We chose this cruise for a few reasons. One being that we live in the Northeast, so escaping the cold came it at number 1. Secondly, it offered an itinerary that included a few islands we had not yet been to. Third, being as school holidays were past us, we didn’t think there would be many children on board.

This cruise took off from San Juan and included the ‘free air’ (with the words ‘or reduced’ underneath and in the smallest available font) advertised by Norwegian. We did wind up, by the way, paying $149 each for the free air. My initial fear was that we’d be flying from JFK (where flights to PR abound) to an overnight in Cincinnati followed by three stops on the way to San Juan. To my amazement, though, they gave us a non-stop flight at a reasonable time. Upon arrival, we were met by almost a dozen red-shirted Norwegian agents along the way who assisted the 10 or so passengers onto the bus and off to the cruise port. Very orderly, no problems.

The line at the cruise port? Well, there wasn’t any. We walked right up to the next available counter person and within five minutes or so were checked onboard the ship. There were no lines at the elevator and we zoomed right up to the tenth floor. Read more