A bit of background on us, we are a professional married couple, both of us in our 50's. This was our 7th cruise, the second on NCL.

My wife and I booked this cruise as a last minute cruise, lately we have found that it works out better for us to pick a week that we can get cheap airfare, then work a cruise later. We had our first NCL experience on the Sky last October and really liked it, so the decision was between NCL and Carnival this time. Called CAS and found that we were eligible for a comped inside, deal done! We upgraded to a balcony on 10th floor midship, great choice.

We had rented a car in Tampa the week before and drove to Miami Sunday morning. National and Alamo have a free shuttle to the port, which works out great. Dropped off the car at around 1:00 and were on board around 2 or so. I had 3 bottles of wine in my carry-on, security saw them and escorted me to the corkage table where I paid $15 per bottle, which was expected. My wife had a 6 pack of Coke and water in her carry-on and they never said anything about them. Read more