of standing in line serving yourself.
Went to Azura for lunch, meeting various members of the group and then to
the chocolate extravaganza in Tsar’s Palace for desert. You could feel
your arteries harden just walking in the room. Tonight was as Tango’s
Tapas for dinner. As mentioned above, this was our 2 nd favorite.
Afterwards, a portion of the group went the see the Circus Oley
derivative show and others went to a comedy show. We were at the Circus
show and felt we should have gone to the comedy show. The Circus show
was very disjointed and not coordinated. A couple of the individual
performers had fantastic body flexibility, but the music and choreography
was only sub-par. After that it was the casino again.

Saturday - Great Stirrup Cay
Having been to Holland’s Half Moon Cay (and thoroughly enjoying it), we
were anxious to compare NCL private island. This morning we again
started the day with a sit down breakfast in Tsar’s Palace for breakfast.
Afterward we stopped by to get a Tender ticket. We received a number in
the 900’s. At this point they hadn’t called any numbers yet. We went
outside to get a look at the operation. It appeared that instead of
using the ships life boats, there were two 300 or so capacity carriers
from the island. Apparently the first tender carried just the ashore
crew and supplies. Watching the way they were managing the process, we
figured it would be quite a while before our number came up. Then, doing
a little math, we further figured if half the ship goes ashore, it could
easily take a couple of hours to get everyone to the island and another
couple to get everyone back. This operation didn’t seem to be well
thought out, nor was it running smoothly. They called a group up to 900,
so we went ahead and got in line. By the time we got to the head of the
line, they called our number. This was about the time we had estimated
our number coming up. When we go ashore, we noticed that the facilities
were very rough around the edges and not anywhere near the same as HAL’s
Half Moon. While on shore we caught up with other members of our group
and they indicted overhearing that this island had been hit very hard by
last fall’s hurricanes and they had just re-opened it. Taking that into
account, we’ll hold off further comparisons until another trip. We
stayed for a little over an hour and then caught an early tender back to
the ship. We ended up going to the Garden Café for lunch instead of
having the barbeque on the island. Tonight was the full group’s return
to Cagney’s. We figured what better way to end a wonderful trip then to
repeat the best dinner we’d enjoyed earlier. There’s always a risk of
over setting your expectations, when attempting to duplicate an earlier
great experience. Again, the best we could do was a late reservation
because we had waited until the day before to try and get in. It didn’t
matter, the meal was great and so was the company. A fitting end to a
great trip.

Sunday – Debarkation Day:
I have to say this was the best organized and least stressful debarkation
I’ve experienced. We woke up on our own (i.e., not due to external
noise, etc) got ready, went to breakfast, picked up a picture we’d
ordered the night before and went back to the room to await our color.
Well within the time we expected to be called based on the order of
colors published in the debarkation notice, our color was called. We did
one last check of the room and proceeded to the elevators. We went down
to Deck 6 proceeded back to the gangway. We were about in the middle as
far as order of colors and fully expected the typical zoo around the
exit. Not to be. There were about a dozen people in front of us.
Without delay we checked out for the last time and proceeded to walk off.
Once in the terminal, we located our luggage and stepped right up to a
Customs official (no lines!), cleared through and went out to look for a
cab. There were two only people in line. It only took fifteen minutes
from the time our color was called until we were in the cab! We got the
third cab and were off to the airport. We had an early afternoon flight.
It was on time as was our connection in New York and we were home by
dinner.

Final Comments:
We absolutely loved Freestyle cruising. It will be at the top of the
list in selecting our next trip. Hopefully there will be a Freestyle
ship going where we want to go when we can go.

Greg wrote:
I’ve received so much help and information from this group that I feel
compeled to write up a summary of our trip in the hope it will add to the
knowledge base and, possibly help others.

Greg, thanks for an EXCELLENT review. I felt like I was right there on
the ship with you and your group! I have to say that yours is the first
review that actually made me picture myself in a freestyle environment.
(Just what I need...more options!!)

The bed cover you're talking about is called a "duvet" :-) .

~ Peri

Greg wrote:

Dinner was at Joe's Stone Crab. The wait was nearly 3 hours. I wouldn't say the food was worth
that kind of wait, but there are some places that you feel compelled to
experience at least once. This was one of those.

Joe's is absolutely a South Beach institution - gotta try it once. It's
also famous for having maitre d's that are very receptive to the
tradition of a little palm greasing. Honestly, it's the only way to get
a table there, within a reasonable amount of time.

Interestingly, the ship is very one sided. Almost all the
walkways/entrances are on the starboard side. The venues themselves may
go from side to side, but there were only a few places where you could
walk around a location or area on the port side.

That's how HAL's Vista class ships are designed, and that's how the
Carnival Miracle was, as well. In the main common areas, decks 2 & 3,
you walked along the starboard side with entrances to all the venues
being on your left. I guess it creates more space for the actual
lounges, not having to bisect the ship which would create smaller
usable space on either side of center.

This was a terrific review. I really enjoyed it. Thanks for taking the
time to share your experiences.

I especially read with interest the way you made freestyle dining work
for you. I always thought freestyle was for folks who didn't like to
have a set "dining plan", and who wanted to leave that evening's dining
decisions to that evening. But, that's not how you worked the
system...making all but one of your reservations as soon as you
boarded. I wonder how you would have liked freestyle had you been stuck
with that 9:30 pm dinner time (the Asian place) each night? Doesn't
having to make the week's dining plans on the first day somewhat
contradictory to the whole freestyle philosophy? I love the idea of the
varied dining venues, but it seems that the big selling point of
freestyle gets lost if, in fact, you have to plan the whole week's
dining schedule at the start.

Thanks again.

Lee

"Greg" wrote in message
. ..

A couple points of note were the cell phone and Internet services. NCL
(or at least the Jewel) had some sort of deal with Cingular such that we
had full cell service through out the entire trip. This applied whether
we were at sea or in port. And, there were no surcharges. We have a
standard nationwide plan and all of the calls we made were treated just
as they are at home. Mobile to mobile applied, as did roll over minutes.
As far as Internet goes, this ship had great wireless coverage in most
all public areas as well as full Ethernet access in the staterooms.
Except for just a couple of times when it bogged down a bit, it was very
speedy. The Internet Café was rather limited (only about a half a dozen
workstations) and was located in a hall way of sorts, but with the
excellent coverage through out the rest of the ship, there didn't seem to
be a backup for access.


Just wait - You will see additional charges for those calls. Still cheaper
then the phones onboard but if you used your cell like onshore your head is
going to spin when they hit.

http://onlinestorez.cingular.com/travelguide/coverage/cruise_ships_rates.jsp?PIDL=IRSD|IRWT

$1.69 to $2.49 a minute.

Greg,

I just discovered your review somewhat buried by the discussion of the
various cruise tragedies. This is a fabulous account--you did such a great
job relaying all of the details. We're boaters and can relate to the fun of
your spontaneous sailing adventure. That would've been my favorite day in
port, too! Sounds like your group had a good time. Thanks for sharing your
review.

Diana Ball
near Houston, TX

"shoreguy" wrote in
:

http://onlinestorez.cingular.com/tra...ise_ships_rate
s.jsp?PIDL=IRSD|IRWT

You're right. I didn't notice at first because my billing period
started/ended the 2nd day out. When I checked my account after getting
home, only 1 days worth of calls where included (and most of them were
while we were still in port) which didn't stand out. I just received the
bill for the rest of the cruise and there is a significant bump. All in
all not too bad, most of my calls were the 1 minute variety. Thanks for
setting me straight.

Greg wrote:
Final Comments:
We absolutely loved Freestyle cruising. It will be at the top of the
list in selecting our next trip. Hopefully there will be a Freestyle
ship going where we want to go when we can go.

Another NCL fan ... Thanx for the well written and informative review
....
My wife and I like NCL freestyle because it gives us a chance to relax
.... with no time constraints for dinner and the like ...

I'm surprised at them pushing wine bottles on you though ... My
experiences were that they were the second least annoying well below
Celebrity which excelled there ...