A Panama Canal crossing has long been a bucket list, and the opportunity to see so many other countries was also an attraction. Unfortunately, NCL dropped Honduras and Guatemala from the ports of call, substituting another port for Honduras and gaining another sea day instead of Guatemala. We never did get a clear answer regarding why Guatemela was dropped, and the email communications from NCL were rather curt and uninformative.

Embarkation and disembarkation were both very efficient. We took advantage of the Port Valet program in Seattle in which we received our Alaska Airlines boarding passes on board, our luggage was whisked away to the airport and we didn't see it again until we landed at SFO!

Excursions were handled efficiently with buses usually waiting on the pier for us. A tender was needed only in Cabo San Lucas. Not all of the excursions were accurately described on the NCL site, however, particularly the day in Nicaragua during which we spent 75% of the 8 hour day bouncing around on bumpy roads for 2 short visits to Old and Colonial Leon. I will review those on the NCL site. I chose the $50 per port excursion credit, but had to go up to the excursion desk (twice) and get that credit applied to my account. It wasn't done automatically. Read more