aggie182

Hate to hear that. We were on deck 13, forward. Most nights, the check-in for the kids' club stretched up to our floor. We didn't attempt Syd Norman's after seeing another report where people said you needed to get there an hour early. Hopefully y'all had some time to relax, kid-free!

A few things I wanted to mention for folks who are Carnival regulars trying NCL like we were: Drink Packages - The drink package on NCL is better, you can get 2 drinks and there's no limit. Drink selection however, is much better on Carnival. I asked at one of the bars if they could make a "Twilight Zone" and handed them my phone with the recipe and they couldn't make it, though they had all of the ingredients. It's essentially a Pina Colada blended with melon liquor with a Blue Curacao floater. At Shakers, my wife asked for one of the drinks on the menu, but with vodka instead of gin. They told her they couldn't because it was pre-made. It felt like at a bar named "Shakers", they could whip up and shake up any combination within reason. My wife had a harder time finding drinks. Dining: I'd give a slight edge to NCL on the typical MDR food. Moderno was good, but didn't blow us away and the Steakhouse was similar. I got prime rib at Cagney's and it was good, but I expected a bit better. The prime-rib was Texas Roadhouse level. My wife got the filet and said it was great. Service was awesome throughout all of the restaurants. O-Sheehan's was good as well, but expect to wait if you want it at a typical meal time. At times like 3-4pm, and 9pm-late, there is little to no wait. We were quoted longer waits in the typical lunch and dinner times. No big deal, but wanted to mention it. What the biggest let down was for us, was the noodle bar. People were lining up as early as 3pm to get a reservation. On a different day, an hour before they opened, the line stretched from the noodle bar, down the middle of the casino and around the corner to the coin pusher machine that's by the craps table. I wish it had extended hours, even lunch on sea days or something, or would let you reserve early like the MDRs and special dining. Rooms: They feel a bit smaller than Carnival's similar offerings. Our balcony was only 8'x4' so it made navigating around the chairs difficult. No big deal, but worth mentioning. The shower did have a shower door, which is nice. No shower curtain stuck to your butt like on the older Carnival ships! The bed wasn't the best or worst but there's this weird zipper type device under the sheets that we didn't totally understand, but it was torn up and loose and would end up under your body so it was uncomfortable. Not sure what the purpose was, but whatever it was, it wasn't working! The is a typical gap in the king bed configuration so bring ratchet straps if you intend to really "go to work". I kid, I kid! Public Spaces: This was the biggest let down. They are extremely crowded! It was totally nuts at times. It was a spring break cruise so it was likely over capacity, but at times the public spaces were suffocating. The bars were extremely crowded as well. The pools are set up in an odd and confined way. The ropes course has very limited hours and is only open like 3 hours a day on port days and a 2 and a 3 hour stint on sea days. They stack deck chairs in the afternoon so you can't use them any more. A lot of places just kind of felt weird, got lack of better words. Staff: They bar staff, casino staff, and restaurant staff were great! Our room attendant did a great job with the room, but we rarely saw in. Maybe he was busy in other sections of the ship but I missed the "Hello Mr. Aaron!" in the hallways that we get from our Carnival room attendants every trip. Overall, we had a great time and we'd got back on NCL in a heartbeat.

Other than a human traffic jam at the bottom of the escalator in the terminal, debarkation was smooth. It was about 40 minutes from them calling self assist until we were in the car. We planned to walk back to the Hampton but with the rain we opted for a taxi. He quoted us $8 per person and we were on our way. After $30 to him and a quick ride back, then handing the ticket to valet, we’re back in the car and on our way home. I had a $10 peeled off for the valet guy but he didn’t help us load the bags so I didn’t have the chance to pass it off. We’re hoping we’re not in a terrible situation with the weather. We’re planning to make a quick stop at McDs for some breakfast on the road.

Just checked the radar and it’s going to be a sporty drive home with a lot of rain. It looks like it may be raining when we get off the ship. We were planning to walk back to Hampton Inn. We’ll see how that goes!

Sadly we’re approaching the dock slowly. I’m ready for my own bed and a real toilet, but not ready to go home! I am definitely not ready for work tomorrow! We got 90-95% packed last night so we don’t have much to do but we wanted to allow plenty of time to get it done and possibly grab some breakfast. Thanks for coming along for the ride! I’ll post some thoughts and any fun photos I missed on the way home when the wife is driving, or this evening. We had a great trip and learned a lot about cruising on NCL, some good and some bad. Most importantly, we had good family time and the wife and I also had plenty of time together. We saw some beautiful things and did some cool stuff as a family with kids that are growing up way too fast.

Final Pai Gow session was a hoot. Minimums all week were $25 on Pai Gow. On day 1 we bought in for $400. We won and lost throughout the week and were down to our last 2 green chips today. We clawed our way back to ~$180-190 and they said we had 20 more minutes before they were closing the table. I played $100 and the wife played $80. The dealer got a queen high pai gow!! Win win! We were at ~$355 and each of us bet $25 with the agreement not to touch the $300 we had behind. Another win win and we were back to even on Pai Gow for the week! Score!!! Bed time now and 9 hours of driving back to reality tomorrow.

Having a few Grass Clippings at Maltings. I feel like it’s healthy! It just needs a floater of ranch!!

Burn The Floor was good. I got pretty uncomfortable towards the end because I had to pee so bad! Thankfully I make it! I cleared out room for more beer! Snack time now then I may go see if there’s an elusive atrium bar stool available.

The bartender, Elmer, is currently winning. It’s too early for chugging beers and it feels like he’s challenging me to! He’s bringing the beer faster than I can drink them.

Soon I’ll be involved in the battle of the “last day of vacation, let’s party” devil on one shoulder and the “you have to drive 8.5 hours home tomorrow” angel on the other shoulder. “Let’s Party” usually wins much to the wife’s dismay!

After my last post (that just reposted for some odd reason!), as luck would have it, I found an empty barstool at the atrium bar! The bartender is playing a game of “let’s give him another coors light when his current one is only 1/2 way done”. Challenge accepted! Cheers!!

Wife and youngest are doing Harry Potter trivia. I don’t watch movies so that’s out of my league. I found a comfortable spot to enjoy a coors light that I grabbed in the atrium earlier. I really enjoy people watching and when we’re on Carnival, I sit at the lobby/atrium bar quite a bit when we’re not at the Alchemy Bar. I hate that the breakaway’s atrium bar has only 4 bar stools on each side. I guess they’re going for more or a grab ‘n go concept there? There aren’t many indoor bars open earlier in the day which is kind of a bummer. We have a reservations for Burn the Floor at 1:30 and Cagney’s at 5:30. Hopefully between those we can do some packing so we have an open evening. I’d love one more Pai Gow session tonight and some drinks. Hopefully Cagneys won’t put me in to food coma.

Wife and youngest are doing Harry Potter trivia. I don’t watch movies so that’s out of my league. I found a comfortable spot to enjoy a coors light that I grabbed in the atrium earlier. I really enjoy people watching and when we’re on Carnival, I sit at the lobby/atrium bar quite a bit when we’re not at the Alchemy Bar. I hate that the breakaway’s atrium bar has only 4 bar stools on each side. I guess they’re going for more or a grab ‘n go concept there? There aren’t many indoor bars open earlier in the day which is kind of a bummer. We have a reservations for Burn the Floor at 1:30 and Cagney’s at 5:30. Hopefully between those we can do some packing so we have an open evening. I’d love one more Pai Gow session tonight and some drinks. Hopefully Cagneys won’t put me in to food coma.

You may have a very different experience. When we were on the Carnival Spirit over Thanksgiving, their free arts/crafts classes were more involved and more fun for them. They enjoyed the guy leading and the paintings and projects. The 12 year old doesn’t care if it’s free or $500, she’s not footing the bill (though she’s in that “if it costs more it’s better” time of her life), and she preferred the free ones on the Spirit.