We stayed at the sofitel hotel overnightthen transferred to the ship. Norwegian staff are at the hotel to guide you. Embarcation was easy. Great ship! We went to the Illusionarium t night, was nice, the food was OK. Burn the floor was great and Legally Blopnde was really fun and funny! The casino is OK, they dond have a lot of the new machines unfortunately and I found the machines to be very tight. If you get a Casino's at sea drink card, you don't need to wait until the waiters come to your machine to offer a drink. You can just go up to Bar 21 and ask for one and show your ID and casino card. Be sure to pick it up. We walked the plank and did the ropes course. Be sure to pull the string on the plank, it takes your picture but they don't tell you. I highly recomment getting the spa pass for the week. You can bring their bathrobes to use in your room. My daughter and I used the spa daily, it was awesome! We heard rave reviews for Le Bistro so we decided to try it for my birthday. Honestly we were very dissappointed in the food. The cone appetizers were not good at all except for one. My daughter said the duck confit was decent. I forgot what I ordered but it was not very good and I'm not picky. The food in general was just OK. We dined at the Tropicana most nights. The restaurant is very pretty and the Latin band is very good. On our last night we had appetizers at the noodle bar and the sushi bar, very good. Beware the Bingo on the lat day. It's super packed and expensiive, Joel the cruise director is awesome, get to know him if you can, he seems to be everywhere at the same time. Deal or no deal and Mr. Sexy legs competition were fun. There is a dance party every night at H2O. Don't miss the glow party but get there early, they hand out all the glow sticks at the beginning then you can't get one.