This was only our 2nd cruise, with our 1st also being on an NCL Ship (Escape) in 4/2016. We planned for 2 weeks away with our Mediterranean cruise in the middle of our trip. The days of departure/arrival worked well with our plans.

We arrived in Switzerland (Zurich/Luzern) a few days before our cruise then arrived in Rome the day before the cruise where we did the typical tourist stuff, and the day of the cruise we did the VIP Colosseum Tour, then headed to Civitavecchia for our cruise, arriving around 3:00 PM. We had no issues or delay in checking in our luggage and were quickly on board with a Prosecco drink in hand. There were 4 of us cruising (2 couples - all in our mid 50s), with the other couple experiencing their 1st cruise. We then spent a day in Rome on the last day of the cruise where we did the Vatican Tour, then we traveled the next morning to Venice for 2 days prior to returning to the US.

We had balcony rooms (11175 and 11179 - starboard side). I read many reviews about the rooms, which I was completely okay with as they offered plenty of closet and storage space for our clothing, toiletries, electronics, etc.. Maneuverability in the room was a bit tight when my wife and I were getting ready to go out, but not enough to lower my rating. I was also okay with the bathroom set-up that had a separate shower and toilet. I wasn't initially fond of the curved bed, but we adjusted and we slept fine (probably due to the fact we were exhausted from excursions). I did not like the sink set-up as it was very tiny and was difficult to use when shaving. We also had some issues with the dimmed lighting in the room, which took some time to figure out which switch controlled what. Read more