Flight from US: London/Southampton: We flew from LA directly into Heathrow. From our arrival gate we walked to the Central Bus Station and took a National Express motor coach to the town of Winchester. We stayed at the Hotel Du Vin which is a historic hotel in a lovely historic town. The following day we traveled the National Express to the bus station in Southampton and picked up a cab to the port.

Embarking: My understanding is that checking in is not handled directly by NCL but by the port authority, even though the banners at the port have the cruise line name on them. After a smooth check in we were told that we could go on right on board. As we headed to the gangway another person told us that we needed to be seated in an area to the side and would be called row by row. The personnel in charge of organizing this seemed short of staff to get such a large group in orderly fashion. After a bit of confusion and a wait of about 20 minutes, we were waved on board. Once on the ship, we were offered a glass of bubbly and off to explore the ship. We met the others in our traveling group of 6 and had lunch together in the busy buffet. The luggage delivery was a bit mixed but was all straightened out in short order and everyone set to unpacking. The wardrobe was fairly adequate...I love to hang almost everything. My husband and I also had plenty of room on shelves and drawers for all of our belongings. We slid our suitcases under the bed. Shortly thereafter, it was time for the mandatory life boat drill. This was orderly and went fast.

Stateroom: Our bed was very comfy and so were the pillows. We got sound sleep every night. We had a balcony stateroom on deck 8, slightly forward of mid ship. This gave us a wide view as we headed into each port. Our room was quiet. The only time we heard anybody was when our balcony door was open while in port and others were on their balconies but we seldom heard any balcony noise while at sea. The tv was adequate with lots of recent movies to choose from plus CNN, BBC, Fox News, ESPN, classic movies, and NCL information regarding the ship, the shows, the sales, the weather, our ship's position, and a view from the camera on the bow. Read more