For the record, I am only 21, and my boyfriend is only 20. It was just the two of us traveling (and I'm pretty sure we were the youngest couple on board traveling by ourselves). I've been on two cruises prior, this was his first. I've seen many drift. formats to write the review but I guess it'd just be easiest for me to go day by day, SO here we go.

Saturday - We took the train to Manhattan from Long Island, then grabbed a cab to the pier. All pretty easy and cheap. Arrived at the pier approximately 10:30am. We were pretty proud of ourselves for getting there so early, but in the end it really didn't matter much, as the Spirit had only just docked as we were arriving (it was late due to the weather). The boarding process was, as a result, pretty much a mess. People all over the place in drift. stages of embarkation, no one really knowing what was going on. At one point they set out some tables w/ coffee and cookies and what not. Whatever, I know it wasn't NCL's fault, so can't really complain. After getting onboard about 1pm or so, we were able to explore the ship a bit. I'd looked at so many pictures before hand that things already seemed fairly familiar. I'm not certain but fairly sure we ate in the Blue Lagoon while waiting for our room to be ready. Of course had to order the wings, which were decent, but my BF's favorite here was the wonton soup. It was rainy so the poolside deck party was canceled (or maybe held inside somewhere, I don't know). We grabbed a couple drinks from the Bier Garden (just to kick start that onboard account), and I do have to say that they make their drinks pretty strong. So yes, they're expensive, but you do get your money's worth. Then he went to sleep while I unpacked and checked out the casino, which opened around 7:30pm. The ship seemed pretty empty the first day, I'm assuming due to how rocky and wavy it was. I guess everyone just retired to their cabins early. Speaking of which, the cabins were pretty decent sized. We had an inside stateroom, which was more than enough room for both of us (and I pack a lot). I also saw the window rooms and standard balcony rooms and all of them looked fairly large. We were surprised as we'd kinda prepared ourselves for the worst. The bathroom was fine, if anything I liked the inside bathroom setup (shower w/ glass sliding door, toilet and sink area on the other side) better than the balcony one (that one had the toilet in it's own sliding glass door area as well, which really only seemed to make the space seem more confined). We made a reservation for the Tepanyaki grill the first night, and that was an AMAZING experience. Very much like Benny Hanas. Basically they cook everything right in front of you. Entertaining. We ordered the surf & turf meal for two ($25) and the filet mignon was the best I've EVER had, and I've always been an avid steak lover. The lobster was put on the grill still alive, which was...interesting. One of the other girls at the table ending up getting sick when the lobster's nerves started twitching (I'm guessing), making the legs move around after it'd already been cut in half...But anyway, moving on...ha. We'd ordered the anniversary package (the $79 one), and our strawberries and champagne arrived later that evening. We personally loved the taste of the champagne and had a total of three bottles throughout the week (one w/ the package, one was given to us and we won one in the casino), and also had it at the anniversary party and art auction. Apparently it's NCL's private brand. There had also been a bottle of wine in our room which we eventually drank, and were never charged for so I'm not really sure what that was about ::shrug:: but hey, I'm not complaining. Didn't sleep very well at all the first night. I don't know if this had to do w/ motion sickness or not, but it definitely didn't have anything to do with the beds (though our beds weren't put together until past 2am, even though I'd called and requested for it to be done as soon as we arrived in the room. Then, the cabin steward which finally arrived past 2 had to leave and come back two drift. times because he kept bringing the wrong sized sheet. We were exhausted and this was kinda an inconvenience but understood it'd been a hectic day for all aboard). Though my BF doesn't fully agree, I thought the beds were VERY comfortable. We had the eggcrate already on the mattresses when we arrived.

Sunday - Like I just stated, didn't sleep very well the first night and when I did finally get to sleep, my BF ended up calling and waking me up at 6am to go up to the top deck and watch the sunrise. We'd ordered breakfast the night before and it was all OK. Also stopped by Raffles and tried a few things there. Wow, I knew I should have kept those Freestyle Dailies, this is harder than I thought it'd be to remember everything...hehe. Well. I know we took a five hour nap in the middle of the day so maybe that's why this day isn't very memorable. It was also still a lil cold so the outdoor activities weren't really hopping. 11:00am was the Cruise Critic meeting. I wish we'd been a lil more awake for it, but thanks again to Sharon for setting it up and going through the trouble of making name tags and what not. Lots of head crew members were present and it was nice to meet them face to face, though we had the same basic conversation multiple times in a row. Tonight was the Captain's dinner and we ate in The Garden. When we went, we were given one of those beeper thingys and had about a 20 minute wait. Everything was very good, we'd brought our own wine onboard and had no problem giving it to them and then they corked/saved it until the next time we requested it a few days later. The hostess had a bit of an attitude with us though. Actually, that happened to us a few times throughout the week. It was either very nice impressive service, or down right rude. We chalked it up to our age but still. We didn't get to the restaurant till 8:30 and we wanted to see the 9:30 show, we informed them of this so they knew we were in a lil rush, and had no problem, being out of there by 9:15 the latest. I honestly don't know why everyone wrote about dinner always taking 1 1/2 - 2 hours, as we never had it go for over an hour. The show this night was Showtime's "On the Radio". Basically it started off alright, and gradually got worse and worse, till it was so bad it was funny. It was almost as though they were purposely trying to make them as ridiculous looking as possible with the costumes. The singing was more like shouting/chanting. I'm a club goer, my BF is not, so my typical night would end with me in the club/casino and him either in the casino or going back to the room earlier. Each night at midnight they kicked off the dancing with a short performance by the NCL dancers. The Maharani nightclub/lounge was pretty impressive and classy and I enjoyed it very much. Although it IS at the very front of the ship, so it's one of the rockiest points which made for some entertaining nights on the dance floor. Read more