My final review of the Norwegian experience: fabulous ship, accommodations, and amenities; first-class buffets; too-fancy-for-my-tastes menus; not-so-great service; superior disembarkation process. The entertainers were outstanding but I was a bit disappointed that the cruise director wasn’t part of the entertainment like on Carnival. Oh, and towel animals… a joke. Overall, a very positive experience and we’ll definitely cruise with NCL again. 

Outside the terminal, we caught a shuttle to the car rental location, upgraded our reservation to something big enough for two more people and their bags, and hit the road. The drive was full of fun conversations, stories, and laughs. We took our time, made a couple stops, and had a nice lunch when we got to Orlando. We then dropped our luggage at my sissy’s, found a hotel for S&W, returned the rental car, and crashed my cousin’s Halloween/anniversary party with strangers. Hopefully, S&W had a good time. It was one of my cousin’s best parties to date and we had a blast. Sadly, we left super early due to exhaustion from the long day and anticipation of another long day driving home tomorrow.

clumps of little checkered snails all along our walk

We went all the way around until we were facing Carnival’s private island and found a very quiet beach. There were only a handful of people there as opposed to the hundreds of folks in the water where the tenders came in.

tarantulla looking crab

alien looking crab

Since it is insanely hot and humid down here, and I was wearing my long sleeved shirt in order to avoid sun exposure, I readily submerged myself in the lovely water.

trying to pet the fishy

Before long, S joined me and the two of us floated around a bit in the rocky shallows.

S floating with carnival's island in the distant background

We were even joined by one of the dancers from the ship and we got to talk to her for a while about what it’s like to be a part of the entertainment crew on a large cruise ship. When it started to look like the weather was going to change for the worse,

pearl, parasail, and precipitation - oh my!

S and I headed back to the main area to start looking for our respective boys.

my boy is so easy to find

There was a ridiculously long line to tender back to the ship so we decided to rest in the shaded hammocks and wait for the crowds to subside.

S&W holding down a hammock

me and hubby hammocking

Good choice on our part.

birdy in the tree

We made it back to the ship about an hour before leaving port and headed our separate ways to get cleaned up and rested. We then met up again for dinner and the shows. The main show tonight was a twofer: the comedy of David Naster followed by the comic juggling of Sharkbait.

sharkbait finale - sean on a unicycle juggling the clubs as max tosses them

Great, great show all the way around. We four then headed up to see the adult improv show that The Second City put on but I found it a bit disappointing. Considering what a great improv comedy troupe they are, I really expected the adult-only show to be hugely entertaining. It was a little “meh”. We then headed to the comfort food diner for a late night second dinner where the decision was made that S&W would hitchhike to Orlando with us tomorrow!  Before heading to bed, we had an impromptu photo shoot.

me and hubby

possibly my favoritest photo of us ever

me and S - golly she's tall!

us four

hubby juggling low

hubby juggling high

that Sharkbait was putting on while they went to a fitness seminar. After the juggling, we went to the theatre to catch the crew talent show, which was surprisingly great. The finale, “Fountains”, caught me completely off guard and cracked me up. We rested a bit, had dinner, and went to a lecture by the comedian David Naster on why we have to laugh, even (or especially) during the rough times. It was a great (and funny) talk. We then caught the late show: “Garden of the Geisha”. It was a singing/dancing show but it focused on the two acrobats so we both actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Hubby even declared it the best non-comedy show he’s seen on a cruise ship yet. From there, we started to rush up the stairs to the adults-only Liar’s Club show and we ran into S&W on the stairs on our way up. While hubby found us some seats, us three made a quick dash to check out the chocolate buffet. 

chocolate sculpture

reflection of S taking pic of chocolate sculpture

ice swan

chocolate sculpture

chocolate sculpture

ice dolphin

Luckily, I’m not much of a chocolate person so there was nothing on the whole buffet that tempted me.  S&W got a few treats and we heaed back to watch the Liar’s Club with hubby and then we all stuck around for the adults-only Quest Game.

Wow. What a great time! This was a sort of scavenger hunt sort of thing. We got into teams (us, S&W, and another couple) and they called out either objects or scenarios that we needed to run up and present to them on stage. We all know that I carry the kitchen sink in my purse… but who the heck carries a purse around on a cruise ship when all you need is your room key to make purchases? We really had such a blast. There were guys wearing lipstick and bras, chicks wearing mens’ pants and shoes… just so much fun.

After that, the fun just kept coming with a toga party in the bowling lounge. 

S striking a toga pose

hubby feeling a little "dress"y

hubby and me lounging in our greek gear

Having never been to a toga party, it was fun to learn how to make one and watch everyone trying to dance in them.

towel animal of the day: who the heck knows? no, really. what is that supposed to be?!

hubby in port

She said that would be our best chance to see an intact reef. Happily, she was right. I’m not going to say it was as nice as what we saw in Hawaii or what hubby saw in Australia, but it was by far the best we’ve seen in the Caribbean. We took a boat out to Norman’s Island and snorkeled

in two different spots. First they stopped by a couple of caves

snorkel caves

and we were given forty-five minutes to explore the caves and surrounding areas. This was where the good coral was

brain coral and fishies

staghorn coral and fishies

fan coral and fishie

– not in the caves but at the point of the cliffs.

the point where the pretty coral was

The caves were pretty neat too. There were giant schools of little minnow-like fish that were all swimming and turning in unison.

It was hypnotic to watch thousands of fishies all moving together perfectly. Also, we saw our first squid!

Two of them.

calamari anyone?

They were a lot of fun to watch

fishie squid sammich

because as we followed them around,

single squid

they’d keep changing colors to blend into their new environs.

double squid

poke!

Next we went to a little beachy area where we pulled up to a dock and were given another forty-five minutes to do what we wanted around there. I think most of the folks headed straight to the beach to rest. We stayed in the water and continued snorkeling.

yellow tang

There really wasn’t much in the way of coral around this area

coral and fishies

pretty colors

but there were tons of devil fish

lots of devil fish

look deep into my eyes

and even some barracudas

barracuda

and rays but they were too fast for pix.

fishies

blue tang

pretty red and black urchin

mini-swordfish-looking fishies

We had a great time and it was definitely the best snorkeling that we’ve had this trip.

hubby and me at norman island

view of the norman island cove

Back at the ship,

the pearl in the tortola harbor

closeup of the pearl

we enjoyed a quiet afternoon, had an early dinner, showed up a bit late to the early show, went to a mini-improv show by last night’s comedy troupe, and then went back to catch the late show too.

Tonight’s main show was a comic juggling duo by the name of Sharkbait. Good grief, they were HILARIOUS! We wanted to see what we had missed at the beginning and to see how many of their “mistakes” in the first show were actually part of the shtick (most of them). I thoroughly enjoyed the show both times and laughed heartily.

After the late show, we headed up to another lounge for the Dancing with the Pearl Stars contest. Earlier in the week, S had mentioned that she wanted to try to participate so we found them and waited to hear them call out names. As luck would have it, her name was drawn by the same crew guy that she had done the salsa class with earlier in the week. I’m not sure if other cruises we’ve been on have had this competition but it was a lot of fun to watch. Basically, there were nine crew members who drew names of nine volunteer cruise passengers and they paired up for several rounds of different dances.

gettin' down

The first few rounds, S and Jimmy were not in the top or bottom 3 so they just kind of eked by. Then they were in the bottom 3 but they made the cut. The next round they were the first ones in the top 3 and before long, they were in the final round with two other couples. The dances they did ranged from disco to polka to chicken dance so it was interesting to watch the… um… interpretations.

chicken dance, notice the couple on the floor

The final round was the last 3 couples doing the Time of My Life song from Dirty Dancing. There was some funky stuff going on up on that stage. S and Jimmy were the only ones playing straight and they were the only ones to do THE LIFT. Alas, they didn’t win,

no trophy tonight

losing to one of the topless floor wigglers. Most importantly, S had a great time and we had a lot of fun watching and rooting for her.  After that, we four headed up to the ice cream machine to find that it was closed. WHAT?! On Carnival, you can get ice cream 24×7. On this whole giant ship, the only place that you can get any sort of food after midnight is the little comfort food diner. That just doesn’t seem right to me. Also, they are much less flexible. For instance, there is a hand-dipped ice cream station in the main buffet but they refuse to put the ice cream in a bowl – cone only – and the comfort food diner serves brownie with ice cream but they will not serve ice cream alone. I just don’t get it. So, three of us got brownies with ice cream and one of us got a full meal (W must have skipped dinner!).

towel animal of the day - cool dog

port of st thomas

We didn’t sign up for an excursion in St Thomas so it was a leisurely morning of taking our time getting around. We got off the ship late in the morning and walked around the picturesque harbor.

picturesque harbor

they look like toys in a bathtub

We walked all the way around the waterside

frankly just because i think i look pretty decent

hubby, me, and the pearl

the norwegian pearl and carnival glory (our first cruise)

the pearl

and then crossed back a couple of blocks and walked back. It was interesting to be in a place that so closely resembled the states and felt very safe to walk around.

strike a pose!

I really need to read up on US Territories and what exactly that relationship means as I was surprised to see so many familiar political signs. After walking about seven miles, we stopped at Kmart for some much needed water before returning to the ship.

The afternoon was much of the same routine – buffet, nap, and watch movies. The show tonight was a comedy troupe by the name of The Second City, which is where a lot of the SNL stars like John Belushi and Bill Murray got their start. They did some rehearsed sketches and then they did some improv games. It was a really fun show.  After that, we hit the outside buffet with S&W for some ice cream

carved watermelon on the buffet

carved watermelon on the buffet

and then headed to bed.

finally, a good towel animal properly fitted with eyes/eyewear

bienvenidos samana!

lovely lushness

It is also poor. We did a horseback excursion to Salto Del Limon waterfall. We got on a bus and rode about thirty minutes inland, past many tiny, rundown shacks. There were dogs all over and you could count every one of their ribs.

The interesting thing about bus rides on excursions is learning some of the location’s history. Samana was actually colonized by Americans; slaves that had escaped via the Underground Railroad.

When we arrived at the horse ranch, we were given a demonstration on cocoa. They picked a cocoa pod (?) off a tree, busted it open, and handed out the seeds for us to sample. Sadly, they did not tell us that the proper way to sample them was to suck on them, not bite into them. As the guide was telling us how sweet the seeds are, I was wrinkling my face at the bitter taste of the one I had just bitten into. The seeds are coated in a slimy substance, which is sweet, and that is what you are supposed to suck off. Next, they explained that the cocoa we are used to is actually made from grinding up the seeds once they’ve dried. They then passed around a plate of cocoa powder, mixed with a little bit of sugar, for us to sample. Yummy.

After that, we got fitted for our horses

my horse luka

or in hubby’s case, mule.

hubby's mule manuel

Unfortunately, it turned out to not be the horseback ride that I was expecting. Instead of us getting to ride to this waterfall, we each had a non-English speaking guide that led the horse the entire way.

line of riders and leaders navigating steep terrain

The upside to this is that the trail was very muddy, rocky, and steep in places so, as an inexperienced rider, I would have been very intimidated trying to control the horse on my own. 

hubby, me, and our "steeds"

I did have a good time, though, especially when the horse, Luka, would pick up his trot a bit.

looking down on luka and his shadow

We were carried by the horses (and mules) for forty minutes or longer, up hills

beautiful terrain

land and sea

and across rivers

me and luka fording

until we got to another small ranch where we dismounted and continued on foot down a steep and rocky trail,

the trail and the falls we're headed to

zoom-in

us and our destination

across a small waterfall pool,

quick stop at the smaller falls

to the beautiful 120′ falls of Salto Del Limon.

crowded but beautiful

Truly, it was gorgeous. And, after such a wretchedly hot ride and hike, I was beyond ready to jump in.

cooling off

hubby under the falls

The pool was clear, cool, and wonderful.

falls from the pool

i was trying to take one looking up from under the falls but i kept getting pushed out

We swam around for thirty minutes or so and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

self-photo at the falls

hubby and me

love this pic of my hubby

hiding behind the rock

When we felt that we out to be going, we got out, redressed, and grabbed our guides to head back up to the horses. The refreshing feeling from the dip didn’t last long on the steep and ridiculously hot hike back up but at least there was a covered pavilion at the top for us to rest a bit while waiting for our other cruise-mates. Hubby even managed to get himself in on a friendly game of dominos with some of the locals.

hustler

On the ride back, we passed by women washing laundry on rocks in the river and their children playing nekkid in the water around them.

i didn't even notice the nekkid kid in the background when i was taking this

It was a glimpse of a very different life. Along the ride, I marveled at the fortitude of my guide, hiking effortlessly alongside my horse across steep and rough terrain in ridiculous heat. I tried my best to converse with him but my Spanish is not very strong. Hopefully he at least recognized the effort. Either way, he did his best to tell me all about our surroundings while we travelled and i did my best to understand and ask questions.  

his description: "pina colada!"

When we had returned to the ranch, hubby asked the bus guide what the average wage was for the residents here – the equivalent of $250 USD per month. I was very happy that we had remembered to put some cash in our pockets before leaving the ship this morning so that we could tip our respective guides but I wish that we had had more for them. What a life!

our guides miguel and omar

On the bus ride back to port, we made a stop in front of a school where we were quite the attraction for the children coming and going through the gates without any adult supervision in sight. The bus guide got off for a few minutes and came back with a couple loaves of fresh, warm “English bread” so named because it is the type of bread that the original American slave colonists baked. He allowed all of us to take chunks of the bread, which was very yummy. It was a sweet bread, made with coconut milk. And it helped stave off our hunger until we made it back to the ship and, ultimately, the buffet.

We ran into the Alaskan couple, S&W, who had done an ATV excursion to a waterfall. Unfortunately, it sounds like it wasn’t nearly as nice as the waterfall we went to but at least they enjoyed driving the ATVs.

Since we were already wet from the waterfall, we grabbed some food and then went to test out the pool. In the five cruises we’ve been on, this is the second time we’ve gotten in the pool. It was actually a very nice pool but the chlorine and salt water combo was a bit much for me. We sat in the Jacuzzi for a few minutes watching the deck games before finding some loungers in which to nap. Sadly, the nap didn’t last long thanks to being right in front of the very loud steel drums but our room was mere minutes away and much more comfortable for napping anyhow. We napped straight through the early show and decided to forego the late show for a late dinner. We didn’t feel too bad since it was a singing/dancing Vegas review style show and those just aren’t our favorites. We ran into S&W and went with them to the karaoke lounge where both hubby and W were brave enough to get up and sing.

hubby singing pearl jam's cover of "last kiss" - notice the giant bed lounger on the right

W singing jimmy buffet's "come monday"

W&S enjoying some karaoke

today's mediocre towel animal - snake

After seeing two menus, it seems to me that Norwegian tries to get a little fancier with their food than Carnival. For many people, I’m sure that’s a good thing.  We’re, however, not foodies. On Carnival, we’ve always enjoyed the meals as a nice treat to our simple palates. The Norwegian menus really are not appealing to me – just too much going on.  Tonight, I ordered from the “staples” part of the menu – the stuff that they will prepare every night for us snoops – a Caesar salad, steak and fries, and sherbet for dessert. The salad and fries were good. The steak was okay. The dessert…. Who knows? Hubby ordered the apple pie a la mode. Apparently, either that or the sherbet was too tall of an order. After nearly 25 minutes of not even seeing our server, we got up and left. As we were walking out, the server chased me down and asked me why we were leaving, our dessert would be right out. I told him that I didn’t believe that and that we could go up to the ice cream machine without a ridiculous wait.

So there’s my first real complaint about this cruise. While I get the whole “freestyle dining” concept, I think it diminishes service.

On Carnival, you have the same serving team every night. Here, servers were running all over the dining room waiting on tables. And a twenty+ minute wait for any dessert on a cruise ship is absurd.

Of course, by the time we decided to give up on our dessert, we had missed the first part of the late show but we managed to catch the second half of it. We don’t like to miss the comedy shows and tonight’s comedian, David Naster, was especially funny. I’m glad we were able to get to see part of it and I look forward to his shows/lectures later in the week.

After the show, we headed upstairs to the lido deck for some soft serve ice cream, as promised to our dinner server. The ice cream was wonderful and no wait was required.

lousy towel animal - seal

you'd better believe it!!!

First, let me say that the ship is absolutely gorgeous! It’s really a much nicer ship than any Carnival we’ve been on, even the Glory (why haven’t i ever posted that trip?). Not only is it spotless, but everything just seems higher-end. And the buffet… it was like a casino buffet in Vegas. So much food to choose from and tastes from all around the world. After we had sampled a few of the foods, we made our way around the upper decks.

storms moving in on miami

The pool deck is beautiful. There are two spacious pools, one that is for adults only. Each pool has two jacuzzis. The deck has a very open layout.

adult pool and hot tubs, kiddie pool in background

kiddie pool and slide, adult pool in background

We then went up one deck to the sports deck where hubby enjoyed hitting some golf balls in the “driving cage” and then serving some balls on the tennis court.

hubby in serving action

We sat and made our “bon voyage” calls to family and then it was time to see our stateroom. As with the rest of the ship, the stateroom is nicer than any we’ve had yet. The first thing I noticed, which nearly brought tears to my eyes was a thermostat.  Finally!  A ship that allows me to control my temperature!!!

how do i love thee? let me count the ways!

We went with an inside cabin this time so we expected the smaller size, but the appointments are much nicer.

very comfy bed

And the shower is a full size shower with glass doors so there is more than enough room for showering and we won’t have to worry about the water sloshing all over the whole bathroom.  Very exciting stuff.

pic just doesn't do the enormity of the shower justice

well appointed bathroom

We unpacked our luggage and went back out to explore the rest of the ship.

making our way out of the pass

putting miami behind us for 7 days

it may not be as distinctive as carnival's "whale tail" but there sure is a lot of machinery in there

There are several specialty (read: extra charge) restaurants in addition to the two main dining rooms, the two buffets, and a “comfort food” diner that is open 24×7.

elegant entry way to the main dining room

The main theatre on this ship is a true theatre with rows of stadium seating going up about three floors. There is a small “club” a few floors above the theatre as well as a bigger one on the other side of the ship that includes two bowling alleys and several beds on which to lounge. I got very excited when I saw the bowling but it turns out they charge $5 per person/per game. That’s pretty darned steep for bowling, especially when the movement of the ship would certainly guarantee an increase in my gutter-to-pin ratio. Personally, I think they could do the bowling for free and still make good money off the bar service for it.

i wish this pic showed just how beautiful this blown glass in the lobby really is

Before we knew it, we found ourselves back at the buffet for dinner. While eating, I noticed that the folks at the next table had my camera and ended up giving them some quick lessons on how to use it since it was new to them. They are from Alaska so we enjoyed talking to them about our travels there and what it’s like to live there.  I also thanked W for his service since he just got back from Iraq a week ago.  We then headed to the show where we ended up sitting right next to them. The show was well done but not really my style – dancing and singing to South Beach / Latin tunes.

cruisin'

stylin'

scouting for a hotel. It didn’t take us long to decide that we didn’t want to pay South Beach hotel prices so we made our way to the much more business-friendly airport area and checked into our old standby, Holiday Inn Express. You always know what you’re getting there. We were both pretty darned pooped but, as luck would have it, there was an IHOP across the parking lot so we feasted on a dinner of breakfast – my favorite!

pretty purple parking lot flowers

peek-a-boo

We had every intentions of making it an early night so that we’d be fully rested for our cruise embarkation tomorrow but when we started repacking all of our luggage, we discovered that all of our towels, bathing suits, and snorkel paraphernalia reeked. So here we are in the guest laundry room of the hotel at 22:00 at night, waiting for our stuff to dry so that we can go back to our room, pack, and go to bed.

i didn't even realize what a lousy job i did of getting pix of this cute and cozy b&b

me on the 2nd floor balcony of the southernmost point guest house

and then we went for an exploratory walk. We had to check out the beach that was just one property to our east. Key West is not known for its beaches so I wasn’t too surprised to find it nowhere up to competition with our backyard.

pelican and gulls hanging out

you lookin' at me?!

turret! i'd love to have walked through this mansion. it looked amazing.

We then had our obligatory photo opp at the southernmost point in the continental US, just a ninety mile swim to Cuba!

hubby and me playing tourists

We spent the next hour or so walking up and down Duval Street and the marina and cruise port. Turns out, it’s a little bit like Kauai here.  While there aren’t nearly as many, the free-roaming chickens are a hoot.

hen and chicks

roosters

Down by the waterfront, there is a red brick building that totally stands out among the more pastel palette around it.  It is the Arts and Historical Society building and it has slice-of-life type sculptures all around it. 

out of order since it was taken later in the day, on the way back from snorkeling, but you can see just how much this building stands out

The one that amused me was this one of an artist painting a still-life of a sculpture across the way.  The name of it is ”Copyright Violation.”  It amused me.

so i guess i'm violating copyright violation?

A Wendy’s frosty and water on our way back saved us from spontaneous human combustion in that heat. When we made it back to the B&B, we changed and gathered up all of our snorkel gear and got ready for the walk back to the west end for our snorkeling trip out of the marina. We did the sunset snorkeling trip to get snorkel time and a sunset cruise all at once. This was our first snorkel trip on a sail boat so that was fun.

hubby on the upper deck

hoisting the sail

sailing away

hubby's hair flies around more than mine now

The snorkeling was… disappointing. We went to a reef on the seven mile ridge but the coral is all dead and bleached out as can be. We did see some large parrotfish and a few huge lobsters but not a whole lot more.

never seen the blue/black fishie before

the little pink-bellied guy looks dead there

giant lobster, not very photogenic

it's a trap!

kinda neat coral

this reminds me of the scene where forest gump meets his son and they sit in front of the tv and cock their heads the same way

he's bright, bold, beautiful, and blue!

love the little fishies surrounding his mouth looking for scraps

schooling

speckly loner

On the way back from snorkeling, we were served wine as the sun started to set.

spectacular sailboat sunset

me, hubby, and a sunset

We watched a boat similar to ours set anchor to enjoy the sunset,

just like us only stopped for the setting of the sun

which is what we thought we would be doing as well, but instead we kept right on sailing as the sun disappeared. So that too was a bit disappointing.

another, cooler looking, boat stopped for the sunset

arrrr, matey

sun setting with the moon already shining

The walk back along Duval Street was loud, boisterous, and fun.