I was scheduled for a western caribbean itinerary that included Roatan, Belize City, Costa Maya & Cozumel. Due to Hurricane Rina's ever changing trajectory we were up in the air for most of the week, but in the end we only missed Cozumel. The captain made announcements twice each day to keep us appraised of the storm situation, and I thought that was plenty.

Embarkation was notably slow, due to some wifi problems, but to make it up to us the ship had a free rum punch party later in the cruise. Service aboard the ship was outstanding - I truly did not run into a single crew member that was unpleasant. I thought the food in the free venues ranged from good to very good, with a couple of excellents thrown in. We did dine in Le Bistro one night, and the food there was excellent across the board. Activities were plentiful, even on our unexpected extra sea day, and I enjoyed most things that I did.

I didn't find NCL to be as hard-sell as I had heard, and although there were ample opportunities for you to spend extra money, it was just as easy not to spend extra. It was our first sailing with NCL and we already have two more booked, so you can tell we liked it. As far as comparisons go I still think Disney is better than NCL, but not enough so to justify the price difference. NCL was notably better than Royal Caribbean, as far as I was concerned, mainly due to the service. On NCL I found everyone to be friendly & efficient, and on Royal Caribbean they seemed to be simply efficient. All in all it was a great cruise, and I had a fantastic time!