This was my first ever cruise and i have to say it was a fantastic experience. Firstly the check in went very fast and all the staff at the docks where very helpful and polite. After receiving our room cards we boarded the vessel and was greeted by a stunning atrium on deck 7. We decided to head straight to our room and so we could drop our carry on bags off and then go on a tour of the ship. This is where we met our porter named Tommy. He was brilliant and really made us feel at special, and the towel animals he put in our room every night kept our 8 year daughter very amused,especially when he would hide them for her to find. The room we had booked was a forward balcony cabin , number 9030. It was plenty big enough for the 3 of us. The shower and wash room was surprisingly spacious as well as the balcony,which had great privacy from the neighbouring cabins.

Food on board was some of the best i've ever tasted, with the exception of the Italian themed 'specialty' dinning. The food there was over cooked and lacking any flavour, which is really disappointing seeing as all the other food onboard was amazing. And while i have this opportunity can i strongly recommend carney's steak house. The steak i had there was one of the best i've ever tasted , if not the best . Anyone who doesn't want to pay for specialty dinning and is happy to eat at the complimentary dinning areas then you won't be disappointed either , the windows restaurant has a great classy feel to it with top quality food, we visited this dinning room on multiple occasions and requested the same waitress, Gloria, each time because of how she made our daughter laugh and her service was perfect. the onboard BBQ's where a fun place to be and some of the food they served looked to good to eat , especially their paella.

Now for the shore excursions. Having only booked 3 on this cruise i can't speak for them all but the ones i went on were well worth it. We visited rome, naples and Istanbul. These 3 where all long days and lots of walking but our tour guides where very knowledgable and kept us interested. Some of the ports, for example Athens we got on the red sight seeing bus, visited the sights our selves and saw most of the tourist sites for a fraction of the cost of a NCL excursion, we were latter told by friends on the ship that they had done a excursion through NCL and they were very disappointed with the experience .(this is only relevant to Athens, i have no input on other ports or NCL excursions). Read more