shadowmeboy

Day 3 - Sea Day December 25th, 2022 - Christmas Day Location: Caribbean Sea ESE of Cuba Merry Christmas! Daily A little bit more cloudy today, but still beautiful! I headed out to my spot! Beautiful Sunrise!

Dessert Menu Aunt Josie's Mason Jar Banana Pudding - This is my second favorite dessert in a Jar NCL has! You will see my favorite later in this review. Susan got the Pecan Pie Our server was awesome! We had her a few other times in other venues. We headed to the Social for our Comedy Reservation Tim Homayoon was the Comedian The chocolate outside Coco's! Overall it was a very nice Christmas Eve!

So we went and got ready for pictures. We did the circuit backwards (deck 8 first then deck 6) since we had reservations at Q. This young lady was really cute in the photos she did with her family. Her brother did not like it when the two of them were posed together. This was one of my favorite photos out of our package. Once we were done with the photos, we headed to Q. Outside Menu I couldn't get this photo to edit correctly, so I did it two ways. The top picture, the sign is over exposed while Susan is good, and in the bottom one, the sign is better, but Susan is too dark. I couldn't win on that one. Dinner menu Drink menu I always have loved the red cups. They did such a good job making them look like a red solo cup! Smoked Peach Margarita Wet wipes! We both got the Texas Crab Cakes and the Deviled Eggs The Nelly Rich Band was playing while we were eating! Susan got the pulled pork. I got the brisket. Unfortunately, I was too quick moving the phone and it messed up the exposure in the dark of Q.

Understandable I honestly like the one on the Bliss the best. I haven't sailed the Joy or Getaway to see those though.

I hope you have a wonderful cruise on her. I am assuming its an Alaska itinerary?

I will agree, he was good.

We went and checked out Galaxy Pavilion Personally, I felt Galaxy Pavilion was a waste of space. I would rather have a Spice H2o. We headed back to the compass, I mean Sugarcane!

Next up on the circuit was the Latitudes Party! Officer introductions again! Interesting enough, we sailed with the Captain back in 2017 on the Escape. After the Party, we made our way up to American Diner. Menu Housemade Mozzarella Sticks Honey Mustard Chicken Club Loaded Nachos Look at Susan's face! S'more Chocolate Bar Vanilla Cheesecake We tried...

We headed back to the room to drop off some stuff. Cruise ship in the distance. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell which one. We headed to the Cruise Critic Meet & Greet We talked to Jay again at the Meet & Greet and he asked us where we were eating lunch. We said most likely the MDR or the Local after the the Latitudes party. He said that he was going to make a call and for us to go to American Diner after the Latitudes Party. We were not expecting that and we said thank you!

Rommel Temones - Executive Housekeeper Sarah Mittelstaedt - Guest Service Manager Marjan Stamenkovic - Beverage Manager (If I remember right) Jay Hizon - Restaurant Manager Praveen Mathias - Executive Chef Vikanm Mohindra - Assistant Food & Beverage Director (If I remember right) Charles Fernandes - Food & Beverage Manager (If I remember right) Nomita Rambhunjan - Assistant General Manager Deepak Punla - General Manager

I love how the crew was in the holiday spirit! another view of the fruit carvings After fruit carving was the How To Run a Floating Hotel Q&A Cruise Director Marzena walked us through the ship facts. We had sailed on the Breakaway in April of 2022 with her! She mentioned since we were on a longer cruise over the holidays, they basically ordered double of the 7 day quantities for this cruise. I really wish they would bring back the behind the scenes tour.

We hung out in the Atrium to watch the fruit carving demonstration. He did an excellent job!

Susan got the Fruit Salad I got the half grapefruit and asked for cottage cheese. The server we had, acted like they were going to have to row a boat back to Miami to pick some up. I have never had an issue getting cottage cheese before. I might get a small ketchup sized ramakin of it, but they brought some. Susan got the french toast with bacon I got the eggs benny with bacon, ham, and hashbrowns! As we were leaving the MDR, we ran into Jay. He asked us how breakfast was was. I said the food was excellent, the staff was friendly, but I mentioned the cottage cheese. He apologized and I said it was really not that big of a deal. I like to have it with my grapefruit, but its not the end of the world. He mentioned that he would make sure there was cottage cheese available in the MDR. I thanked him and we headed towards the atrium! Card Room/Library Atrium pano!

Pano - Hard to get a good pano while underway Really quiet out on deck! I found a spot and enjoyed the sea rolling by! Ship in the distance I did come prepared for morning like this! I brought a few magazines including the latest Great Northern Historical Society Great Northern Goat Magazine! It was amazing smelling the sea air, listening to the ocean roll by, and just relaxing! Another ship! Someone finally woke up! Time to head to breakfast! We headed to Savor this morning. Chocolate croissants!

Day 2 - Sea Day December 24th, 2022 - Christmas Eve Location: Caribbean Sea - North of Cuba Day 2 Daily Good Morning from the Caribbean Sea! What a fine way to greet the day on Christmas Eve! It was a wonderful 70 degrees this morning. Home was 5 degrees; Miami was 40 degrees; Edgewater was 35 degrees; I was glad to be on the ship!

We were really full after Los Lobos! So we did the slow walk forward on the ship. We both didn't want to go to bed yet since we were so full. So we headed for the DBH to hang for a bit. It was fairly calm in here tonight. I think it was the fact it was the first night and people wore themselves out on the first day and crashed early. I had a hard cider and Susan got a drink she did not like at all. she literally drank two drinks. This is why I like having the drink package. I can try things without regretting my purchase if I don't like something! I also like trying new foods on cruises. I fell in love with gnocchi aboard a cruise ship. Would I have bought it in a grocery store and tried it? Would I have taken a chance in a restaurant? probably not on both questions. Needless to say, we crashed when we got up to the room. End of Day 1 Sea Day tomorrow!

I will admit it was really cool!

It was the first time for us as well. Glad we are done with that up here in North Central! We were totally fine with doing the POA until we saw this one! Perfect itinerary especially only having to go one way to Hawaii! Let me know if you book the Spirit. I wouldn't mind hanging out onboard

Thank you!

Quesadilla de Tres Quesos con camarones - Shrimp three cheese quesadilla Aguachile de Camarones - Shrimp Ceviche Enchiladas de Mariscos - Seafood Enchiladas Arroz y Frijoles - Rice and beans Huachinango a la veracruzana - Veracruz style snapper Tamales - Pork tamale Elotes - Mexican Street Corn Dessert Menu Bunuelos de la abuela - Grandma's Donuts - fried beignets with brown sugar syrup and guava Tres Leches Cake - 3 Milk Cake Dinner at Los Lobos was awesome like normal. Our server Kim was outstanding! The food was excellent!

We did get the suitcases unpacked and put away! We then got ready for dinner and headed out. We headed down to deck 6 to see if there was a photography station the first night. There was, but we didn't choose any of the shots from that night. Another view of the gingerbread display on deck 6. Time for dinner! We always like dining in the Specialty Restaurants on the first night as its often very quiet and not very full. It also gets us into cruise mode faster! See how empty Los Lobos and even Cagney's is Guacamole Time! We sipped our Margaritas as they made the guac! Susan got her margarita blended. I got mine on the rocks. Finished guacamole

Looking back at Miami. See you in 11 days! Small container ship entering the Port of Miami Pilot boat waiting to pick up our pilot My view of the pickup was blocked by the DBH Pilot successfully picked up and off they go! Below is the time-lapse sail away video!

Coast Guard Station It was cool seeing the walkers waving their cell phones with the light on as we passed! The beach was quite empty, go figure!

The fuel bunkering barge passed by us. The MSC Divina was next to depart I noticed the police boat had gotten in position for us! Night Balcony Pano We started out of our berth

Carnival Spirit was the first to depart Miami. We last saw this ship in July when we got off the Norwegian Spirit. It also ported in Juneau and Ketchikan with us. Once Carnival Spirit got past Freedom of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas headed for the turning basin. Finally a clear view! Once Freedom of the Seas got past the Norwegian Sky, the Sky pulled out of its berth. We would see the sky 11 days later when we returned to Miami. The Sky is one of the NCL ships we have yet to sail. We will just have to couple it with a longer cruise out of Miami. Freedom of the Seas got turned and made its way out to sea.