I know three posts in one day is pretty excessive but I gotta get it down before I forget. Or blow up. Whichever.
So with Miami, FL behind us and two days of open sea ahead let the fun begin. Wait! Not yet. We don’t have a clue what to do so we start at the Guest Services desk. I originally went to just check in, sort of. I actually forget my original reason for being there. Huh. But as soon as I gave them our last name we were shuffled off to speak with Raewyn, from South Africa, our Group Service Coordinator. Boy were we in for a surprise! Where the Make-A-Wish jurisdiction ended (they sent ideas of what little dude what might want to do) the folks at Norwegian picked right up. She had a printed schedule of events for us. Something major every day. We got an hour arcade time and internet service on the house, souvenirs, and tours that were exclusively ours. I cried like an idiot the entire time she explained what we would be doing and that she would be accompanying us to each event to secure VIP seats and arrange things along the way. I was overwhelmed, the hubbs was overjoyed, and the boys were clueless. They will get it here in a day or two.
Side note: There were two Group Service Coordinators on the ship and these ladies were really hoppin’! We were hardly a group, the four of us. They did have several large groups on the ship with us though. The was a Bingo group, a lesbian group, and a bunch of folks from Jersey who were hell bent on drinking the ship dry. So in addition to all of the families with small children, we had an expanded version of the Jersey Shore cast, loads of ladies in shirts that simple read “Sweet”, and more walkers and scooters that I think was safe for our vessel. WoW!
It was all of 2pm after meeting Raewyn and we had to get a bite to eat. Off to the buffet! I don’t know if I was just starving or if it really was the best freakin’ burger and fries ever. We got into our rooms and all bags were accounted for so we grabbed our beach towels and headed to the lido deck. Even though the water was freezing the boys insisted we were evil fun squashers if we did not allow them to swim until they just couldn’t take it any more. We dried off and headed out for some ship exploring.
It was such a long day that this is really the only picture I got of our ship exploration that first night. This sport court was on the 18th deck, pretty dang high up. See the ship’s stacks in the background? Super windy. We played a little basketball, a little soccer then suffered two injuries before declaring the night over. Grady and I were dribbling a basketball which hit him in the face busting his upper lip and spewing blood. Total accident. Then Doug decides to take one last shot with his soccer ball and Henry just happened to be standing like 5 foot away and caught it in the temple sending him to the ground. Also an accident. No stitches needed and only a minor concussion. Sheesh. We actually get parents of the year nominations for tandem injuries on the first day of vacation though. Go us!
We slept like the dead got up early and had some breakfast. Yum! Then off to meet Raewyn for our tour of the bridge!!! I was so excited and so was my posse. To the left you see the bridge observation area, which anyone who wants to wander up to 13 is privy to see. Then she let us in…
To meet the Master, Captain Sverre Sovdsnes (still can not pronounce his name) and his 1st officer, Julia who is from the Ukraine and gave us our tour. It was fascinating!
My boys in the Captains’ chairs.
Let’s take a look at this one shall we? The red line is our charted course. The white is the actual path of the ship. Notice the loop-di-loop we did a little while back? Barf! We were doing this tight circle in a massive ship while we were trying to eat breakfast. It was a shipwreck they stopped to investigate, standard safety procedure I believe. Turns out it was an old wreck that had not yet sunk completely, but super cool none the less.
The dudes were very interested in the instrument panels.
This window in the floor is used when docking in port. It is so you can see how close the ship is to the dock.
My buddy is steering the ship! No big pirate wheel here, that little dial is how the ship is steered. There is a little stool and holes in the floor so the person steering is lower than the control station.
That was just the first thing on our agenda. Next we went to the galley!
We had a guided tour of the galley. I have been in the restaurant biz for a very long time and I have never seen so much stainless steel in my life! We met the Executive Chef, saw where every item for the 4000+ guests is prepared, and even got to make our own lunch. Incredible!
Would you believe that was just our morning on day one?!?!?
Not a minute to rest. Not today. We saw the Nickelodeon Slime Time game show hit the water slides for an hour then had dinner in one of the many restaurants. Then…
The Blue Man Group!!!
This was the first time we have seen them and the show was so fun. The music was great and the Blue Men were really funny. We were marked, each with a blue spot on our cheeks. Then they gave my dude the spit picture from the show! The best part about that was instead of signing the canvas one of the guys “face printed” it.
After such a whirlwind day at sea the boys were ready to get rid of us. So… off they went to the kids club! Sorry no pictures allowed. In fact no parents allowed. They thought that was the sh*t! The Hubby and I were left to our own devices and decided to entertain ourselves with a trip to the Svedka Ice Bar.
What a day!
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