This past week was my second cruise, first with NCL. After reading all the negative reviews on this site I was a little worried that I would end up miserable the whole time. But both my boyfriend and I ended up making jokes almost everyday by sarcastically repeating some of the criticism on this site, simply because we are genuinely confused by it.
The port of New York is not the best, it's cramped like everything else in Manhattan. The ship itself was awesome, very clean and well laid out. I found it very easy to get around, and the signs and directions in the ship very easy to understand. Our cabin was on the 10th floor, which I would recommend as it doesn't get a lot of noise from other parts of the ship.
I spent most of my days laying out, and I found it fairly easy to find a lounge chair at around 9:30 everyday. Not on the main sun deck, deck 15, but go up to 16 or the small one on 17, and I saw empty chairs all day long. Drink service was consistent, sometimes a little sparse.
Cabin was a standard size, amble closet and storage space. Balcony was average size, could use a little more space. Cabin was always kept very clean.
Crowded and poorly designed.