It started out rocky when we had zero idea where to deposit our bags- so we were one of the few dragging our bags through the entire check in process. We asked for assistance or direction of where we should drop them and were told to just keep bringing them with us.... not exactly easy but we did it. The ship itself is updated and clean. The pool area is very small. This is my 4th cruise and first with NCL, I'm used to an area that is open with little shops and where you feel like you are in a big mall or walking down a city street- this cruise doesn't have such an area. Besides the staff in the Garden Cafe,no one else was very personable at all. God help you if you go to an art auction.... those people are the worst! So pushy... and then if you ever buy a piece of art, they will never leave you alone. They advertise those auctions as offering champagne.... that's if they feel like it. One auction we got a sip of champagne, the other we got none. The kids activities are fine, not exactly plentiful but the rules are not standard by each staff member. One woman running the ropes course told me I couldn't be damp at all from the pool and I must have shorts, t shirt, closed toed shoes. So after exiting the pool my daughter and I wait an hour, we have dry clothes on top - bathing suit may still be a little damp but not overly so. She suited up my daughter just fine, when it was time for me - she was like "maam I told you that you have to be completely dry" my daughter pipes up and she's like "well what about me, I'm more damp than her (she's 12.... she doesn't get it just yet) and the lady said "well now you can't go either!!" and had her take the contraption off! Waterslide that same day, my daughter has a tight fitting plastic bracelet which is actually a halibut tag that she never removes - 1 person let her through with it on, next person did not. I think the biggest downside of this cruise compared to all the others that I've gone to... the food. It is soooo super basic, like cafeteria food in all the main restaurants. Specialty is a bit better but the food served at the cirque du solei show..... cold french fries... cold steak.... cold broccoli....and no matter where you go the bread is always served cold. We are big dessert people and never found 1 dessert besides ice cream to our liking... most of it was some weird gelatinous stuff. Disembarking was the absolute worst I've ever encountered... picture a line that starts on one end of the ship and wraps all the way to the next end of the ship and back again... took us over an hour. This will be the last NCL cruise I take.