ceilidh1

I’m not sure where I left off. Shenanigans will be reported elsewhere. Last night we watched Jersey Boys, which was excellent. Then we caught the tail end of the 80s party in the atrium. DS called it a night and went back to the room, while I continued the party at the Social. Apparently the Social wasn’t open for another 10 minutes, so I got chatting to the dude manning the door (shenanigan alert). Turns out he neither works for nor is paid by NCL but was told by a staff not to allow anyone to enter. He took that job SERIOUSLY!!! Once the doors finally opened, I was dancing with a bunch of gals who were LGBTQ friendly. No probs on my part, but I don’t bat for that team so things got kinda weird. Luckily, my bouncer came to my rescue (shenanigan alert). The rest is history. I danced and danced and danced! I called it a night at 3am and texted DS to see if he was still up. He was. And he was hungry!

Found the cigar place

Jersey Boys I can’t even. Musical theatre is my life. For as long as I can remember, all I have ever wanted to do was sing and dance in stage. The flaw in my plan is that I suck at both singing and dancing. I compensated and my work revolves around the behind the scenes stuff of theatre. But I still live for this stuff! I have seen Jersey Boys 7 times now. Each time is a little different. Tonight had the same lead as I saw my first time and he is fantastic. I laughed. I clapped. I cheered. I woo wooed. I cried. I cried hard. So many emotions. You know you succeeded as a parent when you have a 12 year old boy that not only wants to see a musical for the 7th time, but knows every word of every song from it! Sadly, he left after the show and didn’t join me for the 80s stuff hat he also was raised on.

Where are my tribe members at????? I have shenanigans!!!! It’s almost midnight and you gotta wait. But they will be reported!

Fail alert. DS chose a Red Bubbles for my drink. This legit tasted like a Hi-C. I made him try it. He agreed.

After dinner we went to family friendly comedy. Again, I found the humour questionable. DS laughed so hard he had to leave to go to the bathroom in case he peed his pants. lol. This guy had some risqué content around Covid, politics, and race… From comedy we went to Majority Rules game show. For the first time ever I reprimanded someone else’s kid. I never do this. I’m of the mind that if you have an issue with my kid, take it up with me. Unfortunately, this kid appeared to have no adults in the vicinity. Or at least none that owned up to him. He was literally disrupting the entire game - honestly, the cruise staff should have said something. They didn’t. So I did. I told him (nicely) to go sit down. At least 20 people behind me gave me a cheer. #sorrynotsorry

Funny stories from dinner: I got a bottle of wine and our lovely server would refill my glass each time she walked by. In between I had to refill my own, cause I drink fast. I emptied that bottle before dessert. She took our dessert order and asked if I would like to take the rest of the bottle with me. Ummmmm…, I live Aqua Panna. I don’t drink water other than this. I ordered a bottle and we were enjoying it. My glass was half empty and the water waiter guy came round and refilled with tap water. Nooooooo. I really wanted to say STOP but was so conscious of how white privileged that would sound. lol. “Don’t put your common tap water with my Aqua Panna”

Everything was outstanding but n terms of food! DS decided the burrito was not for him so we switched. He has never had steak before and his reaction was “it’s such hard work, all this chewing.” I’m not a fan of burritos but this was actually very good. For dessert, of course, we had to do chocolate lava cake. As someone who LOVES chocolate but hates strawberries, I get really sad when chocolate goodness is paired with strawberry nastiness. I loved the lava cake. The strawberries not so much!

I took advantage of the plus upgrade and ordered a bottle of the Pinot Grigio along with my Aqua Panna. As appies we got the crab wontons and bruschetta to share. My main was the New York strip and I was surprised to hear DS order the vegetable burrito. DS LOVES burritos but his idea of burritos is the chipotle finest of rice, beans, and chicken. The look on his face when presented with a burrito full of veggies with the rice and beans on the side was priceless. THIS is what memories are made of!

Dinner at The Manhattan Room. We made reservations before we got on the ship but when we got to the podium the guy told us “no reservations. First come first served”. I was like…but I have a reservation. He told me to go to the next podium. There appeared to be an argument at this podium as a group of 16 had a reservation but were being told “no reservations “. I’m not sure where the disconnect was but obviously some confusion going on. We did get seated right away but, what???

Not at all! Very peachy and smoky!

Currently docked in San Francisco. There was some kind of delay securing the lines, resulting in the longest line of people waiting to get off. I’m happy I opted to stay on and avoid that nonsense! It seems like there are lots of angry people on this sailing. I’m seeing lots of folks yelling at staff and just being grouchy. Yes, it’s a full ship. Yes, there are lines. Yes, it’s hard to get reservations at this point. But none of that is the fault of the staff on the ship. I am (so far) finding it less crazy than this same sailing last year. In fact, last night the atrium and Local were completely deserted at 9:15pm! That being said, it’s nice enjoying the ship with everyone in port! Tonight we have dinner in the Manhattan Room (it’s steak and shrimp night in the buffet so maybe the menu will be good) and Jersey Boys. I’m torn because Jersey Boys is the same time as the Awesome 80s party… Highly recommend the Smoky Peach Margarita!

American Diner The only other time I’ve eaten here was when it was free for lunch on embarkation day for Haven guests. I remember having legendary nachos! It’s complimentary now (except milkshakes) so I was eager to try it! The nachos were definitely not legendary. They had a weird melted cheese sauce and then topped with grated (but not melted) cheese. They tasted fine but the oddest nachos I’ve ever had! DS got the cheeseburger and reported that it was good. I got the chicken salad sandwich and it was outstanding! We both got the chocolate mousse for dessert. The mousse was to die for, but they should ditch the strawberry sauce! All in all a very satisfying meal!

If anyone is interested in kids activities, this is the schedule for Splash Academy

Not that I’ve heard so far…

This is what a $9 shake looks like

Currently sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge and the decks are packed with people getting the perfect insta moment. You know you are privileged when you simply shrug it off and say “meh. I’ve already been under that bridge a bunch of times” (that was DS not me. Though I may have also been thinking it). Currently bopping along to the tunes of the “Sail In Party”

American Diner also had a 30 minute wait and we were given a pager. I went down one deck to the bar and never even got to order before being summoned by the vibrator gods(see what I did there?). I’m sensing a theme..,wait time is not real!

American Diner for lunch. I can confirm that even with the upgraded plus package (which includes all drinks by the glass) the shakes are not included. It makes zero sense as it’s really no different to a Starbucks Frappuccino but I wasn’t about to go Karen over $7. The port tax, however, I might lose it over - lol!

I have legit figured out how to game this upgraded drink package. Even with the good tequila, I find the margaritas very weak. So now I order a margarita with patron silver plus a shot of patron silver and pour it in.Perfection! I also snagged the Bliss mug to add to our collection!

Oh dear. I may have just done something I swore I would never do. Don’t get excited - it’s not shenanigans! I’ve always said I would never book a cruise while on a cruise as it’s kind of an impulse thing and I don’t do that. Well, @YVRteacher is a really bad influence and she just booked for spring break while on Breakaway (check out her live - it’s awesome). So, of course, I had to book to sail with her. The cruise next lady was lovely and talked a mile a minute so I’m still not sure what I agreed to. But I appear to be booked on Getaway for spring break next year!!!! Yahoooooo

What I Learned 1640 crew members 60+ nationalities Total Capacity- 6700 (crew and pax) Captain, chief engineer, hotel general manager at Q&A Captain Robert from Sweden. Started life as a sailor at 16. Began as 2nd officer on Renaissance line. Moved to Disney. Started with NCL in 2016. Bliss was his first captain position. Chief Enginee Ewan from Croatia. Started working on ferries. First cruise job was on Renaissance line, then Regent. He has been 17 years with NCL. Hotel General Manager is from France. Worked in restaurants in London. First cruise job on Premiere cruise line as assistant waiter. With NCL since 2014. On bliss for 6 years. Work schedule is 10 weeks on / 10 weeks off for captain / engineer and 4 months on / 2 months off for other staff. All put Le Bistro as fave restaurant onboard. Captain has officiated over 100 weddings. Challenging Aspects of job: weather, maintenance, outbreaks, missing ports Rewarding Aspects: satisfied guests, weddings and vow renewals, staying within budget.

Stood in line to redeem our Deal or No Deal cards for the instant win tickets. I wish they didn’t make it so hard to claim your prize. We needn’t have bothered as we did not win. Neither instantly or slowly. There was a guy at the box office yelling at the two girls working there and demanding to speak with a supervisor. The snippets from got it seemed he was angry that his group couldn’t get reservations for Jersey Boys - it’s only playing one time this sailing apparently (?) and with 4800 on the ship, there won’t be space for all! I got a call about the latitude party and already forgot when and where it is. Now at the How To Run A Cruiseship.

Ha ha - DS said “I think they gave me an appetizer “.,,

After breakfast we went up to the pool deck where we tried to keep our balance. It is choppy out there today! The pool water was sloshing around and only a few brave kids were even attempting to swim! Walked through the Garden Cafe, which was mobbed, and now taking a break in the surprisingly quiet observation lounge! I decided to try the expensive Brut Pommery Rose since I can’t have Veuve. It’s actually pretty decent!