About us, me (57) this was my 9th cruise and second on NCL. This was the second cruise for my mom (83) and my sister (she won't tell). My cousin had picked the ship and there was a total group of 11 celebrating my Aunt's 80th birthday.

To be honest, I had very low expectations based upon my previous NCL cruise experience, feedback from friends and mixed reviews on Cruise Critic. I'm happy to say I was very pleasantly surprised and we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise.

Embarkation: This was the only misstep that we experienced and I believe the problem is with the port facilities and lack of coordinated handicapped waiting area. NCL needs to work with the port since while NCL doesn't have complete control, it does make them "seem" at fault since the majority of the folks you talk to have NCL name tags. My mom walks with a cane and cannot walk long distances nor stand for long periods of time. At the baggage drop off we asked for a wheelchair and were told they were hard to come by. They did find a chair for her to sit on, but it was in the middle of people crossing every which way and she was very uncomfortable. After about 5 - 10 minutes an NCL rep did offer to walk her to the head of the line, and about half way there a port employee showed up with a wheel chair. The port employee took us right up to the second floor where we were then handed over to an NCL employee. From there it was smooth sailing. We checked in, had our pictures taken and were on the ship with mom being wheeled by NCL the whole time. The NCL staff person even made sure we had a table for mom to sit at before he left us. Read more