This is our fifth cruise and third on NCL. The previous cruises were with NCL Dream (2), Carnival Paradise, Dawn Princess. We drove from the bay area to LA. We were on board the ship within no time. Boarding was a snap because we were Latittude Members and my wife is pregnant. We did find out the lines for foreign citizens are a lot shorter. As soon as we were on board we were told the stateroom would not be ready until 2:00pm and everyone were encouraged to have lunch at the Market Cafe (the buffet restaurant) first.

By 1:30 the stateroom was announced ready. By the time we arrive at our room, our luggage was right behind us. The inside cabin we booked is of Ok size and decently decorated with plenty of storage space. The bathroom is designed very efficiently and felt more spacious than it actually is. I particularly liked the sliding glass door and faucets in the shower. We found we had 2 twin beds and requested our cabin steward to make them together. Our cabin steward Ondina and her partner turned out to be extremely friendly and she is so talented in making those towel figurines. She even utilized some of our left out personal items into her designs. The room is always kept neat and clean. After a couple days when she figured out that we sometimes laid down during the daytime, she would turn down our bed early.

Public facilities on the ship are pretty well designed. They are easy to get to but are private enough for you to enjoy. The fitness center is very modern and clean. Spa facility is nice too with indoor lap pool and two jaccuzzis. Since they do charge a fee of 15 a day or 78 a week to use the indoor pool and jaccuzzis unless you have spa treatment, they are not crowded at all. The library is bright and has nice collections of books covering very diversified topics. The Galleria is about twice as big as an average cruise ship shopping venue. They have a very good collection of jewelry and watches range from inexpensive Citizens to premium brands such as Longines and Omega at lower than retail price plus being tax free. The only complaint we have regarding the public area is the policy of allowing reserving lounge chairs at pool side. There are so many chairs unoccupied for hours, just because somebody puts a towel or water bottle on there, the other passengers could not enjoy them. This is a huge waste of resource. As I know, most other cruise ships either does not allow chair reservation or limit the time a chair can be left unattended for more than 20 minutes. Read more