So, my wife wanted to originally fly to Bermuda and get an Air BnB. With the wonkiness of air travel and flights getting cancelled left and right, we decided to take a cruise instead. I have been on Royal Caribbean in 2003 and 2004, Carnival in 2019, and now Norwegian. We had booked a balcony room and it was a total of four of us. I will say overall, it’s a solid product. Now before I went, I read some of the reviews and I definitely had reservations. However, after being on the cruise, I felt that at a minimum, some complaints were listened to by NCL.

Embarkation - Yes, the lines were long, but they moved pretty well. Getting through security was about 20 minutes with an additional 10-15 minutes for checking in. Not a terrible experience overall. There were photographers there but they weren’t pushy or anything which was nice. I was also told by staff there that this ship didn’t need to be turned over as it had come from another itinerary. I was told the NCL Breakaway the week prior was a disaster. It seems that everything goes smooth so long as there’s no turnaround.

Room - The balcony room was clean and comfortable. I have had larger rooms in the same class on different ships but it was fine. Just an observation, they didn’t do the towel animals. I don’t think that’s a big deal personally but I’m guessing it’s to save time. That’s not a problem for me. Read more