My sister and I have always taken escorted tours with Globus,CIE,e.t.c. So this time we elected to cruise. We chose the New England/Canada cruise with Norwegian Spirit and really looking forward to our first time cruising. Embarkation this was a nightmare as the ship was not ready for boarding. After 2hrs. we finally began to board but couldn't go to our rooms as they were not ready. We sat in the lobby for another hour.Stateroom we found the room to be cozy and the bed very comfortable. The balcony nice for two people.Ship Info the ship seems well maintained and the decor Asian and understated. That was fine for us as we are not into glitzy.Dining-the two main dining rooms are Windows and Garden. The menus are identical.We found the food mediocre at best and the daily selections disappointing. We ordered the shrimp cocktail one night and were presented with shrimp that were so tiny they looked like those one would get in a can. Very fishy so they went back. We tried their buffet restaurant Raffles for breakfast and at 6:30 am the food was cold and the scrambled eggs were some sort of egg substitute product. They haven't figured out how to keep food warm as we had the same problem at lunch. The selections were strangely disguised in highly seasoned sauces. All in all ,just bad cafeteria fare. We did have an excellent meal however at one of the specialty restaurants Le Bistro. It was outstanding but there is a cover charge for all the specialty restaurants and we felt cheated having to pay for good food.Activities these consisted of the usual lounging at the pool, playing shuffleboard, bingo and darts. We did attend the art presentation and lecture and found it interesting and enjoyable. Staff and Service-no complaints here. The staff was very accommodating and always pleasant.Entertainement-the theatre was always too crowded,not enough seating and people walked out on the magic and comedian shows as they were cheesy. We did go to the casino and had fun. There was a party that was soooo loud many left after a few minutes but there was a nice band that played in the lounge area where the gift shops are located. There are few shops and very high end so we just browsed.Shore Excursions We booked 4.The first was the Nova Scotia lobster lunch.It was very nice and the scenery beautiful at Peggy's Cove. We also enjoyed the Boston scenic and harbor tour. We were disappointed that we were unable to stop for shopping on these tours. Now for the nightmare tour in ST.John. This was a city highlights/harbor cruise. We boarded our tour bus and proceeded to do the city portion.We then boarded our boat for the harbor tour. When this was over I asked the tour guide which of the buses I should board. He told me there would be no bus and that it was a lovely day to walk back to our ship. I thought he must be joking as it was a mile to our ship. Everyone was angry as we paid 90.00 each and should be escorted back by bus as all the other tours. I forgot to mention that we had people with canes and walkers and I myself cannot walk long distances due to back problems. My sister has knee problems and we are both over 65 as most of us on the tour.It took us 40 min. to get back and I was in excruciating pain only to have to climb 3 uphill gangplanks. That evening was ruined for us as we were in too much pain to go to dinner. We stayed in our room and went to sleep as the TV only had 3 working channels.Disembarkation - this was better than getting on and we found our luggage quickly.We paid for airport trans.at booking so we waited for the same minivan that brought us there.However they decided to use busses and the process took over one hour. The driver takes us to LGA only to realize she can't drive us to our terminals as the bus is too high to clear the entrance !!!! Once again We paid for door to door service and instead we were all dropped off 1/2 mile away from the main terminal. So luggage in tow we all started the long journey to the terminal. If not for my sister's help I would still be there.We should not have purchased our transfer vouchers thru NCL we simply should have called a taxi but NCL told me the taxis charge double. This is not the case. I also need to mention that we never got to go to our last port Martha's Vineyard. The water was too choppy for tendering. I can't blame NCL for this but we were so disappointed. The excursion we booked was the only one that allowed time to browse the local shops,and soak in the local flavor-not to mention enjoy a nice seafood lunch. So We have no souvenirs or pictures of the main reason we booked this tour. This one had Martha's Vineyard on the itinerary. I admit I am a novice at cruising but I would have been happy if we could have docked somewhere else.Needless to say I will stick to my escorted bus tours .