My 35 year old brother and I (32) took our parents on a cruise for their anniversary for the 3rd consecutive year. Since we don't spend a lot of time in the room, we've always gotten one interior cabin for the four of us. This has never been a problem (more on this soon). There is a popular line on CruiseCritic that "cruising is better than not cruising". I like to say "cruising is better than working" (or not working is better than working). With those lines in mind, we had a good time, but we are sure we would have had a better time on a different line.

We all flew in the day before the cruise and stayed at the Miami Airport Regency Hotel. This hotel is best described as a place that maybe used to be a really nice hotel, but it has slid a bit. It isn't the Ritz, but it is not a bad place to spend a night. I would not recommend this hotel for a week's stay in Miami, but for our purposes it was perfect. They offer free shuttle service every 30 mins to/from the Miami Airport. They also offer free shuttle service to the Port of Miami. These services alone saved us about $50. The room was only $90 for 4 adults, and included a decent breakfast ordered off a menu as well as one free drink per person and one free appetizer per room. You can walk to either the Catch of the Day or the Latin Cafe for dinner.

Embarkation was a breeze, but after enjoying our first meal on the ship, we ran into our first problem. None of the key cards for our room worked, so I had to go down to the desk and stand in line for 20 mins and then spend another 10 mins discussing the problem with the staff. Meanwhile, my Dad stood in the hallway with our bags. Before I left to go down, two room stewards passed by and refused to assist us with the situation. Their best solution was that our room steward would return in half an hour. The woman at the desk initially refused to give me a replacement card for my brother, who was wandering the ship and whose card I did not have. She stated that since he had his card assigned to a different charge card than I did, I could not take possession of his card. I had to convince her that I was his brother, we had the same last name, were staying in the same room, and that I would not go on a wild spending spree with his card. She finally gave me the card. When I got back to the room, I discovered the major problem that would mar our entire trip. We booked a room for 4 adults, but there were only 2 beds on the floor, one off the wall, and a 3rd rollaway bed under one of the floor beds. Anyone who has cruised knows there is no extra floor space in a standard cabin. I've never seen a 4 berth room without 2 beds off the ceiling/wall. NCL, in their endless efforts to nickel and dime people don't have the 4th bed on the wall either to save construction costs or to force groups to buy 2 cabins. When we complained to staff about this, they stated that we had a 4 berth room and that the ship was full. They then said if we wanted to upgrade to a mini-suite we could, but it would cost $600. So they did have the room, and instead of giving it to us due to us having an inadequate room, they wanted to make a profit off of us. Please understand that the only way to deploy this 4th bed was to put it in between the 2 floor beds, meaning that there would be no floor space except for the entry hall by the bathroom. This creates a huge safety hazard for anyone that needs to go to the bathroom at night or who even needs to get into bed after turndown. In an industry where safety is paramount, I can't believe this is even allowed. If you have booked a 4 person cabin on this ship, I suggest you ensure there are 2 beds on the ceiling, or you will run into this same problem. We went all the way up to the Asst. Hotel Director and Hotel Director at the Meet and Greet to no avail. This experience ruined our first day, and left a bad taste in our mouths the entire week. $600 may not sound like a lot to some people, but it was roughly 40% of what we paid initially, and the room didn't do much for us since, as I said, we don't spend much time there anyway. Also, our original room was midship while the new one was all the way forward. When you have older parents, this does make a difference. As far as the actual room goes, a mini-suite is like a balcony with a small area with a sofa - not much bigger than a standard balcony. The room was not as clean as we would have liked, and our steward didn't do some pretty obvious things like refill the soap dispensers, and leave enough towels. Read more