This was our 10th cruise, 2nd on NCL. Our first NCL experience was somewhat mediocre, but we were very pleased with this one. We chose NCL because it was a newer ship, went to Bermuda which was on our bucket list, and it left from midtown Manhattan. We really enjoyed cruising down the Hudson River with the New York skyline, passing the Statue of Liberty and under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

Embarkation was very fast. We arrived about noon and were on the ship in about 15 minutes. As we were exploring the ship we stumbled into the Moderno restaurant and discovered they had a small buffet there open for lunch so we ate there rather than the main buffet, which I'm sure was very crowded and noisy. This was very quiet, uncrowded and a very nice setting to enjoy our first meal on board, and the food was pretty good. Disembarkation on the other hand was a little slow. Our color was called at the designated time, but it took about an hour from that point to get our luggage and move through customs.

The entertainment was excellent, as it was on our previous NCL cruise. We decided at the last minute to attend Cirque Dreams and it happened to be 25% off the first day of the cruise. It is an excellent show and the meal served during the show (surf and turf) was also quite good. We also enjoyed Rock of Ages, Burn the Floor, and Second City. We reserved seats for these 3 shows pre-cruise which is a good idea because the theatre is smaller than usual and these shows fill up quickly. One show that wasn't on the NCL website for pre-cruise reservations was the comedian/illusionist. We were surprised when we went to the theatre that we had to wait in line until people with reservations came. Had we known that reservations were needed for this show we would have made them. We did get in and it was another good show. We did find the seats in the theatre to be a bit uncomfortable. Plenty of legroom but there was a bar across the back of the seat cushion that you hit if you sat up straight, and if you slouched a bit to avoid that your back wasn't too comfortable because there wasn't a lot of padding in the seat back. The seats in Headliners comedy club were also uncomfortable. Plain wooden chairs or stools and after sitting there for an hour my tailbone was aching. Howl at the Moon (dueling pianos) was another good show in Headliners. Read more