I went on this cruise with my 17 y.o. son and 20 y.o. daughter. Overall we had a nice time. We had a balcony cabin. It was very compact and not great if more than one of us was trying to move around. However, there was lots of storage room and the bathroom configuration worked well for us.The buffet was good for breakfast, but not very good for lunch and dinner. Seating in the buffet was a challenge at busy times, so we got room service on most of the port days for breakfast. O'Sheehans was pretty good. The chicken pot pie was good, but the apple pie was not my favorite. Taste dining room was good, and we enjoyed the occasional entertainment in the Manhattan Room.Our favorite entertainment was Howl at the Moon. They were great! My kids enjoyed the Blue Man Group. Be aware that the Blue Man Group show uses strobe lights. Los Locos Ole was also fun. Headliners was not the best venue and it only worked well when we arrived early enough to get good seats. We tried watching the Spanish Ballet, but the view was so poor that we left.My son loved the slides and used them frequently. My daughter and I tried each of them once and had fun.My daughter and I got passes to the thermal spa. It was wonderful and I highly recommend it. The ship was nice overall. We had some trouble finding spots to get away from the crowds and enjoy the sea. Even the balcony on our cabin was sometimes loud. Sometimes the music on the Lido deck was just too high. There is an elevator just outside the buffet to a quiet area on deck 18.One special note is that my son's luggage was lost by the airline. NCL did a great job of handling this. They worked with the airline to get it delivered in Italy and in the meantime offered free laundry service daily.I did miss the formal nights, getting to know the same people over dinner, and having something of a set routine. Also, I missed some of the traditional cruise ship activities. For these reasons Freestyle cruising is not for me, but I can appreciate that others enjoy it.Barcelona is a fun city to visit. My daughter speaks Spanish so that made it pretty easy to navigate. Otherwise it would have been a challenge to get around. We stayed in the Hotel Icaria Barcelona before and after the cruise. It was very nice and quiet which is exactly what we needed. We flew in from the west coast of the USA on British Airways. Except for the lost luggage, it was an OK flight. The service was fair, and even through we had the cheap seats it wasn't too uncomfortable.We used Rome in Limo for all Italy ports. Overall the service was good. Do order tickets and get reservations for everything you want to see. It can be very crowded and lines long. Having reservations saves many hours of waiting in line. It can take a while to get to the sites from port, so there was less time in port than we would have liked. Palma was our beach day, and it was a wonderful relaxing port after rushing around Italy.