Came into Miami via SAS transportation - excellent company, came highly recommended - and dropped the bag at the entrance to the building w/ cabin tag on it, hoping it would get to my room, as the attendant was busy w/ other people, so I just left it next to his cart. Processed quickly and easily through security and id card process - they are right, "embarkation is a breeze." Once onboard, around 1pm, I was told rooms would be available at 2pm, they were and my bag was suprisingly in front of my room. I did have a bottle of wine waiting and on-board credit from my travel agent in the room.

Now, on Carnival last year, I was greeted by my room steward who knew my name and asked how everything was everytime he saw me in the hallway (which was a lot). He explained everything in the room, showed me where everything was, and even had his own number for us to call if we needed anything. There was a tv channel dedicated to the ship; ocean depth, temp, time, etc. Also, a disembark channel w/ tons of needed info for later. My ice bucket was endless and never seemed to melt. You could leave the room and come back 15 minutes later and the bed was re-made and/or turned down again. It's like they knew when you left and couldn't wait to clean your room again. Never ran out of towels.

Now, on the room: on Norwegian, I never saw my room steward, nor did I see evidence of his/her service. The first day I entered the room was the only day it was correct. That night, I went to take a shower and could not get hot water. There were two buttons on the lever, red/blue. I turned it all the way to red and got lukewarm water, tried waiting for it, even tried to move it back to blue, but only got cold water. I talked to services and they said they would send a plumber, needless to say, he never came. Read more