My wife and I are relatively experienced travelers in our early 40's, but prior to this cruise had only sailed once, in the dark ages (as we just discovered) of mass market cruising, circa the late 80's. Knowing it's a new era for cruising, and assuming we could put up with anything for a week, we set out to find a cruise that at least seemed to match the style of our typical vacation, namely doing our own thing and eating when and where we wish. No surprise then that we zeroed in on an NCL cruise.

I enjoy reading reviews (and learned a lot thru cruise critic members - thank you!), but frankly would rather go to the dentist than write one. (This is hard work folks!) Why then am I sharing our impressions of the voyage? Because they must be shared! We feel that it's a way of saying thank you for a wonderful experience and to perhaps encourage others with our initial concerns to give it a shot.

This review will be more about (positive) generalizations than the nuts-and-bolts details some would look for, but when you have to think hard to come up with anything that could have been improved upon, that's a generalization that speaks volumes. (For some good specifics, see reviews from SecurityESSo and CamiileandNick below; we found ourselves heartily agreeing with their comments, as if we had written them ourselves). Read more