Okay, where was I?

Oh right, I was entertaining you with more details about the trip. 

 

Let's talk about the ship and our departure from NY. 

 

If you've ever been on a cruise, 90% of the time the process of getting on and off the boat is relatively painless.  Sure there are lines. And yes, there are likely clueless people who get in your way. But when you're leaving, those folks don't generally bother me because, heck, I'm going on vacation.

 

Don't we look like we're ready to be on a cruise?

 

I really love this photo.  It was an accident that the skyline showed up in the reflection. I totally wish I would have thought of that.

I've been on one other Norwegian cruise back in January of 2010.  There was some discussion as to which ship we were on. I was adamant we were on the Pearl, but it turns out the MomUnit was (gulp) right and we were on the Norwegian Spirit.  That experience was fantastic. The ship was clean and not very crowded - it seemed. The food was delicious and well presented. The overall experience was such that it made me want to go on another NCL cruise.  

 

This cruise, not so much.  We were on the Norwegian Gem. It's an older ship and smaller than the Spirit.  And as it turns out, on a normal Caribbean cruise its warm enough that people spend time on the decks.  And gets them out of the ship during the days at sea.  This trip? It was raining, windy and cold.  And since the average age on the ship was 100YO (ok maybe not that old, but at least 80 something) not a soul went outside. So 2300 people were jammed inside this small ship.  Needless to say, we spent a lot of time in our room.  Turns out that was the quietest place on the ship that had people we actually wanted to be around. 

 

I visited the gym 4 times this trip. Never in my life have I opted to work out on a vacation.  In this case, though, it was nice to work out and I found I actually wanted to. And it turns out I only gained .2lbs this trip. Unlike the 5-10 I gained on the last cruise. 

 

Anyhow, back to departing NY.  The sun was shining and it was warm enough that we parked ourselves up on deck to leave NY.  I swear every time I leave on a cruise I think of the Love Boat and wonder why there aren't hundreds of people on the dock waving at us and throwing streamers. 

 

Leaving NYC was breathtaking. The skyline of Manhattan is so beautiful and expressive to me.  And on top of that we floated right by the Statue of Liberty.

 

Ahhh Manhattan!

SL SIL was "helping" by putting a platform for P-Dot. She didn't realize I was just going to hold him.

The tall building to the left is the new Freedom Tower where the WT towers once stood.

Lady Liberty.

 

What? No drinks in our hands yet?

Ahhh that's better.

 

 

The MomUnit, Suzi&Jack and me on our way out of the harbor.

 

As a surprise for our traveling group I ordered sparkling wine, cheese and chocolate covered strawberries to be delivered to our room.  I was promised by NCL they'd be in our room upon departure.  Well that was 1/3rd correct.  The wine was there. I had to call room service 3 times to get the cheese delivered, and then they never delivered the strawberries.  I finally called and asked if they could just deliver the strawberries the next day around 5pm.  "of course", they said.  Fast forward to happy hour the next day and I had to call twice to get them delivered. So not worth the extra money. And certainly not the surprise I had planned. 

 

Little fuzzy because I had been drinking prior to this photo being taken. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Happy Hour!  The MomUnit, DadUnit, Jack&Suzi have, on every cruise, this little tradition we wholeheartedly adopted.  After lunch they'd grab some salami, cheese and fruit. They'd put it in their little fridges and at 5pm they'd join in someone's room and have drinks and appetizers for happy hour.   LOVE this idea. 

 

This trip we took it to an entirely different level. The cruise offers from 4-6pm a Happy Hour in one of the many bars. It's generally two for the price of one. Which when purchasing alcohol on a cruise ship is a good deal.  So the night before we'd review the ship's brochure of the next day's events and find the bar the happy hour would be in.  

 

It started by being back in the room by 5pm with our drinks. Then as the cruise progressed we went up to Happy Hour earlier and earlier.  Sometimes I'd be almost done with my drinks by  the 5pm happy hour in our room. 

This bottle of Grey Goose was in the Duty Free shop. It was ENORMOUS. And no I didn't buy it.

Happy Hour drinks! Bahama Mama's and SL SIL's wine in the background.

Did I mention we drank wine?  SL SIL and I split a wine package that gave us both 2 bottles of wine for the cruise. We drank it and didn't feel one bit worried about running out of wine.

Happy Hour in the cabin.

The ship also has photographers. They wander around the dining rooms shooting photos of all the guests as well as when getting off the ship they usually have some type of costume native to the city where you can take photos with them.  Naturally I did both. And then you purchase the photos for an extraordinarily expensive amount...which I did.  

 

Me, SL SIL and the MomUnit

Ahh...aren't we cute. And we matched for a change. I have rosy cheeks because I had been, well, drinking.

All of us on the cruise.  Good times.

The other disappointing part of this trip was the food. While it was good, it wasn't great. And the presentation of the meals just was not as I remembered.  Just to give you an idea, in previous cruises I took photos of the meals because the presentations were so good. This trip? Not a single photo of food.  That doesn't mean I didn't eat enough food, it just wasn't as great as the NCL Spirit was. The MomUnit said it best by saying it felt like NCL has cheapened out. 

 

We did go to two of the specialty dining rooms though.  We went to Teppanyaki and the steak house. Both were fantastic.  Both made me wish I hadn't eaten as much as I had. And both left me thankful the rest of the food wasn't as good as that. I definitely would have gained more weight. 

 

Teppanyaki is fun. It's the Benihana adventure on a cruise ship.  The fancy knife work and show of making your meal.  Miss Sacramento and I ordered their specialty drink, I think it was called a Japanese Martini. It was not only neon green, but delicious.  I slurped that down faster than a lady probably should have.  AND I found out that P-Dot floats. If you remember Puck did not float...thankfully his distant cousin P-Dot does.  You know, in case of emergencies and all. I didn't have to worry if the boat went down whether P-Dot would survive.

 

Miss Sacramento and I with our neon green Japanese Martinis.

P-Dot floating in my drink. And before you ask, yes, I got up and cleaned her with sanitizer. I don't know where she's been.

 

Love, Love LOVE this photo.  Not only did we NOT know the waiter was behind us. But Miss Sacramento thought I was sticking my tongue out too.  Snicker Snicker...

Poor P-Dot. Nothing left to float in. 

Moving on. What's left? Oh yes the towel art. Also one of my favorite parts of cruises.  I'm not sure why we all turn into grade schoolers over art that's been formed out of towels, but its darn cool to me.  This cruise didn't offer a towel folding class or I might have been tempted. Our steward had fun with us on a couple of the towel arts. One being a snake. The MomUnit does not like snakes in any way, shape or form. And even with chocolate as the eyes, she was not impressed.  The other fun one was the monkey hanging from the ceiling. Clever. 

The departure of this ship was chaos.  I've drafted a letter to NCL about how horrific and chaotic leaving the boat was in NYC. I'm sure they can only manage some of that chaos, but there's a part of me that believes they at least need to be made aware of it.  

We paid $40 for the transfer shuttle from the boat to JFK.  The MomUnit, Miss Sacramento and I were all leaving from JFK and we figured an arranged transfer from the cruise ship who does this all the time would be most likely the easiest and without the most hassle. We were wrong. 

We got off the boat early so to allow for plenty of time to get to JFK, have lunch then get to our perspective gates.  We debarked at 9:40 and did not get into a shuttle until almost 11am.  In my mind, we paid to debark early so we can get to the airport. We did not pay to debark early then stand in a jammed pack terminal frantically trying to find out shuttle.  After searching and marching through thousands of people I flagged down an NCL crew member to ask where the JFK shuttle was.  She left us standing and took off to find out.  She returned pointing out the man who would be responsible for getting our shuttle here.  I'll call him Clarence because that's the name that came to mind when I saw him. 

Clarence came over to our rapidly growing group of JFK transfers and told us security wasn't allowing more than a certain number of buses into the terminal and as soon as he could, he'd get out shuttle there. So we waited. And we waited. And we waited some more. 

Finally the shuttle arrives and we all pile into this shuttle for our transfer to JFK.  The driver was clearly a lunatic as I swear he hit 70mph on the streets of Manhattan.  His plan to go through the Midtown tunnel was thwarted by a cop who for some reason wouldn't let him go through the tunnel. So we drove in circles trying to figure out how to get on the FDR. Once on the FDR it was just over 45 minutes to get to JFK. Then entire ride took us about an hour and a half.  Crazy. 

Then Mr. No Personality Shuttle driver stops at the FIRST airline in the international terminal of JFK and dumps us all off.  Not one of us was going on an international flight.  He tossed our luggage and then sped away.  Jackass!  None of us knew where we were or how to get to the domestic terminal. I jogged inside and asked a security guy who directed me. So our group and others trotted on over to take the tram to the domestic terminal. 

You can imagine I wasn't at all happy.  And as I said, NCL vendors out these services, you'd think they'd want to guarantee their guests have a good experience. Because for me, and I'm sure others, I associate that experience with NCL. Not one I'll do again. 

Stay tuned for tomorrow. You'll get to hear about our exciting experience in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  I know you're dying to.  

Back in Time

Now that I am safely home, and using the Internet that doesn't cost a small fortune, I think I will recount for you in further detail the cruise.  Relax, I'm not going to bore you with ALL The details, only the ones I've deemed interesting. And therefore you too should deem them interesting. 

 

Let's start with the NY side of things. 

 

I think it's safe to say that NYC is, quite possibly, one of THE most exciting cities ever.  When you first hit NYC for the first time, or for the first time in years, it takes some getting used to. People everywhere, noise constantly, and the hustle and bustle that never stops.  They say Las Vegas is the city that never sleeps. I'm willing to say NYC is also the city that never sleeps. 

 

Our hotel was in the Financial district which seemed MILES away from anything interesting.  On the one hand it was nice to be outside a bit (though you're never really "outside"), but on the other it kinda sucked we were so far from what I considered the "happening" part of NYC. Still our hotel was nice, small, and quiet. 

 

Walking out the front door of the hotel, turning slightly to your right and you would be facing one of the most beautiful bridges I've ever scene, the Brooklyn Bridge. It was quite literally just an arm length away from our hotel. 

 

I've always been fascinated by the Brooklyn Bridge and was really hoping to get some good shots of it. Unfortunately, they are fixing it and so most the shots I got include some rather unattractive scaffolding. On the day we were leaving on the cruise, the weather finally loosened up enough for SL SIL, Jack and I to walk over to the bridge and get some shots. 

 

Not great shots, but shots all the same.

 

 

Besides the original post I did about NYC 1.1 we did manage to do a lot of other interesting stuff while there.

On Tuesday we did the traditional Hop on / Hop off bus tour of the city. It was cold, wet and a little less interesting while your teeth chattered. Still, I stayed on the top of the bus and perservered. I didn't take quite as many photos as normal given the weather was less than perfect.  

The MomUnit was cold

We hopped off in Times Square to 1) see Times Square and 2) Find the nearest Starbucks for potty break and hot chocolate. 

While in Starbucks, SL SIL and I found this fun little app they had that allowed us to take photos of ourselves and have it sent to us in email.  She and I messed with it a bit, and finally got it to the point where I was actually looking at the camera instead of the timer.  Then we got the rest of our group involved.  Fun stuff Maynard!

It was lunch time by the time we found SL SIL's scarf guy and made our purchases. We asked the scarf guy where around there would be good to eat. He directed us to Virgil's across the way.  Once there, we noticed an Irish Pub next door to Virgil's that looked way more appetizing. So we ate there.

After lunch we needed to get a couple blocks away to hop back on the tour bus. Along the way, Miss Sacramento say a restaurant owned by Guy Fieri (the Diner, Drive-ins, andDives guy). Some of her best friends are big fans of that show and would get a kick out of the restaurant.  She started to take a photo of the logo on the window when she spied Guy Fieri himself in the restaurant. She bolted in. The MomUnit hot on her trail and me right behind.  Guy was nice enough to take some photos with us. Sadly, the MomUnit was too excited to actually get the photo in focus.  Still, you can tell who's who.

Tuesday afternoon our other two traveling companions would be arriving. We had arranged to have dinner with The Nephew and his lovely GF in Little Italy. 

Back in 2006, The Nephew and I had dinner there and he walked me around the neighborhood. I loved Little Italy.  Quite vibrant and smelled like Italy to me.  Now, Little Italy is getting littler and littler. Just 2 blocks now as Chinatown is taking over.  Sad.  

Anyhow, our crew met up with The Nephew and the GF at Angelo's in Little Italy.  To say I had died and gone to heaven with the food at Angelo's would be a little dramatic. But it was damn tasty. 

Tried the new panoramic option on the iPhone. Kinda funky.

After dinner, we walked over to a little place that had, in 2006, the BEST cannoli I had ever had.  I begged The Nephew to take us there again. The short walk did us some good. We sat down and we ate a fine assortment of cannoli's and other misc sweet things.  After that I swore I'd never eat again.

And we all know how that turned out.

Last day at sea

Our cruise is winding down now. We've spent 10 wonderful, rainy, and some cold days in Nova Scotia, Quebec and Newfoundland.  Beautiful country. While the weather didn't cooperate in many of the ports and it was down right cold in Quebec city, it really doesn't matter since I'm on vacation.

A 10 day cruise is about as long of a cruise as I think I want to ever do.  The people were really starting to get on my last nerve.

So next time I blog it'll be from the good old USA.  And I might even go into more detail about our stops since I won't be paying for the Internet.

Night night my little chickens.!

Sydney, Nova Scotia

Our last stop.  Its bitter sweet.  On one hand I'm sad the cruise is almost over. On the other hand, I'm ready to be home.

Sydney was beautiful. The sun was shining, finally, and the temperature was in the mid 60's.  It was just beautiful. 

My excursion was lame. The write up about it made it sound like it included way more than just this highland village.  But the hour ride out there was beautiful. The fall colors here are in full bloom.

I have no idea why Sydney has a big ass fiddle in its harbor. 

 

View of Bra's d'or lake.

 

Loved this little church just sitting on the top of the hill. 

 

Look close you can see me standing at the bottom holding P-Dot.
 

Tomorrow we'll be at sea all day, then home.  I'm ready to be home.

Corner Brook, Newfoundland

My main goal in Corner Brook Newfoundland was to get a photo of a Newfoundland.  I was first one off the boat and there sitting waiting for me was two beautiful newfys.

Meet Flossie and Shawna. Shawna is the one laying down.  They were unbelievably sweet, which is expected for Newfys.

After that I hopped on a tour bus for an excursion called "Corner Brook in Focus" - designed for photographers.  I wasn't exactly expecting an actual photography experience considering my "shutterbug's Dream" in Halifax wasn't exactly a shutterbugs dream.

Anyhow, the tour took us to some of the most scenic places in Corner Brook. Which was challenging I think since Corner Brook to me was not a very exciting city. The weather sucked too which didn't make it much easier to enjoy Corner Brook.