Hubby & I love cruising, we are in our late 30's and this was our 7th cruise, w/2 more on the way! We are also fans of Freestyle Cruising, so NCL is our all time favorite.
We booked this cruise on a whim, b/c of the BOGO deal and we needed to get away. We were excited to get on this massive, newer ship, and some things did not fail. The Balcony cabin was very comfortable, the layout was excellent, and we had plenty of room to move around and enjoy. I never minded the "loud" design on the older ships, but I really did enjoy the refined look of this ship, it's absolutely gorgeous!
We met several wonderful people at the CC Meet N Greet, many of whom became good friends and we did a lot of activities w/them, which is one of the things we love most about cruising. Overall, we felt the food was very good, pretty much everywhere we went. I guess it's all about expectations, and considering they are feeding 6K people/day, I think the quality was above average. The entertainment was just OK to us - we aren't really the musical type, so we skipped a lot of shows. Rock of Ages was a little slow in the beginning, but it got better by the end. Second City was decent, the magician/comedian was awesome, wish he had a longer show! Howl at the Moon was by far our favorite, lots of amazing talent in that group!
9th floor, above the shuffleboard court. So it was not very private and a bit noisy at times. When the smokers were indoors and the shuffleboard court was empty, it was wonderful and calming to hear the water break against the ship. I could live on a cruise ship forever just to hear that sound!