Reflections of My Travel

Today was a day at sea which meant mucho relaxation. The inside cabin leaves it dark enough that hubby was able to sleep in a bit with me. After a very late breakfast at the last buffet open – the outdoor one – we went back to our room to relax and watch movies. We made it out again for a small lunch and made reservations for dinner in the main dining room and then back for more rest. Hubby has been fighting a cold for two weeks so resting up is definitely a good thing. We had planned on trying to make it to the early show since our dinner reservation was at 20:30 but we slept right through it. We woke up just in time to throw on some clothes and head for the dining room.

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

Cruise Day!!! We woke up ready to go this morning and, after a trip to the hotel’s hot continental breakfast, go we did. We dropped the car off at the rental place and caught their shuttle bus to the Port of Miami with another lovely couple from England who were taking their first cruise on one of the Carnival ships. The shuttle dropped us off right outside the Norwegian Pearl’s terminal and we portered our big bags and were inside the building in minutes. Though I really was not blown away by Miami, I have to give credit where credit is due – their cruise terminals are immaculate! Truly, a much nicer port than Canaveral. I guess we were early enough that we missed the crowds because we got through security, check-in, and photos, and we were on the ship within thirty minutes or so. It was a breeze, especially when compared to the holy mess that was last week’s embarkation process on the Bahamas Celebration. When we boarded the ship, we were given champagne and told that the staterooms wouldn’t be open until 14:00 so we followed the crowd to the first buffet.

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.

Today, we took our time checking out of our very welcoming accommodations in Key West and headed back to Miami. We managed to get into town just in time for Friday rush hour – I so don’t miss living in a big city! We put down the convertible top and cruised South Beach a bit,

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.