Background: I am 26, husband 45, no children, we are active, enjoy a good workout, enjoy good food and appreciate good design and nice quiet places to relax.

Ship design and layout: Passenger space ratio is great on this ship. It's important for us to have space on a ship to spread out; this ship was booked to capacity and not once did we feel overwhelmed or crowded. You never would have known they were completely booked. The design and flow is fantastic. We found it easy to navigate and never found ourselves waiting for an elevator, we often took the stairs anyways as our room was on deck 6 and a lot of the action is on decks 5 and 4 (Casino, Coffee, Gelato, Specialty Shops and Specialty Dining, a few bars). There are plenty of nice quiet, comfortable places to chill out like the Library, Cafe Al Bacio (coffee bar), Game room, Solarium, Solstice Deck, Lawn Club, and the outdoor area on deck 5. We loved the design, colors and the furniture was all very comfortable. We loved the open elevator design along with the library and game room being open to this beautiful atrium with a suspended tree in the middle of it with walls of windows above. We are not big sunbathers (we get bored sitting out there for more than 45 minutes) but they do have these really cool cabanas providing shade to those who desire it on the main sunning decks and we never had trouble finding a chair in the quieter locations on the upper deck. When people say you have to get up early to reserve a chair, I think they mean 9:30 to 10:30 AM. By 11 AM all the chairs in the main area are taken, but I don't really think that's unreasonable on a sea day.

The room: We booked a guaranteed balcony, we thought the design of the room was the best yet (been on a few Royal, Celebrity and one NCL). The bathroom was laid out very well and had good sized shower and a built in night light, which was really useful. The balcony seemed like the largest we've had, with reclining chairs and a large table, nice perks for a standard balcony room. Pack wisely as there is not a lot of storage. Loved the large flat screen tv with the interactive guide. You can view your photos on the tv and purchase them right there, as well as watch on demand documentaries about the construction and design of the ship itself. Also a decent list of free on demand movies. After having noise issues on a previous NCL cruise I brought ear plugs on this cruise just in case. The physical location of this room (6111) is over the theatre, but we never once heard the shows. The only thing you will definitely wake up to is when docking you are right next to the retracting anchor and the bridge. That anchor is pretty loud. We are morning people, so it didn't bother us, but it might annoy other people. Read more