We were a little hesitant about booking a cruise with NCL, considering some negative reviews, but we were pleasantly surprised. This was our first time with freestyle cruising. As we are easy going travelers, we focused on the positive. Read on.. We flew from Montreal Canada on KML to Athens via Amsterdam. Great service, good food, complimentary drinks, left and arrived on time. All in all, wonderful airline. Upon arrival in Athens, at door 4, you get in line for an assigned taxi. Cost was 30euros from airport to downtown hotel. Stayed at 3*Hotel Crystal City. Very clean, modern quaint hotel situated 2 minutes from metro (3 stops to Acropolis)(3euros all day all transportation). Day one in Athens, visited the Acropolis (12 euros) and ecological sites nearby and the Plaka area (shopping and restaurants). All very worth the visit. A five hour walk. Day 2 went up to Mount Lycabytus. Walked up (many steps)Ploutarchou Street to take the tram ( 6 euros) up the mount. Wonderful view and soooo peaceful...Returned to the hotel by Athinas street(Athens market) and the Syntagma square. Day of cruise: took a cab to the Piraeus pier. Make sure you get dropped at your designated cruise gate. The port is huge. Embarkation: We arrived at NCL gate at 11:30. Wonderful, warm, efficient welcome/embarkation with welcome champagne. 15 minutes later, we had changed and were in the hot tub. An amazing lunch buffet was already set. Staterooms were ready by 2 pm. Quick and painless muster drill at 4:30 At 5pm, had an informal meet and greet with cruise critic mates. It was nice meeting cruisemates and organizing tours together. The ship: It is beautiful, elegant and very clean. Bright colors, still a few Hawaiian decors. Lots to explore on our first day. Stateroom: 11086 (minisuite)on deck 11 aft. This is by far the best stateroom we have had. It was spacious, spotless and functional. The washroom, complete with tub was very spacious, lots of storage, quality hairdryer, make-up mirror, coffee maker, robes, the most comfortable bed and crisp linen. The patio was also spacious with comfortable chairs. We felt spoiled. We met our room steward only the next day. We were always out when he tended to our room. Every evening upon returning to our room, there was always a surprise: a towel animal, chocolate, free bingo cards, cookies etc...Our room was always well cleaned...You may want to consider an upgrade to a minisuite. Well worth it.  Note: there is a sign by the stateroom door where you indicate if you want your room cleaned or not. Food: We ate most of our meals in the Grand Pacific dining room. We found it elegant and cozy. We asked for a table for 2 and were always accommodated. A couple of times, we waited 15 minutes and used their beeper. We found the menu to have an adequate variety of appetizers, entrees and desserts ( best soufflEs ever). The food was tasty for the most part and well presented. Portions were adequate for us.My DH was disappointed about lobster night when he received half a lobster tail with other fish. Let's bring back the full lobster!! The dining staff was attentive, courteous (some staff were a little impersonal at first but talking and joking a bit tended to warm them up.) They made our dining experience very positive. We ate a couple of evenings at the buffet and were pleased with the variety of hot and cold foods. The crepes were delicious. We usually went for breakfast at the aft section of the Garden Cafe and ate outdoors-way more relaxing and not so hectic. There was even a cappuccino machine-yummy!! Cannot comment on the specialty restaurants. We especially enjoyed the freestyle experience. Eat when you want....much more relaxing than the usual formal setting. Also, we noted that guests mostly wore nice casual wear and very few men wore jackets to dinner.(Note: there is much emphasis on hand cleansing- at every restaurant entrance and at the gangway upon returning to the ship). After our visit to Egypt, the staff served everything for a few days.( So much work for them.) We would cut it down to two days. Entertainment: Fair We particularly enjoyed Showdown, Smokey Joe's Cafe and the music of singer/guitarist Eugene Villarino.There were no dance production shows. You be the judge of other shows venues....Show themes need updating to this millennium. People and things we appreciated and enjoyed: The staff: they are hard-working, courteous and friendly people who deserve nothing less than much respect and praise. And they DO appreciate praise. If we had to prepare omelets 7 days a week for 10 months, maybe we would find it difficult to smile and smile...Congratulations to all for work well done and for helping make our vacation fabulous.  The visibility/availability of the captain: He greeted us twice daily on the intercom, had a question/answer session and even attended our formal cruise critic meet and greet along with a few heads of department. Thank you, captain and your staff for doing your job so well and providing us with a beautiful ship and safe voyage. The jacuzzi opened till 10pm.This allows quiet relaxing time at the end of the day.  The pool area. Loved the return your towel policy. There was always somewhere to lounge quietly and the pools and the jacuzzis were warm and clean. Great!!! A well stocked library which I used. A very smooth ship cruise. The ocean was mostly calm- this was by far the smoothest cruise. Cannot comment on the casino, the spa and the various bars. Also, we did not do any of the ship's tours. We organized tours on our own. Ports: (THESE ARE OUR OPINIONS) Katakolon: A small port center. We walked around for a bit and returned to the ship. Corfu: We walked around this beautiful sea side city surrounded by castles- large squares and shopping boulevards. Really enjoyed this port. Cairo: huge city of 25 millions, crowded and dirty. We took a two day tour of Cairo and Alexandria with DeCastro-two days without overnight. Good experience. Tours are the only way to visit these ports- congested traffic, language, long distance between attractions. We would not have felt safe visiting this city on our own. We visited Sakkarra (the step pyramid) the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, the archaeological museum. 13 hours long Note: About the camel ride: Get your guide to arrange a price before climbing up and think twice about handing out your camera to have pictures taken.... All in all, a wonderful learning experience. Totally happy to have visited here. Alexandria: Again, a huge bustling crowded city with beautiful beaches and large town squares. Again, it is well worth to take a tour of this city The library was amazingly grand and beautiful. We visited: Quiat bay fort, Montazah Palace,Catacomb of Kom El Shokafa, Pompeii's pillar. Iraklion (Crete):We walked around and appreciated the beautiful venetian buildings( churches castles and fountains).Interesting port. Santorini:The view of Fira up the cliffs of Santorini is fabulous. This is a tendered port, arrived early to use funicular up to the city. Once there, we took a local bus to Oia. What a delightful traditional village perched on the top of impressive cliffs. We walked around quite a bit and took in the local flavor. We advise you take a cab back to Fira as buses don't run very often We were enchanted with Fira as well. Lots of maze-like streets, great shopping and panoramic restaurants. Very clean village.We walked down the donkey trail ( thought it would be quicker than the queue at the funicular. (Think twice about doing this- it was long, slippery and smelly). We wouldn't advise it- unless you're in very good physical shape. Mykonos: This was one of our favorite ports. We walked up to the windmills and then through the winding streets to end downtown and stop for a drink in one of the many seaside restaurants. A beautiful setting. The ship provided a shuttle to the entrance of the town. We understand why celebrities would want to vacation here. It is beautiful, and the weather was perfect. Izmir: The third largest city in Istanbul and its port is second only to Istanbul. We thoroughly enjoyed this port. We took an Ephesus tour with travel@kusadasihotels.biz. Great tour. The visit to the ancient city of Ephesus and the terrace houses(a must to see), the temple of Artemis, the House of Virgin Mary and St John Basilica including lunch was one of the highlights of our vacation. Istanbul: We disembarked in this large city/port. Efficient disembarkation. Try to bargain a taxi price to your hotel(around 10$), some drivers can be brutal with the prices.We had booked a hotel for 3 days, so we went directly to our hotel, registered and then took off to visit the sights. The blue Mosque, Haga Sophia and the Grand Bazaar.(4000 shops of carpets, jewelry, leather and souvenirs. We had enough after an hour.) Day 2. We visited the Basilica Cisterns and the Topkapi Palace and walked along the seaside promenade. Here again, the street are all cobblestones and winding not to mention climbing... perfect to keep in shape. All the sights are worthwhile visiting. We enjoyed Istanbul and all that we saw and learned. For the most part, the areas in the old city were adequately clean and safe. The call to prayer begins at 5:30 am and is repeated all of 5 times a day. We did get asked to buy carpets quite a lot. You need liras to purchase most items in this city. We stayed at Hotel Azyiade, a charming 4* old city hotel 10 minutes walk to the tram and all the sights. Good value for the price. Check it out. This was a fabulous vacation, full of history and incredible sights. We walked so much, I do believe we lost weight even with the great food on board. And the weather was perfect during the entire vacation. We returned home with Air France via Paris (again a wonderful airline with superb service).While travelers tend to compare services offered on various cruise ships, we feel that they vary according to cruise lines. We enjoyed some new perks on this cruise and tried not to compare. We will not hesitate traveling with NCL again and we do recommend this cruiseline to future travelers.