mking8288

Beautiful day at sea, sunshine and calm wind, seas at 1 meter or 3 to 4 ft. Speed trimmed to 14 kts. Conditions will worsen ***** later today. ***** "Increased to" 2 meters or 5 to 8, 9 ft. and more wind speed.

Alex, LHR labor issues might be settled last minute, as you know ... Our GTW non-stop to JFK should land about 2 hours later than yours. Niece now said she can take Monday off so we don't mind an unplanned overnight stay at airline's expense, if our flight is delayed 😆. Fingers crossed Let's worry about that later ... gotta do last minute prep for tomorrow & download maps for navigation.

Good morning 🌞 cloudy skies and it's Day #8 - will arrive Iceland tomorrow around 1 to 2 PM. Temp will be in 40's and showery. Prima now doing 17 kts vs 13 kts over the past 3 days ... pushing faster to get there earlier ? Now, sitting in the Hudson MDR over breakfast - going at 18+ kts Code Alpha over ship's PA system around 6 AM in cabin 119xx starboard side, broadcasted into all stateroom - 3rd one on this TA.

Prima's Abby - digital online library screenshots - several thousands titles in popular categories *** accessed Abby on my Amazon Fire HD 10 Fire tablet, using my QPLS Card, NCL Prima card needed to borrow a book, samples can be read without a card.

@Sugar Magnolia Haha, you should've - we had 2 empty seats & could've join us ... we've had better hosts for these dinners. With surround sound noises at high decibel level, not easy to share stories & carry a good group conversation with the long oval dining table. Was just thinking, should we consider an informal CC power breakfast next Tuesday or Wednesday while at sea, and invite the GM to join us for a listening & converse a bit, or scratch that, just among ourselves - a handful of us to mingle & shoot the breeze. Of course, we can request cookies & ask for hash browns too

@Dukemstr Well, hello CC'er sitting behind us at dinner on the Hudson earlier with 2 ship officers at that oval table - I guess you spotted my "not-trademarked" travel vest, LOL. Please feel free to post, share & add any comments or observations, cheerfully welcomed as it adds richness, color, views and subtle details that we often missed and overlooked. I made our Semi or Live Report open & inclusive, fun & informative. Did any of the asst. managers or "supervisor" (non-servers or assistant servers) come by to visit & say hello at your dining table ?? Unless I blinked and we missed, none came around ... but did noticed some of the servers coming in & out of the gallery (kitchen) taking a peak at our table to see. I should note, we felt that the pace of our service was being rushed somewhat, not everybody finished their starter/soup/salad and the entrees began showing up, with other plates moved aside ... not the proper or best way to do a cruise ship dinner onboard NCL, given our 25 years of cruising the brand. Alas, it is what it is - I call & tell it like it is, likes and dislikes - being a true critic, to be fair & balanced. Thoughts ??

DWO - Guess who else was at tonight's DWO table - Peter & Penny, on the cruise to celebrate her official retirement from teaching ... hosted by a 2 strips "Senior Fire Officer" and 3 strips "Safety Officer" Dwayne Rego, from UK, with aspirations to become a ship captain one day. We also learn that Captain Kevin "O" is around 38-39 years old only, the youngest in the NCL fleet ... 3 other senior officers, including the Staff Captain are qualified and hold licenses to assume the duties of a captain should it become necessary. Saw the CruiseNext Manager (he was on the Getaway & Escape as we've spoken to him before on Latitudes matter) walking past us from/to the Hudson MDR and joked with Peter while waiting, wondered if he is hosting our table tonight or not ... There are about 300 Sapphire members onboard, among the 900+ Platinum. DWO setup is usually a table of 10, hosted by 2 ship officers and 8 guests attending ... but just 6 for our table tonight, a pair from Germany and 4 of us, with 2 empty chairs (no-show or last minute cancellation) Observation footnote - Hudson MDR was busy this evening as usual, but not exceptionally crazy busy and with numerous hostess on duty out front and I am sure at least 2 to 3 asst. managers on duty - not one, and not once, did we see anyone come around to introduce, say hello and check on our table, etc. Scheduling of DWO are handled by GM (Marc)'s secretary - April Anne Acosta doing the invite on his behalf, RSVP to Ext. 00 (if and when they answer their phone at Guest Services, LOL) On other ships like the Escape, it is not uncommon for the GM's secretary or executive assistant to include her direct extension to call back, and/or for other related matters ... as a matter of personal touch. It's a reflection of management style and approaches.

Promoting Food Republic in "The Local" today and coming out of the Hudson MDR, both Nama & Hasuki are both 2/3 empty, perhaps another slow evening. Post mortem: these might be partially attributed to the diverse mix of cruisers onboard the TA and high concentration of Chinese speaking ones with their frenzy for Mahjong & sometimes being rather loud. Sad to call some of them out as bring inconsiderate and buffet hogs, and takeovers of public spaces, blocking passage ways & not holding elevators, first in and out, obstructing access to elevator buttons for others. Susan pointed out that it might alleviate and ease some of that by posting reminders in the proper language that they understand as being "English" only alone isn't adequate, and that a chat should be held with the tour leader waiving the flag as the group's guide. Maybe, it's not too late - "Google Translate" hello 🤗

Shane performing solo in the Metropolitan Bar this evening.

Sunset is around 9:15 to 9:30 PM and sunrise is 5:15 AM ... sky hasn't completely darken yet at 9:55 PM at our present position on a 32 deg heading cruising at 13 kts, with calm seas and waves of 1 to 2 meters - wind has subsided, ideal to sleep in late on a weekend morning, clock to set forward 1 hour at 2 AM. Images captured using Google Pixel 7 Pro in Night Sight mode

Day 7 - FSD and preview of #8 just delivered

Looking good ahead for the next 30 hours on our heading to Iceland 👌

Forgot to mention, hot running water is back this afternoon. Got the hot water & coffee station set-up in the stateroom just in case ... while getting water from the buffet, noticed that multiple "violations" of improperly filling up personal water bottles - yike 😤 Why can't NCL add these 😯

Had lunch with our friends A & M this morning, their specialty dining onboard the Prima thus far has been good & positive. They also noticed that botn Hauski & Nami are, thus far, pretty empty every evening and not even 1/2 full ... I wonder why too. We like Palomar & moved one of the other SD to do them again next Monday, come join us and/or maybe we will informally declare that to be a CC night at Palomar - and ask whether or not Marc wish to come by to listen to some of the common issues identified by multiple "seasonsed" CC members (Sapphire & Diamond) Seeing that @Sugar Magnolia the party girl is ready for another late night action - I should pass along a tip from A&M that, the hostess & assistant managers at The Commodore do recognize and appreciated the patronage of higher tiered Latitudes members (Platinum & above) and will resect & honor request for priority seating there. I can vouch for that, as we were there 2 nights ago and were promptly seated ... plus, the asst. manager does indeed make an effort to chat with those of us dining there. UNLIKE, the Hudson MDR where none of them wanted to be do what's expected of them - unless, you started out by filling out one of the blue "Comment Card" and pull out a pen to start writing. A&M also shared with us, the hostess & greeters at the Hudson MDR entrance apparently, up until now, are ignorant and disregard the different tiers of Latitudes member and refused to honor request for priority restaurant seating in the Hudson. They spoke with one of the "striped" managerial NCL staffer on the first night, and was promised to look into the matter & get it corrected ... let's see if we notice anything different over the remainder of the cruise.

Sir, you got sharp eyes and spotted that, hats off to you, hahaha. Isn't that kind of like foot-in-the-mouth. There are far more "younger" people onboard the Prima doing the TA, including some teenagers and definitely college age for the 15 Days TA. Laundry returned to us, stacked high on the basket - worth up to $110 if they itemized the count & billed by the pieces, free ... not going to "insist" that they are in the correct sequence. We'll do another load early next week so we'll disembark with some clean clothes. Who wants to hand wash theirs on a cruise vacation ... not us. Unbelievable that the Prima is still using the small paper bag, perhaps they are going to exhaust them while unused bags are available, to sail & sustain & not waste them, LOL. Oddly enough, while the serving plates used in The Local are smaller across the board, the coffee "mug" used are bigger, with a 10 oz or 12 oz capacity (same size as the soup bowl) ... and they no longer leave a pot of hot coffee for DIY.