This was our first cruise on Norwegian - our previous cruise was on Celebrity. To avoid weather related problems getting to N.Y.C. in winter, we stayed at the Mid-town Holiday inn the night before embarkation. The Holiday Inn is quite close to the pier, and I believe it was cheaper to book the hotel on line directly from Holiday Inn, & take a cab to the pier (which we did) rather than book the same Holiday Inn through Norwegian and get to the pier via pre-arranged van service from Norwegian. Embarkation was a breeze. We got to the pier at 11:45 a.m. and were on board in a very short period of time. In your rush to get on board, don't forget to remember exactly where you boarded. If you choose express disembarkation, you will likely disembark at the same spot where you got on, and thus be able to get in line to disembark early - i.e. long before they announce the point of disembarkation. As we got on board early, our cabins were not ready until approximately 3:30 p.m. But, that gave us time to eat and explore the ship. Our luggage did not arrive until after 6:00 p.m., so be sure to bring any necessities with you when you embark.

Our cabin was an adequate size, but the balcony was rather small. On our last cruise (Celebrity) we spent a great deal of time on the balcony. On our Norwegian cruise, we did not utilize the balcony very often because it was a bit cramped, and since there was a large glass panel on the balcony, which was a haze of sea salt, it greatly impeded our viewing pleasure. There was no fridge in the room, which surprised me. As we kept quite a few soft drinks on hand (which we had to constantly traipse to one of the bars to purchase, as our cabin was not stocked with drinks in a fridge), and getting ice in the room when you needed to chill your soft drink was like pulling teeth (which resulted in yet more trips to the bar to fill the ice bucket), I think this was the main issue which made me realize "you get what you pay for," at least as far as on-board service goes. Our cabin attendants kept our room very tidy and clean. They were friendly and courteous at all times, but were not at our beck and call constantly, as our DIVINE cabin attendants on Celebrity were.

If you have a low threshold of boredom, I suggest that you take a Caribbean cruise from a port in Florida, NOT from New York. The two and a half days at sea each way were excruciating - at least for me. I don't play bingo, I don't spend much playing slot machines, and one can only take so many classes on napkin folding etc. before going totally mad! On the other hand, most of the other passengers I spoke with (many of whom who had taken the exact same cruise several times!) found the sea days "relaxing." I love to read, but I can do that at home for free, so the extra days at sea were torture for me. Read more