I chose this cruise mainly because I wanted to view the fall leaves and also end in Boston, where my son is now living. It was an opportunity to visit family as well as going to new places and learning a bit of history. I am not new to cruising, but I will say I have not had these experiences on any other cruises I have taken.

Norwegian Customer service staff is not helpful. My first tip off should have been when I called Norwegian's customer service before the cruise. I was double checking what the travel agent had told me. I had a late flight into Quebec and I was concerned with getting on board the ship if I missed the first day's last boarding time, which I had been told was 11 PM. The travel agent told me if I did miss this time, I could board the next morning after 9 AM, since the ship would not sail until after 5 PM. The Norwegian agent told me that I should have called them directly because I really did need to get on board the ship that first day and my travel agent should have told me that. I was so appalled that I called back and spoke with another Norwegian agent who said that my travel agent was correct and that I could board the following day in the event I was unable to make it there the first night. (I made it at 11:05 PM and got on the ship – yeah!) Once on board, you will have to figure out for yourself where to find things, what deck to take to disembark and the time to be back on the ship, etc. If you miss the one sentence in the announcement that tells you this, you are out of luck. They also do not respond to complaints. I did so in person and also wrote a complaint to them regarding my sleeping room and the noise. I was NEVER contacted by any customer service personnel. This is unacceptable. We were awakened every night by the cleaning crew in the restaurant that was directly above our room. This vacuum should have been used during the day when everyone was awake and the restaurant was closed. The Oceanview sleeping room was nice, the 1:00 AM wake up was not.

Sydney is a stop that is not worth going to - there is nothing worth seeing, unless you want to take an hour-long trip (one way) and pay far too much money to see Alexander Graham Bell's house. We did not see many leaves turning color and we had assumed we would see them as the ship went along. Not so. You mainly see water only. No land. We did take a few hop off and on tours and did see a few trees with leaves changing color. If you think a tour will be cancelled due to weather, think again! If it is raining cats and dogs and you can't see anything out of your window, you will go anyway so be wary of timing and weather. Read more