Here is another one on NCL Viva
Cruised on Sun Princess before and thought NCL be a step up…
Pros:
Embarkation in Ravenna was super quick although a bit chaotic. Security checks were not that thorough and you could sneak some stuff in if you don’t go crazy.
Loads of things to do for kids - karting, slides, play areas with mini golf, tennis, mini football etc
Big choice of free drinks and they are actually alright - ice tea (no sugar), 4-5 types of juices, and more drinks at dinner.
Free ice creams all day for everyone - 3 choices of soft ice cream, nothing special but still good
Great American band at Syd Norman’s bar - was a highlight I must say.
Generally shows in main theatre were good. There was a dance show, magician from Britain got talent, comedy etc. pretty ok.
ROOM - absolutely amazing, large and huge bathroom comparing to other ships. We had one on the deck 5 and it didn’t have balcony but was perfect for us as a couple + 2 kids 9 and 13 (the 13 yo is practically an adult size). They slept on the sofa and we had our concerns, but it worked fine.
Enough storage and we even stored our opened huge suitcase under our bed.
Food in terms of dinner at Hudson or Commodore was good, although breakfast in Surfside and other buffets was really poor comparing to Sun. Very limited selection that felt like an italian breakfast in a 2 star hotel. Not impressed at all.
Drinks at the dinner table - we would always go for a bottle of white and it’d be 29 + tips - 34 bucks which was alright and affordable by all standards.
Talking about drinks and packages - NCL is offering probably the most affordable drink package which is worth going for. My wife doesn’t drink and I’m trying to cut on drinking so didn’t go for the package just to keep myself in some sort of restraint financially, but it does make sense going for it if you drink. It’s totally worth it.
Gym area was good and pleasant - they even have free sparkling water there (yey!)
Some great sitting areas around the boulevard - really liked it
Go karts - it was really good. Yes it’s a bit small but you can still race and go fast and try to overtake someone. I expected it to be a. It of a gimmick but it wasn’t. They charge 15 bucks per person which alright - something we would have paid in the UK for that sort of thing anyway.
Cons
As mentioned above - one of the biggest disappointments was the breakfast + lunch wasn’t great either. Surfside - the main buffet gets busy real fast and they only serve breakfast until 0900ish in all other places. People don’t wake up on their holidays well before 0900 so it’s a bit pointless.
Didn’t like the main pool area. Small, crowded unwelcoming place.
The two infinity pools on the sides get really busy too.
Starlink WiFi (streaming package) - well not much of a streaming sort of connection. WiFi drops frequently, so forget about streaming, although Spotify works and generally ok for browsing (with occasional hiccups)
It’s for one device but switching between them was easy. Just remember to go to NCLwifi.com on your laptop to log in.
Open cinema - gosh, that was just so disappointing comparing to other ships. There was a tiny screen behind the main pool which was partially blocked by handrails and safety screens. The TV itself had marks and burned pixels and barely worked. The stuff wouldn’t make any effort to actually turn the loungers to face the TV, so you have to run your head to the side and sit like that. There is actually a way to make it all better by replacing loungers with some nicer sofas from the other areas, but the staff couldn’t be bothered.
Staff - not impressed at all. Got charged for 3 beers at a bar on my first day. Went back to the tender - he basically looked at it waved at me saying do you want another beer? I said no, I want a refund and he was like ok it’s in process. No apology, no gesture, nothing. He looked annoyed, like his scam didn’t work out. Went to the customer services and reported that. They were like “okay what do you want?” In the end they apologised but that’s not something you want on your holiday.
Customer service - went to ask If we could remove service charge, they said the form won’t be available until the middle of the cruise (WTF??).
Got back to them on the day they asked and a grumpy man filled in the form for me and asked me to sign… he said the service charge will be credited at some point in full.
Won a trivia / quiz with my kid and he was so excited - got no prize whatsoever. Seriously? Would NCL go broke if they handed a bottle of cheap 5 eur Prosecco or something ? Not like actually needed it, but it was just weird.
All in all - an interesting experience with NCL, but surely we won’t be looking to book our next cruise with them and would explore some other options.
NCL is clearly struggling to keep things together at the moment and perhaps going through a transformation of some sort. Good luck to them, but I wouldn’t want to participate in that.