Went on this cruise with my sister, mother, two friends and one of their mothers, six of us in all.  I had been on one other cruise previous on Carnival.  The others had all been on many other cruises.  I felt overall the Carnival cruise was superior in every way.First off, I thought the ship was beautiful although there was some evidence of wear and tear.  Our cabin was on deck ten and was a balcony.  These cabins are very small, when the couch was made into a bed I literally had to crawl over my sister to get out of bed or if we wanted to get to the balcony.  After a few nights of this we asked our cabin steward to make it out only 2/3 of the way so we could get around.  The beds are very uncomfortable (not at all like Carnivals Dream beds).  The couch made into a bed was like laying on concrete.  Also, we had to remind them almost every day that there were three of us and we needed extra towels.  Very annoying!  WARNING: The soap in the shower is highly perfumed and gave my mother a horrible rash.  It took two calls to reception and three requests to our room stewards before we could get a bar of soap she could use.  If you have delicate skin - bring your own soap.  The children/teen area's were hidden away so well on this vessel that I had to go looking for them.  They were very nice with teens having a large video arcade, dance floor, computers, etc.  and smaller childrens had a whole room that was a jungle gym - they were having a great time.  The food was average overall.  The best thing in the dining rooms was the salmon, prime rib, soufflet's and pineapple cake.  My friend tried the steak and it was too tough for her to chew.  We did not try any of the specialty restaurants and thought it seemed like a lot of wasted space as they were usually less than 1/4 full.  One thing they do not advertise is that if you are in a balcony cabin you can eat in the Aqua Restaurant for breakfast.  Much better than the buffet.  Very few people seemed to know about this so you have a lot of waiters with nothing to do.  One morning we had four waiters taking care of the six of us.  Overall, none of us liked freestyle dining as you never got to know your waiters or if you found one you like you never saw them again.  Also, when we went ashore there was little for our elderly mothers to do other than watch a movie or go to the library.  There were no craft classes or anything to help entertain.  Even the behind the scenes tours cost extra.  The bingo was much too pricey costing $30-40 a shot!  The evening shows were good and varied but nothing spectacular (again this also was much better on Carninval).  Also, it got very annoying that they were constantly hawking pull tabs or bingo or whatever before every show.  Everything seemed to cost extra on this cruise.  The best part of the entire cruise was the ports and cruising up Tracy Arm to Sawyer Glacier.  Absolutely breathtaking.  There was a naturalist on board explaining what we were seeing along the way whom you could listen to over the public address system or in your stateroom on the television.  Best excursion was the train out of Skagway.  Don't do this if you are afraid of heights.  Ketchikan is easy to do the walking tour.  Just pick up a map at the visitor center right on the dock.  You are in Prince Rupert in the evening so if you want to see the museum go there first as they close at 7pm.  Best decision was getting a rental car in Juneau as with the limited time in that port we saw a lot more than most of the other passengers.  We rented from Rent a Wreck and they picked us up at the cruise ship, gave us a layout of the land on the way to their office and took us back to our ship.  I've heard they're the only one's who will do this without an additional drop-off charge.  The cost was very reasonable, about $52 for the six passenger van.  Will I go on an Alaskan cruise again?  YES.  Will I go on NCL again?  Absolutely not!Hope this was helpful, if you have any questions just ask.