We are experienced cruisers -- My wife and I have cruised over a dozen times, almost always on RCL or Carnival. We have been cruising an average of twice a year for the past five years. During that time we have come to expect certain things on a cruise ship. With that in mind, we will try to be fair even though we are a bit disappointed in NCL's performance.
The boarding process in Miami was good; lines were not too long and the time at counter was brief -- we had pre-registered on NCL's web site (which is very poorly designed and should have given us some clues) and that may have helped.
Once on the ship we went to our mini-suite (category AF) cabins on deck 11. They didn't seem much bigger than the standard balcony we have seen on Carnival or RCL except that the bathroom was twice as large and had a tub. The flat screen TV seemed small but you get used to it. Decorations were nice but we noticed that the closet and drawer space for clothes storage was much smaller than we have had on other ships in the past five years. I ended up keeping some of my clothes in a suitcase under the bed.