This is my 10th cruise and my wife's 9th and it is one of the best we've had. I've seen a few negative reviews out there but there just wasn't anything to complain about...Since this was our second cruise with NCL and we were celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary, we splurged a little and booked a mid-ship category BA balcony. This was the 3rd balcony stateroom we have had in our cruising history so we don't have much to compare it to. However, I will say that the room was very nicely decorated and very well maintained. The balcony itself was a bit smaller than the balconies we had on Royal Caribbean and Holland America but we didn't mind this.Embarkation unfortunately is not something we can really comment on this time around. We took Amtrak up the northeast corridor from Washington D.C. and there was a power outage on the tracks on March 19th that delayed us about 4 hours. We literally made it to the ship at 3:35 p.m. when the ship had a 4:00p.m departure time! The crew at the base of the ship were waiting for us at the pier and they waved us in, grabbed our bags and practically shoved us onto the ship. We were beyond impressed with the efforts and overall professionalism demonstrated by the staff on that day. To NCL's credit, they did a tremendous job handling our situation. They even had my wife's green card processing (she's and Indian national) handled over the phone before we arrived at the ship!The ship itself is beautifully decorated. I would say that of all the cruises we've been on, the ship is in the top 2-3 most beautifully decorated ships we've seen. The main dining area (Grand Pacific) and the Garden Cafe on the top deck were better designed (layout-wise) than pretty much any ship we've seen. NCL even allows one of the restaurants (the Italian restaurant) on the top deck of the ship to serve as a separate dining area for breakfast if the other areas are too crowded. We are pretty sure that many people were not aware of this as we would find the main cafe packed and the italian restaurant empty. Given that the Italian restaurant has a beautiful rustic look and many seats are window seats, we would have to say that eating there was a much more pleasant experience than eating in the main cafe. Also, I should point out that NCL has a way of creating separate simultaneous mini buffet areas on the top level of the ship that really helped with crowd control. Food: My wife and I are not too particular about food so this is not writtenwith the gourmand in mind. We ate at only one specialty restaurant (the Sushibar) and had the best miso soup we ever tried. The waitresses were very helpfulin explaining what's what on the menu and the sushi itself was fantastic. On every other night, we dined in either the Grand Pacific, Magenta or just ate a late dinner upstairs at the Garden Cafe. The food was varied and very tasty. Mussels and Indian/Asian cuisine in the Garden Cafe. Lobster, salmon, etc. in the Grand Pacific. We had no complaints! Activities: There were plenty of things to do listed in the daily plannerbut since we were just trying to escape the winter doldrums in the northeast and relax, we didn't really participate in any activities. I will say that the pool area on the top deck was very, very crowded all the time so it was good that we got a spa package that allowed us the use of the indoor pool/jacuzzi. This area was never really crowded and it gave us a place to unwind.Shows: We saw one show, a disco 70's themed dance show. We thought it was very good and thoroughly enjoyed it.Staff: The staff was wonderful especially our room steward. Our room steward introduced himself to us in the first few minutes after we arrived at our roomand memorized our names right away (we've been on a few ships where this doesn't necessarily happen so we immediately noted this little detail). Dining room staff, store staff, ship's crew...pretty much anyone working on the ship,was very pleasant and very helpful towards us.Debarkation: This was the second easiest debarkation we have ever had (Holland America's is still #1). We chose the "walk-off" option which allows you to just take your belongings yourself and exit anytime after 8:30 a.m. So we took our time, had our breakfast, and decided to walk off a little after 9:30. The only "blip" here was the fact that people with their colored luggage tags were waiting in line at the gangway and the officer in charge of managing things wanted all of us to just get in the same line...which obviously defeats the purpose of the walk-off. In the end however, he just allowed us to mix in and move along so we maybe only waited 15 minutes with the crowd.Ports:Port Canaveral- shore excursions are expensive/overpriced but we did the Islands of Adventure tour in the end. The bus ride, entering, exiting the park,pickup,etc. went very smoothly. Private Island-the best (restful) private island experience we've had. Plenty of food and a great layout made for a wonderful time.Bahamas- Nassau was great. We didn't do any of the NCL excursions but rather paid a local cab company to give us a group tour. This is cheaper than the cruise line excursion prices and was very good.Overall, we were blessed with great weather except for one day on our return trip when we had gale winds and 11.5ft waves for about 24 hours. There were a lot of sick people on the ship but the staff had green apples available and light soups (chicken broth prepped) that I'm sure helped a great many people recover. Our experience, I will reiterate, was definitely one of the best ones we've had...