Let me start by saying this was my 7th cruise, but the first time I really felt like I wanted to write a review. My past cruises have been with Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Princess and Carnival as I have always just looked for the best deal on the most appealing itinerary. Until this cruise, for apparently unfounded reasons, I have always avoided NCL. We live in Toronto and wanted a cruise out of NY so we could drive to the port and avoid the added cost of a flight and Norwegian fit our schedule the best.

Originally we booked an inside guarantee on the Gem departing Saturday, May 23, 2015. The Thursday before we were scheduled to leave I got an email from NCL asking me to contact them regarding our accommodations and when I called they offered us a free balcony upgrade if we were willing to switch to the Breakaway leaving on Sunday, May 24th and we happily agreed.

The bad part about leaving from the Manhattan Cruise terminal was the astronomical cost of parking, however thanks to the cruise critic message boards, we decided to stay in New Jersey, park in the Imperial Port parking facility and take the ferry over to the city. This was so easy and stress free I recommend it highly. We paid $126 for the parking, a total of $36 round trip for two for the ferry ride ($9 pp each way), and walked the couple of blocks from where the ferry drops you off to the ship terminal. We avoided traffic and saved about $250 bucks!!! There are taxis available right at the ferry terminal if you need one but both days we had to walk it were beautiful and the walk was nice. Read more