DAY 7 Saturday December 16th: Another one of those things they call a Sea Day.

We were up by 7am and I went to go check on the weather outside...it was a dreary looking day and all my hopes of having a miraculous change in weather and hearing an anticipated announcement that NCL had changed their minds about going to GSC, it just wasn't going to happen. I'm allowed (and did) pout that day! Just saying...

It was a little "wavy" out in the ocean and by no means would be have been able to tender at any port, so thanks for keeping us safe NCL. You could also tell there was some rain off in the distance, so it probably wouldn't have been a good snorkel beach day either.

Welp, might as well make the best of it...and food always makes things better right? We headed off to The Local for breakfast.

The hubby got the Ham and Cheese Omelet and had them load it with EVERYTHING but the kitchen spoon. Sakari ordered the French Toast. I ordered a fruit salad and the English Breakfast. I just always love their sauteed mushrooms!

I believe I only had one last duck to hide so I decided that I would place it over in the bar area of The Local before we left. 

With our bellies full, what better way to burn off those calories than a little wind ping pong right? Sakari insisted, daddy declined, that left me. A simple game of ping pong became an endurance game of chase the ball because of the wind. Yep, plenty of laughs along the way as each time the wind took the ball as if there was a baseball pitcher throwing us a curved ball...it would land on the floor and the wind would whip it quickly toward the chairs along the side. Sakari would chase it, thinking it was coming out in the direction it was headed, only for the wind to whip it the opposite way. So she would head back that way and whatdayaknow...it would whip back the other way. Of course I stood back watching this hilarious game of chase. I mean she didn't think I was chasing that thing did she? The ball won every time. Let the not-so-munchkin chase the ball and wear herself out. That meant I wouldn't have to play too long today, therefore saving my arm.

The game didn't last too long and Sakari finally gave up. We decided to head inside where we wouldn't have to eat our hair from the wind any longer and see what might be going on. 

"Hey, there's a fruit and vegetable carving demonstration going on in the atrium. Let's do that! Sounds EXCITING!"

Actually we sat back in amazement while we watched the chef chop chop chop and within minutes he had created a master piece and went on to the next one. He made it look so easy to do. I heard multiple people say they were going to try this at home. If I ever decide to throw a fancy schmancy party at my house in the future...I will hire the passengers who claimed they would be able to do this!

After the carving was over, they had a game of "Know your dog breed" and we stood around watching it for a little bit and was kinda shocked they didn't have one husky on their list. 😞 

We decided to go up to the photography shop to check out our pictures and purchased 5 of them for the price of $104.30 (that was with my Platinum 30% discount). I'm not sure how they decide which pictures to give you as 5x7 and which 8x10, but they give you a variety. plus an usb loaded with your pictures on it and 2 pictures of the ship.

We ended up finding one that a photographer had taken of us when we were out on the Waterfront walking around when we first boarded the ship. They had added the "Welcome Aboard" signage to it so I guess that was going to be our picture that they should have taken before we boarded that they usually do. I wonder how many people missed out on the Welcome Aboard picture because they didn't do this in the port building. 

We also located our Los Lobos dining picture and I forgot to post it on that part of the review. 

I found the cutest little NCL anchor ornament and just knew I had to have it. (Cost was $14.95 and you do not get a discount on that)

As we continued to walk around, they were now having a talk in the Atrium about all the places that NCL cruises to. So, I wanted to check it out (although we got there late) because I wanted to see what they had to say about Alaska. They had pictures of the different ports and the hubby and I stood there in amazement with all the beautiful places we have not experienced. At that point, we both said "We gotta live a little more and expand our horizons".  Honestly, the Caribbean is getting kinda "old" with the same old ports and we have been wanting to go to Alaska, Hawaii and the Mexican Riviera but after seeing all these other places too... we were wanting to book everything!!!

I picked up their packets of cruises and I'm going to day dream and read them all after I finally get to finish this review. #excitementisbuilding.

Walking around the 678 area I had to take more pictures of the Christmas display...so pretty! Just look at the detail that went into this. I just love cruising during Christmas!

As we walked around, I spotted a large round chair up a few stairs and in an area I would notice the photographers would use during some of their nightly elegant pictures for passengers. We decided to have our own photoshoot with Sakari playing photographer. 

She kept shooting and shooting and then the jokes started flying, then I noticed my shirt had creeped up and I was not satisfied so the hubby started playing jokes on me and grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled it so tight and said "look how skinny you look now babe" and I was cracking up...to the point that I actually started crying I was laughing so hard and couldn't stop! The more I tried to control myself, the worse things got. I was literally crying!

It took me quite some time to recover and continue with the pictures because he wouldn't stop. Like seriously where did I find this family at???

As I was sitting there, I remembered that this is the exact place that I have placed ducks at on previous cruises. I glanced up at the picture behind us...and GUESS WHAT!! I found another duck. It was like the other Christmas duck I had found before (that Sakari was completely convinced that a little kid had lost) and it didn't have a tag. So now I knew for sure that someone was actually hiding these ducks without tags. 

Well it was time for some lunch now and we went up to the buffet. I loaded myself up with carbs and Sakari loved the miso soup and had to have a few bowls. They have a station there that you create your own and can do a vegetable as well and you tell them what ingredients to put in it. 

We sat down by the window to eat. It was now raining outside and the weather was looking nasty. 

Living the luxury life I tell ya..

Back at the room now and I wanted to start packing. We found that our clean clothes had been returned to us and everything was there...including a sock that didn't belong to us. Someone on this ship is now missing one of their favorite socks!

They always clean them and press them as if they use some kind of vacuum packed contraption to get them that small (if only I could do that with the dirty clothes when packing the laundry bag, I'd have most of my clothes washed on the cruise). Then they put them in a cute little weaved basket with tissue paper. 

Funny thing is, it's usually just laying on the bed all nice and neat but Christopher must have laid it on Sakari's couch bed and threw our (brought from home) blanket over on her bed while making ours and completely forgot to put our blanket on the bed along with the basket of clothes like they normally do. LOL I almost didn't notice it. 

As I started packing our things into the luggage, we were busy watching ourselves on the tv from all of the previous parties onboard. I decided to finish up the bottle of wine from the other night...ya know, to help me enjoy the packing right?

Then I heard a crash...and then looked down. Oopsy! At that point Sakari cut my drinking off and I had a mess to clean up now. #IWasNotDrunkIPromise! (Actually what happened was I threw my purse across the bed and the purse handle went around the glass and when I picked up my purse, it took the glass with it). 

I quietly placed the broken glass into the trash can so that the neighbors would not hear and rat me out. I looked into the hall to see if Christopher was around to vacuum the floor...and he wasn't. We would just have to lay a towel over it as a reminder not to step in that area. It was on the hubby's side of the bed so I guess HE would have to remember. 

I packed all that I could, or wanted to...however you want to look at it, and I felt the need to go to the casino to see if I could win any money to pay for the glass I broke in the room. There's no telling how much this is going to cost me so I had better have some luck!

I'll take that $24.00 win, which doubled my $20 I had originally put in the machine.

I'll also take this $29.05 win, which also doubled my money.

Yep, I'll take this $25.00 win as well. I had effectively won enough to pay for the broken glass they were probably going to charge me for.

I decided to give up while I was ahead and left another duck on the machine because I had found two sitting in my luggage still that I didn't see when I had unpacked in the beginning of the cruise

On the way back to the room...I offed another one of these quackers on top of a picture in the hallway. 

Oh, before leaving the casino, they had an area that now had snacks in them which included some cookies and some type of shortbread cake that was so delicious. I noticed they had macadamia nut cookies, which are Sakari's favorite, and I grabbed a few for her. She was so excited when I got back to the room and presented them to her. She felt the need to be greedy and headed up to the casino to see if they had anymore. They were all gone by that time.

We decided to go to the Customer Service area to pick up our luggage tags. Since we are Platinum, we have the option of Priority VIP disembarkation times (which is 7:45-8:15am). For some reason, they do not provide you with these tags in your room (I swear they used to). I'm honestly not sure WHERE you get them from. They are not out in the open for you to just grab with the rest of the tags. I assume you might have to go to the Cruise Next or Customer Service desk to ask for them?

So here was my dilemma...what time to pick. We had a late flight out of Miami (4:55pm) and would be in no hurry to get off the ship. Why pick an early time if others could use it more than us right? I decided to go with the latest time possible...GRAY!

Oh, I forgot...if you are a latitude member...

We received a message in our room (on the phone) that stated that we could go to the Latitudes desk (Cruise Next) to pick up a Latitude Pin. I used to collect the latitude ship pins of each ship they used to pass out (and they left them in your room back then) but they stopped doing that. I guess now they are passing out latitude pins instead. 

This is what they look like:

Notice how they now had the barf bags hanging in the hallways. I honestly didn't feel the ship rocking too much. 

By the time we got back to our room, there was a "ding dong" in the room...it was an announcement from the Capitan that no one could hear follow up by another lady with a loud voice thank goodness. "At this time, due to bad weather, for the safety of the passengers, we will be heading into the port of Miami later tonight. We will remain in the port until tomorrow morning and will disembark during your normal times. No one will be permitted to get off the ship early and we will be spending the night here."   Alrighty then. I guess we are going into the port. 

Ding Dong "Since we will be headed back early and will dock around 7:30pm tonight, all shops will close for purchases and the Casino will also close. If you have any casino chips or slot vouchers, you will need to cash them in before 7:30pm as we are not permitted to have the casino open while docked."

Oh my...I grabbed my voucher from today:

Then we took out the vouchers, from the rest of the cruise, out of the safe and headed up to cash them in. We were about the 5th person in line. By the time we cashed our vouchers in (almost $700) and turned around the line was incredibly long at this point. Oh wow! I'm so glad we went when we did. Otherwise, we probably would have been waiting hours.

We decided for our last meal we would head to the main dining room at Taste. We got dressed up and  Sakari wore a dress and put stickers all over her face to take a picture (just kidding, it's just a filter she CONSTANTLY uses and I just scratch my head every time wondering what kids see in using this smiley face stickers all over the head thing kinda picture...but it's her thing).

There was no wait and I honestly love not having to actually book ANYTHING on the ship this time around. I'm not sure if they've changed things but I've been on a lot of bigger ships that you have to book everything you do...shows and all. It's so much better this way.

What was on the menu tonight:

I HAD to order the French Onion Soup. It's always so good no matter what cruise line we get this on. If you haven't tried it, do so!

Hubby had a Caesar Salad

Sakari ordered the Shrimp Fettucini Alfredo  (why is it spelled like this on their menu?)

I ordered the Grilled Lemon-Pepper Shrimp

And the hubby ordered the Carved Whole-Roasted Beef Sirloin

It was all very good and filling.  

For desert (like we had room, but I made room just because...) I ask the waiter what they offered. He started mentioning all the goodies they had. I pointed at the table next to us (these people had already left) and said "What were they having? It looked good". He said "Oh, you don't want that. It's not very good. It's a sugar free desert" WAIT WHAT??? That's EXACTLY what I want. He looked shocked and said "Coming right up" and went to get us some.

It was yummy!!!

After returning back to our room, we would have a look at the "Weather/Travel" channel onboard and see that we had headed to Miami and then turned back.

Hmmm, something wasn't right. Why are we headed away from the port now? We could see Miami off in the distance and we could also see that the waves had gotten slightly larger now. 

The channel said we had went 2184.0 miles and were 16.8 miles from Miami. The air temp was 75.7 with 88% humidity. Wind speed was 50.8 knots (which is around 58 mph??? Really???) and the waves said 8.2'.

Standing out on our balcony didn't last long for us because the salt water was splashing in our eyes and burning.

Ding Dong*  The captain came on with an announcement you couldn't hear followed by a loud speaking lady who said we would not be docking early tonight after all stating that the Port of Miami is now officially closed due to the weather. CASINO'S ARE OPEN AGAIN she said with enthusiasm. But we weren't falling for that statement. We had cashed out and was taking our winnings home with us NCL! 

I finished my packing and set my luggage out by the door...hoping that I hadn't forgot to leave anything out we would need in the morning and reminding myself of the time I completely forgot to leave Sakari clothes out to wear and she almost had to disembark in her underwear only the next day. Oopsy

We watched a little bit of tv and then headed off to bed for an early wake up to get off the ship the next day.