This was my DH (33) and my (35) first cruise. We chose NCL because we liked the freestyle idea. We arrived in Miami the day before the cruise (Thursday) - we're from Ottawa, Ontario and wanted a day buffer to accommodate any bad weather. We rented a car from Hertz and the process was painless - it took next to no time to hop the shuttle bus and pick up our car and then we were on our way. We had booked the Holiday Inn at the Port of Miami for our stay. We were supposed to get it for $159 a night but a mix-up at the travel agency had us getting it for about $249 a night. One of the reasons we wanted this hotel was because we had heard you could see the ships in port. Well, we were on the 5th floor and all you could see were palm trees and the very top of a Carnival ship - a bit disappointing. The hotel itself was "tired" but clean. Parking was $12/day. There's an outside pool. There is an outdoor mall across the street - Bayside. It's ok, we were not impressed by it. The neighborhood around the hotel isn't the greatest either. After we checked in we headed to Sawgrass Mills to do some outlet shopping. Google gave us quite complicated directions to get there so we ended up doing a lot of detours but we eventually arrived. This is a nice outlet mall - quite large. Good selection of stores - although no Eddie Bauer (my favorite). Coming home we followed the signs and it was much easier! As a side note - we found the drivers in Miami to be quite crazy! We woke up early on Friday, had a little breakfast from Scrawny Ronnie's (McDonald's) and then checked-out. We decided to do some scouting and drove to the port - what an excellent set-up. We realized how easy it was going to be and were quite happy. Next we were off to find a bank to break some of our 20's into 1's so that we'd have change when necessary and on the islands. Mission accomplished, we decided to go drop-off our bags. It was so easy to do - you pull up in the designated row. Pop your trunk and a porter takes them out of your trunk, double checks where you are going and off you go. I thought I had to stay at the terminal but the porter explained that I could go with DH to return the car. So off we went. In Miami you can pick-up at the airport and return downtown with no extra charge and they shuttle you to the port. We were at the port somewhere between 11 and 11:30. Embarkation was a breeze. The lineups were short and soon we were sitting in a waiting lounge waiting for the ship to be ready. We only waited about 10 minutes and then we were on our way. Lunch - I had read on Cruise Critic that you could go to one of the diningrooms for lunch and I tried but we were told that they were not available and that we had to go to the buffet (the stairs were cordoned off even). So we had lunch in the buffet which was good and then they announced that our rooms were ready. We dropped off our stuff and explored the ship until the muster drill. The muster drill was really no big deal. You show up with your life jacket at your designated meeting area (ours was Chin Chin) and listen to an announcement in German (?) and English about what to do if there was an emergency. There are more people than there are chairs so I would suggest going a little bit early. We then watched the ship pull away from the port - it was exciting for us :o) We waited a little while and decided to go to the sailaway BBQ for supper. It was a big disappointment. The burgers and hot dogs were pre-cooked and just in a pile in a food dispenser. They were luke warm and not all that appetizing. In all fairness to NCL we went towards the end of the BBQ so maybe it was different if we had gotten there earlier. Internet - we signed up for internet on the first day - there's a special if you do so (extra minutes). It's wireless in the public areas of the ship but you need a cable to use it in your stateroom (they can lend you one). We didn't find the Internet manager to be overly friendly - he wasn't rude, just not overly friendly. Breakfasts - we ate all our breakfasts in the Garden Cafe buffet. The omelettes and waffles were really good. My only complaint was that one day the waffle maker was obviously inexperienced and his waffles stuck and looked pretty awful but he still served them. Lunch - we rarely ate lunch preferring instead to have big breakfasts and early suppers. If we did we grabbed a bite to eat in the Garden Cafe. Supper - we ate at Cagney's three times - it was awesome. Simona and her partner were excellent servers - probably the best I have ever had. The filet mignon was definitely one of the best I ever had and the mashed potatoes were divine (I tried the Cagney's fries and they good, but not fantastic). I tried the mocha creme brule the first night for dessert and it was quite good - but very rich. The next time I had the chocolate cake which was good (but small serving which was ok because I was quite full). The last time I skipped dessert - I simply had no room! The service was so good we wanted to tip extra and did so. We ate at Mama's one night - it was very difficult to get reservations. Dh went up right at 7am and couldn't get them on other nights. DH and I are very finicky eaters so I had a small appetizers of tomatoes, he had nothing but bread. He ordered the pizza for his main course and said it was excellent. I had pasta with tomato sauce and it was passable - I thought it would be more garlicky when, in fact, it was quite bland. We ate at the blue lagoon for supper on two nights - we were either in a hurry or just wanted something fast. The potato skins were excellent. I had the fish and chips one time and they were very good. Dh had chicken fingers (I did on the second night too) they were quite good. Dessert was disappointing - they had banana bread which was quite dry. We ate at Teppanyaki (sp?) one night. It was quite entertaining and we sat with a good table. We ate at 5 and we were the only ones in there so we didn't get the kind of synergy from having other tables enjoying their meals at the same time. We tried the beans appetizer (not for us), skipped the vegetables and shrimp. I tried the miso soup but found it way too salty. We had the steak and chicken choice for a main course and it was excellent. I wasn't fond of the chicken but DH loved it. I had fruit for dessert and DH had the green tea ice cream which he really enjoyed. We tried Azures for dessert one night. We had to share a table but, again, we were blessed with really good folks. We explained to the Maitre d' that we only wanted dessert and she said it wouldn't be a problem. We also explained that to the waiter who said that he would bring us our dessert with the appetizer round, no problem. We wanted the coconut cream pie but without the sauce and he said it wasn't possible. We ordered it anyway. The appetizers came, served by the other server with no sign of desserts. When she came to collect the appetizer dishes we asked her about our dessert and she said we had to wait until dessert to get them. We told her that we had asked and were told that it wouldn't be a problem. The main server came back, apologized and brought us the dessert. It was quite good - I'm really not sure why it couldn't be served without the sauce - it was only a drizzle on the side. Dining rooms - we didn't eat in the dining rooms for any meals - most nights, the food was too fancy for our liking (we're not big sauce lovers). DH didn't want to order a plain chicken breast or steak after seeing the problems we had with the coconut cream pie. Room service - we ordered room service on three occasions. The pizza and chicken soup were really good. The first two times we were able to order the crudite platter with just carrots and celery and an extra dip. The last time, they wouldn't allow us to order just carrots and celery and in order to get the extra dip we had to get two platters! What a waste. Entertainment We played movie trivia at least four times - it was a lot of fun. We played morning trivia on the last two mornings (other days it conflicted with other plans). The not-so-newlywed game was awesome. Family feud was disappointing - there were a lot of glitches. I went to the Jean Ann Ryan company's country review (DH passed). It was really good. The music was excellent. I found the dancing, while good, at times was not a good fit (e.g., ballet dancing to country music just seems weird to me). We went to the Second City's performance and it was excellent. We laughed so hard. On the last night we went to both their shows in the Spinnaker lounge and had a wonderful time - they are so clever! We hadn't planned on going to the ventriloquist/comedian but saw the end of his first act and thought it was excellent so we stayed for the second act and it was hilarious. The cruise staff talent show was excellent. Amazing talent. It was all music. We went to Cirque Bijou. I admire the talent of these performers but it really isn't our type of show. We went to part of the Caribbean dance party - I really wanted to try a drink in a pineapple. I order a virgin pineapple and was stunned to find out that it was $10.35 - apparently it's the same price for ones with or without alcohol. Ports of Call Samana We went whale watching in Samana. It was incredible. My favorite excursion. We took gravol (in the US it's called dramamine, I believe) before we left as was suggested. The waves were about 12 feet high but our stomachs never wavered. Some people on the boat were sick. The captain of the boat we were on was awesome - he handled the waves expertly. DH was sitting on the outside of the boat and got quite wet! At first we saw a few whales just swimming around (they used their blowholes). I was a bit disappointed from reading the write-up I thought that the whales would be plentiful. Then a while later we came across two whales playing - they jumped up into the air and flipped their tails - it was incredible. Dh got a wonderful photo. I really didn't find it to be a rough ride (some people thought it would be hard on their backs). Tortola We went to the Virgin Gorda Baths. It's quite a long ferry ride to the baths. Unless you were lucky enough to get a seat on the top deck you were inside the ferry looking out through the windows. Then it's a 15 minute ride on open-air trucks to the start of the path to the Baths. The path to the first bath isn't bad at all - there's a few rocks and it's made out of dirt but it's really not that tricky. The first beach is nice - there's essentially two areas. There's lots of rock (coral?) in the water so it's a bit slippery and we found that there was a bit of an undertow. We had fun swimming around. There's not much shade to be had on the beach and no umbrellas to rent. There's a second part to the Baths but you have to go through a cave to get to it. DH went alone - I'm claustrophobic. The opening was quite small. He said it wasn't too bad to navigate - the water in some parts is at least waist deep and you have to climb some ladders and use ropes to help you up in other parts. His photos show a nice beach. Antigua We decided to do a beach excursion in Antigua. It was a lot of fun. It was a short bus ride to reach it. There were beach chairs and you could rent umbrellas. They served a small chicken and rib lunch with salads. The ribs were too fatty to eat but the chicken was good. Barbados We walked around town a little bit and then took the bus excursion to see the green monkeys. The bus driver was also an excellent tour guide so we saw lots of the island and learned about holidays and other customs. We arrived just after 2 (we left late because some people arrived late and we waited for them). Our driver told us that they feed at 2, but to take our time and we would seem them eating. This wasn't the case - we ended up missing the monkeys completely except for two in a cage. That said, we saw lots of other wildlife - like peacocks, turtles, birds, iguanas, caimans, etc and it was a good trip, I was just disappointed not to see the monkeys. Just as a side-note - there is also a 4x4 trip to the sanctuary - basically it's open aired trucks and you sit in the back. It didn't look like something we would enjoy and were glad that we took the bus tour. St. Lucia This was DH's favorite port. We went to the rainforest to ride the aerial tram. It was really interesting. I wasn't prepared for the height of the tram - at times we were 120 feet in the air (I'm not that good with heights)! We saw lots of green vegetation. There were very few flowers and the only wildlife we saw was a hummingbird. We heard some other birds. Our guide was fantastic. Sea days Outside of trivia and eating, I spent most of the sea days on our balcony. It was shaded and quite pleasant. I tried to get a lounge chair in the shade but they're pretty elusive and I couldn't find a free one. I spent two afternoons using the spa facilities and it was awesome - the heated recliner was out of this world! Dh spent some time in the casino and won a little bit playing black jack and poker. He was disappointed with the casino's high "rake" and didn't find the dealers to be consistent in poker. Mystery Our first few days Jimmy was the cruise director. One night he came on stage after a performance and gave us a run down of the things coming up. He said he would be a judge the next day at the Liar's game. The next morning we woke up and John (from Australia) was our cruise director. Jimmy was never heard of again. No one seemed to know what happened. Stateroom We had a balcony stateroom (I can't remember the actual classification). It was much larger than we had anticipated. The beds were together, there was a nightstand and a couch. The use of space is excellent and there was a spot for all of our stuff. We could even fit our large suitcases under the bed. We did need a power strip to plug in all of our rechargers and stuff. The shower was awesome - expensive Groehe shower head and lots of hot water and pressure. Stewards Our stewards (Virgillio and Kristine) were awesome. They were super friendly and helpful. They always asked us how we were enjoying ourselves and wanted to be sure that we had everything we needed. They also did incredible towel animals! The second last night they did a monkey that they hung from the ceiling! We tipped them extra at the end of the trip because they were so good. Debarkation We opted to carry off our own bags at our leisure. So we had breakfast around 8 (the garden cafe was quite busy), walked around the ship a bit and then headed off the ship. We were off the ship and through customs in about 15 minutes. Piece of cake. No line-ups or waiting. The only negative about debarkation was that we couldn't get a taxi to take us to our hotel. We were staying again at the Holiday Inn at the port (we were going to the Miami Heat game that afternoon and it's just across the street) and the taxi driver we wanted to hire got quite angry with DH and said he would not take us, he wanted a fare to the airport. A shuttle bus driver heard this and offered to help. We ended up paying $9 each for a 5 minute drive to the hotel. This left us with quite a bitter taste in our mouths. Holiday Inn (part two) We were able to check in early by agreeing to take a room with a Queen bed instead of a king. The bed was in bad shape - it had quite a valley in it and you could feel the springs. But it was clean. Miami Airport When we arrived on Thursday afternoon - the line to get to flights was huge - tons of people waiting to get through security and customs. So we left extra early on Monday morning for our flight and were through in minutes. Be forewarned though - there is very little in the Miami airport. There is a starbucks, a nathans, a couple of duty free kiosks and a few magazine stores and that's it. It looks like they are working on this so it should be better in a few months. We had a wonderful time and have signed up to do it again! The cruise rewards deal is a great one - you pay $250 deposit on your next still-to-be-decided upon cruise and you get $100 credit. If you have any questions, drop me a line. Have a great cruise!! Lynne