We have exclusively sailed Disney Cruise Line. We wanted to sail during Thanksgiving week and DCL was very expensive for the same itinerary and ports (minus Grand Bahama). NCL was for the right price and decided to give it a try. It seems that NCL's schtick is Free at Sea. We booked a balcony cabin which allowed you to choose all Free at Sea offers. This meant we would receive (for 1st and 2nd guests only) a beverage package, 100 minutes internet (1st guest only), $50 shore excursion credit (1st guest only), and dining package (1 meal for 1st and 2nd guest). We booked early. We didn't realize that prices go down closer to sailing. DCL only goes up. We were following the DCL pricing model. We didn't book excursions ahead of time because if you book online, they have to be pre-paid. That wasn't an issue. Everything we wanted to do was available to book on the ship. We prepaid the service charges before our cruise. The free beverage package isn't truly free because you have to prepay the gratuities for it at the time of booking. Plus, depending on your port, you may pay taxes on the drinks. At that point, we were good. We paid everything and prepared for our trip. One last-minute change was room. I upgraded from a balcony to a mini-suite. When all was said it done, I only paid $60 extra for the upgrade.

Embarkation: As we pull in, we follow the road signs directing us to Terminal 5. The person directing traffic points us to the proper parking deck marking the last occasion we’d get information on how to embark. We park the car, follow some folks towards a terminal. There are no signs welcoming you, no signs informing you where to drop bags off or check in, and no signs even indicating you’re here for an NCL cruise. We make our way to the top floor of the terminal with bags still in tow and are greeted by an NCL agent who sees us and says right this way to pass security and check in. Ok, maybe they take our bags after security, again we only know DCL. Next, we are greeted by another NCL agent prior to security who directs us to the security queue. We pass through security and are greeted by another agent who sees we still have our bags but directs us to check in. We wait in line for a few minutes when we meet our check in agent. She starts checking us in (she was very nice and helpful) and we finally ask “when do you take our bags?” She responds with “oh no, another one? They should have told you to take them to the porters”. Mr. NCL manager made his way over and confirmed that we need to exit through security and take our luggage down the escalators to the porters then come back through security again. Once we had that taken care of, we waited about 20 minutes to board the ship. That process was surprisingly smooth.

Ship: The sun artwork on the hull is very nice. I really like this aspect of Norwegian ships. For the most part, everything was clean. Rust could be seen in a few areas and the windows were always dirty on the outside. There was never a clear window outside except for our stateroom. The tables were not bussed in a timely manner or there was some trash in the common areas. The ship was easy to navigate and we never had any issues getting around. Read more