Baird70

Re wine tastings: We did a few of the pay-extra wine tastings on the May transatlantic. They were around $20 per person I think. Held in Palomar restaurant deck 17. Need to keep an eye on Freestyle Daily for upcoming wine tastings. Most were sold out but you could often get in by getting on a wait list or hanging around at the start of the session as some people would drop out when they realized it was a paid extra. Tastings were themed e.g. wine and cheese pairings, wine and chocolate, old world vs new world wines. We enjoyed the tastings and thought they were informative and interesting. Also different wines to what I normally drink at home (Australia).

That was interesting reading. Same cruise, our balcony cabin on deck 10 creaked and groaned like crazy in the rough seas. I foolishly assumed that all the cabins were doing the same thing. It did not occur to me that there might be nice quiet cabins somewhere. Luckily drinks package ensured only partly broken sleep and we survived OK. Interestingly the cabin we had was not that allocated to us on first booking. I had to amend the booking when I realised that I had been booked into a cabin with two ridiculous slides directly in the view. Maybe they just shuffled me into a known noisy cabin instead? I think the worst now as NCL have exhausted any good will and loyalty that I might previously have had.

I was on the same 21 day B2B transatlantic and largely agree and endorse UKstages' comprehensive review. A few of additions: 1. Went to the Indulge Food Hall many times (is amongst the best food on the ship) and the tablet ordering system required reset or other staff intervention 3/4 of the time. Really poor IT. 2. Second leg they lost all my restaurant reservations which I had made weeks earlier online. Had to book new as my slots were gone. Not impressed. Apparently this is a known bug in their system. 3. Internet is of course ridiculously overpriced and is complete crap. 4. Tax free shops are more expensive than tax-included shops on land. Price gouging? 5. We heard 3 or 4 different excuses for the missed Isafjordur call (first leg) all from staff. That means most or all were lying. This includes Dutch Marc the GM who I think is completely dishonest. From memory I think he said they were dredging the port. Fjords are deep. Who ever heard of dredging a fjord? 6. Tiny scallops and also tiny octopus. I was amazed how small the serve of octopus was. And for that money? Specialty dining was generally way too expensive for the mediocre quality. 7. Apology for missed ports wasn't a refund of port tax or anything genuine, instead it was a tacky up-sell with future cruise credits. This I found to be disrespectful and completely lacking class. 8. Queues queues and more queues. The food and entertainment often was not good enough to queue for. Agree about very slow bar service. Not enough bar staff I think. 9. Went to the wine tastings. They were great. Really informative and interesting wines.