Background on us: this was the 4th cruise for DH & me, 3rd for our two DS (ages 14 and 18) and their 1st on NCL. We'd done this same itinerary on HAL in 2008 but wanted to try it again the NCL way. We happen to be a family that really enjoys being together (most of the time), and we take big bites out of life. We'd rather be happy in any situation than waste time looking for negatives just to be able to complain. I think because of that pretty much everything about this cruise was wonderful.

We drove to Los Angeles from Oregon and parked at the cruise terminal. Check in and embarkation were breathtakingly swift. We got to go through the Latitudes line and were walking onboard within 20 minutes or so. We had lunch by the pool and were able to get into our rooms around 1:45 p.m. Muster drill consisted of meeting in your designated lifeboat gathering area to watch the crew demonstrate proper lifejacket procedure. Our luggage was delivered to our cabins soon afterwards, we met our room steward and were ready to explore the ship. We had an aft-balcony on deck 8 with the inside cabin across the hall for the boys. We got keys that worked in both doors so they could come spend time with us as they wanted.

We'd been a little nervous about the noise issue on deck 8 from the Spinnaker Nightclub directly below, but it wasn't much of a problem. The live bands were the loudest, since we were literally right on top of the stage, but they sounded so great that it was more of a treat than a nuisance to fall asleep with music. Read more