I have eventually got around to posting this review. I have to say after reading the other reviews prior to going on this cruise, I was a little nervous, thankfully I needn't have been. We had previous sailed from NYC with Carnival, so we were aware of the check-in procedure and the chaos at the port. This time we arrived early to miss the crowds and after a very smooth, organized check-in, we were in Raffles having lunch within an hour. The first thing we did was to make reservations for dinner each night as we were travelling with our in-laws we wanted to ensure we were sat together. We took advantage of the offer of 50% off the cover charge for the specialty restaurants, so we dined at each of them except the Italian.

This was the first time that my in-laws had cruised and knowing that both my father-in-law and my husband suffered from sea-sickness, I took the advice from the cruisecritic website and booked an ocean view cabin mid-ship on deck 4. Although these cabins did not have any fancy "trimmings" they were clean and well maintained. The bathroom was surprisingly spacious and featured a pleasantly powerful shower. Yes, the beds are a little on the hard side, but again ask for the egg-shell top and it will help.

As soon as we were allowed into our cabin, I contacted room service and asked them to join our beds together, this was very quickly done with no questions. Our luggage was waiting for us after the lifeboat muster, which is compulsory. My advice to NCL, if this is compulsory, make sure people can hear the recorded safety instructions when on deck, I could not hear them at all, it was very muffled. Read more