We began planning this cruise almost a year out. This would be our third NCL cruise. Previously we'd done a Baltic (Dream) and Western Caribbean (Sun) with NCL and had had a fantastic time on both. After having experienced an oceanview and a side balcony cabin, we opted to try an aft cabin this time. Because we were booking so early we had our pick of any cabin on the stern and chose one on Deck Ten. We used one of our Cruise Rewards certificates for the deposit, always a great deal. Later on, because of continued sales and fare reductions, we decided to move up to an aft mini-suite on Deck Eleven.

In preparation for the cruise I started a roll call on Cruise Critic, which remained extremely quiet until the fall. At one point I was beginning to think we'd be the only people on the ship. But then suddenly there was a flurry of activity. Since I'd started the roll call, I offered to set up a Meet and Greet. Initially we had about thirty people sign up.

Every few weeks I would call our Personal Cruise Consultant at NCL, just to check in with her. Several times I got the price lowered because of sales in progress. Between initial booking and payment of the final balance, we'd reduced the price of our cruise by a thousand dollars, plus we'd been given $300 of onboard credit. About six weeks before we sailed I contacted the Jade's event coordinator, asking her if she could provide a date, time and venue for us to hold a Meet and Greet for thirty. I heard back from her about two weeks later. By that time our roster had exploded to nearly one hundred. I kept the Event Coordinator informed of the changes and she told me we'd have the Meet and Greet in Le Bistro at eleven a.m. on our first at-sea day. I asked everyone on the roster to provide me with any background information they'd care to share with the group (interests, hobbies, career, children, fun facts, etc) which most did. I assembled all of this information on a roster that I sent out on a master e-mail list. As I got new information, I updated the roster. This enabled people with like interests to start contacting each other prior to the cruise. It also allowed people to start setting up private tours and gave the people with children a good idea how many other children might be on the cruise. For some reason teenage girls outnumbered boys by about ten to one. Those were some lucky boys. We also assembled a comprehensive list of tips for the group. Read more