I don't think this is the norm, given the popularity of CE in this forum and onboard. However I don't think yours is the first complaint about a large CE cabin, equally at least you have the choice not to buy CE. NCL northbound can be problematic due to the short flight time, there is a rarely a hold landing into Woolsington, but there often is landing into Heathrow. Personally I've only had good service in CE to and from NCL. I'm not always in the front few rows since sometimes I'm on a late booking or SDC, and I fly this route with a frequency that I'm too embarrassed to admit to in this forum.