did not go smoothly.
I was up early and after hot chocolate and Bible decided I’d tackle that power room door that was locked from the inside. Of course it wasn’t a simple knob that locked by pushing in a center circle. No. This was the kind of lock you twist the lock to engage it. Nice. Now, I do have experience with this type lock, but I’ve always had an arsenal of do-dads to address it with. Nary a bobby pin or screwdriver amongst our packed items. I did try to MacGyver it with a paper clip, but the door knob was too smart for me. Despite the fact we had gobs of stuff to do to get ready to leave we decided it would be best if John headed up to Walmart for some tools. And an umbrella stroller for the ship.
I was up early and after hot chocolate and Bible decided I’d tackle that power room door that was locked from the inside. Of course it wasn’t a simple knob that locked by pushing in a center circle. No. This was the kind of lock you twist the lock to engage it. Nice. Now, I do have experience with this type lock, but I’ve always had an arsenal of do-dads to address it with. Nary a bobby pin or screwdriver amongst our packed items. I did try to MacGyver it with a paper clip, but the door knob was too smart for me. Despite the fact we had gobs of stuff to do to get ready to leave we decided it would be best if John headed up to Walmart for some tools. And an umbrella stroller for the ship.
The rest of us went after eating as much as we could from the fridge and then starting the miserable work of throwing out food. Ugh.
John got back with a super-cute hippo stroller and a case of small screwdrivers. While I was hoping for a tool designed precisely for unlocking this type of knob, I thankfully did get the stinking thing open. I had been afraid the property management company would call a locksmith and keep all or some of our $300 security deposit.
Somehow we got 10 people and all their luggage into/onto the van, with certain items separated out because they weren’t going on the ship with us.
Originally I had scheduled us 10:30 A.M. boarding times for the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) Getaway. I’m still chuckling about that.
Our rental house was calculated to be 3.5 hours from the Port of Miami, but people had warned me it would take longer than that. Of course it takes a lot longer if you have to travel northeast before you can travel southeast because you have to turn in the cooler and rain covers that you’d rented with your stroller but not returned with the stroller. Nice, no?
John got back with a super-cute hippo stroller and a case of small screwdrivers. While I was hoping for a tool designed precisely for unlocking this type of knob, I thankfully did get the stinking thing open. I had been afraid the property management company would call a locksmith and keep all or some of our $300 security deposit.
Somehow we got 10 people and all their luggage into/onto the van, with certain items separated out because they weren’t going on the ship with us.
Originally I had scheduled us 10:30 A.M. boarding times for the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) Getaway. I’m still chuckling about that.
Our rental house was calculated to be 3.5 hours from the Port of Miami, but people had warned me it would take longer than that. Of course it takes a lot longer if you have to travel northeast before you can travel southeast because you have to turn in the cooler and rain covers that you’d rented with your stroller but not returned with the stroller. Nice, no?
At some point we left the rental house and programmed in the address for Kingdom Strollers and the Port of Miami. GPS had us arriving around 1:40 P.M. All aboard is 2:00 P.M. Who doesn’t like to start vacation stressed?
The good news is the kids were supernaturally well-behaved in spite of the fact that four of them were crammed in the way back of the van together. They watched Muppet’s Treasure Island on a 9 inch screen, followed by a few episodes of Andy Griffith.
I prayed a LOT that we’d make it on time. Mercifully, the roads were clear and we made no errors in following the GPS directions (and that is saying a LOT given the mess of roads in Miami!). And we pulled into the port at 1:30 P.M.
We tried to drop Nan and Kelly off at Terminal B where they needed to check in, but the attendant told us we were not allowed to pull over, even though countless other vehicles were pulled over. We went up a way and tried again, but were again told, “Nah, man, you can’t do that. They will give you a ticket.” We still aren’t sure WHY we couldn’t, nor do we know who might have given us a ticket, but we found the parking garage and unloaded. Thankfully, our van fit, and thankfully, there were large open areas available to park and unload it. Sadly, it was a bit of a walk for my mom and sister to get back to Terminal B, but the boys helped them with their luggage up to the luggage check.
We had to go in via Terminal C. It moved along well enough, and John went with his three co-assigned kids and I went with my three co-assigned kids to the check in. We had three questions we needed to ask on check in, yet I don’t remember them now. What I DO remember is that he and I got different answers, or no answers. It was sort of ridiculous, to be honest. But we were checked in by 2 P.M. and let out a great sign of relief. Surprisingly, we met smack dab up with Nan and Kelly and were able to board the ship together.
It was absolutely not as pleasant as it was boarding the Disney Magic or Princess Caribbean Princess.
We were all hungry and dinner was scheduled for 5:30 P.M. We asked a crew member what our options were for lunch at this time (2:15 P.M.) expecting we had missed our chance to eat in a Main Dining Room (MDR) and she concurred. She added that we would have to hurry if we wanted anything, because mandatory life board drill was starting at 3 P.M. Seeing as how we were on deck 6 at the time and the available buffet was on deck 15 and we still had all our carry-ons, we reasoned it wouldn’t make sense to try to get up there to food when we had to be back to deck 6 by 3 P.M. Plus we wanted to dump our stuff.
It was absolutely not as pleasant as it was boarding the Disney Magic or Princess Caribbean Princess.
We were all hungry and dinner was scheduled for 5:30 P.M. We asked a crew member what our options were for lunch at this time (2:15 P.M.) expecting we had missed our chance to eat in a Main Dining Room (MDR) and she concurred. She added that we would have to hurry if we wanted anything, because mandatory life board drill was starting at 3 P.M. Seeing as how we were on deck 6 at the time and the available buffet was on deck 15 and we still had all our carry-ons, we reasoned it wouldn’t make sense to try to get up there to food when we had to be back to deck 6 by 3 P.M. Plus we wanted to dump our stuff.
We were so late that staterooms were more than ready.
Stewart gasped when he saw how small it was. I didn’t think it was too bad. I showed him all the nooks and crannies for storage. Our luggage was already in the hallway. Yay.
Stewart gasped when he saw how small it was. I didn’t think it was too bad. I showed him all the nooks and crannies for storage. Our luggage was already in the hallway. Yay.
The adjoining room was slightly larger and the bathroom had a tub. There are only so many adjoining rooms for 4 on the ship, and it worked out nicely to have a tub for the little girls. It also had a double sink. We decided to sleep the older four kids in the first room and the little girls and John and I in the second. This would allow the little girls to enjoy an earlier bedtime.
There was a letter in our stateroom addressed to Stewart stating they had his food allergies on record and if we needed assistance to contact them.
The ship and elevators were painfully crowded and I wondered if it would be miserable all week (it was not). There are two banks of 8 elevators on the ship, for the record.
We returned to deck 6 and worked on loading up the iConcierge app to allow us to text amongst ourselves. I’d read it would cost $7.95 per device. The crew member told me it would be $9.99 per device. It charged us $12.99 device. Ah – that NCL nickel and diming I’d heard about?
The drill took For.Ev.Er.and was the least organized I’d been to. But thankfully it was near a bar and we were all able to break in our soda packages.
Once the drill was over we ran to the buffet for small snacks.to hold us over for an hour.
We went to the kids’ clubs and registered our kids for their appropriate age groups. Marie and Tabitha were Dolphins in the 10-12 club, and Katriel and Johanna were turtles in the 3-5 club. We took the boys up to Entourage and had them register there, too.
When we booked our cruise back in March one of the perks was to have the dinner show Illusionarium free if you went on the first night. They had since removed that (and a LOT of other things) since we had booked, but our travel agent went to bat for us and had it arranged.
It was okay. I wasn’t too impressed, though.
Although they gave you a menu, it was more or less to inform you what they would be bringing you as it is a set dish. It was edible, but unimpressive. The startling thing was how lackadaisically they approached food allergies. I had read many reports saying how well NCL responds to dietary restrictions, so we were taken aback a bit by this. We comforted ourselves by reasoning we could head up to the buffet afterward for more food.
After dinner we poked around the deck a little and worked our way to deck 15 aft where the buffet was, and then up to deck 16 aft where the mini golf was.
So – as we found the soft-serve ice cream we also found those attendants to be just as uninterested in helping us navigate the buffet with food restrictions. If things stayed the same, this was going to be a long, disappointing, and stressful week for Stewart.
We decided that maybe John and Stewart should head to the customer service and see if there was anyone they could talk to about Stewart’s dining. I headed back to the room with the other kids. Marie and Tab wanted to check out their kids’ club, and when Johanna saw the kids having fun, she asked to stay, too. I took Katriel back to the room for bed.
John and Stewart returned to the room triumphant. Having stopped by the customer service desk they were quickly linked to an assistant maitre d, Cher Fuentes. They were directed to a restaurant on deck 7 to meet with her. She walked them through the menus for the next three nights and Stewart pre-ordered his dinners. She was very helpful and informative.John went back to pick up the girls from the club. Johanna was in tears. She said she missed her mama. I think she was kind of tired.
We had met our stateroom hostess, Anna, when we dropped off our bags earlier. She informed us that tonight we needed to turn our clocks back an hour. Nothing says vacation better than an extra hour of sleep!
When we booked our cruise back in March one of the perks was to have the dinner show Illusionarium free if you went on the first night. They had since removed that (and a LOT of other things) since we had booked, but our travel agent went to bat for us and had it arranged.
It was okay. I wasn’t too impressed, though.
Although they gave you a menu, it was more or less to inform you what they would be bringing you as it is a set dish. It was edible, but unimpressive. The startling thing was how lackadaisically they approached food allergies. I had read many reports saying how well NCL responds to dietary restrictions, so we were taken aback a bit by this. We comforted ourselves by reasoning we could head up to the buffet afterward for more food.
After dinner we poked around the deck a little and worked our way to deck 15 aft where the buffet was, and then up to deck 16 aft where the mini golf was.
So – as we found the soft-serve ice cream we also found those attendants to be just as uninterested in helping us navigate the buffet with food restrictions. If things stayed the same, this was going to be a long, disappointing, and stressful week for Stewart.
We decided that maybe John and Stewart should head to the customer service and see if there was anyone they could talk to about Stewart’s dining. I headed back to the room with the other kids. Marie and Tab wanted to check out their kids’ club, and when Johanna saw the kids having fun, she asked to stay, too. I took Katriel back to the room for bed.
John and Stewart returned to the room triumphant. Having stopped by the customer service desk they were quickly linked to an assistant maitre d, Cher Fuentes. They were directed to a restaurant on deck 7 to meet with her. She walked them through the menus for the next three nights and Stewart pre-ordered his dinners. She was very helpful and informative.John went back to pick up the girls from the club. Johanna was in tears. She said she missed her mama. I think she was kind of tired.
We had met our stateroom hostess, Anna, when we dropped off our bags earlier. She informed us that tonight we needed to turn our clocks back an hour. Nothing says vacation better than an extra hour of sleep!
Everyone was in bed by 10:30 ish, I believe.
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