MrsKC08

Once back on board, we both took a shower to wash off the say and have a little late afternoon siesta! 🙂 

Dinner was at Moderno, and oh so was is delicious but so much food! I wish I would have taken my camera to get some photos of the food, but quite honestly I wasn't even thinking about photos...just the delicious food we would be having. As many others have mentioned...the grilled pineapple was too die for! Don't skip out on that part or you will be missing out.

We did check out the 80s party up in Spice H20 and it was well attended and lots of fun. 80s is my second favorite genre of music, being a child born in the 70s. But we didn't stay too long. We were both tired and it was quite windy up on deck.

Daily_Day3.pdf

Day three found us in Cozumel. Honestly, this is not one of my favorite Caribbean ports, but we always have a go to place when we are here...Nachi Cocom. If you've spent any time at all on these boards, I'm sure you've heard Nachi mentioned, along with Mr. Sanchos. They are similar, in that they are both all-inclusive type beach day "resort" type of excursions. You pay one price and it includes your drinks and food. We prefer Nachi over Mr. Sanchos mainly because they limit the number of guests to just 130 guests, where Mr. Sanchos does not limit their guest count. Mr. Sanchos is perfect for families or large groups that want to have more of a "party" type atmosphere IMHO, whereas Nachi is much more relaxed, laid back, and tranquil. You can book either directly with them on their websites.

The day we were there, it was very quiet and not a whole lot of guests and the weather...it was picture perfect!

And the drinks were free flowing...

Those were all mine by the way. I was trying several different "recommendations" from the bar tender and our server.

The wifi is free at Nachi, but unfortunately didn't reach well to our spot on the beach, so I walked over toward the pool and dining area to get a stronger connection so I could check in with our fur babies and my dad. Before I knew it, my phone notifications were going off with posts from Facebook, messenger, emails, etc...

 You can imagine my shock and confusion as to why people were worried about us. Had they heard something that we hadn't heard. Something going on with cruises or maybe something in Mexico. I just didn't know. And then I see what they were referring to...

Needless to say, we were both shocked and concerned for what we would come home to. I quickly reached out to my dad who was at our house watching our fur babies, and he assured me...all was ok on the home front. Whew... Once we knew all was ok, we posted a quick live video on my page on the face site and then returned to my happy place and took some adult medicine (of the liquid kind) to calm my nerves a bit.

After lunch, we had them call us a taxi and we made our way back toward port. I wanted to do some shopping, and I wanted to make sure to get some Vanilla. I do a lot of cooking and baking, and Cozumel has some of the best vanilla extract at the best prices. I ended up buying 3 one liter bottles of clear vanilla extract for $22. Score!!

Then we made our way back to the ship.

Happy Friday all! Sorry that I didn't do any updates yesterday. I was ordered Wednesday afternoon to start working remotely from home, given the current circumstances. I had other things to get into place to get that happening so that took my focus. BUT, I'm back today! 

Day Two gave us our first Sea Day as we made our way to Cozumel. For breakfast we decided to try O'Sheehan's which was a quick walk down the two decks to deck 7. As I mentioned, being on deck 9 was perfect for us and we found ourselves using stairs quite a bit throughout the week.

We spent a lot of the day exploring more of the ship, checking out the shops, and even a nice afternoon nap. Believe it or not, we didn't spend any time up on the pool deck so I cannot comment on the chair hog situation. 🙂

This was the "Dress up or Not Night" of the cruise, and we dressed up! Matter of fact, formal nights on cruises are one of our favorite things to do. It's not often you get the chance to dress up and have a nice dinner, dancing and a show? Besides, my hubby sure cleans up nice. Dinner was in the Tropicana Room.

That was the one and only photo we bought from the cruise. We had a lot taken, and liked many of them...but just didn't need anymore 8x10 photos of us. 

After dinner, we had 10 pm reservations for our first production show of the cruise, Burn the Floor. From our past experiences on other cruiselines, and from reports I had read...we made sure to arrive early (roughly 40 minutes early) to the theater. They hadn't quite opened it yet, but there were already a few people in line. The show was good, definitely high energy, but not one I'll remember and definitely not one I would see again if it was on a future cruise. Just not my type of show. But props to the dancers because they killed it. If I was up there, it would have been "Collapse on the Floor" instead of Burn the Floor.

Once the show was over, it was time to turn in. I think just watching them wore me out!

Day Two Daily Attached!

Daily_Day2.pdf

After dinner we made our way to the theater for the Welcome Aboard Show. I have to say that the theater here kind of surprised me. I'm so used to double level/balcony type theaters, it was strange to see the theater just on one deck, and only two aisles which makes it hard to get in and out of and a slow egress after a show or event in there. But the seats were comfy and I did like the bar service in there. I think it is so smart to have the tablets for them to place drink orders and scan cards at your seat without having to remember your order and take your card off to the bar. Service seemed pretty fast in there too, given that there is a bar right at the back of the theater. Props to NCL for this. Not sure if this is consistent with their other ships, but definitely something that we noticed as different from our other cruises.

I was bummed to find out that they don't allow photos or video of the shows, which I've always been able to do on other cruises. So, unfortunately I won't have those to share in this review either. Just blows my mind that we cannot do that with NCL. And, although I tend to bend the rules a little when I go to the Opry and take a few short video clips (they don't allow it there either), I was a good girl and didn't take any this time.

After the Welcome Aboard show, we headed to the Atrium to check out a little bit of the Majority Rules Game Show, and then off to bed. After all, I had been up since 2:30 that morning!

Let me apologize and say that I did not take any photos of food or menus. Normally in past I have, but I just didn't drag my phone or my camera around with me when we were going to dinner. I know many people look forward to that, and I'm sorry that you won't find that in this review. 

One of the things I read so much about prior to this cruise was how bad the food was. Food is one of those things that is subjective and what one person might not enjoy, someone else might love. Not to mention, one chef can fix something one night that is a little off, and then the following night the same dish be perfect. BUT, I did go in with an open mind because I didn't want to set myself up for disappointment. I am here to say, that food our entire cruise was great! Matter of fact, we both said it was probably the best food we had in all of our cruises. Granted, the food could have been served at a little hotter temperature, but presentation, quality, quantity and choices were very good!

But, since I don't have the menu's or photos of food. I hope that I can make it up by sharing the Freestyle Daily's for our cruise for those that like to plan.

Attached is the Daily for Day One.

Daily_Day1.pdf

3 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

Are those the only beers on tap in the Irish pub? They may want to think about changing it to a German theme.

Don't quote me on it, but I think that was it on tap, at that particular bar. We didn't have any draft beer all week. Hubby was upset that they had no flavored whiskey/bourbon at any bar. He loves Jim Beam Apple and it was not available except in the store on board. 

3 hours ago, MNcruisingcouple said:

Thank you so much for sharing this review.  What a bright spot!  Having sailed out of NOLA many times, this is bringing back such great memories.  For music in NOLA, Frenchman's St is the place to be.  So much better than Bourbon St.

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Thanks for coming by and commenting. 🙂 We did find someone singing at one of the bars on Bourbon street, but we didn't stay long, if that tells you anything. Here in Nashville we have some amazing talent on Broadway...which thanks to the virus has them all shut down. 😞 Definitely a ghost town here now.

This probably was my favorite sign I saw all week, just outside of Syd Normans!

Rooms were ready around 1pm and we were able to drop off our carry on bag. And, before we knew it, it was time for our muster drill which happened to be in O'Sheeans. Typical drill, but dang no one wants to listen. I can't tell you how many times they asked people to get off their phones and they would start.

On a foot note, we had a super fun couple sit next to us at the bar during the drill that we immediately clicked with. We found ourselves spending time with them every night of our cruise in the Atrium. By the way, this is one of my favorite things about cruising...meeting new people!

Normally for sail away, we would make our way up to the pool deck to watch as we sailed out into the ocean. But, all our prior sailings have been out of Florida and with us going out of NOLA and being on the river, I wanted to be down low so I could see things as we sailed by. We elected to do our sail away from deck 8 at the Waterfront.

Soon it was time to get ready for dinner, which would be in Taste.

Good morning CCers! 🙂

Glad to have you join in on my chance to relive our cruise vacation. With everything going on in the world these days, I kinda wish I was back on a cruise ship and away from it all. We certainly didn't hear anything about it while on the ship, except for the times we had a our TV on trying to get some information about the horrible Tornado situation that hit our city while we were gone. I'll get to that shortly....but I think I left off just before our embarkation!

Checking out of the hotel and finding the Fulton Parking Garage was quick and easy. We had pre-paid for our parking via www.neworleansparking.com website. Our total for the week was $83.40 and included transportation to and from the terminal. We showed our confirmation email upon entering the garage and were directed to go all the way (8 levels) to the top for parking. It was tight corners for sure, but doable in our SUV. We gathered our luggage and tried to find the elevator down, which took some exploring. Once down and outside to wait for the shuttle, we took a photo of our luggage, just in case we needed to identify it later. They also asked that everyone take a photo of the shuttle so we knew what shuttle to look for upon our return in 7 days.

The ride over was quick and smooth, but the cluster once at the terminal was CRAZY. The crowds of people leaving, along with those of us arriving made for a mass confusion on everyone's part I think. People trying to push onto the shuttle before everyone was off, and then trying to find where we were supposed to drop off our luggage just gave me a huge headache. BUT, once we dropped our bags off with the porters, it was smooth sailing through security and check in. Matter of fact, I don't truly think they looked at our documents, and although there was an additional health form to fill out...it was easy peasy! I think from the time we got onto the shuttle at the garage, to the time we were sitting in the waiting area was a matter of 30 minutes max!

PRIORITY ACCESS: For this cruise, I opted to pay the extra fee and do the Priority Access. I know that many people feel this is a waste of money, and there were times that I second guessed my purchasing it, but there were a few reasons why I decided on it. First, I knew there was a good possibility that we would have to tender in Roatan, and then after hearing about the tendering at Harvest Caye, I knew that we definitely would be needing to tender at least once. Second, since we have never cruised with NCL (again, Hubby was a lowly Bronze), we weren't sure how the embarkation would be with us "steerage" class.  😉 And Third, the priority disembarkation was important for us since we had a long drive ahead of us to get back home once the cruise was over. 

As for the check-in process, we found that there was definitely signage indicating where we were to go. I had read several accounts that this was not the case, but there was signs for Priority Access. They offered to give us a boarding group number, which would have been 1 had we taken it, but when I mentioned the Priority Access, and showed them our cards with the PRTY stamped on them, they told us we didn't need it. Some reported that there was a special waiting area for Priority, but I asked 5 different staff members and they said there was none. The only "special" waiting area was for those in Haven, which quite honestly is laughable for us. As I mentioned, we sail Royal Caribbean regularly. And, although we don't splurge for a suite, I can tell you that the waiting area for those who are in suite on RCCL are amazing...

But what they have for those in Haven suites in NOLA is basically the size of a regular classroom with chairs. It kind of shocked both of us, with what you pay for Haven to be put in a little closed off room, I know I would have been disappointed. But...it's also something I'll never experience as we won't be sailing in suites (unless we find some crazy deal)!

Anyway, once Haven are called to board, and then those requiring special assistance, Priority and Platinum passengers were called. Be prepared though, people all swarm the entry point and you have to push your way through, and be prepared to show your sea pass card indicating the Priority Access.

Once onboard, we entered on deck 7 at O'Sheeans and stopped there to get our first drink and await lunch which would open at 11:30!

For lunch, hubby went with the coney island dog with fries, and I had the open faced turkey. We shared the nachos! All was good and hot, with the exception of the cheese sauce. TIP, ask for the cheese on the side OR and for EXTRA cheese. I found later in the week that if I did this, the cheese was hotter.

Once lunch was done, we set off to explore the ship.

14 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

The people you've heard this from are wrong. Tell them to check with WHO, which named the the disease. Being a doctor or nurse doesn't mean you know everything.

 

No...we haven't seen this in humans prior to the end of 2019.

I agree...just because someone is a doctor doesn't make them a know it all. I just stated what I heard.

But, you are wrong. Coronavirus was first identified in the 1960s. Since then, seven human-infecting types of coronavirus have been identified, including Covid-19, also known as Wuhan Coronavirus.

That information was just pulled from a reputable health website.

And confirmed by the CDC website. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/types.html

6 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

No..it's called Covid -19 because 2019 was the first year cases of the disease were seen, not because there were 18 previous strains .

 

https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/11/disease-caused-by-the-novel-coronavirus-has-name-covid-19/

 

"In choosing the name, WHO advisers focused simply on the type of virus that causes the disease. Co and Vi come from coronavirus, Tedros explained, with D meaning disease and 19 standing for 2019, the year the first cases were seen."

I've heard from several people in the medical field (doctors and nurses) that this was the 19th strain. So...Dunno.

Either way, we have definitely seen this virus in the past.

2 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

 Even non-oyster eaters like these. They're cooked in a garlic butter sauce and topped with cheese. 

Ok...you had me at garlic butter! Dang...I missed out. Guess another cruise out of Nola is in order.

1 minute ago, Saint Greg said:

 

I'm glad you found it helpful! But no charbroiled oysters at Drago's? A tip: If you like them they're actually on the menu at the bar you had your pre-dinner drinks at. So you don't have to wait for a table if you want oysters.

No Oysters. We are not oyster eaters. I did remember you mentioning them to me before though. 🙂 

It's definitely possible. My co-worker and her husband both believe that what they had in January was the Coronavirus. Of course they were not testing for it back then, but by all accounts of what they had, experienced, and their symptoms...it is quite possible they had this. Let's face it, it's called Covid-19 for a reason. We've seen 18 strains of this in the medical field in the past. Just like all the strains of flu. 

I don't know what it is about Cruise Day, but I just cannot sleep past 3 am! This time was no exception. I posted on the roll call group page on that other site about being up at 2:30am!

I actually wanted to get up about 5 to try and get out on the lanai to watch the ship sail in, but I think I might have been afraid I'd oversleep? But, I checked cruise mapper from my phone to see her position, and watched until it looked as though she was coming around her final turn and then we made our way out to the lanai to catch her.

Did I mention this was the perfect hotel for us? The was such a perfect spot to come out this early and catch our first glimpse of her. 

We went back in to search for some coffee and planned on having our beignets from the night before. Unfortunately, we each took one bite and said..."nope, too sweet!" and sadly threw them away. Two years ago you would have never heard those words come out of my mouth, but since I don't have sugar anymore, things like that are just too much. Not to mention, they would probably put my body into a shock!

After we got our showers and dressed, we decided to take a walk through the mall and see how close we could get to the terminal/ship. I was surprised actually, that we could get so close!

The above photo was actually off a balcony from the food court area of the Riverwalk Mall. While in the mall, we ran into a couple who had just got off the ship and had nothing but glowing things to say about their week. Which got us even more excited, especially after all the negative stuff I had read prior to our sailing. It appears that many people do choose to walk off with their luggage and go through the Riverwalk Mall to pick up some sort of transportation (lyft or uber) or possibly to another parking site that I am not aware of. We noticed many people walking back toward our hotel with their luggage who had just disembarked the Getaway.

After our stroll, we made our way back to our room to gather our overnight bag and check out.

As mentioned above, we decided to have dinner at Drago's. It came highly recommended not only on the CC boards, but also from friends of ours who have visited NOLA and a coworker who used to live there. It was super convenient for us, since it was located right in the lobby of our hotel. There was quite a wait (about 45 minutes), but thankfully they have a bar that we saddled up to and had a pre-dinner cocktail. The first of many for the week, that's for sure.

As an appetizer, we got the fried gator. As a girl who grew up on Central Florida, I've seen my share of alligators and to be honest, I have quite the phobia of them as well. I've personally experienced or seen some tragic events with these animals and I just have issues.... Funny thing is, I'm a Florida Gator fan. 😉 Anyway, these were delicious and the sauce that comes with them is perfect!

Hubby decided on the Fried Shrimp 

While I chose the Seafood Pasta. Both were good but I think mine was better. NOW, let me preface this by saying that I am a strict Keto girl. I've been keto now for almost 2 years and on every cruise I've been on while living this lifestyle...I've remained keto and in ketosis. This particular trip I did decide to deviate from my normal eating routine so this pasta was definitely a treat for me. I haven't had pasta since April 2018!!

In talking to our waitress, I mentioned that I didn't get a chance to have Cafe du Monde and how disappointed I was about that. I did however, get myself a canister to bring home from a local retailer earlier in the day...but I really wanted to have it there! She mentioned there was one in the Riverwalk Mall and that I could just go there and get my fix. Needless to say, we decided against dessert and made a dash to the location in the mall before they would close! SO....I did end up getting my Cafe du Monde fix. We each had a Cafe aulait and although we didn't order them because we were so full from dinner, they gave us 3 beignets for free. I'm guessing because it was close to closing time and they didn't want them left over. So, we figured we would each have one in the morning with our Starbucks coffee. (There are two locations inside the hotel).

Now, it's off to sleep and rest. When we wake up...it's CRUISE DAY!

2 minutes ago, Liljo22 said:

Thank you for posting this.  We were on the ship right after you.  I want to post a review but don't know how the reaction would be with all the negativity toward recent cruisers going on CC right now.  

Thanks for coming by to check out my review. I hope you enjoyed your cruise vacation half as much as we did.

It's definitely uncharted waters we are in currently (no pun intended), but I feel that there is just too much negative stuff not just here, but all social outlets, not to mention...I'm just tired of hearing about this virus. I do hope you decide to do a review. I would love to hear about your trip.

About that time we looked and noticed that the Carnival Valor was turning around to head down the river. We went to the river bank to watch it sail by. However, this looked as though it was a  Ghost ship because there appeared to be no one up on deck. I don't think we've ever seen that before. 

Once the ship passed by, we made our way to Bourbon Street. Only so we could say we had been there. We both said we would take our Nashville Broadway over Bourbon Street any day.

It was starting to get close to dinner time, or at least my tummy was telling me it was. So, we made our way back to the hotel since we had plans to eat at Drago's which is actually located in the Hilton Riverside.

Side note...does anyone else kick themselves for not buying something that they see? I seem to do that a lot, and this trip was no different. I saw these cute miniature masquerade mask ornaments, and told myself I'd go back to get one after I "looked around the other shops some more". I never made it back, and all I have is this photo.

6 minutes ago, Travelling2Some said:

Thanks for starting an enjoyable thread.  I had hoped the "Alternate Vacation Plans" thread would be a cheerful read but it quickly degenerated into a finger wagging statistics lecture!

Yeah, I was afraid of that too. 😞 

As I mentioned, we drove to New Orleans instead of flying. It was an easy 8 hour drive from our house to the Hilton Riverside. On the way down, we stopped for lunch at a neat little place called PDI/Phillips Drive-In in Laurel, Mississippi. It is right off I-59 and across the street from Hellfighters Motorcycle Shop, which by the way is an interesting place to walk around in! I probably wouldn't have normally gone into a motorcycle store (we don't have a bike), but I had to go to the restroom, and that was my only option because I didn't see one at Phillips.

Ladies restroom in Hellfighters Motorcycle Shop

From there we drove on to New Orleans and checked into our hotel about 2pm. 

There were two things I wanted to definitely do while in NOLA...

• Go inside St. Louis Cathedral
• Have coffee and an beignet at Cafe DuMonde

I had checked online for the hours of the Cathedral and knew that it closed at 4pm on Saturday. So I was kind of being a little pushy and rushed my hubby from the hotel. We quickly found a rickshaw and got a ride to the cathedral. This was a first for both of us. We have never ridden one of these before! It was a beautiful day, a nice ride, and great information from our "escort". It cost us $20 including our tip and she dropped us as close as she could to the Cathedral, as the streets are filled with different types of street performers.

Unfortunately, the Cathedral was closed for a wedding. To say I was bummed is an understatement. But, the building is simply beautiful...if you like that kind of thing, which we do!

Once I got over the fact that I was not going to get inside, we walked the streets and looked at all the street performers. I did a Facebook live of it, and boy do I wish I had the video to share here!

As we made our way toward Cafe Du Monde, we noticed a considerable line forming, and we weren't quite sure what was going on. Upon closer inspection, it was the line for Cafe Du Monde. Go figure! I surveyed a little and it appeared the line I was looking at was actually for those waiting for a table, so I found another line that was much shorter, and I got in it...only to find out after a few minutes that it was actually the line for the restroom! Gah~ I just looked at my hubs and said, never mind. But boy...those beignet's looked divine, although far too much sugar for this gal!

From there we wandered the French Market and several of the local shops around.

Pre-cruise hotel stay and Cruise Parking---

PRE-CRUISE HOTEL SELECTION: Being that neither of us have been to NOLA before (I know, shocking), we weren't quite sure about location or where we wanted to stay for our night prior to cruising. One thing we did know, was that we would be driving instead of flying, so we needed either a cruise/park package or somewhere that was close to a parking garage/lot where we could leave our vehicle for the week. Somewhere that we could easily find and not get lost in a city we are not familiar with...if you know what I mean. I checked these boards quite a bit here on CC to get tips and suggestions, as I usually do and thanks to people like @Saint Greg and his infinite knowledge of New Orleans we got just the information we needed. We booked through Hotwire and were lucky enough to end up with Hilton Riverside. I've got to say, this hotel is definitely THE PLACE to stay in our opinion when it comes to New Orleans. We were right there near the port, we were connected to the Riverwalk Mall, and there was a great bar and restaurant right on site.  It was a great spot to watch the paddle boats come in and go out, as well as the Carnival Valor that went out Saturday evening. Parking at the hotel over night was $46 for us, and I will mention that it is definitely a tight parking garage. Tighter than many we have here in Nashville. There were some big trucks that somehow got in, but I am almost positive that they scraped going through the levels, and most had to take up two parking spaces.

CRUISE PARKING: In reading through the port boards here on CC, I knew that my options for the cruise parking would be at the terminal ($20/day), Fulton Garage ($10 - $15/day depending on covered or roof top parking), Cummins Parking Lot ($12.50/day), and Machu Picchu Tours ($120/week). The decision was pretty easy for us, and we went with Fulton Garage. I chose Roof Top parking, and although I would definitely park here again, I would pay a little more and do covered parking. As you can see from the photo below, it is close and convenient to the cruise terminal!

Stay tuned....more to come!

In an effort to go back in time to when the people around me were not in a panic mode, I thought I'd go ahead and share my trip report from our first NCL cruise experience aboard the Getaway. Normally I take much more time in preparing my reviews (unless it is a live one of course), but I just need to take my mind back to a better place...and I'm thinking there are others who need a mental escape as well. I hope that I'm able to provide that for someone out there!

Background:   We are Lynn (me) and Ken (sweet hubby) and we live in Music City, USA…Nashville for those of you who might have been living under a rock and have never heard that term before. Trust me, there is at least one in a crowd that never heard Nashville called that before and although it used to shock me, now I just shake my head.

Anyway…we are frequent cruisers, but since we both work full time and have our two fur babies and a chipmunk to care for, we don’t get to cruise as much as some but we are fortunate to get to cruise about twice a year. Our favorite line, at least at the time of booking this cruise, is Royal Caribbean. We have sailed many other mass lines like the Big Red Fin, Celebrity, Princess, Holland (one and done on that line, thank you), and now Norwegian. This will be my first cruise on NCL, and although Hubs has sailed this line in the past, two times in fact, those cruises were in 1992 and 2000, and way before his life with me…well, they simply don’t count for much other than it brought his loyalty status to Bronze…whoopie! Ha!

We started looking at our Spring 2020 cruise options while we were sailing on our last cruise, the Harmony in November 2019. At the time, the price of this cruise was almost too good to be true. I remember us sitting in our clam shell in the Harmony Solarium and discussed booking this because the price was definitely do-able, especially right after Christmas and the holiday spending we all tend to do. We also knew that we had to factor in that we would have to be paying the cruise fare in full at the time of booking or very soon after since it was roughly 90 days or so until sailing. About a week after returning from our Harmony cruise, and being in that total cruise withdrawal mode, I reached out to our Travel Agent and booked this cruise. We figured that with it leaving out of NOLA, we could just do the drive down instead of having to pay for flights and we would ask my dad if he would come watch the fur babies for us so we could save not having to pay our pet sitter. He graciously offered to watch our girls, even though I knew deep down he was hoping to be able to figure a way to go on this cruise. He was with us on the Harmony (his 2^nd cruise ever) and he definitely has been bitten by the bug. But, as a man on a fixed income…cruising is not something he can do at the drop of the hat. But, coming to Nashville and spending time in our beautiful city is something that he likes to do just as much as cruising, I think!

Cabin selection: For this cruise, and many of our cruises actually, we booked an inside cabin. We are perfectly happy with staying in an inside cabin because quite frankly, we don’t spend a lot of time in there. Not to mention, hubby likes that it gets very very dark when the lights are off and he can get some of the best sleep. Don’t get me wrong, we sail in balconies too if we can find a good deal. We particularly like the Boardwalk balconies on the Oasis class ships with Royal and that’s usually what we book when sailing those ships. We also really enjoy the Promenade view rooms as well, when offered. But, for this cruise we booked a guarantee inside cabin, which is something we stopped doing years ago when the whole “bid up” process was implemented on a few of the lines. Quite frankly, we used to get a lot of good free upgrades when booking guarantees, and never disappointed with our cabin and location. However, now that they know people will pay more to get an upgrade, they don’t give many “free” upgrades…at least from our experience.

When our cabin got assigned, we were given a cabin on deck 9, forward. Cabin 9411 to be exact. Now, if I was choosing our room, I would have been perfectly  happy with this deck (cabins above and cabins below), but I would have rather had a mid or aft location cabin, and not one toward the front of the ship. The cabin for us was quite small. There was very minimal storage, and we often had a noise every morning around 4am or so that sounded like an internal elevator for crew (possibly from the interior corridor). We also heard the chain from the anchor as well. But movement was minimal in this location...just not my preferred location on any ship.

FREE AT SEA: This booking came with one Free at Sea perk, and we chose Specialty Dining. Of all the options, this is what I decided on so that I could get the full experience and ability to compare one line to the other when it comes to specialty dining. We thoroughly enjoy our specialty dining options on Royal and I wanted to have similar experiences on NCL. We all know that food is subjective, and we can usually always find something on the menu that we would like to try, but having the ability to try other venues on the ship, on a line I haven’t sailed on, was something that was important to me. For this cruise, we chose Cagney’s, Teppanyaki, and Moderno for our three options.

CAMERA: A little over 3 weeks prior to sailing this cruise, I decided to purchase a new camera. I have a nice Sony DSLR that I love, and of course my cell phone (which I hate to admit but it actually takes crappy photos) but I didn’t want to lug the larger camera around on this trip and since we weren’t purchasing WiFi on this cruise and I don’t like the photos my cell phone takes anyway, I knew I wouldn’t be carrying it around throughout our cruise. It’s been a long time since I have purchased a camera, but I knew I wanted something that was just point and shoot, lightweight but that had good low light capabilities and perfect zoom. I read many reviews on several different cameras and ended up choosing the Canon PowerShot SX740 HS 4K! I found many varying prices when I settled on this camera, but ultimately purchased through Walmart (a third party vendor: Ted’s Electronics). I got a good deal with a bundle that included a spider grip tripod, memory card, camera bag and a few other things for under $370.

Coming up: Pre-cruise hotel stay and Cruise Parking

53 minutes ago, Lil Angels said:

FAKE NEWS - I called there and they have not cancelled.

You were told wrong. They have in fact canceled all of their sailings until mid April. Effective immediately. 

On 3/11/2020 at 9:54 PM, elwood_98034 said:

Nah. We really do have quite a few dead people. 30 in my area that we have been told officially. BTW, most schools to the north and east of Seattle go out tomorrow. Some are out for six weeks. Some aren't even doing online learning. They are just closed.

On 3/11/2020 at 10:01 PM, elwood_98034 said:

I don't know about banks, but restaurants where I live are closing, and in the supermarkets everyone is giving everyone else a wiiiide berth, or they go at 5.00am when they are empty.

An infectious diseases expert named Michael Osterholm gave an interview saying he believes it is airborne through ventilation systems. I work in a hospital, and have been wearing an N95 mask for the last two nights for just that reason.

That's not the case here. And we've had some confirmed cases (even one in my office building). I've spoken to many doctors here (even at Vanderbilt) and they aren't alarmed or concerned or wearing masks.