Sunday, November 15, 2009

Day One: Norwegian Jewel, Miami, Florida

Off the shuttle bus and into the cruise terminal.

IMG_0170  A first look at our ship, the Norwegian Jewel

The embarkation process was the easiest I’ve ever seen except for the part where we got to the desk and the man asked Michael if he’d used his credit card for this cruise.  Uhhhh, no.  Turns out an older gentleman with the same name on this cruise had checked in already and we would have been able to charge stuff to his card.  Luckily for him, a lot of staff people chatted about this for a while and figured out how to fix this.

After that, we went right onboard.  No long waits, nothing.  Cool!

They did take our picture just before we got on – surprise! – but that was it.

Up to 12 to the Garden Cafe for lunch.  Then we found a quiet place to sit and wait for our cabin to be ready.  Unbelievable that there were only 4 chairs in this little area so it was very restful.

We looked around the ship a little…

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We checked out the Spinnaker Lounge on 13. 

 

 

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Some very interesting chairs

Cabin time!  The announcement came and everyone set out for the bit confusion of cabin finding.  Aft? Forward? Midsection? Which deck?  Aarrggh!

Got it and started settling in – and taking pictures.

Tom found the Internet cafe and Michael and I napped (going to be a common theme!)  The bed is very comfortable – yea!

Some luggage also started appearing – also a yea!

 

At 3:30, we went to the Tsar’s Palace for muster and life jacket training.  Looks like a great restaurant – hopefully, we’ll get here some night.

At 4, we went up by the Sapphire Pool on 12 for the Sail Away party. I took a *few* pictures, of course! They had a band playing, people dancing, kids sliding down the slides...

I had a nice rum punch which Michael tried and ended up having one, too.

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Michael and I went out and checked out the fitness center while Tom went to a meeting.  Surprise, surprise!  There was someone there he knew.

I took some pictures of the setting sun:

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We had trouble deciding where we wanted to eat – they all sound wonderful but some have cover charges and they all have different  dress codes.  The common theme for most is no shorts at night.

Michael decided Tango Tapas on 8 looked good so we went there. (Cover charge $10 per person, supposedly no shorts but we saw some).

We had a nice table by the window but it was pitch black out so we couldn’t see a thing except for the wake of our ship below us.

They brought out strawberry margaritas for all but I’m allergic to strawberries so I didn’t have any.  The waitress finally noticed that and commented – she brought me a lime one instead.  Yummy!

Michael got an appetizer, Tom had both soup and a huge salad.  For the meal, Tom and I had chicken fajitas and Michael had shrimp and swordfish skewers.  All was yummy!

Dessert time – I had a mango/pineapple/ice cream confection that was wonderful, Tom had plain ice cream and Michael had a pineapple tart-thing.

And coffee, of course :)

We wandered around the ship a bit.  Saw the picture they had taken of us on the gangway.  Tom bought a map of this trip to put on a wall…somewhere.

P1000209 We found where the show was just starting in the Stardust Theater on 7 and went in.  There was a comic I wasn’t too wild about.  Michael decided to go run on the track instead.

We got back to the cabin, then Michael got back from his run.  He only did 2 miles.

Finally, sleep time!

Today's Stats:
Forecast: Mostly Sunny, 81F/27C
Sunrise: 6:40am
Sunset: 5:30pm

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