OK, here goes. This was our first trip with more than just my husband and I. We were travelling with my brother-in-law and his wife who have never cruised before. We stayed in Miami on Saturday and we were on the 11 AM bus to the port from our hotel.

Embarkation - This usually is a very smooth process (we have cruised on NCL four times before). Unfortunately this wasn't the case this time. Our group split up because we were going in the Latitudes check-in and thought we would be on board first to help our family get their bearings when they got on. However, there was some type of serious glitch with the machines that produce the cabin cards and ours was wrong so they had to go back and try over and over again. We were waiting for at least 15 minutes or more and the line behind us just kept getting longer. Apparently when they swiped my card someone else's picture would show up. Finally they gave us the cards and sent us on the ship but when we hit the first security check the cards didn't work and we had to go to the customer service desk to get new cards printed. Not the best start for the cruise.

The first day is always hectic. We headed to the buffet on Deck 12 and naturally it was overflowing with people. Eventually we managed to get a table and sat down to have a very nice lunch. By this time our cabins were ready so we took our friends to our cabin on Deck 11 first and then headed down to their cabin on Deck 10. Read more