MITSUGIRLYS DAWN TO BERMUDA NOVEL (or review as some may call it)

It's me again...back from our Dawn to Bermuda cruise and I'm ready to get this review going....woo hoo!

So like always, a little bit about me and my cruising "family" who came along with us.

My first ever cruise was with NCL on the Seaward in 1989. Second cruise with RC in the 90's. We started cruising again regularly in 2010 and most are on NCL (with 2 Carnivals under our belt...LOVED them both, just want to put that out there!) and my "goal" is to cruise the fleet. As you can tell from my signature line, I'm getting close now with only needing to cruise the Gem, Jade, POA and Breakaway. It's always my goal to NOT cruise the same ship twice no matter how much I like it (but have to admit, I tried to cruise the Epic again before she left so my little one could go on it, but the timing did not work for us).

We have been sailing usually twice a year with last year having 3 sailings. I hope we will be able to do the same this year and we have 2 under our belt this year so far in only 2 months (exactly) apart. So...I may be able to squeeze in another before year end...hubby thinks I'm obsessed and I have no idea what he's talking about. :o

We are a fun loving and goofy family that loves to have a good time. We make the best of everything even if it's a bad situation. Anyone who follows my reviews knows the "crap" I've dealt with on cruises from breaking my hand in St Maarten, breaking my toe, missing our flight due to my "dear daughter" :rolleyes: Kendra...who is the most non-punctual person you will ever meet, to anything else that is thrown at us. We make light of the situation and we roll with it!

We crack a lot of jokes (and I have a quirky sense of humor) and love adventure and trying new things. My youngest (Sakari) is an animal lover and if there's anything involving animals, we have to do it. We have done swims with the stingrays, dolphins, manatees, sharks and held so many things in the sea (yes, even those we didn't know better and paid the price for it). My youngest has been cruising since she was 3 years old and she just thinks it's a way of life. She is a DAREDEVIL!!! She will do anything we do and doesn't think twice about it. She zip lined by herself at the age of 3, cavetubing, held tarantulas, jumped off 2 story decks into the ocean, went on the biggest waterslides on the ships (and yes, even the ones that you stand in and the floor drops out from under you)...the list goes on. There's nothing she won't do. She's like having an extra adult with us...other than the fact that her age and height sometimes restricts her from certain things...otherwise she would do it. We LOVE LOVE LOVE the beach. So if I can find a beach or snorkeling...that's where we'll be. If you ask me some "touristy tour seeing the history" type of thing, forgetaboutit...because that's not me.

So this cruise...we have myself, hubby and youngest daughter, Sakari, (who just turned 7 two months ago) with us. We also have my 26 year old daughter, Kendra, her boyfriend and her son, who is only 3 months younger than my youngest daughter. (Yes, we were pregnant together along with my daughter in law as well). This time around we will also have Kendra's bf's sister (she's a cruise newbie and now hooked) and her daughter (which we took on a cruise with us for the first time last November, so her second cruise).

So that's a total of 8 cruisers this time around. We have been cruising with my youngest son and his girlfriend, but they were not able to come along this time because they just had a baby a few weeks prior to us leaving for this cruise. But rest assured, they are on a mission to go on the next! :D

I have learned that the more people you cruise with, the more hectic things get and the more stressful it is. You would think I would learn my lesson but somehow they all manage to work themselves into our cruise plans each time. :p (I'm not the only one hooked you see).

I tell my story through my eyes and my take on things. Everyone may not agree or have the same opinion, and that's ok, but I'm honest with the way "I" see things. I'm a planner. I do EXTENSIVE research prior to any cruise. I read reviews, I look on the web, I take notes, copy maps, save websites, make spread sheets and everything has to be perfectly planned. That's just me. The family just "rolls with it". I crack up because I feel like a mother duckling and they follow...in a line and (seriously) if I turn one way, they do too, if I quickly turn back, they do too. Sometimes I start weaving back and forth in a "S" shape just to throw them off...then they'll catch on to what I'm doing and laugh. It's all a game and I have fun with it. (See what I mean? That's my quirkiness coming out). Don't worry, the hubby is the same and he pays me back. He's my personal GPS and he likes to throw me off too as a payback. ;)

Anyhow, back on track. I DO NOT try to influence anyone to either go somewhere or to not go somewhere. Everyone has a different opinion on places and their experiences may be totally different than mine. I make suggestions and hope that they will do more research on any suggested places and not base anything off just "my" reviews and pictures or someone else's. There have been many mistakes made along the way and I have ended up at places I didn't enjoy that others do tremendously. So to each their own and it's still a great experience (to us) either way.

With that being said...let the review begin.

Welcome back! I'm really looking forward to reading all about your latest adventures.

Did Sakari really do the drop bottom slides? I thought you had to be over 99 lbs to do them. No excuse for my daughter if Sakari did them. :D

In the past, certain people have complained about making the actual review stand out more in order for those that have no desire to read the "comments" from other posters then they would be able to see it better when scrolling.

I have changed the font, I have changed the size, I have changed the colors. Some did not like the color I have done previously. So this review will be done in purple. Hopefully this will do...because I have started and I'm not changing it. Just saying....hehe

This will be my very first cruise to BERMUDA!!! I have been saying that I was going to book a cruise to Bermuda since forever ago...and I finally did! So yes, I'm a Bermuda "newbie" (yikes, running and hiding now).

We always book when they have the Family & Friends Sail Free, formally known as the Kids Sail Free, promo. Even though it only saves our fare for Sakari, it really does make a big difference in the price. I think I have only cruised once with NCL that I didn't book this promo. So when they have it, you'll find me booking whatever I can. It's like a "cruisers gone wild" time around here and the hubby knows to stay out of my way because I'm on a mission. This cruise would be no exception. We managed to book the last week using this promo before the "summer" rates hit. Yes, it was still expensive (to me), but I knew it was what we wanted.

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So here we go...

Everyone knows I have a habit of getting hurt on cruises. This time around, I manage to hurt myself just a few days prior to the cruise. I'm just going to warn you now...and this IS advice I would take if I were you...If you have an iron and it falls, I highly suggest letting it fall and not try to catch it. Everyone knows your natural instinct is to catch something you knock off and is falling...and that's exactly what happened to me. I used my arm and the iron won the game of catch.

Ok, so yea, it was starting to blister and of course the day prior to leaving for our vacation, they popped and everything got nasty.

I just knew that this was gonna hurt when it hit salt water and I was preparing myself for the worse. However, I did know that the salt water would be good for it and probably help heal it quicker...it was just going to be painful. Sigh

Anyhow, I had completely lost my mind when I booked our air flight and we had a 6:10am departure. Now 6:10am may not sound too bad for most of you, but for a family like ours, it's treading dangerous waters. We are not morning people at all. We like to sleep in until at least 10-11am. We stay up late=sleep in late. It's just the schedule we've always had. Then you add 2 more families traveling at that time, that are the same way, and you are just waiting for a disaster to happen.

I worked on Wednesday and then forced myself to go to bed early so that we could be up at 3am to do last minute packing, pack the car, get some breakfast and speed dial my oldest daughter and family every 5 minutes to make sure they were running on schedule and would arrive at the airport in time to catch our flight....of course threatening along the way that I would be on that plane whether they were there or not.

I left 1 last message to all my friends and family back home...

Glad to say we all made it in time and had a few minutes to spare before our plane arrived.

Sakari did her "normal" thing and entertained herself by drawing like always...

We boarded the plane at 5:40am and we took off exactly on time at 6:10am.

The sun was coming up and Sakari loved watching it rise as we were taking off.

I'm so looking forward to your review. We're going in 7 weeks and I feel like I haven't cruised in forever. (It's been 18 months)

I have been looking forward to this review. I really tried talking my husband into Bermuda for next year, but he was determined that we do Alaska. So I guess it will have to wait at least a couple of years.

The sun was up now and I had to snap a picture of the "halo" around Sakari before we flew up into the clouds.

And of course you have to do the selfie pics as well:

Some of the "extended" fam behind us. Yes, I told them they were creepers trying to get in my pictures. wink wink

She couldn't wait for them to announce that we could relax and take down the "tables" in front of us and she could start drawing again.

We did have a stop over...in GEORGIA....like I'm flying from OHIO to BOSTON and they take us all the way down south to Georgia and then all the way back up north again and over to Boston. Some times I just don't understand it.

We were back on the next plane at 8am and taking off again at 8:35am. We always fly with Southwest and have almost always had a good experience. Even the time we missed our flights (thanks to Kendra), they were outstanding and wonderful to us and bending over backwards to get us to our destination. Both of these flights I have to say that the stewardess on each were extremely rude and just "off" from what we have experienced in the past. No smiles, no "funny" jokes during take off, but they did give out a couple "rolling of the eyes" for free a few times, which I'm sure they didn't realize I had caught that. I even had one stewardess on our first flight take my cup from my hand and say they "must take back all the "offerings" they hand out prior to landing. Now I have flew with SW enough times to know that they still hold out their little white trash bag as you get off the plane so that you can deposit your left over "offerings" into it. But this stewardess wasn't having it. On the second flight we had ordered our "drinks" and the stewardess stopped right at our chair, waiting for someone in the isle to move that was going back to their seat after using the restroom, and refused to give us our drinks until it was our turn. Now ok, fine, but she only had 1 other row of drinks (6 drinks total) to pass out before ours. Like WTH is wrong with these people today?

We arrived in Boston at the expected time and everywhere you looked there was a Dunkin Donuts shop. The family decided to get a bite to eat there at one of them prior to heading out the doors and calling the hotel for our shuttle pick up.

I decided to check the weather, which I had been fretting about all week prior to the cruise, and I can tell you that I didn't need the weather.com app to tell me that it was cold outside in Boston. BRRRRRR!!!

It was warmer at home than here. What is going on??? The weather had been calling for nothing but rain and/or thunderstorms in Bermuda for the days before, during and after we would be there. I was really freaking out thinking what the heck would we do if it rained the entire time? Our first time in Bermuda and I would be punished by having the rain gods cut loose on me for putting this cruise off for so many years.

Yeah! Your back! I cannot wait to hear all the details of your trip and see your gorgeous pictures! I think you have me talked into an Olympus Tough and I think seeing your pictures will be the final push to purchase one. Thanks again for doing this review..I know how busy you are, and you still make time to do an awesome review! And you have already booked for next year? Told you, you would have to go back to see what you missed!

Lauri

We decided to book the Comfort Inn for this cruise after a lot of deliberation on where to stay. Since we fly in, we always have to have access to a place that is within walking distance for both food and pop (or "soda" as the Southern people say). It needs to be accessible enough to be able to haul our "pint sized" munchkins with us along the way...so safety is also an issue when walking.

We ended up staying at the Comfort Inn on Morrissey Rd, which didn't seem to be the "prized possession" place that others on the boards offered with their suggestions. However, after doing my google earth search (which I always do) and "walking the streets" of Morrissey to get a feel of what all was around there, I went against the "norm" of suggestions and went ahead and booked it. I thought we got a decent price for the place considering what most of the other hotels were charging...which was a crazy price and at least twice or more than what we "normally" pay for a hotel stay.

It did offer a free shuttle service from the airport to the hotel. I called them at 12:08 and the guy on the other end sounded a bit confused about where we were to meet the shuttle at. He did tell us to exit the terminal, turn right and go to the end, then said he would call me right back to confirm a time of the shuttle arrival.

The shuttle arrived at 12:29 and at the same time the phone rang from the hotel. HA! A little slow dude...but no worries, I see him already. The shuttle motioned to us and then pointed in the direction across the street and mouthed that he was not allowed to stop where we were at to pick up.

We all headed over to the next pick up section, crossing 1 section of traffic lanes and waited in the middle. Then we seen him pull back around and yet he was in the OTHER middle section, or what I would call the 2nd middle section, and parked there. So, once again, we crossed the next section and walked down to the left.

Once we got situated in the van, the driver did tell us how SW had changed terminals about 6 months ago and some of the staff probably didn't realize this and that was the reason for the mistake in where to wait at. No biggie. It's not like we had a fun filled adventurous day planned once we got to the hotel.

The driver was really nice and he gave us a little "tour" telling us about different things along the way. I swear almost every trip we go on, somewhere we will meet someone who has family in Ohio and it becomes a topic of conversation. Of course my response to anyone that lived there or visits there is always..."why???" LOL

We arrived at the hotel in about 20 minutes.

Now Kendra had called the hotel just days prior to our arrival and they had told her they did not provide shuttle to the cruise port. I frantically started trying to make plans to get us to the cruise port and estimating cost versus a shuttle service. I swore it use to be on their site and then it was always next to impossible to locate it again after that. It took some real research to find where it stated this, but eventually I would each time. Then the last time, I couldn't find it to print off to show them that it was included. However, the driver of the shuttle said that they DID offer the service and to make sure that we told the front desk when we checked in what time we'd like to leave. Ok, so at this point I'm hoping for the best and preparing for the worse just in case. Either way, we'd get there right?

We arrived and checked in.

The reception/entrance area:

Our rooms were located on the 4th floor so we loaded up and away we went...but where? Once in the elevator, the numbers on it didn't seem to work and you had no idea which floor you were on until the door opened and you could see the numbers.

We had a total of 2 rooms and they were a decent size with 2 beds each in them.

So glad to see your new review! I can't wait to read about what you do in Bermuda! I've never seen an elevator panel like that. How did it work?

Everyone arrived in their rooms and I have to admit that both Kendra and I gasp at the size of the beds. I guess they were supposed to be regular sized beds, but I swear they were twin sized and seem extremely small. I'm use to sleeping in a king sized bed and every single room we have booked have had these small beds in them and I NEVER get any rest the night before a cruise. But, we would just have to deal with it I guess.

This was my attempt in trying to show how small the beds were, but every picture I took seem to make them seem normal size (which I'm sure they were), but in person, I swear they did not look or feel like a regular sized bed.

Everyone was tired from not having any rest the night before and having to get up so early, so we all decided we would take a 2 1/2 hour nap and then get up and head to the grocery store for pop and then find a place to eat some lunch/dinner.

When I laid down, I swear it seemed like we must have been super close to the airport. I could swear I was hearing planes coming in and landing. I would later find out that it was this outside our room window.

It wasn't really loud or anything and it didn't bother us at all...I just thought it was planes at first. LOL

Now I have to admit, I was having a "duh" moment or either it was from the lack of "real sleep" but I'm starring at the wall/floor heater/air conditioning unit and thinking "what type of place has an a/c that doesn't have a way to 1) turn it off or 2) adjust the temperature??? It was cold outside, the a/c was on in the room, and I was freezing and the only option I had was to either have the air on low or high. At this point I had taken my contacts out to get ready for my nap and could not read the dials. Silly me. I went to bed freezing and just dealt with it.

I had set my phone alarm to get up at 4:30pm, like Kendra had said, and after putting my contacts back in, that's when I passed the wall thermostat....geesh

Here's the bathroom area of the hotel room:

Behind a mirror was a closet and the safe, which was really easy to operate.

You had your sink area outside the bathroom, which was nice and I always like when it's like this:

You could tell that the rooms had been updated, probably recently, and the decor was stylish and nice. However, obviously someone decided to smoke in this room once it was done and left their "mark" on the tub.

I called Kendra and of course she wouldn't answer. We decided to head out without them, but it's ok, things are more "peaceful" that way.

We knew there was a grocery store right across the street from the hotel and we decided we would head there first to get our pop.

The shuttle driver showed us the overpass cross walk that is used to get from one side of the street to the other the "safe" way and I figured it was a good way to get a few pictures. So out we headed.

The path kind of winded up and back and forth and then across the road and back down and around.

We caught a few of these passing by every few minutes while walking:

Here we spotted the grocery store, Stop & Shop, where you could fill your cart for less, according to their sign. I only wanted to fill mine with pop and I would be good to go. Someone decided that filling their cart was not the best way to go about it and decided to fill their pockets instead...and got caught. Oops.

We noticed on the walk over to the store there was a Subway and a Dunkin Donuts (which I already knew due to my prior research) and decided that if Kendra and the family wasn't up by the time we returned from our pop adventure, we would just head back over to Subway for something to eat.

One thing I noticed is that there is a Dunkin Donuts on every street it seemed like. They were just everywhere. Not only did they have one there beside Subway, but directly across the street at the grocery store there was another. Are there a lot of cops in Boston? (just kidding).

Back in 2013, I decided to purchase a gym bag type of luggage, but you can carry it as a bag, it has straps that you can also put over each shoulder to wear it as well, or pull the handle out and roll it along behind you. I purchased this strictly for the use of putting our pop in it to carry to the ports and it was worked well. I strap it on my back to carry over to the store, and the hubby rolls it back to the hotel on the way back. Then in port, if you can check pop in at the port, we just check the luggage in and if you have to carry the pop, we just pull it around with us. It works out great.

Now I have always thought that you are only allowed to have 1 case per person. I'm not sure if I just assumed this or someone told me this on the boards. But that's all I have ever taken before. This time the store was having a "buy 4" special and I purchased 4 thinking that I would just give 1 of the cases to Kendra. I just can't pass up a "deal". However, when they finally got up and went for pop, they purchased an over abundance amount too so I just kept mind and checked it all in at the port with no problems. Hmmm

More of these passing by on our journey back:

We got back to the room, called Kendra, again with no answer, and I made the executive decision that we would head over to eat Subway without them. We had made plans to go to the bowling alley (which is somehow affiliated with the hotel) to bowl a little bit and have a bite to eat (since they did have a bar & grill there), but we (I) decided Subway it was...at least for now. The bowling alley was open 24/7 so if we were going over later to bowl, maybe we'd eat again (you know, trying to prepare out bellies for the food to come the following week and we needed to do some "stretching" exercises ahead of time).

We arrived at Subway and placed our order. They were super friendly there and the place was big compared to any of the small Subways in our neck of the woods...which will maybe have about 5 tables in it. This place had 2 sides and was actually pretty nice. I snapped a picture of it...because you know, everyone needs a picture of a Subway. Do you know what kind of looks like would have for someone if I was sitting at a Subway and some random people came in to eat and they took a picture of Subway? It would be odd. I always wonder what people think of me because I take such random pictures.

You have no idea how close you were to my house. I could actually hear you pulling out of Black Falcon terminal from my back deck. That's part of the reason I LOVE the Boston to Bermuda cruise. We can get from our front door to the ship in 7 minutes

After getting our bellies full, we headed back to the hotel. On the way in, I stopped at the front desk to inquire about the free shuttle to the cruise port. She quickly pulled out a piece of paper and ask us what time we needed a ride. I picked 10am, since that's the time that NCL had ask me when I would like to arrive at the port. She confirmed...3 people? No 8 people. Oops. "Well ok....I need to call the shuttle guy to make sure that's an ok time for him to take that many people." It was and we were set.

We headed back up to the room and soon after Kendra was knocking on the door saying they were going to get pop and something to eat. They ended up at the bowling alley for food and about had a heart attack because of the prices. I know that her bf's sister and her daughter's order was close to $50 for the 2 of them for some reason and I believe Kendra said there's was close to $70 or $80. I don't know what the heck they got, but geesh. They said they decided not to stay to bowl (we were going to head over if they were bowling) because it was so packed in there and no lanes open. So they headed back.

We just hung out in our individual rooms that night and watched t.v. I found a new show, "Tanked" that caught my eye and we watched that for several hours. (Anything related to fish and water is so me and this show is about a company who builds specialized custom made HUGE tanks for their clients...which are usually the "rich and famous"). Then we found another pretty neat show (don't recall the name of it) but they built or remodeled custom pools into a backyard oasis and man were they neat!!!

That entertained us until we were ready to head to bed for the night, while making sure Kendra knew of an appropriate time to get up in the morning and get out of the room to catch our shuttle.

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FRIDAY MORNING:

I sat our alarm for 7:30am and got dressed and headed straight outside to check the weather. It was still chilly and the weather channel said it would be 57 degrees today. Sigh. Not exactly the "cruising weather" I had hoped for.

While I was outside, I noticed the street traffic lights and noticed they were "unusual" compared to ours. I'm not sure if they're like this in the entire state, but I found them interesting because they flashed either red or green instead of constantly staying on like ours do.

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We headed down to the breakfast room to eat. (Pictures taken the day before and during non-breakfast hours)

It was a pretty decent sized area and they had your normal offerings for most hotels with a free hot breakfast. The food was decent and served it's purpose to keep us tied over until we were on the ship.

Love your 'novels'! And I'm in need of a good book! :D

After eating breakfast, we went up to pack our luggage and head down to check out. Kendra and family was finishing their breakfast and headed up to get their luggage as well.

I stopped at the front desk to confirm that our shuttle would still be taking us and she pointed outside saying if we wanted to leave early we could and he was out there. It was 9:45am and we were still waiting on Kendra (of course) to come back down and officially "check out". So we passed.

Shortly after that another shuttle pulled up and we thought it was ours. We pulled all of our luggage outside to load and the people that were outside hopped in the shuttle and the driver put their luggage in. I stopped to ask him about the shuttle and to let him know that we had an appointment for 10am. He said "they'll have another one coming back shortly, I'm only going to the airport".

At 10:10am, our shuttle driver arrived back at the hotel and loaded us up. We headed to the cruise port and this was my first sighting of the Dawn:

Our driver let us out and the porter took our luggage. We inquired (just to double check) if it was ok to check our pop luggage and he said yes. Woo hoo...score!

This port itself was not the most appealing place I have to say.

Sakari and my grandson:

You take an escalator up to get in line to check in. The lines were not too bad at all...that is the lines to check into...and only those lines. ;)

After checking in we headed over to do the obligatory pictures.

Then a full family photo:

Then off we headed to find out where our "section" was for our number, which happen to be #16 boarding. YIKES!!! There was not only no place to sit, but hardly any place to stand either. This place was beyond packed...like sardines packed.

We ended up squeezing by everyone and made it over to the window where we leaned up against it while we slowly started slithering our way down the window as time went on like our legs had become jello. Before long, we had made it to the floor where we would remain until they called our boarding number.

They started calling the suites and VIP's at 11:30ish and then the numbers soon followed. After they started calling the numbers, it moved along pretty quickly. The place was still packed though because even more people were coming in and it was still standing room only.

We headed up?....wait, we're not going up! This is weird. The gangway went straight across to the ship. Weird. I'm use to the pathway going up and up and building excitement. Where's my "building excitement" path???

Sakari was getting a free ride from Kendra's bf and loving every minute of it. I yelled at her once to take a picture and she just put her head back for this pose.

I took a quick shot of the ship we were about to call home for the next week as we passed by:

We made it to the ship finally and were welcomed on board.

One of the ladies handed Sakari some balloons and she was so excited...too excited for me to get a good picture of her.

We headed upstairs to the pool deck and had to take a few selfies to post for those back home. You know, those at home in the hot 89 degree weather while we are here about to take a cruise in 50 degree weather with our winter coats on and freezing.

The hubby took a picture of us when we first pulled up at the dock and was now posting it online, trying desperately to cut out our coats/clothing so that others back home could not tell it wasn't the perfect warm weather here.

We hung out for awhile, ate a little at the buffet, then headed to our rooms to put our stuff away.

Glad to hear that the Comfort Inn served your needs. Now that you've been there, I'm sure you can understand why its not on the top of the list for recommendations.

What time were cabins available? We are sailing in a couple of weeks, and plan to arrive around 12:30. Hoping by then we can just get on, drop bags, and explore.

At 3pm we headed to the Stardust theater to check in for our "mustard" drill. Since we had Brayden (my grandson) booked in our room, that meant he was with grandma for this event and grandma was prepared for giving brutal punishment if needed. You see Brayden is not the most "well behaved" kid. He doesn't mind his mother, he gets away with a lot and he does things that are sometimes (well most times) down right embarrassing. You know that saying..."if he was my kid I'd...." yea, that's me all the time. Sometimes it's hard to be around him. I love him to death but...if he was my kid.... sigh. Sakari is such a well behaved child, quiet, polite and respectful. You put the 2 of them together and let's just say she feeds off him and doesn't act as she normally does. We (I) split them everywhere we go just to avoid this. However, I have found that if Kendra isn't around, he normally acts decent for me. This would be no exception and he was fine...even to the point that he was hugging me and leaned over and said "See mawmaw, I can be good if I want to, I told you so" in which I replied "then why aren't you like this all the time?" and his reply is "because I don't want to"....sigh. The drill was so quick and easy and took about 10 minutes and we were on our way to have some FUN!

We headed up to the pool deck getting ready for the sail-away party.

I snapped a few pictures of the port from the ship:

I grabbed my first drink of the cruise (dirty monkey, dirty banana or dirty primate something or other) and was ready to get this party started.

We started our Sailaway party and pushed away from the dock at 4pm. The Norwegian Dawn dancers...

After that...we all joined in and it was time to get funky and wobble. My girls dancing...

Slide to the left, slide to the right..."no Sakari, my right not yours". Right foot let's stomp, left foot let's stomp...ok, I'm now convinced it's Kendra that don't know her left from the right.

I was actually out there with them dancing the entire time, but would run up the steps every so often to snap a picture of my girls so don't think this little lady was missing out on all the fun...no way!

We were passing the airport area and planes were flying over us

At one point I went back to grab another drink Kendra's boyfriend had bought for me (Miami Vice this time around) and we must have been right in line with the air strip and a huge plane come flying right over top of us....if any of you have ever been to Maho Beach in St Maarten...THIS is what it was like. By the time I put my drink down, grabbed my camera and got out from under the roof area around the pool deck it was too late. Sniff sniff. I missed the opportunity darn-it. Well, I think I'll need another drink after that and a little more dancing to soften the blow of missing out on the perfect picture opportunity.

The music kept going for what seemed like hours...and so did Sakari. Sakari dancing is like Sakari swimming...you have to literally pull her away from both.

By this time we had all given up and she was still going strong, but she had now moved up to another level and had the floor to herself.

Brayden joined in with her for a little while, but he was more interested in climbing the railing there and jumping down. Sigh

LDqBIZTU8w8

Mommy insisting on her stopping for just 2 seconds to give me a pose

subscribing cant wait for more we did burmuda 2 years ago on MSC out of fort lauderdale

Around 6:30pm we decided it WAS time to pull her away from the dancing and get a bite to eat. We stopped by the buffet to find something to snack on, but I totally forgot about the food porn picture that time around.

We decided to have a look around the ship, take lots of pictures and then head to the gift shop to "browse" at the goodies.

There was a show at 7pm that we decided to head to, which was the Welcome Aboard Variety Show. Now we have never went to the first show because I have always heard that it's basically a small version (sneak peak) of the shows you would be seeing in the week ahead. My logic of thinking is that if it's something that I want to see during the week, why bother with it on the first night and only get a portion of it? But for some reason we decided to go this time. To be honest, I really must have not been too impressed with the show because I don't even recall what it was about and had to look at the dailies just now to see what it said...which reads Jose & Pati singing and the dancers from the production cast...then introduction of the Hotel Senior Management. I know it wasn't anything Sakari was interested in and she was ready to sprint toward the door once it was over. Oh well, now I know I will go back to my normal "not gonna do that show" on the first night. However, there was a familiar voice on stage and this guy looked familier...yep, it was Bobby the cruise director. I know we had him on another ship, but I could not remember which. I would later remember it was on the Getaway last year in May (at least I think so).

When we returned to our room, we had this laying on our table:

I can only assume that this is from NCL and it's what they consider part of your latitudes?

The bad part is...I don't like chocolate. So, Sakari had a piece and I passed the rest out to Kendra and the family when they showed up at our door.

Sakari had been begging to go meet her new friends at the kids club (she absolutely LOVES NCL's kids club) and we were ok with that. We dropped her off at 8:15pm and made a bee-line for the casino.

I only took $20 (each) for us to just "test" the waters and we ended up doubling our money and decided that was good enough for us.

We went around taking pictures (for you guys and this review of course) and then we picked up Sakari around 10:15pm and headed to the buffet for our "dinner" for the evening. I call it our dinner because this is normally the time we eat at home.

I was so hungry by this time that I dug right in despite everything I have taught not only my husband but Sakari about not taking a bite of your food until I have THAT picture for my review...I broke all the rules. So here's what was left of my food after remembering to take the picture. Some Alfredo pasta from the pasta bar, some other noodles and cheese, fries, some type of sandwich, and some yummy pound cake...which I would continue to eat during the rest of the cruise.

Obviously the hubby decided to eat a little healthier than I did with my weird mixture of food.

After Sakari ate, she discovered some weird looking "cream" with sprinkles and marshmallows in it. We had no idea what it was but she was loving it! I just had to try it and it happened to be my all time favorite yummy whipped cream that NCL makes as a topping for things like waffles, crapes and so on. I have absolutely no idea what they had these out for and didn't see anything you would use them for, so I came up with my own thing...pretzel burgers and whipped topping! HAHAHA Hey it worked for me.

After getting our bellies full, we headed back to the room for the evening. Kendra called me and said "hey mom, your mans on tv"...Dirty Dancing was on and although I have seen this show so many times and can probably recite the lines in it, I still watched it again. I can never get too much of Patrick Swayze.

We also received a notice on our bed that tonight we would need to set our clock up 1 hour. I'm just glad we did it tonight and lost that 1 hour on a sea day.

It was almost time for bed and time to charge my camera...um, where's my camera charger??? Anyone seen my camera charger? I would spend the next hour completely tearing apart the room, the luggage I had already put under the bed that was empty...but I wanted to make sure and checking everything a good 3 times and then having my hubby double check everything as well just in case I had lost my 1) eyesight and just wasn't seeing it or 2) lost my touch senses and didn't feel it.

BOO HOO HOO....I HAVE NO CHARGER!!!!

COMPLETE FAILURE #1 Now what????

Joining in this one early on!

Loving the start and glad everything is going pretty smoothly so far!