As we were taking our very first cruise, we were not quite sure what to expect. I had been leery of taking a cruise as DH (38) and I (32) are very active and enjoy being away from big crowds and outside in nature. But we thought we would give Norwegian and cruising a try. All I have to say is I am so glad we did! We loved it so much we already booked 2 more trips on NCL. Although the ship is large with a lot of people, we never felt that it was very crowded. I will say we spent a lot of time on our balcony rather than on the top deck so that may have also been a factor too. On sea days, the sun decks were crowded but whenever we went up there to go in the pool or slides, rock climbing wall, etc we didn’t have a problem finding a chair.

We had called prior to the start of our vacation and requested an upgrade and we were upgraded to a mid-ship mini suite with spa access. Our room number was 14754. As never have been on a cruise before, DH and I thought the balcony was a great size. A special shout out to our room steward, Ramel, for making us feel extra special. He always had a smile on his face, knew our names and made great towel animals!

Embarkation was a breeze once we got to the ship terminal. Hardly any lines or waiting, just filled out a form asking about Ebola, etc. I would say maybe took us 30 mins from being dropped off to getting on the ship. We flew in a day early since flight cancellation can be unpredictable by us with snow and weather. We stayed at Sofitel near the airport. I wish we would’ve stayed in downtown Miami rather than by than the airport. We also had arranged for a shuttle with the hotel to go on the ship terminal since the concierge said it would take 15 mins to get there. However, for whatever reason, the bus would not let us on board for over an hour and then made several stops so I thought we would be at the ship terminal around 11:30, we actually didn’t get there until 12:30ish. Read more