we chose this ship because we had never sailed on a "mega" ship before. this was our 26th cruise and our fifth on Norwegian. we are both in our seventies and avid cruisers. we took a cruise aboard the Star two years ago and had a very good time. however, this particular ship we would never sail on again.

it started out with norwegian contacting us the day before when we were taking the train up to nyc; they called to say there was a medical emergency and that the ship would be late. well, it was too late for us to cancel our hotel reservation for that night or to remake train reservations without penalty. we took the train up in anticipation of a minor ship delay, got there in the pouring rain and it poured the next day also which necessitated us having to pay an additional half day's rate for an extra six hours at the Chelsea Courtyard Marriott. The room at the Marriott was about as small a room as you could imagine, more like a walk-in closet. we had to open our luggage in front of the door because there was no room to open it anywhere else, so you can imagine having to spend one night there in the teeny, tiny room and then having to spend an extra six hours because of the pouring rain. plus, norwegian kept giving us a later and later arrival time and they didn't want anyone arriving at the terminal before 5:30, then eight, and then it was 10, etc.

marriott kindly arranged a car for us (possibly uber or lfyt) and after going through a major hassle trying to even get to the terminal, the new york port authority pulled his car out of the massive lineup that took and hour and a half to even approach the terminal and told our driver that he would have to circle around and get in the back of the line and start the process all over again. the driver had already missed an airport pickup and probably another pickup, so he ceremoniously dumped us three blocks from the terminal where we had to then schlep all our luggage over cobbled sidewalks to terminal 88 in the pouring rain. Read more