My husband and I (50 and 53 y/o) have been on over a dozen cruises, seven with NCL. After poor service on the last two with NCL, increased service fees on drink packages and other incremental changes we said we were done with them. Of course a great deal came along and we tried it again. Embarkation was awful - we waited an hour and a half and then found out why...there was a music cruise before this cruise and there was equipment everywhere. We were barely aboard when we realized our mistake. We were "treated" to watching cargo containers full of music equipment from the previous cruise being off-loaded for four hours. All this took place from the roped off pool deck .. so much for getting on the ship to enjoy the pool that afternoon. We were not told this was going on and nobody ever apologized. The sail away party on this beautiful afternoon in January in Miami ... was held inside in Spinnaker because of the cargo on the pool deck. We basically lost a half day of enjoying this area of the ship. Our room steward was hilarious and not in a good way. She left dirty dishes from breakfast in the room; took all the dirty towels without leaving clean ones and forgot to refill the soap. Every day we had to call housekeeping. No towel animals at all. Teppanyaki chef was in a hurry and not nearly as entertaining as they have been in the past. The cruise director was nowhere to be seen except his daily commercials over the speaker. On the last sea day it was windy and cloudy. The lead singer of the band at the pool threw a hissy fit and refused to perform and stalked off ... not a drop of rain fell and there was no lightning. The cruise director again, didn't apologize or even substitute any other entertainment. No DJ no music, no games, nothing at all. After losing the first afternoon due to NCL's double duty as a cargo ship we still wanted to hang outside even though it was cloudy, but with no entertainment and cloudy weather it became a boring afternoon. The food at Le Bistro was excellent along with Moderno and those were the only high points. Debarkation was smooth. I enjoyed my Fury Catamaran snorkeling and beach excursion as the beach was very uncrowded. However we only got to snorkel about 30 minutes and I was told it would be 45 to an hour. This was Ok since the water was pretty cold and there wasn't that much to see on this reef and it isn't very colorful. The boat ride and the beach were nice and with the $50 excursion credit the deal was great. We stayed at the brand new Four Points Sheraton airport prior to the cruise and it is great. We will stay there again before cruising out of Miami - though maybe not on NCL again ... too bad as I finally reached Gold status.