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Time to get ready for disembarkation. Passengers were told to come to the atrium, settle up accounts (if you used a credit card to guarantee, no worries), fill out U.S. Customs Forms and decide what you wanted to do about luggage. Express walk off disembarkation would start at 7:45-8:30 a.m. Once the ship was cleared, just walk down and off the gangway carrying your own bags.
Sounds a lot easier than it actually was. The crowds in the elevators and stairs were humungous and loaded with passengers dragging their own luggage off the ship, Even so, it only took around 15 minutes to have key cards scanned, into the building, give your U.S. Customs Forms to an official and we were outside waiting for our transport to LAX Airport. There was no x-ray, scans, showing of passports...nada...
Continue reading "Preparing for Disembarkation on The Norwegian Star" »
The second to the last day at sea was sunny and warm. Time for all 2,000+ passengers to sun on deck, play basketball, take a tour of the ship (bridge and galley), play Bingo, hit some golf balls into the net, aerobics, play ping pong, team trivia, badminton, lectures, Texas Hold'em Poker Tournament, wine tastings, movies (in your stateroom or movie theater), pilates....and that was just during the day. It's no secret that you can keep busy 24-hours a day on a cruise ship...or not...take naps, read and do nothing.
Night brought The Second City Comedy, game shows, Karaoke, dance party, take family photos or portraits, and even a "power shopping hour" with Colombian Emeralds International. (They were always pushing the shopping.) As an example, pearl necklaces ordinarily selling for $200 were being discounted 50%. (If you visit China, a made to order pearl necklace will run $10-20. Tonight's major highlight was going to be a Chocolate Buffet from 11:00 p.m. to Midnight.
Continue reading "The Last Days At Sea on The Norwegian Star" »
Volumes have been written about cruising and food. My yummy rating on the Norwegian Star was *****. That's right. Five stars and this is from a person who will choose not to eat when faced with something disgusting or inedible. I did a little reading on Cruise Critic, studied the best cruise ship ratings put out by both Conde Nast Traveler and Travel & Leisure every year (as a matter of fact, in the February 2009 issue, NCL isn't even rated as good in their rankings) and have this to say. Come on folks...what do you expect? Three star Michelin? Gourmet perfection? Do you want to pay $13,000 a person and up for supposed exquisite food on one of the luxury cruises? Let me ask you. When was the last time you went to a restaurant in your local area and absolutely everything you ate was perfection, tickled your taste buds into gourmet heaven and had no complaints. Whenever we dine out (local or more upscale), there's always something that isn't exactly what I expected. Oversalted, underseasoned, cold (when it's supposed to be hot), tough or had other flaws.
Let's judge NCL's Norwegian Star (and other cruise ships) based on that. Stop and consider for a moment what you are actually paying per day to cruise. Then remember what it cost you the last time you went out for fine dining. Was everything spectacular? If your entree or appetizer didn't meet expectations, did you send it back and ask for something else? Not usually. Yes, if you said..."waiter, there's a foreign object in my....", then that item is replaced but not if you just don't like the way it tastes.
Continue reading "Cruising is All About The Food...Right?" »
It was Adios, Mexico. Adios to the buckets of cervezas on the beach, henna tattoos, parasailing, digging in the sand, playing in the waves, buying and watching the vendors. Adios to the ports of Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.
Inside of looking back, time to look forward to 2009. Yes, it was time for the Gala New Year's Eve celebrations tonight on the Norwegian Star. We slowly pulled away and waved goodbye to lit up Puerto Vallarta. Got all spiffied up for dinner, went into the Versailles Dining Room for a very yummy dinner and began ordering multiple selections. A few appetizers, couple entrees, three desserts and even more. I personally selected: a duck menage a trois (duck mousse, duck confit and duck slivers), oysters, a salad with brie cheese and walnuts, red snapper (didn't like at all - very tough), and didn't care for any of the two desserts I ordered. ex-Marine went for the lamb chips that were so outstanding, we ordered two more plates of lamb chops to share. No worries, if you didn't care for something, just visit the Market Cafe where there is an extensive dessert buffet every night. Chocolate Fondue fountains and more...
Continue reading "New Year's Eve on The Norwegian Star" »
Parasailing is great fun and is available almost anywhere there is a beach with enterprising boatmen. A person is towed behind a boat while attached to a parachute (also known as a parasail). I first went airborne in Acapulco, 1961 and have taken several more "fliers" since then, both solo and tandem depending on where I parasailed.
Most parasailing operations take off from a beach but one of our Caribbean experiences had tandem operations off the back of a boat. Jet skis took us from the beach to the boat where two of us were strapped into the harnesses and let out like kites into the air. The landing was super easy since the crew just reeled us in like a fish.
Continue reading "Have You Ever Parasailed?" »
Before disembarking with family, ex-Marine and I took a walk over to the closest beach, Playa del Oro, a 15-minute walk from the pier. The beach was perfectly adequate but not exactly what our picky family would love since it was too far from the main Centro area. If you don't care about heading into the downtown area of Puerto Vallarta, and are just looking for a "beach" to park yourself, walk over and save the very expensive taxi fares into Puerto Vallarta Centro.
The family had intended on sleeping in a little this morning but at 7:00 a.m., a booming announcement over the P.A. system that "...since today is New Year's Eve day, all Puerto Vallarta streets would be blocked off after 5:00 p.m. for street parties. There would be no transportation to and from the pier into the city after that time..." The short version - prepare to walk back if the sun turns your mind to mush and are stuck there. So much for sleeping in...
Continue reading "The Playas (Beaches) of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico" »
Puerto Vallarta has always been a haunt for the rich and famous, and shot through the roof when Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton began their notorious love affair. This was our destination with the focus being excellent shopping and a beautiful beach.
The Norwegian Star offered quite a few excursions, none of which interested us, but still sounded like fun. You could:
- Experience Bahia de las Banderas powder-soft beaches;
- Take the Town, Country & Tequila tour that drove through Marina Vallarta, visit the Hacienda Dona Engracia tequila factory to learn about the tequila manufacturing process and time for shopping at Puerto Vallarta's downtown area;
Continue reading "A Day in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico" »
We literally danced off the beaches of Mazatlan and back to the pier where even more dancing was taking place in vehicles, shops, pier, everywhere. All passengers in an extremely great mood from a fun and spectacular day in Mazatlan. Mazatlan's paved, beachfront promenade stretches from the Zona Dorada to Olas Altas in Old Mazatlan. The largest monument, El Pescador (the fisherman), is a statue of a mermaid beckoning to a fisherman. Tomorrow is our last stop, Puerto Vallarta, and again we'll look for a beach to park ourselves on.
The Norwegian Star sailed at sunset with crowds of people thronging the docks as our majestic ship slowly sailed out to sea. ...View image... Two tugs (official boats) accompanied us until outside the harbor and we just stood on our balcony and took in the great views until time to change for dinner. ,,,View image... But now, it's time to eat and decide what's evening entertainment to take part in. Karaoke Idol Party will be a "fun" version of American Idol and two grandsons are planning on trying out. There are also movies, the Internet Cafe where you can purchase an internet time plan and keep in touch, country music, Stardust Showtime has "Band on the run" tonight, lotto, DJ Freddy's "Awesome 80's Dance Party", gambling and much, much more.
Continue reading "Adios Mazatlan, Mexico - Hola Norwegian Star" »
A person is never too old to play in the sand. Teenagers set to work building, digging, drawing with sticks, anatomically correct sand people, covering each other up with sand, mud and just having a gay old time. ...View image... Before you knew it and satiated with beer, I thought we were going to head back to the ship but a Henna Tattoo vendor strolled by and one teenager decided to browse through the design book. ...View image... That did it. If one is going to get a tattoo, all decide to get tattoos and it took forever for nine people to carefully look through the many books and decide which one was the perfect tattoo for them. ,,,View image...
Design chosen, the vendor traced the tattoo on whatever part of the body they wanted and started following the lines with a henna paint brush. It takes forever to dry otherwise the lines smudge and is supposed to last for two weeks. I would have to say that this particular vendor made a killing with our family since the tattoos range from $7-$13 U.S. each. I bet he's glad he stopped by our spot!
Continue reading "Henna Tattoos in The Mazatlan Sands of Mexico" »
My last time in Mazatlan was off a Sitmar cruise spending lots of time on the beach trying to coax young son, Joel, that I was not trying to kill him by encouraging a parasail ride. He didn't die and is the the premier Google Adsense guru and writer of the NY Times best seller, The AdSense Code. And his latest venture, iFart Mobile, an application for iPhones, has taken off like gangbusters. How much prouder could a parent be than to have a college educated son develop a "farting" application? Only kidding, I am very proud of him and older brother, Michael, who probably helped hone the farting range of sounds including lighting them. Michael, on the other hand, went up for his parasail ride without hesitation and like a champ setting a fine example for Joel. Now it's time for grandchildren to be equally inspired even though they are terrified.
Found a parasailing person charging $30 U.S. each for the 10-minute parasail ride. FYI: It's not necessary to change currency into Mexico Pesos. Everyone accepts U.S. Dollars. Nick, Sarah and Jenna were too young to parasail on the last family trip and this was their moment. Only single parasail riders are allowed in Mazatlan (no tandem). They screwed up their courage and lined up determined and scared "shitless."
Continue reading "Parasailing in Mazatlan, Mexico" »
Mazatlan is Mexico's second largest coastal city (after Acapulco), with nearly 600,000 inhabitants. It has the largest port facility between Los Angeles and the Panama Canal, and is home to Latin America's biggest fleet of commercial shrimp vessels (over 800 boats). Nearly 40 tons of shrimp are processed each year, making Mazatlan "the shrimp capital of the world". Mazatlan is also a very popular spring break destination for the college kids with lots to do.
The Norwegian Star docked in Mazatlan on a cloudy morning but nice and hot. Down the gangway around 10:15 am and into open air transportation that shuttles down the pier to the exit at the main cruise terminal. Just one other ship in port besides us. At the main cruise terminal, there was another gauntlet of shops, tour operators and driver until you stepped outside of the enclosure. There were more taxis and vehicles and it took around 15 minutes to make "a deal" with two vans for $50 U.S. to the Zona Dorado (golden zone) beach area, around four miles to the north, where almost all of Mazatlan's visitors spend their time.
Continue reading "Mazatlan on The Pacific Coast of Mexico" »
Cabo San Lucas. I visited Cabo San Lucas around 1975? 1976? Whatever year it was, there was nothing there but beaches and fisherman. Now there are still fishermen and incredibly posh hotels. Quite a few extremely expensive, world class hotels on the Baja Peninsula where the rich and truly famous congregate. The One&Only Palmilla is the one that always come to mind when I think of Cabo. Check out their rates!
Cabo San Lucas also has great beaches, lots of shopping and restaurants, and a variety of hotels and resorts for any budget. The long sandy main beach, El Medano, is the place for swimming and watersports with lots of fun restaurants in the sand. golf and postcard perfect views. A popular port of call for cruise ships along the Mexican Riviera, Cabo is also a popular destination for Spring Break.
Some of the many shore excursions offered by the Norwegian Star were:
Continue reading "Cabo San Lucas on the California Baja Peninsula" »
...Breakfast also happens to be my favorite meal of the day. Give me a huge menu or buffet and you'll see one very happy camper.
If you want it, The Norwegian Star has it. Huge buffet breakfasts served every morning in the Market Cafe until 11 am with anything a person could possibly want. Eggs prepared in several different styles, waffles, pancakes, oatmeal, yogurt, bacon, sausage, dry cereal, lox, bagels, fresh fruit, danish, breads, juices, coffee, tea...and on and on.
Continue reading "Breakfast May Be Your Most Important Meal but..." »
Grandchildren came back and forth last night. "Grandma, I don't feel well, the boat is tipping." Children and grandchildren took pills for motion sickness "just in case," and I had trouble sleeping listening to the ship creaking in the open sea. The nightly Freestyle Daily told us to move clocks forward one hour heading to Cabo San Lucas and listed a gazillion things to do while at sea. Monte Carlo Night...View image..., Bingo, Champagne Art Auction, practice your golf swing on deck, work out in the Fitness Center, Ice Carving demonstration, martini tastings, were just a few of the over 30 activities to choose from. Two sons, and one daughter-in-law staked out their positions in the Casino (no video'ing inside, stills only) while all other adults staked out their chairs on the sundeck.
My choice? A huge, yummy breakfast and doing nothing. At least those were our plans until a credit letter was dropped in our cabin saying that there was another billing mix-up. Pounded down two decks to Reception steaming. You could see fire and sparks flying from our eyes. This took over an hour to clear up at the Credit Desk while the line behind us (other disgruntled passengers with problems) grew longer and longer.
Continue reading "A Day At Sea on The Norwegian Star" »
To the cabins and more aggravation. Key cards that didn't work. FYI: They become demagnetized if you put them near iPods, cell phones, keys, coins, anything metallic. Heard at reception, another family was missing 7 bags for two days, thankfully, not us. A long wait for luggage to be delivered to the room. And... on...and...on. ex-Marine and I spent an inordinate amount of time with more running up and down stairs between decks, back and forth to reception, trying to straighten everything out.
Our family had eight cabins, six outside with balcony and two inside ones on Deck 9. It really didn't make any difference who was originally assigned to a cabin since they all had the ability to sleep three persons. We expected the teens and youngsters to potentially play "musical cabins" and switch around if: a. one became claustrophobic; b. ill; or c. couldn't stand each other. The inside cabins are surprisingly roomy and I wouldn't hesitate to book one. After all, most passengers are never in their rooms except to sleep or change clothes.
Continue reading "Cabins on The Norwegian Star" »
Another early morning with continental breakfast at the Travelodge with lots of time to kill before the shuttles picked us up at 11:00 a.m. for transfer to the Port of Los Angeles. Back and forth between rooms with an announcement from Tracie that her room was filled with ants and son, Jordan even had ants in his jacket pocket! This was not good and ex-Marine immediately raced to Reception to complain and received a discount on her room. FYI: Travelodge claims that all the hotels/motels have ants at this time of the year.
Down to the lobby for checkout and only one of our Roadrunner shuttles is here early. The other arrived about 10 minutes late. Loaded up and to the docks for embarkation. Pre-printed baggage tags with name and cabin number on all suitcases given to us earlier by Norwegian Star, the Baggage handlers throw all suitcases on a cart and off they go, hopefully, to materialize later in the proper cabins.
Continue reading "The Norwegian Star Embarkation Began in Los Angeles" »
This was it. The big flying day to Los Angeles from Chicago. ex-Marine and I both nervous wrecks since Chicago had a horrible December with three times the normal amount of snow, bitter cold and a minor ice storm during the night making roads slippery and hazardous. Two families arrive at our house at the ungodly hour of 5:30 a.m. in preparation for a Los Angeles-bound United flight at 7:59 a.m. We ordered two taxis and only one shows. ex-Marine, (husband, Steve), goes into hyper-panic mode and the other cab finally shows 10 minutes late.
All 16 of the Chicago family is there for check-in, our Denver foursome is arriving on a different flight, security, and to the gate. ex-Marine takes all hungry people to McDonald's for a breakfast run, cheaper than buying food on the plane and we sit around and wait for the delayed plane. Our flight was completely full with a standby list of 116 names thanks to a week of horrendous weather across the United States. Take off was 1-1/2 hours late with at least 12 planes ahead of us waiting to take off. Attendant handed me a Bloody Mary, I took a large gulp and finally started to relax.
Continue reading "Our Family Group Flies To California" »
Next?
The all important Air! The headcount was 20 persons...you read this correctly...airfare for 20. Four coming from Denver and everyone else in the Chicago area. I busily added up my accumulated miles on United, called them and got four free tickets! TA-DA!!! That helped a bit.
Hotel? Yes, we needed a hotel/motel for one night. I would never take a chance on flying to the embarkation point on the same day of the cruise. You may be gutsier than I but this is Chicago. Snow, rain, delays...many, many delays in good weather let alone winter. No, it was to California the day before to minimize the chances of a major snafu and missing the ship. Selected the Travelodge by LAX (Los Angeles) Airport with complimentary service to and from the airport and a continental breakfast included. Fresh fruit, cereal, milk, coffee, tea, juice, muffins, bagels, cream cheese, and pastries should hold the family until embarkation time. There are tons of hotels/motels close to LAX Airport but I was just looking for the least expensive possible with free transport from the airport to the hotel. After all, it was just for one night. There are also fast food places and restaurants up and down the Century Boulevard stretch for an inexpensive dinner.
Continue reading "Plannning A Family Cruise Continued..." »
Deciding what ship to take was very difficult. There were exactly three cruise lines with departures on December 27 in both the Caribbean and down the West Mexican Coast. NCL, Royal Caribbean and Carnival. Prices were comparatively the same. After lots of should we do this.. should we do that...picked NCL, Norwegian Caribbean Line. NCL had a Mexican Riviera cruise on the Norwegian Star leaving December 27 from Los Angeles, and calling on the ports of Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta.
There were two main reasons for picking NCL and Mexico: Airfare was less expensive from Chicago-Los Angeles then Chicago-Miami/Ft. Lauderdale; and NCL has free-style dining, a big plus for this intergenerational cruise. When a family consisting of grandparents, parents, teens and small children travel together, we found this to be important. This gives everyone a chance to
Continue reading "Deciding On A Cruise Line and Destination" »
You would think that planning a family cruise would be a no-brainer wouldn't you? Bah...humbug. Trying to schedule a trip around school, vacations, sports, dentists, orthodontists, illnesses is a logistical nightmare. It may be easier to plan an OPEC Summit than a family vacation. Thanksgiving? Out - only two grandchildren have vacation over the entire week, the others, school through Wednesday. Spring Break? Eliminated - ACT's are that weekend and, it's TAX season (one adult son is a C.P.A.). Summer? There is camp, baseball practice and summer school. What's left? Christmas break with more scheduling problems because Christmas Day is must-spend with others in an extended family.
Christmas with crowded airplanes and highest all-inclusive prices of the year. Christmas with the most expensive cruise prices. No one gives anything away over the Christmas Holidays but this family trip will have to take place over Christmas break or not happen. One of our adult children has a major health issue, ex-Marine (husband, Steve) and I are aging, and grandchildren will start heading for college. There may never be another chance for the entire family to be together.... Grit teeth, tap all resources and go for it...
Continue reading "A Family Holiday Cruise" »
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