Izzywiz

My last N also has a story....sorry to bore you all!

I have been friends with Jan for 70 years. Our fathers worked together and became best friends so we girls grew up together. Jan and her parents were a tremendous support to my dad and I when my mother died when I was 12. My Dad took us both on a cruise on the Shaw Saville line ship, Northern Star, to celebrate our 21st birthdays in 1969. Jan was my bridesmaid and I was hers, 2 weeks apart, in 1971 and she and her Canadian husband moved  to Canada where she has lived ever since. We keep in touch and have visited each other over the years. We were hoping to cruise together in 2021 to celebrate our golden wedding anniversaries in June and have all our fingers and toes crossed for a speedy solution to this horrible virus.

Northern Star

my next Ns are all on Norwegian Cruise lines. We did a lot of our early cruises with them until the line stopped doing the unusual itineraries at times when we could travel. We were always confined to school holidays until I retired from full time teaching in 2004 and my husband retired at the end of 2012.

Leaving New York on NCL Dreamward. Our first cruise on a large, modern ship

Dreamward was later renamed Norwegian Dream and we sailed on her through the Kiel Canal several years later

we also sailed on Norwegian Star and Sun

....as well as Norwegian Crown which later became Fred Olsen's Balmoral. I had my biggest cruise bargain ever on this sailing which was from Miami to Valparaiso in 2005. We had booked the cheapest inside cabin but, when I rang NCL with a query about something, the agent asked if i would be interested in upgrading to an outside cabin. I asked her how much and she said it was £11. I said "£11 per person, per day?" and she said "no. £11 total for the cruise". It didn't take long to accept!!!!

Nativity, Splendour of the Seas

Naughty but nice and nibbles on MSC Armonia

Nelson, our waiter on NCL Dreamward....it was 1993 and we were very young..

night time entertainment on Princess Panhwar performed by a local dance group in Myanmar

Good morning and happy 'winter time'. Hi Grapau, I also found that Princess try to show 'appropriate' films on their sailings. We had 'South Pacific' when sailing from Bora Bora to Tahiti, 'Australia' on the trip from Sydney to Perth and 'Madam Butterfly' on the Japan cruise!

I hope you don't mind me starting the Ns. I struggled a bit with this letter but found a few...

Brown Noddies and terns on the mooring ropes in Puerto Madryn

and Costa NeoRomantica

We have enjoyed a few 'Movies under the stars' on Princess ships

and remember the time when there were Midnight buffets on ships...

The gentleman on the gantry was doing maintenance on Splendour of the Seas

and this was our Maître D' on Sun Princess

My last M is the moon taken from the deck on Boudicca

loving the Ms and I have a few more to add

Muster station drill on Splendour of the Seas

Moths hitching a ride on Adonia and Royal Princess

I think this one was hoping for a job 🤩

and a misty morning off the coast of Russia taken from Diamond Princess. Korsakov was a tender port and those are test tenders that was sent out to see if it was safe to take people ashore....The mist lifted later and we did land.

Lots of interesting Ms already. I have a few too....

M is for 3 ships that we have sailed on....

Majesty of the Seas

Monarch of the Seas

one of the ladies on our table of American honeymooners asked me "how do you celebrate Independence Day in England?" She was shocked when I said "we don't. Why would we celebrate losing our colony?" she replied that she thought everyone in the world celebrated 4th July!!!

MV La Marguerite

and 'Mind your heads' which was the Captain's call on our Rhone river cruise as we passed under the bridges with centimetres to spare..

3 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

I really enjoyed those two photos. Adonia's library was the nicest I've seen. So relaxing and spacious, and the beautiful glass ceiling was a delight. It seemed like it was a dedicated library, and not an area somewhere just to put books. Looking back, I've just noticed Ocean Princess has the same ceiling and a similar library.

Avril

Hi Avril, you are very observant. Adonia was one of 8 'R' class ships that were very similar in design and were built for the Renaissance cruise line which is long gone. The ships were sold to various other cruise lines. P&O bought Adonia from Princess where she was called Royal Princess, sister to Ocean Princess. We travelled on the old Royal Princess twice and then sailed on her again when she joined P&O and became Adonia. We also did a long cruise on Ocean Princess before she was sold to the Oceania cruise line and she is now called Sirena. We love these ships as they are a really comfortable size and can get into so many unusual ports. The fact that the larger cruise lines have sold the majority of their small ships is a major factor in us doing more Fred Olsen cruises. We cruise for the itinerary and the ship and cruise line are less important. 

My last L pictures were taken at the Longi demonstration on board MV Princess Panhwar in Myanmar. The Longi is the traditional lower body covering worn by the majority of Burmese people and we were shown that the length of fabric could be used in over 100 different ways....

and finally, us at the Longi party

My next Ls are Lifeboats and life jackets

Costa Luminosa

Legend of the Sea

Diamond Princess

Life jackets on our MV Regency Nile cruise

L is also for 'Light eating days'. We try to eat very light meals at least twice a week on cruises because it is so easy to over indulge, especially on our longer cruises....

Light eating day breakfast Celebrity Constellation

 and Sun Princess

Dinner on Celebrity Constellation 

Laundry on Boudica 

Laundry ready to be bagged up for collection on Celebrity Constellation. I always photograph the items that I am sending to the ship's laundry just in case items go missing..

Lis also for the Library on Adonia

My DH won't thank me for posting this one...hahaha

Ocean Princess

and lounges on Diamond Princess

Lifts

Costa Luminosa

Diamond Princess

Superstar Leo

 Leaving Lisbon on Grand Princess and Sea Princess

J and K were tough ones but L was a bit easier. I've surprised myself by finding so many 'on board' photographs but, I suppose with over nearly 30 years of cruising and lots of different cruise lines, it probably makes sense. Anyway, here are my Ls....

ships first -

Costa Luminosa

Legend of the Seas

Superstar Leo 

King Neptune on Ocean Princess

and the Kiel Canal from Norwegian Dream

The funnel flipped over so the ship could pass under the bridges...

Good morning. Here are my Ks..

Kites in Keelung Harbour, Taiwan, taken from Diamond Princess

kettle on Celebrity Infinity

Sunrise in Kusadasi from Splendour of the Seas

and the Kimberley coastline, Australia, from Sun Princess

Thank you Grapau27 and Damian for your comments. Jim loves the peregrine too. Unfortunately, the picture of the 2 of us on Norwegian Jewel  is from 2006 so we are a lot more wrinkly and wizen now. My darling 12 year old grandson calls me 'WHOM'...a White Haired Old Midget....which says it all!!!!

I love your pictures too. I have had so much enjoyment from all the posts and from searching my photographs so thank you

Isabel 😍 

Lots of jetties...

Cobh and Holyhead from Oceania Marina

Approaching Montego Bay and the jetty, Jamaica, from MSC Armonia

jetty in Honolulu from Emerald Princess

and lastly, the jetty in Incheon, S. Korea taken from Celebrity Millennium

Hi Britboy, I really agree that those of us who have discovered the joys (J word!) of cruising are very lucky and it gives us the chance to see and do things that we wouldn't normally have the opportunity to experience but we have to be proud that we are prepared to go to places and do things that are out of our comfort zone too....

Now for my Js and this took a bit of searching!

J is for...

Juvenile starlings. Boudicca

Japanese spice for the Ramen soup in the buffet on Diamond Princess when we cruised round Japan

and the Japanese sushi restaurant

Norwegian Jewel  with my husband, Jim

Jewel colours on Norwegian Jewel

and Norwegian Jewel pics

My last Is are

Ice cream on Discovery 2

Me, Isabel (Izzywiz) and DH Jim

Ice sculpture on Boudicca

and lastly, Icebergs as seen from inside Boudicca

I is for

Inside pool on Arcadia

Inside cabins on...

Celebrity Constellation

and Diamond Princess

 also, in-transit pass

Interesting Is and I have a few....

DH's Celebrity Infinity in-transit birds and 2 in-flight....

white winged dove

Gull

Brown Pelican

Arctic Peregrine

and my last Hs are Hostess trays. It's a bit of an obsession to take photos of our hostess trays because we love them but they are generally not provided on American and European ships unless they have their home port in the UK. I get really tired of our friends from across the pond telling me that "kettles are a fire hazard and will never be allowed on board ships" so I make sure I have some pictures on my i-pad to show them. I have also found that our cabin stewards on non-UK ships can usually provide us with a kettle. We love our early morning 'proper cuppa' made with boiling water which we drink in bed....our perfect start to the day!

Arcadia

Oriana

Boudicca

Celebrity Constellation

Hanging around...

 Splendour of the Seas

and Thomson Destiny

Hot tubs on...

Carnival Sensation 

Norwegian Crown

and Diamond Princess 

A lot of inventive posts yet again. Here are mine....

H is for Hokey-Cokey and there is a story behind this picture. We did a river cruise on the Yangtze and the evening entertainment was provided by the crew members who performed acts which represented their local culture. There were several tour groups from different countries on board and our tour managers were approached to see if anyone from their groups would be prepared to perform on the last evening. Most groups provided at least one act and our group was blessed with a lady who played the guitar and sang. She persuaded most of the people in our group to do an 'English Traditional folk Dance'  so we performed the hokey-cokey which totally bemused the French, Germans and other contingents but we had great fun!!!

These hot air balloons were seen from the deck of our Nile cruise ship

High wire act on Splendour of the Seas

Our Happy Anniversary cake on Sun Princess 

and Royal Caribbean Highlighters won in quizzes