Mitsugirly needed to ESCAPE from the cold weather

[mitsugirly]

Guy Harvey is one of the world's finest marine wildlife artists and known for his involvement in ocean conservation. He designed and painted the Escape hull. The in room tv's actually has an entire channel dedicated to Guy Harvey and his foundation. It has a lot of information about his interest as a young child, what started his paintings, becoming a marine biologist, diver, and photographer and shows a lot of Grand Cayman at the Stingray sandbar. There's a lot of interesting information about him and his paintings on this channel. Of course, this had Sakari VERY interested!! So much so that she spent A LOT of time watching this channel...to the point she was educating me and she could probably recite the entire thing. 

 

 

 

After awhile we decided to head out and get lunch. Sakari wanted to be festive.

 

 

 

 

They had so many Christmas decorations around the ship. It was so pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

I was in the mood for a cheeseburger and fries today. NCL has some of the most amazing and crispy fries ever! They are so yummy!

 

 

Then we stopped and did a little bit of window shopping and headed back down to the room. I decided to make use of our balcony since we normally don't spend a lot of time in the room and this cruise would be the exception.

 

 

 

The water was so calm...I almost wanted to take a nap.

 

 

 

Sakari continued to educate herself on the Guy Harvey channel. Of course watching how he got interested in painting made her want to do some ipad drawings herself so she pulled out the ipad while she watched Guy.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

As the day progressed I decided I wanted to go for a "stroll"...what was I thinking? I was just getting the heebie jeebies and needed to get out of the room.

 

Sakari is such a homebody and would rather spend her time in the room (just like at home, she never wants to leave the house...not even to eat!)

 

We strolled along the waterfront and snapped a few pics.

 

 

 

We weren't gone long before we headed back to get ready for dinner at La Cucina.

 

Sakari was already dressed up and ready to go and we quickly changed and headed out.

 

The menu:

 

 

 

 

I could not for the life of me figure out what dish it is that I always eat when we come here and it's SO YUMMY!

 

I ended up deciding that it was probably the Carbonara, but decided I would opt to try something completely different this time. I mean I'm different this time around so why not BE different totally right?

 

Now if you think that our waiter at O'Sheehans was fast...that was slo-mo compared to our waitress here. She was zipping back and forth and it was hard to get her attention. Finally she came over to see if we were ready to order.

 

I ordered the Insalata Con Pere, which was mixed greens, pear, walnuts, and gorgonzola cheese. The hubby ordered the same thing.

 

We waited and waited and I flagged the waitress down when I seen the puff of smoke coming our way from her burning the rubber on her feet as she zoomed by. "Hey, can we get some bread?" She went back, grabbed a loaf of bread and we didn't even catch a glimpse of her as she dropped the bread and ran. Hmm, ok. So next go around was "Can we get some of the bread plates to put our bread on please?" Zoom, she was gone again to bring them back. She said "Do you want some butter?" Um sure I guess. I mean I certainly didn't intend on eating it dry.

 

 

We waited awhile on the butter and it came out about 2 seconds before our actual dinner came out. I was kinda disappointed that we didn't have any bread to munch on prior to our meal.

 

I ordered the Rigatoni alla gorgonzola noci. It came with a gorgonzola blue cheese cream sauce and almonds. Now it looked good, but I didn't have any silverware. Ugh! That meant flagging down the waitress again as she zoomed by.

 

It was pretty good but I could have done without the almonds, which were kinda soggy and not appealing. I like my almonds crunchy.

 

 

The hubby ordered a pizza: The meatlovers.

 

 

He said it was good.

 

 

Sakari is a soup girl. She will pick soup over anything else if it's an option. Chicken noodle is her favorite.

 

 

 

Wait, I started glancing around the dining room and forgot that they had the oils for the bread. Where are our oils???? Once again, this meant flagging down the waitress to ask about it. "Oh, I didn't give you any? I'm so sorry" She brought some over and poured it in a dish for us.

 

 

 

The rest of the meal went well...I mean what else could we be missing at this point? I'm pretty sure we had ask for everything needed at some point during this meal.

 

It was time for desert.

 

 

I ordered the Torta di Ricotta con Crema al Limone (gosh, they make these meals such a mouthful....you would find me just pointing to what I wanted) and it was SO YUMMY!

 

 

Sakari ordered a bowl of vanilla ice cream

 

 

 

And the hubby ordered the Cannoli. His was AMAZING! We all tried it.

 

 

 

That's what you get for shoving it all in your mouth at once like someone was about to take it from you! Now we don't have to hear you talk. 😉  (Notice she has her ipad with her. She takes that thing everywhere when we force her to go out to eat. She will draw until the meal comes out).

 

 

 

 

So what would this meal have cost us had we not had our Platinum Certificate you ask? $67.00

 

 

I am really beginning to wonder what has happened to the service on the NCL ships with the last 2 cruises. We've been away for awhile but geesh. I was really hoping this wasn't any indicator of what was yet to come the rest of the week.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We headed back to the room and found this on the bed...rut row!

 

 

I honestly don't know what I would do if I lost any of my items. I wouldn't be able to function. But because these things happen, I (as a precautionary) will divide our items up into every suitcase to make sure that if anything comes up missing, we will all have something at least. This goes for our flights there as well.

 

We also received this...we were gaining an hour tonight AND pulling into port at 10am tomorrow. (I really wish this would be happening on a day we were pulling into port at 8am instead).

 

 

The next weird thing was that the hubby and I went out on the balcony to sit for awhile and just talk about our plans for tomorrow and how nervous I was about my first day going ashore in port. I made the comment to him that it looked really dark outside and we didn't even see the moon. I went inside to make myself a glass of water and he starts yelling "come here...hurry, look at this!!!" as I slothly made it out to the balcony. There was a RED moon coming up over the water line. It was crazy looking!! Like most people will sit and watch the sun go down and the moon rise but this moon was coming up VERY VERY LATE!! The color was just so brilliant and bright! I stopped carrying my DSLR camera and zoom lens many years ago and this was one moment that I was wishing I had it on me. It was just so pretty. We watched it rise from the ocean out of nowhere until it was high in the sky.

 

 

 

Does anyone know why this happened like this? Like so late and not at sundown or before? Most of the time the moon is out before the sun ever goes down. I went back (just now) and looked at our receipt from eating and it said it was 7:44, which we know that was not the correct time because our reservations were for 7:30pm and we most certainly did not eat in 14 minutes and head out. I would estimate that our dinner lasted at least 1 1/2 hours and then time spent walking back to the room and then some time spent on the balcony before I went in and then it occurred.

 

I headed back in, removed my boot and assessed my damage from the day. I was a little swollen, mostly in my leg, but the pain wasn't "too" bad.

 

 

 

Sakari said she was tired and decided to go to sleep. I took my shower and held on for dear life because quite frankly being in a small enclosed shower, on a moving ship, with soap running down me, just made me nervous. Thank goodness for grab bars. Off to bed we went after that.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I just looked up the date of this "moonrise" and it said the moon rise was at 8:51pm. Maybe that's what it was. I don't know. I always thought it comes up before the sunset.

[coscab]

13 minutes ago, mitsugirly said:

I just looked up the date of this "moonrise" and it said the moon rise was at 8:51pm. Maybe that's what it was. I don't know. I always thought it comes up before the sunset.

The moon rises about 1/2 later each night give or take, we live on the atlantic in FL so when the moon is full we check when moon rise is and if it isn't dark yet we wait til the next night, we watch it rise over the ocean and it looks huge and orangy (not a word) red coming out of the water.

  I have seen the sun rise on the atlantic in the morning, and then drove over to the gulf coast of FL the same day and watched the sunset and the moonset at the same time, only caught that once but it was so awesome.

You really have to be aware of the times and phases.

 

Edited December 28, 2019 by coscab

[mitsugirly]

DAY 3: MONDAY DECEMBER 16

 

An extra hour of sleep and not having to get up super early for a port=winning!!!

 

Walking once again...we headed up to the buffet for breakfast. Even though we weren't in port until 10am, we knew that they always seem to let you off early and with my mobility problems, we would need extra time. I believe I set my alarm for 7:30am, which is still later than we would normally do.

 

 

Pulling into port

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are still working on the new dock.

 

 

 

Pulling into port, the locals are already sitting out there playing music and dancing for tips. They can't wait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were 2 men standing/leaning on this platform. We watched them for quite some time and I began to wonder if they were even real. We started taking bets. Like they seriously didn't move for a very long time. Then FINALLY...and I lost the bet. LOL

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I took one look at the pier when they turned us loose and thought OH EM GEE!

 

Once we got out on the pier, there were wheelchairs all lined up. The hubby walked up and ask them if they could wheel me down the pier and they said yes, that's what they were here for. Then off we went.

 

I stopped them and said I wanted to take a picture real fast OUT of the wheelchair. I slothed my way over to the crab and did our picture.

 

 

Then off we went again. I was pushed all the way to the port entrance and then I had to walk it the rest of the way.

 

 

I walked very slowly and with a limp, but I was doing it. I couldn't wait to get outside of the port for our ride to our "excursion" for the day.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

4 hours ago, SandyMc said:

Thanks for comments about wheelchairs.  I have tried two different scooters but finally ordered a powered wheelchair after finding the scooters just too inconvenient having to park it in restaurants and bars and finding they just required too much space - especially in elevators.  Loving the idea I can just ride wheelchair to table and not have to always be leaving it somewhere.  My Air Hawk wheelchair can be folded but they say the cabin doors are 26” wide and the wheelchair is only 23” wide so hope I don’t have to fold all the time though glad I have that option.

 

That sounds like one small wheelchair. Hopefully it works out for you. Fingers crossed

 

3 hours ago, bunnyette said:

No need to apologize- you could have easily skipped doing a review given your difficulties getting around!

 

True and I also could have easily skipped places and not had a single thing wrong with me either. LOL  🤣

 

 

49 minutes ago, coscab said:

The moon rises about 1/2 later each night give or take, we live on the atlantic in FL so when the moon is full we check when moon rise is and if it isn't dark yet we wait til the next night, we watch it rise over the ocean and it looks huge and orangy (not a word) red coming out of the water.

  I have seen the sun rise on the atlantic in the morning, and then drove over to the gulf coast of FL the same day and watched the sunset and the moonset at the same time, only caught that once but it was so awesome.

You really have to be aware of the times and phases.

 

 

Oh how neat being able to drive and see it from both sides. So cool.

[LeesaB]

The moon is really neat to watch for a phase.  It only rises around sunset near the full moon.  Near the new moon, it will actually rise around sunrise.  Obviously, it's harder or impossible to see then but it's cool to see the slivers of the moon.

 

what setting on your camera do you use to get those awesome photos that make the world look like a model?  I love them so much!

 

Also, sooo glad to see those pics of the port in Roatan.  The new dock looks nearly ready for business!

[JoeTec]

I can't wait to see what you decided to do in the ports. 

[perfect match]

Kim, you’re doing a great job getting around the ship! The ship certainly looks beautiful. Can’t wait to hear about how you manage with your adventures on shore.

[jenseib]

Way behind but joining in and marking my spot!

[mopedmom1]

5 hours ago, jenseib said:

Way behind but joining in and marking my spot!

Wrong thread

Edited December 29, 2019 by mopedmom1

[Lovetotraveltami]

Thank you for the wonderful review.  My wish is for total healing.  I had an accident 2 years ago and broke my leg in 3 places.  I am walking but slow.   Can’t wait to read your port adventures.

[rich5258]

Going on the escape February 29 our first NCL cruise, usually do carnival and Celebrity. So thanks for the review, especially helpful as  I walk with a cane, all my years working as a nurse I have osteoarthritis ( I have read all your reviews love them) I pleased to know Margaritaville has free breakfast we are on deck 15 balcony and I’m not fond of buffet, any restaurants open for lunch on embarkation? Thanks again speedy recovery, nurses can be unique patients.

[retiredgram]

Just joined in reading your review.   I feel like I have watched Sakari grow up on your cruises.  Sorry to hear of your accident.  I looked you up because I saw you on the Insurance thread.   Could you tell me the results of your search for insurance at a late date or if you would rather email me.  lltenney@aol.com Looking for medical insurance and we are only a month before cruise.  Thought we had it, but forgot.  Thanks.

Now I can get back to reading your review.

[Cnew405]

Another great review!! The pictures from Roatan are great, they are freaking me out a bit though because it almost looks like its a miniature toy village that you took a picture of. I'm not sure if its my laptop or the photo setting , is really cool effect though.  

We will be going on the Escape for first time in October, so eating up every bit of info you give about ship! 

[erdoran]

1 hour ago, retiredgram said:

Just joined in reading your review.   I feel like I have watched Sakari grow up on your cruises.  Sorry to hear of your accident.  I looked you up because I saw you on the Insurance thread.   Could you tell me the results of your search for insurance at a late date or if you would rather email me.  lltenney@aol.com Looking for medical insurance and we are only a month before cruise.  Thought we had it, but forgot.  Thanks.

Now I can get back to reading your review.

I’m about to buy GeoBlue Trekker for a Jan 5 cruise—if you are looking for medical and evacuation that covers them, but nothing else.  Call Trip Insurance Store and ask them for what you want, they are known to be very helpful and honest.

[mitsugirly]

On 12/28/2019 at 5:46 PM, LeesaB said:

The moon is really neat to watch for a phase.  It only rises around sunset near the full moon.  Near the new moon, it will actually rise around sunrise.  Obviously, it's harder or impossible to see then but it's cool to see the slivers of the moon.

 

what setting on your camera do you use to get those awesome photos that make the world look like a model?  I love them so much!

 

Also, sooo glad to see those pics of the port in Roatan.  The new dock looks nearly ready for business!

 

The miniature "tilt shift" photo setting is called "Diorama".

 

Yea, the dock is coming right along.

 

On 12/28/2019 at 7:09 PM, JoeTec said:

I can't wait to see what you decided to do in the ports. 

 

Hehe

 

18 hours ago, perfect match said:

Kim, you’re doing a great job getting around the ship! The ship certainly looks beautiful. Can’t wait to hear about how you manage with your adventures on shore.

 

I did my best and paid the price by the end of the day, but it was so worth it.

 

12 hours ago, jenseib said:

Way behind but joining in and marking my spot!

 

Thanks for joining.

 

7 hours ago, mopedmom1 said:

Wrong thread

 

huh?

 

7 hours ago, Lovetotraveltami said:

Thank you for the wonderful review.  My wish is for total healing.  I had an accident 2 years ago and broke my leg in 3 places.  I am walking but slow.   Can’t wait to read your port adventures.

 

Thanks so much. 2 years ago and still recuperating? Aww. I'll probably be the same.

 

2 hours ago, rich5258 said:

Going on the escape February 29 our first NCL cruise, usually do carnival and Celebrity. So thanks for the review, especially helpful as  I walk with a cane, all my years working as a nurse I have osteoarthritis ( I have read all your reviews love them) I pleased to know Margaritaville has free breakfast we are on deck 15 balcony and I’m not fond of buffet, any restaurants open for lunch on embarkation? Thanks again speedy recovery, nurses can be unique patients.

 

Well welcome aboard NCL. I hope you enjoy it. Yes, definitely try Margaritaville out for no crowds.

 

O'Sheehans is open for lunch when you get on as well. I'm not sure if the MDR is or not.

 

 

1 hour ago, retiredgram said:

Just joined in reading your review.   I feel like I have watched Sakari grow up on your cruises.  Sorry to hear of your accident.  I looked you up because I saw you on the Insurance thread.   Could you tell me the results of your search for insurance at a late date or if you would rather email me.  lltenney@aol.com Looking for medical insurance and we are only a month before cruise.  Thought we had it, but forgot.  Thanks.

Now I can get back to reading your review.

 

Hi and thanks for joining. I ended up not getting any insurance. Everyone seemed to be so discouraging about it and the real reason I was wanting it was if something more was to happen to me on the cruise. Everyone seemed to be convinced that they would not cover me for what I needed and such a short notice despite what the insurance place was telling me. I just got so frustrated that I just decided not to do anything. Thank goodness it worked out. 

 

1 hour ago, Cnew405 said:

Another great review!! The pictures from Roatan are great, they are freaking me out a bit though because it almost looks like its a miniature toy village that you took a picture of. I'm not sure if its my laptop or the photo setting , is really cool effect though.  

We will be going on the Escape for first time in October, so eating up every bit of info you give about ship! 

 

Thank you!

 

Freaking you out? I was shooting on a miniature "tilt shift" type of setting. It's supposed to looked like that. ;)  It's not your laptop.

 

Have fun on the Escape next year. She's a beauty.

[mopedmom1]

31 minutes ago, mitsugirly said:

 

huh?

 

 

Your response to my "wrong thread" comment.....I posted a smart a$$ comment that belonged in another thread. You really would have been scratching your head if I had left the original comment in! 😁

 

Thanks for another great review and speedy healing thoughts for you.

[mitsugirly]

So Roatan...oh how we've loved you every time we've been here. This is my "go to" place for scuba diving. The reef here is just AMAZING!

 

I actually considered not wanting to cruise for the fact that I wouldn't be able to scuba dive, snorkel or swim really. So, I searched everywhere for something to do here. We felt like we've done a lot and we are not your "tour" type of people most of the time.

 

SLOTHS!! Just like me!! That would work. But going to see the sloths really wouldn't be an "all day" thing for me. So I really wasn't sure.

 

Then I got this really wild thought....like really really wild thought!!! I contacted West Bay Divers (that we dove with 4 months ago). I actually texted the owner of the company (who was so nice to text me after our dive last time to make sure we had a good time...like that has NEVER happened before with ANY tour/dive/excursion company. That really made me have high regards for this company). So after texting the owner, he gave me his email. I told him everything that had happened to me after returning from my last cruise, the condition I was in, and ask for his thoughts about being able to.....you got it, scuba dive!

 

To my surprise, he wrote me back instantly and told me that if I could obtain a release from my doctor that I was able to dive then they could accommodate me! They have the diving scooters and said that I could tandem with an instructor and it would pull me along with them and I wouldn't even have to worry about using my leg. SAY WHAT?!?  PERFECT!!! I was so excited I almost jumped for joy, but sloths don't jump, so I stayed firmly planted on the ground.

 

I went for my ortho follow up at the beginning of December and got a release statement saying I could travel AND dive with no restrictions! (I had to chuckle at the "no restrictions").

 

So....WE'RE GOING DIVING TODAY!!!!

 

Right outside the port, we met up with our driver. He said "follow me". We crossed the street and started walking...and walking...and walking. Wait, I totally forgot that the last time we were here we had to walk down the street for our ride and it was hot and sunny out. This time it was hot, sunny and I had a broken leg and a super heavy boot!!! I was going SLOW!!! Like really slow! He kept turning around to see if I was back there. I'm pretty sure I was panting like a dog that just chased a rabbit. 

 

He did take a shortcut to cut down on the walking and into the graveyard we went. Yikes!

 

 

 

 

If this is any indication of what today might go like...I'm turning back now.

 

 

 

 

Still going...whew

 

 

 

 

 

We finally made it out of the graveyard and onto the street where we would still have a very long walk along an uneven road and side of the road, where we were dodging traffic as if we were playing frogger.

 

We FINALLY made it with me huffing and puffing and chanting "If I had known we would have to walk this far, I would have booked with someone else that picked me up at the port!" Seriously!

 

Edited December 30, 2019 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

17 minutes ago, mopedmom1 said:

Your response to my "wrong thread" comment.....I posted a smart a$$ comment that belonged in another thread. You really would have been scratching your head if I had left the original comment in! 😁

 

Thanks for another great review and speedy healing thoughts for you.

 

 

LOL Actually I did see your original comment and chuckled. It kinda went with what was said in a funny way. That's why I said "huh" after you changed it. LOL

[mitsugirly]

We arrived at West Bay Divers...it felt like we had just left here...and basically we did!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We checked in with the dive shop and immediately seen Eva, who was our dive instructor last time. The hubby made the comment "Weee'rrrreeee baaaaackkkkk" and laughed. I said with excitement "Are you our instructor again?" She told me no, that she already had another group going out with her that day. But she wasn't really smiling and didn't seem friendly for some reason. I felt like she was looking at us weird and almost biting her tongue about something. You know how you walk into a room and everyone shuts up and you just know they were talking about you? That's the unwelcome feeling I got at that moment. 🤔

 

Then we started talking about our "plans" for the day and then that's when they hit me with the news...they were NOT going to be taking me out with the scooter. They said it was against PADI rules for someone that is not certified to be on the scooter diving...even with an instructor. I told them about my conversation with the OWNER and he was the one who suggested it to begin with otherwise, I wouldn't have even scheduled a dive because I can't kick with my foot/leg. I told them everything that had happened to me and to my surprise, everyone already knew! They let it be known that I was the talk of the entire office and staff and they had all read my emails. Well, if they read my emails, then they knew what my intentions were for the day and SOMEONE should have told me that this was not going to happen. They explained to me they could get their license yanked if they did it. They called the owner of the company to discuss what to do next.

 

Meanwhile, I'm super hot about the situation and thinking I just wasted my time and money getting here for no reason because I really didn't want to just hang out on the beach and be hounded by the locals to buy stuff. By no means do I want someone to get their license taken away but I should have been told!

[Beav1279]

Thanks for your review! I always enjoy your colorful pictures! I'm glad to hear that you're up and walking after your accident. I had to wear a boot for 3 months after tearing all my ligaments and that first month was exhausting! The boot was so heavy! But you eventually get used to it.

[mitsugirly]

As they were on the phone with the owner, I took Sakari out to the beach to get our "Christmas" photo.

 

 

 

 

I went back up to the office and they explained the situation again. They did say the owner said he was really sorry for the confusion and he wasn't aware that they couldn't ride tandem with a non-certified diver. But, what they were willing to do was to give me my own instructor and if I couldn't kick with my leg/foot, they would pull me along. While that doesn't sound too appealing to me, for the simple fact that I like to get close to the coral and take pics, or whatever the case, it was all I had to go on. I do know that some dive companies offer handicapped diving and people dive without even having a leg. So, if they can do it, so can I.

 

I WAS DOING THIS NO MATTER WHAT!! I told them I'd play it by ear and if I couldn't do it or it became too uncomfortable, then I was stopping. They said we'd go super slow and at my pace and my instructor would be right beside the entire time. At any time we could stop. Ok, I agreed.

 

Also, we were going to do a BOAT dive. I had told them that I already did Mandy's Eel Garden 4 months ago and wanted to go somewhere else. They had given me a list, prior to coming, and I had looked over a couple of places. Turtle Crossing sounded interesting, somewhat shallow and hopefully we'd see some turtles.

 

We had our "class" and then I headed over for a quick bathroom run while they took our equipment out to the water for our skills test. When I returned, my instructor was standing at the dive shop deck and said "I'm sorry, I will not be able to take you. I just dropped the tank on my foot". GASP!!! Oh em gee....his foot was terrible! A HUGE knot on the top of it and continued to swell as he stood there. He said he was in so much pain and his girlfriend was on her way to pick him up and take him to the hospital. Meanwhile, they were trying to call someone to come in to help with the dive. I felt so bad for him!!