My Week on the Escape 10/28/18 - 11/4/18

[ljrfrm]

I've been home for 24 hours and I still feel like I'm rocking on the ship (our ride home was definitely anything but smooth sailing).  My laundry is piled on the floor, I have no food in the house and my diet started this morning. Today was a dreary, rainy Monday and work was crazy. Yes, post-cruise depression has set in. So, what better time than this to sit and start my (long) review.  For those that have seen my previous editions (Getaway, Sun and Escape x 2) you know that this may take awhile. I'm wordy.  I cover everything and usually only can write at night after work.  I promise to finish this within a week (challenge on!) so if you have the patience, read on!!

 

Our cruises are usually booked quite early. Often with 400+ days to countdown.  My husband (54) and I (52) often travel by ourselves or with our older boys, but for the first time, we sailed with friends.  This cruise story begins this past July - late July - at a winery.  We went to a local winery with our neighbors and had a great day.  So great that we enjoyed quite a few bottles of wine.  The weather was beautiful, the live music was playing and the conversation flowing.  We ended up on the subject of cruises, discussing my love for cruising and trying to explain to my neighbors how much fun it is (they had never cruised).  Sometime during the afternoon we decided to book a cruise.  Literally......we went on our phones and decided where and when we were going and moved forward with the plan.  We were within the final payment dates already but that didn't stop us (remember, I told you it was good wine!)  This spur of the moment, slightly tipsy decision proved to be a wonderful opportunity  to get away with friends, enjoy one of our favorite ships and have another much needed vacation.  

 

I don't recommend instant booking - it comes with its faults.  Namely - you might not even realize your itinerary.  Now - we clearly looked at the Escape's itinerary. And studied it (we took a very similar itinerary to Bermuda 3 years ago and loved having the three days to explore on the island). We flipped through the available dates on our phones, checked each week in September, then October, and finally settled on October 28th sailing as it was the only date that all four of us were free.  So, that's what we went with. What we didn't realize (our bad) was that this sailing had a different itinerary, as instead of an early morning Wed arrival into port, we wouldn't be able to dock that day until 5 pm.  One full day less on the island. Now, believe it or not, it took me almost one month to even realize this.  Oh well, another fun Sea Day for us!!!  Advice for the day, book sober and check your itinerary, even if you looked it up on every other week.  We ended up having a phenomenal week and everything worked out well - so at least this time, we got away with our wine-induced impulsivity.

[ljrfrm]

Our trip from Virginia to New York City began early on Saturday, the day before sailing. We were up and out of the house by 7:30 am, heading to Union Station in Washington DC for a 10 am train. The 35 min drive into the city went quick and before we knew it we arrived at Union Station. After dropping the car off quickly down the road where our neighbor worked (free parking!) we had about 1.5 hours to spare.  We went down to the food court and sat along with numerous homeless folks who came in from the rain. This was the beginning of a Nor'easter which I was hoping would not impact our travels.  After breakfast at Chick Fil A, we headed up to get in line to board our train. It was packed, and we shuffled our FIVE heavy suitcases (in our defense, there were four of us, and we had Halloween costumes too- plus I ALWAYS overpack) around for about 20 min until the train had arrived and we were allowed to board.  We quickly found seats (it was packed, we were lucky to all sit near each other) and settled in for our 4 hour trip.

 

We arrived on time to Penn Station and quickly caught a taxi to our hotel - the Holiday Inn Times Square.  We were using Holiday Inn points although our neighbors were paying.  I believe they paid about $250 for the night.  Due to my husband's IHG membership status, we were given 4 drink coupons upon check in. We were also told we received room upgrades to an executive room but the only thing I noticed was we were on a higher floor.  The rooms were small and old, but clean - although we all felt the lobby was "eh".  The bellmen were super nice though and they had a fun selfie screen in the camera that we made use of throughout the night to email ourselves photos (we're such tourists!!).  We brought our suitcases upstairs and then went down to make use of our drink coupons and grab a snack since we missed lunch.

 

Our drink coupons were limited to beer or wine, and we ordered the drinks and some appetizers.  For the life of me I can't remember what we ate, but it was good (or I was hungry).  We had brought cards and found a great booth in the back corner of the place, and sat and played Gin Rummy for an hour or so.  We also discussed what we wanted to do for dinner.  We were having a very hard time finding a place to make a reservation. Since it was a Saturday night, everything was packed.  We were looking on Open Table and noticed a pub named "Rattle and Hum". It looked like it might be ok so we asked our waitress if she's ever heard of it. It seemed to be close by.  She looked at us like we had two heads (or 8 between us all) and said "Um, you're sitting in it. This is Rattle and Hum". Ha - well go figure.  We asked her if it gets crowded for dinner and she said it might - but we should be able to easily find a place to sit there.  We loved our big booth for our card playing and it seemed like a comfortable place to hang out.  Plus, we couldn't find anywhere else with openings. We asked her if we could reserve this booth and she said no problem. When we later returned, the booth had a big "reserved" sign on it for us.  Thanks!

 

After lunch, we went for a walk.  It wasn't pouring rain at the time but was a bit drizzly and not so pretty out so we didn't stay out long. We walked around Times Square for a bit and ended up stopping at the Crowne Plaza to use their bathrooms.  You needed a guest key to get in them but we must have looked desperate because someone that worked there asked if we needed to get in and we said yes. To thank them, we stayed for a drink.  Then we decided to head back to the hotel. So much for our NYC touring - the weather just wasn't making it very fun.

 

We went back up to the room for a bit to rest and watch some college football and then met our friends back down at Rattle and Hum (notice it has a name now?) for dinner.  I had a big Steak Salad which was delicious - and a few glasses of wine.  Around 7 pm, we noticed that they were setting up on the other side of the restaurant for a show. It turns out that they have a dueling piano show called "Shake, Rattle and Roll" there every Saturday night.  Supposedly it always sells out (but not until the day of) so we thought it might be good. What the heck. We had nothing else to do that night.  We talked with the man setting up and paid him (he wanted cash) and then stayed in our comfy booth playing cards until the show was starting. 

 

The dueling piano show was from 9 pm to midnight.  It was a lot of fun. We ended up getting front row seats (we had to leave our comfy booth as we couldn't see from there) and spent the night singing (and probably drinking a bit too much). We stayed until the end and then went up to the room to crash.  Oh - there might have been some selfies in the lobby in there also.  Off to bed - and looking forward to waking up to cruise day. That's the best day ever!!

[Kealy]

Enjoying your precruise adventures -- looking forward to the main event.  

Thanks for sharing with us.

[ljrfrm]

4 hours ago, Kealy said:

Enjoying your precruise adventures -- looking forward to the main event.  

Thanks for sharing with us.

 

Thanks! I'll be back to write Day 1 this evening.

[jimbri]

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[bam1957]

Definitely enjoying your review.

 

[rwf1]

Really enjoying your review!  Thanks for taking the time to write it.

[LD Silver]

Great start!

[ljrfrm]

Day One (Sunday) - It's cruise time!!  But first I need to briefly backtrack.  I received 3 phone calls from NCL (they were thorough) the previous day.  I have to admit that if I hadn't seen information on the website first I probably would have freaked.  It was a recorded message starting with a "We have a very important announcement". I totally would have thought the worst but I had already read we would be boarding late.  The announcement told us that there would be a Coast Guard inspection in the morning once all the previous passengers have disembarked.  We were advised to not arrive for check in until noon. 

 

I was somewhat worried about crowds.  Instead of everyone being spread out throughout the morning, would everyone come is mass droves at the same time?  It doesn't sound pleasant - but hey, I'm sailing away so it will all be good. We debated for awhile when to go to the terminal.  I really didn't want to arrive at noon if the line would be a mile long.  So, we compromised that instead of going at our 9:30 check in time, we'd head for a taxi at 10:00 am or so.  We had debated for several weeks on whether we wanted to go for Vibe passes or not.  I've done Vibe on the Escape before and felt confident on what time I needed to arrive to have a chance to run for the prize. But....with this delay, I had NO earthly idea when to go. I think this arrival time change helped to make our decision.

 

We woke up on Sunday at 8 am and planned to meet up with our friends at 9 for breakfast.  Once up, I went to go find my morning medicine.  Uh, where was it?  I couldn't believe it - I forgot it.  I had it in my purse and took it out before leaving for the train station to add some more pills "just in case".  It must not have made it back into my bag.  Now - would I die without the medication??  No.  But, it could really mess me up a bit - or at least cause me to not feel well.  SO, we met up with our friends and instead of going to breakfast, I found a CVS down the street to hopefully fill a new prescription.  This is a long story that most people won't be interested in - but let's just say I spent an hour trying to do so, and was unsuccessful.  I found an urgent care across the street from our hotel (convenient at least) and went in to talk to them. I needed a new prescription in order to get the medications as the current one couldn't be transferred as it was a Sunday.  And, my doctor's office was no help at all.  The urgent care receptionist told me they accepted my insurance, BUT my insurance would not pay because they don't cover appointments for prescription refills.  It would cost me $275 to see the doctor to get the prescription. Forget that!  We left the urgent care and walked next door to Duncan Donuts for breakfast.  I stewed for a bit with what to do, and decided that this might be the first cruise ever that I visited the doctor on board.  I had cruise insurance but also assumed they wouldn't pay for a medication issue. But, if I'm going to fork out money, I might as well do it on board. It was time to get the show on the road and head to the ship. It was already later than we had planned.

 

We went back to the hotel and packed up and checked out.  The guys were out front of the hotel hailing a taxi. Or trying to.  Wow, that was hard. We needed a taxi van, which honestly quite a few went by.  But, taxi driver number one stopped, heard where we wanted to go, and said "nope" and drove off.  Taxi driver number two stopped, looked at me totally confused and had no earthly idea where we wanted to go (I even showed it to him written). With a dazed look on his face, he drove off.  Taxi driver number three stopped, knew where we wanted to go and opened the back of the SUV for our luggage.  The entire back of his car was filled with garbage and empty water bottles. There was no way we would get our five bags in there.  Nope - bye.  We lucked out with taxi number four and we were soon on our way.  The streets around our hotel were closed down for a street market so we had to loop around and traffic was very slow. We finally made it to pier 88, pulling up at 11 am.

[ljrfrm]

Our taxi dropped us off and I noticed a long line.  It was long!  I was worried but it was moving slowly (seemed quite slowly) and surely.  In the end, it only was about 30 min to get to the front of the line where we would drop our luggage off with the porters.  We then went into the terminal and went through security.  The whole while, I'm thinking "this isn't so bad" as we moved through the security line and got into our Latitudes line to check in.  This is awesome. We're so close.

 

And yet so far.  It took me about 5 minutes to realize that my line was not moving AT ALL.  Then I looked up to the counter and saw they are not checking anyone in.  In fact, I only saw one agent up there. You could clearly see that they had checked folks in - so it's not that they hadn't started. We also noticed that passengers were still disembarking from the ship.  The Escape returned late that morning due to weather, and not only did they need to get all the passengers off.....but they still had that Coast Guard inspection to deal with.

 

As we were trying to figure out what was going on we soon heard an announcement. It was telling those that were already checked in that the terminal is full, and it was recommended that they leave and return at 2:30 pm. Their boarding numbers would be honored - but they highly recommended people leave.  He stated that they had stopped check in because the terminal was full and there was no room at the Inn.  I guess because there weren't any chairs left, they felt it was better to keep people waiting in a check in line instead of checking them in and letting them at least go find a corner to sit in.  A little later, another announcement was made - one that surprised me and was certainly not taken well by others.  Once again the man announced that they are recommending that those checked in leave.  Come back at 2:30 or 3:00.  He then said "I'm starting to lose my patience". What??  He's starting to lose his patience?  With what?? What about all of us standing in a line that's not going anywhere because you aren't checking anyone in.  We were now standing there in the line for over an hour.  If they would check us in, we could take advantage of his offer to leave and come back at 2:30, but check us in!  

 

Now, I do want to add that at least near me, everyone was calm.  There were no riots, there was no yelling and honestly many of us were still in good moods. After all, we see our ship right there. We're so close.  Plus, we could see the Coast Guard inspection happening and the passengers were finally all off.  But, folks were frustrated. Several went up to the counter and asked them to please check us in. Nobody else was leaving like they were requesting, but we could.  Now - for us, we probably wouldn't have.  But, there were others with kids that wanted to leave to find food for them (side note - the little food cart place in the terminal must have loved this delay - haha).  Finally they made an announcement, "We decided we are going to bring our agents back in and go ahead and check in everybody in line.  That way you can leave until 2:30 if you want. Everyone applauded!  

 

They started check in again and the line slowly started to move. As we wrapped around I looked outside where the line looked incredibly long. I'm so glad we came at 11 am and not noon.  We finally made it to check in after 2 hours in line.  We checked in and were given boarding group 15.  By this point, they had actually began boarding already (Boarding started by 1:15 - it's a good thing it didn't seem like people listened to the announcements and left until 2:30 - 3:00 like requested).  Once we finished check in, we took our embarkation photo and went to sit down (there were seats not since boarding had started).  We probably sat for only about 5 minutes when they called Group 15. it was about 2 pm at this time.  WooHoo.........here we go.  Finally!!!

[ljrfrm]

Once on board, we typically go to the Atrium and grab our first drink. That's when vacation officially begins.  However, I wanted to change a dinner reservation if possible so we first went down to Headliners to see if I could get that taken care of. I was in line to talk with them and looked to my right. What's that?  They are still selling Vibe tickets?  No way!! How is that possible with our boarding Group 15. Crazy.  I quickly ran to my husband and friends and told them and we had a quick decision to make. The Vibe was windy on a few sea days for us last time. And the weather isn't as nice at the end of October. Would this be a waste of money or a wonderful decision.  My friends and husband looked to me to make the decision. Oh, the pressure.  I decided we needed to go for it, and quickly grabbed them all so we could jump in line.  After we snagged four bracelets, I realized that after the couple that jumped in line after us, they put the "Vibe is full" sign up.  My guess is the Vibe would have sold out much sooner but this late into the season, the weather was questionable. Regardless, I was excited we would be once again visiting Vibe, and looked forward to the pampering, wonderful service and comfortable, plentiful loungers.

 

I was so excited about Vibe, I didn't even remember to change my restaurant reservation. Oh well.  It all worked out.  We left Headliners and went up to the Atrium for our drinks.  I started with my traditional Pina Colada which just screams vacation to me.  They handed me my drink - with a paper straw.  This will prove to be the only NCL straw I saw all vacation. Whether they ran out or only gave them when asked the rest of the trip, I don't know.  I did bring my own stash (more to come on that) but also learned to enjoy strawless drinks as well.

 

After our drinks, we wanted lunch. We always hit Taste or Savor for lunch - I just don't like the buffet crowds on the first day and again, nothing screams it's cruise time like being waited on in the dining room. I was hoping they were still open as it was past the usually closing time - but given that we all boarded late (I boarded at 2 and the line was still a mile out the door to check in) we figured it would still be open. It was, and we were soon seated in Savor and enjoying our first meal on board. The menu was the same as the first day of our last cruise last March - and I ordered and enjoyed the hummus appetizer, cheeseburger and a delicious dessert.  I washed it all down with a nice cold Chardonnay.  While we were eating, we heard the announcement that our cabins were now available to us, we we finished lunch and headed up to see our cabins, check out the view from our balconies and relax until the muster drill which was scheduled at 4:30 pm.

[ljrfrm]

We went to the safety drill at 4:20 - fashionably early so we could get a seat.  Our muster station was in the casino. Woohoo - let's play some poker!  We sat down at the poker table (I have to admit, this was a first for me!!) and waited for everyone else to come.  For many, 4:30 meant 4:45 so we had to wait awhile.  I got in trouble for looking at my phone - whoops.  I know that the muster drill is a no phone zone but it hadn't started yet - and I was checking out the new Norwegian App (more on this later) so I should be forgiven. Once the drill finally started it was quick and painless......and soon we were off to explore.

 

We went to the District Brewhouse first.  My husband and friend are big beer fans and I thought that would be a good place to start.  I had a Red Light District - my favorite drink there.  We sat for awhile and looked out the window and realized we were moving. Whoa.......we gotta get up to the deck for photos!!  We thought it might be less crowded in Vibe, so we made the trek up for our first visit (more on Vibe later too!).  We had great views of the Statue of Liberty, Skyline (leaving Vibe at times to take pictures of the other side.  By this time it was getting cold and windy. We had planned to stay out until we passed under the bridge but we all decided it was time to go inside.

 

Once inside we continued to explore and walked around to check out the gym, spa, pool and the Waterfront.  While my husband and I have been on the Escape twice, our friends are new cruisers and we enjoyed showing them around.  We went back to our cabin and found our suitcases waiting for us.  That was quick!!

 

Attached is a photo of my first view of the ship (taken while in line to drop luggage with porter), view from our balcony and some of my millions of sailaway photos.

 

Edited November 8, 2018 by ljrfrm

[ljrfrm]

We were in cabin 14816.  I won't go too much into it as there are so many posts describing the balcony cabins. I will say however, for anyone that might happen to be in that cabin, the bed is by the closet.  I've had both the bed by the closet and balcony - and I think I like the balcony better.  Everything worked well in the cabin (last time on the Escape our USB by the bed wasn't working) and we thought it was a great spot.  It's a midship balcony (BA) but a bit towards the forward side - allowing easy access by running up a few decks to the gym, Vibe, straight shot down to the Brewhouse, etc.  Our friends were in the cabin right next door to us.

 

Once unpacked (there really is tons of storage space in the room if you need it) and luggage stored under the bed, we met our friend to head out again.  We went to the Atrium for a drink and grabbed some chairs to watch the 55 To Stay Alive game show. We knew the Atrium tends to get very crowded for the entertainment so we went on the earlier side.  We heard the end of the music set by Island Notes - one of the two bands that we'd listen to over the week.  We always had great drink service in the Atrium, even though it tended to get crowded. I enjoyed a Moscow Mule while waiting for the show to start.  The game show was an early one, at 7:15 and once finished, we headed to dinner.  

 

We went to Manhattan Room for our first dinner and we were seated right away.  We had Clinton as our waiter and he was personable and attentive.  I ordered the Cauliflower Soup as an appetizer which was something new I hadn't tried with NCL before. I thought it was delicious!  I also had the Chicken Piccata which was great too.  Clinton kept my wine glass full of Reisling and brought more without me asking.  I was excited to see the Lava Cake was on the menu for dessert - it is do die for.  We had a great first meal and even with taking our time and enjoying it all, dinner only took over an hour. 

 

Following dinner we walked through the Casino on our way to Karaoke. I had voted for Howl at the Moon but since we had just done that at the hotel, we went to Karaoke instead.  While walking through the casino, my friend decided to play a quick $10 on the slots.  It was quick. Wow, that money disappeared fast!!  The 5 O'clock Bar was pretty full and no tables were available but within a few minutes we were sitting at a table and sipping on a margarita.  There were a few singers that were really great.  And quite a few that were very not great.  That's karaoke for you!! Of course, I had to sing along. I will sing my heart out from my table - but you won't catch me with a mic!  Everyone soon decided they were tired and time for bed.  I'm not sure if I explained how many drink were bought the night before at the Dueling Pianos (why we didn't wait for our UBP package is beyond me because it was a fortune) but we were all beat.  We were in our cabins by 11 pm.  Time to go to sleep and get ready for our first Sea Day!!

[boopsahoy]

Fun review-looking forward to more!

[themutis]

Thanks for the review - I am enjoying it!

 

[sbt518]

On 11/6/2018 at 8:40 PM, ljrfrm said:

...But, taxi driver number one stopped, heard where we wanted to go, and said "nope" and drove off.  ...

 

For your future reference, this is illegal.  The NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission has regulations preventing drivers from refusing fares because they "don't' want to go someplace"  Typically you should get in the cab and then say where you want to go so that they cannot do this, of course, that is not possible with luggage so it makes it easier for the driver to refuse a short trip like the one you wanted to take.

 

[cathi007]

OH KNOW I'm waiting, lol. I'm sailing on the Escape in 72 days, so I am not so patiently waiting for your review. Good job so far, 🙂

[Son of a son of a ...]

Great start!  Looking forward to hearing more.

[OceanBlueWaters]

1 hour ago, sbt518 said:

 

For your future reference, this is illegal.  The NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission has regulations preventing drivers from refusing fares because they "don't' want to go someplace"  Typically you should get in the cab and then say where you want to go so that they cannot do this, of course, that is not possible with luggage so it makes it easier for the driver to refuse a short trip like the one you wanted to take.

 

That is excellent advice!  It all makes sense now! I was debarking (Pier 88) and headed over to taxi's. A guy grabbed my luggage and said he will take me to Port Authority.  It was a black car and fee was $30! I grabbed my luggage back and said no way.  He was yelling at me. I didn't care. It seems the word traveled super fast to all the "yellow cabs" lined up that I was "Jersey" and no one wanted to help me.  I finally found someone who did.  $9.50 later (and traffic) I got to Port Authority. AGH!  🙂

[ljrfrm]

2 hours ago, sbt518 said:

 

For your future reference, this is illegal.  The NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission has regulations preventing drivers from refusing fares because they "don't' want to go someplace"  Typically you should get in the cab and then say where you want to go so that they cannot do this, of course, that is not possible with luggage so it makes it easier for the driver to refuse a short trip like the one you wanted to take.

 

Great info, thanks!!!  We knew it was a short trip and tipped our taxi driver very well - so it really was his loss, haha.  I'll have to share this with the men who were in charge of flagging down the taxi driver.

[ljrfrm]

1 hour ago, cathi007 said:

OH KNOW I'm waiting, lol. I'm sailing on the Escape in 72 days, so I am not so patiently waiting for your review. Good job so far, 🙂

 

Ha, the pressure is on now!!!

[ljrfrm]

57 minutes ago, OceanBlueWaters said:

That is excellent advice!  It all makes sense now! I was debarking (Pier 88) and headed over to taxi's. A guy grabbed my luggage and said he will take me to Port Authority.  It was a black car and fee was $30! I grabbed my luggage back and said no way.  He was yelling at me. I didn't care. It seems the word traveled super fast to all the "yellow cabs" lined up that I was "Jersey" and no one wanted to help me.  I finally found someone who did.  $9.50 later (and traffic) I got to Port Authority. AGH!  🙂

We had a very similar experience I plan to write about to help warn others.  Stay tuned!  🙂

[OceanBlueWaters]

20 minutes ago, ljrfrm said:

We had a very similar experience I plan to write about to help warn others.  Stay tuned!  🙂

👍

[ljrfrm]

 

Day Two (Monday)

We were up bright and early today.  I have to explain........I am not a morning person.  At all.  I live to sleep in.  As I get older, the sleeping in might have me waking up every 30 min and then rolling over again back to sleep.  But, I love not having to jump out of bed.  However, this whole cruise thing puts me into a conundrum.  The thought of missing a meal on a cruise ship is incomprehensible to me.  Therefore, everything has to be planned around the meals. It's pretty sad.....but true.  SO, we are traveling with another couple who enjoy working out.  They motivated me (hard to believe, but it's true) to hit the gym this trip.  Now, I say this every cruise, but my thought was that they would hold me accountable.  SO, if we are going to work out in the morning, it had to be early enough to make it to breakfast still.  And not just the buffet (for me, buffet is for port days) but to either the dining room or O'Sheehans.  So, we planned breakfast then worked backwards and added our workout and came up with wake up time! Makes sense, right?  Well, it did until that alarm rang!!

 

The alarm went off at 7:50 am.  The previous night, I hung a room service request on the door to be delivered between 8:00 am - 8:30 am.  The request was for coffee and some chocolate croissants.  Just a little something, something to bring on my work out.  I had hoped to just throw on my NCL robe when room service arrived, but much to my dismay (ok, it really wasn't a big deal), there were no robes in the cabin. We'd have to put the request in with our room steward (who we hadn't met yet).  So, I jumped out of bed and threw on my workout clothes to be dressed by 8:00.  I really miss those days when room service calls 5 minutes before arrival.  It was great as it acted like my wake up call plus gave me a heads up when they'd be there.  Once dressed, I read my Freestyle Daily while waiting for my first breakfast.  Room service arrived at 8:15 with TWO very small croissants.  Now, the room service order clearly says each order comes with two croissants. So I ordered two orders of croissants. According to my math that's four croissants.  Oh well, I should have known. The same thing happened on the Getaway last March.  I never learn.  So, I gave up a croissant to my husband (he owes me!) and drank a cup of coffee before heading off to the gym.

 

I took me forever to actually get off my rear and get to the gym. I think my body was in shock that I really was going to go.  This is vacation after all.  I finally arrived there with very little time to do anything.  I completed one mile on the treadmill and then it was time to meet everyone for breakfast.  My husband ended up not making it to the gym and was planning to go later, so I figured I could go back and get the rest of the workout in.  At this point, I walked off 1/2 of my croissant. More or less.  Obviously I worked up an appetite so headed back to the cabin to grab my husband and meet up with our friends for breakfast.

 

As we were leaving our cabin, we met our steward Deepak.  We only saw Deepak 3-4 times total throughout the whole cruise. He was like Ninja Steward. He'd sneak in, do his job and slip out....all without being spotted.  He did a great job though.  We asked him to empty our fridge and bring us some bathrobes when he had the chance. Both were done that morning.  I also asked him for an extra (third) towel as I like to use two - so I have one for my hair. He brought me a third towel as requested but never did again.  It wasn't a big deal so I didn't say anything.  On the last day when we were packing up, we found the treasure-chest of towels stored under our TV. There must have been about 10 in there!!  Clean, folded and just waiting for me to use.  Wish I found that jackpot sooner!!  Before heading to O'Sheehans (we missed the dining room breakfast), I hung up the Halloween decorations I bought previously at the Dollar Store.  Now we can be in the Halloween spirit.

Edited November 9, 2018 by ljrfrm

[ljrfrm]

We hit O'Sheehans for breakfast and were seated right away. For the first time, we were seated outside the actual restaurant, at a high table in front of the bar. We had a good breakfast  I ordered the pastry basket (after all, I was owed some chocolate croissants), then had French Toast, bacon and a mimosa.  Nobody else at my table ordered alcohol. Don't they realize how to do a cruise??  For anyone who has read my reviews previously, you know I live for NCL muesli for breakfast.  It's just a cruise thing.....but I love it.  O'Sheehans didn't have any on the menu - I have a feeling if I had asked, they'd find it for me. But, I was good - muesli would have to wait until the next day.

 

Following breakfast we walked around a bit, wandered some shops and then headed back to the cabin to change to go up to Vibe.  I debated about putting on my swimsuit or not. With as cold as it was the night before, I just didn't think there's any way it could be bathing suit weather yet.  And, from my past Vibe experience, I knew it could be windy. But, I put on my suit, threw a sweatshirt in my bag and hoped for the best.  We got up to Vibe and what did we discover?  SUN!!  Yes, we had sun.  I was so darned excited.  There was a bit of wind but nothing like our previous cruise - and it was just beautiful. 

 

We settled into to our comfortable lounger and we were visited quickly by the bartender.  I can't remember the order, but I enjoyed a Bahama Mama, Pina Colada and Bushwacker.  I brought my own straw - I planned to wash and use the same one whenever needed.  I did use it the first two days in Vibe. Nowhere else.  I don't carry a purse around at night and just throw my sail card in my back pocket.  It just didn't seem right to fold up a straw in my back pocket too, haha.  I really just wanted the straw for frozen drinks, which I usually only order during the day while in the sun.  I was straw shamed once while at Vibe by someone sitting near me. That was a bit of a bummer but I'm a big girl.  Such a hot topic, haha.  I thought I wouldn't be able to drink the frozen drinks without using the straw.....but guess what.  I went strawless and enjoyed it.  I am no longer a straw-oholic. It might have even helped my drinks last longer.

 

We spent most of the afternoon at Vibe, while the bartenders catered to us and brought us fruit kabobs, bruschetta, cookies and "spring rolls" (what they called the cold washcloths).  How can you not love Vibe.  I have to admit, I was so worried with the Vibe decision.  Not for me, but because I knew my decision was spending money for our friends. They relied on me - moi - and the pressure was big to deliver.  Thankfully, Mother Nature seems to be on my side so far.

 

Following Vibe, my husband went to the gym so I headed back with him.  Now, walking on a treadmill on a cruise ship could possibly have it's challenges.  Doing it after multiple drinks definitely made it interesting. Let's just say I held on the whole time.  But, another two miles done.....and I had walked off one piece of french toast. Yay me!  Work out finished (I still am in shock I actually did this) and we went back to our room.  I did tell my husband that we need to keep the workouts in the morning - before drinks.  We showered, changed and got ready for dinner. Notice we didn't have lunch?  Sinful, I  know, but after having such a late and big breakfast, we just couldn't do it.  We did run down to the Garden Cafe at one point for some crackers and cheese. And of course, the Vibe goodies were enjoyed as well.