Some of these old maritime laws protected the shipping industry in the US. As far as the PSA, it seems to apply to the transport of passengers from one point to another. Those laws apparently applied to ferries and it makes sense that we don’t want foreign flagged ships to infringe on the passenger ship business. But, how many people go on cruises and use them as a ferry?

Take for example the ships that are part of the Alaska Ferry System. Of course those should be US flagged ships. They provide transportation, unlike cruise ships, which although they move, aren’t really used to get from point A to point B. They are large recreational vehicles that offer an experience to passengers, not transportation per se.

Proponents of these laws say that they take away US jobs and contribute nothing to the economy. So, as an example, does that mean that the foreign flagged ships that sail from LA to the Hawaii Islands have no effect on the economy or local jobs? Who provides dock services to these ships? How do the passengers get to LA? Do they stay in hotels, eat the food, rent cars, visit attractions? I am not convinced.

It seems time to re-evaluate this antiquated law. How hard is it to separate cruise lines from cargo vessels and the laws that apply to them? Ok, end of being political.

NCL recently decided to pull the Pride of Aloha from the Hawaiian waters supposedly because these foreign-flagged ships offered too much competition. What do those passengers who had reservations beyond the May withdrawal date do?

The following is from the NCL website:

Guests booked on Pride of Aloha
For guests booked on Pride of Aloha from May 11, 2008 and beyond, NCL is holding space and will offer the same cruise fare as they currently have paid on their Pride of Aloha cruise if they would like to transfer to the same week on Pride of America, departing one day earlier. In addition:
-Guests will receive a $100 per person on-board credit (up to $200 per stateroom).
-For guests who made their air and/or hotel arrangements through NCL, NCL will protect the rates they currently have paid and cover any air or hotel change fees.
-For guests who purchased their own air, NCL will protect up to the first $100 per person of any increase in air costs and cover up to $75 per person in air change fees.
-For guests who made independent hotel arrangements, NCL will cover any hotel change fees up to $25 per person.

Guests may book any other NCL cruise and receive a $100 per person on-board credit (up to $200 per stateroom) if they rebook by March 7, 2008. In addition, NCL will cover up to $75 per person in air change fees and up to $25 per person in hotel change fees. Guests may cancel their cruise and receive a full refund if NCL is notified by March 7, 2008. In addition, NCL will cover up to $75 per person in air change fees and up to $25 per person in hotel change fees. After March 7, 2008 cancellation fees will apply in accordance with NCL’s cancellation policy.

On our NCL Star cruise, we booked a future cruise onboard, planning on taking a Hawaii cruise. We found the cruise that visited Fanning Island intriguing. That is not an option though and it looks like the only option that we would have would be on the Pride of America. Better start looking at other itineraries. At least, we got an onboard credit and a reduced deposit. So much for planning ahead.

Sail Away

You are in for a treat if you are in the NYC area on January 13. The three Queens – Queen Mary II, Queen Elizabeth II and the new Queen Victoria will sail out of New York harbor with fireworks in the background. The best place to see this historic event, which is scheduled to happen around 7:00pm is from the following vantage points:

For more info: Cunard Rendezvous.

Freestyle 2.0 on NCL ships.

Sound like web standards? Maybe so, but Freestyle 2.0 just seems so much more real and a lot more fun than Web 2.0. We take web standards for granted, but can’t take NCL for granted any longer. With Apollo Management on board comes a billion dollars earmarked for improvements on all ships. Some of these improvements like escorting balcony and suite guests to their staterooms and offering a welcome glass of champagne, a hint that NCL wants to change its image. Whether this is for better or worse is yet to be seen, but results aren’t too far off as all improvements should be in place by the end of the Summer of 2008.

Several of the changes involve dining. More money will be invested in food, but whether that increase relates to quality or quantity remains to be seen. One change that many passengers will approve or is known as Lobster Galore (sorry, but this reminds me of some porn star’s name). Lobster will be served in one restaurant every night of the cruise and in the main restaurant several days of the cruise. I have never figured out the attraction of what I refer to as cockroach of the sea and overrated as well. I predict that lobster lovers everywhere will flock to NCL just for the privilege of eating Lobster everyday. I will use the opportunity to attract friends and influence cruisers by offering my lobster to any willing takers.

I really do like meat, but perhaps NCL has gone overboard with offering a 48oz Porterhouse steak in their signature steak house. Personally, I would prefer a smaller cut of meat, although size really does matter to some and that three pound slab of meat will keep the most demanding cruiser happy and full. Full of what, you ask? Sounds like the makings of an eating contest.

Each dining room will have a specialty dish, like the whopper steak or the chocolate fondue that will be in the action station restaurant, aka, the buffet. And that buffet will take on a different look in the evenings when tables get draped in table cloths, the lights get turned down low and the service is enhanced. Sounds like a big improvement, especially for a ship like the Star, which has the most unattractive buffet dining area imaginable.

On embarkation day, the specialty restaurants will be offering samples of their dishes, a good way to give cruisers a chance to taste the food before committing their extra dollars to these dining venues. A few of the specialty restaurants will open for lunch on sea days.

NCL will also transform the staterooms, upgrading the bedding, towels, bathrobes and coffeemakers; improving the tv offerings and adding sofabeds to the suite category.

Balcony and mini-suite guests will receive a specially colored key, recognizable throughout the ship. I guess this means that if you are in one of these staterooms, you can flash your special colored card to impress other guests. On our last cruise on the Star, we each had a different colored card, but never figured out the reason why. If I had the pink card and he had the blue, I could have made a guess. I can’t wait to see those balcony and suite cards. Maybe the Garden Suite guests will have colorful cards that play tunes. Why not?
Suite and Villa guests all have concierge and butler service along with priority embarkation and disembarkation, a private concierge lounge amongst other perks.

Onboard activities improvements include more learning opportunities through NCL U; a pool deck experience with upscale entertainment, drink flags on all chairs, quiet times and cold towels.

There are many other changes that will surely enhance the NCL experience. We are looking forward to seeing the results of Freestyle 2.0 and so should you.

Sail Away

Many cruise lines have ships that visit Cabo San Lucas and the rest of the Mexican Riviera. Three ports on this itinerary were new to us and the one that we had visited before hardly seemed familiar. The NCL Star currently follows an 8-day itinerary, but those 8-day trips will be discontinued in April of 2008. Starting in the Fall of 2008, the Star will go to 7 days in the Mexican Riviera and stop in Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. If you want to catch the 8-day itinerary go to Cruise Bug Vacations and book your stateroom.

Our last visit to Cabo San Lucas was in 1992 when we bicycled there from San Diego. Getting there by ship was definitely easier, quicker and more comfortable. However, we missed the outstanding, starkly beautiful landscape of Baja. We anxiously anticipated our arrival in Cabo much as we would visiting a long lost relative that we hadn’t seen for years. We expected a change, but never expected it to be totally unrecognizable. But unlike that long lost relative, Cabo hadn’t aged at all, but was still full of excitement. We remember Cabo as a small, laid-back fishing village with a few hotels. More importantly, it represents a sense of accomplishment for us. Cabo was the finish line that we reached after pedaling over 1200 miles over some of the most difficult terrain that we have ever cycled. It definitely holds a special place in our hearts.

Along the road from San Jose del Cabo in 1992. We imagine that this view might be different today.

We tendered into port, which again was simple, with no waiting whatsoever. As we walked along the marina into town we were greeted by an inordinate number of people offering glass bottom boat rides. We ignored them but then were approached by guys with fully clothed iguanas. One woman screeched as she almost stepped on another iguana on the walkway. Continuing on into town, we tried hard to even vaguely remember Cabo from 15 years ago. Not remembering much gave a Twilight Zone feel to the day. Surely, we had been here before so something should be familiar.

That popular all-you-can-eat pancake place that the boys in the cycling group talked about for days before we reached Cabo? Where did it go? It was a rickety shack overhanging the marina. We saw nothing rickety near the marina, which is now quite the modern place with pricey shops around its edges. Where are all those shanties on the marina? Where did that Cabo go?

Well, everything changes and there is little point bemoaning the good old days. Little here seemed familiar and that made us wonder about our memories. This was a dusty fishing village the last time we were here, wasn’t it? Just to satisfy ourselves, we looked for the Hotel Mar de Cortez, where we stayed on our last visit. It’s still there in the middle of town.
1992 – That’s a Carnival ship in the harbor.
Even in 1992 cruise ships visited Cabo. Passengers could eat at those local joints, rather than the chain restaurants like The Hard Rock Cafe, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, McDonald’s, Burger King and Subway. We don’t recall a single chain restaurant in Cabo in the olden days.
Was the Carnival Elation here in ’92?

Taking up the prime real estate along the water’s edge, the many bars quickly fill with cruise passengers in search of a cerveza for less than it would cost on the ship. We passed by a few of them and cut through to the main street in town still hoping to have our memories jogged.

We stopped at Diamonds International to get my charm, which is a fish for Cabo. Each location has a different charm. In Puerto Vallarta, it was a cowboy boot and we haven’t yet figured out the significance of that. Perhaps it is to boot out the customers who get the cheap, freebie bracelet and don’t buy $40,000 watches or other expensive jewelry.

We had planned on visiting the small museum in town, but it was closed and there were no signs listing opening times. This was December 8, so we figured it was closed for religious reasons. We found an internet cafe and then decided to try La Perla, a local lunch spot, which somebody told us had excellent chilaquiles. We found the restaurant and had a leisurely lunch, but I was a bit disappointed that they weren’t serving chilaquiles. Well, it is mainly a breakfast food, so I wasn’t really expecting that it would be served for lunch, but I was still hoping.

If you are eating in a restaurant in Mexico and wondering what takes the server so long to bring the check, you might wait forever. The place could close and you might still be sitting at your table without a check. In Mexico, it is considered very bad manners to simply plop a check down on a table and assume that the diner was finished enjoying his meal or time in the restaurant. You need to ask for the check – la cuenta, por favor.

After lunch, we decided to indulge one of the glass bottom boat people and paid $20 for the two of us to have a tour out to Land’s End and the arch. Don’t expect to see anything through the “glass” bottom of the boat. Getting out in the harbor proved as exciting as a taxi ride. First, we had to get gas. Some of the boats seem to play chicken with each other and don’t move until later than I would like to avoid a head-on collision. We dropped off two young couples who had paid to go to one beach, but really wanted to go to Lovers’ Beach.

After they finally realized that they had asked and paid for a trip to another beach, we finally dropped them off and then had the boat to ourselves. The skipper gave us a tour down and around the tip of Land’s End. The sky was blue and the temperature was perfect. We saw fish, sea lions, comerants and other birds. And of course, we saw the arch which you can’t see from town.

We asked where one goes kayaking in the area. Surely it couldn’t be here. Surely, it could be here according to our guide. Scads of wave runners, fishing boats, glass bottom boats, party boats – one pulling a huge grill, a pirate boat, cruise ships, water taxis….. The congestion made this a poor choice for kayaking and we did not see any kayaks out that day.

Time once again passed quickly by so we did another final tour of the town, stopped for a beer and went back to catch the tender to the ship.
Think twice about taking liquor onto the ship.

Sailing away, we saw whales and enjoyed the rugged scenery, even spotting the road that we had traveled so long ago that leads to Todos Santos. We stayed on deck until the sun set promising to come back again and spend some more time in Cabo.
Touring the Baja Peninsula by car might be a future adventure to consider. Perhaps it would help our amnesia.

Sail Away

Do you have a skill or an area of expertise that you would like to share with others? Are you the scrapbooking or magic expert? Consider organizing a group
and teaching classes on a cruise. It’s a lot more fun than sitting in a classroom all day.
Contact us at Cruise Bug Vacations(info.at.cruisebugvacations.com to start the planning process.

For me, Zihuatenejo is synonymous with the Shawshank Redemption. This is where the main character settled after his escape from the Mansfield Penitentiary, which is where they filmed parts of the movie, so that is also synonymous to Shawshank Redemption. Mansfield OH and Zihuatenejo must be the same place then.

We loved this port and would definitely make an effort to return. Laid back, not overly commercial and still with some small town charm, Zihuatenejo is the type of place that we could spend more time in. We would have preferred leaving after midnight here rather than in Acapulco. Our plan was to visit the small archaeological museum and the mercado and to simply wander around town.

This is a tender port, although we hear rumors that there is a possibility of building a pier. We walked right onto the tender, which surprised us because we expected there to be a long line. Obviously, we timed our departure just right, knowing that those on the shore excursions would be lining up to be the first off the ship.

Right near the tender dock is a small area with vendors. The contrast between these folks and those in Acapulco pleased us. Nobody followed us, constantly harassing us to take a taxi or a tour. Some of the waiters at the small restaurants along the way stood near the walkway asking if we wanted something to eat in their establishments, but this was all done in a nonchalant, non-threatening manner.

We walked along the palm-lined beach until we stumbled upon the tiny museum and spent a few minutes there. We got directions to the mercado, but continued our walk on the beach until we decided we should cut back into town. On the way to the mercado we spotted a store where we bought Rancheritos and some natural vanilla. Just across the road was an internet cafe, so we popped in to check email. Zihuatenejo isn’t too large, so we quickly reached the mercado, which seemed quite large for such a small town. I don’t know what I find so intriguing about the butcher stands or other vendors in the mercado, but I have some odd affinity to these. It would be so nice to buy a bunch of the nice produce in these mercados and take it home. We never see such nice limes or any other produce for that matter in our local supermarkets.

After leaving the municipal mercado, we went to the artisan/tourist mercado and looked around for a few minutes, shocked by the prices of goods. We have been spoiled by the south of Mexico where things cost quite a bit less.

When you tender from a ship, you will often find that those with booked shore excursions have preference. Some ships pass out cards for the tender according to the time of their booked excursion, giving independent types a later tender time. To avoid the rush and waiting in line, give the shore excursion people a few minutes to get off the ship. Enjoy a leisurely breakfast or go on deck to enjoy the view.

Not far from the pier, we found Rick’s Bar, where we grabbed a beer, margarita and chips with pico de gallo, which was a far cry from that stuff served on the ship in Endless Summer. It really isn’t hard to make pico de gallo and we couldn’t figure out why the ship did such a poor job of it. Maybe what they served was some other salsa. We couldn’t tell, but whatever it was, it sure wasn’t Mexican.

The owner of Rick’s told us about a dark beer called Noche Buena that is only served around Christmastime. His distributor hadn’t yet delivered any to him yet, but he told us that we could find some at the local store, which we did immediately after leaving. It’s funny to see Bud Light priced higher than local beers because it’s an import after all. He said that some of the Bud Light connoisseurs complain that it costs more than Mexican beers. Now those Bud drinkers can claim to drink only imported beer – at least when they are in Mexico.

Our time in Zihuatenejo passed too quickly by. Does Zihuatenego have a Spanish language school? Was the Shawshank guy still living there and running a bar?

Sail Away

Holland America is offering $199 fares for the 3rd and 4th cabin passengers on their 14-day Alaska sailings in May. HAL offers some of the largest staterooms that make sailing with four in a stateroom a viable option. Go to Cruise Bug Vacations and do a search for the 14-day May cruises to Alaska.There aren’t many cabins left, so don’t wait or you will miss out on this incredible deal.

The NCL Star does an eight-day tour of the Mexican Riviera. Ports include Acapulco, Zihuatenejo, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas. The frist two days are at sea as is the last. Acapulco is the first and longest stop on the itinerary.

We arrived within viewing distance of Acapulco earlier than scheduled and watched the dolphins swimming alongside the ship. Some extra time to spend we thought, until the captain announced that there was a medical emergency onboard and the patient would be tendered into port. After that exercise was completed we docked and waited for immigration to clear us, and so didn’t go ashore until the regular time.

Having never been to Acapulco before, we were both excited and wary. We aren’t really beach types and usually try to avoid tourist meccas, so didn’t really know what to expect. We have done some extensive travel in Mexico, but usually in the southern states, so this was new territory for us to explore. We usually prefer to explore on our own and don’t always sign-on for the ship’s shore excursions. We are comfortable on our own and like to save a few bucks as well. We can dawdle where we want and focus on whatever appeals to us. In Acapulco, our goal was to go see the petroglyphs at Palma Sola, located somewhere north of town.

After leaving the ship we were immediately accosted by taxi drivers (actually this was immediately after being accosted by the ship photographer) who followed us far too long. $80 to do what we wanted to, plus they would take us to the cliff divers. (It probably wouldn’t cost that much for both of us to take the first-class bus to Mexico.) We kept walking and tried hard to ignore them. Weakened by all that avoidance, we gave in to a guy claiming to be a student of tourism. He would get points for taking us to the artisans market. We really wanted to go to the main market that the locals use and then go to the archaeological site. This guy could not understand that we really didn’t want to buy anything at his mercado. He told us that he could get a good deal on a taxi that would take us to Palma Sola, wait for us and drop us back at the ship. I admit that I am a wimp and that my Spanish isn’t good enough to tell somebody that I can arrange it myself. Actually, this guy spoke English, so I suppose my English isn’t good enough to get rid of the guy. Knowing what the minimum wage is in Mexico, I am also a sucker for these people who are trying to improve their financial status. I do usually draw the line at chiclets, but where else do you see 3-year old entrepreneurs plying their trade on the streets? Have we instilled such a work ethic in our toddlers? I don’t think so. Every time I see these kids working the streets I am reminded of a comment by somebody asking if you would feel safe traveling with your kids in Mexico. Doesn’t it say something about Mexican society in general that they feel comfortable allowing kids to wander the streets alone at the age of three? I guess that sometimes they are accompanied by a four- or five-year old, so there is a built in safety system. But I digress.

We reached the end of the market and the guy said that he would go get the taxi. Now was our chance to find our own taxi and make our escape. We disobeyed his orders to stay where he left us, but didn’t he find us. We were just a block away. We figured that his vendor friends on the street were keeping an eye on us and tracking our movement. He came back with a taxi just behind him. We paid him a tip and paid the taxi $20, which really wasn’t a bad deal.

I had read that it was possible to take the bus up to the Palma Sola Colonia and reach the site from there. When I saw how far and how steep the road was to the entrance of the site, I was thankful that we had taken the taxi.

Our taxi driver got out of the car and led us to the obvious entry to the site, which had a woman at the desk and a guestbook. Maintained by INAH, the site has free entry. Just beyond this office is a small visitor center with some information on the site itself, but only in Spanish as this is Mexico after all.

The woman in the office warned us that it was about a one-kilometer climb to the top of the trail, which immediately started to climb outside of the display area. Bugsy started counting the steps, quitting at 400. Our taxi driver was wearing jeans on this rather hot day and didn’t even break a sweat. After climbing without stopping for what seemed like 400 steps, we came to the first carved stone and immediately forgot the drudgery of climbing.

We had been to many archaeological sites in the Yucatan, Chiapas and Oaxaca, so rock carvings like this were quite new to us. The carvings literally looked like stick figures, definitely lacking the ornate details of a Maya glyph. Eventually we came across a small group of people with a guide. The official ship shore excursion. Two of the group sat on a rock and declined to continue the climb. We listened to the guide for a while, but moved on at our own pace and to get ahead of this group. We climbed up and then climbed down to reach some of the carvings. Going down means going back up, so we definitely got a good workout along with spectaculars views of Acapulco and the ship far below us. The best of the carvings is at the very top of the climb and certainly proved a nice reward for our efforts.

Those of us with less-than-perfect knees know that going down can be more difficult than climbing. The lungs don’t get quite the workout, but the knees take up the slack for the lungs. As we neared the last 20 or so steps, we encountered two guys huffing and puffing and dripping in sweat. They asked if they were close to the top. We informed them about the arduous climb ahead and recommended that they take it easy. Since the site closed at 4 and it was already after 3, they would not be able to dally on their way to the top. We met them later on the ship and asked how far they had gone. They had rested and turned around where we had met them.

At the bottom, we decided to ask the woman for some details about the site, including how many steps there were since we lost count. 517. That’s the most exercise we have done for some time. I constantly thought of that earlier medical emergency on board and thought that I would likely be in that situation.

On the way back down to the port, our taxi driver decided to take a short cut. Have you ever had an uneventful taxi ride in Mexico? Is there such a thing? He proceeded down a much perilously and perigroso-ly steep hill. Women on their stoops looked at him with contempt and disbelief. The road suddenly came to a point where we could see nothing beyond. Now, we had stopped at a tienda to get some refreshments – me a beer and the others water and soda, but that beer hadn’t taken effect yet. I envisioned the Bug and the Cruise Bug somersaulting down this “road” until it crashed into a Bimbo bread truck. The driver chuckled a nervous laugh and shifted into reverse. The tires spun not easily gripping the road surface. I pointed out the stoop that quickly approached and he did turn to avoid it. After several attempts, we backed up to the spot where we had turned off and proceeded down the way we had come. We avoided at least three collisions on the way down and eventually reached the main road near the pier. And all this for a mere $20. An amusement park entry would cost twice that for half the thrill.

We weren’t done with Acapulco yet, nor was Acapulco done with us. The ship didn’t leave until after midnight, so we had plenty of time to spend ashore. Since we wanted to see two more museums and it was already late, we worried that they would close before we got to them. We first headed to the Museum of Masks. This was shown on the map quite near the Fuerte San Diego(San Diego Fort), but we reached the fort before the museum, which shouldn’t have happened.

Keep in mind that if you venture out on your own, it is your responsibility to get back to the ship on time. Be sure that you are on ship’s time, which was the standard time on this cruise and was different than local time. If you have signed up with an official ship shore excursion and return late from that trip, the ship will wait for you. If you arrive back late from your own excursion, don’t count on the ship to wait for you. Getting to the next port might be neither easy nor necessarily cheap.

As we walked by the entry to the fort, the guard invited us to see the fort, but first we asked if he could tell us the location of the Mask Museum. We proceeded through the fort grounds and he lead us down a street that dead-ended into the fort from another direction. We thanked him and walked to the museum entry only to find the door locked. No signs with hours; no nothing. Our tour of this museum consisted of us window peeping into each of the accessible windows. We imagined where the masks originated as this is a collection of masks from around the world. After making our way around the building and hitting every window that we could, we walked back to the fort.

We weren’t expecting to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers in Acapulco.

We took a few shots and then turned right to explore the fort in a counter-clockwise direction. Shortly after we turned, we were met by a man who told us that there was a fee to enter. We had been looking at the gift shop in the entryway and didn’t notice that there was a ticket office on the other side of the entry. We hadn’t seen any sign that indicated that there was an entry fee, so walked right passed that office.

A model of the fort.

The fort also overlooks the harbor as many forts in general do. The displays focused on the trade with the east, including the Phillipines and China, which we were unaware of until visiting this fort. We spent a long time at the fort and eventually headed back down to the main street in search of internet. Venturing into some off-the-beaten-track neighborhoods, where we thought we might find internet, we found ourselves farther and farther away from the ship. We headed back toward the water and headed back past the fort and in the opposite direction of our search. Just a few blocks away from the ship, we found the internet cafe, but not before being approached by a man asking if we wanted to go see the cliff divers. I asked if it were possible to walk there and he responded positively. We said that we had to check email and he said that he had nothing to do and would wait for us outside. Sure enough, he was still waiting there when we left. We told him that we wouldn’t go see the cliff divers – that 517-step climb in the hit left me worse for the wear- and he said that was fine because he had nothing to do. We never really figured out what service he was offering.

Sunset comes early in Acapulco

Back on the ship, we had a leisurely dinner and went to bed before we left Acapulco.
Although we enjoyed our time there, we wouldn’t rush to get back there. Acapulco seemed like Mexico on the beach. Now, we aren’t really beach people and didn’t go to any beaches, so there must be some great places that we missed.

Sail Away

Do you love a bargain? Check out the Royal Caribbean Cruises that cost just $50 per day. Keep in mind that this is before taxes and fees and the dreaded fuel surcharge. But, what other vacation could you do that included all meals, accommodations and entertainment for this rate? We especially recommend the 3 and 4 day cruises on the Monarch of the Seas, which we
recently enjoyed. A review of that ship and itinerary will follow the NCL Star review. In the meantime, feel free to contact us with questions. (To make a long story short, we really enjoyed our Monarch of the Sea cruise.)

The Casino

The casino provides a bit of diversion and they have mastered the easiest way to to get you to part with your cash as quickly as possible. Located on Deck 6, the casino offered a buy $10, get $20 in slot machine credit, so we both fell for that promotion. From the start, we had problems. We each got our promo cards and found machines, followed the instructions for using the credits and got a message saying that the available credit on our cards was $0. After several trips to the cashier, we finally got cards that showed our $20 credit. We found two penny machines, big spenders that we are, and I quickly spent the $5 that I had downloaded into the machine. The plan was to do $5 per casino visit. Bugsy on the other hand, played his machine for hours, eventually earning $60, all from that initial $5.

The next day we returned again and inserted our cards. I first went to a machine that wouldn’t accept the card. Certain machines do not take promo credit. Maybe this should have been a hint that perhaps these machines pay better. There was nothing different about them from other machines. I eventually found a suitable machine, but Robert went to one that said that his remaining credit was $0. Since he had only spent $5 the night before, this was obviously a mistake. He went to the cashier and explained the situation, never realizing what an event this would become. The “records” showed that he had used his card in a 25 cent machine after 9:30 pm the previous night. Since we were still on EST, we had gone to bed at 9:30 pm the night before so were definitely not in the casino. We also had not played the machine that the computer print-out indicated. The casino woman implied that perhaps Robert was so inebriated that previous night that he had forgotten which machines he had played. The other implication was that he had given his card to somebody else. At this point, we started to get annoyed and also became curious about exactly how much control there is over these machines. We talked to the casino manager and suggested that they look at the video tapes to see that we were NOT in the casino at 9:30pm on that night. We suggested that perhaps somebody hacked into a machine as there are keypads on the slots. The manager said that would be impossible.

On one hand, we understand that anybody could spend their credit and claim that they weren’t at the casino or they could have given their card to a cruise companion. Originally, we thought about just letting the missing credit slide. After all, Robert had made more than that, but then when we considered all the trouble we had getting the cards to show the proper credit in the first place, we felt it worth pursuing, not knowing that it would be implied that we were liars of questionable ilk. The manager told us to wait and bought us a drink while he waited to hear back from security who would view the tapes. After an inordinate amount of time, we said that we would simply return later.
Many hours later, the manager had still heard nothing from security. We played another penny machine and I quickly lost. Now paranoid that they simply tightened the machine when they saw my Casino At Sea card in the slot, I just didn’t bother putting the card in.
That reminds me that since until this time, we always put our Casino at Sea cards in, we had also asked the manager to see if our Casino at Sea card was used in the machine where we allegedly spent the last $15 of the promo card. The manager said that we could have just used the promo card without the Casino at Sea card, since it was not used at 9:30 that night.

I was waiting for Columbo to show up or maybe the Candid Camera crew to come on the scene and tell us what the trick was, but that didn’t happen. We went back to the casino another time and the manager told us that the tapes only show the back of heads and he didn’t want to examine the back of either of our heads to match them to the tape. So what’s the point of tapes if you can only see the back of a head? Don’t they monitor movement in the casino? Couldn’t they see who originally sat down? How did somebody else gain access to our credit? These are questions that will never be answered. It appeared to us that after viewing the tapes, the manager seemed more inclined to believe our story and gave Robert a card with his remaining $15 credit. It isn’t as if they would tell us that they discovered a problem or that some other irregularity was discovered. We never won another dime in the casino after that point and speculated that whenever they saw us at a machine, they set it on extra tight.

We did mention this problem to the hotel manager and explained that although eventually, the casino manager satisfactorily resolved the problem, that treating us like criminals was entirely unwarranted. The casino should accept responsibility for problems created by them.

We had been in the casino to learn to play some of the table games. We tried 3-card poker, regular poker and Texas-Hold’em, which I didn’t understand at all. It looked like a losing proposition all around (not that anything in the casino is a winning proposition). Although that game and many others have a $5 minimum, it was necessary to put down two chips to be part of the game. No wonder there were so many Texas Hold’em tournaments. It must be very profitable for the ship.

Maybe one of these days, we will try to lose some money at the table games. Shouldn’t be too hard.

Sail Away

Looking for a luxurious getaway on a cruise ship? Book now on Oceania before their fares increase on January 1, 2008.

Cabin 8632, Category C, Oceanview

As previously mentioned, our cabin was opposite the doorway to the elevator lobby on Deck 8. This proved to be an ideal spot for a stateroom although originally, we had some concerns about traffic and noise. Those worries turned out to be unfounded. The cabin was quiet and in a very convenient location for easy access to the elevators, the Versailles Dining Room and Endless
Summer.

We had plenty of closet space, which included both shelves and a rack for hanging. The refrigerator was on a shelf that was high enough so that we didn’t have to bend over. The coffee maker was absent from the desk, but I did request one, which should come in every cabin, and it appeared shortly thereafter.

Our beds were still in a twin configuration, so we asked our kind room stewards to combine them into one bed. In this particular cabin the head of the bed is along the window. I have never figured out if there is an advantage to having the bed facing in a certain direction when traveling through rough waters. On each side of the bed is a table and reading lamp, but we never found switches near the bed to turn off the main light in the room.

The desk had drawers and shelves and enough room for more storage. We removed the Bible from the drawer and tossed it up onto a high shelf that we weren’t using. I had brought my own reading material along with me. The chairs in the room included a regular desk-type chair and a round, backless stool best suited for a dressing table. There was but one outlet at the desk, but we brought along a multi-plug so that we had plenty of places to plug in the laptop and chargers. The coffee maker had its own outlet. We found the cabin adequate at 140 square feet. This cabin is set up for four people with a pullman bed and a trundle bed. It might get a bit crowded with four adults.

The bathroom is divided into two areas. When you enter, the sink, which had a kitchen faucet on it, is directly ahead, with the toilet compartment to the left and the shower area to the right. Both the toilet and shower have sliding doors. The entry into the toilet area was about 18″ which could pose a problem to those who have overindulged in one too many midnight buffets. The compartment itself was rather narrow as well. The shower had a wider opening. The bathroom came supplied with a shower cap, body lotion, shoe mitt and dispensed hand soap. In the shower both shampoo and soap were dispensed. We found the pressure and temp of the water to be good.

On the large bathroom mirror, there is also a magnifying mirror, which I think some refer to as shaving mirrors. I can tell you that looking into that mirror sent me looking for a razor. It’s amazing how much those little mirrors expose – chin hairs, broken capillaries, enlarged pores… Use that mirror at your own risk. NCL should hook a razor right on that mirror. I felt like never leaving the confines of my cabin again.

We had some issues with the room being a bit warm, but had this resolved. It simply involved somebody coming and pulling a panel in the hall and making an adjustment. Within a short time our room was comfortably cool. As luck would have it, the outside temperature dropped several degrees the next few days, so we had to warm up the room a little, which for us means just slightly warmer than a meat locker.

The pillows on the bed were fine for Bugsy, but not for me. I asked our steward, Suyatno, if he could find me a feather pillow to which he responded that those are usually for guests in the higher category cabins. I didn’t expect to see a pillow change, but sure enough, there was a feather pillow on the bed later that day. That made me a very happy camper. NCL might consider replacing these beds, which are a little worse for the wear. The only other NCL ship that we have sailed is the Spirit and that had worn-out beds as well. When you can see that the mattress has a big impression in it, it should be obvious that it is time for a replacement.

Our stewards sometimes brought us chocolates for our pillows and occasionally created the much sought after towel animals. We both find it fascinating that some judge a cruise on the number and type of towel animals that they find in their rooms. When or why this tradition started, I don’t know, but it will certainly, if ever it does, die hard.

Our cabin was always clean. With the Freestyle concept, it isn’t always obvious to the room stewards when we were at dinner. A simple turn of the dial outside the room assisted the stewards in figuring this out and getting the rooms cleaned while we were on shore or at dinner.

On the first day, there was a pressing special for $1 per item. I didn’t worry about the tux being a bit wrinkly because I figured I would take advantage of this offer, which is only for embarkation day. Well, it turns out the fine print says that suits, dry clean only items and other fancy-dancy stuff don’t qualify. The tux would cost $6.50 to press, but $10.50 to dryclean and press. Compared to our local cleaners, this was quite a deal, so we had it cleaned. When it came back the next day, the jacket was missing. Bugsy told the person who delivered it that something was missing, but that person seemed a bit baffled but said that he would hunt it down. When the next day came and we still didn’t have the jacket for formal night, we asked our steward about it. He pleasantly explained that we should have let him know about it in the first place. We assumed that the other person would really go looking for it. Obviously not. Suyatno attended to this immediately and when we returned later that day, the jacket was there. Throughout the cruise, he and Dinkie made sure that everything was fine, although we really didn’t ask for much other than the jacket. They greeted us even when they were far down the hall and always had smiles on their faces.

All drinks have a 15% gratuity automatically added, so you don’t need to fool around with tipping your server. I found the drinks a tad on the pricey side – my vodka and Frangelico martini ranged from $8.00 to $9.50. Although I never ordered topshelf vodka, the price still varied, but the size remained the same. Basic cocktails cost $5.50.

Gatsby’s
Our favorite turned out to be Gatsby’s Champagne Bar, although we never ordered champagne.
We enjoyed the martini tasting clinic there and music by Jana, the acoustical guitarist and singer.

We can’t blame it on Gatsby’s, but some of the clientele there were interesting to say the least. On one night, we stopped by to enjoy Jana’s soft-rock style show featuring the likes of Simon and Garfunkel, Arlo Guthrie and even, believe it or not, The Carpenters. Most of the audience seemed too old to remember these folks, but hey, maybe they were as old as us and we just don’t realize it.

The most disturbing part of the show sat directly in front of us. Perhaps they are the reason that we found two empty chairs. It wasn’t until the woman started cackling that we noticed that she and her male companion were twinkies- aka dressed identically. Besides their identical twin dress, they also were loud and annoying. He often gave the performer a standing ovation, which had to be an embarrassment for the performer. Maybe not. I said that they probably have the same shoes and lo and behold, the guy got up to go chit chat with the performer during the break and wasn’t he wearing the same clogs as the woman. They had an ice bucket with champagne and maybe that went to their heads, inspiring the woman to start singing along, off key, of course, with the performer. The laughing and remarks started to annoy me. The last straw was when the guy started grabbing the servers, hugging them and telling them what a service they were doing by working on the holidays. I decided that these two had recently escaped from somewhere and thought it time to make our escape. I had seen somebody on the other side of the bar leave after the set and made a beeline for their seat. Our server came over and apologized, obviously aware of the reason that we had moved. After all, she had been one of the victims of the condescending hug and words. We did return to Gatsby’s on another day and sat as far away as possible from the escapees.

Pearl Martini
We had heard about the Pearl Martini Bar. Reports mentioned its secluded spot in a corner off the Carousel Bar. Few people frequented this place and although the service there was good, the place was begging for somebody from Trading Places to do something with the decor. Maybe they could switch with the bar staff from another ship. This room features purple chairs, a blue wall, a predominantly orange carpet and wooden chairs. Something about it was disturbing.



Carousel
I am not usually a conspiracy theorist, but highly suspect that this bar, which includes carousel horses at the bar was created to encourage drinking. On our first visit to the aforementioned Pearl Martini Bar, we experienced the delightful screeching voices of young children sitting at the bar on the carousel horses. The Carousel Bar is the regular venue of the art auctions and karaoke. There is a stage there which seems to encourage the parents of these screeching children to go there and start performing. This all happened when we were enjoying a nice and formerly quiet atmosphere of the Pearl Martini Bar. Obviously, this is a ploy by NCL to encourage the ordering of more drinks, which we did.

The Star Bar
This pleasant bar overlooks the pool area and seems to be overlooked by most passengers, which is unfortunate as it is quite a relaxing spot. The server must have been thrilled to see two customers here when we arrived. When we asked for the same mixed nuts that flow freely in Gatsbys, we were told that they were out and served a savoury mix of unusual munchies. It does seem that different bars serve different snacks with their drinks. The mixed nuts that we found only at Gatsby’s are by far our favorites.

Really, we didn’t just hang out at the bars; we also signed up for the martini tasting and margarita tasting. Somehow, we missed the wine tasting. For some unknown reason, the FreeStyle Daily just mentions these tastings and says that there is a nominal charge, without mentioning what the nominal charge is. What is so hard about saying that there is a $15 fee for the martini and margarita tastings? Just spell it out.

Since we had gone to a liquor tasting in the onboard shop, which offered an amount of liquor equivalent to and in the same paper cup as was used for polio vaccines when I was a child, I was concerned that the tastings would be a few samples the size of polio vaccines. Maybe that polio vaccine was actually larger. I called the front desk to find out the details of this secret nominal charge, which is $15. Unfortunately, I did not ask if the nominal charge for the wine tasting was the same.

For some reason, which is probably because we were at sea, the margarita tasting immediately followed the martini tasting. So what if you like both martinis and margaritas? No problema.
We went to the martini tasting and I verified that we would get more than the polio vaccine size of martini before I plopped down our $15. The person in charge explained that we would get a 4-oz sample of each of the different martinis. That suited me fine. Knowing that we would be going to the margarita tasting right after this, we opted to share the martinis. That was a very smart move on our part.

Our first martini was a classic martini with vodka.(We did miss the first martini tasting, which happened on the first sea day and had the classic gin martini as one of its samples.) We, well mostly I, tasted that martini. I would guess that perhaps 20 people showed up for this session in Gatsby’s although I don’t know how many others shared like we did.

Our next martini was the French Kiss made of Vodka Citroen, Chambord, Grand Marnier with a touch of pineapple juice. Not to my taste at all. The best of the group, which should have been saved for last, was a chocolate martini. That was followed by a peach martini.

Notice that they don’t use the traditional martini glass for the tasting. Obviously, it would be difficult to carry a trayful of martini glasses. Then again, they may not have had that many stocked at the bar.

Throughout the tasting, the servers frequently refilled our water glasses and kept the mixed nuts coming. The bartender gave us the recipes for making these martinis. We enjoyed this so much that we returned for another tasting on the last sea day, which was attended by at least forty people, many of them sharing the tasting.

Recipe for the NCL Chocolate Martini
This martini is quite simple to make: pour almost 4 ounces of Van Gogh Chocolate Vodka with just a touch of Godiva Chocolate Liqueur over ice. Shake or stir. Strain into a martini glass.
Garnish with chocolate shavings or cocoa.

Immediately after the martini tasting, we headed up to the Endless Summer Bar to attend the margarita tasting. This tasting didn’t compare to the martini tasting for several reasons. For one, nobody said anything about the drinks or how to make them. We don’t particularly care for frozen margaritas, which most of these were. They made Golden, Strawberry, Blue and Pina Colada margaritas. A few of them tasted like cough medicine. In spite of that, we sat with a great group of people and had lots of fun.

When we returned for the second martini tasting on the last day at sea, we sampled the Forbidden Fruitini, Lemon Groove, Coco Cabaniti, a rum based drink and the Passionate Martini, which I had tried a day before when I had requested a martini with anise flavoring. The server understood this to mean Alizé , which isn’t quite anise. It is a liqueur that combines cognac and passionfruit.

The Lemon Groove should be renamed the Lemon Pledge. The overwhelming lemoncello in it would surely strip and polish any piece of furniture. I had expected it to taste like a Lemon Drop with its much more subtle taste of lemon.

We found the beer at the pool cold and plenty of waiters to take orders. The casino and Gatsby’s seemed to make my drink of choice (vodka and Frangelico martini) the best and the Spinnaker the worst.

Next time: Stateroom 8632

Sail Away

First, I will note that we did not eat in any of the restaurants that require an additional fee. We correctly assumed that there would be plenty of food in the other restaurants. We rarely ate in the buffet, but we did have a few breakfasts there when we wanted to get off the ship and into port and we also had pizza once when we returned from port after Versailles had stopped serving lunch. We ate the majority of our meals in Versailles.

The restaurants:
Versailles
This dining room is nicely decorated and reminded me of one of the hotel dining rooms of days gone by. There were plenty of tables for two as well as tables for larger groups. NCL prides itself on its Freestyle concept. For dining, there are no specific seating times as there are on many ships. For dinner on this ship, we could go any time between 5:30 and 10:00pm. No reservations are necessary; however, if you have a large group, it would be a good idea to reserve a table.

You enter the dining room at the top of the staircase where you are greeted by a hostess who will ask how many people are in your party and if you would like to share your table or have your own table. We shared on several occasions and luckily had cordial dining partners. Well, once at breakfast, the host did try to seat us at a 4-topper with two women already seated. Upon seeing us, they told the host that they did not want to share. Yep, we are scary. We ended up sitting at the next table over and by ourselves and thoroughly enjoyed our own company, so there. Well, there are interesting people on every cruise.

Another couple we met relayed the story of somebody wanting to be seated by the window. Now, when it’s dark, you really can’t see much out the window, but they still wanted a window. As the story goes, a window table became available and somebody else was seated there as somehow this couple was overlooked. A major tantrum ensued, with the couple screaming, yelling and doing everything to berate the service personnel. These incidents are few and far between, but don’t be surprised if you see some memorable behaviors.

The Versailles menu, which is exactly the same as the Aqua menu, a smaller dinner-only restaurant consistently offered a variety of choices of food, including some items that were available on a daily basis. They also offered a Cooking Light® menu, which Robert decided to choose. He stuck with that for the majority of the meals on the cruise and found the food tasty and unlike the bland diet food that he expected. In general the food presentation was attractive, but the food preparation didn’t equal its presentation. That is definitely not to say that it was bad; it just wasn’t anything special. We thought at one point that perhaps somebody had stolen all the spices from the kitchen.

On the first breakfast aboard, I ordered ONE fried egg and received just one fried egg. Ordering this reminded me of our cruise on the NCL Spirit that no matter that I had ordered only one egg, I always received two. They insisted that it wasn’t possible to have only one egg. So, I was amazed that I got just the egg that I ordered. I should have taken a photo of it because I was never again able to get just one egg. We tried to eat a variety of things on the menu and the majority were very good including the pancakes, waffles and oatmeal. Robert could never get decent scrambled eggs (always watery), so he switched to omelets, which were an improvement although they rarely contained the exact fillings that he had ordered.

The service in Versailles can get awfully slow and sometimes we spent almost two hours at a meal. Lunch seemed particularly bad. Occasionally we were surprised and were finished in less than an hour.

Cappucino at meals in the dining rooms is complimentary on NCL. This is a real bonus, however, the cappucino wasn’t uniform in quality, sometimes being watery or lukewarm or almost all milk.

Market Cafe
This is the buffet and we just prefer not to eat at buffets, which is a personal choice. We did get some cereal up there for breakfast a few days. We slept late and wanted to get onshore quickly, so opted not to have a leisurely breakfast in Versailles. The pre-made omelets were good. I did not see an omelet station, but they did have the Danish that they passed out in Versailles. After being on shore, we arrived when Versailles had already closed for lunch, so we went up here to get some pizza, which was decent.

The Market Cafe strongly resembles a high school cafeteria with all the ambience that one would expect in such a place. The tables are lined up in long rows and the buffet is mostly a long, continuous counter, rather than spread out in different stations like some ships have.

For some reason, I couldn’t resist looking at what people had on their plates as we passed through the area as we navigated Deck 12. I guess that you need to pile your plates full to get your money’s worth for the cruise.

There is an area with tables for kids, but we never saw anybody using them, not that we were in the Market Cafe that frequently. Down the hall toward the kids’ area and the gym, there is a little window that connects to the Juice Bar in the gym that doles out ice cream cones. We tried to get ice cream one day, but they were all out of flavors except for rum raisin. We couldn’t figure how they could run out of ice cream when it magically appeared at dinner later that day. And why is rum raisin one of the choices? The other choices were vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.

Aqua
This restaurant has the same menu as Versailles, but is located in a smaller more intimate area. We ate here only once because the room reminded me of a hotel banquet hall nearly bereft of any decorative atmosphere. Obviously decor has some affect on me. On the NCL Spirit, we usually ate in The Garden, the comparable smaller dining room, because the atmosphere was much more pleasing than that of the Windows dining room. Again, this is a personal issue.

Endless Summer
We made reservations here for our first night on the ship. Few people were seated when we arrived, but the service was excruciatingly S-L-O-W. I thought that I might fall asleep and considered leaving before dessert, which in retrospect would have been a smart idea.
We ordered the specialty of the restaurant, which is for two people. We never figured out why two people had to order something that consisted of a few pieces of steak and chicken. We couldn’t figure out why it was the specialty of the house, either.

They claim that they serve Tex-Mex food in this restaurant so we weren’t expecting authentic Mexican food. Our nachos were served with something like Cheez-Whiz (I haven’t really had Cheez-Whiz, but the stuff on these chips is what I think Cheez-Whiz is like) on them. The entire meal was a disappointment. We recommended to a few people who asked that they avoid going there. One of those couples said later on that they had met somebody who enjoyed the food in this restaurant so much that they went back a second night. Perhaps the food improved or more likely we have eaten in authentic Mexican restaurants too many times and have different expectations.

Very interesting about Endless Summer is that it isn’t really a self-contained restaurant like the others. It’s basically two spaces on each side of the Deck 8, where anybody can pass through on their way from the front to the back of the ship.

La Trattoria
We knew from the NCL Spirit that the Italian restaurant was simply part of the buffet dining area closed off in the evening and decorated with an Italian flair. In this case, I think that they used an Italian flare. The tables in this area were still set up in the cafeteria style. Although we had a table for two, all the tables were still in a line. If they would only angle them or break the line, the place might look a little less like a school cafeteria, with red, white and green table runners on the tables.

I had pizza, which wasn’t bad, for an appetizer and spaghetti bolognese as my main. The pasta was just bland as was the fish served on risotto that Robert had, although both dishes were certainly edible. We ordered desserts, but along with our desserts, the waiter also brought the tiramisu as directed by the chef. Tiramisu is a funny food; it comes in many variations and you never know which version to expect. This one was particularly good and a nice finish to the otherwise fairly ordinary meal. But who needs fancy food?

The Grill
We had heard that the burgers at the Grill were great. Guess it depends on how hungry you are. They are your basic frozen patty, but you can put a variety of toppings on it to dress it up. Now, the fries on the other hand were very good. We only ate here once when we returned late from shore. We sat around the pool and watched some of the activities and listened to the music. On days like these, we were happy for the FreeStyle option because we could have a very late lunch and then compensate by having a late dinner. On another late day back on the ship, we opted to skip lunch and have an early dinner. One thing is for sure: You will never lack for food on a cruise ship.

Sail Away

I found a great rate on a cruise out of LA on the NCL Star. The original idea was to celebrate the sale of our house. Unfortunately, the house never made it to closing because the buyer’s bank withdrew their offer to finance the house. It was too late to cancel and we wrongly figured that we might be able to sell it quickly. Guess we weren’t paying attention to the market very well.

We arrived in LA the night before ship’s departure. We were lucky to have made it out of Chicago as a storm was brewing and we got on our way before they cancelled over 400 flights later that day. We had to be de-iced, so although we reached LA a few hours late, we did arrive safely.
We had rented a car to attend the holiday party of my new host agency, which I had just joined a few weeks before. Although we knew that traffic could be a royal pain, we figured that it shouldn’t be too bad that late in the day, but we found out later that there were two major sporting events going on that evening. It took us almost 2 hours to get from the airport to Glendale, where the party was held.

Because we were on EST and didn’t know how late we would stay at the party, we had booked a hotel in Glendale. We checked in and crashed, only to be awakened at 3am by the noise of some drunks outside our door. Besides cussing and swearing, they knocked on our door. We called the front desk and found out that the next day that we were the third to complain. Although the offending character was a drunken woman ( we swear that we heard guys), the office staff noted on our bill that some kids in town to attend a funeral were causing the problem. Seems rather odd. They did give us a $20 discount on our stay because of this and did offer a reduced rate on our next stay at their chain, which is not in our part of the country.

Fortunately, traffic to the pier in San Pedro was not a problem and we arrived back at Enterprise around 11:30, but suddenly realized that we had forgotten to top off the gas tank. We asked for directions to the nearest gas station and attempted to use the pay-at-the-pump option to fill-up. At this station, they requested your zip code when you used your card. Ours kept getting rejected, so Robert went in to see what the problem was. It seems that since our zip code was not local, our card was rejected. After sizing up Robert, the clerk finally set the pump to accept our card. Next time, we will have to memorize a local zip code. Duh, I should have remembered 90210. They would surely be thrilled to pump gas to anybody with that zip code.

Quite a few people were renting or returning cars at Enterprise, located right across the street from the pier. We hopped into the shuttle to the ship (It would not be easy to walk to the pier, even though the distance isn’t great. Being that it is a secured area, there are some obstacles, mainly the security gate and the traffic that passes by. There was no pedestrian walkway that we noticed to reach the pier.)

Once relinquishing our bags to the porters, we proceeded through security for which there is no separate line for previous guests. Once beyond that point, there are separate lines for Casino-at-Sea guest, Latitudes members and other VIP guests. We went through the Latitudes line and walked directly to the counter for check-in. The person at the terminal asked if our room number had been changed as the computer showed that somebody was already in the room we had been assigned. Had I arrived on the wrong date? No, the last person occupying our room hadn’t been properly checked out, which caused that glitch. Next when we needed to have our photos taken for our id, the camera wouldn’t work. Our clerk was a bit flustered, but just had the person next to him take our photo and requested that his terminal be serviced.

Next we proceeded to the boarding line. They had asked for the color of the boarding card that we weren’t given. It seemed that they had gone through the numbers and were letting people board at will. It must have been around 12:30 when we got on the ship. It was nice not to have to wait in lines.

We went to Deck 8 to try to drop off our bags, but the fire doors were closed, so we just headed down to Versailles for lunch. If there is an option for the boarding day lunch, we always choose the dining room rather than the buffet just because we much prefer to be served. Actually, we get really depressed seeing all the obviously starved people who appear to have not eaten for weeks. With all that food heaped on their multiple plates, I am surprised that they maintain the strength to even carry them.

Few people used Versailles so we had a nice table for two next to the window. One couple literally straggled in. We aren’t sure how they passed by the hostess or the multiple waiters on the staircase waiting to properly seat guests. The stragglers simply selected a table and started to sit down until one of the waiters realized what they were doing. I suspect that they came through the doors from the elevators on the 6th deck rather than through the grand entry on the 7th deck.

We enjoyed a leisurely lunch as we weren’t really interested in lugging our carry-ons to another public space to wait for our room to be ready. Just as we ordered two more cappucinos, the announcement came over the loud speaker that the cabins were ready. Our server asked if we wanted to cancel our order, but we decided that we could relax and avoid the stampede to the cabins.

Already we preferred the NCL Star to the NCL Spirit. The Versailles dining room lacked that huge two-story window that dominated the NCL Spirit and made me uncomfortable. Of course, that’s just me. Some people loved the dramatic window. I much preferred the one-deck high windows of the Versailles.

We ate most of our meals in this restaurant, although we did try the Endless Summer and La Trattoria, neither of which we found worthy of eating at more than once. We didn’t try any of the specialty restaurants that required an extra fee. We were happy with our meals in Versailles.

Next time – the food on the ship.

Sail Away.