First of all we spent six nights in New York before the cruise. We took the cruise with a friend of my wife’s for the friend’s fiftieth birthday celebration. After scheduling the cruise we scheduled an international trip which had us returning to the states six nights before the cruise and decided to just spend the time in New York City rather than going home for a few days. If you have not spent a lot of time in NYC and have the opportunity to spend 5-6 days in the city I would strongly recommend doing so. We had a great time in the city, took tours, went to museums and walked many miles. We were there in late October and the weather was pleasant with only one rainy day.

Norwegian has made boarding the ship if not pleasant then at least as un-pleasant as getting 4,000 people onboard can be. In our case it involved standing line for about 45 minutes to check in and receive our key cards and then about 10 more minutes to actually get on the ship. We were allowed to go to our staterooms immediately. Our room had not been fully cleaned, but the steward let us know that he would get to it shortly. We left our hand luggage in the stateroom and went to find lunch.

Of course four thousand other people also descended on the buffet for lunch. I decided then and there that I would never again get on a ship this size. Take four thousand Americans (of which I am one) mostly from the northeast (I am not but many of my friends and my wife is), make them stand in line for and hour or two and then send them all to stand in various lines for lunch. This is not a recipe for polite behavior or an enjoyable meal. Read more