Thursday, October 28, 2010

Boarding the Norwegian Spirit Oct 23, 2010

BOARDING THE NORWEGIAN SPIRIT OCT 23, 2010

A year of planning has resulted in the day of reckoning - boarding the Norwegian Spirit in Boston on Saturday Oct 23, 2010

I awoke early - did some internet surfin - then had breakfast and explored the area around the Sheraton Hotel - Copley Square and Newberry Street.

Returned to the hotel and did the final packing and then proceeded down to the lobby to meet up with Debra and Rick and the taxi ride to the ship - took about 20 minutes to get there - Rick paid the tab - wouldn’t except anything for it as his logic was I would have have to pay if you weren’t along.

Dropped my bags with the porters and then proceeded into to terminal and very shortly I was in line to get my room card etc.

Then there was perhaps a twenty minute wait before boarding started - during this time found Dave and Kathy, Jim and Judy and some of there friends so we all boarded together - as our rooms won’t be ready until after 2PM we adjourned to the main Windows Dining Room for lunch.

There was an outbreak of the noro-walk virus on the previous cruise so everything is done by staff - no self-service to start the cruise.

After lunch we met up at the rear of ship to await muster and then sail away.

Muster was slightly different - you know longer have to bring your life jacket from your room to your muster station - this was a change that I had read about but wasn’t sure if the Spirit had implemented it yet.

After muster we reconvened at the rear of the ship to await sail away - I spurned a Cruise Critic sail away because I am not sure how much of Big Green I want to expose myself too.

And we waited and waited and awaited some more - we watched both the Crown Princess and the Jewel of the Seas depart and we waited some more - finally at 6:30 the Cruise Director announced what we already knew - our sailing was delayed by a minor glitch that should be fixed shortly and wouldn’t affect our arrival time in Samana on Tuesday.

I decided to head to the buffet to have dinner and then adding another layer of clothes - let’s see I forgot to mentikon that although the sun was shining the wind was blowing haed making it quite cool - went back outside - finally around 7:30 PM came the announcement that the Port Authority had cleared the Captain to leave.
By this time it was dark so the hope of getting some good photos of Boston’s downtown landscape had evaporated - had to be content with just watching from the ship.

Then joined some of the others and took in the nightly show - more a potpourri of what’s in store over the next fifteen days.

My cabin is an ocean view on Deck 4 with a porthole to see the outside world and that is where I am typing up this blog entry

Tomorrow is a sea day and a big meet and greet for the large Cruise Critic group on board so that will keep me business in the morning - might check out the gym in the afternoon.

That’s all for today.

Cheers

Dennis


2 comments:

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