HoosierShipmate

Freestyle Daily - Norwegian Breakaway - Day 3 - December 19, 2023

They definitely have a live texas hold ‘em game @ometauru and tournaments as well. I don’t know if they’re limit or no limit or the stakes. I’ll try to ask tonight. I didn’t see anyone playing which could be an issue - if they can’t get enough to keep a game going it would get annoying to start and stop - probably easier to run late at night. Will update later after I ask. Or play. 🙂

Ok on one of our first cruises, might have been Celebrity Galaxy, we saw a show - ‘Mike Price: Master Juggler’ and oddly he was ridiculously talented and amazing. But since then most shows have disappointed me. Until SIX. In the world of cruise ship theater I was very impressed. Great production, and I now understand why it’s always a sold out show. I understand they’re not going to be on board much longer, but if you’re sailing soon, make the reservation early and enjoy the show! I might even try to talk the fam into the standby line later this week.

Dinner tonight - The Manhattan Room. Love the look and feel of this restaurant but we’ve never been seated so close to the band - it was a bit loud when they were performing! The entertainment was really good, just super loud because of where we were seated. And yes per the earlier discussion they do post the menu out front…..still needs to be on the app! Close up: They need better lighting so I can control those shadows! Ok again I didn’t eat all of these. As an avid Yelper it pains me not to comment in detail but here we go briefly: Spring rolls. I’m pretty sure four people had six orders. Embarrassing but true. They weren’t special, just had a picky eater who loves spring rolls lol Clam Chowder was very good Spinach Artichoke Dip. I wouldn’t eat this if I was starving but I’m told it was good. Josh had NY strip and said it was good. I always like the steak but they drown it which bothers me. I had the fettuccine Alfredo with mushrooms and shrimp. It was exceptional. I’ll get it again, maybe as a side with something else too. Angie had shrimp alla vodka and loved it too. Chelsie had bacon and bourbon chicken - and she’s a pretty picky eater but loved it. Photo doesn’t really do it justice. It came on a potato and corn on the cob. Took a photo of wine we had tonight bc we really liked it and I always forget when I’m home what I need to buy locally. Pleased that I remembered a photo of the dessert menu tonight! I had cherries jubilee and apple strudel- both were great but the apples win. Jubilee needed more ice cream to make it work I think. Josh had CJ too and wasn’t impressed. Chelsie went traditional with chocolate ice cream and Angie chose the fruit plate. You can judge her or judge me, but not both 🙂 that health option is never going to be my choice on vacation! Service tonight was perfect - they were the perfect level of attentive throughout the whole meal. My family drinks an insane amount of water (see liquids are good!) and we do bottled still water they just kept bringing more and more bottles - and one for the road. They did tease us a bit about the obsession with spring rolls too and were a lot of fun. Makes me miss the ‘old days’ of assigned tables and times so you could really get to know your servers. Now a quick rest before SIX in the theater. I know these dinner posts are long I hope they aren’t boring you!

I don’t know what the holdup was, port folk said they were still clearing people off the ship and we saw departures as late as maybe 11:00 or so. And we definitely plan to go to Syd’s! Tonight is SIX so maybe that will be in tomorrow’s list!

One perk of the faux suite is a bottle of bubbles and they just stopped by with a little snack for us. Haven’t opened the bubbles but the snack only lasted about three minutes.

I believe they post them outside the restaurant and I’ll definitely suggest it as an app feature. Seems easy for them and might even sell a few internet packages as a result!

Waiting for dinner and got a nice almost-sunset shot from the balcony. And why oh why NCL do you not post your MDR menu on the app every day? I need to plan my strategy!!!!!

Came down from the pool to shower and nap, but they were cleaning the room. So I waited in the casino. Not smart am I? I got cleaned out twice.

Finally getting around to posting cabin pics. C and J are are in an inside cabin and if they send me pics from day one I’ll post later. No doubt it’s a mess by now. This is a Club Balcony Suite on deck 10 midship. The word ‘suite’ should be used lightly but it is a nice room and the bathroom feels spacious compared to the norm for sure. Category MB if curious. They didn’t get bed setup right at first. But the room is spacious and has nice storage. Always hate that they only have power outlets in one place, usually the worst place. Regular size balcony. Windows need a wash! Nice to have a double sink. HUGE shower. Finally, doesn’t this artwork just scream cruise vacation!?!?!

AITA? A friend sent me this photo from home: I replied with this: AITA? LOL

As a reminder I didn’t eat all of this. It’s one photo of each item the whole table had. To be fair we had three bananas but who wants three banana photos? That would be weird. Sliced banana. Why did I pick this one for the photo?! Ham and cheese omelette with potatoes Breakfast Wrap Salmon Bagel Waffle Pancakes Everything was tasty according to the person who ordered. The ham and cheese omelette was just ok.

Savor for breakfast this morning - as I wait for the food I realize I may have a liquid fetish. Menus for anyone guessing what we order 🙂

Freestyle Daily - Norwegian Breakaway - Day 2 - December 18, 2023

Good morning from somewhere warmer than my hometown….at least a little warmer it’s still a bit chilly, but a great view!

That is accurate. Don’t know the % but I rang up about $20 in taxes so that feels close!

To add to the food porn, we just finished dinner at Cagney’s - it was a long one, a little over two hours. Partly our fault, partly the speed of the kitchen. Our service was amazing - thank you George!! The menu is readily available online, but here it is: For starters, kids both had salads (no pics because lettuce is boring), I had tuna tartare and Angie had shrimp cocktail. I also had the baked onion soup, which was pretty good. Last time I had Cagney’s I did the lobster bisque and something in the back of my mind told me not to order it again this trip. No pic of that, it’s soup in a bowl. All four of us ordered the 8oz filet. Not exactly original, but we return at the end of the cruise so maybe somebody will venture out. I doubt it. Mine was medium and cooked perfectly - delish. As we finished off the last of our bottle of wine, we ordered dessert. I completely forgot to take a pic of the menu, but the table ended up with: #1 - Blueberry Oatmeal Crisp #2 - Apple Pie #3 - OMG Caramel Cheesecake #4 Seven Layer Chocolate Cake I put those in order of delishiosity (yes that is a word I’m sure of it) - I ordered the blueberry and didn’t think it was going to be as amazing as it was - but it was fantastic. I finished it and might order it again when we go back Saturday night. The others, well each person left me plenty to get a good sampling. Not just a little bite of each, so I speak with confidence that my ranking is solid 🙂 It’s now 11:02pm Central time which is midnight at home. I’m stuffed beyond belief, feel I have gotten my money’s worth from the drink package, have had the caloric intake of a football team, and can now go to bed happy 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll post room pics, forgot to do that today and am too lazy to do it now. Edit: Oh look, wine and bowl of soup 🙂

Freestyle Daily - Norwegian Breakaway - Day 1 - December 17, 2023 Here are the dailies!

Lunch options upon embarkation included O’sheehans, two MDR’s (Taste and Savor) and of course the buffet. We chose Taste. NOTE: I’ll share menus and pics of food but please don’t think I ate everything I show photos of. I’m gluttonous on cruises but travel with a wife and kids so they’re responsible for eating too! Taste MDR Lunch Embarkation Day Menu wedge salad corn hush puppies - pretty tasty chicken noodle soup Quesadilla - kids loved and wished they ordered two my cheesesteak was delish Risotto orange chocolate mousse - delish

We are on the ship! After our snack we headed to the terminal - the line to get into the main security area was the longest I’ve seen - this mornings delay of two hours for the last folks got get off backed up the earliest embarkation times. Still, relatively painless. About 35 minutes in line to get to security. Once we got to that section about 10 minutes, the another 10-12 minutes to check in and get on the ship. So the whole thing was about an hour from start to finish and being on board. Simple, just a lot of people all at the same time today. Headed to Taste for an MDR lunch.

Parking in the whale lot was simple. No line, and @PaperSniper4 the charge was $150 for the week. Drive right in and parked, about two minute walk to luggage dropoff and then went straight to Cafe Du Monde Riverwalk.

Embarkation day! And the ring doorbell tells me the woman staying with my dog this week has moved in so that’s one less worry for me. Our puppy has bone cancer, and is nearing the end of his journey with us so I’m glad he has a friend this week. Please no comments on this, it makes us sad and this is a vacation week! Happy thoughts only! Breakaway was a little late getting to NOLA this morning, but early enough that I don’t anticipate any delays. We are awake, getting breakfast at the hotel and then making our way to the port. Trying to time it so we can grab beignets at Cafe Du Monde Riverwalk then get on the ship. View from the ship right now, Carnival Glory in front of her. . .

As I post this, we’re about 2.5 hours from our hotel in Slidell (around an hour door to door to the port) and we’re going to make the drive in about 12 hours total. That’s 10.5 hours plus bathroom breaks (small bladders don’t come genetically from MY side of the family) and of course a stop for lunch at a Buc-ee’s which could take a whole afternoon if you aren’t careful. But it was a great lunch of brisket and banana pudding! (This was a few hours ago) @PaperSniper4 I’ll let you know if anything is significantly different with parking. I saw the recent crime reports too and have a bit of worry about that, but honestly I’m going to sea, so if they steal my car I won’t know until I return LOL. I’ll also comment on the other items you talked about in a post tomorrow. Our room is also a Club Balcony Suite (faux suite really lol) There has been a LOT of chatter on the Facebook groups about the rough seas for the current Breakaway cruise, and for those of you with concerns it looks like the worst of it is clearing up tonight around the time she returns to the river and tomorrow looks to be much better. We’ve been on ships during very rough seas before and I’m fortunate nobody in my family seems to get seasick. So here’s to hoping that continues! I’m more worried about a strong breeze and chilly temperatures as we make our way south. Monday might be a bit on the nippy side if you’re a ‘sit in the sun and drink pina coladas’ type of person. . . . @dcn8tve today’s loss was painful. IYKYK. For all the new followers, stay tuned as embarkation is less than 24 hours away!

@dcn8tve Love the Go Hoosiers post - and we would have been at IU around the same time! I’m a ‘92 grad. @sarahandmike23 Hopefully we will meet on the ship! As you might imagine from the prior post we’ll be the family in the ridiculous amount of Indiana University clothing and/or ‘ElderRaver’ gear 🙂

A week from today we’ll be in the car headed south, and will stop in Slidell to stay at our usual hotel (Hampton Inn Slidell) which is a short drive to the port. Packing is starting. . .and by that I mean my wife has started her process and I’ll procrastinate until later this week or maybe the night before. I’m more of the logistics person, making sure we have the magnet hangers, lanyards, passports, etc. ready for the trip. Clothes are an afterthought because really I need something for the pool, something for dinner, and if I had my way that would be two outfits for seven days LOL. I had a request for the dailies which I’ll happily provide, as I know folks like seeing the daily activities and menus as well. We’ll be in the main dining rooms, Cagney’s and Ocean Blue for sure. Not sure about La Cucina yet. I have two extra specialty dining credits but four people - so might use two for lunch or just deal with two for another specialty dinner and pay for the others. Final note: I received a lot of flack at home for the ‘blurry photo’ so here’s one that’s a few years older and we have pledged to recreate it this year. Amazing how much older the kids look today vs. then, but I’m sure Angie and I look just exactly the same and haven’t aged a day!