luckybecky

Thanks for this information. I did not know NCL was doing this so often. They actually changed our itinerary twice. First, they dropped Nicaragua. Then at a later date they also dropped Costa Rica and added Acapulco. Obviously changing or dropping ports for weather reasons is unavoidable and not the fault of the cruise line. But these changes were made months before sailing. No explanation why the changes. And we do look at itinerary more than pretty much any other factor when choosing which cruises to do, so it's important to us to have some reasonable belief that the itinerary will be followed unless mother nature intervenes.

Monday March 6 Sea Day We slept 11 hours! Worn out from staying so busy all the time. It felt so good to sleep! Once we got up we went for a brisk walk for 30 minutes on deck 8. You really can’t use the running track on deck 17 because there are just too many people. Deck 8 is also a very popular spot with lots of comfy sofas, chairs and loungers. Unfortunately the seat saving is just as bad here – or even worse!-- as on the pool deck. We saw towels “reserving” entire 8+ seat sectional sofas and chairs. Nobody there. Just towels. After getting in a light workout with our walk, we spent an hour or two in the pool and hot tubs on deck 16/17 and also went to Spice H2O on deck 17 aft. It’s a nice space, the hot tubs are larger. We had lunch at the buffet in between hot tubbing and swimming. They had a prime rib that was outstanding – steakhouse quality IMO. A delicious thick slice of juicy flavorful beef. Complemented with roasted potatoes and some expertly seasoned roasted veggies. And this was at lunch! They also had an excellent and beautifully presented antipasti spread at the buffte today: Back to our room to shower and get cleaned up for the evening. As we have done several times, we grabbed some chips and salsa (the salsa is surprisingly good!) to take to our room for late night snacks. Paul also likes to grab a sandwich and a couple of pieces of fruit for breakfast in the morning. We have some ziploc bags for this purpose. Today, he got a ham and cheese sandwich, apple and orange, to have in our cabin before leaving for our excursion in the morning. Casino for an hour or so, then Dinner early at 5pm so we can do the shows. Fried cheese Spring roll Buffalo chicken taco salad Strawberry spinach salad Pork loin from the classics menu. Prime rib was on the menu tonight, which we normally both would have ordered, but we had just had it at lunch. Lemon pepper chicken Lemon cream cake Chocolate volcano Magic show at 7 with Rob Rasner, then comedian Tyrone Hawkins at 9. They were both good.

Back on board we rested in our room for a little while, then went to the observation lounge for a drink. Such a nice space! We really like it up there. Dinner: went to Savor at about 5:45pm. They said they had only shared seating available. We walked across the hall to try Taste. They were able to seat us but were getting very full at that point. We got there just in time to get a table without a wait. Hot wings Tomato salad Shredded cabbage salad Mahi Mahi We were so full we skipped dessert as we often do. We finished just in time to run over to the theater for the Beatles. This was their Sgt. Pepper show. It was excellent. Theater was quite full. It always helps to arrive early. Then we hit the casino, and finally back to our cabin early.

We also briefly walked through an ancient monastery that had been destroyed I believe in an earthquake, and the ruins have now been incorporated into a luxury hotel. It was pretty cool but we couldn’t hear our guide well so didn’t hear the full story of the place. This tree was amazing! Next, back to the Jade Museum! Here were dozens of buses and hundreds of NCL passengers milling about on a narrow street waiting to be assigned to the small buses, to go back to the big buses. We were there close to half an hour. It was hot and filled with bus exhaust fumes, very crowded. An unpleasant, unorganized mob scene. Our guide did her best. I really dislike this kind of excursion which is so crowded and commercialized. We finally got on a little bus, then back to the big bus on the busy street, then hour plus ride back to the ship, arriving about 3:30pm. There is a large shopping area at the port if you just want to get off the ship to pick up a few souvenirs. Word to the wise: this was quite a bit of walking (which we do not mind at all, but may be difficult for some people) on very rough cobblestone streets and uneven sidewalks. I was wearing sandals which were not ideal for these walking surfaces. Wear good solid walking shoes. Do not even attempt this excursion if you have mobility issues. I logged 8700 steps from the time we got up to meet in the theater until we got back onboard. There is a pretty extensive shopping area just outside of the ship that you have to go through to get to and from excursion buses. We passed through this area but didn’t buy anything.

After lunch, we walked immediately next door (how convenient!) to the “Jade Museum.” We sat in rows of chairs for a mercifully brief introduction to jade. Then were immediately shepherded into the gift shop with many other NCL passengers from other tours. It was packed. My husband and I did not want to buy anything and wanted to escape this mob scene. The “museum” turned out to be a few display cases. Otherwise just a big store. We ended up waiting outside on the sidewalk. We do not like these enforced shopping expeditions disguised as “museums.” But now came a truly nice part of our tour. A very pleasant surprise! We happened to be in town on a Sunday during Lent. There is a tradition here that they make “carpets” on the street on Lent Sundays, for the processions that go down the streets. The carpets are made of colored sawdust, wood shavings, flowers and other natural materials. We got to walk down a street where they were making many of these. Later this afternoon, the religious procession would walk down the street on the way to the church, and would walk across these beautiful pieces of ephemeral art. They will be gone tomorrow. They were lovely to see and a nice treat for us due to lucky timing. Close to completing the carpets: the procession would be starting in just a few hours. A vendor of nuts. I wanted to buy some but you can't take them back on board. People picking the petals off thousands of flowers for use in the carpets. Almost time to begin

We also saw the busy city square which was overrun with vendors who were very persistent. One member of our group was wearing a t-shirt that had printed on the front, “I don’t have any money,” and on the back, “I don’t buy anything.” I meant to ask him if it worked to keep the vendors away; I doubt it. A man who wears many hats I think our walking tour took about an hour. We had 20 minutes of free time to walk around the plaza. Then we went to a restaurant that is apparently a subsidiary of NCL. It was not busy when we arrived but almost immediately began filling up as group after group of NCL tours arrived. They had set up a buffet style lunch where you went down the line as they served you black beans, rice, chicken, fried plantains, tortillas, and a dessert which our guide said was not served hot and crisp as it should be. Instead it was cold and mushy. But otherwise the food was acceptable. There was no drink included except for coffee that was so weak it looked like tea. We don’t drink coffee but others nearby complained about it. You could buy a beer for $5 or soda for $3. Nothing else to drink was offered with our “included” lunch. We were not impressed by the restaurant. Also this was the first time a bathroom (other than on the bus – yuck!) was available and we are 4 hours into the tour. Lunch:

Sunday March 5 Guatemala So today was my reminder of why I usually avoid ship excursions. There were some good bits, but I just don’t like being herded like cattle with dozens or even hundreds of others. I prefer small group tours. We booked the Colonial Antigua with lunch tour. We were supposed to meet in the Bliss Theater at 7am. Along with everyone else on the ship. The place was packed and the process for distributing your boarding stickers seemed a little disjointed. But we were onboard our bus with a total of 37 in our group by 7:30am. It was approximately 1.5 hours drive to reach Antigua. Once there, we had to switch to smaller buses because the big tour buses are too large for the streets of the old town. Paul nearly got hit by a car! We thought we were in a parking area because there were so many large and small buses parked everywhere on both sides. So when our guide told us to cross to the other side to get on the smaller bus, we walked out from in front of the bus just as a car went zooming by! Scary! Next we had a few minutes’ drive to downtown where we all joined back up with our guide. She was very good, but with such a large group it was impossible for everyone to hear her. Especially with lots of motorcycles and cars whizzing by, and a nonstop barrage from street vendors hawking their wares. We walked through the city streets where she pointed out a few beautiful churches, but we were only able to enter one, very briefly. Because it was during Lent, many of the buildings and churches were draped with purple bunting.

We had the NY Strip and filet mignon. Both were excellent. I hope you get to do it someday! We really enjoyed it. Now on with our story. We still have several more days and a few more ports. This is where our itinerary had been changed. At the time we booked it last summer, we were supposed to have Costa Rica on March 4, then Nicaragua on the 5th and Guatemala on the 6th. Both Costa Rica and Nicaragua were taken away, and replaced with a short stop in Acapulco a few days later. We were very sorry about this but we made the best of it.

Saturday March 4 Sea Day Another sea day. We went to the spa for a run, then to the pool. The hot tubs are fantastic! Just the right temperature (not too hot) for a tropical vacation. We have been on one other NCL cruise where the hot tubs were unusable because they were only lukewarm – too cold -- on a cruise to Norway. We had lunch in the buffet. After several times eating here, we’ve decided this is the best buffet of the cruise lines we have tried. It has been consistently good. I especially like the Asian section. Very good ginger beef, other stir fry dishes, and noodle soup. Back to our room in the early afternoon for a shower. Still has not been cleaned. Our steward apologized to us that he has not made it to our room yet. He has 25 rooms, said they used to have 16. And there used to be a team of head steward and assistant. Now it is just him by himself. This is really off putting to me about NCL. Our steward is working 10-12 hours a day, every day, never a day off, and feeling that he has to apologize to us repeatedly that he isn’t working fast enough. 😞 By the way, we sent out a bag of laundry yesterday after receiving a $29 special flyer in our room. We were able to stuff quite a lot of clothes into the bag (fold carefully; if you just wad them up you won’t be able to put nearly as much). The clean clothes were returned today in less than 24 hours. Anyway, after getting showered from the morning at the gym and pool, we went to the casino for awhile. We like to sit at the bar playing video poker. Bartenders Dom and Ernesto take great care of us. Back to our room for a nap before dinner. Then we went to The Local. We want to try as many restaurant venues as we can. The Local was OK. It can be very loud if there are activites in the atrium going on. The reuben sandwich was excellent. Blue cheese burger was also good, a very big burger. Pretzel bites with cheese appetizer was good but a very small portion of cheese, certainly not enough for the amount of pretzels that was served. Spinach artichoke dip was also very good. Reuben Blue Cheese burger We tried to get in the standby line for Jersey Boys. We saw people lining up a full hour before showtime outside the theater. We showed up much later than that for the standby line. When they let us in 10 minutes before the show, we could not find a seat so we left. Then we went to get in the standby line for comedy at The Social. We had to wait, I dunno, maybe 20 minutes or so. We were able to get in and get seats easily. The comedian was Flip Schultz who we saw before. He is hilarious. The standby line for the comedians usually was able to get in but don't wait to the very last minute. It always filled up by showtime. I noticed all the shows always started *exactly* on time in all venues. Finally a last spin in the casino before going back to our cabin just to chill, watched a movie before bed. Tonight we turn the clocks back one hour. The extra hour of sleep is welcome because we have an early excursion again tomorrow.

Cagney’s for supper. We had a 5:45pm reservation which I made months in advance. As I recall it was either early (before 6pm) or late (after 9pm) even making reservations so far in advance. Not sure if better times were available if we had gone to book once on board. Dinner took two hours which was about right. Service slowed down at the end. Took a long time for our plates to be cleared after we finished the main course, and then for dessert. But everything was very good. Steaks were cooked perfectly to order. Oysters Rockefeller Lobster bisque? Wedge salad NY Strip Sides: au gratin potatoes, grilled zucchini, grilled mushrooms, creamed spinach Filet mignon We saw the Nashville Tenors again. Different show from the first time but equally good. They are really talented, put on a fantastic show.

Friday March 3 Sea Day We slept late. I made our bed because I feel sorry for our steward being so overworked! It is an easy thing for us to do, and our room doesn’t looked so rumpled as we come and go if our steward doesn’t get to us until late. After a couple of times he told me to stop doing that LOL Then went to the pool, our first time and we are already on day 7 of this cruise! Of course on a sea day it was packed. We found one chair to leave our towels and things on while we cooled off in the pool. We went down the water slide a couple of times. One of the slides looks pretty scary; you stand in it and then they drop the floor out from under you. You take an almost vertical drop. I haven’t gotten up the nerve for that one yet! This may have been taken on another sea day; as you can see, very busy and no chairs open. Chair hogging was in full force on this cruise on deck 8, observation lounge, and of course pool areas. 20230306_105017.mp4 We had lunch in the buffet since we weren’t dressed for the dining room. Today they had a lot of Spanish/Mexican themed dishes. I had Asian. They had Korean style beef which was excellent, along with lo mein and fried rice. There is always an Asian themed section and an Indian section, and they always have pizza and a burger bar open. One thing I love about this buffet is that they have tortilla chips and potato chips available at lunch. On some ships, we have had trouble finding these kinds of snacks. Twice, we have brought some chips and salsa back to our room to save for late night snacking. (I pack a few ziploc bags for this reason on every trip.) They also have bar snack mix available at several if not all of the bars. Salty, crunchy snacks are my weakness so I really appreciate that they have them on this ship. We had a short spin in the casino. Relaxed on our balcony watching some sea birds that have been escorting us for hours. They are fascinating to watch as they swoop and dive into the water. There were many of them. I don't know where they came from; we were not near land. They followed us for many hours, I think into the next day if I remember correctly. birds diving.mp4 Then we went to the observation lounge for awhile until we were told to clear out. They were going to have the Latitudes party there and we weren’t invited.

Yes, it was. If you look at the deck plans, there are numerous forward cabins on deck 8. When we exited the forward elevators or stairs, we had to walk down the long corridor on port side past cabins 8162 to 8110. After you passed through the open "crew only" door at 8110 -- normally a closed, restricted area, there were a few additional cabins, not shown on deck plans, that were labeled for crew. Then you exited outside to the crew bar /recreation area shown above and to the bow. They had one way traffic, so on the return trip we walked past cabins 8710 to 8762 on the starboard side. There were several crew stationed along the route to direct traffic. We went out there to the viewing area a couple of times and pedestrian traffic was heavy.

We spent a little time in the casino in the afternoon. Then, having seen long lines at the dining rooms on previous nights, we went early to Manhattan at about 5:45. We thought we might have a long wait to get in. To our surprise, the line was short and we were seated very quickly. We had excellent service and got through appetizers (we usually order two apps each, often soup and salad) and entree within an hour. We were full so we skipped dessert. However in general I didn’t like the Manhattan. It was large and loud. I like the more intimate Savor and Taste much better, and glad these are an option. I’m almost certain they all serve the same menu. I'm not sure if I have posted the wine list, pretty sure it is the same in all restaurants. Here is the dinner menu for tonight View of the dining room Meatballs appetizer Asparagus soup Baked brie -- Yummy! Garden salad Chicken and seafood paella Sauteed chimichurri beef: Looks a little weird in my poor photo but was actually quite good We finished just in time to make it to the 7pm show. It was hypnotist Kelli Karl . She was good but I am a skeptic. I am not at all convinced that people were truly hypnotized. Of course it did not help that the show was interrupted by an emergency call for a “stretcher crew” to deck 7, right a the moment that people were supposed to be entering deep hypnosis. After the show, I was just worn out from a week of pretty much nonstop activity and just wanted to go back to our room. I don’t go to bed early and it was only 9pm so I worked on writing this review and just chilling, watching TV for awhile.

Panama City in the distance There was a canal expert on board who gave informative commentary throughout the day. Depending on your location, it could be hard to hear him, for example outside on deck 8, or in the Observation Lounge where many people were talking. So if you want to hear him, choose your spot carefully. Of course you could also listen to him on your TV. The full passage took about 12 hours. Two passengers were offloaded to waiting ambulances while we were in one of the locks.

Some more photos of our canal transit, not necessarily in order This is the view on our TV screen in our cabin of the forward ship cam

This is an amazing feat of engineering! 20230302_093029.mp4 After viewing the locks from several vantage points, we went to the gym for a run. It was moderately busy but we had no problem getting two treadmills next to each other. Back to our room for a shower. Then we went to Taste. The Freestyle Daily said they would open at noon. We arrived at 11:40am, but a day or two ago when we arrived at 11:45, they were already seating people. So we got a drink at the bar just outside the restaurant, and sure enough, they started seating people at 11:45 and we were able to get a table by the window. That was nice since we were still doing the Panama Canal transit. Room was not cleaned until just before 3pm. Steward Arif starts at the end of the hall so takes awhile to get to us. More viewing of the Panama Canal transit, spent a little time in Observation Lounge but it was very crowded. The same thing was happening here as we all know goes on at the pool: towels, books and other items placed on chairs to “reserve” them. It was intolerably HOT on our balcony on starboard side. Shady with a breeze on the port side. If you are doing this cruise from Caribbean side to Pacific side, I recommend you look for a port side balcony for viewing the Panama canal transit. – But on the other hand, for the remainder of the cruise our balcony was facing east, which meant we were in the shade in the afternoons. Public viewing areas for the canal were limited and were very crowded.

Thursday March 2 Panama Canal passage! I’ve already told you we are not morning people. We were awakened bright and early (7am or so) by a very loud and very long announcement from the hallway. Apparently we were entering the first lock. We sleep with a white noise app to help drown out extraneous noises but this speaker could be heard even through our closed door and white noise. I finally got up and found some ear plugs. We got up an hour or so later. Dressed and went out to the open decks to see what was happening. Deck 8 forward is normally closed, but was open for this event. This is normally the crew bar/ sun deck. We noticed several cabins at the very front that are not shown on the deck plans found online; these had name labels as being occupied by crew members. They are behind a door that is usually closed to guests but was open to allow access to the forward deck. As you can see, the very front of the bow was roped off which was unfortunate. It was quite crowded and hard to get a spot at the railing to take clear photos. We did our best. It was also very hot and humid. NCL had set up several tents and had water, orange juice, and cool washcloths available. You reach the forward deck on deck 8, they had people to guide you. Tons of traffic on these hallways. Would be a busy day outside your cabin door if you happen to be in a deck 8 forward cabin. This is the crew area. All the tables and chairs had been moved off to the side.

We don't tip per drink, and always got excellent service. By the end of the cruise we had 3 favorite bartenders and we gave them a generous tip on the last night. The only time I think it may be helpful is if you like to play slots. The roving waiters may happen to find you more quickly if you tip a dollar a drink, so you won't have to leave your machine to go get a drink. But at the bars we could see no difference at all in service received by tippers and non tippers.

The show in the main theater was a violinist, very good, not heavily attended so plenty of good seats available. The following photo cracked me up! I was trying to take a photo of the theater to show how big it is. The expressions on the faces of the people seated behind us made me laugh, but I didn't realize until I was writing my review that The Nashville Tenors were in the audience seated a couple of rows back! Unknown to me, they smiled and posed for us, unlike the others in the shot LOL! (Check out the guy at the lower right. I'm like, Dude! You're on a cruise! It can't be that bad!!) Back to our cabin with a glass of wine from the wine bar before bed. Here's a photo of the ship taken in Grand Cayman that I forgot to post earlier. The next day we would do our Panama Canal transit! I'll be back later to share that.

Dessert in Le Bistro Marquise au Chocolat Cheese plate was excellent and more than enough to share. The only thing that surprised me was that it was served with just a couple of ordinary saltine crackers.

Dinner in Le Bistro. Delicious! Sorry, my photos on the restaurants often came out with distorted colors, I guess something to do with the lighting. But everything looked great and tasted even better. Scallops, small portion but good. Endive salad Goat cheese croquettes French onion soup. Larger portion and more cheese, but the broth base tasted exactly the same as in the MDR. It was good. Veal chop Lamb chop

Back on board we went to lunch in Savor. Chicken marsala, scallops, appetizer portion of spaghetti carbonara. All was good but not amazing. Sorry I forgot to get the menu. Back to our room to watch sail away from our balcony, then a nice long nap – interrupted by the captain shouting at us from the speaker directly above our bed. He was announcing our transit times scheduled for the Panama Canal tomorrow. I thought they usually only made emergency or “important” announcements in the room, with general announcements only going over the speakers in the hallways and public areas. I was wrong. Paul hit the casino for a little while and came out about $250 ahead.

20230301_111706.mp4 These birds were just amazing. The aviary is free to visit.

I'm not sure about the pickleball. I don't think so. Yes, Siglo was on board, playing often. They were very good!

A surprising highlight of the cruise was the aviary at the Cartagena port. When we completed our tour and our bus dropped us back at the port, we had a little bit of a walk to get back to the ship. To our astonishment this walk back to the ship included an amazing aviary filled with parrots, ducks, peacocks and many other birds. The plants and trees were also incredible. There were also shops and a bar. You could just get off the ship to enjoy this area if you didn’t want to do a full excursion. I was thrilled with the up close interactions with the birds, have never experienced anything of this kind in the US.