Day 1: Time to get on the ship!!

I have to say it was a MADHOUSE there! I definitely don’t remember anything like this the last time we were here back in September the previous year. I do have to mention that the port that we were at last time was the next building over. Maybe that was the difference, but if I had to do it again, I think I would go to another location to get on. Wow.

Our cab driver pulled into the next available spot (which wasn’t easy) and started unloading our things on this VERY busy street of parking/loading/unloading and complete chaos. The person directing traffic (he might have been a policeman I’m not sure) kept yelling at us to move on. We were still getting our luggage out of the trunk jerk! Then once we did we had to attach the “broken piggy-back” luggage to the other in order to pull it and still be able to handle all the other luggage, new additionally acquired soda luggage, my carry on and a 4 year old. Geesh. It was not a pretty site.

Then we were instructed to “go that way”. Then once we got to “that way”, we were told to go back the other way.

This was the worse cluster flark I’ve ever seen. They have several doors along the street there; all marked with numbers 1, 2, 3 and so on and ONLY 1 FRICKEN DOOR OPEN!! Now it gets better, that one said door is open for….are you ready…passenger boarding to come in AND passengers leaving to go out!!! Say what??? Yea, it was great. People standing in lines they didn’t need to because it was people waiting to get a taxi instead of boarding, you had to cut through lines with luggage and just a plain madhouse.

Once we finally checked our luggage and got inside to go through the screening/security/check-in line, it wasn’t bad at all. They didn’t even have all of the lines opened because it was going so fast. It took maybe 15 minutes for everything.

We were then sent to a waiting room because they announced that there was a delay. We were given a number and I have no idea what the numbers/letters represented. There were A’s, B’s, 1’s and 2’s that I had seen. We had a B. We were also given the Dailies for Day 1 while we were checking in so at least I had something to read over while waiting. It was about noon and they called the A’s first and then the B’s of course. It went quickly and we were on our way up the gangplank and on to the ship.

The welcome aboard crew was there to greet us with the music playing in the background.

From here, I think I’m going to change things up a little and do a little “tour” of the ship with pictures before I get in to my actual review and thoughts. That way everyone can drool over the pics and get a feel for what she looks like and has to offer.

So, we’ll start with the Grand Atrium…and I do mean GRAND. I took so many pictures both day and night, so be prepared.

The atrium:

There are balconies that are between the floors from above that you can look out over into the atrium along with bird sculptures flying in the air:

The atrium "fountain" which always managed to keep the wall ledge around it wet. I watched numerous people sit there and get up really quick with a wet tush. Also the fake cheesy flowers around the fountain.

I "think" (which I know is very hard for me to do right now after the day I've had) that I'm done with the Atrium pictures that I wanted to share.

Is your mouth watering yet? Is it not the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen? Well my husband tells me that I am, but it's his duty to say that-yes I got it in writing at our wedding....juuuuustttt kidding. But you guys will have to accept the 2nd best thing according to him.

Well since I teased you a little bit with some of the upper floor views, I'll take you on up to the Blue Lagoon, located on the 8th floor, just above the atrium. As everyone knows, they are open 24/7 and have the best wings!!

I have to say that it was a little different than what I have experienced on the other ships. On the other NCL ships you pretty much went in and sat down and a server came to take your order. Here there was a sign that ask you to wait at the entrance to be seated. They would ask you how many in your party and what your room number was :confused: and write it down on a paper. Then they would seat you where they wanted you to sit. Ok, but different I guess.

Disclaimer #2 I want to let you all know that I apologize in advance for some of the day time pictures you might see throughout the photo tour. I’m referring to those taken by any windows with the sun glaring in. Yes, I do know how to meter for a window and interior, yes I actually took a photography course on this, but hey, I’m on vacation and my goal is to snap a picture and go on about my vacation like it never happened. So therefore I chose not to take the time to make the pictures perfect in regards to most of the windows…and I might as well throw in those that are blurry (which I guess I could blame a few of those on my daughter and you’d never know the difference hehe, but I’ll chose not to), also those that may have water spots on them because I either forgot to wipe the camera off after being in the water or I was too lazy to get out and go grab a towel to wipe it off, and also those that for some reason seem to have a bit of a “foggy” look to them. I can’t even explain that…maybe because I was inside where it was hot and came outside in to the heat? Either way, my apologies in advance…try to get the meaning behind the picture and not criticize the reporter.

They have seats in the front half around the atrium on this floor for others to just come in and sit down. They did not serve food from Blue Lagoon to these people. Then the other side is Moderno. I really never seen too many people there or at least I didn't notice it if there were. I did notice a few people sitting at some of the tables 2 days playing games like checkers there.

Up to the next floor where I took a few select pictures of the atrium is the Internet Café. For those that want to know pricing…it was on the computer monitor. This is as you come in to the cafe, it was weird because when you are in the elevator hallway, you really can't tell it was there until you opened the door and seen what it was OR stood out on one of the balconies that overlook the atrium and know there has to be a door to get in there. But notice the carpet in there? haha There was seating for those that might have their own computer maybe??? The ships computers were at the back and along the other side. I do have to tell you that we walked through this area once when several people were on the computers along the side wall and it was hard to get by them sitting in the chairs because of the tables that sat behind them.

I’ll tell you now; we did not eat in the Aqua Restaurant. I actually took these pictures on the first day when we were wondering around the ship and it was OPEN. I use that term loosely. Every time I wanted to go try it out, they were closed. I have no idea what hours they were open, I just knew it wasn’t when I was ready to eat. :(

Also it might have just been me but the “signs” on the ship saying that the Aqua Restaurant was -> (that way) were kind of confusing. I kept seeing those signs and walking that way only to end up at another sign that said it was <-- that way. After a few days I found that there was an opening between the elevators that led to it. How I discovered it on the first day I’m not sure. Oh yea, “maybe” it was because the DOORS WERE OPEN. The other thing that kept me from finding it, not just because it was closed every time I went, but they put a huge free standing sign out in front of the door which kind of blocked the view like if there wasn’t a door there. I think that was the confusion with me trying to find it every time…not that it did any good because as always…you guessed it, they were closed when I arrived. Now that I think about it, I don't recall seeing an actual sign AT the restaurant to indicate that it was the Aqua. Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong. :confused:

A few dining room shots and then I moved on...never to find or see this restaurant again.

Since I gave you the Aqua, I might as well move on to Versailles since we did manage to eat there several times and love the look there.

It is designed just like the Pearl was and you could not get to it by elevator. You had to go to the 6th floor on the aft of the ship and then walk down the stairs mid-way to the entrance.

Some times in the evening, if it is crowded (which seem to be a hit or miss) then someone will be at the top of the steps taking your name, amount of people in your party, and giving you a “buzzer” to carry off with you to let you know when your table is ready.

It did have a Christmas tree at the entrance.

Each round circle window located within the arched windows at the aft of the ship had a wreath on it and they were lit up. Very pretty…also hard to get a picture of during the day, so I settled for a night picture with no window/sun glare. I know, I cheated this time around.

I will include a Each round circle window located within the arched windows at the aft of the ship had a wreath on it and they were lit up. Very pretty…also hard to get a picture of during the day, so I settled for a night picture with no window/sun glare. I know, I cheated this time around.

 I will now present to you the Stardust Theater where we went A LOT. We caught a lot of the shows, well at least the one’s we were interested in. I have to admit, we usually don’t go to many of the shows on our other cruises (with the exception of the Epic of course) unless it’s either a magician or a comedian. This time we thought we would try a few that we have never done before and I have to admit, I enjoyed them and was glad we did go as much as we did. Next cruise, I will definitely add to the list!

The entrance to the theater is beautiful. I'm usually not a "gold decor" type of person and thinks sometimes it can look tacky, but I actually liked this one.

Outside the theater there is a glass display with some of the staffs "professional pictures" that were quacky and funny. Loved it. (You will also find a glass case that had the shows being presented that night in them). 

Sorry, I do not claim to know this couple coming out of there or what they were doing in there when the theater was closed....just kidding if you happen to be someone that was on my roll call and know me, otherwise, I'm not joking.

Do you think they did the seats in red in honor of Christmas? Yea, I think they did...boy were they in the holiday spirit here.

During the days that we were in port, they had the doors closed. The doors are....yep, you guessed it RED.

 On to the next color combo: purple and yellow!

The Spinnaker Lounge is where we gathered for the latitudes party and also the White Hot party (and also where they stuck you when you were waiting on your buzzer to go off to get a seat at Versailles).

We have purple. We have yellow. We have purple and yellow. And yellow and purple:

I hope you guys don't think I'm making fun of or complaining about the colors at any of the places. I love color and I love cruise ship colors and combo's. I'm just having a little fun with it that's all. If I could be lounging there right now, you bet I would be!!!

I’m going to refer to the next set of pictures as the “Art Gallery Collection” since there was an art gallery along the walkway in the Gatsby’s Champagne Bar that seem to grow more and more in pictures as the cruise went along making it “sometimes” almost impossible to get through there without almost tripping over some of the things they had laying on the floor including speakers, cords and lights.

This is located on deck 6 and you have to walk through this side of the ship if you are on deck 6, remaining on deck 6, and don’t want to head up the stairs. You cannot go on the other side because La Cucina is located there.That picture was taken on the first day, so I don't think they had much out yet.

There is also a “wine cellar” located there as well. I forgot to take a picture of it. I’m not a wine drinker so we never went in to view it except a glance through the window. (You can see it in the above picture a little in the back).

I thought the hallway leading to it (or from it depending on which way you were going and we went both ways MANY times) was very pretty. It had windows to view outside with seats (yea those pesky windows I don’t like taking pictures of) and on the other side where windows to view in to Le Bistro.

Pay attention to the big hump in the carpet in the picture...yea, we'll get to that among other things later in the review.

I liked the color scheme and the look as if you were “outside” of a building looking in.

The ceiling was painted with murals. I’m not sure why I chose to only take 1 picture of it. It must have been a hurry-up-we-are-late-to-get-somewhere moment when I took it (or maybe the real reason was we were headed to the casino to win big money) once again a girl can dream right?

I'm really not an "art-liking" type of person and I honestly don't think I have very many pictures in my home (well maybe a few that match something that is on a cabinet below it and goes together). I'm more in to wrought iron and sculptures. However, I thought this picture was pretty neat. I guess it just caught my attention because it was such a "busy" picture and so much to look at so I snapped a picture of it.

Since I had you touring the art gallery at Gatsby’s, I think I’ll turn back around in that lovely hallway and go back to Gatsby’s and show you around. See, I told you I went up and down that hall a lot and here I go again.

Gatsby’s is a 2 story lounge with a piano there for the entertainment at night. It was basically just like the other ships on the Jewel class, but they were just called the Champagne bar I believe. Although this was missing the little bubble walls at the bar.

They did have a few small Christmas trees in there. It’s weird how I didn’t even notice it while I was there but now notice it in the pictures.

Around the top of the lounge was of course a walk way to go to other areas of the ship and also on one side was the Sushi Bar and Ginza, which all overlooked Gatsby’s. (Try to say Gatsby’s 3 times in a row, I dare you).

The ceiling at the top floor was really brightly colored (once again, I enjoy bright!) and beautiful.

Turn back around once more and head back to Gatsby’s and up the stairs and we’ll take a look in Ginza. It was set up the same way as….yep, the Pearl was. The exact same layout. It’s very appealing and I like it.

We had only planned on eating at 1 specialty restaurant this cruise and that would be Ginza. We love their food and it has been a do-not-miss restaurant on the ships before. The others are just kind of a “been there done that and never have to do it again on the ship” kind of restaurants for us. However, in the end, we did not make it to Ginza for another “special” reason, which I’ll reveal toward the end of my cruise review. I know, you are going to be sitting on edge just wondering what that “special” reason is now right?

We did however get to spend a little time in here. This is where they had to move our meet & greet to because it got so big. Yes, I worked very hard at begging people to come to it (I organized our meet & greet) and was real proud to say that we had 86 people that said they would come. If they actually came, I’m not sure. But it was crowded.

Ok, back around and out Ginza and down the steps toward Gatsby’s again…I told ya I get my exercise, how else am I supposed to work off the 7 pounds I gained on this cruise? Wait, did I just admit to that out loud? :eek: Oops. Shh, don't tell anyone.

A little peek in to La Cucina. We've ate here before and enjoyed it (on the Epic), but nothing will ever beat the ambience of La Cucina as the Epic did with its 2 story entrance and trees.

I don't know, this place kind of reminded me of some of the country kitchen restaurants I've been to before instead of an Italian restaurant. :confused:

Time to skip on over to my favorite “I’m bored and feel lucky so let’s gamble place”, yep the “Star” Casino.

I have to say by-far, this was the smallest casino I’ve been to yet on NCL. Wow, like I could probably spit standing on one end to the other side. Just kidding, that’s not lady-like, but it was pretty small. There was definitely NO WAY to get lost in here and if you lost the person you came in with, it would take less than 2 minutes to find them.

You could come down the hall we just came from (6th floor if you remember) or you could come from the other side, which is right there by the Stardust Theater. How convenient is that? You could tell you were getting close to the money because...well the floor told you:

They did have something new here that I have never seen on any of the other ships before. There was a game at the entrance that was like one of those boxes you see, full of stuffed animals and you have to guide the clam back and forth to go down and grab something. Everyone tell me you know what I’m talking about and I’m not sounding wacko right now. Anyhow, this had the “prize” on the back wall part of it and it was $$$$ depending on what level you went up. Instead of a claw, it had a “key”. Now this key looked pretty small and of course the hole you have to guide the key in to looked pretty darn big. (Of course aiming it in the hole without hitting the edge proved to be almost next to impossible.) By the end of the cruise I believe 2 people had won the cheapest bottom row (maybe $50 or $100) and someone had actually won one off the top row (which I believe was $500 cash and an ipad). The other odd thing was it didn’t take cash. ONLY your room key card. We watched a lot of frustrated people every night swiping their card because they just knew the next time was going to be “the” time they got it only for their “significant other” having to drag them away and telling them enough is enough. Yes, my husband tried twice and didn’t come close. I really thought I had taken a picture of this contraption but I can’t locate it. Darn.

I liked their “light” and carpet, if only walking on that gave me some luck I would have been happy.

I also wanted to mention they had a “penny smashing” machine. You swipe your key card and turn the handle and it smashes a penny for you of the star (4 different pictures to choose from). I’m completely convinced that since I didn’t get this “lucky” penny on the first day (I got it on the last day as a souvenir) is the reason I didn’t win much in the casino. Given the chance to do it all over again, I would have bought that lucky Star penny to use in the Star casino on the first day! Darnit! 

I wish I would have taken a picture of it as well. I know, I was a complete slacker on this cruise. However, I do have a GOOD reason and during my actual review, you will learn why. I promise you will agree it was a good enough reason.

After not winning the money I had intended to, I think it’s time to head to the spa for a quick peak. No, I don’t spend money at the spa. I’m sure it’s nice, but I just don’t do it. It’s an added cost that someday maybe I can afford, but not for this poor college student at the moment.

Wait, after writing that I started thinking how this poor college student had actually just come from the casino where I was just feeding the machines because they looked hungry and I felt bad for them. Somehow this doesn’t make sense. But that’s alright I would rather have hours of fun than a few minutes of relaxation. I’m a go-go-go type of girl remember? That’s why I don’t splurge on anything other than an interior room. There, that’s my explanation and I’m sticking to it.

I have to admit the spa area, entrance and all looked GORGEOUS! I love the way the entrance you walked down in to it and everything was all open. It really had the WOW factor. I really wanted to go in and look around down there but the minute one of the spa ladies heard a creek on the stairs, they were trying to lure you in to their web of relaxation seduction. Nope, you weren’t pulling me in to that. Does anyone know if you can just go down to look and take pictures without actually having anything done? I’ve never tried it before. Or is it an “all inclusive members only” type of thing past the doors?

These pictures do not do this place justice at all...keep that in mind.

The windows that you see along the top are actually the windows you look out in to the spa from the exercise room. Nice view for them.

Another thing we discovered while wondering around late one night on the decks outside is that we came across this glass roof (down low like by our feet). So we stopped to peek in and it was the spa! You could see if from the deck. It was pretty neat.

I know, not the greatest picture since it was dark out, I had to take the picture through glass which was shaped funny and it was pretty windy out there...so hard to keep the camera steady. Throw in the factor that I couldn't use my flash because of the glass and you have an "ok" photo that really doesn't come out the way you had hoped.

I might as well give you a quick shot of the work out facility since you were already trying to stare in to the windows from the spa area.

To the right of the picture are the machines facing the spa and overlooking it.

Sorry, this is the only picture I got of the fitness area and I did it as I was walking by QUICKLY. Hopefully the people in there just thought I was actually in there working out and just walking faster to burn extra calories. I'm not one that likes to exercise so walking in here is like me walking through and unknown territory that turns out to be the ghetto.

On to the buffet area because all of this walking is making me hungry, but then again…just being on a cruise tends to make me hungrier than I normally am.

The buffet is located on the 12th floor. One of my favorite ways to access it is up the glass elevators. It’s really neat since the atrium is completely open and you’re in a glass elevator, when you arrive to the 12th floor you can see in to the buffet since they have windows all around it looking down in to the atrium. Of course you can access it from the other elevators as well, it’s just not as fun and cruises are supposed to be fun right?

Now the buffet (named Market Café) was always opened on different sides at different times. It also depended on when you were there what side was opened. It was a hit or miss for us. I believe toward the end we discovered that around 5pm is when they brought out and opened the “better stuff”.

The buffet was HUGE and on both sides. One side was around 2 buffets long and then it ended (no way out) because it backed up to the Teen Club on the other side of it. The other side went all the way down and out to the end of the ship (which is where the kid’s pool area located on the aft of the ship was). I believe it had 3 areas. The last part of the buffet never had any actual food there other than the crape making area is located here. This is a MUST KNOW of course. Love me some crapes!!! Another MUST KNOW is this is where you will find the yummy soft serve ice cream. You could have it in an ice-cream dish or cone and yes they did have various “sprinkles” to top it off with. Other than that, the buffet portion of this area remained closed.

Now I have to say this “Market Café” is probably the cheesiest buffet I’ve ever seen. The décor looked like some school cafeteria set up. I just thought it was plain ugly. Very cheesy lit up signs above the food displays (oranges, apples and so on), the floor was kind of ugly and I just didn’t care for the way it looked. The other NCL ships had nice little dividing tall walls with flowers in them and the tables were set up nicely. Some had high backs in them and booths. This was nothing but tables in a row with regular chairs. Nothing fancy at all to look at here.

The food was a hit or miss as well. I found that the other ships seem to have more options or something because I could always find something that I liked there. I’m not really a picky eater other than I don’t like chocolate…everyone pick your jaws back up I can see you, yes I’m weird I know. I have another one for yea, I don’t like steak either! I’m not a real big “meat” eater other than dishes with hamburger in it, an occasional hamburger, turkey and chicken. I do love me some seafood though. So it just felt like there wasn’t as much to choose from that I actually liked. But will all this being said, I definitely did not starve to death…after all, I did gain 7 pounds this cruise. Oops I said it out loud again didn’t I. (Hiding my head in shame).

This ship did have a “Kids Buffet” area as well called…you guessed it…Kids Café. You would get the normal things that you would find at the “Big Kids Buffet” area. For breakfast they had scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, French toast, cereal, while milk, chocolate milk, fruits, orange juice and I think a few more things that my daughter didn’t try.

IF YOU ARE A BACON EATER…take note, you will find the CRISPY bacon here. (hehe) I also found on the days that the eggs in the “big kids café” were a little runny, the “kids café” would not have runny eggs. SCORE! NO, THERE IS NO BACON POLICE ON THE SHIP…and I have never encountered a bacon police on any of them (I’ve heard others mention this on other cruise lines). It’s a free for all and I LOVE me some bacon.

For lunch the “Kids Café” would have the normal Pizza and fries (and that’s all I remember because that’s all my daughter ever wanted to eat when we were there). I have NEVER cared for NCL’s pizza whether it be from the buffet or the $5 pizza you order. It was just plain nasty! Well, I did hear (by the wonderful CC people on here) that they have changed their pizza. I overheard one of the boys coming to the buffet (who I might add that he had 2 empty plates in his hand and he loaded them BOTH up with about 5 slices of pizza each…yes, the pizza was gone by then. Thank goodness my daughter had already grabbed her 2 slices or I would have had to tackle that kid and take a slice. j/k) say “This is the best pizza I’ve ever tasted”. So…I thought “well maybe they have changed their recipe” and decided to give it a try. YEP, it’s actually good now! YIPPEE!! Hurray for NCL for changing things up. The sauce taste different and it is thinly sliced pizza (my favorite) and to me, even the cheese was different. Oh I do remember seeing hot dogs there as well. I think I have the only child who can't stand hot dogs...so of course she never had any of those.

They had about munchkin tables set up there with the soft foam munchkin chairs to eat at the table. Yes, my legs went numb sometimes crunching myself up under the table while sitting (my daughter insisted on eating there every change she could). This area was well used let me tell you. The other ships (well maybe it was just one that had it) had this kids buffet area and I never once seen anyone use it. It wasn’t even open during every meal like this one was. I think maybe it was where it was set up at…right as you walk in to the buffet area.

Mr Washy-Washy…where were you on this cruise? The washy people (in this case 1 guy) was ONLY at breakfast and ONLY 2 days this cruise. (Or at least at the times we went). I thought this was odd. They did have the little hand sanitizers as you come in, but I’ll let you guess how many people actually used them as they walked in for each meal all day long. Yes, I’m in the health care field, yes my hands are sanitized-abused. 

They had the normal drink machines which offered watered down flavored drinks: lemon-lime, tropical mango, strawberry-kiwi, the unsweetened tea. I think each station varied a little because I did see just plain lemonade once. If you don’t want watered down, you’ll pick the lemonade or lemon-lime, which tasted just like the lemonade.

Ok let’s get to that darn ice machine everyone was complaining about on the cruise. It had a mind of it’s own I tell ya. It was supposed to be a sensor-type thing where you just hold the cup up to it and it dispenses the ice. Well I think the sensor on it was a little off. People would hold cups up forever and nothing would happen. They would wave their hands in front of it…nothing. Walk away, it dispensed and dispensed A LOT. Some people “pushed” on it like it was a button, nothing, move away it worked. It was a hit or miss and drove people insane. 

I might as well touch base on the crapes while I’m still in the buffet area. With each cruise, it seems to decline in “offerings”. Yes, a tear just rolled down my cheek right now. I got hooked on these on the Epic and their selection was “to die for”. They had so many different types of fillings and a lot of different toppings. YUM! The Spirit didn’t have as much from what I can remember and the guy that made them was hilarious (and new) and had to start over several different times but was a good sport about it. The Pearl, well I discovered you could ask for different things (and they also had a “stash” below of things like banana’s and so on). Well that brings us to the Star. Next to nothing to choose from. I think there was 4 different fillings and 2 toppings-chocolate (yuck) and the “to die for” cream they have. So, I actually only had 2 this cruise. It just didn’t really taste the same to me as the others. While we’re talking about the to die for cream…what is that stuff anyhow? Is it normal whipped topping and they add a pound of sugar to it? I have never been able to find anything that tasted anywhere close to that stuff. I LOVE IT…it just makes me shiver thinking about it. I would put it on my French toast and just moan and groan with excitement when I ate it (ask my husband, he’ll tell you). :D

Right outside of the dining area there were some cute little table and chairs that was in a cove and up against the window that you could eat 1) in peace or 2) in an area that wasn’t windy instead of being outside and 3) in an area that was a good temperature if the buffet was too cold.

This is the cute little hallway leading out of the buffet…remember, I LIKE color. It led out to the pool deck area…and buffet that was out there as well.

Next we'll head out to the pool area since that's the way I'm walking.

Remember that outdoor buffet I was talking about? Well here it is…”The Grill”. They would serve hamburgers, hotdogs, fries, fruits and more. Like all of the cruises, they would always bring out the huge grills and have a cookout.

The pool deck consisted of the main pool, 4 hot tubs, and 2 twisting slides.

Of course it had the water ledge, which I really like around the edges of the pool. That way if I don’t feel like getting in, I can just sit there while my little one swims. Well, the one thing different about this cruise is that my daughter learn to swim this past summer. So, I was really happy that she would be able to swim in the pools without her floatie on. When we went to the pool, she was acting like she was going to jump in…you talk about some grandparents/parents freaking out because they thought she was coming in without us. Finally she went for it…the only problem is, yep its salt water and she WAS NOT expecting that. It really caught her off guard and when she came up for air she gasp, which obviously made it look to the other parents like she was drowning. The staff looked like they were ready to save the day and rescue her while they glared at me with their beady little eyes like I was the worse parent in the world. I swear, my daughter can swim. She just didn’t expect it to be salt water and it threw her in to shock. So after finding out it was salt water, she said “I don’t want to swim here anymore”. LOL

She decided to try the pool on the opposite side of the big pool. It's a little "hole in the floor"...and I do mean HOLE. You have to climb WAY DOWN in order to get in it. I thought it was kind of dangerous for a child to do and I had to help her all the way down. The pool was 3’9’ constant there. There was a “round bar” chair that went all the way around it. Of course a child couldn’t sit on it, so she would walk on it. At this point the staff had moved from the main pool area (while remaining up on the top deck where the band plays) over to the side we were on…still glaring at the “bad parent for letting her child almost drown”. They were now watching me like a hawk. So, I guess I showed them (well actually my daughter did)…she was swimming all over the place, and no she can’t touch there. So after a while, they finally stopped babysitting me and hopefully chalked it up to just an incident in the other pool because OBVIOUSLY she CAN swim by herself.

There were 4 hot tubs, located in each “corner” of the pool area. People seem to flock to these in groups. There would be a hot tub completely full while the others were empty. Maybe they were all together, maybe they were cruising alone and wanted to meet new people, maybe they were stalking someone with a hot body that got in to the tub. Who knows? I just thought it was weird.

This is “The Oasis” seating area around the pool. I noticed this “Pool side casino” sign and wondered about that because there was never a “pool side casino” while we were on there. Maybe they did away with it?

As you can kind of see in the picture above, there are tables lined up along the windows (as always), then they had another row of tables along the poles. Then there were 2 rows of regular lounge chairs, then another row of tables with the nicer chairs IN FRONT of them alongside of the pool. I don’t know if the other ships are like this, but I’ve never noticed that before. So if you were “sunning” by the pool, you were not actually “by the pool” because tables and chairs were in front of you. I don't think I actually got a shot of the sunning chairs when they were put out. This shot is on one of those days we were just walking through the area, maybe I took it even when we first arrived and they didn’t have the lounge chairs out.

Another shot of the tables along the wall of windows:

Let’s talk about the pool slides. From the below shot you can see this is the back of the main pool (also where the “hole” pool is located) and where you end up when you finish coming down the slides. There are 2 to choose from. The funny part is, when you walk up the stairs to the slide both sides end up at the same HUGE deck where the employee tells you when to “go”. We kept walking up the same set of steps and my daughter kept trying to go down each slide and he kept pointing to one slide and tell us to go down that one. I know, they are the same thing, but to a child, they are different and she wanted to try both. So, finally I ask why we couldn’t go down the other slide. He told us because we needed to use the opposite stairs to use that slide. Um, ok, there wasn’t anyone else on the slides at the time and we were on the same deck landing and you can’t just let us pick the other slide once? Really? There’s no one else around. So we had to go down our “normal-done-went-down-5 times-slide” again and cross across to the other side to climb those stairs for her to experience THAT slide.

Also, once again, they would not allow my daughter to go down the slide by herself. I think I have already proven to you guys that she CAN swim by herself and it’s not like the slides even pour out in to a pool area or anything. What is the problem here? (She’s a big girl, so she says and will gladly tell you that in a heartbeat, and she’s also a little sneaky when she wants to be. So what do you think happened? Yep, she got up to the top before mommy did and took off down the slide by herself on the first run…she showed them. Of course I had to stop it from happening again or I would be back on the “bad parent list” again.

Lets move on to a few "night" shots...everybody loves night shots right?

The setup of the pool area leading up to the Bier Garten reminded me of the back kiddie pool area on the Spirit. There are rows and rows going up decks of lounge chairs. Plenty of room for people to sit and layout. I NEVER ONCE encounter or seen ANY chair hogs on this cruise. There was ALWAYS some place to sit. ALWAYS.

Here's a shot while we were walking up the multiple layers of steps, there's a lot of steps and levels, so this shot doesn't begin to show how many there is, but you get the idea right?

I usually take multiple pictures at the Bier Garten, especially at night, but for some reason we really didn't hang out too much up there this time around. Here's a small shot while sitting at one of the tables, which was were we sat during the sail away party...more on why we were up there under the roof later. :rolleyes: So you'll be able to see the rows of chairs on the multiple decks from those pictures.

I do have to mention Xcite. They were the band that played pool side (you know, up where the pool employees were glaring at me with their beady little eyes when we were swimming) and they were AWESOME. They played songs that got people up and dancing. They played the line dance songs and anything interactive with the crowd AND they were really good! I do enjoy me some Jamaican Reggae music on a cruise to get you in that Caribbean spirit, but I also enjoyed this too.

When the band wasn’t playing they were piping Christmas music threw the speakers. Every Christmas song possible was played on this cruise over and over and over. The one that sticks out in my mind the most was “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” and it gave me a chuckle every time. Yea, there was NO convincing me of that one. It was hot, sunny, and the beautiful Caribbean water. Wasn’t looking like any type of Christmas I’ve ever experienced before and I was just fine with that!

Ok so we are still standing at the Bier Garten. If you turn toward the back and walk down, there is an area that you walk back up and there are some really neat round cushioned chairs to hang out in…and people did. I never got a picture of them because when I had my camera with me, someone was in the seats and I hardly wanted them to think I was taking a picture of them. All the other times, there was never anyone in them. But, check them out if you get a chance. It’s a pretty cool place to hang out in comfort if you wanted too. It’s almost a small deck to itself and they have them on both sides of the ship.

Another mental note for any of you who plan on sailing the Star…if you keep walking toward the front of the ship, you know, past the comfy chair area, there is also a hot tub up there. I very rarely seen anyone there and I’m not sure many knew about it. Of course I never had my camera with me every time we passed and the one time I did have my camera with me of course there was someone in it. Once again, I don’t want to look like a stalker running up and taking a picture of someone I don’t know.

 -----------------------------------------------------------

 We are not really "sports" people (as you can tell by my workout room comments) except for the hubby is a skater, me-I get my exercise at work by walking all over the hospital, but I managed to snap a couple of pictures of the basket ball court if you are so inclined to chase a ball back and forth:

I also took a picture of the checkers game for giants:

I believe they did have a chess game too, but once again, no camera when I passed it. Are you seeing the pattern of no camera at times? Yea, there's a story behind it....to come later in one of my rants.

I thought I would throw in a random picture at night of the "Star" all lit up just to see if you guys are actually paying attention:

I have to say, it was EXTREMELY windy out the night I took this picture. I must have taken about 10 or more shots and they were mostly blurry from the movement. I had my camera stabilizer on, night mode, everything and this was the best shot I could get. I propped my hand up against one of the light post to stabilize the camera even more and hoped for the best...hoping for the best about 3 times before I actually got this crappy shot. Then I gave up. So, this is what you get.

Staying on the same deck, we’ll head back to the aft of the ship and out toward the kiddie pool area.

When walking through the buffet area, when you come out the end (past the yummy ice cream area) you come in to this cute little hallway leading out to the pool area. They call this the "Splash Down" kids pool. The walls are really cute. It's not painted walls, it's actually some type of hard plastic that sticks out and applied to the walls.

My daughter begged for one of those drink umbrellas that day. She used it to accessorize her outfit. (Notice it's in her mouth for this pose). I tried to tell her it did not match, but she refused to remove it for the picture.

Now off to the fun splash zone...yippee! One of the main reasons we wanted to cruise this ship (our daughter is a water lover) and because of the atrium. (She absolutely LOVED the Spirit's aft where the kids pool was). So off we went to explore that area.

As I said previously, we wanted to go on this ship because they had an “actual” kid’s pool area separate from the adult area. My daughter is in to dinosaurs (which is the Dawn), but the Space Ship theme would just have to do this time around. She has been learning about space and planets at school, so I thought she would still be satisfied.

They had 2 of the “bigger” kid’s slides that emptied out in to a pool area. The day we were there (and yes you heard that right the DAY we were there) the gate was closed on one side and the pool was full of munchkins. I’m not sure why it was closed because it had the water running, there was no official “closed/caution/do not enter” type of tape or sign anywhere or anything. So, we were thinking maybe one of the kids just happen to hit the door and it closed. My husband opened it back up and all was good.

Since these slides emptied in to a mini pool area, it seem like the kids would slide down and then stay down in the pool…in everyone’s way trying to actually make use of the slide. No parents ever said anything to their child about moving either.

There was a “mini-baby” slide too. My daughter stepped up on it, slid down and she was done with it.

The rockets situated in the middle of the slides were actually a shower to rinse off.

The main pool was small and I think it’s only 1 ½ feet deep? It was crowded with kids that wanted to splash…which I understand, that’s what they do…and so does mine. BUT, here’s the drawback… There is no place to sit. Well, there was a bench there, which “maybe” fit about 5 people on it and of course it was full. Almost this entire area is raised…you have to walk up steps to get to the pool and slides and there really isn’t much room for any seats. But if it’s up there, and you have to watch your children, then you are going to stand around OR just plop down on the floor like I did and camp out. I’m a firm believer in plopping down. I do it all the time. I do it at home some times, I’ll do it when I’m helping my daughter get dressed or putting her shoes on, I’ve been known to do it in a store if I’m going through a bottom shelf looking for a certain color and size of something…plop, down I go on the floor while I go through things. I’ve plopped waiting on a show to start, plopped waiting in a line that isn’t moving…I’m a plopper. There I’ve admitted it. The first step is admitting you have a problem. Now where can I get help? (I guess my cure will come when I get to the point that I can’t get back up right?....did I mention I gained 7 pounds on this cruise? That might stop me if I keep going at this rate with my cruises).

Ok, see that "bench" looking blue thing at the hand rail in front of the steps? That's the ONLY seating they have here. They don’t even have seating around the bottom half for people. I think there was maybe 2 picnic tables around the edges, out of site from the pool, but of course if you sit there, you can’t watch your little one that is up on deck.

Then they had some Ping-Pong tables there as well…

So that's pretty much the kids pool deck area. 

Oh, I did want to mention...the pool is chlorinated (and boy could you smell it), so regular water for the kiddos.

Ok, it’s a little hot out here and I think it’s time to head inside. Since we just ate all that good buffet food (rolling eyes), let’s do a quick jog around the ship to try to lose “some” of this weight and I’ll post some random shots here and there in no particular order…and too make sure you’re all paying attention again and notice that I switched things up a bit.

If you are so inclined to feel the need to play video games because there just isn’t anything else to do on a cruise ship, there’s a game room here (I believe you swipe your key card to play and I never once seen anyone in there):

This is where you can purchase all of those highly overpriced pictures they take of you while on the cruise. For those of you that are latitude members, you will get a discount ONLY ON PHOTOS. You do not get a discount on supplies, cameras, scrapbooks or anything else. I SWEAR that I got my 15% discount on the previous 2 cruises when I purchased my scrapbooks, but maybe not? I’ll have to…yep, check my scrapbook for the receipt. Mentioning this "discount" will be become more relevant later in my report…remember it. 

They sort everything by the day they were taken. Just be aware, they do put pictures behind pictures which make it next to impossible to find some times. I really like the Epic’s system where it has the face recognition photos and all of your photos are all in one place and it tells you exactly where to go to find them. I know there was one day that I KNOW we had our pictures taken in port and we looked all over for them…actually for 2 days and they were nowhere to be found. My husband swore they didn’t turn out or something. I swore we were such a good looking family that someone else purchased them already because they thought it would be a cheaper option than buying art at the art gallery. Toward the end of the cruise, both pictures magically appeared. I guess it was kind of like that saying your mom use to say if someone stole you from me, they’d bring you back quickly. Well they brought ours back this time around.

This is the beautiful library they have there:

I managed to snap a shot of the hubby walking through the shopping area. I never did come back and take pictures of it while it was open. It was a pretty nice sized area and was designed just like the Pearl was. I usually only purchase some souvenir tee shirts there and a stuffed animal for the little one. This time I got the tee and hat combo (just like on the Pearl) that said Norwegian Star on it for about $24 after my discount. I also came back later in the week and decided I needed a matching pink sweatshirt to go with it since I do live in a cold state and do go to school at campus…I need more winter stuff. We purchased the little one a rubber type dolphin and a stuffed Shumu whale to match her “pin”.

Your friendly “cheap” liquor and tobacco duty free store was available to gobble up your money as well. I know that cigarettes are MUCH more expensive on the Star than any other ship by about $30 for one of their 5 carton “deals”. I don’t know if they increased the prices fleet wide recently or each ship sets their own price.

Oh that nice $2700 baguette diamond ring that the employee at the jewelry counter was trying to get me to buy because it would look so nice on my finger and she was giving me such a great deal by letting me have it for “only” $1700... yes it was nice, but not “that” nice. We purchased a new black diamond ring for the hubby with my (not tooting my own horn) jackpot winnings one night from the slot machines and here it is 3 years later and 2 diamonds have fallen out and the band looks like total crap…all scratched up. Nope, I think I’ll pass on these “great deals”.

On to The Red Lion Pub that is located on deck 7. This was a neat little place and was ALWAYS hoping especially at night. You were lucky to make it through there. They had karaoke there. This place kind of reminds me of the Spirits little area that I believe they considered it the Blue Lagoon, but it was so cute and along one of the walkways from one side of the ship to the other.

You could also get popcorn, hot dogs, and nacho’s with cheese there all the time. We would always grab a couple of bags of popcorn when we were headed to the shows in the Stardust Theater. It was a nice little treat and on the same deck. 

They had a “public” piano in there, so if you could play the piano, you were welcome to play. I only remember hearing some kids on it one day playing like chopsticks or something. Nothing big.

I know there is a lot more to the ship, but these are the only pictures I managed to take and that we were in most of the time. Sorry to those of you that might be looking for a different venue that I didn't post. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I didn’t even find Cagney’s or the Star Bar until the day before we got off. I had no idea where it was at. So no pictures there. 

So I guess this brings me to an end of the actual ship “tour”.

Oh wait, I almost completely forgot...THE KIDS CLUB!! Geesh, here I thought I was ready to start working on sorting all of my daily pictures and thoughts.

My apologies to all of the parents out there waiting for these pictures and details. 

The kids club seems to be liked by all of the kids. I had parents telling me that their kids were saying this was by far the best kids club they’ve been to. I’m not what made it so different, but they all seem to like it. I can say that the staff was excellent! The activities they do with the kids are outstanding. They had a theme (just like the other ships) every night and they told stories about whatever the theme was, read books, did projects making things related to the theme, watched movies and did parades. One of the best things…they put on a show, several times at the Stardust Theater. More of that in my actual review. 

They have 2 separate areas at the kids club. To the right are the older kids and a huge room. To the left are the 2-5 year olds and a lot smaller. 

They pretty much have a floor of their own. This is on the 13th floor on the aft of the ship. It’s really neat. You can only use the middle elevator to access it. It’s the only elevator that goes up there. Or you can get off on deck 12 and walk up the steps there that only lead to the kids club.

They were festive up there as well with a tree and decorations. There was a sign I meant to take a picture of on the stairs (it was huge and covered the wall) and it was a picture of an elf that said “Welcome to the North Pole, now go home!”. LOL (You can kind of see it in the picture above)

Like all of the ships, sign up for the kids club is the first day when you get on and you get to tour the area. I took plenty of pictures for your enjoyment. They also watch movies in there.

The Freestyle Jungle Gym play area, where you're free to bang yourself up and drain all of your energy before leaving for the night. Take notes kids, make sure you have drained yourself so much that when your parents pick you up and you stop to eat before retiring to your room, you manage to fall asleep and have to be carried back to the room, dreaming, kicking, fighting, oblivious to your surroundings along the way. High Five for trying to wear your parents out on the walk back to the room on a full stomach.

Down the hall and around the corner was a jungle gym.

I think I need one of those mats for my "plopping" habits. At least it would be a soft plop.

On around the corner...notice the books on the shelf? Tell me what kid can get a book and sit down in those chairs and be able to concentrate on reading with a full blown jungle gym starring them in the face. That's like putting a chocolate cake in front of a fat kid (just a saying folks, don't get bent out of shape and I'm not discriminating against weight, well...maybe my weight and especially the 7 pounds I gained while I was on the cruise). Hmmm, maybe I should have rephrased that since it doesn't really fit "me" since I don't even like chocolate cake. Ok, dumb choice of words I guess, but you get the point. Right?

There was also a story book time area. I also believe it served as a multi-purpose area because I would see them doing activities in there, making things, playing games, catching bubbles and so on.

Doesn't it just overwhelm you with the urge to plop down and read a book or tell a story. I know it does me.

Here it is, your worse traffic nightmare (other than the port of NOLA). This SMALL tiny hallway with parents and kids jumping up and down with excitement to enter the kid’s area is just the worse ever. The counselors (or as my daughter called them “teachers”) sit at the end of this hall, in a kids chair with this soft cushiony thing (like the chairs in the Kids Café in the buffet) and this cushiony thingy-ma-bob takes up almost the entire hallway. You have to bend down to a munchkin height to sign them in while your munchkin “tries” to squeeze through the few inches left between the cushiony thing and the wall. Yes, they will hit and drag it every time, pushing the cushiony thing all over the place trying to get in and out. Those said parents that just dropped off their kids are then trying to exit down this small corridor that other parents are also in dropping off their kids and it’s just a cluster flark of madness. If you notice in the pictures, you will also see added cushiony long thingy’s to sit on in the hallway….for added blocking the hallway pleasure for you. Imagine people sitting there AND you trying to get by them as well. Yep, I tried it once, it didn’t work too well. I was in everyone’s way. I would have been better off if I plopped on the floor and curled up my feet and legs against the wall than sitting here. 

It was my ONLY complaint for the kids club. THE ONLY…they were awesome and it’s not their fault it’s like this…BUT, all you would have to do NCL to remedy this problem is have the check in maybe in the little room off to the side or right there before the hallway….I don’t know, something, anything, throw me a bone and make the parents happy. This design is just TERRIBLE with a capital everything.

One other category that I arranged in my pictures will be called “Artwork”…numerous pictures in the stairways in different locations and different floors. I missed a lot and even found stairways that I hadn’t seen toward the end of the cruise, but once again….no camera at the time.

Now as I said, I’m not really a picture art type of person, however I thoroughly enjoy the creations they put up on the ships in the stairways. Some are very neat.

See the buckets on the floor? Yea, we'll get to that later in the review...

Now remember me telling you (when I was on the "Art gallery" portion of the pictures) that I DID love metal type pictures?

Last but not least, my daughters favorite pictures. All I heard every time we passed them was “look mommy, look at this fish, I like this fish, I wish I had this fish”. Then she’d move on to the next fish in the picture…“look mommy, look at this fish, I like this fish, I wish I had this fish”.

That's the end of my Art pictures on the ship. :D

For those fans of the creative artwork paintings around the promenade decks...this one's for you.

Not too much to say about them, they are colorful, pretty, creative and fancy free.

This "Circus" theme above got me in the mood for a corn dog...seriously, I just went to the freezer and got 2 corndogs and fixed them. I'm sitting down eating them while dipping them in mustard as I post the rest of the pictures.

The above picture...I seen this and thought "now why would they have bowling pins on the ship when there's no bowling. I love drunken bowling and that's the one thing this ship lacks-a bowling alley. You go bowling, you have 1 drink and then when you score isn't good you blame it on drunken bowling and the ship rocking. Yep, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

(Yes, I later figured out after looking at it several times that they are not bowling pins but what they use to juggle with in the circus, hence the circus theme. :smacks forehead with hand at this point: )

Ok time to start from the beginning….I just know that I’m going to mess this up and forget things that happened on certain days and have to make extra posts, but bear with me. I’m trying. There’s just so much to a cruise and so hard to remember everything.

I have my trusty dailies beside me and a few notes I’ve made on the computer that I wanted to touch base on and hopefully things will just start to flow once I start. If I forget something, I pinky promise I’ll come back and post, it just might not be in the right order. LOL That happens when you get order, you forget things.

Now I also have to tell you, I’m a planner. No, you don’t get it, I’M A PLANNER!!!! I research and read for MONTHS on everything. I read reviews; I ask tons of questions, I have everything planned. I make spread sheets with EVERY single charge that we will spend to the tee. I ask anyone that has been to a certain place how much the cab ride was, how much were drinks, how much was food, I ask for menus…you name it. I make folders containing each port/place we will visit, an air flight folder, ship folder, food folder, taxi folder…you get the picture. In said folder I have printed maps, typed up hints/tips, spread sheet from above, any emails for proof needed, printed receipts and confirmation numbers, and an envelope that contains the exact amount we are to spend on each. I know I’m a little OCD but it has always worked for me and I’ve been doing this since I was 18 and doing land vacations every year. It helps plan the trip and budget it and it works for me. People ask all the time about how to set up a cash on board account and how it all works…well, this girl knows how and does it and up until now, I’ve walked away every time with THEM owing ME less than $10.00. Insert my praise here please.

Ok, time to bring me down off my pedal stool. I take pride in being such a planner that when I screw up (and let me add this has never happened), then it completely throws me off. Well, I forgot the blankie. I screwed up. I start looking for things…um well, I might have forgotten my hair ties as well (oh no, it’s hard to look your best on a cruise all the time and those beach days definitely require a hair tie with my long hair), oops I forgot my comb too…ok, I can live with that and improvise by using something else. No biggie. Oh no, I forgot my suction cupped 64x magnification mirror to use to put my contacts in. GASP. I had lasik in my early 30’s and had 20/15 vision, but they let you know that your close up vision will sooner or later go. Well it went and I wear contacts in order to read. Well if you are blind and can’t see up close, looking in a regular mirror doesn’t cut it. I will be blindly putting in contacts the rest of the cruise and getting aggravated. Ok, I screwed up this cruise. But, the best is yet to come trust me.

So after the fiasco of trying to get on the ship and the delays, we got on the ship and I got to see my WOW factor of the Atrium! Holy moly, it was BE-U-TI-FUL (yes I’m aware that’s not spelled right, I was shouting it out the way I said it). Immediately I made my first official “On the ship facebook post”…I believe it read something like “OMG, I love this ship”…or something along those lines. I immediately started texting my 24 year old daughter to tell her about it (she was supposed to be on this ship with us and didn’t get to come in the end and they are waiting for the “next” cruise).

Most people get on the ship and immediately head to get lunch. We were still full from the awesome HOT breakfast buffet breakfast we had earlier and figured it was the perfect opportunity to do some exploring before everyone tried to become a permanent fixture in my awesome (so you guys say) pictures. Yes, this is the first time I’ve done this. We are usually the “normal head-to-the-buffet-for-some-grub” type of people because we’ve skipped breakfast or had the “complimentary” COLD breakfast, which is never satisfying, that the hotel usually offers.

I was picture snap happy. Two camera’s in my hand (I discovered the Canon D10 back before my Epic cruise in 2010 and have never looked back or even bothered to take my dslr since that cruise because I simply love that little camera and purchased a second one at the beginning of this year before my Pearl cruise) and strolling every venue I could wander in to.

We were on the ship maybe 1 hour when we heard the “ding-dong, hello and welcome to the beautiful Norwegian Star. We would like to let you know that rooms on decks ___ (insert whatever deck is lowest, I think maybe deck 4 that passengers can have rooms on?) through deck 7 is ready.” They take a 30 second break and you hear “Ding-dong, passengers on decks 9 through 13 are now ready.” Doesn’t it figure we are on deck 8. Oh well, it’s ok, I wasn’t done exploring anyhow. By the time we made it to the Market Cafe, we both turned and looked at each other and knew we still weren’t hungry but kind of shrugged our shoulders and said “what the heck” and headed for a plate. We didn’t get much, just a little snack and something to drink. Then finally we heard “Ding-dong, passengers on deck 8, your rooms are now ready.” Knowing now what I didn’t know back then, hindsight should have been an indication of what was to come with our rooms being last on the list.

We headed down to find our room. I knew it was somewhere in the middle and kept thinking we were more toward the aft of the ship (that’s where our interior room originally was supposed to be, but we got the “free upgrade” when prices dropped and were now in a new location. I would not get use to knowing that this new location consisted of being toward the front throughout the cruise).

When we got to our room WOW, this obstructed port window was actually one of the BIG picture windows and not really too obstructed. Yes, we had boats in front of us, but we could see out, see land and water and we were kind of “in between” two boats, which made it nice. I have only sailed once in an exterior cabin and it was a porthole room with no view because of the salt on it. I also didn’t know how things were going to work out with now having some light in the room and sleeping. I kind of enjoy that darkness of the interior and go to sleep much faster. However, it worked out pretty darn good and my daughter especially liked it because it was kind of a “night light” for her and she wasn’t scared. (She’s been freaked out over the last 6 months and insists on sleeping with the hall light on every night).

Now don’t be making fun of my small room, but as I’ve said, we are used to an interior so this was a huge upgrade. The interiors are 142 sq ft I believe and I “think” this is around 187??? But it made a huge difference, especially on the sides of the bed. Even more so once we pushed the bed to the side up against the wall and actually had room to walk on the side of it. Yep, I’m excited.

This is our "obstructed view" not really too shabby:

This is standing down on deck 7 looking up at our window:

For those of you asking about the “comfort” of the beds. I have sleep like I was sleeping on a cloud on all of the NCL ships and have never felt where the beds are divided. This bed gets a minus for comfort. It’s the worse bed ever. It was hard; you could not only FEEL the division of the beds but see it! It was awful. Let me tell you, the pillows were not much better! They felt like they were down feathers but the minute you laid your head on them, you sunk and it became totally flat. This week would prove to be the worse night’s sleep I’ve had in many many year. I also have to comment on the bed sheets. Do they always use a regular sheet as a fitted sheet? Or was it just this ship? Every morning I woke up with the so called supposed to be “fitted” sheet that was not a fitted sheet pulled back off the bed and the foam exposed while I was all tangled up in it. Maybe it was just me since it was the worse bed to sleep in and maybe I tossed and turned more than normal and caused them to come off? I’m not sure at this point. One last bad-bed comment is the comforter. Now I have always been EXTREMELY happy with the thick down comforter on the previous ships. This was a matching set however…they matched the pillows…FLAT and thin. 

Anyhow, getting to the picture I took. This shows what “this” ship/room had for bedding when put together. I guess I really can’t verify that this is the same set up on all of the other ships that I was on since they did not feel like this. 

As you can see, there’s the mattress, then the foam, then a sheet, then the padding, then another sheet posing as a fitted sheet. 

So I guess it's going to be hard for me to jump in now when the question is ask “how are the beds on NCL?” because now it’s a mixed review of all good and one bad. I wonder if it depends on the ship now? I did talk to others on my roll call that complained about their beds as well and this was before I ever said anything about mine. So, it’s not just me.

I will now just give you a tour of the room (it’s not like it’s big and requires a lot of explanation so you can figure out what everything is). Tons of storage and definitely adequate enough for our family of 3 in this room. 

Also, I might add that there is a trundle bed under one of the twins (which is usually what my little one sleeps on, but remember, she’s a BIG girl now, so she chose to sleep on the top bunk pulled down).

Holy batman the glare from the life vest, if that don't save you out in the water there's no hope for you at all!

It may be me, but it seemed like the safes here were a bit smaller? Anyone else notice this? Or did I just have more "crap" this time around? Yea, that's probably it. They just seemed like they weren't as tall as previously.

On to the bathroom. It's the normal small, cramped bathroom as the interior rooms. The potty area did have a pull out glass door. I'm not sure what for or who would use this. It just makes it more cramped in there and there's a main door to shut if you are using the potty. If you are shutting it for privacy while someone else is using the sink...um HELLO...it's a glass door, there's no privacy.

Their shower is just the same as the others; they provide you with their pump on the wall shampoo and body wash. I do use the body wash (plus I bring along a bar of soap), but I would never be able to use their shampoo, my hair is too long, fragile, thin and tangley.

Sink area standard but wait for it, wait for it…does anyone notice what’s in this picture??? Anyone??? I noticed right away when I walked in and shouted for joy. Can you spot one of my missing items?

Do you see it? A MAGNAFYING MIRROR BUILT IN (well glued/stuck/whatever) to the mirror….SCORE!!! :D

Sorry, this will be a long post with no pictures (don't cry, there's more to come), but I have already showed you my small room and there's not anything left to see.

These are just some notes so sit back and read and let the anticipation build up for the pictures to come:

We decided to go ahead and move the previously put together twin beds in the middle over to the side up against the wall and get the room situated the way we wanted it. We found that it worked out best if we put it up against the wall where the pull down bed was located. That gave us the maximum space on the opposite side where the vanity was and we could easily walk through there. But wait, what was that on the floor??? The most disgusting glob(S) of dust balls I’ve ever seen. :eek: It was gross. I kept thinking now how long has this been here and if the beds are normally pulled apart, how could this be missed when vacuuming? Either way it was nasty and disturbing. I made sure to leave the end table pulled away from that area so that the room steward could visibly see it…and he did not that night when he turned down our sheets, but the following day when he made up the room some time during the day.

I figured I would go ahead and start to put away some of our things in the drawers and shelves. I pulled some of the life vest off the shelves and stored them in the overhead cabinet that was hard to reach and I knew I wouldn’t be putting things up there. GASP, the shelves were covered with dust! Now I understand that those life vest have probably been sitting there for a while and not used…since the ship has not pulled a Costa Concordia yet (and hopefully never will), but still…you don’t dust the shelves? :confused:

That’s like me going around my house dusting around my vases, knick-knacks, candles etc, on shelves or tables. I mean come on. Who does that? It was gross and I ran to the bathroom (well, not ran since it was right in front of me…remember, I have a SMALL room) and grabbed a wet washcloth and started wiping down things.

I finally recovered from my vacation housekeeping chores :rolleyes: and started putting things away trying to evenly distribute each of our clothes per drawer. I did end up sharing the socks and undie drawer with my daughter, but that was ok, she has mini socks and undies so mine hardly noticed hers were there at all. ;)

We did have our NCL slot coupon sitting on our bed when we entered. If you play slots, it helps. Pay $10 and they give you $20 to play with. (I take advantage of any offers I can get). I also buy the slot play coupons…pay $25 and get $50 in slot play per person (limited 1 pp per 14 days).

I had my “thank you for organizing the cruise critic meet & greet, this is your time, place, date and so on letter. Boy did I feel important and special.

We had our “come join us for the latitudes members’ party” tickets there as well. I’m a silver the hubby a bronze. I like to stay a step ahead of him like that. Hehe :p

Also if you noticed in the pictures of the room…questions are always ask about the hair dryers in the rooms. You’ll see the big silver hair dryer hanging in its holder on the wall at the vanity. It works fine and like I said, I have LONG hair and I don’t have a problem with it. I never bring my own. Just be aware…you must have muscles to use it. The thing is H-E-A-V-Y. If you don’t have muscles and use it every day, by the time you disembark, you will have muscles.

Also, (as I said before, I would forget something)…still containing to the rooms, so I’m claiming “SAFE” on this one… it was around 2pm when they announced that our rooms were ready. It was around 4pm when our luggage finally arrived. Also at 4pm is the MANDATORY life boat drill which we went to before putting our luggage away.

By this time, after all the hard work I had done, I thought it was about time we actually went and ate lunch. I decided that Versailles sounded good and off we went.

Off to Versailles we went. I may be a little confused about my timing on this. We might have done Versailles now, before the sail away or after…it’s all a blur at the moment, but I’m pretty sure that we did it before the sail away. If someone comes along and says “hey idiot, Versailles isn’t even open around that time for lunch” then I’m changing my story to it was after the sail away. Ok? But then that would make it dinner right? I do know it was for lunch. So, yea…that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

We get to Versailles and we are immediately seated at the front of the ship (we always seem to get this spot on all the ships) by the beautiful glass arched windows.

I ordered the stuffed mushroom for an appetizer and it was yummy.

For the main meal, I ordered the Philly sandwich. We it arrived…hmmm. I’m not sure if maybe the Philly’s that I have always had are wrong or if this was wrong. Problem number 1, the bun was so hard I ended up having to eat the inside leaving the edges on my plate. Problem number 2, it had some type of gravy on it??? Is this normal? I did not like the gravy or whatever it was. Problem number 3, the cheese was American and not Mozzarella like I’m use to on a Philly. The fries were yummy and would remain yummy throughout the entire cruise.

My husband order a hamburger and fries and said they were good and he proved it by cleaning his plate.

My daughter had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and chips. She decided at that point that our yummy fries were better than any potato chips and would keep this decision for the rest of the cruise and stand firm on it! She had to have her daily fix on fries…daily! (I can’t say I blame her they were good).

Ok, our bellies were full and it was time to head out to the sail away party on deck.

We get up on deck and the party music is playing and Xcite is getting everyone pumped up by playing music that you interact with and it was awesome….until we started to see this roll in…

We knew it was a matter of time. Come on, it’s past 5pm, let’s get the big boat (I know ship) moving!!!

Well, nevermind, Carnival beat us to it and pulled out first. She came really close (at least from our perspective it was close). It was fun to watch her sail away with her huge big screen t.v. on deck (like the Epic has).

This was now our view…people were still pumped up and anticipating the storm rolling in by coming up to where we were sitting at the Bier Garten under a roof.

We watched the Conquest pull out and with the clouds rolling in, the lights came on and I thought it actually made for a nice picture.I actually like storms. I think they make nice pictures. I’m the one you’ll find out standing in my yard taking pictures of lightening. Yep, that’s the crazy neighbor. If it’s just raining and no lightening, we’ll go outside and the daughter will play in the rain and she loves every bit of it!!!

I turned around and snapped this picture because I thought it was neat to see the nasty looking clouds just peaking underneath the bridge.

Here we go…it’s finally our turn. I think we could have tailgated the Conquest a little more, but hey, we at least pulled out and the rain came!

It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but it did get a little windy so the rain was blowing in under the roof at the Bier Garten and people were scrambling for cover. That is…except for those down on the tiered seating/lounging areas…they took off their flip-flops and kept dancing away. GO THEM!! I would have done the same thing if I didn’t the munchkin with me. Nothing like dancing in the rain. When we decided to head down and back inside, we passed by the dancing mob, I gave my husband that “look” and he returned that other “no way look” back at me. Yes, he can read my thoughts and knew I would have stopped to dance!

We headed inside and looked around a little more, a few more pictures, and then my camera battery finally died. Back to the room to pick up the other (twin sister) camera. By then it was time to let the munchkin have some “kids her age” interaction. She LOVES the kids club and she’s one of those that will wake up begging to go and go to bed talking about going to see her friends the next day when she gets up. NCL has a wonderful kids program. They must be doing something right.

We checked her in using that oh-so-small crowded hallway with the rest of every other family onboard with a child who was ready to adventure off on their own, unattended, without kid in tow.

Ok, checked in and ready to….um, what shall we do? 

I know…head to the Casino! Yes! Now I have to say, I have ALWAYS walked away at every casino (land or ship) way ahead of the game. I have a strategy I use and it works for me. I’ve won jackpots before on progressive machines (on the Epic…I managed to win enough to buy the hubby a new black diamond ring in the gift shop). This time, the hubby was the lucky one. He used my strategy and it was working for him. I hung my tail between my legs like a scolded puppy that night. I won some, but not like normal and definitely not more than I came there with.

On the way back to pick up our daughter from the kids club, they were having a Mardi Gras party in the atrium. There was a lot of music and dancing and the employees were up on the next floor throwing beads down to us. Thank goodness you didn’t actually have to “do” anything but raise your hand in the air for them to throw them. ;) We ended up with 4 beads. I had to keep trying until I got a purple one (my daughter’s favorite color). Then we were on our way to pick up our daughter and eat dinner.

We decided to go to Versailles again since we knew it was LOBSTER NIGHT!!! Now I have somehow managed to miss lobster night on EVERY cruise. I have been told it’s the first night. I have always taken that as the first actual full cruise night I guess. Well, I finally ask these fine cc people on here and they clarified it for me that it was actually sail away night. Yep, I wasn’t about to miss that! I have also read on here that they know it’s this night because it says so in the daily. Um no, it does not at all. I have read it front to back several times and it’s not listed. (But remember I’m blind until I have my contacts in, but no worries, I have magnification now in my bathroom).

Yes, there was a line!!! There was also a wait once you made it down the line to the reservation desk. Once “registered” they gave us a little buzzer and we headed next door to the Spinnaker to wait. The lights were almost out. It was very dark in there. They did have the disco balls going around the dance floor and my little one had a blast dancing on the dance floor…she was the star on the Star of the night and had the floor to herself. She loved it.

^^crappy picture that I forgot to put the setting on NIGHT

I think they said it would be about ½ hour wait, but I think it was more like maybe 15 minutes if that and our buzzer went off. We were quickly seated…guess where? Nope, you’re wrong, not a window seat up front this time…weird but fine.

I’m searching the entire menu…where is the LOBSTER???? Give me lobster! Oh, I see it’s hidden under the alias “Surf & Turf”. Haha NCL, clever. I really think they don’t want people to know about this lobster night. It’s not advertised in the dailies, it doesn’t clearly state “Lobster” in the heading on the menu and when you waiter comes to take your order, then not only do they not mention the lobster or that it’s your once-in-a-lifetime chance to get your lobster on the ship but they direct you to their “special of the night”….chicken. Um, I can get chicken any night of the week on the cruise…give me my well waited for 4 cruises in a row lobster…tonight!

Now that we know what the surf is…I guess everyone knows that the turf is steak. Does everyone remember I don’t like steak? Well if you didn’t, I don’t! So I ask to have the Rosemary chicken (see I tried your “special” after all Mr. Waiter aren’t you happy now?) instead. They were definitely both yummy! The delivery of soda's was very slow. (We pre-purchase the soda card prior to the cruise every time). The soda also seemed very watered down.

For starters I had the mushroom soup and it was very good.

I don’t know who’s plate this is…either the hubby or the daughters…and nor did I care that night. I was in lobster heaven!

I had ordered cheesecake (because I’m a cheesecake freak) for desert. We sat and sat waiting for them to bring it after we were done eating. They had cleared our tables and then nothing. I finally had to flag the waiter down and tell him I'm still waiting on my cheesecake. It finally arrived. But wait, it tasted funny. Kind of foamy textured funny. I have had cheesecake on NCL with every cruise and have always LOVED it…like the real deal…like New York style type. This was not that! Please tell me you have not changed your cheesecake to this.

We left totally full and totally happy and I felt like I had finally accomplished something (making it to Lobster night).

We came back to our beds pushed back out to the middle??? Um, ok we put them along the wall because we obviously wanted them that way for maximum space. Ugh. Me and this room/steward is just not off to a good start and I haven’t even met him yet…which is also kind of weird. We have always been introduced to the steward every prior cruise and they are calling us by name by the next day.

Sakari (our daughter) was so excited to see a towel animal and remembered them from the previous cruises. Santa had also brought her a present…just to let her know “Yes, I do know that you are on a cruise and I will not forget you at Christmas and of course, I’M STILL WATCHING YOU and can change my mind at any moment about the naughty list”. Well, at least that was my story. Santa gave her some new “night-nights” to wear to sleep while on the cruise. How thoughtful Santa.

We moved our beds back along the wall and called it a night after Sakari ate our chocolates on our pillow that she is now totally convinced Santa is leaving for her. Somehow during the entire cruise, she never catches on that Santa doesn’t put any on her pillow. She always grabbed ours and said Santa left them for her. I used our room phone, which I might add is over on the desk on the wall instead of beside the bed like I'm use to in order to put my wake up call in (which if you think about this...when your phone call alarm goes off you actually have to GET OUT of bed to turn it off). I'm still undecided if this was a good thing or not.

I crawled in to my hard bed and had a semi-restless night on my flat pillow and thin sheet. Good night.