My sister and I chose NCL because we have cruised the line before (GEM-East coast) and liked the itinerary - Barcelona, Rome, Naples (Napoli), Cannes, Palma, Livorno. We arrived in Barcelona after an almost 8 hour smooth flight-night our time, so we slept most of it. Our shuttle pick-up was late. We booked in to the Vasanta hotel—fabulous service and clean rooms. We had pre-booked tickets to explore the Nativity tours of the Sagrada Familia Cathedral (we were given a phone type box to be able to hear the history of the church)---so breathtaking. Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped into a grocery store and bought some yogurt, and bananas and blueberries to have for dinner that night and breakfast the next morning. We were told the hotel would be serving coffee and 'sweets' at 8:30 but we would be checked out by then. The next morning we had a tour with Barcelona City tours; we were picked us up at the hotel and after seeing amazing sites, including, Guell Park, the Olympic rings, we were taken to the ship.

Embarkation was quick and easy. Hardly any waiting time. We arrived, dropped our luggage outside for it to be delivered to our room and headed inside to get our room cards. My sister did have to get her photo retaken onboard, as there was some issue on that end. Guest services took care of the matter quickly and efficiently.

We overheard a crew member telling another group of people rooms wouldn't be ready until 2PM. We checked anyway and cabin 9053 was prepped for our week stay. Our cabin steward never made an appearance to us, but the room was always well taken care of. CONS: the lighting wasn’t very good for applying make-up, and the bathroom set-up: toilet separated with a smoky glass door, same for the shower and a red curtain to pull across to give a little more privacy. Read more