This was our 13th cruise but our 3rd on NCL. My husband and I were the only ones on this cruise. We are both 54, we live and Arizona, and have been married 33 years. Because Alaska is more "pricey" than most cruises, we opted for an inside cabin (for the first time I might add). We figured that since it was Alaska, it would probably be too cold for a balcony. We flew to Seattle the day before on our own and explored Seattle a bit. We stayed at the Red Lion Hotel in downtown Seattle and we pretty much could walk everywhere we went. We mainly hung out at the Public Market. The next day was cruise day so we opted to take a cab from our hotel to Pier 66. The cost of the cab was $12.00. When we reached the pier, it was 12:30 in the afternoon. There were a lot of people already in line but the lines weren't too bad. They winded around quite a bit (like you were in Disneyland). There were "discount coupon" books available for Alaska while we were waiting in line and everyone was grabbing them. We found out later that they weren't worth anything and we were told to throw them out if we took one because they weren't being honored in the ports. Anyways, like I said earlier, the lines went pretty fast but there were two women in front of us with a child about 8 years old. They were travelling on the cruise and the NCL staff asked the women if they had "permission" from the father to take the child out of the country. (We were visiting Canada also on this trip). They didn't know that they were supposed to have permission from the other parent so they were taken from the line where they had to contact the other parent and get some kind of proof. They said that no one told them that they had to have this when they booked.We got onto the ship at about 1:30 where we headed to our room. Luckily our cabin was on Deck 9 so that lessened the "pain" of having an inside room. However, when we walked in, we were pleasently surprised to see a large bed (possibly a Queen)and if we needed a bunk above it to pull out. NCL has used this small space wisely. We had a nice closet and quite a bit of storage. The room had a small refrigerator (which was stocked with liquor)and plenty of drawer space. The bathroom had a shower which was adequate. The room was equipped with a hairdryer which was outside of the bathroom. There were hooks on the walls to hang purses, shirts, etc. The only problem we had with the inside cabin was the fact that we couldn't tell if it was daytime or nightime and we slept in the following day until 10am! (Luckily we were at sea that day!).The first night we sailed (Sat), we ate in the Aqua Dining Room. They had lobster that night so we took advantage of that. We never did see lobster again. I'm sure they served it at the restaurants you had to pay for. The food was about a B+ in the dining room. Because it is considered a "freestyle" cruise, we opted to eat around 7pm.The next day when we were at sea, we decided to check out the restaurants and the ship. We saw the spa and they have an inside pool and jacuzzi's, however, in order to use these facilities, they were $30/day or $119/week (for one person). They said it's cheaper in the long run to spend the $119 and after they had 100 people sign up for it, it would no longer be available. We decided to pay the $119 (times 2 ) since the weather wasn't exactly hot. There were 4 jacuzzi's outside but like I said, it wasn't exactly hot.The ports we visited were Scagway, Juneau, Ketchikan and Prince Rupert, Canada. We had researched what to do in the ports online through cruise critic before we said so we had already booked our shore tours online. When we got to our cabin, our tickets were there waiting for us for the tours. In Ketchikan, we chose the Saxman Native Village and Lumberjack Show. We went to the Saxman Village first and it wasn't really our "thing". It was interesting but boring too. Because it was raining and the wind was blowing, we decided not to go to the Lumberjack show. We visited their giftshop and learned all about the totem poles. This tour was scheduled for 4 hours, but we only did the first part, which lasted 2 hours. A bus transported us back to the pier for those going to the Lumberjack Show so we just decided to shop instead. In Scagway, we did the train which was beautiful and breathtaking and in Juneau we visited the Mendenhall Glacier. We opted for the 75 minute tour and we were glad we did that one. They have a little gift shop which doesn't have much and even though the glacier is spectaculer, the only other thing you could do would be to hike the 45 minutes to a waterfall. Because we were told that there was a stong possibility that you could encounter bears on the hike, we opted not to do that. In Prince Rupert, we didn't take a tour. We just walked the town and visited a bar. They had a little swapmeet so to speak outside of the ship so we wandered around there a bit but everything was pretty pricey.The shows on the ship were really good and the best show was "Elements" on the last night. Make sure you see that show. It was amazing!The only negative we encountered was the fact that everything cost money (plus 15%!). The spa was 18% gratutity for my services which was a 60 minute facial, and massage for $114.00. Of course alcohol was expensive but I had an issue when I ordered a "Shirly Temple" (obviously not alcohol) and one bartender charged me $2.65 (sprite plus cherry juice) and another bartender charged $4.95 and called it a non-alcoholic cocktail. We took issue with that and had to go to the informatin desk to find out why. They refunded the difference but then after that, I noticed that almost all of the bartenders (except for one) considered a Shirley Temple a non-alcoholic cocktail (which cost us $4.95 plus 15% gratutity!). We finally gave up trying to convince them it was only sprite plus cherry juice so I decided to just drink the alcoholic specials. They weren't much more in price.All in all, we had a great time but like I said earlier, it was a lot more pricier than we were used to. I guess that's the sign of the times. Although Freestyle Dining is nice, we think we prefer the regular dining schedule offered on other ships so that we can meet people. The buffet food was adequate but nothing to write home about. We noticed that they catered a lot to the Indian culture, as they had a whole section in the buffet of just Indian food. I never did see any more lobster or shrimp or even chocolate cake in the main dining room. We did eat one time in Ginza which cost us $15.00/each for the all you can eat sushi. That was pretty exceptional.NCL is a nice line but I think we're going to explore other cruise lines next time. My preference at this time is Carnival, but all in all, it was a very nice vacation.