We are not first time cruisers but have been cruising for 20 years. Nor are we whiners who expect perfection in every area, so this is an honest account of our experience on the NCL Joy 16 day Panama Canal Cruise:

We arrived at the pier in Los Angeles (San Pedro) at around 10:30 and were checked in quickly and escorted to a special area in the building to enjoy snacks, drinks and at around 11:30 we were escorted to the ship by an attendant for the haven and concierge guests. We had a Family Inside Concierge with a virtual balcony for 4 people (adults) and let me tell you it was so roomy and nice to have plenty of room to move around and enjoy the space. The concierge we had (Reynoldo) introduced himself the next morning at breakfast and I can only speak for us, but we used him a lot so as not to have to stand in line at Guest Services to get things done. He took care of our go kart reservations (all 3 times), laser tag reservations, our dining reservations, our entertainment reservations and any time we had a problem he made it right. Because we were concierge, we could eat breakfast and lunch in La Cucina and it was never busy for those even though the food was the same every day for 16 days.

As for the ship, it was beautiful. You could tell it was new and well taken care of and it was very clean and elegant looking. Read more