Our group of 4 couples decided this cruise would interest us and we began the planning. We all chose the aft penthouses. 3 were on 9th deck and 1 was on 10th deck. The 10th deck stateroom was much larger, at least the balcony was. Twice as large. Our particular balcony was a disappointment, not only for its size but the new paint was slopped on the plastic panels and the deck furniture was old. After the "redo" we expected it would be pristine! I think they must be working the stewards too hard because our stateroom wasn't immaculate either. Needed a good dusting, though our steward was very attentive and did his job very effectively! The public bathrooms were not immaculate as I expected. Most had been updated but seemed like the flooring was the same or it hadn't held up very well. Our concierge wasn't very helpful. Our butler didn't do exceptional but adequate. We didn't go to any shows except the magic show and it was fine. Two of the ports were not very interesting but we think NCL is working on getting things ramped up in the future. We ate at Cagneys every morning, which was the highlight of the day. We ate in the Venetian only two nights and it was unimpressive. We ate at the new Los Lobos and thoroughly enjoyed that! The new Bamboo, not so much! Cagneys at night was awesome! Embarkation in Boston was not very efficient, especially for suite passengers. We didn't have the private sign-in and lost contact with some of our group. They were escorted onto the ship and put in a wrong room!! It took us walking to the back of the ship and phone calls to get them resettled into their room before we could eat our lunch. Not a good beginning! Disembarking went well for 3 couples, one got off at wrong elevator, evidently and caught up in the waiting crowd instead of being escorted as planned. Overall it was a pleasant trip and no major mishaps.