In my short post explaining why we decided to take our very first cruise, I said people have always been the reason we’ve never taken one before…the anticipation of so many people in so little space.
That turned out to be true. Cruising, at least the kind we did, involves lots of lines…waiting to get on the ship, waiting to get off the ship, waiting for food and beverages, waiting to ask questions at guest services, waiting for elevators. We downloaded the cruise app which had a menu item called “Virtual Queue.” It may have been designed to help cut down the actual standing in lines, but the app never did work. Or at least I never got it to work.
I loved being able to eat surprisingly good food prepared by and cleaned up by other people every day, whenever and how much we wanted. On Norwegian, FreeStyle dining is great. There are at least 6 complimentary restaurants on board to choose from and you can show up whenever they’re open. The lines weren’t horrendous anywhere and it was nice to just go eat in clothes we were dressed for the rest of the day. We did have one specialty dining package which we used for a Japanese restaurant where the chef prepares the meal right in front of you. The chefs are a hoot. The whole experience was entertaining. You haven’t lived until you hear an Asian chef singing “We will, we will rock (wok) you” while drumming on a steel grill with a stainless steel fork and spatula. It was loud, but it was fun.
There was a good musical production in the theater every night and other competent entertainment all over the ship throughout each day. The high point for us though, entertainment wise, was a restaurant greeter, who, as he was greeting us (and spraying each guest with hand sanitizer) at the buffet one afternoon, was also singing his heart out, accompanied by a guitar player. This short, rotund, humble, joy-filled Filipino man had a spectacularly appealing voice. We saw him the next day at another restaurant and had a chat with him. He’d been working on the ship in food service for 11 years, and seemed as happy to be alive and serving guests as anyone I’ve ever met. He’s my new hero.
The scenery is beautiful. Though the Bahamas aren’t technically in the Caribbean, the water is as blue and clear as in all the pictures. The beaches are gorgeous and the history is rich. Everywhere I looked I was reminded of books I’ve read over the years featuring pirates, or British colonists, or adventures involving escaped slaves or folks looking to start new lives in a new world. Norwegian has a private island where we stopped for a day. I was one of only a handful of adults who actually got into and spent time in the magnificent water there. It was cool, but not uncomfortably cold and Lord knows how much I love being in the water.
The first day aboard was tough and uncomfortable for us. There’s no where to sit in an inside cabin other than on the bed and the toilet. We looked for quiet comfortable places all over the ship to hang out and read. Deck chairs are not comfortable for long periods of time. The library was quiet, but again, the chairs weren’t comfortable. There are a number of lounges on the ship, but they’re all noisy. There’s a constant din that, when you normally live in a quiet bubble, erodes the peace in your being. There’s music playing everywhere on the ship all the time, party music we never listen to in real life. In the open areas, such as near the pools, the sun decks, and the outdoor buffets and bars, the commotion generated by people talking and partying, kids screaming, and music blaring is unsettling and exhausting. At the end of the first full day aboard, we got a tip to go up to the nightclub on the top deck. It had great living room type couches for reading and relaxing, plenty of windows for light, and was quiet most of the day. We spent a lot of time there the last two days.
In Nassau we went ashore and hired a local taxi driver to give us a tour of the city. We went with another group of cruisers who boarded their ship in Manchester, England about 2 weeks ago and are on a 3-month long cruise which will take them around South America and to Antarctica. I can’t even imagine being on a ship that long. They were fascinating people, fun to share a taxi with.
Last summer I wrote a post called Pop Culture Illiterate. In it I outlined why Randy and I watch virtually no TV. We live in a bubble of our own choosing and don’t participate in much of the world’s popular culture. Most of the people on the cruise are not people who would be comfortable living in our bubble. We certainly were not that comfortable in their world. We took pictures a few pictures of people we couldn’t believe, and can’t be unseen. We’ll spare you those.
Taking a cruise reinforced for us that we like to get away to relax rather than party. Going to a place like the house on St George Island is a far better choice for us than a cruise ship. The only time we’ll ever consider cruising again is if we want to visit the Panama Canal or Alaska and a cruise is the most efficient way to do that.
When you live in paradise, there’s no place like home.
P.S. Norwegian has a cool Military Appreciation Program. We were invited to a special reception and are entitled to a discount on the stateroom rate over and above the cheapest price we can book for. If you’ve served, check it out.
P.P.S. We met a couple who went Swimming With Pigs. They said the pigs were mean and kind of dangerous. A waste of time and money.
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