Dorhead1230

Day 4 (First Bermuda Day)—Time off the ship, kids’ splash area, dinner, aerial act We did not rush off the ship yesterday because we didn’t make any big plans. We didn’t feel like doing the aquarium, museum and zoo this trip because although he couldn’t possibly remember it, we did take LM there last time we came. We also have a tendency to do zoos and aquariums a lot of places we go, so not this trip. I also knew he’d only make it through a limited amount of trekking around in this heat and humidity. We ended up deciding a ferry ride would probably make him happy, so we took the ferry over to Hamilton, just wandered up and down Front Street for a while, in a store or two, and then we did something we have rarely done in the past, which is eat lunch off the ship. In the olden days, DH and I would just go do whatever for however long and then eat whenever we returned to the ship, but the LM demands feeding lol, so we went to the Hog Penny. It was too hot to eat anything heavy, and DH wasn’t even feeling like eating, so DM and I ordered salads, while LM had cheeseburger sliders and fries from the kids’ menu. Everything was good, and it was even better to just relax in the A/C for a while! My salad was their version of a Cobb, hold the tomatoes—greens, cranberries, goat cheese, bacon, and avocado, with a vinaigrette. My mom’s was arugula with candied pecans, apples, shredded cheese, and lemon vinaigrette (didn’t take a picture). The service was good, the bathrooms were clean, and they gave LM the coolest little thing to play with—these thin wax strings that could be bent and twisted into all different shapes. Be sure to check your bill if you eat off the ship; the gratuity was already added. No issue at all with this, just a heads up as it may be common practice here. We headed back toward the ferry and could see it would be quite full. We headed straight to the upper deck when we boarded and sat under the shaded part. The breeze was good once we were moving and LM enjoyed the better view from outside. This is relevant to nothing but it’s my favorite name ever for a barber shop. 😆 apologies again for upside down photos 🤦🏻‍♀️ Hog Penny Pub photos are below: I spent the first 3 days telling LM he could go to the kids’ splash area once we got to Bermuda. I assumed it would be pretty empty on the port days, and I was right. We headed there once we got back on the ship, and he and four other kids had it all to themselves. I didn’t bring my phone because it isn’t waterproof so I didn’t take pictures (I will if I walk by there with my phone another time), but the little kids’ slide on this ship is a legit water slide. It must start from about 10 feet up, and it’s a tube with a water runway at the end. The Getaway didn’t have anything like that, so I was surprised. I had a minor heart attack when LM just started charging up the steps for it until I realized it is staffed with a crew member to make sure they’re sitting properly and sliding one at a time. I thought he would do it once and get scared, but lo and behold, little daredevil loved it and went down so many times I lost count. There’s also a bunch of squirters, a climbing tube net thing, a bucket the kids can reach through and dump from an upper walkway, and the crown jewel of the area—a gigantic bucket that gradually fills and then dumps itself in a flood once it gets to a certain point 🌊. Yes, I am a person who finds it hilarious if someone doesn’t know that’s coming. The other part of my diabolical scheme was bringing him there on the later side of the opening time for the slide, so that he wouldn’t have a fit when it was time to leave, because the crew member just said they were closed and that was that. Dinner was at Taste. We got there around 7:15-7:30 and didn’t have to wait at all. We had a nice meal. The service was good and we didn’t wait too long for anything. DH and I both had the corn and crab chowder and liked it; even though I find most of the food on the ships to be too salty, it wasn’t too bad. I had the potstickers also, which were fine (more or less what you could buy frozen to make at home). DH also had a Caesar salad (which is always fine), and DM had the ravioli with lobster cream sauce (she did say it was a little too strongly fishy with the lobster stock). I had the pork belly entree, which was my favorite from our Getaway cruise, and was quite good again. The skin side this time was so crisped I couldn’t cut it. It could be completely removed and eaten like a pork rind lol…I didn’t eat that whole part, though. The slaw was a little overdressed for my taste this time, but overall still a good dish. DH had the chicken cordon bleu, which he gave a meh to, but he’s like that—not easily impressed at all. DM ordered the rotisserie chicken from the classic menu and said it was her favorite meal of the cruise so far. I asked for chicken fingers with mac and cheese for LM and said they could hold the fries. They brought him everything so he had his own little buffet. I had been talking up the carrot cake from this particular dinner menu because I think it’s very tasty, especially by NCL dessert standards. Of course, neither DM nor DH liked it lol. Proving once again how subjective food is! LM asked for vanilla ice cream and a cookie for dessert and was very happy with his choices! corn and crab chowder and pot stickers ravioli appetizer kids’ mac and cheese kids’ chicken fingers chicken cordon bleu rotisserie chicken Hawaiian pork belly carrot cake Night 4 full MDR menu We headed to the theater for what I assume is a fly-on act called Travelers Duo Clichè. They are a duo aerial act that did routines on a trapeze, silks, straps, and a bungee. We figured at least it was something LM could come watch with us. The music and pace of the show are definitely slower (not like upbeat circus Flying Wallenda type stuff), but it was a good show. The duo is crazy talented and had a few impressive moves in their routines. I’m not sure how long their contract will be, though, as I know some of the fly-ons are on pretty short contracts. They announced before the show that photos and videos were encouraged, but I didn’t want to be a jerk with a glowing phone out too much, so I just took a few shots during their encore. DH and I headed to the casino after I put LM to bed, but only for a little while because we planned to get up early. They also made announcements that they were closing at maybe 12-12:30. At first I thought maybe Bermuda changed the law about ship casinos again, but then I realized it was probably because the Captain had announced earlier that there would be possible disruptions to the ship’s internet, TV, phones, etc. due to system maintenance coming from NCL corporate between 3-6AM. I can’t imagine it would be too good for a casino to have system problems, so maybe that is why they closed early.

Entertainment line-up for the week from the Box Office:

DAILIES DAYS 2-4: Day 2 Day 3 Day 4

I didn’t post much about what we did yesterday (day 3) because it was a very lazy day and we didn’t do all that much. Several days without much sleep caught up with me and I was exhausted and had a terrible headache. We did spend a little time in the OL, where we played a couple games I brought for LM—a Disney I Spy card game, and my best pre-cruise find, a Dollar Tree Colorforms Candyland that came in a small box and was light to pack. Then we ended up just in the cabin for a few hours, where we got sucked in to watching Black Adam on TV and LM and I napped for a while. Dinner was at La Cucina and I know it often gets ragged on a bit, but we had a very nice meal. Part of it was due to our server, who was so great we mentioned it to her manager (have I mentioned, 5 or 10 times already, how wonderful the Joy crew is?). She was attentive, accommodating, efficient, and so sweet to LM. @mking8288 I’m not sure about anywhere else on the ship, but she offered (without us asking) to plate DH’s leftover pizza on a plate with a cover, and also offered us all our desserts to go if we wanted. What we ate: appetizers: calamari, antipasto plate (forgot to take a picture, but it was the basics—some sliced meats, a little cheese, olives, peppers—totally fine; won’t change your life), gnocchi pesto appetizer portion, plain fettuccine Alfredo appetizer portion entrees: lamb osso bucco, shrimp fra diavolo (DM was concerned the sauce may have too much garlic, so our wonderful server brought her both the diavolo sauce and regular tomato sauce on the side), prosciutto and arugula pizza, kids’ pizza for LM (this time it was its own small round pizza, unlike what he was served at Food Republic) desserts (taken to go): cheesecake (did not try; DM said it was so-so) and cannoli (didn’t end up eating them; will report back if I get to them)—I also didn’t photograph the desserts because we took them to go and then put them in Ziplocs (yup, I bring Ziplocs and I have no shame in that 🤗) in the fridge. The food was all fairly decent. The calamari is not the best we’ve ever had, but it was good—not overcooked or rubbery and they included tentacles (Italians dig the tentacles lol). The gnocchi pesto was mine and I enjoyed it; the gnocchi were cooked well and the pesto had a nice flavor without being overwhelmingly garlicky like it can be sometimes. DH liked his prosciutto pizza but said he thought it was a little oily (he thinks they put garlic oil or butter on the crust). LM ate his whole pizza plus some of his fettuccine, so I guess that was all good! DM was happy with her shrimp pasta, but did comment on what a small amount of linguine was included. She’s not a really big eater so if she comments on a portion being small, it’s small. Overall, a nice meal and the clear winner over Q! La Cucina doesn’t have any desserts LM will eat, so we went up to the buffet where they had cupcakes with mini M&Ms on top, which made him happy. I got ice cream, which is partially why I never ended up trying the cannoli. We then succumbed to LM’s begging and took a spin through the arcade (wasn’t his first visit there this trip, but it was mine). The layout of this one is weird. On the similar ships we’ve been on (BA, GA, Escape) the arcade is a regular big rectangular room. On Joy, it’s kind of long and narrow and shoved along a wall because the Galaxy Pavilion takes up so much space in there. Maybe I just don’t get it or am not fascinated enough by VR, but that Galaxy Pavilion seems like a pretty silly waste of space. Are enough people really doing that to make it worth having it on the ship? Anyway, DH got LM a Jurassic World T-Rex from a crane game, which is his latest cruise mascot and came ashore with us in Bermuda today 🙃. After putting LM to bed, DH and I headed to the casino, where we were until around 1:30, when they announced they would be closing at 2 as we approached Bermuda.

@bluesea777 this is one of my favorite places in the world. I have always seen your posts here on CC and thought how lucky you are to live here 😁

I realized late last night that I was a dummy and must not have logged out of the internet at some point yesterday after uploading pictures on here. LM and I went to the Internet cafe this morning and the very nice manager, Alexandru, restored my minutes for me (Did it help that I had a cute kid with me and blamed him for distracting me and making me forget to log out? We may never know. 😜). The ship was already nice and empty by then so I got some good shots on deck 6. Sorry; The Social is upside-down. This Maltings looks super nice; I kind of want to go sit in there at some point.

Yesterday and today, we went to American Diner for breakfast. We went on the later side, too late for MDR or Garden Cafe and, although The Local’s breakfast was very good the other day, I only wanted cereal, fruit, yogurt, and a pastry to take a break from all this heavy food. So, it was easier to go to American Diner. It’s perfectly adequate if you don’t need anything too extensive or eggs made to order. They have bacon, sausage, eggs, a couple breakfast sandwich things, pancakes, French toast, oatmeal, grits, pastries, fruit, yogurt, muesli, bread, bagels, and English muffins. I took some pictures today because we haven’t rushed off the ship and it is blissfully empty so it was easy to get photos without getting in anyone’s way.

Aw, thank you! 😊

@mccoy132 yes, I did see that story. I think they can definitely do better than Footloose—even the older-type revue shows I’ve seen on the ships sometimes were more enjoyable 🤭

@js CAS has a marketing partnership with Caesars Entertainment. That’s how we first started sailing NCL years ago. DH received a certificate from Caesars for a comp cruise. Once we started sailing, we began to get deals/comps directly through NCL. Depending on your Caesars Rewards status, you can also get discounts on bookings (not a huge amount—Caesars Diamond is 20%). But your status doesn’t carry over or anything. I’m Diamond with Caesars but never get past Jade with CAS because we only sail 1-2 times per year.

Yes, definitely a little rocking tonight. Not barf-inducing; just enough to know you’re on a ship lol!

Casino report, days 1-3: The casino staff on this ship is leaps and bounds better than at least our 3 previous cruises on Escape and Getaway. I couldn’t get a drink to save my life on Getaway in February and the slot attendants seemed pretty disinterested, whereas on Joy, the servers go out of their way to make eye contact to see if you need anything and the slot attendants have been very friendly. A majority of the machines are newer games (over the years, we got a kick out of some of the cheesier machines that we’d only see on cruises, like the ones that would loudly yell “three more for the bonus!” “Two more for the bonus!” as the symbols landed; but there aren’t any of those types of machines on here). There’s more games we’d play at our land casinos, though, which is good. Not really any Lock it Links, but a bunch of Lightning Links and a couple of the Huff and More Puff Lock Its, and even a couple Eureka Treasure Trains. A variety of Buffalo machines scattered about, a couple of the Stinkin’ Rich where the skunk jumps all over the place, no old-school Konami (China Shores, etc.) that I’ve seen, but a couple newer ones. There are a variety of machines with wheel features on top, but now that I think of it, maybe no old-school Wheel of Fortunes (unless I have missed them because I wasn’t looking for them). I haven’t gone in the smoking room at all, so I’m not sure of all the machines in there. As far as pays, it has been so-so. I have not spent any time in there during the day at all, only a couple hours at night each night. DH has had a few handpays, but only on high limit machines, so he’s pretty much dumping it all back in anyway. I’m down, but hitting just enough here and there to lose slowly. My typical bets are anywhere from $2.50-$5 a pull, and I don’t think I’ve hit for more than a couple hundred on any bonuses or anything.

Footloose review from night 2: As we sat in the darkened theater, music in the air, dancers on the stage, I leaned over and breathed in DH’s ear, “I think the dude behind me is asleep,” and he lovingly replied, “I’d be asleep, too, if these seats weren’t so uncomfortable.” That about sums up our Footloose experience, during which I repeatedly saw people around me rubbing their temples and eyes trying to stay awake, and several people gave up and headed out early. To be clear, Footloose did not suck because of the performers. They were talented and energetic. I’ve seen a lot of Broadway (and even London West End when I studied abroad) shows, and I think this play would be terrible even if it was on Broadway. It’s boring, the original songs are not good, and it was a very unwise choice to put an hour and forty minute play on a cruise ship with no intermission. As far as the positives go, I was really impressed by the technical elements of the show—the set design, props, and costumes were great, especially considering they need to do all this on a ship. Also, I like the theater itself. The view was good even though we chose to sit farther back, and there’s this cool grid of lights in the ceiling that is fun and lights up in different colors. The seats, while not having that terrible bar in the butt that the Breakaway seats had, aren’t super comfortable after a while because the cushion starts to feel hard. Maybe that also made sitting through such a long show worse. At any rate, if NCL is eliminating/replacing their Broadway-style shows soon, Footloose is definitely no big loss. There are loads of entertainment options on this ship. Last night alone, there were multiple music acts in different venues, comedy shows, Cavern Club shows, and Footloose. Part of why we went to Footloose was because we already had it reserved and couldn’t get to the other options on time, but any of them definitely would have been better!

I posted day 1 so far; I need to catch up on my pictures of the rest and I’ll be posting them!

Q review from night 2: First and foremost, I am obsessed with the Q water cups that look like red Solo cups but are hard and reusable. We used our 2 platinum vouchers with wine here. We took a bottle of red and a bottle of white unopened to go, and we’ll bring them when we go to Cagney’s and La Cucina. I’m glad we killed those vouchers there, because Q only lends itself to a 3-course meal anyway based on the menu, and I’d have been disappointed at Cagney’s or La Cucina if we got a server who was a stickler with the vouchers and said 3 courses only. Our server was again wonderful—really attentive, made sure everything was correct (and I modified LM’s entree a bit), on top of water refills, etc. The current Platinum wine list is at the end of this post. The picture loading got messed up and I’m having trouble reloading everything for editing. The verdict was that we wouldn’t do Q again. It wasn’t bad, but it was a little underwhelming, I guess. I’m glad we tried it, but it was really only because there’s no Moderno on this ship. They’d be better off replacing it with Moderno or even Los Lobos, which we had on Dawn several years ago and loved. Also, as I finish writing this the next morning, this is gross, but something I ate there is still giving me agita. So, no thanks on future visits there. Anyhow, DH, DM, and I all ordered the crab cakes for appetizers. There weren’t any apps LM would eat, and at the last second I said screw it and ordered the deviled eggs so I could try them. I’m glad I did because they were way better than the crab cakes. While I don’t want crab cakes to be mostly filler/binder, these were way too soft and needed something to bind them a little more. There were two, and after I ate one I tried a deviled egg. I skipped the second crab cake and finished the eggs instead. Those were great—a nice subtle mustard flavor in the yolk mixture, and the little piece of maple bacon on each complemented them well. DM doesn’t eat red meat. She was going to try the turkey, but then didn’t want that either because she was worried it would be too smoky-tasting (none of the meats ended up having a strong smoky flavor at all). So, she ordered the shrimp skewers, but not Cajun—just plain grilled with salt and pepper. She thought they were salted a little too heavily, but they were cooked well. DH and I both had the pitmaster’s platter. I ordered the same for LM, but without brisket because he wouldn’t have eaten it, and with the beef and pork sausage rather than the jalapeño one. We all thought we were subbing our sides for the ones listed on the menu, but they brought everything with small portions of the sides listed (potato salad, beans, coleslaw, and pickles) and a big hunk of the jalapeño cornbread. Then they also brought all the sides we actually ordered (fries, mac and cheese, corn on the cob, beans, a sweet potato, mixed salad, and onion rings). Being on a ship, we did not expect such large portions of everything; we wasted so much food and really felt bad about it. The brisket and rib were better than I expected, because I figured they’d be dry, but they really weren’t. The chicken was ok, but nothing super special and I only ate a little of it as I started to get too full. I also liked the mac and cheese; however, I was getting a pretty strong taste of garlic from it, I think, which was a little weird for mac and cheese. I didn’t bother with the coleslaw at all, because DM said hers tasted warm and set it aside. DH said it wasn’t bad. What they call potato salad is…I don’t even know what it is. Maybe they were going for a more German one? Is potato salad in Texas little cubes of red potatoes with some vinegar on them? Regardless, no good. The beans, meh…they tasted more like chili beans than regular baked beans, which was ok, but I didn’t eat those, either. I also disliked the jalapeño cheese sausage, but there was nothing wrong with it; it was just a matter of preference. I left the cornbread, too, as I was too full and didn’t much care for it. I know this makes it sound like the whole meal was awful lol, and it wasn’t; it just wasn’t for me. LM did eat a decent amount of his chicken, rib, the regular beef and pork sausage, and his steak fries. For dessert, DM had the peach cobbler, which wasn’t bad in terms of taste, but it was way too much of the cakey part with too little peach. No joke, my mom pulled a couple peaches off it and it looked like the pieces had been shaved with a vegetable peeler rather than made into regular slices or cubes. LM and I both had the brownie with ice cream. Not bad, nothing special, again way too big of a portion and we could have split one. DH had the pecan pie. I don’t think it was bad flavor-wise, but the texture was off. It was crumbling as he went to eat pieces of it, and he said the crust was thick in some spots and thin in others. Plus, again, it was basically a slab of pie—way too big. We are not delicate flowers or especially light eaters, and I can’t imagine how anyone could finish 3 courses from there. I guess if you get only a one-meat entree the total meat portion is way smaller? Here’s the sauces they put on the table. The sweet and tangy one was quite good. Also, while we were there, the Neilly Rich Duo played for a while. They’re a husband and wife from New Zealand and Australia, respectively, and they’re really good. I am not a country fan, but they played some older stuff which, if I have to listen to country, is what I like. It just makes it too loud in there. Sorry; some of the photos are going upside-down again!

Yes, the crew member at guest services told DH when he first went and asked that he did not want to give us extra keys, out of fear extras could get lost and people could charge to our cabins. He said to bring him back all the keys and he reprogrammed them. He had to print us new ones, so he took the old ones. I booked it at a kiosk as soon as we got on. I don’t think it does really get crowded (maybe more toward the end when people discover it exists lol), but I preferred to have a reservation—it’s easier than telling LM we’re going to eat at so and so and then schlepping him all over if we can’t eat there.

I didn’t see this until now, so I didn’t ask if they allow it, but I will say I haven’t seen anyone anywhere on the ship with anything that looks to be takeout. Interestingly, I feel like I’m not even seeing as many cases of people taking buffet food and leaving their messes from it all over the ship. I better not jinx it, though! The Internet is working pretty decently thus far. I haven’t used it for anything but posting here and checking the Bermuda weather, but it’s working far better than it was on Getaway a few months ago. I have choreographed a nice posting routine—write it out in my iPhone notes, copy and paste here, log in to my minutes just to upload the photos, and then log back out and finish it up and post. Working out well so far!

Why I’m still up, I don’t know. However, perusing tomorrow’s (today’s, day 3’s, whatever lol) Daily, I must partially retract my statement on late morning food availability. Apparently American Diner breakfast is open until 11:30 AM. We were planning to maybe go check it out for breakfast today because we think LM will enjoy the car booths, so I’ll report back on what they have in comparison to the Garden Cafe. Also to come later today are reports on Q, Footloose (I think I need an “I survived Footloose” t-shirt now), and the casino.

More of Day 2: The BTS tour ran a little longer than we anticipated, so by the time we went to get DM and LM and headed back out to eat breakfast, we arrived at Garden Cafe at 10:35 AM. I’m sorry to report that they are indeed closing the buffet entirely between breakfast and lunch, which today meant between 10:30-12. I hope it’s evident from this thread so far and my posts on CC in general that I am a pretty positive person and I try not to complain too much. That being said, I’m also not a cheerleader and I’ll call BS when I see it. We were told at the BTS tour today that there are 4700 passengers on board. There should not be an hour and a half, during late morning on a sea day, when the only available food options for 4700 people are Observation Lounge snacks, The Local, or room service with a fee. Obviously it’s wasteful of food and manpower to have a huge section of the buffet up and running during slow times, but especially with the nice spread-out layout of the Joy buffet, there’s no reason why a small station or two can’t serve a more limited offering during the breakfast-to-lunch transition. Ok, complaining is concluded now, and it worked out fine anyway because we went to The Local for breakfast instead and it was great. Our server was awesome (this is a pattern on this ship—exceptional crew), and I was surprised by how nicely the food was plated and presented. The food came out fresh, just as ordered, and tasty. We went to Guest Services to get our keys reprogrammed to open the doors of both cabins. I must say, we’ve not had many dealings with GS on previous cruises, but I see plenty of horror stories here, and our interaction was fine. The crew member helped us efficiently and now we have no more key confusion! Also, Joel the room steward and some lovely unknown plumber came through today to fix the Great Joy Catastrophe of 2023™️. Last night, I got in the shower, soaped up with the shower gel and started washing, looked down, and the whole shower pan was filling with water that wasn’t draining 😮. I rinsed off so fast so it wouldn’t overflow. We told Joel this morning and he was on the phone in a snap to request a plumber. By midday they had come and fixed it (we weren’t in the room when they came). So we won’t be the resident Joy smelly couple for the remainder of the week. LM and I went to hide the ducks I brought onboard for a little while early afternoon and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. I pretty much convinced him this was akin to a super spy mission and we had to be extra covert so people wouldn’t see us putting them places. He’d quickly stash a duck behind his back and try to look inconspicuous if he thought someone was coming. Fun stuff! The wee gremlin decided he needed another feeding, so being that the family had split off (DM needed her favorite pineapple coconut mojitos from Sugarcane and DH needed some casino therapy), I took him up to the buffet. Kid’s definitely busted out his buffet pants this week, because feeding him at home often consists of begging, threats, and bribes, but he’s been a little eating machine since we came aboard. He had a fish finger, some mac and cheese, and a slice of pizza, followed by a scoop of chocolate ice cream. By that time, my mom decided it would be unbecoming to be carried away from Sugarcane lol, so she ditched the mojitos (she almost never drinks so her love for those mojitos cracks me up) and came to find us. At that point, I got some salad, some barley salad, a slice of pizza, and a little Indian food. The Indian food was, as usual, so good! The buffet food is perfectly serviceable if you stick to the Indian and Asian food, salad bar/fresh stuff, pizza, and a couple other basics. Strange stewed meats and various types of brown foods may not go so well. We were heading back to the cabin to have Mr. Grouchypants take a nap when we saw that Joel was just about to clean. I took this opportunity to herd everyone to the OL, where I sat updating this review as the rest of the family eventually drifted off to other places. As this seems to be the day where I do nothing but eat, I had a scone with raspberry jam and whipped cream before heading back to the cabin, where DH declared we needed to eat the Platinum chocolate-covered strawberries from yesterday and Casinos at Sea chocolates delivered today. Tonight’s plan is dinner at Q. I have Footloose reserved, but I’m not convinced I want to go. That’s the one show that I consistently see people here on CC saying is boring, or they walked out early, yada yada. There’s also a Beatles show tonight, so maybe I’ll forget Footloose and check that out. Or the late comedy show. I’ll also have to see when LM goes to bed, because his nap ended up late and he’ll probably be wired for hours now lol. I will write up a casino report so far at some point and make it its own post. I know it doesn’t interest everyone, so I’ll post it separately and make it easier to skip for those who don’t care!

I know, right?! Bunch of grown-assed adults standing there like 🤯 when he said that lol. Before he said the amount, just looking at the machines, one man made a crack about “Can you make me a spare pillow with the lint you pull from there?” And without missing a beat, Aris says, “I can make a mattress. Every day a mattress.” 😂

Our first tour as Latitudes Platinum was led by a very nice CruiseNext consultant, Barbara. We really enjoyed ourselves and learned some cool new stuff about how the ship is run. Plus, we’re cool and got to ride crew elevators 🤣. This is the general info card about the ship we were given at the start of the tour. These were the 4 stops/areas of the tour, with a few notes I took about each: Backstage & Cast dressing room: Ali, Stage Manager and Brian, Costume Manager: The set pieces for all shows are stored off stage left and also under the stage. We were shown some of the set pieces, including a large pile of metal pieces that’s used for the Elements set. The ship has carpenters, welders, and electricians on board for repairs, but if something is too badly damaged they need to wait for a replacement from NCL. The dressing room was the really cool part, because tons of the costumes were in there, but no photos were permitted. The performers all do multiple shows; there is an ensemble of 24 performers and each has around 30 costumes! So this dude is responsible for fitting, maintaining, and cleaning hundreds of costumes, all the shoes, and all the accessories. Seems like he really loves it, though!The performer contracts last 6-8 months. Laundry area—Aris, Laundry Master—such a nice man! I’m pretty crazy about how I like my laundry done so I’ve never wanted to send it out on the ship, but he said clothes are washed in cold water and dried on medium. When housekeeping cleans, dirty linens go down a chute, and then the clean are brought back up on trolleys. They also have gigantic lint traps for the dryers that must be cleaned multiple times each day. They clean out approximately 100 kg of lint per day! I have always had an appreciation for the more behind-the-scenes work that goes into running the ship, but damn do these laundry crew members work hard churning out thousands of clean napkins, tablecloths, towels, sheets, etc. etc. every day. Provisioning: Elmer, Provisions Manager: On turnaround day yesterday, they loaded 450 pallets (30 trucks) of provisions onboard. Except for fresh produce, dairy, and eggs which are sourced more locally to the ship, everything else comes from Miami on EVERY NCL ship around the world. Europe, South America, and Asia ships have to order provisions 2 months in advance because they’re sent by boat. There are 3 separate freezers and 3 separate butcher shops to avoid cross contamination (1 for poultry, 1 for seafood, 1 for other meats). Oh, also, giant walk-in freezers are really cold. 🤪 Main Galley: Chef de Cuisine (new title, formerly Executive Chef), Inoyman: We were in the main galley for Savor, Taste, and Manhattan Room, where some food is prepped for Garden Cafe (sandwiches, salads, and soups). After this, we exited out of the galley through Taste, which for some reason I got a real kick out of. Some photos from the tour: set pieces from Elements bunch of laundry photos—the piles of linens everywhere are unbelievable crazy amounts of stuff in a walk-in freezer part of the main galley

pork belly and scallion dumplings shrimp pad Thai tiger roll chicken teriyaki skewers California roll salt & pepper calamari pork schnitzel kids’ pizza cannonballpeach berry sparkle

Food Republic review from night 1: I suggested FR to the family for our first dinner because we don’t like to book a long, drawn-out specialty meal for the first night, but I also kind of wanted to avoid the chaos of the first-night MDR. It was a good call because there was hardly anyone there when we arrived for our 7:30 reservation. I don’t think people find out about this spot until later in the cruise. The hostess looked a little skeptical when I said we were only going to use one Platinum voucher, but I mentioned if necessary we’d order another dish or two. It wasn’t necessary to do so because the waiter didn’t question it at all. He just explained to us to make sure we picked all 8 items before we put in the order, and he actually said make sure it’s only 8. Eight items was absolutely enough for 3 adults. We were completely stuffed and didn’t even finish one cod skewer and one chicken skewer, and that was with LM having one piece of the chicken and the rice from a couple pieces of California roll. This is what we ordered: salt and pepper calamari—not bad, but the calamari was maybe cut a little too thick and so it seemed too chewy; DM got a super over salted piece so she didn’t eat another pork loin schnitzel—really delicious! The breading is not too thick, the sauce on the plate under it was mustard-based and a nice complement to it; the description mentioned chorizo and I was thinking what? Where is there chorizo? But then I was wondering if there maybe was tiny bits of it in the breading, because there was some little pop of flavor I could not put my finger on. tiger roll (spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, crab, avocado)—only DH eats raw sushi, so this was all his—he said it was pretty decent California roll—typical California roll; good, though, and fresh ingredients chicken teriyaki—this was just so-so; the sauce was a little weird and I couldn’t quite figure out why; LM liked it, though, and he spits out a lot of food, so maybe it was good lol black cod skewers—DH, DM, and I all enjoyed these; the cod was cooked nicely and the sauce was a bit sweet, but not too much so shrimp pad Thai—DM and I ate this and both liked it; it doesn’t taste 100% like pad Thai we’re used to (I couldn’t pick up any tamarind flavor in the sauce and the sauce had more spiciness than pad Thai usually does) but it was tasty and there were 4 decent-sized shrimp in it pork belly and scallion dumplings—pretty good; maybe a little overwhelmed by garlic in the filling, but I really liked that the filling was clearly shredded pork belly and not just ground pork LM got the kids’ pizza. They brought him 4 slices of what looked like the buffet pizza (which is, generally speaking, fairly decent). I’m not sure if that’s the standard for the kids’ pizza or if it’s different depending on the restaurant? At any rate, you’d think we’d starved him all day because he somehow got it all in his little belly. Must be the sea air. We also decided to give the beverage package more of a workout than we usually do and try a few new drinks. Well, DM didn’t branch out so much and had an Angry Orchard. Despite the fact that I am not a vodka drinker, the Peach Berry Sparkle (Skyy vodka, peach, raspberry, cranberry & lemon, sparkling wine) sounded tasty, so I tried it and did enjoy it. Maybe not so much that I’d get it over and over, but it wasn’t overly sweet and was pretty refreshing. DH loved the Cool as a Cucumber (Tito’s, Beefeater gin, St. Germain elderflower, cucumber, lemon soda), and then decided to get a little crazy (yes, by our boring standards, this is crazy) and try the Cannonball (Bulleit bourbon, peach tea, pineapple, lemon orange bitters, Sam Adams Boston lager). This is served in a VERY tall glass, and he did like it. I believe the professional epicurean assessment was “weird, but tastes good.” Our server was great, very friendly and attentive! Overall, we had a nice dinner here! Incidentally, I have been able to post here right now not logged in to my FAS minutes. Thanks @mking8288 for the tip about logging in, loading the thread, then logging out! However, I can’t upload photos when logged out. So, I’m going to log in to the minutes and try to do a bit of a photo dump of all the dishes I described above. Hopefully it works!

Today on the Latitudes Behind the Scenes tour, they said there’s approximately 4700 people on board. Guest Services had the ship’s full, no upgrades sign out. So, yes, we’re definitely full! The buffet is pure chaos (we’ve only visited before closing last night for some ice cream and for lunch today), and cutting across the pool deck was one of the low points of my life (we don’t hang there), but everywhere else, so far, so good. I’m in the Observation Lounge now, and while people have certainly discovered it, we did not have trouble finding seats at the front of the ship (not the chairs right by the windows; the ones right behind those). I love this place so much they’re going to have to drag me out of here on Sunday lol. Current view:

Service seems to be gradually fading as we approach the bridge, so I may be signing off for the evening now. I’ll continue to write up notes and take photos, and I’ll post more tomorrow with my FAS minutes. 😃