This was my first NCL cruise and as with most things in life there are Pros and Cons. My first disappointment came with their Price Drop policy. We booked over a year in advance and the price for our balcony cabin dropped around $200 right before sailing. NCL gives you an on board credit for 25% of the difference. My past experience was was full price match up to day of sailing but as their customer service representative explained they are "Norwegian" and 25% is their policy.

Embarkation was easy for us. When I did the Online registration, the earliest slot was 1:00-1:30pm. We drove in from Atlanta and parked at the Port of Miami. I could not find an off site parking service that had good reviews so we just went straight to port. We arrived a little early, pulled up to Terminal C, unloaded all the luggage and the case of water and Gatorade we brought with us. Luggage labels are available from the porter if you didn't already print and attach on you own. My husband went to park and I stayed with the luggage until I saw it get loaded onto a container. Met my husband at the entrance to the terminal. Check in line was short and we were on the ship in record time.

The ship is beautiful and large. The staff for the most part were very friendly and helpful. The elevators were not a problem for us. Sometimes you had to wait or use the stairs but overall I would not say this was a negative. Grabbing a table at the Garden Cafe was a challenge the first day and on a few other occasions but overall not an huge issue for us. Read more