About Me: I'm a 31 year old male who traveled with my mid-60's mother. A cruising friend of mine also came along traveling solo in a standard interior cabin. For me this was my 26th cruise and 15th with Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL). I've traveled several brands including Princess, Royal Caribbean and even once on Carnival. My most recent cruise was on Celebrity Millennium to Asia. I tend to gravitate to the Freestyle Cruising concept because it's easier to deal with for luggage then hauling a suit everywhere and it tends to be more hip than other lines. I've sailed on every class of NCL ships including Jewel, Dawn, Spirit, Sun and the one-off EPIC. It was mom and I and some 2,800 other guests for this transatlantic voyage.

Embarkation: Since we were so close we walked to the terminal as we stayed at the Holiday Inn next door. We happened to enter by the porters who took our luggage right away. The lines were crazy for non-Latitudes members while other queues were empty. Being a Platinum Latitudes I entered the queue and was handled within 10 minutes time. We sat briefly in the boarding area waiting for our color to be called and tried to enter the ship. On the gangway from the terminal shore-side experienced a power outage just as we were to cross to the ship. The lady on it yelled at us and told us to stop and come back. So close to the ship and yet so far! It was a good 10 minutes in the stifling entry way before we were cleared to board. All the while Denis Prguda, Breakaway's Hotel Director, was talking to us from the ship. Finally we were allowed to board the ship and told our cabins were ready. We immediately went there to dump off our bags before grabbing some lunch.

Balcony Stateroom 11160: The first thing I noticed were the lights not turning on when pressed. I saw the keycard holder and stuck it in and voala lights! I didn't realize the keycard holder also applied to every single outlet in the room and once removed anything plugged in stopped charging! What a silly way to design the electrical system but a good workaround is to put a card of some kind in the slot and just leave it there. This posed a problem with NCL's new design for being in the cabin for the stateroom attendants. If the white indicator on the left was on it meant you were in the room, if not then you were out of the room. Our indicator was constantly on. The middle red one was for do not disturb and the green was for make up cabin. I like the click wheels on the Jewel / Dawn class ships far better than this concept! Moving into the room the couch is very spacious and the beds were in a twin configuration, when I opened the balcony door and stepped out I saw why. Where is the balcony I paid for? It was the size of a postage stamp and if I wanted just an ocean view cabin I would have paid far less than I did! The balcony was super disappointing. Since the weather was chilly I didn't get to spend too much time on it but I did spend a little time each day. You couldn't sit comfortably facing forward without having your knees in the glass of the balcony wall / railing. You had to move the chair sideways and either face forward or aft to sit comfortably. The balcony was also made out of plastic except for where the supports were underneath attaching it to the ship. I thought this was strange. I've never seen balconies like that before. I suppose it's good to cut down on rust and makes the ship lighter in weight (fuel efficiency). Read more