Caribbean with Great Stirrup Cay from Port Canaveral, 3 May 2025 (8 nights)

Aqua is a beautiful ship, with lovely facilities, as you'd expect from a new ship. We had a week cruising around the western Caribbean, and it was a pleasurable experience. The cabin (Club Outside) was larger than we expected, everything worked well, and it was quiet and comfortable. A minor point, but the range of TV channels was only a handful. Service overall was excellent with the Cabin Steward very attentive, the restaurant staff invariably helpful and friendly, and staff throughout the ship generally made you feel welcome. We tried a range of dining options including Cagneys Steakhouse, Le Bistro French Restaurant, The Local, and The Commodore, which were attractive and very popular, but the Surfside self service restaurant was a nightmare - over used, always full, and not the range/choices of foods provided on other ships/lines. We loved the ship overall, but if anything would put us off it was the Surfside. We effectively stopped using it. Entertainment-wise the big shows were very well produced, but other options felt a bit lightweight. We were a bit surprised that the main theatre was much smaller than we expected. Our overall view was very positive but there were aspects that could be improved.

A comfortable friendly ship

Overall we had a good holiday, the ship is beautiful however we did feel that the organisation could have been better, the activities for the days at sea were disappointing. The restaurants were great the buffet however was an awkward shape and always seemed full of guests pushing in to get their food, it was difficult to get a table. The shore excursions were good that we went on, but at two ports there were not even any excursions which we wanted to do. We had the more at sea package which included our food and drinks, although I did have to pay extra for my daughter as she was the third in the room to go to the bookable restaurants, the restaurants then added a tip on top so a $60 meal charge became $72 - she is only 14 so really didn't eat that much so it did seem a high price. She could have had a meal from the childs menu for free but wanted to join in more especially for the Japanese restaurant. We did have to pay tax on our drinks while we were in Florida (no one mentioned that!). We did pay extra for wifi and were so pleased that we did as it worked well around the ship and kept my children entertained. At the end of the cruise our feelings are that it was good, but we have had better times on other ships, we may cruise with NCL again but we would consider other cruise lines first.

This was the first cruise that our family has been on and overall we really enjoyed the experience! The initial chaos of getting on board, due to a last minute change of scheduled arrival date/port was soon forgotten by the excellence of the ship. The customer service desk onboard wasn't great but the rest of the staff were fantastic, from the servers/chefs in the restaurants to the staff that looked after our cabin to the entertainment staff, they were all extremely friendly and took great pride in their work. I think it was great that the staff (even managers) made an effort to chat with the passengers. The food and drink on board was very good quality and the variety in the different restaurants was good. The evening entertainment was good, even though I didn't really know any of the music they played. Cleopatra and The elements shows were especially good! As we didn't have the included drinks package we didn't go to any of the entertainment in the bars as we felt a bit awkward going in without drinking anything. The entourage teens club was brilliant for our 2 teenage boys, they were constantly busy and met some new friends from different countries that they have kept in touch with since we are home. We also enjoyed the pools and slides onboard. The cabin itself was a little small for 4 people but it wasn't a massive issue as we didn't spend any time in it, except for sleeping. I would definitely recommend going on this ship, but would advise anyone going to take the WiFi and drinks package as I think it would have opened up even more opportunities to do and see different things!