Stardate 2109.14 – Chief Accounting Officer’s Live Blog, Norwegian Star

[numberguy]

Day 6 – At sea, rough but tolerable

 

Woke up today at 8:45 (yep, slept for 12 hours) and we went to Cagney’s for a late breakfast. My steak and eggs were great. The steak was a petit filet which was the perfect size and cooked exactly to order and practically fell apart. Chad had eggs and bacon. After that we decided to sit outside for a while, and I went to one of the chairs in the internet café and wrote up and posted Days 4 and 5.

 

We decided just to hang around the room for a while, and watched a movie. We then decided to have a small lunch in Blue Lagoon. Chad had ten “hot” wings (not very hot), and I had six mild wings and cream of tomato soup. They have no right calling those wings “Buffalo.”

 

The rest of the afternoon was a lazy one, with Chad watching movies in the room and me reading my Kindle all afternoon. We decided to go to the GLTB gathering in the Star Bar and then to the second show of the Diva, Beverly Davison, and she was truly wonderful, AGAIN. Then, off to a late dinner.

 

Chad decided to have three appetizers, mainly because they had Caesar salad with anchovies. So he had that, shrimp with guacamole and creamy cocktail sauce and creamy potato soup; I had the potato soup and the Caesar salad, as well. We liked all of them. For entrée, Chad had veal scallopini oscar style (with crab and cheese on top) with asparagus and masked potatoes, which he said was OK. I had the spaghetti Bolognese from the “classic” menu, which was very good. Chad ordered the pear and apple tart with caramel ice cream, which he liked, but the tart itself was a little tough. I had a duo of éclairs, which were good.

 

Tonight is an early to bed night, as we are taking a ship’s tour in Reykjavik. We finally get to stable land tomorrow!

 

Tonight’s towel animal was a frog.

 

 

--Michael

[Cubechick]

Thank you for posting (and I hope you feel better)!

 

We were on this cruise last year, so you're bringing back some great memories. :)

[numberguy]

Day 7 – Reykjavik (finally!)

 

Chad and I actually set an alarm this morning to be up in time for breakfast at Cagney’s and to get to the Stardust Theatre by 8:30 for our tour meet-up. We both had steak and eggs for breakfast, and it was good, as usual.

 

The ship tour we signed up for was “Krysuvik Geothermal Fields and the Blue Lagoon.” We waited in the Stardust, and then proceeded to our bus. Things were running a little late today, because the Port of Reykjavik was late in getting the gangways set up. I think the schedule change from this port day being Monday to being on Sunday might have messed up a few schedules.

 

The first stop on our tour was an eight square km lake in the lava fields of the southeastern peninsula of Iceland for a photo opportunity. The geology of Iceland is unique, and quite beautiful. Chad said that geologically he found Iceland to be more interesting than Hawai’i. This is because the lava fields in Hawai’i are very young and are just lava; the lava fields in Iceland are about 800-900 years old, and they’re covered in moss and lichen.

 

After that brief stop, we went on to the Krysuvik Geothermal Fields. Now, for some reason, I thought this would be a stop at one of the geothermal plants on the island, where they are taking their underground steam and converting it to energy and heating for homes (over 95% of the homes in Iceland and 100% of the homes in the greater Reykjavik region are heated geothermally). Actually, the Krysuvik fields are fields of steam vents and boiling mud with a very strong sulfurous smell. It was quite interesting. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but I wasn’t disappointed.

 

After that we were taken to the Blue Lagoon. We weren’t there to swim (although after seeing it, I wish we had), but just to observe and see the beauty of this manmade thermal spa. It was quite wonderful and beautiful. In the parking lot, I’d seen a couple of buses that were marked for “Crew Tour,” so I’m glad some of the crew were able to enjoy the Blue Lagoon, and Reykjavik in general.

 

Our next stop was to a Viking museum. As you may know, Leifur Ericsson discovered North America in 1000 AD (yes, long before Columbus), and to celebrate the millennium of that event, several Icelandic scientists created a replica Viking ship and sailed it to Greenland, Canada, and the US in 2000. They’ve built a building/museum around this ship replica and have a few displays about Icelandic History. It’s a nice little museum.

 

Finally, the tour let anyone who desired to get off in the City Center, and showed us where the shuttle would be so we could get back to the ship. The shuttle (arranged by Norwegian, I think) cost $5 or 4 Euros one way. So, we got off our tour bus and walked around City Center a little bit, purchasing souvenirs and stopping in a coffee shop and connecting to free wifi and having a small sandwich to tide us over.

 

The weather was really strange this day: rainy, cloudy, sunny, cloudy, rainy, sunny, rainy…well you get the picture. However, I did see a magnet in one of the souvenir shops that read “Welcome to Iceland. If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” It was so true that day. After exploring a tiny bit, we caught the 4:15 shuttle back (all aboard was 5:30), and it dropped us off at the port where there was another souvenir shop. We explored this for a while, but didn’t purchase anything. However, I did see one of the shop clerks slip a IKK500 bill into his pocket as he was accepting payments and putting money into the till. While this is only worth about $4.50, it still irked me for some reason.

 

We got back to the ship and decided what to do for dinner. We decided that we’d do Moderno tonight, so Chad made reservations for 9:00. We laid in the stateroom for about half an hour, just to relax (and to eat the cheese plate provided to us) and then we decided to get dressed properly for dinner and then went to the GLTB gathering in Star Bar and compared tours with the rest of the attendees. Afterwards we checked out karaoke in the Red Lion Pub, but while it was available, no one was taking advantage.

 

So we roamed the ship a bit more to kill time before dinner. The entertainment tonight was “The Look of Love,” a show with all Burt Bacharach songs, most of which would have been before Chad’s time, and which didn’t interest me much.

 

Eventually, 9:00 rolled around and we went to Moderno for our dinner. All of the ten different meats that sampled we had were very good, although we didn’t try all ten. I tried seven and Chad tried eight. Neither of us tried the chicken leg or the chorizo, but Chad tried the linguiça. All of them were very good, but we both highly recommend the lamb chop—it was wonderful. The sides were buttered rice, garlic mashed potatoes, fried bananas, and black beans and chorizo with tomatoes. The beans were amazing, the potatoes were VERY dry, and the bananas were a little too thickly breaded. We did like the salad bar before the meat, but neither of us had the soups that were at the bar. For dessert, Chad got the coconut flan and I had the papaya cream. Chad enjoyed his, but mine was a bit of a surprise. It should have been entitled papaya ICE cream, because that’s what it was. I was expecting something like a papaya whipped cream or something like that. It was good, but again, just not what I was expecting.

 

We then went to our room and got ready for bed. As you’ve probably noticed, we’re not the late-night party type.

 

Captain Heydahl has told us that there is ANOTHER storm brewing, so he’s going to try to get quite a bit of speed going tonight to try to get ahead of the bad weather. We’ll see tomorrow what the seas are like.

 

Towel animal? Cat

 

 

--Michael

[travelhound]

Thanks for posting, even though you're not feeling well. Hopefully the coming storm won't create as rough of seas as the previous days. Are you taking anything for the seasickness? The purser's desk usually has pills they give out, if you want to try them.

 

It's funny that you buy magnets at your ports because we always do that too. Our fridge is covered in magnets from all over the world.

 

Keep having a great time!

[funcky]

No, to use the spa locker room, which is one floor below the gym, you must pay.

 

Thank you very much for info!!!

[numberguy]

Day 8 – At sea

 

Well, so far so good today. Chad and I slept until 9, then began getting ready for our day. Captain Heydahl gave us an announcement that he’d apologized for the roughness during the night (I didn’t notice anything, but I’m a heavy sleeper), because he was doing about 21 knots to get ahead of the storm, and it appears to have worked for the most part. The waves today are still 7.5-12 feet, but it’s not horribly rough, just normal moderate seas.

 

We decided just to do a very light breakfast at the buffet today, and to do Cagney’s for lunch. After breakfast, Chad and I went to different parts of the ship to do our things—him to listen to podcasts and me to write up Day 7’s events and post it.

 

After finally getting a seat in the library to read for a while, Chad and I met up at Cagney’s for lunch around 1:00. We both started with tomato soup, which was very tasty. I had a turkey burger and fries; now, this was not your ordinary turkey burger. It had a sauce with roasted red and green peppers on it, and it was served with a chunky tomato jam or chutney or barbecue sauce. It was fantastic—really very good. Chad had the NY strip and he really enjoyed it. For dessert, I had a delicious banana cream pie and Chad had a warm brownie. All in all, a great lunch at Cagney’s.

 

After lunch we did our usual sea day afternoon activities: I read a little and watched a little tv, Chad listened to podcasts in the atrium. Yeah, we’re kind of boring that way. I also napped a little.

 

At this point, our day went downhill a little. We went to the GLTB gathering in the Star Bar. Each day, at 6 when the GTLB gathering is scheduled, the Star Bar has become a little more and more crowded, and not necessarily with the participants of the gathering. A few groups have found the out-of-the-way bar as a nice place to drink. This night a group of about 20-24 people who appeared to be Aussies had arranged a large group of seats in the back part of the bar. Well, we gay boys decided to take over the other half of the back half of the bar so we could converse. In doing so, the chairs got a little tight, and the bar waiter had a difficult time getting to the patrons (us and them) who were in the back corner, so drink orders had to be relayed along the group. Not bad yet, but here goes.

 

At around 6:45 one of the Aussies who was in the back corner worked his way up to the bar and then turned to us and stated that since we’d blocked the way and the barman couldn’t get to the other end of the bar, they were leaving. He said it twice, and then gave us the middle finger. We were a little shocked, because if he or the bar staff had asked us to condense our group some, we’d’ve gladly done so. Also, most of us leave by 7 to either go to dinner or to the early entertainment show, so had he been patient, we’d’ve been gone in 15 minutes. Oh, and after that, he went to the corner of the bar and almost pouted. I think he’d had more than enough to drink by that point, but that’s not my call.

 

Five minutes later, Chad and I left and went to the early show: a duo who had worked with the Moscow State Circus, the Due Platschkov (sp?). Forgive me, but Chad and I found it to be a snoozefest. The husband Stefan is a former clown and acrobat, so the first ten minutes or so were a completely silent bit incorporating audience members, which wasn’t that good. Then one of the audience members turned out to the be other duo member, the wife Alina. They did a joint juggling act that was OK, then she used juggling balls and juggled them on the ground and played two tunes very well on a floor keyboard. This was the best part of the show. Honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that we’d taken seats next to the handicapped seats and were sort of trapped in our seats, we’d’ve left.

 

Then, dinner at Versailles. First, we were seated in a section where everyone else was being served their entrées, so we were off schedule from everyone else in our section, so it took our waitress a long time to take our orders. Then Chad ordered lemonade for dinner, and she talked him into iced tea instead, almost like they had no lemonade available. Then, as we discovered during our soup course, they’d given us two pepper grinders instead of a salt grinder and a pepper grinder, so we had to wait for someone to come by close enough and slow down enough for us to ask them to replace it.

 

All minor things, I know, but starting with the upset Aussie giving us the finger, it was just an off night all around. And it continued into dinner. For our soups, Chad had the pea soup, which was really good (once he was able to add a little salt to it) and I had the Chinese Hot and Sour Soup. Oh my goodness, it was delicious! Wonderful flavors and heat. For our appetizers, I had a Caesar salad with blackened chicken and Chad ordered the Goat Cheese tart. What they brought him was the Salmon Tartar (tart, tartar—understandable mistake in a loud MDR). She went to get the tart but told him he could eat the tartar if he liked. We both tried it, and neither of us was too enamored with it. Chad didn’t like the taste, and to me it was served way to warm for me to feel comfortable eating it. Once the goat cheese tart arrived, he loved it.

 

For entrée, I had Thai coconut shrimp, which was good. Chad had pork loin with Brussels sprouts salad and slice potatoes. The pork was good, the Brussels sprouts a little overdone, and the potatoes were underdone. He said it was OK, and that the sauce for the pork was the best thing on the plate. Both of us had Café Pot a Crème (sp?) for dessert, and it was very good.

 

So, today was not the best day on the ship, but we’re still happy. We don’t let stuff like that upset us. And really, nothing was worth reporting to a maitre d’ or anything like that, although I would like to have a word or two behind closed doors with the drunk Aussie.

 

We went back to the room and watched the movie “Blended,” then went to sleep.

 

One thing to point out—I forgot to tell you that we’ve had to move our clocks back twice so far on the trip: once between Bergen and Lerwick, and another during our trip from Lerwick to Reykjavik. Tonight we move our clocks ahead an hour.

 

Towel animal: elephant

 

 

--Michael

[Ski Mamma]

This is such a great, informative and honest review. I am really enjoying it and cannot wait for the next installment. :)

My husband and I will be taking a Baltic cruise on the Norwegian Star in July 2015, and while we are very much looking forward to the large cruise ship experience, we are also not sure what to really expect. We have only taken two river cruises in Europe and one smaller ship cruise to Bermuda prior to this. We chose the Star based solely on the itinerary offered and the dates it was being offered. As a result, I have been searching high and low for anything and everything written about the Star. Your comments and complete rundown are proving to be beyond helpful.

Do hope that today will prove to be a better day, and that those rude Aussies will stay far away from the Star Bar from now on!

Thanks Heaps! Vielen Dank! Grazie Mille! Tak! Merci Beaucoup!

[numberguy]

Day 9 – Yet another sea day

 

Woke up this morning to even calmer seas than before, but you can still tell we’re sailing. First thing was breakfast at Cagney’s. Chad had simple bacon and eggs, and I had the challah French toast. Very nice breakfast, and really if you get the French toast, the syrup isn’t necessary—the berries and cream are more than enough for topping.

 

This morning, we dropped our passports by the front desk. It’s a customs requirement that all non-EU passports need to be given to the ship’s management for the purposes of clearing customs during our last three stops. Neither of us were comfortable with this, as we’ve never had to do this before, and we usually take our passports with us onto shore (no flames or arguments about the pros and cons of taking a passport or a copy ashore, please). But we turned them in, and got a receipt for them. We’re to pick them up on Day 13 (October 4).

 

Other than that, we just read or listened to podcasts, and just sat around the ship, but most of this was done outside today, as the majority of the day was sunny and rather warmer than the previous days. They also refilled the pool.

 

Chad and I have been eating so much this cruise that we decided to forego a formal lunch, and agreed we’d just have a snack at Blue Lagoon. Unfortunately, at different times we walked through the buffet and each snacked. Him on nachos, and me on a little Indian food. When we met up around 1:30, we decided to lightly snack at Blue Lagoon anyway. Chad had the artichoke dip, which was not good at all—the “dip” was thinner than the nacho cheese in the buffet, and had very little flavor. I had the chicken tenders and fries, and they were ok. Based on our various visits to BL during this trip, we’ll probably not go there anymore.

 

We then just relaxed some more—Chad stayed in the room and watched movies while I decided to watch (not participate in) the Deal or No Deal show. It was interesting, and I enjoyed it. One contestant won $72, and another won $80. It was a good time killer for 45 minutes. Then I decided to read some more.

 

Around 5:30, I met Chad back at our room, where he was preparing to get dressed up, and I began to do so. Tonight was “Norwegian’s Night Out,” and we decided to go to the LGBT gathering and have our picture taken in suits. Which we did. However, since we’re actually celebrating our anniversary tomorrow night (October 1, although our actual anniversary is August 1), we decided to change out of the suits for tonight’s dinner, to avoid spilling anything on them.

 

We went to dinner at Aqua MDR. Neither of us were overly hungry, so we ordered a little less tonight (well, that was the plan anyway). Chad had Caesar salad (with anchovies) and sliced duck breast for appetizer, and I ordered the green pea and potato samosa with Indian pickle as well as the Stilton cream soup. We both really liked our appetizers, particularly the Indian pickle on mine. For entrée I had an Indian dish I forgot to write down but it was called Lamb (something) Josh, and it came on rice with raita and chutney, and it was wonderful. I love Indian food, and this was great. Chad had the grouper in a cream sauce with potatoes and spinach. He liked it, but once again, something entitled a “cream” sauce should be thicker. We decided just to pop up to the buffet for a little soft serve ice cream for dessert.

 

(Here’s a hint: when the head chef on your ship is Indian, order the Indian food!)

 

Chad was really tired, but I wanted to see the show at 9:15, and I went by myself to see Marrambolla. It’s a show of dance, ballet, trapeze work, acrobatics, and aerial stunts. I would say the show was 80% great. For some reason, Russian circus acts open with a clown routine that just doesn’t quite work somehow; but after that, they were very good.

 

Tomorrow is Belfast and we’re on an early tour, so I’m posting this at the end of the day.

 

Towel animal: platypus (I think?)

 

 

--Michael

[british lady]

Thank you for this live report I am enjoying it. We will be on the STAR in Europe next June. I am pleased that the Indian food is good as this is our favorite cuisine.

 

I am surprise that you did not get fish fingers and custard when you visited the UK;)

 

Enjoy your anniversary dinner.

[british lady]

The something will be rogan josh:)

[numberguy]

The something will be rogan josh:)

 

Thank you! I remembered it this morning, and was going to post tonight, but you beat me to it!

 

--Michael

[numberguy]

Day 10 – Belfast

 

For today, we signed up for a full-day, eight-hour tour entitled Highlights of Northern Ireland. So we woke up and had a small breakfast in the Market Café, then went to the Stardust Theatre at 8:20 for our 8:30 meetup. We found out that three other friends we’d made during the cruise were going on this same tour, so we arranged to meet up and ride the same bus.

 

We got on our bus and our tour guide was Adrian Callan and our driver was named Trevor. We started by driving through the University Quarter of Belfast, through some pretty tight streets and turns, without a scratch. We then went to the Peace Wall, which is a wall that still separates Catholic and Protestant Belfasters, but on which many people have written inspirational statements, hoping that the hostilities that have haunted Ireland for over 450 years can end peacefully.

 

Our next stop was the Giant’s Causeway, a World Heritage site with thousands of columns of basalt on the northern coast of County Antrim, about an hour away from Belfast. This is truly a beautiful site, and is not to be missed. After staying here for about an hour, we then went to a local hotel for lunch, provided as part of the tour. We were served beef, Yorkshire pudding, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, and root vegetables with peas, all served with gravy and coffee or tea (other beverages were extra). It was a large amount of food and it was very good. We then stopped at a couple of other places on the Antrim coast for photo opportunities, the entire time Adrian providing historical information. He is the best tour guide I have even had on a Norwegian tour.

 

Upon our return, we were hoping to take a shuttle bus into Belfast to get some souvenirs, but unfortunately they were ending the shuttle service at 5:30, even though all aboard was at 7:30. They were only bringing people back to the ship from downtown, not allowing people to go downtown. Chad was greatly disappointed.

 

We also stopped by the photography area and picked out the photo from the set taken the night before that we wanted copies of.

 

Tonight was the night we decided to celebrate our anniversary with a dinner in Le Bistro. So we dressed up again and took the Anniversary card that we received our first day with us and gave it to the maitre d’. Le Bistro is truly the place to have a wonderful, romantic dinner. Time for the food review.

 

Chad wanted several items, so he got three appetizers. He had the Soupe a Quatre Champignons (cream of four mushroom soup), the duck salad, and the escargots. He truly loved all of them. For appetizer I had Coquilles St. Jacques and Caesar salad. For his entrée, he ordered the rack of lamb and I had the coq au vin. Mine was excellent and I practically licked the container clean, and for the second time on this trip, he loved his lamb. For dessert, he ordered the pear and apple tatin, and I had the chocolate Madeleine (both with coffee); both were wonderful. In addition, the ship had a small anniversary cake made for us, which they presented to us (and is currently in the minifridge in our room). Truly a classy, memorable evening.

 

After that full of a day, we went to the room and fell into bed. Our towel animal was a snail.

 

 

--Michael

[numberguy]

Day 11 – Greenock/Glasgow

 

We had decided to do Glasgow on our own, but we still set an alarm so we could get on our way fairly early, since sailaway tonight was scheduled for 6 pm. We had breakfast in Cagney’s, and were off the ship around 8:45. (I had the salmon frittata and Chad had steak and eggs, in case you were wondering.)

 

We walked through Greenock to the Greenock Central station for about half an hour and purchased round-trip tickets to Glasgow for ₤6.90 each (much cheaper than the $69 the ship was offering). The train ride took about 45 minutes, and we were in Glasgow by 10 am. We went to the tourist information office, which was about 4-5 blocks from GCS (Glasgow Central Station). There we bought tickets for the hop-on-hop-off bus for ₤12 each.

 

We then walked over to George Square (two blocks) and caught the HOHO for the 1 hour, 50 minute tour. It was very informative, but a little chilly on the open top of the HOHO. There are many beautiful parts of Glasgow, and I’d definitely want to return to here again. After the HOHO we went to a pub called Droughty’s and had lunch. We both had strawberry cider, and Chad had haggis, neeps, and tatties (haggis, mashed turnips, and mashed potatoes), which he enjoyed (except for the part where he jostled the table and spilt my cider all over himself). What a mess! I had Steak and Ale Pie with mashed potatoes, and it was tasty.

 

After that, we walked around city center looking for souvenirs to take home to various family members and stopped in Starbucks for free wifi. We then caught the 4:06 train back to Greenock, got back around 4:52, and were on the ship at about 5:15, when all aboard was at 5:30. They called about 8-10 names at around 6:00 over the loudspeaker, and then they were down to three names at 6:20 while we were underway. I wonder if we left anyone ashore…

 

Today in Greenock kind of wore us out, and we were tired when we went to Aqua for dinner. Chad ordered three appetizers again: Beef barley soup, Caesar salad, and escargot cassoulet; I had the Caesar salad and beef barley soup. Our soups and salads were good, but the cassoulet was taking a while. Our waiter said they ran out of mushrooms for the cassoulet and had to get some more (from storage, I assume) and they were making it. We waited, and waited, and waited. Chad cancelled the order with the head waiter about ten seconds before our waiter showed up with it, so he had it. He enjoyed it, but was truly falling asleep at the dinner table.

 

For entrée, we both ordered rack of lamb with green beans topped with bacon, and au gratin potatoes. The lamb was good, but we’d been spoiled by the lamb from Le Bistro and Moderno, so it was a tiny bit of a letdown, but still good. For dessert, he had the apple pie a la mode, and when they brought it, they’d forgotten the ice cream, which they brought presently. I had the cherry trifle. The desserts were OK, although mine was basically jello with custard and whipped cream, and as Chad said, “it’s apple pie.”

 

Afterwards, Chad went to bed, and I’m writing this to dash it off, since I hadn’t written yesterday’s OR today’s entries yet. After I post this, I’ll pick up our photos and then head to bed myself, in order to sleep well before our final stop on the cruise: Dublin.

 

Towel “animal”: a seated Inuit.

 

 

--Michael

[All-ready2cruise]

Thank you so much for this very informative and exciting live blog. I'm getting very excited reading about your cruise since we'll be on the British Isles cruise this time next year.

 

It sounds like you're having a great time with only a few glitches; so glad to hear that.

 

Enjoy your final stop in Dublin, looking forward to your notes about it.

 

Thanks again,

 

Cheers.

 

PS, congrats on your anniversary :)

[Windy56]

You are doing a great job with this review. I am enjoying your meal descriptions!

[numberguy]

Day 12 – Dublin

 

We arose early, and decided to have breakfast in the buffet today. Since we’d been to Dublin before and had used the HOHO five years ago, we decided just to do Dublin on our own, using the shuttle bus provided by NCL. It cost $15, €10, or ₤9 roundtrip. It was a grey overcast day (hello Ireland!), and as the bus made its way through morning rush-hour traffic, there was such humidity that the bus windows completely fogged over, and it started raining halfway through the bus trip.

 

We were let off at Kildare St. We had passed a couple of tourism offices on the trip down, so we decided to walk to them in the light rain. One thing I will say for Dublin: the wayfinding signage in Dublin on almost every other corner was most helpful in allowing us to find our way around. Some things Dublin could improve upon: having public loos and more ATMs. Their tourism offices don’t even have them. We got a map and decided to first visit Dublin Castle.

 

Now, we had heard that some of the acquaintances we’d made on the ship had a ship tour that included “a castle” that had to be cancelled because there was a very high-level meeting being held in the castle. Turns out it was Dublin Castle. We could walk around the outside, and even into the courtyard, but there was a constant stream of black Mercedes and BMWs with men in suits alighting from them. We decided to go elsewhere.

 

What we decided to do was walk to the Old Jamieson Distillery on the northern side of the River Liffey (a bit of a walk but not horrible). We got there about 40 minutes before the next available tour, paid for our €14 (each) tour, walked to a nearby grocery store for an ATM, got back to the distillery, had a coffee in their restaurant, then began our tour. We really liked the tour, and as we were approaching the end of the tour, the tour guide asked for eight volunteers for a whiskey tasting. Chad was selected as one because of his epic beard (and probably also because of his nose ring).

 

At the end of the tour everyone gets either a snifter of Jamieson or a cocktail of Jamieson, ginger ale, and lime. Chad took the snifter and I took the cocktail; I think I’ve now found my new cocktail when I go out to bars. I’m sure Jamieson is not a well (bottom-shelf) whiskey, but I’ll pay extra for it, because as they drill home during their tour, Irish whiskey is distilled thrice, Scotch whiskey is distilled twice, and American whiskey is distilled only once. Chad’s tasting consisted of tasting Jamieson, Johnnie Walker black, and Jack Daniels. Jamieson was the unanimous favorite. Chad got a certificate for being an official taster.

 

After that, we decided to continue our alcohol tour of Dublin and walk to the Guinness Storehouse. In the pouring rain. P-o-u-r-i-n-g. Was a bit of a walk but again not horrible (except for wet clothing, even with umbrellas). The tour price at Guinness is €18 each, and it’s self-guided, but it’s bright and flashy and high-tech and rather interesting. Chad and I had a small lunch there of a sandwich, potato chips (his was Guinness flavored), and a lemonade. We went to the Gravity Bar, all the way at the top of the Storehouse and got our free pint of Guinness that comes with the tour. I find Guinness to be very smooth going down, much smoother than I expected, but I could only drink about half a pint; Chad drank his pint and my remaining half. The bar had a great 360° view of Dublin, which would have been so much better had it not been raining.

 

By this time we decided to head back to Kildare St. to catch our bus back to the ship. Sailaway was scheduled for 5:30, so all aboard was at 5:00. Since we didn’t know when the last bus was leaving, we left Guinness around 2:30 for the walk back across downtown. Chad wanted to take a different route back, so it took us about half an hour to get there. There was a bus there, but there was a long line of people there waiting, cruisers and crew alike. After about fifteen minutes of waiting, the bus took off, but five minutes later another one arrived, and a good number of us got on it. Afternoon rush hour was no faster than morning rush hour, and we didn’t get back to the ship until about 4:10.

 

Once we got back, we just relaxed in the cabin until the 6:00 GLTB gathering in Star Bar, then we decided to dine in Versailles. I’m writing this a couple of days late, so I’ve forgotten some details. For appetizer, we both had yellow split pea soup, which was very good, and we both had another appetizer that I can’t remember; Chad had a third appetizer of tomato salad with red onions and capers, except between the kitchen and the table, the capers disappeared. For entrée Chad had Veal Zurich, which was basically veal stroganoff. He mentioned to the waitress that he would like a little more sauce if possible, and she went to the kitchen and brought a ramekin of sauce—and a whole other serving of the veal! It ended up being quite a hearty mean for him, and he enjoyed it.

 

I ordered the Steak Dianne, which is basically steak with fried onions on top with a gravy, and fries. It was pretty good. One thing I have to say about each and every cut of steak we’ve ordered on this trip: their doneness levels have been spot on. Every one of our medium rare steaks or lamb chops have been medium rare. They do that part very well. For dessert, we had the chocolate crêpe. I really liked mine; Chad not so much. There was a sauce on it, that had hazelnuts and some sort of sweet crispy bit in it, and that caused our difference of opinion on it.

 

We decided to go to the late entertainment show, which was supposed to be a magician/comedian named Christian Miro from Spain. We missed his show the night before, so we thought we’d go tonight. However, it turns out that when he got on the ship, the airline had lost his luggage, so he didn’t have everything he needed to do his complete act. So he shared a show with Duo Platschkov (sp?) from earlier in the cruise. Duo Platschkov was first and since we were so unimpressed with their act earlier in the cruise, we got up and left. We later heard that the magician wasn’t all that great, either. We went to bed instead.

 

Towel animal: Clam

 

 

--Michael

[numberguy]

Day 13 – At Sea

 

We woke up today, and I wasn’t feeling all that great. The evening sail out of Dublin and through the Irish Sea was a tiny bit rough, and I didn’t sleep all that well. We went to Cagney’s for breakfast, and I had the waffle without going to the breakfast bar first. It was just enough for me, and I started to feel better almost immediately. After breakfast we went to Ginza to pick up our passports.

 

We were sailing between the Inner and Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and we sailed along the Isle of Skye for a long time. The sun was out, it was comparatively warm, and the sailing was very smooth. This is the kind of day at sea one really enjoys. I sat outside and read for a good couple of hours.

 

I went back to the room around 1:00 and told Chad I was hungry; he’d had such a large breakfast that he wasn’t hungry, but he accompanied me to the buffet. I tried both Indian dishes they had; I forgot the names, but one looked like refried beans, but had an Indian taste, and the other was a vegetable curry. Both were excellent. Then I had a plate of pasta with a sauce that I picked and they heated. I chose meat sauce with some pesto and onions. It was also good. Chad had two soft serve ice cream cones while I ate.

 

In the afternoon I decided to actually play Deal or No Deal; however, before I did that I stopped by Guest Services and got a copy of my bill so far. On it I saw a credit for $22, and I asked what it was for. It’s the refund of the difference in port fees from losing Alesund and Thorshavn and gaining Belfast. I thought that was good of NCL to do. I didn’t win anything at DOND, but I was entertained for an hour, and both of the contestants earned more money by taking the deals offered than what they had in their “briefcases.”

 

Afterwards I read a bit more, then joined my GLTB acquaintances whom I mentioned earlier I had not seen in ten years. We chatted and caught up for about 45 minutes, then I went to our cabin. We went to the GLTB gathering in Star Bar, then six of us went off to dinner together at Versailles. Chad and I both had the bean soup with Italian sausage and the shrimp ceviche for appetizers, and we liked them both. Chad had corvina for entrée, while I had the turkey dinner (turkey, dressing, Brussels sprouts); again, we liked them both. Our appetizers were top-notch: I had the mochaccino cheesecake, which was wonderfully coffee-flavored, and Chad had the crème brulée, which finally had the proper crackable top on it.

 

Afterwards, we went to bed.

 

Towel Animal: Crab

 

 

--Michael

[All-ready2cruise]

Thanks again for this wonderful review. It's making me even more anxious for cruise experience next year.

 

 

Safe travels homeward bound.

[travelhound]

Thanks for all of the updating. I really enjoyed the details, both good and bad. Bravo to you for all that walking in the rain in Dublin. I don't remember if you said you were staying on until Miami or flying home from Copenhagen. Either way, safe travels.

 

Happy Belated Anniversary. How appropriate that the night you ate escargot in Le Bistro, your towel animal was a snail. :)

[numberguy]

I'm currently at the Copenhagen airport. I'll try to get the last day plus disembarkation written up before we leave in 2 hours.

[numberguy]

Day 14 – At Sea

 

Today is the best day of the cruise for being outside, enjoying one’s self in the sun, and of course, it had to be the last day of the cruise.

 

We didn’t set the alarm and woke up around 8:30. We went to breakfast at Cagney’s, per usual (we’re getting used to this!). Sort of a lazy day today, even though we have to pack and get ready. We’ve both decided we want to be home, but we don’t want to go through the process of getting home. Several of the people we’ve met are staying on for the transatlantic, and flying (or bussing) home from Miami.

 

The biggest thing to report is one of the Captain’s announcements this morning: The really horrible sea day when we had 30-40 foot waves, and I didn’t leave my room until 5 pm? Well, we were riding on the edge of a Category 2 hurricane that day. I’m glad he didn’t tell us that earlier, or I would have worried the entire cruise. But like I said, let’s hear it for modern shipbuilding techniques!

 

Mostly, today was reading, organizing the coinage left over from all the different currencies we had to deal with (Danish kroner, Norwegian kroner, pounds Sterling, Icelandic kroner, and Euros), and just lazing about. I watched people in the hot tub, lazing on deck chairs (in long pants and jackets), playing shuffleboard on Deck 7, and speedwalking both decks 7 and 13. I’m sure a good number of them are staying on for the TA, and I envy them the warmish days ahead.

 

For lunch, we went to Cagney’s and repeated what we’d had there before, so nothing really to tell there. In the afternoon we noodled around and then I went to the final bingo game, because when I played Deal or No Deal, five raffle tickets for the free 7-day Caribbean cruise came my way, too. I didn’t think I had a snowball’s chance of winning, but I put them in and waited through two games of bingo for the drawing. And amazingly, guess what?

 

I didn’t win the cruise. Shock, surprise.

 

We went to the final GLTB bar night from 6-7 in the Star Bar, and one of the gentlemen gave us his bottle of sparkling wine that was in his room either from suite benefits or CAS benefits as a late anniversary present (he wasn’t going to drink it). Between a few of us, we finished the bottle, and then eight of us went to Versailles where we had to get a buzzer again, so we all got free glasses of bubbly. And not all eight of us drank, so Chad and I had even more. I was a little bubbly myself for dinner.

 

As for the dinner, Chad had three appetizers again: the seafood “bisque” which he was disappointed in; succotash duck salad which had far too much peas for him to consider it a “succotash”; and crab soufflé which was more of a puffy crab cake. For dinner he had the prime rib with baked potato, (tough) corn on the cob, and (overcooked) broccoli. His dessert was the Nutella pot de crème, which he thoroughly enjoyed. I had the crab soufflé, which I liked, and the Hungarian goulash soup, which had great flavor. My entrée was chicken parmesan, and it was not very good at all, but for final dinner, I stuck with it. I didn’t order dessert, because we still had our anniversary cake to eat before we left.

 

After dinner, and goodbyes and promises to keep in touch (which I know we will do), we went upstairs to pack. Chad and I both got packed in an hour, and by 11:30 both of our priority-tagged suitcases were in the hall. While doing that and afterwards, we were able to watch the entire Godzilla movie before finally going to bed at midnight.

 

--Michael

[sjbdtz]

It was really great to meet the two of you, and has been fun reading your impressions of the cruise.

 

Looking forward to sailing with you again sometime. Until then, we'll stay connected!

 

 

Stephen & Daniel

 

 

.

[melodyesch]

Great review!

[Freespir8]

Great review. Really enjoyed following along. I am even more excited for our cruise in less than 2 weeks!