Norwegian Epic Debarkation

In one of my last posts about last years cruise on the Norwegian Epic in the Mediterranean I wanted to touch on debarkation.  I have one more post on Palma, but I thought this was a more timely topic since the ship is not stopping at Palma this year.

For those who have never cruise before, this is how a typical debarkation goes.  The night before your last morning you need to pack your bags up and leave them outside your cabin door, typically by midnight.  Then the staff comes around and picks them up, takes them to the cargo areas until the ship is in port.  When you leave the ship in the morning you will find your bag in the terminal waiting for you.

You do have the option of walking off with all your luggage the last morning too, but if you pack like me, that's not much of an option.  For the rest of us, you'll need to have a second, smaller bag for your last minute stuff - PJ's, toiletries and anything you wouldn't want in your main luggage (valuables, glass, etc).

On the 5th day of the cruise Norwegian made luggage tags available for debarkation, this was announced with an information packet on debarkation that is left in your room.  The tags are color coded depending on when you anticipate leaving the ship.  By the time I actually went to get my tags all the late times were gone.  Since I was staying in Barcelona 2 more nights I didn't need to be off the ship at 7am, I believe we were allowed to stay until 9am.

I tagged my bags with the 7am tags, but decided to sleep in and leave the ship around 8:30.  Having cruised before I know the chaos on the ship on debarkation morning.  Everyone trying to get breakfast and say goodbye to new friends, with their small luggage.  Forget the buffet unless you enjoy crowds!

Not interested in the chaos I opted to get up, dress, and finish my packing.  I then went to the studio lounge and had a continental breakfast.  I would have preferred a full breakfast, but this was much more civilized.  I met a few cruisers and chatted about the cruise, I made arrangements to meet a girl who was staying at the same hotel as me so we could share a taxi.  The only issue I ran into with this was that I had no idea it was cold and rainy that morning until I was outside the ship freezing my arms off.

After breakfast I grabbed my small suitcase and got off the ship.  Although it was well after the time my luggage expected me, it was there waiting for me under a sign that said 7am.  I had not been the only person to leave their luggage waiting.

My new friend and I met in the luggage area and then waited on a long, but quick moving taxi line.

Overall the debarkation seemed very civilized for a ship of this size.  I didn't have to deal with the crowds in the buffet, but did see that the elevators were crowded and you would have to wait a bit for one.  This is one time when being on a lower deck can be a pain, by the time the elevator gets back down to you, it's usually full.  But the luggage area was big and roomy so you could navigate with your luggage.

The Ports Of Livorno and Civitavecchia

Port Side in Livorno

The port of Livorno, Italy is the closest port to Florence, a popular stop for ships in the Western Mediterranean.  The port of Civitavecchia is the port that is closest to Rome.  I just want to take a moment to set your expectations accordingly for the immediate port areas. 

The good view at Livorno

Livorno is a VERY industrial port.  You will not be able to walk off the ship at this port and do anything.  Actually, I'm not sure that even a few miles from the port there is much to do.  I'm sure their is a town nearby, but I distinctly remember driving for a decent bit before seeing anything that remotely resembled the Tuscany in my dreams.  I haven't heard of anyone getting off the port for a little while to just enjoy the area.  I highly suggest planning a tour either through the cruise line or privatly if you want to get off the ship.

Starboard Side in Livorno

Civitavecchia is a little better.  You cannot walk out of the the port area, you must take a free shuttle bus out of the port to Cicitavecchia, but here there is an actual little town.  It's nothing fancy, but there are some shops, restaurants and a beachy area.  This isn't the type of place you'll spend a day, but it would be perfectly suitable if you just wanted to escape the ship for an hour or two without the cost and energy required to visit Rome or take another excursion of the area. 

I was quite shocked when I visited Livorno, I expected the port area to be somewhat industrial, given that it's the place where shipping happens.  But, from what I could tell their was nothing there to entice those who stayed onboard for the day to take a quick trip off the ship for anything.  Civitavecchia was much closer to my expectations, but probably because of the research I had done prior to the cruise.

Happy Sailing

Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter: Travelingiraffe

Civitavecchia - Rome On Your Own

When I sailed on the Norwegian Epic and was stopping in Rome I decided to make it an easier day on myself.  I've been to Rome previously and really just wanted to see the Colosseum and The Forum.  I would have taken the NCL transfer to Rome, but it was $99.  I don't mind paying a premium for convenience, but that was rediculous!  Instead I took the train for 9 euros, which includes the Rome metro.

I can tell you how to do that, but this review is way more detialed then I could ever imagine writing so for step by step directions - Civitavecchia to Rome by train.  The short story is that you take the free shuttle out of the port into town (5 minute bus ride), walk 5-10 minutes to the train, by tickets and get on the next train.  I HIGHLY suggest getting a train schedule before taking the cruise, NCL did not have one available onboard.  But the train seemed to run every 30-60 minutes.

I'm also going to suggest Cruize Cast Podcast #4 on Rome if you would like to try and do all the major highlights of Rome in one day.

I did things slightly differently then suggested, which was good and bad.  When I got off the shuttle bus I went into the Tourist Information booth, here they tried to sell me the "fast" train for 15 euros, but it didn't leave for over an hour.  The "slow" train was leaving in about 20 minutes.  Also, the "fast" train only seemed to have 1 return time, but the "slow" train left every 30 minutes to an hour.  The difference in the ride time was about 20-30 minutes.  The "fast" train took 40 minutes the "slow" train took just over an hour, Italian time.  I had a little fight with the woman here, she wouldn't answer any of my questions, just kept trying to push the fast train on me and then every other tour she could.  I got annoyed and yelled at her then I bought my slow train ticket and tickets to the Colosseum/Forum.  Buying the Colosseum/Forum tickets here was a FABULOUS idea, it meant I didn't have to wait on line in Rome and I was able to kill the 20 minutes I had to wait for the train anyway.

Once in Rome my friend (I met him on the ship) and I walked to the Colossum.  We got a little lost and it took a while.  I would suggest taking the metro unless you want the exercise (you might after eating all that good food on the ship), the walk was not in the nice touristy area of the city.  I LOVED Rome the first time I went there, after walking through regular areas (for all I know I was in the ghetto, ack!) I lost some of my love for the city.  It had a dirty, rundown feeling and look to it, which the tourist areas do not have.  But it was also an adventure.

It was hot, I needed it!

After the Colossum and The Forum, which I'll discuss in another post, we walked to the Wedding Cake and found a nice little sidewalk cafe for lunch. 

After lunch we walked back to the train station, getting pretty lost this time, we had to pull out maps and ask complete strangers for directions multiple times.  This did allow us to stop and throw coins in the Trevi Fountain and just miss a train back to the port.  But at least this walk was in nicer area of Rome.  But if we had gotten any more lost we would have had to take a Taxi back to the train station.

I always show nice pictures, but the true Trevi Fountain has construction in front.

Unless you're interested in doing a tour in Rome, I would highly suggest taking the train into Rome, just get the schedule before you leave.  It's economical, and although the train was a little run down, we didn't hit any traffic and we got to travel with Italians, who don't speak English so I have no idea what any of them said. No, I didn't expect them to speak English, but it makes it hard to find out what the locals are talking about when they're not speaking in English.  You will find plenty of other cruise passengers on the train too, you wont be alone.

Epic Dining

While sailing the Norwegian Epic I had the opportunity to dine in several of the dining venues, with mixed results.

Taste is the more casual of the two main dining rooms.  I had lunch and dinner here with mixed experiences.  I found the staff to be friendly here, but they were hit and miss on the service.  Some servers were very good and on top of things, others would forget to bring things you had asked for.  I did eat with someone who had special dietary requirements and found that the head waitress (or whatever their title is) did try to meet that request.  But I didn't find they were as aggressive about it as they could have been.

Manhattan Room

Manhattan Room is the formal main dining room.  I ate one dinner here.  The staff was very good and quite attentive.

I believe both main dining rooms had the same menu everyday with base items on it.  Then everyday they would have a few special items offered that were local to the region we were in.

Cagney's Steak House has a $25 up charge and from what I can tell offers better choices and cuts of meat as well as also offering Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail.  The food and the service here were better then the main dining rooms, but it was also pretty quite in the restaurant.  I think this is a good choice for the steak lovers out there.  There was also a Moderno Churrascaria a Brazilian meatfest! One of those places where they bring around different types of meat.  I did not eat here, but I heard good things from those who did.

Shanghai's Chinese Restaurant was a disappointment at $15.  I would compare this to a better Chinese restaurant you can find in many places throughout the US.  Except that it had the worst fried rice I've ever had, it was sticky and flavorless.

Teppanyaki at $25 this was similar to going to any other Hibachi place in the US and for a similar price.  But, like every other Hibachi place it was fun experience with good food.  And they had really good green martini's.  I wish I remember the name of it, but I had too many!

O'Sheehans Neighborhood Bar and Grill offers breakfast and then regular food for the rest of the day.  This is a nice spot for a quicker breakfast (without going through a buffet).  They offered a quick breakfast or you could get breakfast to order.  In the afternoon and evening they had a Irish Pub menu - burgers, fish and chips, meatloaf, chicken pot pie...  This was a nice casual place to eat, but after 2 or 3 meals the menu got boring.

The Garden Cafe on the pool deck was, in my experience, above average compared to other shipboard buffets for lunch and dinner.  I rarely encountered a line here, and found a wide variety of food options.  But they had the BEST pretzel breadsticks, I miss those!

I covered the Spiegel Tent Cirque Dreams in a previous post.  I believe they had just changed the menu there and I thought the food was good, but you really go to see Cirque Dreams and not for the food.

Sorry, but I did not get to eat at the French restaurant, the Italian restaurant, noodle place or the sushi place.

Photos on the Norwegian Epic

The Norwegian Epic is the first ship I sailed on that uses facial recognition for photographs and; Wow, what a difference it makes!

When you board the ship they take your photo, like they do for most ships these days.  After that whenever you take a photo the photo software uses facial recognition to identify you in photos.  And it does a great job at it!

The photo area of the ship has triangular pillars with a binder for each cabin, photos are placed in your binder.  No more searching through walls of people in the same photo setting as you.

Ok, there was a wall of photos where they weren't able to identify someone, but it was a small wall and I know that every photo I took ended up in my binder.

They do also scan room cards when going to the professional photographers, which I'm sure does help the process, but the mobile photographers did not do this.  That is what made this so amazing.

In addition to the binders they also have computer screens where you can view and order your photos.  If there is a bad photo, you can say that it's not you and it magically goes away.  You just have to be careful that you don't do that to a good photo, I'm not sure if there is a way to get it back. You can also order prints through the computers.

From what I hear the Disney Dream may have similar technology, I hope it does.  It's really fantastic and makes the photo buying experience soooo much better on cruise ships!

More Epic Entertainment

In my last post I spoke about the entertainment on the EPIC, as in the shows.  In this post I'll cover the daytime entertainment.

Pools - There are two main pool areas on this ship.  I didn't spend much time in the main pool area, I found the music was often too loud and I found the pools were designed more for children then adults.  I think there were 4 hot tubs, but I'm not positive.  This area was adjacent to the buffet, so it had free drinks - tea, milk, water, iced tea.

I spent most of my time in Spice H2O, the adult pool area.  While there was normally music playing, it was at a reasonable volume.  The pool was small and at night it actually converted into a dance floor (the floor of the pool would go up and down, fancy technology I hear).  There were 2 hot tubs on each corner of the area with great views out the back of the ship.  There was also a small buffet in this area, but there were no drink offerings other then paid drinks at the bar.

I did spend some time on a top sun deck in the front of the ship, these areas do not have music, nor do they seem to have many kids.

The ship does have a topless deck and a "freestyle" deck.  I did not visit either, but I did hear through the grapevine that people do go completely nude on the "freestyle" deck.

There is also an area called Posh.  I may have the story wrong, but I thought this was either part of or included in the villa complex.  However, you could also pay around $100 for access during the cruise.  My understanding is that there was better chairs and better bar service.  I know one person who used this and enjoy it.

Slides - There were 3 slides on this ship, the main yellow one, a purple one and a green one.  I did not go in the purple or the green ones because they had cold water and it was already cold that day!  I did go in the big main yellow one, which some people have called a toilet bowl like slide.  This slide had warm water, yea! and you rode down it on a round float.  You have to get your float at the bottom of the slide so don't climb the stairs until you have your float!  Initially you go down a typical water slide shoot and then you end up in the "toilet bowl" and you go around 3 times before you get sucked down the final portion of the slide.  This slide was a lot of fun, though the 3 times in the toilet bowl might have been a little too much.  There were a lot of adults on line for the toilet bowl slide, it was that much fun!  I'm sure if there were a lot of children on the cruise or warmer out the line would have been crazy, it was long enough as it was.

Rock Climbing - The EPIC has a rock climbing and rappelling wall between the main pool area and Spice H2O.   I've only done rock climbing once, but it was only a few months before and I climbed all the basic and intermediate walls.  I decided to stick with the easy section on the ship.  The wall was shorter, but it wasn't EASY.  For someone who has never rock climbed before, this would be a tough wall and I doubt they would make it to the top.  But for beginner rock climber it would be a challenge.  I never made it back to the rock climbing to try another wall though.  But it was fun and a nice break for the day, especially if it's not a hot day.  You do not need to bring your own shoes for this, but you need socks.  You will also need to sign and electronic waiver before climbing.

Nickelodeon - Being an adult I didn't truly partake in the Nickelodeon events.  There was a breakfast a couple mornings on the ship and then there were meet and greets a few afternoons.  I did stop by one of the meet and greets.  I was hoping to get a picture with Spongebob for my nephew, but they only had Dora characters that day.  If you can't do the special Nickelodeon cruise they have, the breakfasts and the meet and greets are a nice treat for your little (or big) Nickelodeon fans.  The only thing I would have preferred is if they said who was going to be at the meet and greets.

Ice Bar - The ship has a Svedka Ice Bar, the first at sea!  There is an additional charge for this venue, $20 on my sailing which includes 2 drinks.  I had been in an Ice Bar in Stockholm, which I thought was better then this bar, but since this was on a cruise ship, it's kinda cooler!  When you go you get a silver poncho style coat and gloves.  After you dress up a photographer will take pictures and then you go in.  I think you're allowed in for 40 minutes, but I'm not sure many people make it the full 40 minutes, it is cold in there!  I was wearing a dress (not recommended) and socks.  Inside the bar there is a ice bar, ha ha, 2 or 3 ice benches and 2 ice sculptures, one was a bear and I think the other was a viking, maybe.  Most of the ice surfaces had a covering on them, plastic on the bar and a furry thing on the benches.

Menu

Bowling - The ship had 2 sets of lanes for bowling.  I only saw the one in O'Sheehans used once or twice.  They had neon lights and offered shoe rental.  On a more relaxing cruise this might have been a fun option.

Watch Sale - I'm not sure if a watch sale is actual entertainment, but this somehow felt a bit like it.  They offer like 60% off watches and people act like they're giving them away.  It was actually a bit frightening. I tried to look and thought about getting a watch, but the lines were so long and the people were acting like animals so I passed on the watch.  I recommend watching people at the watch and buy a watch somewhere else.

Epic Entertainment

Yes, I know the name of this post is cheesy, when you name a ship Epic, you ask for it!

When Norwegian launched the Norwegian Epic the entertainment obviously had to match the name, it had to be epic and I thought they did an excellent job!

I'll start with my only complaint and get it over with.  With so many people on the ship you had to make advanced reservations (pre-boarding or on the first night) for many of the shows if you wanted to guarantee to get in.  However, if you couldn't get a reservation there was usually a standby line, which I hear got everyone in.  This system, while reducing the chaos at these shows, took a lot of the spontaneity out of the cruise entertainment.

On the first night of the cruise I went to see Cirque Dreams.  This is not a Cirque du Soleil show, but its the same type of performance: acrobatics, music, clowns, and in this case - audience participation. I'm not a huge fan of this type of show.  I enjoy it, but I also get a bored after about 45 minutes.  The nice thing about Cirque Dreams is that it's a dinner show so you have a little distraction from the show which helped prevent the boredum from setting in.

Cirque Dreams takes place in a Spiegel Tent, whatever that is, the setting is like a theatre in round.  It has two floors and the seats upstairs are cheaper (there is an additional fee for this dinner and show), I also thought they were better as there are fewer sight line issues and you're not picked for audience participation.  You do need to show up early to get seating, which is especially important if you get the premium seating on the main floor - if you come late you'll end up in the back of the room and you'll miss what is going on in the air during the show.  The food was good, very tasty.  I don't remember what they served, though I know it was a new menu for my cruise, but there was a sampling of different appetizers, main courses and desserts.

Blue Man Group's Theatre

I would recommend Cirque Dreams to anyone who likes Cirque du Soleil types of shows and to anyone who has considered seeing a show like this.  You can't beat the price ($20 or $30) on this cruise to find out if you do enjoy it. 

Next up is Blue Man Group, I had not seen this before and I enjoyed the show.  I'll admit I didn't get the plot of the show, but there were lots of cute and goofy things to keep me entertained.  I know this show isn't loved by all, but for the price (included in your cruise), it's certainly worth seeing.  I hear it's pretty similar to the shows done in the US; however, they do have audience participation.  Consider yourself warned.

Steven Sorrentino as Sonny and Cher

Steven Sorrentino is a Vegas comedian who was on our ship for the summer.  Tickets to his show were particularly hard to get.  I enjoyed his show, I laughed a lot.  His "victims" ranged from the Marx Brothers to famous people in the 1970's so I would say his audience would primarily be for the 40+ crowd from the US.  I know the British didn't get most of his jokes.
There were quite a few things that I did not see - some Spanish Ballet, which I heard was very good.  A puppet show, which I heard you couldn't see the puppets unless you were in the front.  Legends In Concert, which I heard mixed reviews of.  The Second City was not on our ship, they took off for the summer.  I was disappointed by this, they were on my cruise in Hawaii and were very good.

There was a Beatles band, I thought they were very good, but the crowd didn't seem to get into it so the experience wasn't great.

But my favorite entertainment was Howl At the Moon where their motto is "it isn't how well you sing, but how loud."  In case you're wondering it's dueling pianos.  One of the nice things is that there are 3 people so they rotate their breaks and the show never stops!  Maybe I'm a cheesy 35 year old, but I loved just hanging out and singing along.   They took requests and often made funny and entertaining renditions of songs and other times they just did a nice ballad.  Good times!

NCL Epic Mediterranean 2012

For those of you who have not heard, the Norwegian Epic will be sailing the Mediterranean in 2012 again, but with a different itinerary and with a choice of booking out of either Barcelona or Rome. 

New Itinerary:
Barcelona, Naples, Rome / Civitavecchia, Livorno, Nice, Marseille, Barcelona

I hadn't given much thought to the Barcelona vs Rome embarkation port since I just did the Western Med this summer.  But thenl my friend was talking about taking a Mediterranean cruise next fall, and I decided I would choose Rome.  One of the problems I had with the Mediterranean cruise is that Livorno is far from Florence and Civitavecchia is far from Rome.  You end up spending a MINIMUM of 2 hours going to and from the city, which kinda stinks since you only spend 12 hours in port. 

With this new itinerary you could board the ship in Rome/Civitavecchia, fly in early (or stay after the cruise) and spend as much time as you want in Rome.  Of course now you can't do that in Barcelona, which is a great city (more to come on that in the coming weeks).  But, Barcelona's port is right in the city, you can get off the ship and take a 10 minute taxi ride and you're in the heart of the city. 

I think the Rome embarkation just makes more sense if you're taking this cruise to see as much as possible.  Of course if you've already been to Rome, then boarding in Barcelona might make more sense, then you can have a "sea" day in Rome and relax.

Reminder:  I can be found on Twitter @Travelingiraffe

Epic Studio Cabins, the good, the bad and the shower...

Studio cabins, did NCL accidentally get it right?

Yes and No!

I've heard that when NCL originally designed the studio cabins on the EPIC they were supposed to be small double occupancy rooms, but they didn't sell well so they made them solo passenger cabins, though you can still put 2 people in them if you choose. They have a private lounge area for only the studio passengers, it has a bar (open 1 hour a day), coffee, snacks and continental breakfast. There is even a member of the staff that helps to get the passengers to know each other.

It sounds perfect, and NCL absolutely got this right.  But it felt like now that they have this product they don't quite know what to do with them now, I think the concept needs a little nurturing to make it truely fantastic.
 
I'll start with the cabins...
The cabins, although small, are nice.  The bathroom is broken up - the toilet, shower and sink are separate.  The shower has a glass wall with frosting on it, but the frosting needs to be darker and cover more of the wall, luckily I was the only one in the room.  There are two closets in the room,with doors that slide (when open they cover the sink and the TV), each with a hanger bar and 2 shelves.  There are additional shelves in the room, but no drawers.  If you look hard enough, there are baskets under the bed for additional storage.  I thought there was plenty of storage for 1 person, but I think it would be tight if there was a second person in the room.  Actually, everything about this cabin was just fine for 1 person, but I couldn't imagine a second person in one of these cabins, except maybe a mother and small child. 

Vanity

Toilet

The room comes with "mood" lighting.  This was neat for about 2 minutes, then it was annoying.  Even more annoying was the panel to change the settings was next to the bed, not near the door.  Although there is no thermostat there is a panel that allows you to adjust the temperature to cooler or warmer, I think this is the first ship I've had this feature on and I like it!  My cabin had at least 3 sets of outlets, several of which were for european and american plugs.  There was a table and a bench in the room, but both were so small that I only used them to put stuff on. 

Mood Lighting

The Studio Lounge:

The studio lounge was a private area that offered a bar, drinks, food, sitting area and TV.  It was a nice sized space for the number of passengers in the studios, it was busiest in the mornings (continental breakfast was offered) and evening, but never crowded.  The space was used for the solo passenger meet ups, which was the only time the bar was open.  We had a member of the social staff assigned to us for the solo meet ups, Sol, she helped get everyone introduced and arranged for 1 group dinner. 
I think this is the area where the studio cabins fell short.  I met many wonderful people who were staying in the studio cabins, some were very outgoing and others were very very shy.  I think that the staff member who is assigned to the studio lounge should be organizing more activities.  I don't think this is the fault of Sol, from what I have heard everyone has had the same experience since the ship launched, so I think this is how NCL has designed the position.  I would have liked to have seen a few more dinners planned, particularly in the specialty restaurants, a session in the Ice Bar or bowling.  I think that would open up more opportunities for solo cruisers and it would generate more money for the cruise line - a win for all. 

The other thing that I thought was missing was a window or a balcony or anything involving fresh air and sunlight.  Since the studio cabins were inside I felt an extra need to go outside in my free time, I know other people expressed a concern about possibly feeling clausterphobic in these cabins.  I had no issue with clausterphobia.  There were a few occasions where I would have liked to have spent time in the lounge, but with no window or baloncy, I chose to go up on deck instead.  I think the interior nature of the lounge kept it from being a more popular place to congregate.  Not that it needed a big section of window or a large balcony, but anything would have been better.  The best example of this was on the last day of the cruise I ate breakfast in the lounge, got my things and debarked the ship.  To my surprise it was cold and raining and ended up not being dressed properly. 

Hallway for the Studios

I have written NCL a letter about all of my thoughts on improving the Studio cabin experience, so I don't mind saying it here.  They did write back and thank me for my input.  But since this post seems to be a bit negative, I do want to add that I absolutely LOVED this cruise and the studio cabins.  I made many wonderful friends and would definatley consider sailing on the EPIC again if I was traveling by myself.  I would also recommend this ship to anyone else traveling by themselves.  I just think there are a few things that can be done to make it an even better experience.

Reminder: I can be found on Twitter @Travelingiraffe

Trips and Changes

Well I'm very excited to announce that I have booked my cruise.  I will be sailing on NCL's Epic through the Western Mediterranean!  I will be flying to and from Barcelona on Delta and will have 1 day before the cruise and 2 days after the cruise to enjoy Barcelona.

But I will be making a change to the blog for the next few months.  I will be taking an exam at work in the fall and need to spend the next few months studying.  That means I need to spend a little less time on the blog.  So, I will continue with my Monday photo of the week and then do 1 other post during the week.  I could even miss a week, but I will return!

Photo of the Week: Norwegian Epic

Last week I had an opportunity to sneak a peak of the Norwegian Epic.  The quality isn't the best, but I did take it with my Iphone 3Gs - the best camera is the one you have with you!

Feedback

After my Hawaii cruise I sent a long detailed email to my travel agent, Julie, about the good and the bad of the cruise. Julie passed my email to NCL, I thought that that would be all I would hear. But today I actually received a letter from NCL acknowledging my email - my "constructive comments, suggestions and criticisms." It's always good to know that someone from the company read my comments.

I am known by friends and family as a letter writer. It's not that I'm a complainer, but I do get satisfaction from writing to a company about the good, bad and the ugly. What is important in writing a letter of complaint, if you want to be taken seriously, is that you need to state specific complaints and when possible write suggestions of how things could be done better. Writing - the food sucked, I always waited for a table and the servers weren't helpful. That's not going to get anything done except make you feel better, it's not constructive enough. Something like - We often waited over 15 minutes for a table at restaurant A, the food was below the standards of other cruises we have been on and we felt that having a different server every night took away from the dining experience over the week. That's made up, but it gives them complaints with real substance that can actually be addressed.

Write your letters, someone might be listening... And maybe they'll give you something for free, I haven't gotten anything yet, but you never know.

Pearl Harbor and the last day in Hawaii

This was the last day of Tara and I's cruise as well as the day we were visiting Pearl Harbor and flying home.

We were up at 6:15 to get all of our stuff together and make sure nothing was getting left behind. Despite not liking the Aloha Cafe we decided to go back, but we had a plan. We were going to grab a table and then take turns getting food. This worked out OK and we were done with breakfast with plenty of time to get to the Hollywood Theatre, which was our tour meeting place. Departure was fine, though one of the escalators was broken which slowed things down.


We boarded our bus and our driver was good, he explained that we would not be able to go to the cemetery, which was closed for the Memorial Day weekend for only family of military. We were dropped off at 9:15 and had a 10:45 tour of the Arizona Memorial. We decided to first go to the area with the rockets by the Bowfin. I got some pictures of the rockets and there was an area with little monuments for all the ships lost at sea with their story and a list of the lives lost, it was really nice. Next we walked back over to the main museum.

For a $5 donation you can get the audio tour. I recommend this for 2 reasons - first, you hear good info about the museum and the events surrounding December 7, but even better is that you are making a donation to the museum. The museum did seem a bit crowded at times and in different spots, but they are building a new one which should be ready next year. There are a lot of good displays and I enjoyed the tour. On the tour for the Arizona you first see a movie, which was very good, and got me a bit misty eyed. You are reminded to be quiet on the tour which now takes a boat to the site of the Arizona and the Memorial there. I was surprised at how quiet people actually are. I've been to a lot of places where you should be quiet and peoples ability to do that varies greatly, until the end when we were boarding our boat back everyone was very quiet. The memorial was really nice. From the sides you can see parts of the Arizona that are near the surface. In the middle there are diagrams of the ship as it sits today. In the middle there is a cut out where you can see the oil that is seeping out of the Arizona. In the back is a wall with a list of the names of all those lost, and a list of those who survived but were later buried at the Arizona. I really liked it and the experience.


Next we took a shuttle over to the Missouri Battleship, where the armistice was signed. This was pretty good too, though not nearly as good as the Arizona Memorial. If you're not into looking at military ships then this might not be the best use of time, but it's still interesting. Tara seemed to find this a form of torture, and it was quite hot and it's not really something I'm that interested in, so we did a more abbreviated tour. It would have been nice to do a tour just to hear about the armistice, but as for looking at the mock ups of what crew areas looked like, not so much. But then, I have seen several military boats in the past so I know some of what would be said. On the Missouri they do have the US and Japanese copies of the armistice, which was really neat to see. After we looked around the ship we had lunch, shopped, and then waited to leave. I felt like we had a little more time here then we needed, but that's better then not enough time.

After the Missouri we did a little tour of Honolulu. We visited the downtown area with the Palace and the oldest church in Hawaii, which Tara and I had already seen. We also took a ride through China Town which apparently isn't a safe place to visit after dark. Since we couldn't go to the cemetery we made a stop at Nuuanu Pali Park which had more beautiful scenery.

We were dropped off at the airport a little after 4 and had to kill 4 hours before out flights back home.

Freestyle Dining on the Pride of America

This was my first experience with Freestyle dining and it has some pros and some cons. I enjoyed being able to dine whenever I wanted, within the dining times offered and only once waited for a table, that was good. We did hear others complain about waiting and poor food quality. Overall dining was a good experience but there are some issues, though from what I have heard from past cruisers things are better then they were.

The Pride of America has 2 traditional dining rooms: The Liberty Dining room, the more formal of the two (jeans are not permitted), and the Skyline Dining room where shorts are permitted. Not to be the dining nazi, but shorts at dinner seemed strange to me. The Aloha Cafe is the pool deck level buffet that is informal for all meals. There are also specialty restaurants. The Cadillac Diner is a 50'sish diner serving traditional diner types of foods - burgers, meatloaf, shakes. It's informal and is open 22 hours a day. We ate mostly lunches here. East Meets West is a group of Asian restaurants - Sushi, Teppanaki, Asian Fusion. Jefferson's Bistro is a formal french restaurant, Lazy J's is a steak house and Little Italy serves Italian food. East Meets West, Lazy J's, Little Italy, and Jefferson's Bistro all charge an additional fee to eat there. I'm not sure if this is to cover the cost of the better food offered or to limit the number of people eating at them.

Liberty Dining Room

We had breakfast in the Aloha Cafe 3 times and each time was awful. The buffet areas were over crowded, there were never tables available and there wasn't enough staff to clear the tables. I never figured out what was going on in the juice area, was that even juice they had? I didn't see trays the whole week so I assume they didn't have them, which made it difficult to get food and a drink. After 2 breakfasts we didn't return to the Aloha Cafe again until the last morning. Breakfast in the dining room was significantly more enjoyable! The meals we had at the Liberty and Skyline restaurants were much better then the Aloha Cafe, the food was just average but the staff was good.

Skyline

We did take time to enjoy several of the specialty restaurants. We ate in Jefferson's Bistro and had George as a waiter who made the experience really enjoyable. While the food here wasn't fantastic we enjoyed the opportunity to try new foods and have this nice dining experience. However, neither of us felt the need to return here as the menu didn't appeal to us for a second visit or to pay the $15 cover charge again. We enjoyed our dinner at Lazy J's, and found the steak here to be far superior to the steak I had in the dining room. The experience and the food was just enough to justify the $25 additional charge. If the cover charge had been a little lower we might have returned to this restaurant, but at $25 felt that it was only worthy of visiting once. At Little Italy we found the food to be average Italian food, nothing special and barely worth the $10 cover charge. We also ate at Teppanyaki which I thought was a rip off at $25 a person. I recently ate at a Teppanyaki type restaurant at home, ordered the same thing and got more food for less money. The chef wasn't anything special, which was highlighted by the other chef being much more entertaining with his table.

One thing we did enjoy about Teppanyaki was sitting with other people. While we didn't "click" with the couple next to us we did meet two sisters who we became friendly with. This emphasized one of the problems I had with freestyle dining as it existed on the Pride of America, it was anti-social. When I cruised with Royal Caribbean several years ago at lunch and breakfast they had open dining, you would come any time they were open and they would seat you at a large table with other cruisers. This provided an opportunity to get to know other cruisers and hear about other peoples experiences during the cruise. I expected a similar situation at the main dining rooms on the Pride of America, but it was not the case. Although I noticed a note about it on the back of the Freestyle Daily that you could request to sit with others I never actually saw anyone do it, and since most of the tables are set up for 2-4 people (and the tables for 6 always seemed empty) I don't think the dining room setting was well suited for this anyway. On past cruises I felt like I got to know a lot more people on the ship then I did on this cruise which took away from the overall experience.

If you're one of those people who doesn't like to dress up, but still likes to have a sit down meal at a dining room, then NCL might be the line for you. However, if you want really good quality food then you'll end up having to fork up some money so that you can eat at the specialty restaurants. As for me, NCL wont be my first choice next time but I'll still consider it.

NCL's Pride of America

So my cruise was on NCL America's Pride of America. I had heard quite a few complaints about the ship before I went, most either weren't true or were exaggerated. In this post I'm just going to talk about the ship, I'll talk about dining in another post. I think one of the problems that NCL America had was that at one time they had 3 ships operating in Hawaii, they only have 1 now. I suspect they grew too fast in Hawaii and the staff was spread thin. By moving two ships out of Hawaii they may have been able to get rid of the poor members of the staff and consolidate crews and made a better experience for cruisers.

First, our Embarkation went ok. The terminal isn't set up well. You have to haul your luggage to the end of the terminal to drop it off, then walk back the way you just came to start the boarding process. This wouldn't have been so bad but the signage was lacking. But after this everything went smoothly and we were on the ship relatively quickly.


The ship wasn't as grand as some of the other ships I've been on, but it was still nice and had all the amenities you needed. Other then having an American theme there was nothing special about this ship.

We had a balcony cabin on the Starboard side of the ship on the 9th floor - cabin 9100. I had heard the cabins were small, and they are, though they didn't seem much smaller then other lines. But they were poorly designed. You walk in the cabin and the bathroom is on one side with a closet on the other side. Then there are the beds and near the balcony is the sitting area. The problem was that the placement of the beds made it nearly impossible to get around the room, especially at night if you had to go to the bathroom. And if you had to get your luggage around you had to pick it up and lift it over the beds to get around.

Our cabin met its purpose, as did the ship and considering how much time is spent in port I think the ship is well suited. I do think a balcony is a great advantage for this cruise. Although the view at the ports wasn't all that great we did sail the Na Pali coast one afternoon and also sailed by the volcano another night and it's really nice to have a balcony for those things.

Kona, Hawaii

On the 5th day of my cruise we visited Kona on the Big Island. Although we had to tender at this port I still loved this place. Once off the tender the town of Kona is a block away and the beach is even closer. The beach isn't the best the island has to offer, but if you're not looking for a full beach day the beach here was very convenient. As and added bonus there were several girls who worked on the ship that was laying out there so I got to hear some of the cruise ship gossip. I didn't learn anything about the waiter I had at dinner the night before, but got a glimpse of what life is like for the staff. They make more money and work harder in Hawaii then in Europe, and working during dry dock is fun and has short days.

After Tara and I visited the beach we took a walk down the main street of Kona. This part of the port reminded me of some of the Caribbean islands I've been to like St. Maarten. Lots of touristy shops and places to eat. While that doesn't seem riveting it does have a nice feel, especially when there is nothing near you at other ports. Tara and I did have an afternoon glass bottom boat excursion. While it wasn't a highlight like Hana was, it was nice and relaxing and since it was the last boat of the day it wasn't crowded.

The other thing worth mentioning about Kona is that it is the "nicer" side of the Big Island. The weather is better, the port area is much nicer and this is the stop where you get to do several different types of water activities - snorkeling, Atlantis Submarine, Snuba, Catamaran sailing, para sailing, and more.

Back From Hawaii

I've now returned from Hawaii and am reimersing myself in everyday life, I'd rather be in Hawaii. I plan to do more posts on my trip and talk about the rest of my stops, and Norwegian Cruise Line. I thought though I would give an overall impression of Hawaii. I don't know if words can fully express the beauty of Hawaii, and part of the problem is that the beauty is in so many different forms - from beaches to mountains to cliffs to plants and trees.

When I was in Norway on the drive to Gerainger Fjord there was this gorgeous lake, beyond words. I was looking at it in awe when my Tour Manager came up to me and we were discussing how lovely it was there, and he made an ignorant comment about how there was nothing as beautiful in the US as was this, keep in mind he had never been to the US. I've been to some beautiful places in the US - Yosemite and the Grand Canyon come to mind, but I know there are several more that I still need to visit. I'm not sure that any one place that I've been to is as picturesque as this little lake was, or Gerainger Fjord for that matter. But for the concentration of land that Hawaii is and the vast types of landscapes, I think Hawaii would be the most beautiful place I've been. In particular, it was Kauai that won my heart.

Hawaii though wasn't as relaxed as I thought it might be. Perhaps my expectations were too high with the "hang loose" and surfer representation that we get from TV and movies. Or maybe it was because I only had a little time in each place and was trying to make the most of my time, without killing myself. Or maybe being on a cruise with other overworked, overstressed people separated us from the Hawaiian culture too much.

The island of Maui

In a recent post I spoke about the Road to Hana, which was really beautiful, but a long day. The following day Tara and I went to Haleakala Crater for Sunrise. It was frigidly cold up there for a bunch of tourists in Hawaii. They said the temperature was 44 (apparently warm) with 30-40 mile an hour winds (lighter then usual.) But the views were amazing. Overall though I really liked Maui and can see why it's the Island that most people talk about visiting. It's lush and green and has good weather. My only complaint would be that it's not the best island for cruise ship passengers since there isn't much near the port and taxi's are expensive.


If you're visiting by cruise I would suggest either doing excursions or renting a car. If you want to see Hana do an excursion, the same for Haleakala Crater at sunrise. Most other things I got the impression that a rental car is the best way to go as most of the island is drivable and there is quite a few things to do which can be covered in one day by car. But with just 2 days in port I was left with a feeling that I would like to come back one day because there is more to see there, which is a good thing. Since I'm not much of a beach person I can't really comment on the beaches, actually I didn't visit any in Maui. But there are supposed to be some of the best in the world there.

Before leaving home I had heard the bike ride down Haleakala was really good, I saw people doing this and it looked like a death sentence. It's a steep ride down on the side of a road. The type of road with cars and buses driving right along side you without a separate bike lane. Our guide told us that they are considering stopping this excursion because it is dangerous. A couple that we met on our tour to Hana did the Best of Maui excursion, they said they liked it but certainly didn't seem impressed with it.

I did find the tour guides to be really friendly and eager for everyone to learn about Hawaii, this included the shuttle drivers who take you to the shopping centers near the port. Everyone I met wanted us to enjoy our trip and love the island as much as they did.