This is my first review. My wife and I have been on about 17 cruises to date. We are in our 40's. This was our 3rd NCL. We flew in the night before (highly recommended). Stayed at the Westin Long Beach since we are Starwood people and wanted our points. Very nice hotel. Very comfy beds as advertised. The morning of the cruise we set up a 4 hour tour through the concierge to Hollywood and the Stars homes.(SunSeekers Tours at 562-961-9510) It was only $59 per person and was well worth it. We were back by 12:45 PM and took a taxi to the port which was only about 10 minutes away.

We carried our suitcases on board with us so that we would have our stuff and not have to wait for NCL to deliver the suitcases to our room. (recommended if all possible). The line was fairly long to register and get our shipboard cards. This was about 1:15 PM. We had to wait about 45 minutes. My wife and I were alittle paranoid because the Noro virus was found 2 weeks prior to this cruise. We even brought our own hand sanitizers and wipes so that when you get into your room you can use the sanitized wipes to clean all the surfaces such as the phone, TV clicker, handles, etc. The balcony was really nice except they never clean the plexi glass below the railing so it is very dirty. Just stand up and enjoy the scenery. The beds were Ok. My wife and I always have the room stewart put extra padding under the sheets to make them softer. They were alittle skimpy on the towels but we asked for extras with no problem. We even asked for extra pillows with no problem.

The biggest complaint we had was the "creaking sounds" of the walls and ceiling of the cabin. We have been on many boats and this was by far the worst. We heard the creaking during the night when we were out to sea. We tried opening the sliding door to let the sound of the waves come in and it helped quite abit. Our room was on the port side Deck 9. WARNING: In the ports where you have to tender ashore the tenders themselves our stored just below deck 9. So at about 6:30 AM we were awakened by the screeching and loud noise of the metal fingers extending from the ship just below our balcony surely waking all of us up. Not that big a deal. Just annoying. The showers were pretty big compared to many cruises we have been on. The water pressure and temperature were fantastic. TIP: Bring your own bar of soap. YOu will be glad you did, believe me. They provide a soap and shampoo dispenser on the wall but no conditioner. The also provide a hair dryer. Closet and drawer space were good. After unpacking slide your suitcases under the bed to get them out of the way. TV was not great. Only had CNN, TNT and ESPN. There were 2 movie channels with OK showings. You do not have choices and no pay TV movies available. Read more