Greenpea2

Thank you. :~]

Glad to see you here, thanks TNVolnteerCruiser!

I know I won't be able to type as neatly or as clearly once I am on board and in the cruise vortex head set (not to mention the internet capability...). So bear with me while I add another "pre-cruise" blather segment. Then I probably am done with the big blathers. Thanks to all of you who have joined me. Your being here to listen to me and my thoughts really increases my cruise experience exponentially! Here we go: Excursions Planned For those that don’t already know, our itinerary is: Sunday: Embark at Port Canaveral Monday: At Sea Tuesday: Cozumel, Mexico Wednesday: Georgetown, Grand Cayman Thursday: Ochos Rios, Jamaica Friday: At Sea Saturday: Great Stirrup Cay (please, please, please) Sunday: I refuse to think about Sunday We don’t have a lot planned but we do have a couple of things set up (and/or anticipated). We tend to not do a lot of shore excursions because we love just being on the ship. All the normal excitement and activity during Sea Days are fun and very much enjoyed by us. But we also find it a bit of a treat to sometimes just stay onboard and enjoy the ship when it’s more quiet than usual. And frankly, we both want to get as much value out of the Haven sundecks as we can. Shore excursions Cozumel, Mexica: We signed up for the Salsa and Salsa excursion. Sistah and I had planned to do that, so when those plans changed, I wondered how “down widdit” DH would be since one of the “Salsas” is the dancing salsa. And getting him to even pretend to dance has been rare in the 18 years we have been together. When I presented it to him, I said (based on what I have read online) that we are brought to a restaurant and we are taught to make several different salsas, which we get to eat of course. With crispy Mexican chip things. As well as being plied with bottomless margaritas. Then, at the end they try and teach us (“try” being key here, I am pretty sure) to dance the Salsa. Then we are let loose to drunkenly explore the local shops and encouraged to buy stuff, before being brought back to the ship. He kind of raised his eyebrows at the dancing part, but said that sounded OK. Well! That wasn't too hard to sell! Great Stirrup Cay: Back Story: For the Sistahs cruise, she and I had booked a “regular” cabana on the regular beach and that’s all we wanted. It wasn’t fancy and it was not very expensive (relatively speaking), although I can’t remember the price. Maybe $300? But it was not an “ouch” price to me. For $150 each we’d get a day at the beach, our own space, drinks brought by, out of the sun. Cool. We wanted it. We were excited. About 2 weeks before that cruise I received an email from NCL saying that all the “regular” cabanas were being upgraded and would not be available … BUT they are SO HAPPY to be offer me and Sistah one of the NEW, very oo-la-lah LAGOON VILLAS for the SAME PRICE. I have to laugh now because I was super disappointed! I WANTED that plain old “regular” cabana, darn it! Anyway, I do digress…so we ended up with a Lagoon Villa. And it was incredible. What a peaceful, gorgeous day. On a peaceful gorgeous beach, with a Villa that was peaceful and gorgous to call “home.” One of my fondest cruise memories ever. So for this cruise I wanted to do it again. But the PRICE. Oh my. Like $800 or something? No way. Ridiculous! Especially for 2 people! I forcefully pushed the idea out of my disgruntled mind. But as time went by, I kept thinking about it, how wonderful and magical the day had been. One night after having a slightly larger martini than usual (yeah, it only takes one with me) I went and looked at them again. My Grey Goose mind found it amazingly easy to rationalize that this cruise is ALREADY so expensive, so what difference does it really make! (Yeah, that old tried and true one). So it is the Grey Goose company’s fault. I booked it. Now I am a little worried that we might not get to go, that the weather will not cooperate. Recent Prima reviews are iffy. Oh I want to go SO BADLY! Cross your fingers for us, please! On the bright side (there almost always IS one), if we can’t get there (sob), that money comes back to momma. But I don’t want the bright side. I want the Lagoon Villa.

That's a good one! The weird thing is that I am, not a spread-sheet type of person or someone that wants to control all the details. But I do enjoy doing it when I am given free rein. That's one way DH and I do mesh well. I have messy lists that I add things to and then finally type up clean lists. Does it take time? Sure! But I enjoy the anticipation and have been on enough cruise to know that in the end, those lists help make a trip come together. I'm betting you are the same. 🙂

Ah, yes. The last day before the day before the cruise. I spent today in the midst of a minor tornado of lists, pet sitter instructions, post-it notes, final household chores, laundry, and 3 stacks of “stuff” waiting to be actually packed into 1) carry-on bag, 2) bag for the overhead bin, and 3) a suitcase. This stack? Needed for tomorrow night at the hotel. That stack? Needed for the next day when we board. That really-big-pile of stuff? Well, honey THAT big ole mess is for the cruise! Love that word: C R U I S E. I was somewhat enlightened today about the differences between men and woman. Well, OK, no generalizing. (At least publicly.) So fine, SOME of the differences between THIS man and THIS woman (but I know there will be some sisters out there who will get what I am sayin’). ME: I started lists, notes, reminders, and made plans months ago. Months. I have Word documents on my computer with things like “foods to try”, “drinks to drink”, tips from others here at CCI that I want to remember, don’t forget to check this out, go here, and maybe do this. That kinda stuff. And today I spent all day cleaning, organizing, and hunting and gathering. Lists are made to be crossed off, people. DH: No excitement or particular interest in the cruise for the months leading up it. Then (movement!) yesterday he dragged his suitcase up from the garage. (Whoa! He’s starting!) This morning he got up, had coffee, and packed everything. An hour later that suitcase was in the back of our car. He’s done. I started at 8:00 am and just finished at 3:00 pm. Final tally: DH = 1 hour Me: Several months on and off and today, 7 hours Sure could use a nifty frozen cruise drink right about now!

Thank you both!

My FitBit has a USB plug. The rectangular slot type, I guess that's a USB. Will there be an outlet for it?

Pre-cruise logistics: We will be flying down to Orlando airport the day before (on Saturday). DH’s sister and her hubby live in Florida (about an hour and 45 minutes from Orlando) and since DH and I were a little worried about the whole Uber concept and/or scheduling all that stuff (am I showing my, er, “maturity” here?), we decided to ask if his sister and hubby would consider picking us up at the airport, taking us to Port Canaveral, staying at the hotel (on us) with us, and a nice dinner out (on us), then dropping us off at the port the next day before driving almost 2 hours home again on Sunday. Sounds like a deal, huh? Ha Ha. Well, it was worth a try, right? Turns out they said “Yes”! Yay. We all don’t get to see each other much so this will be a nice little visit. Fun to see them and spend some time, and no Uber/taxi logistics to deal with. (P.S. I booked us the NCL shuttle back to the airport when we disembark—very easy to do and inexpensive.) We are spending the night before the cruise at the Hampton Inn and Suites, Port Canaveral. When I booked it (back in October) the price was reasonable, considering the cost of the rest of this trip. Under $300/room even with all those mysterious taxes and fees added in. I checked prices 3 weeks ago and WOW!! Like over $5oo! Unreal.

I’d also like to say that with all the recent Prima reviews (which I loved--thank you all for spending time onboard writing them) I know not everyone will be particularly interested in yet another Prima review. That’s OK, I do understand. At least I will have any number of The Tribe members being nice enough to read this. 😉 I will do my best to entertain you and be informative. I’m not all that great at the informative part (last time I kept forgetting to take pictures of my food, I was scared to take pictures of bare feet on sofas because what if someone yelled at me? I just can’t get motivated to take pictures of all the dailies and post them, and I got frustrated with the WiFi and sometimes whined a little... sometimes). I’m not the perfect “reviewer” that’s for sure. I tend to just sort of share my experience and hope someone out there is interested. I also am aware that there are those out there who are not particularly interested in a Haven-heavy cruise report. They prefer a regular cruise experience. I get it. And no offense taken. This will be a lot of Haven stuff, I’m sure, but also other places on the ship. DH and I look forward to exploring this beautiful new creature called the Prima. We most certainly will not be only in the Haven.

Background: This was supposed to be the Sistahs Cruise Part Deux. Sistah and I cruised on the (then) new Norwegian Bliss at the end of February 2020. Back in the old days, before Covid. Actually, JUST before Covid -- the cruise after ours was the last one before the shut-down. Serendipity? Sistah not have much cruise experience, so she was especially excited for that cruise since we booked the Haven. She was bowled over by the experience. We had such a fun time and, living so far apart (she in NYS up by Canada, me in NJ [then] and NC [now]) we just don’t get to spend that much time together. It was a great cruise with a number of Sistah shenanigans. Here’s a link to that review if anyone is interested: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2736734-sistahs-cruise-bliss-ny-to-bahamas-feb-23-march-1/ A year ago we decided it was time to do it again and so we booked this cruise. We wanted to really do it up—booked the Haven (an H6 two-bedroom suite), chose the Premium-Plus beverage package, and I took the unlimited internet so I could happily blather on here and share our experience again. But it was not to be. To be admittedly vague (this is a public forum after all), her life situation changed about 7 months ago. For now, she is needed at home and cannot be away for more than a day or maybe 2. We waited until close to final payment for her to make her final decision. Which was: nope. She can’t leave. We were both disappointed and very sad. To say the least. Why not just go with Hubbie, you ask? Well, although my husband used to cruise every year or so with me, he has not in a number of years—he lost interest. I know, right? WHO LOSES INTEREST IN CRUISING. Well, he did. He would rather stay home with his guitars and our cats, with the TV on in the background most of the time being able to be really messy every day, spreading his stuff out from one end of our apartment to the other (just in case he needs it nearby) without a wife frowning at him. So imagine my surprise when, after I told him that Sistah decided she just can’t go, he immediately said “guess I’ll have to go with you then!” Say what?? :-0 OK then! The cruise was back on! I could not name this cruise the “Spouses Cruise” because, ugh. Just not catchy, and just sounds really boring, Besides. It was supposed to be the Sistahs. So in honor of Sistah and to show that I will be thinking of her every day of this cruise, I am calling it the non-Sistahs cruise. It seems only right (although also… just wrong).

OK, I stand corrected on that one! I do think Valentine's Day week tends to be more crowded than usual, though. Something I avoid too.

Agree. I have been cruising since my early 30s and never had interest in any of the daily activities. It's not a matter of being geared towards older peeps. It's a matter of the activities seeming dumb to a number of people regardless of age.

Wow. It does sound like an awful lot of things coming together (or apart)--I can understand your frustration and disappointment. A couple of the bad things, though...cancelled ports and excursions just happen sometimes, based on any number of issues, mostly safety. It stinks, I know. And is very disappointing.But that's not on NCL, it happens on all lines. The crowdedness was due to it being Spring Break for much of the country. Suggestion: Always Google "Spring break dates" before booking. You can find out what weeks likely will be bad for you. There cabin location--it's always a good idea to research that a bit too. I have stayed in a suite at the bow and yes, it was bumpy sometimes and the balcony often unusable. But I knew that going in so it was not a disappointment. Add to that, the weather being windy/bumpy...again, that just is how it is sometimes. On any cruise line. I think if you subtracted those items, which can and do happen on any cruise line, or needed more research, there just would have been a handful of annoying things. Like the bone shard (awful), the Concierge (I've had mostly good but sometimes not, the luck of the draw I think) and all those annoying trips to the service desk (I would have been disgruntled about that too, I know)_it sounds like it was a good cruise, all ins all. Hope your next one runs more smoothly!

WOW. That's awful.

Thank you so much!

Every time I cruise I can't remember what I am supposed to do. It's ridiculous! But OK, so again --I will need my phone and iPad to post on CC and FB, maybe. I have the internet package. So do I turn it to airplane mode and turn on WiFi as described above? Won't be texting or calling anyone.

But they won't release him to the dog sitter? Poor puppy! But at least you know he will be safe. Just remember that and ENJOY. Her will be fine.

So do I. Moved here 3+ years ago. 🙂 SE of Raleigh. What part do you live in ?

Haver a WONDERFUL time!

Yes, ma'am. On Carnival Celebration--January (14th I think?). There is a thread for that. Join us!!

My cockles too! Have not heard that one in a while. Extra points for knowing "cockles" was a derivation of the Latin word for "ventricles"! Yeah, I'm a word nerd. 🙂

parkhour?

On my way back to NC from upstate NY, I had a 2 hour layover in Philly airport. Not a huge one, but a number of bar/restaurants. I had not eaten all day so decided to go sit at the bar of the one right across from my gate. Had the best cheeseburger and fries there! So good. Great service too. Yes, overpriced but I did not care, I was hungry. Anyway, my point is that the food was not at all mediocre!

I kind of doubt it. Sid seems to also really like Carnival and VV. Any other cruise lines you have been thinking of trying, Sid?

For sure. Maybe a whirlwind Atlanta (or SC) weekend? ...Not that any of us are busybodies or anything...