We enjoyed the cruise. We like the "free-style dining" which makes it easy for families with kids, and there were many families with kids from Many, Many different countries, ethnic groups. etc. Food was fresh, well prepared, plentiful, but not fancy. We like that. We would have enjoyed more variety of fruits.
There was one grandfather, stocky, heavy set, feeding his grandson breakfast ever so tenderly, gentle and caring. After eating, they walked hand-in-hand to play. To me, scenes like that are heart-warming, especially when we came from daily news blasting of all that violence in the Mid-East. Kids were well behaved and polite. Of course, on board, these are all well-educated, affluent families. Still, there may be a slimmer of hope that people can eventually live peacefully side by side.
We managed to signed up for shore excursions with Curio Travels for Istanbul and Ethesus, and Can't-be-Missed Tours for Naples & Pompeii, which were good. NCL excursion tours seem to have too many people, so too much waiting to get started. Also, the independent tours cost much less. Finding independent tours pre-cruise were difficult - we would have appreciated more help from Expedia.
Our major disappointment was the up-grade of our balcony stateroom. Expedia agent had mentioned an up-grade. We were looking forward to a large room/suite at the back of the ship. We got a tiny room, tiny shower, no tub. There were 3 of us. When the sofa bed is pulled out, there is no room to turn around.