Norwegian Gem - the Memoir of a Twenty Something

[shazam89]

Norwegian Gem

the Memoir of a Twenty Something

 

 

You are about to step forth into my journey and experiences aboard the Norwegian Gem. If you are looking for a quick review of the Gem, you may have come to the wrong place. I enjoy writing about experiences and activities that I do and would like to share a piece of me with members of CC. Let me warn you that this will be a long, on going memoir, I will try to make it fun to read, and of course include pictures here and there.

 

*** I apologize for the grammatical and spelling errors in advance (as I am not the greatest writer)

 

 

 

 

Welcome Aboard

December 18, 2011

 

I hopped into bed around 3:00am in the morning. As I tossed and turned in bed, I soon realized it was already 5:00am. We had booked a bus ride from our town to New York City via MegaBus which leaves at 6:10am. I had been stalking the MegaBus website religiously to get the best deal in ticket price, with the cheapest being $1. Sadly, we were only able to get the $12.50 tickets, but to me that’s a steal considering the expensive parking price at the terminal, not to mention the gas we’d have pay. I “woke” up around 5:20am. We had planned the previous night to meet around 5:50am or so at the bus terminal. My roommate V, who isn’t from my hometown will be arriving at my house around 5:40am in order to drop off her car here for the week. In the process of waiting for her, my dad turned on the heat in my car and carried my luggage to the car. V arrives very soon after. After situating her car, we headed to the bus terminal.

 

My two other roommates had already arrived. The trip consist of myself, and my three roommates. We are all in our early twenty's and currently in college, at which we met. Myself and V are graduate students, while D and N are undergraduates. We have always “talked” about a vacation together for the past two to three years now, but it always fell through. This past November is when it finally came true. Once again, we talked about vacationing together. After looking up the cruise and seeing what a great deal and price it was, we were set and ready to book our vacation of a lifetime. By the next day we were booked with a guarantee inside cabin, and couldn't be any happier. It’s amazing how fast time goes by when we are occupied with school work and studying for exams. As soon as we know it, we were now at the bus terminal waiting to board the bus on our way.

 

V and I meet up with the others at the terminal. Assuming my dad was going to leave after he dropped me off, instead he followed me in and insisted to stay until I get on the bus. The ticket office soon opens and N heads over to get our tickets. The ticket lady tells us our bus will be at gate 6. It was early in the morning and very cold. Thankfully I was bundled up for the weather and had worn two pair of pants, boats, as well as gloves and a scarf. We soon boarded, I bid farewell to my father and we were on the way. The bus was very empty so we treated ourselves to our own two seats and lay comfortably. Within the three hour plus ride, I was able to get a 30minutes nap, if not even less. I do not know why but I was not able to fall asleep. It may have been the excitement, it may also be due to the girls who were sitting behind us and talked extremely loud. After a few pit stops in some smaller towns, we soon found ourselves at the New York City bus terminal.

 

We were early and had a few hours before we could board the ship. We saw the subway station and figure maybe we could take it to the cruise terminal, since we had so much time to spare. After asking the information booth, we realize that the subway does not take us to the cruise terminal. We decided to hop on a taxi and head over to the cruise terminal. With my amazing mathematics skills, I had estimated the taxi fare to be below $10, the taxi fare came out a little under $6, I was way off, but we were happy for such a cheap taxi fare in New York City. We cross the busy streets of New York City and see ourselves at Pier 88 where the beautiful Norwegian Gem cruise ship docked. We drop off our luggage and head into the building. We pass the metal detector with ease and headed to check in. As I was passing the metal detector, the alarm signal, the officer saw that I had metal buckles on my boats and proceeded to let me pass. Security was very simple indeed.

 

Being a latitude member has it perks, my roommates and I were able to skip the (not so packed) line, as it was still early, and checked in. We get our picture taken, credit card information, and receive our room card keys. I noticed that the card was very plain, it had downgraded from my previous cruises with NCL. My first cruise with NCL, the room card key had the picture of the ship on it. As time progressed, the next few room keys I received had the company’s goldfish-cracker-like shape imprinted on the card. This time, the card key was not impressive at all.

[FLAHAM]

What are you studying in graduate school?

[shazam89]

We head over to the waiting area, usually we take the welcome aboard picture with the ship backdrop, but we were so early that they haven’t even set that up yet. The whole process of going through security, checking in and everything was fairly quick. We get to the waiting area around 10:50am or so, giving us a little more than an hour to do nothing. In the meantime, we checked out the itinerary to see what we’d like to do, as well as glancing around for cute guys (which we did not see many). Checking out the itinerary is when it hit us with the excitement and that we will be boarding soon. We took out our highlighter and started highlighting the activities we wanted to go to. Needless to say, the whole sheet was pretty much all highlighted. It was apparent we will be having a long active week ahead of us. As we waited we were our loud obnoxious self, laughing and talking as if no one was around us. Soon they began to call the numbers to board. We were number five so we kept an ear out to hear for our number to get called. They first called one and two, followed by three and four. Soon we heard the loudspeaker say “now boarding number six and seven”. Puzzled, we all look at each out and was trying to figure out how we had miss them saying number five, or did they skip us? I walk up to the guy who were checking the tickets and ask him, he said that they have already called five to board and that we may board.

 

After standing in line and “beeping” in (the funny noise for the card swipe when we board or leave the ship). My “beeping” did not work so the attendant had to swipe me up. We walk up the long airport like walkway and enter the ship on the atrium. The atrium was not as impressive or eye catching as my previous cruises on the Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas or Carnival Dream. The atrium on the Gem lacked the “wow” factor that other newer ships have. We were greeted by two tall, young, handsome men. One especially caught mines and N’s attention. As we walked on we were giggling and talking about him, as we looked back, we saw him taking a glance at us. We later find out that he is one of the Gem dancers and was very happy to see him dancing on stage.

 

By this time we were starving and exhausted. V was carrying around some heavy bags so we decided to stop by our room and drop our things off first. It was interesting they allowed us to go directly to our rooms, because in previous cruises, if I am not mistaken, the rooms are not accessible until 1-2:00pm. I am not complaining, but I thought that was worth a mention. We dropped off our stuff, and headed off to lunch. We head to the Grand Pacific for a nice sit down lunch. We get greeted, seated, and handed menus for food. Before being seated we were asked to give them a room key to swipe. My roommate (a noob) asks me why they must swipe our card and frankly I do not know. I have been on a number of cruises with NCL and they have always asked for our card, but I never quiet knew why. I figure it was for them to keep track of who went where and in case the same people want to eat at more than one sit down dinners. However, when I think about it, we can simply have another person swipe in, they wouldn’t know what we do. If anyone could solve this mystery of mines, that would be great.

 

We ordered and waited for our food to arrive. For my appetizer, I order the spring rolls. Being Vietnamese, I do not know why I ordered it, it was my bad on that part. I have tasted fresh, amazing and authentic Vietnamese spring rolls courtesy from my mother, these spring rolls were awful in comparison. I believe I had the sirloin and it was delicious, made to my taste. The best was dessert, we girls have a sweet tooth for sweets and our desserts were amazing. My shortcake was delicious, so was my roommate’s blueberry cheesecake and moose.

We have been up since 5:00am in the morning and barely slept on the best, so the stop after lunch was a much needed nap. We decided to nap until the drill (which gives us roughly an hour or so). We were interrupted half way through our nap from our stewart. N gets up and gets the door. In the background I hear the stewart introduce himself as “Larry King” and that he will be our stewart. He also asked N which of the four names was her. Larry left soon after and we all fell back asleep. Once again we were rudely awakened by the loudspeaker coming on and Sinan, the cruise director comes on to explain the drill procedures and such. I have been to plenty of drills and don’t tell no one, but (I usually skip them now) shhhhh. D insisted we go and dragged us with her. Our drill took place at the Stardust Theatre, and last literally only five minutes. I was impressed in how fast they did the drill, it was painless, but I would have preferred to sleep a little more.

 

The ship was leaving soon and it did not make sense for us to go back to bed so we started to explore the ship. D wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, since it was freezing outside and probably packed, I pitched the idea of going to the Spinnaker lounge to watch it instead. We head over and got some nice seat by the windows were we could see the Statue.

 

We continue to wonder around the ship and found ourselves at the duty free, gift shop store. We meet a guy name “Nemo”, finding it hilarious; we tell them that we have found Nemo! Going along with our stupidity, he tells us he found his Dories. Now, if we are speaking “Finding Nemo”, Nemo and Dory doesn’t have anything to do with each other. Nonetheless, he was a great character and very fun. We look around the shop and check out the liquor, souvenirs that we like and plan on buying. We promised Nemo we would come back later for the ten percent discount on liquor later that day.

 

We began to get the munchies again and headed to dinner. I do not remember anything specifically exciting about dinner, so I will skip it to spare your torture. After dinner we head to the first show of the night. I am always a fan of the singing and dancing crew and loved their teaser performance on the first night for the following nights. Low and behold, N and I spot the handsome guy that greeted us when we were boarding, he was one of the Gem dancers! The main act for the first night was the comedian Rod Long. Perhaps I’m a little slow, but I did not find him particularly funny. He made this one joke towards Vietnamese people who does nails. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with others making fun of my people, but he has got to work on his Vietnamese accent if he wants to reenact us. His accent was horrendous; we do not talk like that. If he could work on that, I am sure it would get great laughs from the audience.

 

After the show we headed back to our rooms. Larry (our stewart) had pulled out our bed from underneath, as well as the pull down bed from above. I had never been aware of the pull out bed from underneath before. I had always been in a room with two pull down beds if they were the ones that accommodated four. We also received our itinerary for our first day at sea. I hear V scream in excitement about the salsa class at 10:30am the next morning. I had figure we will be dancing a lot at night, but didn’t think we would be dancing during the day as well. As we checked out the itinerary, we started to get dress for long night ahead. We all glammed up and was ready to hit the party. As we walked we got stares from everyone, from left and right. No, we weren’t excessively skanky looking, nor are we extraordinarily beautiful girls. Why did people stare? I do not know. The club sure had great fun music. In order to enter the club we had to “beep” our cards to get in. Needless to say, my card did not beep and the attendant had to swipe it.

 

We enter Bliss Lounge to find minimal people on the dance floor and minimal young people. We did not care much and danced our butts off on the dance floor. We ended the night early due to our lack of sleep and lack of people on the dance floor. We headed back to our cabin, got changed, and crashed.

[boopsahoy]

Great review so far but I need more! (-:

[gelo7]

Great start....

[coka]

Shazam89, you were stared at because you have IT all going on! :D

A great start to your memoirs. I like reading such reviews. I will take a guess as to why they swipe your cards in the restaurants as I have been on NCL ships who sometimes do and sometimes do not. My guess is they use the cards to calculate number of passengers and dining preference times. This is to help them anticipate their needs and to plan ahead. I also think swiping the cards are indeed handy for them to know where passengers are at (onboard, off the ship, etc).

 

Looking forward to reading more!

 

coka

[mizLORInj]

They swiped our card the one time we ate in Magenta. I figured it's for keeping some kind of tab on who's eating where. We ate in the buffet most nights as the food was so good.

LOL about the cute guy dancer. They were all quite tall as we saw them in the buffet and they towered over me.

 

I thought the cruise was great.

[dpnyc]

love it! maybe reading your posts will convince me to drop everything and take my first winter cruise, back to the bahamas... keep 'em coming!

[shazam89]

What are you studying in graduate school?

i'm in school for my masters in mathematics education (not too impressive ik lol)

 

Great review so far but I need more! (-:

 

Great start....

thanks.. more coming soon!:D

[shazam89]

Shazam89, you were stared at because you have IT all going on! :D

A great start to your memoirs. I like reading such reviews. I will take a guess as to why they swipe your cards in the restaurants as I have been on NCL ships who sometimes do and sometimes do not. My guess is they use the cards to calculate number of passengers and dining preference times. This is to help them anticipate their needs and to plan ahead. I also think swiping the cards are indeed handy for them to know where passengers are at (onboard, off the ship, etc).

 

Looking forward to reading more!

 

coka

oh that makes sense, that could use that data to better later cruises rite? :)

They swiped our card the one time we ate in Magenta. I figured it's for keeping some kind of tab on who's eating where. We ate in the buffet most nights as the food was so good.

 

LOL about the cute guy dancer. They were all quite tall as we saw them in the buffet and they towered over me.

 

I thought the cruise was great.

buffet was good, but we prefer to get waited on and the three course means of the MDR (keeps us from piling on food and over eating at the buffet hehe)

 

oh yes they were! they were really tall, my roommate really liked the short hair one haha

 

the cruise was indeed great :) great weather, great people, great times

love it! maybe reading your posts will convince me to drop everything and take my first winter cruise, back to the bahamas... keep 'em coming!

hahaha what's better than a cruise to the bahamas in the cold winter of NY? nothing.. our cruise was at an unbeatable price too! you should check it out ;)

[shazam89]

Fun Day at Sea

December 19, 2011

D had planned to get up early (7:00am) for the yoga class, but as I expected, she couldn’t get up. We were all beat from the lack of sleep from the previous day. Surprisingly of the four of us, D was still the earliest riser and woke up the rest of us. We had planned to go to salsa class which is scheduled at 10:30am. After getting up and rushing to get ready, we got there a little late and the room was packed. There was hardly any space on the dance floor to stand, and we couldn’t really see what the instructor was doing. The lesson we learned today? never come late!

 

Salsa, was very fun and we worked up a nice sweat and appetite. Sadly, I lost track of time and was unable to attend the CC meet and greet. It would have been my first meet and greet, and I was definitely looking forward to getting to meet you guys. Unfortunately by the time salsa was over, I suspect the meet and greet to be over as well. After waking up and dancing for an hour, we were all starving. Breakfast was over by this time and lunch hasn’t started yet so we headed over to Blue Lagoon. The one thing I love about Norwegian Cruise Line may be the Blue Lagoon. I love their wings, chef’s salad, chicken tenders, and don’t forget the brownie ice cream. Yum, just thinking about it makes me drool. Did I mention its open 24/7? You will never be hungry on the ship. It was my roommates first time at Blue Lagoon and I had been talking about the brownie ice cream (since V is in love with chocolate and ice cream), I knew she would like it. It was a success. We all loved all the food we got and were satisfy for the time being.

 

After lunch, we split up to do our own things. V and N wanted to go to another dance class, while D wanted to go to the Spanish 101 class to learn some Spanish. As for me, I had the latitude cocktail party to attend (can’t miss out on free alcohol right?). I was surprised to find out the cocktail party being held so early on this ship. It was only our first sea day and the cocktail party was scheduled at 1:30pm (a little early to get drunk I would think). We got to meet the captain, and all the other important figures. We were also treated to a nice performance from the captain who sang and played guitar for us. Another thing which I like about NCL is that have tons of gifts to give away. At the party, they were giving away everything from a bottle of wine, free internet minutes, to free t-shirt, something is better than nothing right? My aunt got a bottle of wine last year while aboard the Jewel. This year, I left with nothing. Keep in mind that only I was a latitude member on this cruise (all of my roommates are newbies to the cruising world). Last year, I was aboard the Jewel alongside seven family members who are latitude members as well. I was half way done with my second rum and punch when a waitress walks by, places down a drink, and says, “one more?” I shyly smile and nodded, as I chugged the remaining half of the first. I really enjoyed the mixed drinks they had. The rum punch was great; I tried what looked like a screwdriver, but was some peach orange juice with vodka, that was a pleasant drink as well. Did I mention the awesome portion size of these drinks? They have increased from previous years, which is a plus. Needless to say, I walked out a happy woman.

 

I came back to the cabin to find the two that went to dance, passed out on our beds. As I enter the room, I woke up N, V was still out cold. We planned to go to country line dancing (yes, we enjoy dancing very much. Well when I say “we” I mean N and V, not so much myself, but I just tag along since it can’t be that bad) soon so we woke up the sleepy head and headed over. D was nowhere to be found. We figured we would leave her a note so she would know where we were. Oddly, we were not provided a NCL pen or notepad anywhere in our room. Or perhaps, we did not find them. Good thing we had brought a pen with us. Unfortunately, we did not bring any scrap paper with us, and had to be creative with what to write on. What we wrote on? the cardboard back of a toothbrush’s wrapper. Hoping she would see, we throw the note on the bed and head up to Spinnaker lounge for our country line dancing class. The country line dancing class was super fun. Perhaps being a little drunk played a role in enhancing the fun of the line dancing, regardless, it was a fun class. Our instructor was a Filipino lady name Shirley, she probably played 90% as to why line dancing was fun. The woman sure knows how to live up the dance floor.

 

D meets up with us as line dancing came to an end, though she did not join us. We had an hour or two before we would get ready for dinner. V and I decided to hit the gym. I was worried earlier because I was drunk, but I sobered up after the line dance and was ready for a nice sweat at the gym. It was definitely time to work off the extra pounds we have gained over the past two days. The gym was packed and there were barely any free machines to work on. I manage to hop on a treadmill and start jogging. By the time I was done with my routine workout of cardio and weighs, V was still on her elliptical. I walked over to tell her I am heading home and will meet her back there when she’s done.

[shazam89]

Tonight was “dress up or not” night, and we choose dress up. Being four girls, you can guess it takes us time to get ready. I wouldn’t say we are high maintenance, but we do take some time to get ready. We know each other pretty well and know clearly who takes the longest to get ready. For that reason, we try to get V in the shower first, because she takes the longest to shower and get ready. D is the fastest of the four of us, five minutes and she is done with her shower, another ten minutes, she’s ready to hit the clubs. Frankly I do not know how she can shower that quickly. I have tried to speed shower but have never been quicker than 7-8 minutes. Maybe I enjoy my showers too much. Aside from showering arrangements, we have also broken down space management for getting ready down to a science. There are exactly four mirrors throughout the room; one in the bathroom, one in between the two beds, one on the make-up counter, and one slim standing on in the middle of nowhere. While one person is in the shower, the other three can use the remaining three mirrors in the room to get ready and vice versa. There were obviously preferences and mine was the one between the beds. The mirror was huge and I had the comfort of sitting on the bed.

 

 

After a long time of elbow bumping and getting ready in our tiny cabin, we were off to dinner. The previous night we were all dressed in magenta/pinkish colors, tonight we were blues/purples. No, we did not call each other up while packing; it just happened and worked out quite nicely. We decided to try out Magenta tonight instead of the usual Grand Pacific. As we walked throughout the ship in our four inch heels *clink* *clink*, once again, we get heads turning and strange looks. I assure you, we do not look like skanks. As we got seated at Magenta, we get looks from left and right. We also look left and right and realized we may be a tad over dressed for the occasion. Throughout dinner we kept an eye at the door to hopefully find others who are dressed formally like ourselves. Thankfully there were occasional families who were nicely dressed so we didn’t feel too awkward. I had thought tonight would be lobster night (since it is “formal” night), but it wasn’t. I didn’t really mind because I am not in love with lobster. Today’s dessert was especially delicious. The desert? Tiramisu. We initially ordered one each. After inhaling hers, V wanted more because it was so delicious. After deliberating, she decided she wanted two more. Being the nice roommate that I am, I ordered one for her so she wouldn’t look like a fat pig. As the two tiramisu comes out, V’s eyes lit up like a little kid in a candy store. She finishes the two desert in seconds.

 

 

After dinner there was a ballroom dance class that will be in the Spinnaker lounge. V and I had decided that we wanted to go play tennis the next morning at 8:00am. On the itinerary, it mentions that we can only rent tennis rackets from 6-8:00pm. We found that weird, but just to make sure we had tennis rackets, V and I headed over to the towel station to rent out our rackets and told D and N we would meet them at Spinnaker. When we got to the towel station, we asked for the rackets, he said we could come tomorrow morning and get them right before we play. So for those of you who wants to play tennis, you do NOT need to rent out the rackets the day before, this must have been a typo on the itinerary. We head over to Spinnaker lounge and D and N were nowhere to be found. Not only D and N where nowhere to be found, there was no one on the dance floor. I asked the DJ and there seem to have had a typo on the itinerary it was only supposed to be ballroom music and not ballroom dancing class. I figured that was the reason why D and N weren’t there, they must have realize that there won’t be a dance class.

 

 

Shirley, one of the cruise’s activity people, comes by and asks us if we were here for ballroom dancing. Excited, we jump up and proceed to the dance floor. The steps we learn for ballroom was similar to salsa which we previously learned, the transition was pretty simple and so was the dance. Halfway through the class I hear someone call my name. I look back, and there they were, D and N. They had gotten lost earlier when looking for Spinnaker lounge. I had forgotten I had been their human GPS the last few days so I wasn’t too surprise to find that they got lost.

 

Soon after the class was done, Shirley announces that there will be the “name that tune” game show coming up. We had some time before the main show in Stardust starts, thus the four of us decided to stay for the game show. The room was divided into two groups, the “rich and famous” and the “young and sexy”. We were put into the young and sexy group and the game began. My roommates and I was in the front row, but it defeated the point since we weren’t good at the game. We were only able to name one out of the numerous songs they played. We did contribute in the dancing portion of the competition though. N was dressed in a rather sparking dress that day. Her dress was very glittery and caught the attention of Shirley, our host. Shirley grabs her and another lady from the “rich and famous” group for a dance-off. They were both extra sparkly. The lady from the “rich and famous” was decked out head to toe in a seventies yellow bling-bling top and capris cut bling-bling shorts. N was in a tight fitting purple bling-bling dress. Although the “young and sexy” screamed our lungs out, the “rich and famous” outnumbered us in people and screams and N lost the battle. There was some other dance battle between two older men followed by an elderly man verse a young female. The dancing and game was very enjoyable throughout. The last song played was “YMCA” which we all came on stage and sang along to the song.

 

Right after the game show we headed off to the main show in the Stardust Theatre. We manage to get some great seats and had great views of the stage and dancers. My roommates were in love with the singers and dancers. So much that they made me pose with them for a picture. I must admit, the singers always seem to impress me. It hard enough to sing on key, add dancing to that, I do not know how they do it. Simply phenomenal.

 

I was very tired this particular day, and wasn’t planning on going to the club, considering we have danced all day long. My roommates wanted to go so I joined them for a bit, but head home early. By the time I washed up, changed, and took off my contacts, the girls where home. Guess they couldn't party without the missing link, the "creme de la creme", the party starter, the magnificent, me. We hop into bed, talked and giggle a little and passed out.

[coka]

That is a lot of dancing! :D

Did the Gem have any guest DJ's onboard your week?

 

coka

[jimswims]

I am enjoying all the details. Thanks for taking the time to do this review. I love the Gem and it is a ship with tons of activities all day and through the night.

[shazam89]

That is a lot of dancing! :D

Did the Gem have any guest DJ's onboard your week?

 

coka

lol yes indeed it is..

 

yea, we had DJ AlexKay, he was very good, 9483x better than the DJ i had on my previous cruise.. great music throughout the cruise

 

I am enjoying all the details. Thanks for taking the time to do this review. I love the Gem and it is a ship with tons of activities all day and through the night.

no problem, thanks for taking time to read it, i am enjoying writing it :)

 

the gem is a great ship, and yes! lots of activities, too many that we barely had any time to sleep lol

 

 

 

Wishing everyone a Happy New Years!

[BelleoftheSeas]

I am enjoying your report Shazam...thanks for writing it. I will be on the Gem in 4 wks. so I am paying close attention to all those activities they will have planned for us! Not sure I can come close to doing all the dancing you did but it will be fun trying (or at least watching <g>).

 

Glad you and your friends all seemed to have a good time!

[lalapodip]

Looking forward to your next installment! :D

[coyboy1971]

Really enjoyed your honest, first person narrative and pictures. Thanks!

[ictcruiser]

Great review! Love your humor and candor.

[snorklinbarb]

Enjoying your review following you four gals - love the way you worked out the cabin issues, mirrors, etc. Very funny.

 

Loved also hearing about your dressing up and then feeling like people were looking at you. They were probably surprised to see such nicely dressed young ladies!

 

Guess all that dancing counteracted the food. Great to hear how involved you all got with the activities.

 

If you happen to have your dailies, can you give us a rundown of the lounge entertainers? I've read about a guitarist named Leo a couple of times but wondering what other piano/singer type acts are onboard.

 

Also what movies were shown in the atrium? They might very well be the same in a couple of weeks. After some time in the Caribbean sun, it can be fun to catch a movie on the big screen. Our cruise will be longer but it will give me an idea.

 

Thanks for any insights you can offer and look forward to hearing more about your adventures!:)

[shazam89]

Thank you all for the kind words :) new installment coming soon!

 

Enjoying your review following you four gals - love the way you worked out the cabin issues' date=' mirrors, etc. Very funny.

 

Loved also hearing about your dressing up and then feeling like people were looking at you. They were probably surprised to see such nicely dressed young ladies!

 

Guess all that dancing counteracted the food. Great to hear how involved you all got with the activities.

 

If you happen to have your dailies, can you give us a rundown of the lounge entertainers? I've read about a guitarist named Leo a couple of times but wondering what other piano/singer type acts are onboard.

 

Also what movies were shown in the atrium? They might very well be the same in a couple of weeks. After some time in the Caribbean sun, it can be fun to catch a movie on the big screen. Our cruise will be longer but it will give me an idea.

 

Thanks for any insights you can offer and look forward to hearing more about your adventures!:)[/quote']

we "try" to be active to keep the lbs down, but it was still very hard haha

 

sry, i didnt keep track of the dailies, i believe Leo is the entertainer at the Magnums lounge, we didnt hang around there much, but he had a nice following every night i saw him. there also the Oceanvib, they are a band of 4-5 members, i enjoyed them, and of course the Caribbean band as well

 

i was the ship during xmas time so they played xmas movies, the only movie i caught was the muppets xmas, but since xmas is over, im not sure what movies will be playing. i also saw kids playing wii sports on the big screen as well as some football

 

have fun on ur cruise, sry i couldn't be of much help

[shazam89]

Port Canaveral - Reunited

December 20, 2011

 

*I don’t want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing….* I awaken to my festive alarm ringtone of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas”. After a fast glance at my cellphone to check the time, I quickly turn off the alarm and went back to sleep. V and I had planned to wake up early to play some tennis, but it was way too early for either of us to get up. I made a bold move of calling it off, by sleeping in. There was no need to wake V up from her beauty sleep.

Two hours later, I hear D roaming around the room. In the background, I hear her saying to us, “Guyssss, wake up, its 10, get up”. Now imagine the most annoying voice of someone you know, that would be D. Her voice is annoying on a daily basis, but when it’s our human alarm clock, it is extra effective and you know she woke us up. One by one, we crawl out of bed, like usual, V was the last out of bed. She told us to go ahead and she’d meet up with us somewhere. With that being said, D, N and I left for breakfast. The weather was beautiful outside, so we decided to go sit in the Great Outdoors (aft of deck 12). All throughout breakfast, we kept an eye out for V, just in case she was looking for us.

 

 

We were all done, but she still hasn’t come. We then walk around the sports deck (deck 13). As we stood on deck 13 looking down to the main pool area (deck 12), I hear a yelling of our names. We look down and there she was; V was in line at the barbeque pit. A side note, I didn’t eat the barbeque this particular day, but I did the previous day, and I must say it is some great food. I definitely recommend grabbing some food from the pool side barbeque, the chicken, pork, and don’t forget the sauce! It was delicious. We sign language V to meet us downstairs and we’d sit with her. Turns out she had gone for a run before going for food, what a “work-out-aholic” that girl.

The captain had come on the loudspeaker earlier in the day informing us that we had stopped a few times during the night due the weather (I believe), so we were getting to the dock late. I had not noticed that we stopped the previous night, and frankly it doesn’t really affect me. After hanging with V until she finished eating, we headed out to deck (7-8) to see our ship in the process of docking. As I looked down I spotted a dolphin, being the over excited person that I am, I screamed and pointed at the dolphins. The roommates were able to get a glimpse of the dolphin before the US coastal guard drive right through them.

 

 

We had an hour or two before we are allow to leave the ship, so we decided to hop into the hot tub. We were finally on American soil, which means we can contact our loves one! I don’t have many people to contact, only my parents. I gave the parents a call to tell them everything’s fine and jolly. My roommates, on the other hand, were glued to their cellphones talking to their boyfriends. One thing I liked about not having reception on board is not having to hear them talk to their boyfriends every ten minutes. A benefit for me being single may be that I don’t think about anyone but me, myself, and I (selfish, I know). As the roommates do their mushy, gushy talk, I relaxed in the hot tub.

[shazam89]

My best friend from college, L, (who graduated last May with me) had move down to Orlando, FL with her parents. I had informed her about coming down to Florida and hopefully we would be able to see each other. She told me she would try her best and even requested a day off from work to come see me. When I got the confirmation that she got the day off, I was ecstatic. It has been over half a year since we last saw each other, which in our books are equivalent to half a decade. Throughout our four years of college, we have seen/talked to each other every day, if not every other day. It has been a long semester without her, but I am glad I will be able to see her very soon. I was relaxing in the hot tub when I get a call from L. She was a little lost and wanted to see if I could help her, but I obviously had no clue how to help or direct her.

 

I told the roommates I will not be spending Florida with them, as I have plans with L. They didn’t mind at all, but wondered about what they can do in Port Canaveral. D went to a seminar earlier the week and found out about a shuttle/bus which takes them around Port Canaveral to shop and sight see. So they decided they would do that. This is my third time in Port Canaveral. The first time was during Thanksgiving week in 2009. We were onboard the Carnival Dream celebrating my parents’ 25th anniversary, where they got their vows renewed. During that time, we rented a car and drove around town. Our first stop was the Kennedy Space Center. It was surprisingly very interesting and educational, I enjoyed it very much. After the visit to the Space Center, we drove around the city and went to a well-known lobster buffet (because my mom loves and obsessively craves lobster). The buffet isn’t as awesome as it sounds, I was stuffed after two lobsters. My second time in Port Canaveral was the summer of 2010, onboard the Norwegian Jewel. Once again, my family ends up renting a car for the day. The kids (my older brother, little cousin, and I) wanted to go to Wet n’ Wild. We had been there a few years ago, and wer dying to go again. Thus, my uncle made a pit stop and dropped us off, as the grownups go shopping and sightseeing as they wished.

 

The loudspeaker comes on and Sinan announces that we may how proceed to the gangway. The roommates and I start heading back to our cabin to change out of our bathing suits. As we were heading back, L gives me a call to tell me she has found the ship and is parked in the parking lot. Excitedly, I rush to get dressed. Initially, I was going to wait for the roommates to get changed and leave with them, but not wanting L to wait, I excused myself and proceed to the gangway. After the card *beep* and the long walk out, I was in the parking lot and looking around for L. I couldn’t find her so I gave her a call. She picks up and tells me that she is the black Toyota Prius parked behind the shuttle. I look to the left and saw her car as I hear her say, “wait, I think I see you!” A big grin appears on my face as I sped walk to her car. Once she got out of her car, I jogged to her best described as a reenactment of a slow-motion-hair-in-the-wind-running-on-the-beach scene. As I slowly jogged to her, I loudly and proudly said “come give me a hug baby!”. No, there was no exaggeration to what I just described; I really did that, in public, with people around.

 

After hopping into her car, I notice a little bag of goodies that she had put together as a Christmas gift for my. Call me a horrible friend, but I didn’t think of bringing her anything. The gift was very thoughtful and I was touched by the card she wrote me.

 

After getting settled down, she tells me the plan that she had in store for us today. We stopped by a few shops before heading for lunch at the Shark Pit Bar & Grill. After lunch we headed over to Cocoa Beach. This was my first time at the beach even though I have been to Port Canaveral several occasions. The beach wasn’t as nice as I thought it would have been. We stroll on the boardwalk and eventually ended up going on a “romantic” stroll on the beach with our feet in the sand and water. I assure you we are not lesbians, I would definitely prefer a tall handsome guy by my side while strolling on the beach. We walked for a long time, talking and catching up before we hit the pier.

 

While we were walking along, we came across some interesting findings. We first saw a seagull with a baby turtle in its beak. I have a deadly fear of birds, as you know, there are a lot of birds (primarily seagulls) around the water. Every time they flew over us I would have to duck and hid behind L. It wouldn’t be too bad if we were the same size or if L was bigger than I was, but that is not the case. Image a 5’4” bigger than average female (me), hide behind a 5’ small female (L). “Hiding” behind L wasn’t as successful as I hoped. Aside from that sighting of a seagull beheading a baby turtle, we also spotted this “thing” which I thought was a plastic bag. (you may see for yourself below). I was convinced it was not a living creature, but L was worried and didn’t want us to disturb it before it comes and attack us. After the encounter of the weird creature, we saw some of the same creature but smaller versions. The smaller ones doesn’t look threatening to me and being the curious person that I am, I took my flip-flop and flipped the creature upside down, it had some tentacles, but it looked dead because it wasn’t moving. After examining and poking it, we didn’t find anything interesting so we left and continued walking.

 

During my process of going through my pictures, my little cousin was sitting beside me. My little cousin has a fascination with animals and is my own walking animal dictionary. There has been multiple times where I have called her just to clarify what animal something is, or what we certain animals do. Thus, I showed her the weird sea creature that I saw, she told me that it is some sort of jelly fish and that it was a good thing I did not touch it or I could have gotten stung. As she finished her sentence, she exclaimed, “Oh, I think that’s a man of war jellyfish!”. I don’t even bother to ask how or why she knows. I then googled the name, and it is indeed a man of war jellyfish. How does one know such a thing/name? Beats me. The cousin then goes on telling me that it was probably dead because jellyfishes don’t tend to get washed up on the shore and how certain jellyfishes are deadly, and how to treat their stings, needless to say I zoned her out and continued on my picture viewing.

[inlinesick]

I really enjoy your review!

[shazam89]

After the beach we stopped by the pier and hung out at a bar and singing along to the Christmas carols. After taking stupid pictures, engraving our initials into the bar stand, and playing some hacky sack in the dark, we soon found ourselves strolling the streets of Florida. We had walked a ways down the beach and it was completely dark now so we could no longer walk on the beach. It's amazing how different the roads look at night than they do in the morning, I sure didn’t know where we were going, but assumed we were walking in the correct direction. After a while of walking, I was happy to spot the Ron Jon sign, which tells us we were going in the right direction. I had promised the roommates to be back by 7:00pm so we can catch the Second City comedy show, but it was way past 7:00pm. They had called me, and I had texted back that I won’t be making it, but I will make sure I will be on the ship before it departs.

 

 

We get back to L’s car and start to head back to the port terminal. On the way back, I can’t help but wonder when the next time I will see L again. Will it be when one of us got married? Will our friendship withstand the distance and hardship? I know she has made many new friends in her new life in Florida, and I have adapted to be without her, here there is still that missing piece.

 

As I start walking back to the ship, I felt a sense of bitter sweet. I was more than thrilled that I got to spend the day with my best friend who I haven’t seen in so long, but the thought of wondering when the next time I will be able to see her gives me a chilling feeling. After *beeping* in, or in my case, *swipe* in, I give the roommates a call to see what they are up to. They are currently at Grand Pacific having dinner. It was around 8:50 when I board, I figured I could quickly grab dinner and then head over to the theater for the Second City Show, which is exactly what I did. I inform the roommates and told them I would meet them after the show.

 

I get back to the room with all the girls hanging around. I would like to say that we participated in another activity before hitting the clubs. I am not sure if today was the Newlywed not so Newlywed show, or if that was the previous night. Anyways, it is worth a mention as I always love this game show. The newlyweds and medium couples are always hilarious and the old couple are so cute. It was a game show that I told the roommates I will not miss no matter what. Like always, the show was very entertaining, however, I was disappointed that the “old couple” was only married for twenty something years! That’s even less than my parents, I do not know what happened to the forty, fifty plus years married couples, those are the couples I wanted to see! I was also surprised they took four couples, I’ve always seen them do three, it was a first to have four, I don’t have any indifferent in it though, either or is fine with me.

 

After the show, like any other night, we hit the club. The club has been getting more packed as the days pass. Today was extra packed, there was hardly room to breathe. When we were in the process of *beeping* to get in, there were two very young (18 and under looking) girls in front of us who handed the attendant their “license”? Isn’t it a little fishy that the girls are giving them their license instead of their card keys? Something to think about don’t you think? After we were in, I saw the same girls with a smirk on the faces, and they seem a little too fascinated and confused around the club. Were they 18? Where they younger than 18? As long as they mind their own business and weren’t being sloppy drunk it didn’t bother me. Should Norwegian be more strict with age management? What do you guys think? It was never a problem for me as I never stepped inside a club before turning 18 and frankly the kids don’t bother me. I am sure that there are those who may be angered or disturbed by the younger kids are being let in as well as those who don’t mind.

 

Once again, after a long night of restless dancing, we head back to our bungalow, plop onto our beds, and go into deep sleep dreaming about our next destination of Great Stirrup Cay.