This was our 4th CTN with 2 very recent ones on NCL Jewel and Gem, and Carnival Victory a few years back. Our 2 NCL CTN's were in the Winter, so this was a nice change taking a CTN in August as we spent the entire 2nd day at sea in the sun. Was very hard to find a lounge chair to sun due to the beautiful sunny weather and literally all 3,000 passengers were out there. Lets get the meat and potatoes of the cruise.
Overall we had a fantastic cruise, the service was excellent everywhere, from our Cabin Steward, to our Waiters, to the roaming bar servers.
Fastest embarkation on record, we got to the Manhattan piers at 11 AM, paid $70 to park, breezed through security, and literally boarded as part of zone 3 by 11:15. We were eating lunch on the LIDO deck by 11:30. Debarkation was smooth, ship returned to the pier by 6:30 AM, and passengers started leaving by 8 AM as they called you off by deck number, no stress no worries, we carried our luggage on and off ourselves.
Perfect 8th deck balcony cabin 8267 located too close to elevators over lobby so music rose up 5 decks and we could hear it in our room along with elevators opening and closing. Other than that, room had plenty of storage, beds were comfortable, nice free products in bathroom, shower curtain shower adequate if not as nice as Norwegian sliding glass doors. Flat screen TV, needs more outlets for charging equipment. Plenty of room for 3 adults.