This was our second cruise and our first on NCL. My husband and I booked it ourselves via NCL web less than 2 months before sail. We encountered no problems with booking, payment or registration.

Embarkation: We live in Southern Calif so we took a limo to the pier. In my opinion...much less confusing than Long Beach. Less people. We had no problems finding a porter who whisked away our luggage and directed us to check in. We walked right in with no line. We arrived about 1130. Check in, for us, was a breeze. Very organized. However..we were supposed to be assigned a group number for boarding and given some type of tag. We were not. An NCL agent just put us in the next line and we had no problems. Once we boarded and they swiped our room cards somebody elses picture and info came up for both my husband and I. The check in person walked us to the reception desk, explained the problem and we were fixed up in no time. We then preceded to Versailles (we are not much into buffets) and had a wonderful relaxing lunch. They seated us aft near the window so we had a beautiful view. All I can say is...try to soups. ALL were wonderful. During our lunch they announced the rooms were ready, so after we ate we walked up to our room on the 10th floor. Room was smaller than Carnival, but just as nice. We experienced no problems with our room steward. Room was always ready when we were and she essentially cleaned our room twice a day. During the turn down service she completely changed the towels (again) and restocked everything. I think the balcony may have been a bit bigger and Carnival, but I could be mistaken. Our bar set up was waiting for us...no problems. We opened our balcony and had a cocktail.

Muster: When it was time we donned our lifejackets and went to our assigned muster station. Ours was in the main showroom, so very comfortable and easy. Took maybe 15-20 min and we were back on our way. We did not go on deck for sailaway...we preferred to enjoy it from our balcony in privacy. Read more