boffoboffo

Filled out our cruise survey last night, so that’s all taken care of. We’re spending the night right off I-75 so for the first time on the way home we’ll be backtracking the same route we took on the way. About an hour from the Canadian border. I’m sure there will be a final couple pictures to post along the way to finish this up. Then I’m sure I’ll do some kind of post cruise summary going over the positives and negatives and any other final thoughts to close this out. 

16 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

Hahahaha!! I wouldn't give you the satisfaction of losing a follower. 

 

Besides, I would have missed the beautiful Indianapolis skyline if I did that. 

 

But really, have enjoyed your review and speedy travels to your home in the Great White North! 

My last couple of cruises out of NYC I followed a couple of these live/semi-live for cruises sailing shortly before mine to get an idea what to expect. I remember your name and @JIMESOPUS a lot from those, so I was happy to see both of you show up here. It made it feel like I was kind of returning the favour. 

I’m sure I recall mentioning out road trip on Route 66 a few years ago. On the way we stopped in Uranus, Missouri as it’s one of the tourist trap stops along the way. Well we passed the sign on I-69 and it brought back some memories of that trip. 

Seemed confusing that there would be a billboard for a tourist trap built entirely around a single joke that is a 5 1/2 hour drive away and not worth driving more than 11 minutes out of the way to visit. Investigated further and found out they had opened Uranus #2 in Indiana and it was only 10 minutes away. 

If you’ve ever been there you know I’m required to say “Welcome to Uranus” here. 

It’s not as big or fancy as the original and still just a tourist trap based on a single joke but my wife got some fudge packed in Uranus. 

Finally made it to Ohio where we’ve stopped for the night. Only about four hours left to drive tomorrow to get home. 

The majestic skyline and airport of Indianapolis. 

24 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

How dare you! Krystal's is the only good slider kinda burger. I just can't tolerate White Castle...but my grandma brought me up on Krystal's whenever we took a road trip down south to her motherland. So, I suppose I'm a wee bit biased...and really don't enjoy sliders anyway. Like, I need an actual amount of beef in my mouth to feel like I've had a meal. 

Unfollow. 1 star. Worst cruise semi-live ever?

Just checked my email and our post cruise survey is already there. Guess that’ll give me something to do in our motel tonight. Our latitudes reward points were also added to our account this morning. Only 20 short of platinum now. 

Into Indiana and our final time zone change back to our native eastern time zone. 

And after taking suggestions of places to stop along the way from others I decided to go with a place that only I mentioned and made fun of. 

We’re back into White Castle country. No more of those cheap imitation Krystals that I’d never heard of until this trip. 

Oops. I think we took a severe wrong turn somewhere. 
 

Another ideal day for driving with nothing but blue sky. Woke up with some frost on the car and right on 0° but we’re up to 12° now. 

Didn’t take too long and we’ve moved on to Illinois. 

And you get there by crossing the river we were cruising on yesterday morning. 

The last time we’ll see the Mississippi River on this trip. 

Getting ready to head back on the road for our last longer day of driving. Stopping in Toledo, OH which is roughly 8 hours away plus an hour when we get back to the eastern time zone. 

6 hours ago, aggie182 said:

Holy narrow stateroom halls Batman!

After having our nice double wide hall down on deck 5 this past week I don’t want to ever go back to normal width halls. 

It was so beautiful. 

6 hours ago, justhappy said:

I really benefited and enjoyed the live from @boffoboffo last week. Hopefully we can make the days till your cruise fly by!

Happy to hear I haven’t been wasting my time. 

On 2/24/2024 at 7:40 AM, Panhandle Couple said:

Lambert's Cafe. Sikeston Missouri.

Home of the Throwed Rolls.

Arrive hungry.

All three of us say thank you for the suggestion. You didn’t warn us to arrive thirsty with the size of their drink cups.

The parking lot was quite full and there was a decent sized line to get in but we got seated within 10 minutes.

They have a couple license plates on the walls. 

I guess this picture doesn’t properly convey the size of these cups. After a week without pop while on the ship a huge Dr Pepper really hit the spot. 

Steaming hot roll that was almost a meal on its own. 

Roast beef. 

Chicken pot pie. 
 

I’d highly recommend this place for sure. 

A very uneventful drive today. Aside from Memphis I-55 really doesn’t go through anything. 

Tennesee welcomed us for all of 15 minutes but it did have more to see than the rest of the drive combined. 

Two things to see in Memphis. 

Hey! We were sailing on that river this morning. 

The whole reason we came this way on the drive home. Our first time in Arkansas and the 46th state we’ve been to. Only Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Hawaii to go. Time for one of those 16 day Alaska and Hawaii cruises out of Seattle, I guess?

After an hour and one minute we made it to our fifth and final state of the day. 

Since it was recommended a few weeks ago I figured I’d better include this sign. Current plan is to eat there since it’s a couple minutes down the road, unless it’s too busy. 

Welcome to Mississippi. 
 

Got in line to get off the ship around 7. The line started moving at 7:12. Had to walk the length of the ship to exit aft out of the Manhattan Room. Then had to walk the length of the ship again to the gangway forward. Then through the maze to get to customs. Then decided the wait for the shuttle bus was going to be too long so we walked to the parking garage. Finally made it to the car at 8:09. Currently on I-10 heading west to I-55. 

Our destination is in sight. 

This is our second straight cruise where the clocks changed for daylight savings on our last night and I am not a fan. Turns out we got up an hour earlier than we were planning to. At least the ship is quiet and nearly impossible to get around since all the stairwells on 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are roped off. I guess they’re trying to do a better job than they do in NYC of keeping people from lining up early. 

Everything is packed up and ready to go. Just heading off to the buffet for our final meal onboard. They have the stairwell on deck 5 roped off so the only way I could get upstairs was on the elevator. Not happy about that. Back on cell service and it’s nice to have decent internet speed again. 

On 3/8/2024 at 1:53 PM, aggie182 said:

How was the water clarity at Harvest Caye?  I am contemplating on packing my snorkeling gear.

As a non-snorkeler I would defer to those who replied beneath you. I will say that I didn’t notice many people snorkeling on the beach and the snorkeling excursion seemed to be the most popular one. I take that as a sign that if you want to snorkel you’re best to do it elsewhere. 

Down to my last 7 minutes of free internet but getting close to the Mississippi where I should be able to get back to regular cell service and not have to struggle so much with this site combined with ship internet.

Went out for a walk or to play basketball this afternoon but it was raining and the wind had picked up so I came back in. About an hour later the rain had stopped so I walked some more Waterfront for a while. That pretty much killed the afternoon until supper time. 
 

Stopped at O’Sheehan’s so my wife could get a milkshake which now gives us a final balance owing of 13¢. It’s nice having free money to spend on board. 
 

Were going to go to Savor for supper since we ate there for breakfast and lunch but they had a 30 minute wait while Taste we could be seated right away. Worked out great as we had a really good waiter for the night that just seemed to be having a lot of fun. He did get my wife some cookies for desert so that’s a second way in addition to the Studio Lounge that you can get cookies. 
 

Went out and did another lap of the Waterfront and it was different to see all the lights from the other ships around. Not used to that when sailing from New York City. In the end I set what I’m sure are personal single day cruise records of just over 30,000 steps and 21km total distance walked. Would have been more if not for the rain.

Now comes the problem that the cruise is nearly over and I’m starting to think it’ll be nice to get home and back to a regular schedule but we still have two-and-a-half days of driving ahead so the holiday still isn’t over yet. At least the rest of it should have more reliable internet. 
 

Supper was a Caesar salad, bratwurst, and chocolate lava cake. 

Spent some more time out on the Waterfront. It’s become mostly overcast so I’m enjoying the less sun and slightly cooler temperatures. Just spent some time hiding ducks for the crew. Had lunch at Savor because the had peanut buttercup cheesecake and we always plan our cruise around the peanut buttercup cheesecake. 

Less sunny. 

Caprese salad. 

Cheeseburger. Seems to be one of the few remaining ways to get beef in the MDR. 

Peanut buttercup cheesecake. 

A bit before bed time last night my wife decided she’d better use some of that OBC to get an O’Sheehan’s hot fudge sundae. Amazingly it seems well worth the $4 price despite the fact that ice cream is readily available for free in many other places on the ship. 

The ship did the smart thing and we’re staying on eastern time for today, so now we don’t need to change the clocks for daylight savings again tonight.

Was up at 5:30 this morning to finally get in some time with the ship to myself. Already had in 8km of walking before the sun came up. 

We went to Taste or Savor for breakfast(already forgotten which one). It was quiet when we got there around 8 but when we left about an hour later there was a line and pagers being handed out. 

Fruit salad. 

Loaded breakfast potatoes. 

Pancakes. 
 

Supper menus for tonight. 

 
One of our travel bags is in the stages of falling apart so we stopped at the gift shop as they have a Hooked on Cruising duffel bag which after our 15% discount used up all but $3 and change of our OBC.

Looks like another sunny day but the seas aren’t too rough and the wind is not strong, so it should be a nice sail. 

Last post apparently allowed me to post pictures but errored out in the process so I didn’t get a chance to post commentary. Fortunately there’s not much to say. Lunch was O’Sheehan’s Cobb salad and spinach and artichoke dip. Then we walked the waterfront and watched the Harmony sail away about half an hour before us. Once again everyone was back on board within 10 minutes of all aboard time and we were pulling away from the dock 6 minutes early. Marina security walked by and they look a bit more hardcore than anything we’ve seen at any other port. 
 

Oh, and it took almost two full days but we finally got that partial game of bowling taken care of. They just erased the charges from our account instead of crediting it back.

Freestyle daily for day 7:

We’ve realized that we only have one full day left of our cruise and had spent less than half of our shareholder OBC, so we wasted some money on arcade games. Too scared to try bowling again. So many people call NCL the cruise line that nickel and dimes you and we’re going to have to force ourselves to spend an extra $100 on board. 
 

Buffet for dinner although all the dining venues seemed much emptier tonight than they have been the last few days. They had turkey in the carving station. I had some cheese instead. 

Last post as I get caught of with the events of today. I woke up early and decided to go out and wander aimlessly for a bit. The deck was once again very wet but shaping up to be another sunny and hot day. My wife seems to be coming down with a cold of some sort, so it’s probably going to be a short and quiet day since she won’t want to do much. 
 

I was up even before the chandelier woke up. 

The Harmony of the Seas, which was in Roatan with us two days ago found us again this morning. They docked right before us. 

Pulling into the pier by moonlight. 

With no excursions booked for the day we had no rush to get off the ship so we had a leisurely breakfast at Savor. Got there around 7:30 and there were only a handful of other tables seated so it was much quieter than I’m sure the buffet was. 

Pretzel roll sandwich. Scrambled eggs don’t work that well on a sandwich but it was good. 

My side of bacon was very generous today. Side note:they have run out of strawberry jam and only have orange marmalade or apple jelly left. 

The sun getting ready to make an appearance today. Seas are fairly rough as well with a decent breeze. It’s been mostly calm up until this point of the cruise. 

Too big and too many people on board for me to ever want to try it. 

I can’t say this looks like much fun. 

From this angle the Breakaway almost looks as big as the Harmony. 
 

All told we got off the ship around 8:30 and we’re back on by 10:30. It feels like Niagara Falls where they have dozens of gift shops available but once you’ve gone into one and seen all the cheap junk they have to offer you’ve seen them all. The crowds were big, my wife was tired of being handed free samples of skin moisturizer and they were playing the Macarena so it felt like time to go.

Went past the Manhattan Room which had tonight’s menu posted, so I’ll add that here. 

Nothing that really jumped out at any of us, so we’ll probably do our first supper time trip to the buffet for this cruise. 
 

That means lunch will probably be at O’Sheehan’s again. The problem with port days when you’re back on the ship by lunchtime is the two options that are open for lunch can get boring pretty fast. 
 

Whew! I’m caught up again. 

Food pictures from yesterday. 

Lunch at O’Sheehan’s was the pub hot dog. 

MDR menu for the night. 

Cream of Broccoli soup. It was kind of bland. 

Mozzarella and plum tomatoes. 

Baked Walleye Cod Fillet. 

Fig and apple cobbler. Hard on the teeth but pretty good.