My wife and I are avid cruisers. We're usually among the younger couples on a cruise, but we've literally cruise around the world on many cruise lines and many many ships. But, I had never cruised on NCL. After hearing some good NCL reviews from my inlaws, we all planned a family trip together and off we went...

Let me start by saying our first day started with car troubles. It happens. But on our ride down to Miami we read our cruise documents and were a bit concerned with the 2pm deadline to be on the ship. The ship wasn't scheduled to leave until 4:30pm and having been on many cruises, we know some people take their sweet time getting on last minute. Still, we called NCL to be cautious (car issues we had made it a tight window to get there by 2). The NCL rep on the phone said 2:30pm was the cut off. Our in laws, who had boarded, asked and were told 3:30pm. It would be nice for NCL just to be honest and clear with this information. Despite best efforts, emergencies do occur and people need to know the honest time. If they cant make it, let them know and they can turn around before driving all the way there just to be turned around.

The embarkation process was smooth as people mentioned. But no, there's no excitement, dancing or extreme friendliness. In fact, the security at the metal detector consists mainly of a group of gril gossiping about their lives and not really caring about the guests. I actually tried to make friendly comments and was ignored because they were too busy with non work related drama talk. But got on board quickly and our room was ready. It's true there was no guidance or assistance, just hop on and go find your room. Read more