We have just returned from our first NCL cruise - a 3 nighter on the Sky in which we booked an aft suite. The overall experience was excellent and the few hiccups experienced along the way did not detract from the trip. We flew into MIA and took a taxi to the port. We asked the taxi driver to take us to a liquor store as we wished to purchase some wine and champagne for the trip, and he advised that we could do so but the fare would be on the meter as opposed to the fixed rate for the trip to POM from MIA. We did so, arrived at the port in good time and started the haphazard check in process. Security appeared to be gleeful that they had detected 3 bottles of wine in my check in bag and escorted me to the little NCL desk where I happily paid by $45.00 corkage fee. Beside the little desk there was a container in which other alcoholic beverages had been placed - presumably because folks had decided against paying the fee.
From there we went up the escalator to the NCL check in desk - I could see the area to the right where suite guests were to go, bit it was entirely cordoned off. I showed the cruise tickets to an NCL employee who directed us to a check-in line and I told him that we were in a suite. "Mini-suite" he corrected me as he examined the documents - and once again directed us to the regular check in line. We took a short cut under the barriers that had isolated the NCL employee at the VIP area and approached her with our documentation in hand. She then informed that we should go back to the regular check-in as our names were not on the VIP list. Hmmm. I asked to see the list and found our names listed with the appropriate suite number ... and our vacation began. We met the concierge (Anna) and our butler (Theodore) and then another fellow (Geoffrey) escorted us to Cagney's for lunch. Anna and Theodore had told us that we could go down to the cabin after about an hour - I inquired if one of them would take us to the cabin and show it to us (I had read on Cruise Critic about this), but was told just to wander down. We did so - but it would have been nice to receive instructions on how to use the coffee maker and control the AC.
We had a great relaxing lunch at Cagney's - DW and I had the colossal shrimp cocktail to begin with - as good as we had read about, DS had chicken fingers - perhaps the best ever! After lunch we headed to suite 9075 on the Fjord deck (deck 9)and all we can say is that it was magnificent! The balcony is astounding. (see link for pictures below) Our room steward seemed to try hard - although there was somewhat of a language problem and we never were successful in our requests that the ice bucket be kept full. The first night there were no towel animals for DS, however after asking for them on days following, they did appear.