A Caribbean Star! Norwegian Star Tampa-Western Caribbean 1/17-1/24

DAY 2: EMBARKATION DAY (continued)

Interestingly the text didn't format correctly in my first post, sorry about that - hopefully it isn't too hard to read. Will make sure that doesn't happen in this post.

So, we were onboard the ship, and had made a few purchases already and it was time to find out where the food was and make our way to it. I had failed to mention in the first part of this day's recap that when I purchased the unlimited soda plan (they offer to upgrade to be able to get unlimited fresh squeezed juice for $3 a day additional as well but I declined this) that instead of putting a sticker on the original card, that they went over to the guest service counter and re-printed me a new sign and sail card with the word "SODA" printed on it. Never saw that before, interesting. Total for the soda was about $61 with taxes and gratuity and all that, something like $7.50 a day base rate. If you drink a lot of soda like me, that pays for itself. The bottled water deal is good as well, you can buy up to like 20 or more bottles, but the 6 liter-size bottles was like $27. I also forgot to mention that we booked a reservation for the Teppanyaki restaurant for later in the week, as it is a small and intimate venue and seatings fill up very quickly.

The atrium is on Deck 7, and the buffets are on Deck 12, so we took a quick elevator ride up to Deck 12 to scope out the food. The buffet is divided into two sections, one on either side of the ship, and had the usual stuff today. I honestly cannot remember what the main entree was but I got some soup and the little Bavarian pretzel sticks that they have. Maybe some rotisserie chicken if I can recall. They are pretty good. I focused on the outside barbeque that they had poolside, had sausages, hot dogs, burgers, etc. We sat down poolside with our food as it was not as crowded out there as it was in the dining room (it was chilly and windy after all) and I got my first soda. There are lots of bars onboard and I rarely had issues getting a soda quickly. We finished our lunch, listened to the welcome aboard announcement from Captain Mattias Andersson (this is when he talked about the weather issues they had the night before and the difficulty they had getting back to port during the thunderstorms the area got) and got some real ice cream from the poolside bar. I mean, real scoopable ice cream in a cone, banana flavor. Located between the wet bar and the barbeque, poolside. Got some pictures from the downtown Tampa area and other area stuff from the top deck here as well.

By this time, it was close to 1500 and so we walked around a bit and made our way to the cabin. Since we booked an inside guarantee, we got our room assignment maybe a week or so before sailing, and it was a cabin located way at the front of the ship, on Deck 4 which is the lowest deck on the ship. Not horrible, just not close to anything and during the stormy weather we got later in the cruise and the toilet issues, it was just adequate. But you get what you pay for. We understood that going in. NCL balconies are awesome but I just didn't want to pay all that money for one when we could use that money for other stuff like excursions and specialty restaurants. We saw our steward (forgot his name but he did a good job all cruise long and was friendly when I saw him in the hallway), asked him to separate the beds (they are almost always together, regardless of line, and regardless of who I am cruising with LOL) and to keep our ice bucket filled each day after service, and pulled 2 of the 3 bags we had checked into the cabin. We had not yet received our third one but we did get it around dinner time.

I ran upstairs and got a piece of welcome aboard cake at the buffet, right before they closed it down for the muster drill and met my mom in the Stardust theater on Deck 6 at 1530 after finishing my snack. You have to check in by name, which is good as they know exactly who is there and if you don't do this, they will come around and find you and make you do the drill later on whether you like it or not. It was well organized and it was over by 1600. During this drill, we were introduced to cruise director Iain, who did a good job all cruise long. Especially in light of the issues they had with the RCCL Anthem of the Seas this past weekend, muster drills are serious stuff and it is for your benefit that they have them and you should pay attention. Just like with an airplane safety demo, you tune them out but they are important just the same. It is always crowded around the elevators after muster, so I took a nice pic of a wall full of awards and commemorative plaques that the ship staff was given from the ports the ship has visited over the years.

So, like I always do, we went up to the pool deck to watch the sailaway party. On NCL, they have multiple viewing decks so no one place is too crowded to watch the festivities. We waited for the Holland America Veendam to depart before us, and did a 180 turn in the channel so we could power out of the harbor. Great views of downtown here, and lots of people waving to us from the dockside restaurants and parks as we sailed away. It was really chilly at this point as we had begun moving. So, we slowly made our way out through the channel, and we were officially cruising! I will pick up in a second with our eventful trip through Tampa Bay....

DAY 2: EMBARKATION DAY CONTINUED:

We did get really close to the dock that the Veendam was parked at, like a couple hundred feet at most, which was cool to see, but it is a very narrow channel and thus they have to make really tight turns to get out of there. I went to the sailaway bbq and got some more hotdogs and burgers and got my mom some chicken and corn on the cob from the open grill they had going. The line at the bar was long now due to people wanting sailaway drinks and many, many people had the ultimate beverage package on this cruise. More on this later. My mom went back to the cabin as she said she was chilly and there weren't any places to sit down on the pool deck area and I went upstairs to watch us sail down the channel. I had done this once before, many years ago on a Carnival cruise so I knew some of the landmarks in the area worth looking at.

Barbeque, conga line at sailaway

We actually got closer than this to the dock as we sailed away

Later Tampa - see you again in a week

A few miles down the channel, on the right side, there is a small executive airport that the ships pass by. Not large, only single engine props, but still neat to look at. Little activity going on there today however. I made sure to get a photo of this little airfield, I forgot what its airport code is. Here we are, Norwegian Star, Runway 22, clear for takeoff. Haha.

We soon made our way out into Tampa Bay and picked up some speed. Many people were still out here braving the cold and wind and I finally went back inside myself as the sun was beginning to set. We passed by near sunset with St. Petersburg's skyline on the right in the distance, and I got a few pics of the nice sunset. We were not far from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which is kind of the gateway to the Gulf of Mexico from Tampa Bay. We still had to pass under that before reaching open waters.

The sun was pretty much down and we could see the bridge, but we were still about an hour or so away from it. It would be dark before we got to it. I will pick up with that experience in the next post....

DAY 2: EMBARKATION DAY CONTINUED:

So, by now it was close to 1900, and I was getting hungry but being the nerd I am, I just had to see us pass under the Skyway Bridge. I went downstairs, got my mom, told her she just had to see how close we would get to the bridge, and we made our way upstairs to see the excitement. She stayed on the pool deck but I went up to Deck 14 forward (along with a bunch of other people, LOL) and watched as the bridge got closer and closer, and finally we went under it around 1930. We were told that there was less than 10 feet of clearance between the highest point on the ship and the bridge. In this picture, this is the front of the ship. The aft of the ship had a few higher points than this, so yeah we got really close. But this is why larger ships cannot go out of Tampa. They could never fit under this bridge. I did drive over the bridge after the cruise, down to Sarasota to visit my friend, and it was interesting to see it from a different perspective. Unfortunately we did not see any cruise ships near the bridge when we rode over it, which would have been really cool.

After that was over and we were set to go full speed ahead into the still somewhat choppy Gulf of Mexico, I checked up on some last minute stuff on my phone as I was still able to get service on my phone, and we headed down to O'Sheehan's Pub for dinner. On this evening, the special was prime rib entree, served until 2100. We headed down to Deck 8, were seated (does anyone know why they swipe your cards when you get seated now?) and watched the end of the Denver-Pittsburgh game on the big screen TV in the restaurant. Of course Denver won, but that is obvious seeing they did go on to win the Superbowl, eh? Congrats to Peyton Manning, not many greats like him get to go out on the top of the world.

Anyway, I got some prime rib, medium and my mom got a cut that was cooked medium rare and I also got an order of 6 Buffalo wings. It was excellent. Probably the best prime rib I have ever had on a cruise. And the wings were good as well. They have regular Buffalo, Thai, BBQ and Jerk and I tried all four during the cruise and yes, they were all good. They are served to you 6 at a time, but I assume you can order as many as you want within reason. The pub is open until very late each evening so you can go in there at 0200 and get wings if you want (which I did a few times) along with things like fries and burgers, etc. They had something for dessert but I cannot remember what it was, because we were both too full for anything else and headed out to the welcome aboard show in the Stardust at 2100. By now my phone had lost service so I put it into cruise ship mode where it would stay for the next week.

We were introduced to the ship's entertainment staff, cruise director Iain, and the senior officers here. It was a good show. Some singing and dancing, some comedy from our comedian for the week, Fred Bevill, a gymnastics thing from some guy who performed again later in the week, and a piano preview from a supposedly famous female performer (I can't remember her name off the top of my head), and the show was good. It lasted about 45 minutes, as all the shows on this cruise seemed to run.

Afterwards, my mom went back to unpack and I went up to the late night buffet they had upstairs and got some sausages, a dog and some wings before it closed at 2300. I still was not too tired at this point for some reason, so I went down to Deck 6 forward to check out the ship's casino around midnight. It was your typical casino, not too crowded, found a penny slot machine to play for a while and went until I donated $20 to Norwegian for the evening.

It was about 0100 by now and the ship was rocking a little due to the choppy seas and I had a very exciting embarkation day indeed. Thankfully tomorrow was a sea day, so I could sleep in and relax some the next morning. I saw the nice little birdie towel animal, the next day's Freestyle Daily, and a few chocolates on the bed and got a pic before going to sleep. Yes, NCL still gives you chocolates unlike some other lines, :).

So, that wraps up Day 2 of the adventure. Hope you are enjoying it so far. I am having a fun time writing about it. I will get to the next part hopefully by the weekend, which featured a sea day. Happy cruising!

Nice review so far. I'm doing my own as well from our 1/31-2/7 sailing. Not sure if you got any menu pictures, but I'm recreating all that I have and missing Le Bistro, Moderno, and Teppenyaki. If you have them please let me know.

When we were on the Getaway, we had our first experience with O'Sheehan's and they always scanned our card. Same on this trip. I'm assuming it's mostly to keep track of tables and business to see when they would need to add/remove staff. They do the same at the MDRs, Ginza, and Specialty restaurants. As far as the wings, I had a total of 50 on the Getaway over the course of a week. I only had 12 on the Star. Also, O'Sheehans on the Getaway had Fried Mozzerella Sticks on the menu and 2 prime rib nights, the Star does not have the sticks and only has 1 prime rib night.

Your comment about the special moment when you first see the atrium on the ship...I couldn't agree more. This will be my kids' first cruise ever and I'm more excited about experiencing their firsts all week than anything else. Can't wait to see your next post - and your pictures are a great accompaniment to the review!

This forum is a bit overwhelming but I must say I love reading all the information. I see that you've cruised alot on carnival and now most recently on Norwegian. My one and only cruise so far was on the Norwegian Sun (which we loved) but due to dates and prices we will probably go with Carnival this time....In your opinion, how do the two cruise lines compare? Do you favor one over the other?

They swipe your card to be able to keep track of how many people utilize O'Sheehans. It helps them to know how well a venue is doing. It is a great tool for future planning.

Love all the details. Did you notice if there was somewhere close to La Quinta Tampa where we could pick up a bottle of wine?

So glad day one went so well for you! Obviously much better than day one of your Sky cruise :cool:

Thanks for the tip about Prime Rib at O'Sheehan's. Will make sure to remember that for our March trip.

Thank you for taking us along on your trip! We are going on the 4/10 sailing, so it is a treat to read about where we'll be in two months. Thank you!

Nice photos, enjoying the review.:)

Loving your review

We were getting off as you were getting on. The Captain did a fantastic job getting us safely back to port! The cruise was wonderful and we really enjoyed the Star - with her excellent crew- and also loved the new ports we went to.

Safe sailing

I figured it would have been a rough ride back the night before, seeing how bad the weather was on land. Captain Andersson is one of the better captains I have ever had on a cruise I think. Very personable, informative and most important, did a good job steering us around all week, especially that last sea day which was very rough. I will talk all about that later though. I agree with you that the crew was generally very good and the port visits were good as well. Safe and happy sailing to you as well.

Nice review so far. I'm doing my own as well from our 1/31-2/7 sailing. Not sure if you got any menu pictures, but I'm recreating all that I have and missing Le Bistro, Moderno, and Teppenyaki. If you have them please let me know.

 

When we were on the Getaway, we had our first experience with O'Sheehan's and they always scanned our card. Same on this trip. I'm assuming it's mostly to keep track of tables and business to see when they would need to add/remove staff. They do the same at the MDRs, Ginza, and Specialty restaurants. As far as the wings, I had a total of 50 on the Getaway over the course of a week. I only had 12 on the Star. Also, O'Sheehans on the Getaway had Fried Mozzerella Sticks on the menu and 2 prime rib nights, the Star does not have the sticks and only has 1 prime rib night.

Thanks Angelo. I saw your review as well and I am following along. It is very good, informative and entertaining. It is cool to see the perspective of someone else who was on the same ship not long after I was on it. Just so much to see and do on these ships. Unfortunately I do not have any menu pictures, as I could never get a good and clear picture of them when I take the pictures for whatever reason. I try to take pics of my entrees instead so I can at least show them in these reviews. If I recall, at Moderno (from when I went to it on the Jewel) they have salad bar and a list of the different meats on the menu, that is about it. At Teppanyaki, you can order the seafood, chicken, or steak or combo plates with sashimi and some sort of greenish ice cream or pastry as an alternative for dessert, along with soup and fresh veggies as starters.

I figure you are right about the scanning of the cards, as yes, they do this at all sitdown restaurants. It always made me wonder, like could I go to O'Sheehan's or the MDR twice in the same day (not that I would want to) or is that not allowed? O'Sheehan's is just awesome, can't say enough about it and I will be mentioning it many more times during this review. I did go to the Ginza noodle bar on the last day for dinner (will explain that but the terribly rough seas sort of pushed me into that choice although it was good). The most wings I got in one sitting was 12 (2 orders of 6) but I went to the pub pretty much once a day so that total adds up. The BBQ burger was just awesome but I am not a fan of mozzarella sticks anywhere so I didn't try them. I think there was also a spare ribs night at O'Sheehan's but I did not make it there that night. I think we went to the MDR that night instead.

But thanks for checking this out, I will stop by and leave a good word for you on your review as well and I am going to get to part 3 of this adventure just momentarily.

Your comment about the special moment when you first see the atrium on the ship...I couldn't agree more. This will be my kids' first cruise ever and I'm more excited about experiencing their firsts all week than anything else. Can't wait to see your next post - and your pictures are a great accompaniment to the review!

Yep, I still remember back to my first cruise almost 10 years ago, on a Carnival Fantasy class ship, the smallest mainstream ships on the market now. And I was just in awe of the whole thing then, as I still am even now, 20 cruises later. Thanks for the kind words, I am getting to part 3 of the review now and will have it posted in just a little while. I hope you continue to enjoy reading.

This forum is a bit overwhelming but I must say I love reading all the information. I see that you've cruised alot on carnival and now most recently on Norwegian. My one and only cruise so far was on the Norwegian Sun (which we loved) but due to dates and prices we will probably go with Carnival this time....In your opinion, how do the two cruise lines compare? Do you favor one over the other?

Yeah, there is a lot to see on these forums for sure. Any questions you have about cruising or anything to do with it can pretty much get answered here. They sure have helped me over the years with planning. I like both NCL and Carnival. They are just different. More places to eat, more perks once you go up the loyalty ladder on NCL, possibly better quality buffets on NCL. I think the entertainment on Carnival is better and there is more stuff to do in terms of ship activities. Not as many dining options and you still have an assigned time dining room on Carnival whereas there is not that option on NCL, it is anytime dining. Staff is comparable on each line, you generally have very good employees and those who are just going through the motions. Ports visited are similar on each line, not too much difference there. I think NCL tends to lean towards an older demographic than Carnival although that can widely vary by sailing and destination. I did have a very bad experience on NCL a few months ago but two pretty good ones as well and haven't really ever had a truly bad cruise on Carnival. I am at the point that I am not really loyal to either line and will go one the one that offers the best itinerary, ship, price and sailing dates. Just go into each cruise with an open mind and see which one you like more and if you have one bad experience on either line, don't think that the whole brand is like that because 99 percent of the time, even an average cruise is better than working.

Happy cruising and thanks for checking out my review!

They swipe your card to be able to keep track of how many people utilize O'Sheehans. It helps them to know how well a venue is doing. It is a great tool for future planning.

I kind of figured that, it probably does make it easier for them. Just never saw any of the other lines do that. I was thinking that they were going to try to charge me for something extra by accident by swiping it or something, lol.

Love all the details. Did you notice if there was somewhere close to La Quinta Tampa where we could pick up a bottle of wine?

Thanks, glad you are enjoying. I did not notice if there was a place to buy wine right near the hotel, but across Spruce St. is a large complex with probably all kinds of stuff. I didn't go over there but we heard about it from the shuttle driver and saw it when we rode past on the way to the ship the next morning. Google International plaza near Tampa airport and it might show what stuff is around there. The staff at the hotel might be able to tell you as well or the LQ website might list nearby shops and things like that. Not totally sure though.

So glad day one went so well for you! Obviously much better than day one of your Sky cruise :cool:

 

Thanks for the tip about Prime Rib at O'Sheehan's. Will make sure to remember that for our March trip.

Yes it did. Much better than the first day of the Sky cruise, LOL. We actually got to spend the whole day ON the ship this time, :cool: I have Day 2 of the cruise coming up, and it was a sea day so not the most exciting day of the journey but it is always good to have after a hectic first day and four consecutive port days afterwards. My pleasure about the O'Sheehan's prime rib. It was way better than I expected it to be, and it was a huge portion as well. But note that they only have specials like that on a few nights of the cruise and only until a certain time. So it is hard to decide between a specialty restaurant, the MDR, the buffet, or O'Sheehan's for dinner sometimes. :D What a terrible dilemma to have, haha.

Thank you for taking us along on your trip! We are going on the 4/10 sailing, so it is a treat to read about where we'll be in two months. Thank you!

No problem at all, glad to have you along. I hope this gives you insight on what to expect on your cruise and helps you plan for it. April will be here before you know it, you will have a great time.

Nice photos, enjoying the review.:)

Thank you, glad you like it. I have Part 3 of my adventure coming right up, stay tuned!

Good evening everybody, I have returned with the next part of my Star journey review. On days like today, it is great to sit down and just write about my midwinter Caribbean cruising adventures. And boy is it cold here. Gonna be hovering around 20 below this weekend with wind chill. Yeah, and spring is still about a month away. Oh well, baseball spring training starts in about 4 days for my Phillies so there is that to look forward to. LOL. Anyway, this was a sea day and this is where we will pick up.

DAY 3: SEA DAY

As with the recurring theme of this cruise, I slept in late today as there was not much to do and being in an interior room, it was easy to lose track of time due to the lack of any natural light getting into the cabin. I actually think that I may not do an interior cabin for a while again unless the deal is just too good to pass up due to the fact that it is hard to keep a semi-normal routine without being able to see outside at all. It is a trade-off of getting a very inexpensive trip. Anyway, I had received an invitation for a reception in the Spinnaker lounge for returning guests as part of the Latitudes program. It was scheduled for 1200, and of course would feature the usual intros of officers, a speech from the captain, drinks, and did I mention, drinks? My mom got one also, but hers was for a later seating and she did not go to it due to a previous scheduling conflict. Oh well.

I got up around 1100, got some breakfast upstairs at the buffet, and it was OK. Your typical cruise ship breakfast food. Sausage, ham, bacon, potatoes, pastries, juice, etc. And of course the nasty scrambled egg mixture that all cruise lines have. I got some hard boiled eggs instead. There is an omelet line but I did not go to it today. I went outside to get a picture of the relatively calm seas on this first sea day as well. The Gulf of Mexico is neat, huh? I think my mom got continental breakfast from room service as well, and that is still free. The only thing that is free on the room service menu nowadays I think. It is something like $7.95 for everything else now. I also noticed that they do not have a 24-hour pizza delivery service on this ship or it was not advertised but I didn't notice it. On some ships, you can get a pizza delivered to your cabin for $5.

I stopped by the gift shop on Deck 7, and it was the most poorly stocked shop I have seen. Very little in the way of what you would usually see in a cruise ship shop, and the souvenirs like magnets and keychains did not even match the sailing this ship was on now. Disappointing. The duty free alcohol/high end watch/jewelry shop across the way was probably much better stocked.

Anyway, I headed to the Spinnaker for the reception and gave the people at the door my pass to get inside, grabbed a beer and glass of wine at the table and sat down. The senior officers were introduced, and Captain Andersson gave a long welcome speech to everyone in the lounge. I would say there was probably about a hundred in attendance. He told us about the difficulty they had in getting back to Tampa due to the storm, and that this is his last cruise before vacation. Very personable guy, and a really big dude. They also gave out door prizes and I did not win but a few of the prizes were decent. They also did some promotion of upcoming ports that NCL will be adding, along with new ships on the way. Nice time, and I grabbed some rum punch and another wine on the way out, haha.

I met up with my mom at the buffet afterwards, around 1330 and although the lunch food wasn't anything great, they had another bbq going on outside and that was really good. Got a whole steak and seafood pasta.

I walked around some after lunch and my mom went to some other thing that she wanted to see but I forget what it was now, lol. I saw the best women's biceps contest, kinda odd if you ask me, and looked at the pool area to see which hot tub was the best for me later on. They had a waterslide on here for adults and one for children, but the adult one was not as grand as some I have seen on the Carnival 2.0 ships. Still looked like fun though. They had 4 hot tubs and one main pool along with splash pools for children. By now it was close to 1500 and I was again tired from drinking at the reception and from a heavy lunch so I took a nap for a while. I will leave off with that and will pick up in the next post with the evening's activities.......

I forgot to mention that they were promoting a program where if you put a future cruise deposit down, where it would be good for like up to a few years, you could get onboard credit but I did not take advantage of it. I wonder if anyone did however. One of the countries NCL is set to visit in the next few years is Israel, which is interesting. The future cruise manager was Israeli, so he was really excited about that when making his announcement to all of us in the lounge. A few mega ships coming as well in the next few years. I also wondered about the whistling sound that constantly came through a crew door near the elevator bank at the front of the ship on Deck 4. It was constant and heard it all throughout the cruise. Looking at a deck plan, seems there is a crew area around there but it was kinda annoying and it was very loud at times. Anyone hear that before who has stayed on that deck? We also heard the waves hitting the ship from where our cabin was and there seemed to be a maintenance area right behind our cabin, and there was constant noise coming from there. That is not a huge deal breaker for me but for those who are very sound sensitive, it could be a concern.

DAY 3: SEA DAY CONTINUED:

Anyway, I went back to the cabin around 1500 and took a nap. I ended up sleeping for a couple hours and got up around 1800, and when I went into the bathroom to get changed to go to the hot tub, I noticed the toilet would not flush. Sadly, this was not the only time this problem would occur during the cruise. It happened probably once a day or more, and we did call guest services and maintenance promptly came out and fixed the problem. Just annoying when it happened with such frequency all cruise long.

I went to the hot tub upstairs as I like to do on cruises right before dinner and just hung out there for a while. It was not terribly hot and you have to keep hitting the bubbles button every 10 minutes to get the jets working but it was fun. I hung out with a couple guys who were slightly inebriated and talked about all kinds of stuff with them for a while. Obviously they had the ultimate beverage package. LOL. I did see them again quite a few times during the cruise and we hung out a few more times later on in the sailing. They headed out later on and went to drink some more and probably get some dinner and I stayed in until somewhere around 1900, when I myself got out and headed back to the cabin to get ready for dinner.

I got cleaned up and since it was a semi-dressup night, I got somewhat dressed up (lol) and we went to the Versailles dining room for dinner on this evening. Between this and the Aqua dining room, this was supposed to be the fancier one but honestly, it was not any better in my estimation. It was a little nicer but the service was subpar and the food was just average. It was not crowded in here either as I guess people don't want to do dinner after 2000 like I prefer to do. Oh well. I got some sweet and sour chicken and rice and some spaghetti with meat sauce and it was good but not great. Honestly, the spare ribs that they were advertising at O'Sheehan's for that night probably would have been a better choice. I got a banana split for dessert and that was pretty good.

There was not much to do tonight, outside of dancing at the Spinnaker which I am not really into, or live music in the atrium area, so after 2200 my mom went back to the cabin and I went to the casino to play for a little while. I played for a little while here and came out even, so I cannot complain too much. It killed some time and I had fun. I met up with my mom at O'Sheehan's around midnight and got some wings, fries, and a Pepsi to end the evening. They had four different types of wings here, regular, Thai, BBQ, and Jerk. I think I got the Thai tonight. They were good. There is a more limited menu late at night but there is still plenty to choose from on the menu and it is always good. Afterwards, it was bedtime and sometime around 0130 I finally got to sleep as the next day would feature a visit to the island of Roatan in Honduras. There would be a time change overnight and we would be moving an hour back, to Central time but they always tell you to stay on ship's time at all times and we were reminded of this change with a placard next to the towel animal and next day's Freestyle Daily.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed. That was a good and relaxing sea day but the next few days would feature port visits and there was a lot to see and do so be sure to keep a look out for my next day's summary. Thanks for reading, stay warm, and happy cruising!

I apologize if you mentioned this and I missed it, but do the cabins have in room safes?

I apologize if you mentioned this and I missed it, but do the cabins have in room safes?

Yes, every cabin has a safe in the room that either coded to use your keycard or just a four digit number (depending on the ship). Most of the standard cabins have a safe size about 14" wide by 6" deep by 6" high. Big enough to keep your wallet, small purse, cash, jewelry, and other valuable items. In the cabins we've been in it's usually behind the entry door, so it's hard to have the cabin door open while you're in the safe which is a good security feature.

I apologize if you mentioned this and I missed it, but do the cabins have in room safes?

Yes, standard size but we were able to fit all our valuable stuff in with no problem. Large enough for passport, wallet, camera, money, etc for everyone in the cabin. With us, we picked a 4-digit pin code when we first got into the cabin and that was how we got in and out of the safe during the cruise. Some have card swipe technology but this was an old-fashioned pin-activated one which I like more personally anyway. I believe all cabins have safes, never been on a cruise ship that didn't.