We booked this cruise because we liked the itinerary and wanted to see the entire Panama Canal. My father was stationed there during WWII and I wanted to travel the canal from the Pacific to the Atlantic. We usually book cruises that are at least 14 days. We cruised on the Gem seven years ago and we liked the renovations. NCL is our preferred cruise line. We like freestyle dining and like the casual dress code. NCL always has great entertainment and we were not disappointed. The Starlight Theater easily accommodates the number of passengers and there was never shortage of seats. Because NCL offered a great incentive for shore excursions, we booked one in 10 ports. We were happy with all of them with the exception of one. When I complained to the shore excursion manager, he looked into my concerns and took 20% off the cost and sent a bottle of wine to our cabin. It was nice to book through the cruise line because I never had to worry about getting back to the ship in time. My only complaint is the lack of variety of ship activities during the sea days. We like educational lectures about the area and the speaker they booked was disappointing. All in all it was an outstanding cruise. We are looking forward to cruising again in June on the NCL Spirit.