Prior to taking this cruise, we had studied the CC board intensely. One common theme we found was that the food and service were sub-par. WERE THEY ON THE SAME SHIP WE WERE? Embarkation was a bit of a mess due to the Dawn returning to New York 3 hours late. OK, that happens. The weather had been pretty bad the past week up here. But one that was over and they started calling passengers by class, things went smoothly. (One issue though: NYC is VERY serious about scanning baggage. We thought we could carry on all of our bags, but were forbidden to do so. One of the NCL employees got us a supervisor that explained our bags were too big to fit in the X-Ray machines. OK, I can understand that. So we checked our bags and went back to wait until we were called.)

Once we got on board, we went to the Garden Cafe to eat and wait for our rooms to be ready. They were actually ready earlier than they said. We decided to book a balcony suite, the lower end of the food chain. All I can say was that the room was remarkable. On our last cruise (NCL Majesty 8/05), we book an oceanview cabin. It looked like a cabin on a ship, and we had to climb all over each other just to get in and out of bed. The upgrade was well worth it. The walls were wood-paneled, the room was big enough to move around in and the bathroom had an actual tub with a shower. The sink area was a nice size, all things considered. The toilet was in a little space with a sliding door for some privacy. The beds were pushed together to make a big one (Queen-szie I think!) And there was a sitting area with a couch that folded out to a double bed. There was also a table and two chairs. This was separated by a very nice, very heavy room-darkening curtain. Next, there was a sliding glass door leading to a nice-sized balcony with two recliners. It was a wonderful room all around.

We tend to keep to ourselves a lot, so the fact that the Oasis pool was always overcrowded and loud didn't mean much to us. Everybody there seemed to having a good time, though. Just not our cup of sake'. We had a very lucky break in the position of our cabin. We were the last cabin on the right side of the ship. We were five feet away from the Spa. They had the most incredible heated Lap Pool along with a HydroTherapy Spa and a regular hot tub. We started every morning in the Hydro Spa and the Pool. What a way to start your day! Take note, they have started charging for the use of this Spa it is $15 per day or $60 per cruise. Well worth it from our perspective. They also has a very nice workout room that is free to use. The food we found to be very good. The Garden Cafe is typical steam-table cafeteria food. Except it was a bit better quality. They always had a Deli Counter and a Vegetarian line. The all night restaurant, The Blue Lagoon, was much better than what we had on the Majesty. The Majesty was an open deck grill with hamburgers, hot dogs and pizza. This place had class! The Blue Lagoon had Shepherd's Pie, Singapore fried noodles, Cantonese fried rice, fish and chips, along with the usual fare of hamburgers and hot dogs. Great food, especially after a night of drinking! Read more