Embarkment/debarkment & Bingo? : I was a little surprised there was no *Lattitudes desk. It didn't matter anyhow, we arrived at the port just before noon and we were on the ship in about ½ hour. The whole process was fairly smooth and organized through all the steps. Ours and (some other blokes) luggage arrived reasonably early. We kept only ours because we didn't want to pay the airline for the extra baggage fees, so we returned the other bags promptly to the steward.*we did receive in our room ship pins, and invitation to the latitudes party. Leaving the ship is so easy peasy! Hint go get your luggage tags as soon as they are available because they tend to run out of the later times/colors (9:45 & 10:00) first. I went while everyone was at the departure lecture hehe. Or use the expedited method of departure by throwing up on the captains shoes. I didn't personally see anyone use option 2 in case anyone was curious.I hope I didn't miss buying that winning Nevada ticket, but don't feel too sorry for me yet, there were still many chances to buy them later at the stardust show lounge. Hint: wait until the last full day to play the Nevada tickets if that's your passion. By the last night of the cruise they were giving away a free strip of tickets, a t shirt, and an NCL carry bag with every $20 purchase. Trust me when I tell you that I never heard anyone screaming with joy from winning a substantial monetary prize.Bingo prizes tended to get better as the days passed also.Cabins: We went with a BE (guaranteed balcony) because we were sure that there were only 2 BE and 2 BD cabins on the whole ship (any of which we would have been happy with) and were not surprised to be placed in a BC cabin somewhat aft. We chose the balcony on this cruise because our cruise critic friends made a point of saying that "Alaska is the one destination you will not regret spending the extra and getting the balcony" I can happily report this was true. The floor to ceiling windows were great to look from even when it was too chilly to actually sit out on the balcony proper. There was one morning I was awakened at 4:30 AM to a horrible loud, grinding/pressure spraying noise under our room. It was so loud it scared the heck out of me. Believe me you never want to hear that noise on a cruise ship especially in Alaska (Can you say Titanic?) at any time of day let alone 4:30 AM while in a stupor. I sure hope that whatever it was that needed repair or maintenance at that ridiculous hour was necessary. I'm sure someone else had already phoned to complain because the noise stopped even before I had a chance to do anything about it. For a seven day cruise and two people, the cabin size was excellent. Closet, shelving, cupboards, desk, were probably the best compilation and design of useable storage we have ever had on a cruise. Ikea eat your heart out. We probably used only half the space available. 2.0 was evident with a new bed,robes, pillows, etc. The TV set could use an upgrade. We had a 12" coal fired portable with the miss matched remote. The set was so old it was antiqued yellow. Channel selection was , ah, who cares really, you can stay home if you want to watch a lot of TV. It was a good distraction to have the republican news on while getting dressed.The room was kept clean and visited twice a day by our room stewards but they seemed to have a hard time focusing. 4 or 5 days the stewards forgot to replenish items in the cabin. The good news is that we always had enough TP. That's when the stuff t could have hit the fan. We know we could have called the hotel manager and reported that we didn't get our coffee, towels, Kleenex, glasses etc. But this stuff just isn't important enough to stress about while on a holiday. Dining: Dining was hit and miss. We tried for the most part to avoid the garden Cafe. It's not very well designed for sea and bad weather days. When the weather is inclement outdoor cafe was underutilized creating bigger logjams in the garden cafe. Now I really understand how narrow the inside passage is. Half the problem was with fellow passengers who didn't want to wait in line while their food got cold, annoying the others with more manners who were willing to wait in line while their food got cold. Rest assured in heaven there will be a buffet with no line and always a table by the window for the patient folks with their good manners and cold meals. The best tip I got was from here at Cruise Critic. "On the first day avoid the crew herding you to the Buffet and head for the Seven Seas restaurant for lunch". This was an excellent and relaxing way to kick off the cruise! Now back to the garden buffet. Two of the three of the steam tables (heated food stations for lay folk) including the outdoors cafe served burgers and hot dogs .Now I have nothing against a burger or dog, but this lack of variety creates long line ups for the one carving station. At dinner, often offered was the same meat dish as the seven seas and four seasons cafes and this food was as good in the buffet as it was elsewhere in the free dining venues. The kitchen staff was consistent, just like in the four seasons, we got lukewarm food one night at the buffet. NCL if you are paying attention, serving temperatures of food is important and should be checked often to protect your guests from food borne sickness.We made a same day reservation and had a nice meal in Le Bistro. In fact we never waited long to get into any restaurant. We had tapas (NCL style), or at home what we call sandwiches and soup in LasRamblas for lunch on Cinqo De Mayo day. The service in the four seasons and especially the seven seas was great all the time. Actually, almost all the crew were great. Sometimes you have to engage them, but they are friendly and do have a sense of humor, or atleast laugh politely at jokes they don't understand. The menus lack imagination but there was always something to eat, not much WOW factor, but if you had a picture of me you would see that I seldom was hungry. Bar service was there, but not intrusive. I thought it was just about the right amount of badgering. Speaking of badgering, it is nice to see the crew insisting on passengers using the hand sanitizers all the time. I saw one poor kitchen crew member exasperated trying to get this pre Cambrian geezer to use the sanitizers while he offered his hands for inspection and insisted that he had already washed for dinner. Read the whole review and the ports of call review on the Norwegian Boards right here at CruiseCritic.com!Here is my rating :I took away ½ star for the cabin stewards and took away 1 star for therestaurants and give this cruise 3.5 stars out of 5