TravelwithMitsugirly NCL Escape Day 7 sea day

Mitsugirly needed to ESCAPE from the cold weather

Day 7: FRIDAY December 20: Sea Day

I always feel like this is the day I start to lose people with the review and I'm usually so over it that I run through it super fast just to get the review done. I mean most people want to know about the ship and about the ports. So, if you are still with me during this boring last few days, more power to ya and you are my new best friends for sticking with it until the end. Dun dun dun....

Up and atem not bright and early today. We slept in and didn't have a care in the world. Our only care today would be to pack our luggage for our trip home tomorrow, which is super unexciting in itself.

I woke up to a growling belly that was full of confusion because it is used to getting fed earlier than this. We headed up to the buffet and believe it or not, there were plenty of seats. I guess everyone else thought it was a port day and got up early. You over achievers you!

I have to say that the bacon on here was a hit or miss and by that I mean it was usually a miss. Crispy bacon was just very hard to come by this week. It would be cooked, but the consistency was not that of crisp! It was mostly chewy and reminded me of Canadian bacon, which everyone knows is not really "bacon" but "ham".

I love me some bacon...just not the chewy kind. I don't eat a lot of bacon at home so when cruising...I splurge. Now during our breakfast now turned brunch, there were officers walking around trying to give that one last final impressions on all the passengers. Even one of the "higher up" people in uniform came around. The head chef came around and ask us how the food was. I try not to be rude and say "good, thank you" (contrary to what you all think of me now after my day in Cozumel) and the hubby says "The bacon isn't good. It needs to be crispy". Oh good lord! So they spoke a little about it and the chef thanked him for his honest opinion. Wait, you get thanked for telling them their bacon sucks and when I raised a ruckus the day before I was probably called every bad word in Spanish (although I do know a few and would know if you said them what you are calling me 😉 So you've been warned. )

Now the higher up officer ask if there's anything we would like to drink. Although for breakfast I had been drinking chocolate milk or orange juice, I laughed at the thought and told him I'd like a diet Pepsi please. I was just joking of course. But...low and behold...this appeared a few minutes later.

He actually went to the bar and got me one. They were really going for the brownie points today. Good job. Actually THIS is what I remember service on all NCL's ships to be like back before I stopped cruising with them. But, it wasn't just the last day, it was the entire cruise! I have noticed great service...even in the buffet area, on other cruise lines and they go out of their way to get you coffee or drinks or whatever.

Now one thing that irks me SO BAD is when I'm eating and workers want to reach over me to fill the napkin/silverware basket. IRKS ME!!! I mean really irks me! Like wait until I'm done eating and have left the table to fill up that basket! I don't want anyone reaching over me or my food. What is the deal with this practice on the ships???? Do you all have this problem too? Like it seriously happens every time. Errrrriiiikkkkkbaaaahhhumph

A little sugary goodness because it's my last full day on the ship and I deserve a few more pounds on this already hefty body that I've managed to work really hard on the last few months. I mean I don't want to come home appearing as if they didn't feed me right?

A little macro of my sugary goodness.

Outside it was just plain nasty out. Rainy off and on and the temp dropped to not so nice Caribbean weather temps we have become accustomed to. Me no likey!

No more glassy water and the waves were rocking and rolling even more than yesterday.

After our "brunch" we went back to the room for me to do a little packing. This is by far the most dreaded chore ever! You could send me to the laundry room to help with doing the ships laundry and it would be cheerier than packing my own clothes knowing that this trip is about to end and I was about to get kicked off the ship.

While packing we turned on something other than the Guy Harvey channel, which I could now recite in my sleep. My choice of channels would be to see what the bridge said was going on outside and if we needed to hunker down at some point.

It said it was a balmy 75.9 degrees but with the winds and the clouds, it felt more like 65 to me. Plenty of people had jackets on so I was not alone.

Now I don't know much about "knots" unless I am trying to untie one, but the wind was 41 knots and according to google, that's around 47.182 mph. So, windy. Yep, we'll just call it windy at that point in the day.

Well now, looks like the waves have perked up a little today: 14.8 feet. That's why we are feeling some movement now...enough that it was sorta scary to me trying to walk around with my bum foot. But, I've definitely been on worse ships and seen higher waves for sure. I don't get sea sick, so it doesn't really bother me. Actually it a natural feeling of being drunk and I didn't even have to spend a dime to get there!

I'm packing away, daddy is playing a game on his phone and Sakari is drawing in her notebook. She's doing simple drawings but yet shading them this time around as she watches...you got it, some more Guy Harvey!

I was able to get most of the packing done and decided I needed a break. I packed a pair of Sakari's glasses (what I call the cheap-o ones) and ask her about her other pair (we'll say the expensive-o Ellen DeGeneres ones) and she didn't know. She hadn't seen them since the day before. She went to get in the hot tub briefly and that was the last time she had seen them. Oh goodness, this will be the 3rd time this child has lost these glasses. It can never be the cheap ones! We retraced her steps and where she had laid them down at, along with her towel that night. They were on the stacked chairs beside the hot tub. Well, of course, they aren't going to be there now.

We stopped at the bar at the pool deck. They told us to go to Customer Service, which is where they turn in anything lost and found.

Off we went.

Standing in line forever, since it's the last night of the cruise and we know everyone has some type of excuse why they need to remove the DSC. When it was our turn, they went in the back, looked for glasses and returned with 3 different pairs...none of which were hers. Sigh!

We went back up to the pool deck and thought we'd ask again. As we were standing there the hubby says "look" and points on the counter on the back of the bar. There they were! Whew! We flagged down one of the very busy workers making drinks to grab them for us and we were all relieved to have found them, once again, for the 3rd time.

Sakari wanted to go back to the room to draw and the hubby wanted to go to the casino. There's just something about that last cruise day that I don't like going back to the casino. I never ever win and it usually ends up taking what little bit I have left. However, the night before I had done so well and more than doubled my money...still playing on the first $100 I brought with me, so I figured why not for a little while.

The hubby said he would like to enter the poker tournament or black jack or whatever card game it was (I don't play cards unless it's a good game of war or go fish...or our new obsession Phase 10, which all my kids come over and play) and he said the buy in was $100 so he was spending his last $100 and would get more out of the game and get to play longer.

He joined the table with all his competitors that would show him he can't hang with them and I would take my place at the same slot machine that I had won on the night before.

Then on to the next favorite slot. Then the next. Well now...it's eating up my winnings and I'm done. I would rather hang out with my child and see if there's something I can talk her into to doing with me. She such a homebody these days and never likes to leave the house or the room here.

I got back to the room and you guessed it, she was still drawing and watching the 30th rerun of Guy Harvey.

Ok, so Sakari's latest obsession....the furries. We took a cruise on the Sun, back when she was around 5 or 6. The "furries" were on that cruise and she fell in love. Now remember Sakari is an artist and has a "different" mind set when she looks at things. A normal 5 year old is going to see a very large stuffed animal that has come to life. She see's them as a "group" of very unique individuals expressing their personality in a different way. Of course, she is right.

Here's some pictures of the furries she met back on that cruise.

You see the excitement in her face? It was only the beginning.

They would dance with her on the deck during the night parties and she loved every minute of it.

They brought her up on stage to dance with all of them.

And here they all are together. A few of them she has talked about since this day and wants to know what cruise they are on and which ones went.

Sakari's interest in the furries has grown over the years and she has become obsessed with them. She can tell you all about them, their conventions, names of a lot of them, and what the furry fandom is. Each character is unique and thought up and has a special name. She has always told me that she wants to be a furry. She has always said she wants a furry suit. She started drawing her "character" over a year or two ago. It's name is "Remi" and she says it is a "soul wolf". She would sketch and sketch different pictures of how she wanted it to look. She still to this day draws pictures of Remi (as seen back in my review already).

Back in the summer she said that if we wouldn't have her a fursuit made that looks like Remi, she would have to make her own (mind you these can run thousands of dollars). She begged for supplies and her and daddy headed off to JoAnn Fabric. She came home armed with foam, hair, fabric and glue sticks. And then it began....her creativity at best. I honestly didn't think much about it or figure she'd do much with it, but if it made her happy...so be it. Craft away baby girl!

She has worked long and hard to create her furry head. I have to say that I'm quite impressed. I never thought it would turn out so good. She will make the fur lay a certain way, the mouth open, the muscle cheek bones in the face. She's quite creative with it.

She recently added some red horns to the back but is not finished yet.

Everyone in the neighborhood thinks this is just the neatest thing ever and all come over and ask to wear it. She will even go out and play in the neighborhood with it, riding her bike or scooter and take it various places. She wore it for Halloween and believe it or not, met some other kids that are "furries". Now when I say they are "furries" I'm not talking they are playing dress up in costumes either. A lot of people have ask her to make them one and tried to come up with ideas on how they want theirs to look. You have to be an "OC" (original character) to follow the furry rules.

So when I return back to the room, she informs me that she is going to start another character. She has something in her mind but she's just throwing out ideas at this point.

That sweet innocent looking character above evolved into a crow of some sort by the end of the day and then some more by the time we made it off the plane back home.

And just a follow up to date. Her brother ask what to get her for Christmas this year. I told him foam and glue gun sticks. Like seriously...that would make her the happiest girl in the world. So, that's what she got. Well, she had been asking me for the newest craze, a dino mask. They are from the show Jurassic World but everyone is painting them and making them into characters (believe it or not, there are TONS of Sakari's out there creating these things). Well, mom screwed up and got the "wrong one" so she's making the best of it and it became the base to her knew project.

After getting her foam, she immediately started creating her new character

It's coming right along and I can't wait to see her finished project.

So, it was time to break her away from all this creativity madness and get her to do something with her mother fun.

We headed to the library/game room. I have to say it was a cluster flark and games and pieces that didn't match or missing. BUT...there was chess! Yes! I get to redeem myself from the public humiliation she put me through on deck in front of those kids the other night by winning and it was her first time playing.

We would go over the rules again and the moves of the chess pieces and then it began. I think she was meditating...

In the end...I won this challenge and was so excited that this happened...

I was racing to the restroom to get as many paper towels as I could. Thank goodness they still have paper towels, unlike some of the other cruise lines that only let you blow dry your hands and give you a "slip" of tissue to open the door with that's the size of 1 section of regular toilet paper.

Sakari was not impressed with me winning but hung her head in shame so that I would have mercy on her.

Ok, so now it's a tie. She wanted a second chance at redeeming herself. Game face and thinking cap on.

I spared her pictures during this game but when it ended, she wouldn't let me take a picture...I'll let you be the judge why...

She'll get the hang of it and we'll practice at home.

Meanwhile...I noticed this

There was a shattered window in the library. Eek

We headed back to the room for a little more packing and daddy was back from his card game and didn't come out a winner anymore than Sakari did...only his cost a little more than his pride.

We had all worked up a bit of an appetite with all these games and headed to the buffet. We tried the MDR, but it was closed already.

I got a hodge podge of idontknowwhat and enjoyed it.

Now NCL usually has some type of sandwich and it has cucumbers on it. I have always liked it and never thought of putting cucumbers on it. But, I couldn't find any this time around.

They had some cold soup. I remember Sakari getting some type of fruit strawberry something or other in the MDR once and it was SO GOOD. So, I tried this out and yep, YUMMY! I'm definitely going to get cold soup next time I see it from here on out on cruises. It was like drinking a smoothie. I don't know why I haven't tried it before now. I guess there's just something about soup and cold that just don't sound right. I mean soup should only be cold if you let it sit too long and then you can't eat it.

Since Sakari and I have found this new love for macro shots...we decided to try out a few on lunch.

This almost looks like something I've seen working in the ER during a trauma...only it's my meatball. I tell ya when I got home and this picture came up I couldn't figure out what the heck it was...until I finally found the meatball picture.

After lunch the hubby wanted to have a cigar. He usually smokes black and milds but they didn't have any on board. This would be a first. He was very disappointed. He headed to the Cigar bar and picked out these. I think he smoked one and the rest are still sitting at my house and he'll probably never touch them again.

I honestly don't remember what we did the rest of the day and I have no other pictures during this time frame up until getting ready for dinner that night. I imagine we walked around, picked out our cruise pictures and purchased them, did a little shopping and chilled in the room. Today was a pretty lame day with the weather outside. Everything was closed from the water slides to pools to the ropes course of course.

So tonight.. when it was time to get dressed up and get ready for dinner...we had a bit of time to kill and Sakari and I had a lot of fun with macro's and selfies.

Daddy watched us take selfie after selfie and it took about 20 of them saying "nope, I don't like that angle" "Nope, my double chin is showing" "Nope, Sakari you are not smiling" "Why did you just pull away your head from me?"

When daddy and I talked about having a kid, he wanted a girl from day one. It's all he ever wanted. He got a girl...he just didn't know what he was in store for with a girl and now us "girls". He's over here looking like we are nuts. One picture of him and he's fine with that.

So now it was macro time. Sakari did A LOT...I mean a lot. Most didn't turn out but she kept trying.

She wanted me to take a macro of her hair. I thought it was weird she has mostly dark hair but it turned out like this....

So then she had to take one of mine to compare.

Our dinner time was for 8:45pm at Cagney's Steakhouse.

This would be the first time I had ever ate here. I don't like steak, but seen that they had other things on the menu to pick from.

I was going to make sure I got to use my free dinner for two and get my bottle of wine this time around. I guess at some point they changed the "free bottle of wine" to not every place you can pick to eat at. You can only get it at Cagney's or Le Bistro. Another one of the not-so-great downgrades NCL has done over the last few years.

Sakari was dressed up in her "graduation dress" she begged for last school year and equipped with those things called grown up heels. Eek! She handles herself better in them than Kendra ever did at a much older age. My goodness she's growing up.

The Cagney's menu:

Let me just start out by saying service was slow here.

Almost unbearable slow. When they finally took our order, we would wait and wait. Sakari was bored.

"Ok, perk up and look like you are enjoying yourself. I have a review to write when I get home and you need to look good in the pictures!" Ehh, I'm going to use both regardless. LOL

Now notice in the above pictures we have bread plates. Where's the bread?? We didn't get any. At some point during the meal I had to ask for some!

A macro by Sakari...

Since dinner for two means just that...Sakari has to order off the kids menu. She has absolutely no problem with this because chicken noodle soup is her favorite and if there's soup on a menu, she's going to order that anyhow.

Her soup came out.

Um ok. Where's our food? It never came out. It highly erks me when they bring out the kids food and not ours. We come to dinner to eat as a family and she finishes her meal and is left waiting and waiting for ours to come and then has to endure waiting on us. Like don't they ever think about these things??? This is not the first time this has happened either and I'm pretty sure I have complained about this in previous reviews.

I ordered my pop and it came out and multiplied. Then I had to ask about the free bottle of wine that comes with our meal. They finally brought us a menu. We ordered and they brought out this wine glass that I could have bathed in. Man that sucker was big. I don't think I have ever seen a wine glass that huge before!

Now there is a couple sitting at the table next to us, which is a little bit of a distance away. We were seated in the very back of the restaurant and by the windows. They were constantly staring at us. Honestly, we don't go to a lot of super fancy wine drinking restaurants (but have been branching out a lot lately) and don't drink wine when we go out (only at home). But, we have learned by watching others the "rules" of the game. LOL He opens the wine, he pours the wine to the male, the male swishes it in circles, he taste it, he approves it, then the lady gets some in her glass only poured in the bottom 1/4 of the glass. Ok, got it. We can do this. But did we do it right? From the looks of the glares and whispers coming from the table next to us, we must be missing something. Like seriously...it's a glass with a beverage in it...relax and let us drink it.

This is what we ended up with.

I have never been a drinker (if you are following along from previous years) and I think that wine is just bitter like beer and I don't like bitter. I like fruity drinks. I have been told "try this, try that" and it just has never been my cup of tea...or wine should I say. But over the last 2 years, I have discovered some wines I like and have started to acquire somewhat of a taste (or maybe it's more of a tolerance) for wines I never liked before. The Moscato was one of them I didn't like in the past while on NCL. This time...yummy! Maybe that's what the other couple was staring at...maybe I looked like a lush when I guzzled it down. Maybe they found it weird that I had 2 glasses of pop and a wine glass at the same time. Who knows.

Now the waiter took our wine and put it in the "cooler" (not even sure the appropriate name of this thing nor do I care as long as it keeps my wine chilled) and the cooler thingymabob was pretty much over beside the table of Mr & Mrs Igottastarringproblem I found that to be strange. Why would they not move it closer to us??? I know we are supposed to wait on them to come back to pour more for us but I'm quite capable of doing it myself when I need more and quite frankly, the service here really sucked that night and I could be waiting hours for another glass to be poured.

It was darn near next to impossible to flag down our waitress. She was zooming back and forth and several times I put up the finger (the nice one) and tried to get her attention. I would be talking and she would be walking away. I found it very rude of her and not good customer service. She said our meal was coming out soon I stopped her again and made it a point to express my feelings about them bringing out my daughters food, her already finishing her meal and we have not even had our starters brought out yet. Now what? She's supposed to just sit here, still waiting for our food and then wait while we eat? I also made it a point to tell her we came for a family meal and expected to eat together.

She said "Would you like me to bring her another chicken noodle soup?" Sakari agreed that she would actually like another and I told the waitress to bring it out with our meal. I'm going to give you one and only one guess what she did....

Yep, she brought it right out WITHOUT our food AGAIN. Are you serious??? I started to talk and I think I got "I just ask you to bring it out when......" and she walked away. Seriously? She was so rude. You don't walk away in the middle of someone talking to you. I told Sakari to keep that lid on it and wait until our food came. This lady was ridiculous!

Our starters finally came out...

I ordered the Iceberg Wedge: Roma Tomatoes, Garlic, Spring Onions, Blue Cheese, Bacon Bits, Ranch Dressing. It was honestly so good. I think I ate almost the entire thing. It could have been just because I was super hungry at that point. IDK

I have to say I like the idea of just slicing off a wedge of lettuce and serving it. Saves time and I need to start doing that at home. Slice instead of dice and here ya go!

The hubby ordered the Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese Sandwich: Roasted Tomato Soup, Cheddar, Gruyere, Provolone, Garlic Herb Butter, Sourdough Bread. He said it was really good as well.

Sakari got a kick out of this grilled cheese "sandwich" because it was a small cut off piece of a sandwich, which made it a sand without the wich. I think they gave the rest of the wich to our nosy neighbors.

So remember how we didn't get any bread? I looked around at everyone's tables and they all had bread. Were we being discriminated against because this is a "free meal"? I honestly think that we get the worse service using free meal tickets than any other time. I've noticed this on various cruises in the past.

Our waitress was zooming back and forth, but let's be honest...anything faster than a sloth is zooming to me at this point, and one more raise of a couple of fingers this time got her attention. "Can we get some bread?" She apologized and didn't realize she hadn't brought us any and zoomed off shouting "you're meal is coming right up" and had someone else come out with the bread.

I ordered the Jumbo Shrimp Skewer with grilled asparagus (which I don't care for), sauteed mushrooms, garlic herb butter and sweat korean bbq dip and truffle fries. Now the skewer wasn't jumbo, just the shrimp. 😉

Notice anything missing from my meal?

Yea, my sauteed mushrooms and truffle fries. I love mushrooms and it was missing and I had heard how yummy the truffle fries are. Ugh

The hubby ordered the pork chop with carrots and broccoli mashed potatoes and onion rings.

On one of the many "zips" our waitress was doing I flagged her down again to inform her of the missing food. She apologized once again and then brought all of our food out on one tray and said "here's the rest". Yea, ok then.

I gave Sakari the nod and she started on her second bowl of chidken noodle soup and we were finally eating as a family. Whew!

Once this VERY long dinner was over with (I'm just glad we didn't want to see a show or anything) it was time for dessert. Sakari said she wanted chocolate chip cookies and they brought her out and entire plate full. She was very happy.

Honestly we were pretty stuffed at this point and didn't think we could hold anymore food. But, the waitress insisted on us ordering dessert and said she would pack it up to go for us for a snack later.

I ordered the "OMG" Caramel-Butterscotch Cheesecake and the hubby ordered the Warm Apple Cardamom Crisp only he said to "hold the ice cream" because by the time any of us might even consider eating anymore, it would be melted.

Well, guess how it was brought out...

Now at some point the hubby told her to "bring our wine over this way by our table" (instead of it being all the way over at the other table). Let's be honest, our service was so bad and so slow that they never once came back to refill our wine glasses. We needed it to be sat over by us and we'd pour our own. Now what kind of stares do you think we got from the couple next to us (which happened to be the table our "cooler" and wine was sitting at). Oh lordy.

We finished off our bottle and I think at this point the waitress realized just how messed up our whole situation was that night and the bad service and she said..."Let me get you a bottle to go".

I'm a very lightweight drinker. It doesn't take much to get me tipsy and being on medications...well, that takes it to a whole other level. There was no way we were drinking this bottle tonight, but I would pack it for home.

Heading back to our room Sakari wanted more pictures by the "pretty light". Daddy would endure waiting on us to do a full blown photo shoot complete with duck lips, glasses on, glasses off, foot this way, feet together...

Daddy thinking he's raised a monster at this point. "Is this really what I have to look forward to in the future when she actually becomes a teen???"

We arrived back at the room and the pictures didn't stop then either. Mommy was a little tipsy and Sakari was really goofy.

I continued to pack and luggage had to be out by 11pm. Notice the color of the tags...

A little more Guy Harv.....and she was already asleep.

I couldn't let these desserts go to waste so I took a few bites of each and off to bed we went.

Day 8

BABY BAY BEACH

St Thomas 2020

St Thomas 2020

St Thomas 2020

St Thomas 2020

St Thomas 2020

TRAVEL WITH MITSUGIRLY

mitsugirlys cruise ( and land) adventures

Mitsugirly needed to ESCAPE from the cold weather

Day 7: FRIDAY December 20: Sea Day

Mitsugirly needed to ESCAPE from the cold weather Day 7: FRIDAY December 20: Sea Day

Mitsugirly needed to ESCAPE from the cold weather

Day 7: FRIDAY December 20: Sea Day