I have spent the last year quietly watching blogs and message boards and gathering information to help with our first cruise with Norwegian cruise line. I choose the ship because we were traveling with my two children. I have to say I did not believe the brochure when it said "your children will not want to leave the ship" but it is so true. My girls age 5 and age 8 both asked " Mummy when can we go back to our ship " at each and every port ! and we had tears when it was time to leave.
Embarkation was as organised as it could be we arrived on a bank holiday so it was an unusual day with the port closed until 2pm. We got a bonus tour of Barcelona which was lovely but we were all so tired after being up all night to get there to enjoy it. It also meant that all these coaches touring in the morning all headed to the dock at the same time which meant for long queues to check in.
We didn't use the specialty restaurants the choice in the garden cafe was really good and changed daily . We found a seat everytime in the garden cafe but after reading on here about food going cold we made sure we had a table before even looking or getting food. We loved to sit and over look the front of the ship two evenings we were treated with dolphins playing .We did book two of the other included more formal dinning venues that were included in the price so we had some special nights .
Our cabin layout was not a problem for us in fact it made getting two children dressed easier having the sink seperate.They could use the basin whilst one of use showered. There was far more storage than I needed ,I think we could have had cloths for 6 months and the suitcases fitted nicely under the bed so we weren't lifting them out of the shower like I have done on other ships.Once the beds were set up there was very little room to open cupboards so if you didn't want to wake kids in morning get cloths out the night before. The cabin steward was very good at checking when to set them up so I was happy .We all found the beds very comfy and the top bunk is very sturdy some nights my girls both got in the one bed to watch tablet before bed. The only moan I had was that the plugs were really close together so although there were four we could only use two with our adapters for uk plugs.
Very good and knowledgeable guide .Food and entertainment was fantastic. The arts school was brilliant .The shopping not so good . The place was brilliant but we were shown furniture and rugs that were far too expensive . By the time you got downstairs to the more tourist type shopping you were too afraid to ask price and just wanted to leave.
we had far too little time we were given 30 minutes the walk to the beach was 10 minute so we only had 10 minutes there so we had enough time to walk back to coach.
its an early strat but we got there before the first shows of the day and got to stay until 2:15pm .You can just fit all the shows in but you have to be on the ball from when you enter read the leaflet straight away.
bit of a queue would do on our our another time easy to find from ship
Great fun with kids
An hour to look around Nerja itself or take coffee in the square .The caves are amazing but it is a bit walk round walk out and lots and lots of steps.