This weekend cruise was incredible. I did a series of short and cheap cruises in April/May 2009 as a way to escape the realities of my mom having passed on February 9 from numerous cancers that went undetected in her body until a couple weeks before it took her to be reunited with my dad.

That said, and the fact I overall enjoyed but had a few choice things to say about my Norwegian Star experience in September 08 (my ONLY other NCL experience, see review here:http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=46990), keep in mind this could have been an EPIC flop!

Embarkation at Canada Place with 3 ships docked is simply a HOT MESS. I understand that's not NCL's fault and I don't expects them to pick days to go in and out of cities when no one else is there, but it took FOREVER to get checked in. More than 2 hours in line, start of the season confusion among port staff etc. Not why I gave it a 3 though... that is because, like last time, they herd you through one photo line, don't let those that are uninterested bypass the line, and push worse than car salesmen if you say no thanks once you've been in the latest line for the last 10 minutes... At least have several photo lines going if you aren't going to have a "No thanks" line for those that don't care about the embark photo. Read more