We took the cruise out of San Francisco where the ship had been in dry dock for 5 weeks. We expected everything to be refreshed and new. Unfortunately, the dry dock repairs were not completed. This created a one-day delay in the sail date. We didn't mind that so much since NCL provided hotel accommodations for an additional day in San Francisco. It gave us an opportunity to visit the Academy of Sciences which was the best "excursion" of the trip. But because the repairs were not finished, there was much of the ship we could not access (one of the pools, the front of the ship closed so we could not use the jogging trail). Also, there were no spa services (something I look forward to with every cruise), as the Spa refurbishing was not completed.

The check in process was just awful. Keep in mind we've done this many times. It's never a breeze, but this was the worst. Late, long lines, no special NCL Latitudes Member line, and very poor organization. It took about 3 hours or more to check in. Very poorly organized. And no consistency in directions from check in staff resulting in some people walking straight up to the check in counter while the rest of us took our turn in the various lines (one just to get into the building and another for our "check in group".

About the dining: There were new menus in the dining rooms, but apparently insufficient training on how to prepare some of the items. The meal quality was very inconsistent. Sometimes great, but about half the time just awful. Frequently, the meals were not as described (if it said there would be shrimp, scallops and mahi, the scallops were missing). At one point, when asked if we were enjoying the food, we told the officer about the inconsistency. This resulted in getting a personal letter from the a Manager that was full of problems: it was addressed to Ms. and Mrs.... (we are Mr. and Ms.), said he was providing "Chocolate covered strawberries" (we received a box of chocolates) and asked us to call him. When we did, he told us that because we "complained" he got "written up." We told him we did not mean to cause any trouble and that we only responded truthfully to a question. After discussing the issues with the restaurant, I asked him for a recommendation for dinner that night. He said we should try "the garlic sirloin". We went to the dining room and there wasn't any such thing on the menu. Bottom line, this guy didn't know what he was talking about and seemed to be more interested in his own job. Read more