[PeppyGPhiB]

Husband and I went on an 11-night Southern Caribbean NCL cruise over this past Christmas. We chose that cruise for a couple reasons:

- Ports of call (Dominican Republic; Tortola, BVI; St. Maarten/St. Martin; Antigua; Dominica; Barbados; St. Kitts, W.I.)
- NCL's Freestyle Cruising

This cruise was a great way for us to see several parts of the Caribbean, plus we had a few At Sea days to just relax on the ship. It was the first cruise for both of us, and though we wouldn't be the type to go on many cruises, for places like the Caribbean (where it is expensive to fly in/out of, hotels can be pricey, and I'd likely get bored on one island for a whole week) it made a lot of sense for us.

We really liked the Freestyle Cruising. We both work hard at stressful jobs, and the last thing I wanted to stress about on vacation was packing a formal gown for every night in addition to all of the other clothes I knew I would need. As it was I had two suitcases. NCL still has one formal night (optional), and we found that many people dressed up to go to dinner, anyway. Maybe not as many people in tuxes and evening gowns as on other lines, but we saw many suits and cocktail dresses. We liked the flexibility of being able to go to dinner anytime we wanted, in whichever restaurant we wanted (main dining room or one of the specialty restaurants - I recommend the French restaurant...we ate there twice). The food in the main dining rooms were fine, even really good on a couple of occasions. For some people, the food on the cruise is the thing they care most about; for us, it wasn't a big deal. We have great restaurants at home, and I'm not expecting anyplace that makes 2,500-5,000 meals a night to be amazing. We were able to have some meals just the two of us (which was nice and romantic), and we had some meals with others we met on the ship and during excursions.

I will tell you our observations of cruise passengers while we were in ports with various cruise lines: We could always tell which people in port were with Carnival...they just stuck out a little more, a little louder and rowdier, and maybe a little rude; the NCL and Celebrity passengers blended in together; the Costa passengers were very rude when we ran into them; and the P&O european cruisers dressed and acted a little more sophisticated than the rest.