My husband and I chose this cruise to celebrate our 10-year anniversary - and as our first big family vacation with our two kids - girl age 4 and boy age 3.

We live local to the LA Port so we did not get a hotel the night before, we had a family member drop us off at the cruise port. We sailed on the NCL Jewel & loved the colorful paint job right away!!! We thought that embarkation went very smoothly and loved that the staff was there to great us and guide us as we embarked - there were even balloons along the embarkation path! Just a small touch that really made us feel welcome and festive.

We opted for a balcony cabin. This worked well, the balcony gave us just a few more square feet of space to be in...also, the kids were so small - they both fit and slept on the pull out sofa/bed, we did not need to drop the fourth bed down from the ceiling, so that also gave us more room. Read more