luckybecky

April 4 Thursday Dravuni Fiji / Sea Day We unexpectedly got another sea day. The wind was too high for us to tender safely. Boo! We lost a port in Fiji that I was really looking forward to. Oh well. We know this can happen and we’ve actually been lucky in our cruising history. This is the first time we’ve ever had a port canceled at the last minute due to weather. So we had a really lazy day. It was raining off and on. We got in the hot tub for awhile in the afternoon. The main pool was closed. We assume this is because the sea was rocking too much and turning it into too rough of a wave pool. The Spice H2O pool was open however. The casino also remained closed until 11pm. Since it was a sea day, we mistakenly thought the casino would be open. We went to Silk for supper. Have tried to go there several times and there’s always a wait. So we went very early. Our consensus is that apps are good – dumplings, spring rolls, soup – but entrees are poor. Kung Pao Chicken and Orange beef were not even mall food court quality. We’ve made an effort to eat here and decided it’s not worth the trouble. Below are the entrees along with some fried rice. Saw comic/musician Steve Womack at the Social Club. He’s great! Then went to Spinnaker for the Broadway Cabaret show. We saw a Broadway Cabaret show last cruise in the theater. It worked much better in the more intimate Spinnaker setting. Great performances.

April 3 Wednesday Luatoka Fiji We had a tour scheduled with Untouched Fiji to Beachcomber Island. Didn’t start well, long wait in hot humid weather standing on the pier. But finally got going and it got better. About a 45 minute boat ride to a small island with clear water and beautiful beaches. Shortly after arrival we reboarded the boat for a short ride to a coral reef where there were many fish. The water was clear and the snorkeling was great. The island was uncrowded although there were only a few umbrellas and chairs, not enough for everyone. Lunch was included. It was just OK. No water was available. There was a sink in the dining area for hand washing. I asked if the water was OK to drink (to refill my water bottle). The answer was no. We always take a bottle with us, but in this case on a hot sunny day it was not enough. I always think it is unconscionable to not provide water on an 8 hour tropical tour. Doesn’t have to be fancy bottled water, a cooler or large thermos to dispense fresh water would be fine. But in my opinion access to water should be a minimal inclusion for any tour in hot weather. Some kind of juice was the only drink offered at lunch – and only available at lunch. Hot tea (?!) was available when we arrived. There was a bar where drinks could be purchased. We got back to the ship around 4pm. There were several vendors on the pier selling souvenirs. We bought a couple of t-shirts and they accepted USD. Back on board, we cleaned up and spent some time relaxing in Spinnaker. Another amazing sunset. We had dinner in the buffet for only the second time. We just wanted something quick for a change. We also skipped the magic show which we have seen already. The casino was not going to open until 11:30pm so we didn’t go. We watched the Battle of the Sexes game show which is always hilarious. The game shows on this ship are always fun.

Tuesday April 2 At Sea Another lazy day. Went to the main pool for the first time. The hot tubs and pool were not very crowded, although of course all the poolside loungers were taken. The pool looked like a wave pool due to the rocking sea! I'm not sure this video shows it adequately. 20240402_122124.mp4 We had Onda for dinner. It was excellent. This was our second time here. The first was when we were in Melbourne; I think I forgot to post about it. Here are some photos from the first dinner: I think this is the octopus Market salad Tuna Beef filet This is the Macellaio pizza which was amazing! We wanted to take half back to our room to save for later but they would not let us. No idea why this would be a problem because people take food from the buffet all the time, and this is obviously just going to be thrown away. We had a stunning sunset tonight! Went to the Vocal Impressionist show with Grant Galea. It was good. He’s a good singer but some of his material is becoming dated. Singers from my parents’ generation. And I’m not a spring chicken. 🙂

April 1 Monday Mystery Island, Vanuatu We did not book a tour here. The ship tenders you directly to the island, where you can walk directly off the short pier onto perfect white sand beaches with crystal clear water. We found a spot to spread our blanket (a $7 Wal-Mart shower curtain, folds up small and makes a great travel beach blanket). Unlike yesterday, it was possible to find some shade. There are lots of vendors on the island offering tours at very low prices – far lower than anything from NCL. You can also get a very inexpensive massage, hair braiding, rent a kayak or outrigger canoe, etc. And multiple vendors selling souvenirs. We snorkeled in two different areas. You only have to walk/swim maybe 20 yards offshore to come to some coral where there were abundant brightly colored fish. No guide is needed. We saw many people heading back to the ship around noon. They had started calling the first tender tickets pretty early. If you wait until later, things weren’t as busy. Back on board we went to Spinnaker, our favorite place on the ship, and watched sailaway. Tried to go to Silk again around 6:30pm. Thought maybe the first wave of diners would be finishing up. Nope, multiple people already had pagers and it was again a long wait. So back to Taste again. Shanghai pork pot stickers Cheesy mashed potato croquettes Roma tomato salad Hawaiian pork belly Chicken cordon bleu The show tonight was Blazing Boots. We saw it last cruise but it was worth seeing again.

March 31 Easter Sunday, Noumea New Caledonia You have to take a very quick shuttle to the city center. We immediately found our tour operator who said we weren’t on her tour. We had a runaround going to multiple others before returning to the first one and speaking to someone else, who confirmed what we already knew, we were on their tour. It was a Signal Island turtle tour. I don’t really recommend it. I think there are probably better tours. It took a long time to sort 80 or so of us into several boats. We were put on the very last boat. Then we had a 30 minute very rough ride to the island. Don’t do this if you are prone to seasickness. It was very rocky! Arrived at the island. What little shade existed had already been claimed, as well as the 3 or 4 picnic tables. We snorkeled for awhile. The water was quite murky but we did spot a few fish, and one huge turtle swam right under us. We walked around the island to explore. There were quite a few campsites, all occupied. The water on the other side of the island by the campsites was much clearer with smooth white sand, but there was no coral here, so no fish or turtles. A helicopter landed on the sand right by the dock where many people were. It turned out to be a medical helicopter and they evacuated someone off the pier. We have no idea what happened. After about 2.5 hours, we loaded onto the boats for the return trip. There is a large well stocked grocery store directly across from the shuttle bus stop. Back on board we watched sailaway from Spinnaker. Tried to go to dinner at Silk. The couple in front of us got the very last table. It would be an hour wait. So we went to Taste again. Always good service here. It was Easter and they had a special menu but it turns out the sirloin was the exact same one they serve every day. Not that good. Breaded mushrooms Broiled ruby red trout There was no show in the Stardust Theater tonight, only a movie which we did not go to. There were some very cute fruit sculptures in the buffet area for Easter. Here are a couple of them.

March 30, Saturday Sea Day We had another lazy day. Slept late, then got up and went for a brisk walk on the promenade, and then hot tub for awhile. Spice H2O is crowded of course. No chairs available anywhere. The pool is very shallow. Like a kiddie pool. Barely comes up to your rear end. Here are some photos taken on an obviously less busy day while in port. This actually WAS the kids' pool in the past. At the last dry dock they removed the slide (if I remember correctly there was a pirate theme) and turned it into an adult only area. This explains why it's so shallow. As you can see when I'm standing in the pool the water just comes to my thighs. The pool did not seem to be filled to where it should be. The depth is less than marked. Back to our cabin for a shower and then lunch in the buffet. Watched Deal or No Deal in the atrium. Took a nap. Went to Spinnaker for the Latitudes party. Dinner at Taste. Chicken lettuce wrap disappointing – very salty. Waldorf salad good. Pasta primavera good. Duo Delight, the acrobat show, was great. Worth seeing again. Then went to Majority Rules game show. We won! Prizes for the game shows are usually a little NCL logo bag with a deck of cards, keychain, and phone holder. Hit the casino for a little while.

Sorry many of my food photos are turning out sideways or upside down. Not sure how to fix that, they are fine on my computer but uploading wrong. 😞 When I left off, we had just left Sydney. March 29, Friday Sea Day We had a really lazy day. Slept late. Had to spend some time in line at guest services because Paul’s new key card wasn’t working (again!), and even more time in line at the tech support desk because we couldn’t log in to the internet. Our unused minutes from the last cruise rolled over to this cruise, which I didn’t expect. That was nice. We did a 30 minute brisk walk on the promenade. Then went to lunch at the buffet. Go early to get a table. Took a nap, spent a couple of hours in Spinnaker reading and enjoying the view and the wine. It was really nice to have a laid back day with nothing on the schedule after 2 weeks of travel and activity. We had a beautiful full rainbow! Dinner at Taste. Unquestionably our favorite over Windows, with faster service, and we are almost always seated at or very near a window with ocean views. Sorry, I forgot to get a photo of the menu tonight. Went to the Newlywed or Not So Newlywed show. We have seen this show, or a variation of it, on nearly every cruise we have ever been on, and it is hilarious. I went to Spinnaker almost an hour early to make sure to get a good seat. The oldest couple, sadly, struggled through the show. Married 66 years. I think they could not possibly have been traveling alone. They didn’t leap up to participate and must have been encouraged to go on stage by whomever they were with. They certainly weren’t on their own. The hosts of the show made a valiant effort to help them along. As someone seated behind us said at the end, “that was brutal.” It’s a shame that someone sent this lovely couple up on stage when they clearly were not able to understand what was happening. Went to the casino for a spin before back to our cabin for the night.

Back on board just before noon. As “in transit” guests, we were given priority boarding. Tried to change our dining reservation at Cagney’s but they only have late dining times. And this is early on boarding day. Paul’s new key card didn’t work at the bar so had to spend a half hour in line at guest services. Then we got in the hot tub for awhile. Back to our cabin for a shower, it still has not been cleaned. I’m sure the steward’s primary goal is getting rooms cleaned for oncoming guests. But our room has almost never been cleaned until midafternoon. Watched sailaway from an excellent viewing spot on deck 13. The rainy weather from earlier today had cleared up and it was a beautiful sailaway. Went to Taste for dinner. Very good service again, much better than we ever had in Windows. The appetizers were excellent, but the chicken piccatta was weird. Crab and cream cheese wontons Cream of cauliflower soup Greek salad Spinach salad Chicken piccata Spent a little time in the casino and then went to the comedy show in the main theater at 8pm. The comedian, Steve Womack, was very funny. He’s not the same comedian as on the last cruise.

March 28 Thursday Turnaround day in Sydney Captain had announced that we would be entering the harbor around 4:30am. I made an effort to go see our passage by the Opera House and under the harbor bridge. Slept very poorly and dragged myself out of bed a little after 4am. Dressed and went to deck 12 where I discovered it was raining. Nothing was in view yet. A few people awake, in Spinnaker and the pool deck. Due to the poor weather and my lack of sleep, I gave up. Went back to bed. Oh well. I tried. A couple of days ago, NCL added an excursion in Sydney. We booked it because unfortunately we are at the White Bay cruise terminal which is very inconveniently located. There is a lot of construction and you can’t walk off the pier. It is not at all pedestrian friendly. So we decided to leave the planning up to NCL which as you know, we are generally very reluctant to do ship tours. Our tour got us off the ship quickly and easily at the appointed time. It was a large tour bus. The guide didn’t have much personality. Nice enough guy, but as I mentioned before, a really good guide can turn a ho-hum tour into a party. That did not happen here. He also said that they normally do a four hour two, but NCL had instructed them to shorten it to three hours. Not sure why, because there would have been plenty of time to do the full tour. To make things worse, the weather was dreary and damp. Between the rainy weather and the mediocre guide, the day could have been better spent. Still, we got a city tour and we were happy to see some of the city. It was just a taste. We are definitely going to have to come back to Sydney someday! Bondi Beach

Back on board, we lounged at Spice H2O and got in the hot tub. We had not had lunch, so we went to supper early at 5:30pm. Went to Taste, which was much less busy tonight than usual. Very quick service and a nice table by the window. O Paul says this roasted duck was outstanding. Best thing he had. Zucchini soup Grilled watermelon salad Cuban roasted chicken Rotisserie chicken from the every day menu There was no show in the theater tonight. Several music venues as always, but not much else happening. We hit the casino for awhile (I’m up a few hundred dollars!!) and then got some wine to take back to our room. This is the last night of the cruise. It is our second back to back cruise and I LOVE not having to pack and leave! 🙂

March 27 Wednesday Eden Australia We had a short port time, 11am-4pm. We had booked a 2 hour tour from 11:30-1:30. Very easy to find our tour operator. Eden is tiny. There was a shuttle that will take you from the ship to the center of town for $20 round trip. If you can manage an uphill walk into town it is not far and the shuttle is not essential, but the walk into town is fairly steep. There is one main street with cafes and shops. There is also a whale museum. Our tour was nice. Went to some scenic lookouts. Saw some pelicans and kangaroos. After the tour we wandered in a few shops and then back to the ship. It’s a pretty sleepy port. Eden is a one horse town

Tuesday March 26 Burnie, Tasmania We had booked a Cradle Mountain tour. I didn’t know much about this, just found a tour on Viator that looked good. It turns out it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was beautiful. We had a good guide with Tassie Tours. We saw several wallaby and a couple of wombats. It was cold! We have had colder weather than we expected in several ports and weren’t well prepared. Wallabys and wombats! This is another working port where you are not allowed to walk on the pier (we’ve had several of these on this trip). You have to take a shuttle bus to the town, which was a short drive. We were picked up by our tour provider exactly where the shuttle dropped us off. We returned just a few minutes before all aboard time of 3:30pm and were dropped inside the pier at the ship, no need to take the shuttle back. We met a lady on our tour whose flight booked with NCL was delayed. She did not make the ship departure in Auckland, but joined the ship in Tauranga. She said that NCL offered no assistance whatsoever in rescheduling or getting her to the ship. We ate supper in the buffet for the first time. We generally prefer the full service restaurants but after 10 or so days on board, we have sort of had our fill of that, and we just wanted a quick dinner. It was an Asian theme tonight in the buffet. Went to the production show Elements. Arrived about 6:25pm. Lots of people already lining up. Doors opened at 6:30 and we got a good seat but the theater filled up very fast and it was standing room only by showtime. The show was good, lots of flashy costumes, strobe lights, high energy dancing, magic tricks and more. Afterward, they did a crew appreciation with many of the crew and most of the senior officers coming on stage. I have occasionally noticed noise in our cabin that sounds like muffled music and could not figure out where it was coming from, but I think tonight I finally got it. It is from the theater 2 decks below. Other than this, our cabin is completely silent as I’ve mentioned before. In 10 days on board, I have never heard a voice from the hallway, never heard a door slam, and never heard noise from adjoining cabins or from above, due to our unique location. Best cabin I have ever had in terms of location and quiet. We went to the casino after the show but it was almost immediately announced that they would be closing in 5 minutes, and re-opening about an hour and a half later. I guess we were passing close to land?

Our tour lasted 3 hours and covered about 5K or 3 miles. We had a very good guide. It was an excellent tour, but I do wish they limited the number of participants. We had around 40 which was way too many. Some shots from the walking tour: The old jail The theater A mall Street art on Hosier Lane Views We tried to go to the art museum near where our walking tour ended, but our time was limited. It’s free and looked amazing. Our plan was to just choose one or two galleries to view because we knew we didn’t have time for the whole museum, but we just ran out of time. I definitely want to go back here. We walked back to the shuttle bus. Back on board around 3pm. We sent laundry out early Saturday morning (bag special at $34). This is 2 and a half days later and it’s not back. Went to guest services. Finally after much time on the computer and phone, the lady says it’s ready and she will have it sent to our room. If it’s ready, why hasn’t it already been sent? It finally arrived several hours after she told me it would be sent.

Monday March 25 Melbourne We were instructed to wait until our deck is called in order to be processed by Australian immigration authorities. It didn’t take long. Our group was called second. We got off the ship I think around 8:30am. We got through passport inspection quickly. Then easily bought bus tickets to get us to the central city. Very friendly and helpful Aussies willing to help. We took some pictures around the iconic train station, and made our way up to the Victoria library. It is beautiful, and free to enter and also has good clean bathrooms. So a good stop. We had a free walking tour that departed from here at 10:30am. Here are some photos on the way to the library, and the library itself which is beautiful. The train station The library

Sunday March 24 Sea Day Today there was a meeting in the theater for Back to Back cruisers. There are 283 people continuing on the next cruise from Sydney to Papeete. They gave us info about procedures for immigration, getting our new key card, etc. Then we went to a Q&A with the captain and two senior officers in the Spinnaker lounge. It was interesting. The seas continue to be very rough. This is the rockiest cruise I’ve ever been on. The captain says that the Tasman sea is typically quite rough and in fact, the seas are better than average. Wow. I’d hate to see what it’s like on a bad day. The navigation channel on TV was showing apparent wind speed at 53 knots (61mph) one time when I looked at it. Not sure how well my video shows it, but the sea was choppy. 20240324_162652.mp4 We went to a black glass wine tasting in Le Bistro. We had signed up for this a couple of days ago. It was fun and informative. Cost $22 per person. Lasts about an hour. The afternoon was slow. Not much happening. The casino opened at 3:30 so we went there before supper to try our luck. So far, we are both up! Yay for us! Spent some time in our favorite spot, Spinnaker. Went to dinner in Taste again. Service was again prompt and well paced. I forgot to take a picture of the menu. I had the NY Strip. It is just OK, definitely not steakhouse quality, but edible. There was a good brussels sprouts salad, and potato soup. Paul had some kind of fish. Dessert was a salted caramel chocolate torte – fantastic. Very rich and chocolaty. Paul had a no sugar added chocolate cake which was also good. I went to the Battle of the Sexes game show in Spinnaker while Paul slept off dinner. The game show was very fun and entertaining. Then, I met up with Paul in the theater for the 9pm show with Paul Suha, a violinist. He’s amazing.