We have just returned from a 14 night cruise to the Eastern Med. chosen because we had not visited the ports of call and as a teacher I have to cruise during school holidays. Having sailed on the Pearl two years ago in the Caribbean we thought we would book the Freestyle cruise with NCL. Last time we had a fantastic balcony cabin at the aft of the ship ~ right at the back and because of the stateroom being so private and the view at the back of the ship we hardly left the cabin! This time we decided to go for an inside stateroom and be more sociable! Our flight to Venice was relaxing~ the flight with British Airways was not full, we arrived in a very hot Venice 43degrees and were transferred to the ship. We dropped our hand luggage to the cabin, changed into our swimwear/shorts and headed directly to have some food at the buffet and were delighted to find that the quality was still superb! A walk around the ship and then time to relax on one of the sunbeds. We visited the Spa and decided to purchase this facility for the two weeks ~ the best decision we have ever made!! We were staying in Venice for two days due to the Festival and were amazed with this delightful place, enjoying our gondola ride, visit to St Mark's square and the fantastic fireworks display. Our cabin Stewards were fantastic and I loved all the towel animals waiting on our bed each evening. The stewards work so hard and we felt sorry for them when some of the cabins on our floor left it to the last minute, just before 9pm to allow them to make up their rooms for the night. Let them do their jobs and have their time off! The most amazing part of our cruise was leaving Venice along the canal and watching the other cruise ships slowly moving past the houses and buildings ~ funnels high above the rooftops ~ so graceful and commanding. We enjoyed all the ports of call and especially Athens where we ventured on our own to visit the ruins ~ costing us 4Euro on the train and 12 Euro entry fee. I would recommend this rather than spending much more on the ships tour! The food was exceptional on board ~ during the first week I did rename the Magenta as 'Magenta Express' the food was literally thrown at us and we timed our four course meal as being ordered, delivered and eaten within 25 minutes. A record or what???? We normally visited the speciality restuarants more but found them to be quite a bit more expensive. We did enjoy the Bistro and my husband had the Sushi on two occasions while I had the Asian. We were disappointed with Cagney's this time as the curly chips were now straight!! We found our stateroom to be very compact and exceptionally noisy and complained to the reception desk about this. Perhaps if you were new to cruising or hard of hearing you might feel that this was acceptable but as this was our seventh cruise we found that the noise was dreadful especially from 11.40 pm to 3 am. One of the receptionists, Meeka was so very helpful, she came to our cabin and agreed the noise was unacceptable. We were offered a cabin for four nights on deck 4 with a porthole BUT had to return to the cabin again for our second week. We decided not to move as it would involve having to pack/unpack/pack and unpack ~ too much hassle so we requested some other sort of refund and were offered a complimentary dinner at the Bistro! We spent quite a lot of time during the late afternoon in the Spa ~ absolutely worth every penny! Only 84 members allowed to join and no kids! Our first week was heaven as it was soooooo quiet and not so busy, being able to cruise with panoramic views from the glass sauna, relax on hot stone beds or simply read a book as the ship cruises to our next port. Our second week found the ship to be full and many Americans on board, this we found made the spa area very noisy at times as Americans like to be heard and others must hear them regardless of whether they want to or not:( We eventually found out that our stateroom was directly below the plate washer in the great outdoors cafe, Meeka then offered us another cabin on the 5th floor and they agreed that we could use it just to sleep in. This we agreed to and it was quieter, we did however ask for a refund as well as it had meant us having to sleep with ear plugs ~ not the holiday we had intended. The price of alcohol on board was not too bad it was the additional 15% added on to each drink that was the problem! In the end we took up the offer of the six bottles of wine and this satisfied my alcohol consumption for the rest of the cruise. Would we cruise with NCL again ~ probably! But not for a while until the dollar is better value and only if we can book our original stateroom. We found the ship to be too full and busy, having watched sunbed rage one time on a sea day it was quite funny and before you ask it wasn't an American it was a German! We love cruising and will perhaps look for a smaller ship to continue our travels!