My family and I have sailed on eight cruises in total - seven with Thomson and this last one with Norwegian Cruise Line. We had no problems with Thomson and always had good cruises with them, but this year we fancied a change and we had heard good things about NCL.
EMBARKATION:
We flew from Manchester (UK) airport with Jet2. Manchester was a nightmare as we happened to be flying on the busiest Saturday in the summer (2nd August), but none of this was NCL's fault. The flight was good although they ran out of hot food as no one had chance to eat any breakfast at the airport due to the 2.5 hour queuing we endured!
My cabin was 9518 - a balcony stateroom on port side forward. The cabin was large (certainly for one person!) clean, and had very good storage space. The bed was extremely comfortable. The bathrooms were extremely sufficient, the shower was wonderful and hot water came on straight away. The balcony was a good size and we were able to fit three chairs with no problems (for when my mum and grandma commandeered my balcony! - they had an ocean view stateroom on Deck 8, which was perfectly lovely too) There was a thick curtain behind the drapes that blocked out any of the ship's lights at night, and it was beautifully quiet - you could barely tell we were on a ship!My cabin steward Arbee was excellent. He greeted me every time we passed each other in the corridor and the room was always spotless.I highly recommend this cabin.