We chose this cruise because my husband was doing his CME (Continuing Medical Education) credits on board. This was our FIRST NCL cruise. We have sailed on ocean cruises numerous times with a variety of cruise lines from Deluxe to Luxury; we have also sailed with a private company in the Galapagos as well as river cruises in Europe. Both my husband and I were both pleasantly surprised. The positives: (1) embarkation was a breeze, (2) Officers, Staff & Crew were overall very polite, friendly and helpful, (3) the ship was maintained spotlessly clean and very nicely decorated, (4) easy on and off in ports of call, and all were very different and loads of FUN!, (5) service tended to be spot on, (6) entertainment was better than we had expected, (7) a wide variety of food selection offerings in both the main restaurants and buffets which was surprisingly DELICIOUS!, (8) no Hard Sells pitches for this and that, which was refreshing ... and (9) finally -- THE PASSENGERS! Passengers can make or break your experience on a cruise. The passengers on this cruise were respectful, very nice, and very friendly. That truly does leave a lasting impression, and does make a difference in how much everyone onboard enjoys their cruise. Now ... for the not so positives: (1) Balcony cabin was very small and the bathroom was very poorly designed, (2) NCL holds a monopoly on those passengers that are short on time and are willing to fly out to Hawaii to take a cruise. There are other cruises (from NCL's closest competitors) leaving from the West Coast that are less expensive, and this includes a Transpacific crossing. Having said that, I believe the price point is just a tad high for this particular voyage. (3) Logistics nightmare for seeing the Comedian for the second time during the voyage. He was moved from the theater to a much smaller venue. The 7:30 show was a Mad House and Mayhem; no where to sit, the servers couldn't get to people to serve drinks, there was a Crew member shouting at passengers to leave and come back for the 10:30 show; honestly, upon further review I really can't blame him, but it definitely was not the way I wanted to end our cruise. We just decided to leave as we had no other choice. So, suggestion here would be to add an additional time for the Comedian as he was very funny, and we are sorry we missed his second show. IN SUMMARY: Overall, we would sail with NCL again. However, we try to compare apples to apples when we make our cruise selections, and we generally like to UP PAY for more inclusions. NCL's business model is more on the simple side of you get meals & board along with your entertainment; what I refer to as "deluxe" cruises. We have become quite spoiled with our voyages on "premium" and "luxury" lines. We generally upgrade on our voyages, or we receive some additional perks such as premium beverage packages, pre-paid gratuities, Wi-Fi, and on some of our voyages, Shore Excursions! However, we knew this going into it, and overall, I would have to say that this particular voyage with NCL exceeded our expectations, and we would consider sailing with them again.