Family of four, two teenage daughters. 2nd time cruisers first time on NCL as part of a family reunion. Cruise was part of a 3 week long Europe trip. Chosen somewhat because of HAL and Norway, but honestly more because it fit our schedule of Europe travel.

Embarkation

Took taxi from Rotterdam train station to cruise port. Easy to figure out where to go at first. Dropped off luggage, then went upstairs to waiting room. We were there about an hour before our 1:00 time on our boarding passes and were ushered into a table like sitting area to fill out health forms, and we thought to wait until 1. About 12:15 we asked the person working if they would call the 1:00 group, and she said no we could go anytime. Guess they did not really want to say that, hoping more that they could sell some drinks before hand. Because we were in a Neptune suite, we got to skip most of the line and check in was quick and easy and it was up to board the ship. Did the picture thing, checked out our room really quickly and joined the buffet for lunch. Not too much of a zoo. After lunch we went back down to our room. Luggage was waiting outside of door, not sure if we had gone a bit later if it would have been inside, but it seemed most of the suites had luggage still outside. Lots of time to check out ship before leaving since it was not scheduled to leave until 4. This was nice. Safety drill - "changed so more realistic". We were ushered to our respective spots and shown how to put on life vest. None of us had them. I guess the more realistic is that is was done on the spot we would meet, but I'm thinking in a real emergency I am not going to watch someone put on a lifevest, I might put my own on.... Read more