My husband and I have been on several cruises, and generally enjoy everything that cruising has to offer. We live near Tallahassee Florida and can avail ourselves to several ports within driving distance. We booked the Norwegian Spirit, found a hotel that offered cruise parking (The Holiday Inn Select near Tulane Medical Center) and made the drive in an easy 5 hours. We arrived a day early, checked in (great hotel by the way) and went down to the riverfront to walk the Riverfront Mall. (Been there at least a dozen times, still love it) Hubby walked Bourbon Street later (a few short blocks from the hotel) and watched Nicholas Cage get arrested for drunk and disorderly). The next day the free shuttle from the hotel dropped us off, we check in our luggage and proceeded to check in. We are Latitude members, and we checked in quickly and waited for our group to be called. By noon we were on board and went to the restaurant (not the grill) for lunch. Not every knows, but there is always a full service restaurant open on embarkation day around noon.

The food and service at all the restaurants were great - we've never ever been disappointed in NCL in this area. (We've also been on Sun and Jewel, and have the Star booked for Feb 2012).

The ship was immaculate, no signs of disrepair, and port calls were handled professionally. Our cabin steward was perfect, great. I have visited all the ports several times, so I stayed on board, and got to enjoy the luxury of the empty pool and sun deck. There were a few other veteran cruisers who were there also. Read more