My Disclaimer: I didn't take notes or notice color schemes of rooms as I am not good at that! My husband's comment on exploring the ship: "Wow...it's not as gaudy as I thought it would be from the pictures!" Also, we are easy to please when it comes to vacation...just basically turn to "mush" as we read good books, do puzzles, relax. We don't join in a lot of activities nor do we party at night...i.e. this could be boring for some!! We have cruised 6 other times on HAL, Radisson(now Regent)NCL, Celebrity, Carnival. We had not been on NCL since 1994 as at that time we were unhappy with the food.

All that being said, this was a wonderful cruise and I wouldn't hesitate to go "Freestyle" on NCL again. The food was wonderful almost without exception and we thought it was a great week!

TRAVEL/EMBARKATION: We came from the Northeast so were tired by the time we arrived at the ship at 2:20. Although it looked like chaos, we were in our room(11606)by 3. Our luggage arrived within minutes so there really was no time to eat before the lifeboat drill...this was a good thing as we were able to hang clothes and hopefully, "dewrinkle" sooner. The drill was standard and in the Tsar's DR for us, so really very easy. We went up to the pool deck for sailaway which was lively and fun. We had never sailed from Miami before so enjoyed sitting in a chair and seeing the beautiful homes as we departed. We also thought it was interesting how so many people stopped their cars and pulled over to actually watch the ships leave...like it was a major event!! Everyone on the street waving to everyone on the departing ships. There were at least four other ships in port that day and that was nice for us as we had never seen up close the RCCL huge ships. Read more