"Four Days at Sea - Avoiding Hurricane Wilma" Top 5 Page for this destination North Carolina Travelogue by grandmaR

As we got on, we were given a sheet which explained that because of Hurricane Wilma, we were going to skip Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas, which is kind of what I thought we were going to do. I'm not too upset about this as I've snorkeled in various places in the Bahamas from our own boat. The captain announced that he would watch the track of Wilma and decide whether to go out towards Bermuda and down or whether to hug the coast. He's now decided to hug the coast and we were off Cape Hatteras by lunch.

Because I feel like I'm nursing a cold, I have been using the little alcohol hand washing stations each time whereas before I basically ignored them. I think the result of this is that I've got at least 3 very sore red cuticles beside my nails and Bob does also.

The weather has gotten warmer, and we've been through a fog bank, and it is raining pretty hard. They had the pool filled by this morning, but by lunch it was emptied again. The ship is rocking a little bit although not as much as you might expect, and the dining rooms are still full. I can still read and use the computer without getting a headache. We see lots of people with anti-seasickness patches.

Weather map of Monday

Bob woke up a couple of times at night and turned the flashlight on the clock to see what time it was. I finally decided to get up, and put on my glasses and turned the bow camera on, but it was still dark out. It was about 5:45 when I looked at my watch. I got up and started writing these emails. At a little after 7, Bob got up and got dressed and we started watching the CNN reports of the hurricane.

The only channels that the ship gets are ESPN, CNN, and TNT. This means that we can't get football broadcast by any of the networks. They also have their own information channel. We hear enough about the Harriet Miers nomination for the Supreme Court to surfeit even someone who was interested.

We went to breakfast in the Yacht Club. We ate looking out over the pool. Bob had figs, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and a croissant, and I had scrambled eggs, bacon, corned beef hash, yogurt and a croissant. We both had cranberry juice and hot tea.

After breakfast, I went up to the Computer room, but the computer guy wasn't there yet, although he was supposed to be there at 9. So I walked around through the library and out the other side. I wanted to ask the guy how I could send emails i.e. what the ISP address was for the ship.

After I found out how to do it, I took the computer out to the atrium (one of the hot spots and just down the hall from our room) and sat down and sent the first two emails. (I wrote the trip up in family emails as I went along.) When I got back to the cabin, Bob was talking to the steward. He is from the Philippines and is married to another lady who is also working for NCL but right now she is working on a different ship. In the past, they've been on the same ship. His children are in the Philippines with his MIL. He says the children are quite spoiled.

He's a MUCH better steward than the one we had before. Not only was there no ashtray with cigarette butts in the room when we checked in, but our ice bucket always has ice in it which the previous steward didn't do. The previous steward also didn't do any towel animals. Consequently at the end of the cruise we gave him an extra $30 over the automatic tip.

Spinach Salad

I went to the tour desk to cancel Bob's water excursions. I found out that they had rescheduled our trolley tour in Curacao so that we couldn't also snorkel, so I fixed Bob to go on the trolley and me to snorkel. Since we are getting to San Juan four hours early, they have added some morning excursions, but none of them appeal to me.

When we went to lunch at about 12:30 - the Yacht Club buffet was quite crowded (obviously not enough people confined to their cabins yet). So we went up to the 7 Seas sit-down restaurant where we were seated immediately. I had a spinach salad with honey dressing (Lite fare), a taco salad in a shell (very small), and the light fare dessert which was pineapple upside down cake. Bob had coconut chicken with horseradish and then he had fish and chips plus of course pineapple upside down cake which is his favorite. We ate with a couple from Ohio - they were there with a group from their athletic club. She was disappointed not to be going to the Bahamas because she was going to try snorkeling for the first time.

After lunch, we went to the pool deck where there was to be a trivia contest, but it was raining pitchforks and of course there was no-one there. They were having it up one deck, but there wasn't any announcement. We got there about halfway through. They only played one game. One question that I'm sure our grandson would know was what a blooper in baseball was.

Bob took a nap and we watched some more CNN. We went to dinner early so that we could go to a show tonight. I had Spanish spinach and cheese puffs (all of two of them), the Senegalese chicken-curry soup and the steak Diane and baked potato which was very good. Bob had the pineapple carpachio with honey roasted pistachios, the southern comfort chilled apple bisque with pecan nut brickle, and turkey with cranberry sauce. For dessert, he had the Vienna vanilla souffle with strawberry sauce, and I just had ice cream with butterscotch sauce. Our dinner companions (we always say that we will share) were a couple from Dayton and a guy from Pittsburgh.

Pool - still with no water

Last night the ship was supposed to be going through the wake of Wilma, and the ship was rocking some, but still wasn't too uncomfortable. I was, however, still having a little bit of vertigo.

Our routine is evolving. We go through the buffet line in the Yacht Club about quarter of 8. Then Bob watches TV (and obstructs the cabin steward in cleaning the room) while I go to the atrium with the computer to send the emails I've written. We go to the Yacht Club early for lunch in order to get a table to eat. We are eating and people are wandering around with trays trying to find somewhere to sit.

Then we also go early to the 7 Seas for dinner. By the time we finish, there's always a line. After dinner we go to a show (we have to go to dinner at 5:30 in order to be finished for a 7 or 7:30 show), and then at 8:30 we go to the Crown Bar where there is a hot spot and log on and get emails. At 9 we play Progressive Team Trivia with another couple.

Today I went on the right side of the breakfast line and Bob went on the left and I got some blueberry blintzes instead of eggs, and also ate some oatmeal. The sun was shining out on the pool deck, but there's still no water in the pool.

Location after Wilma passed

I tried calling the computer room because Latitude members (people who have sailed on NCL before) get extra free minutes on their internet packages. I got the #1 package which is $103 for 250 minutes. The internet cafe guy said the only way he could do it was to wait until I'd used some minutes and then reset my account. But there was no phone number for him in our booklet, so I called the front desk and she wouldn't give me the number, but she transferred the call.

Since he didn't answer (I don't have a very good opinion of his work ethic and ability.), I took the computer up there, and he gave me 50 extra minutes (according to the brochure it was supposed to be 30 - the guy's got an accent (an English accent -almost everyone on the ship has some kind of accent) and I'm not sure if he doesn't know the number that was advertised, or if he's giving me something extra or if the advertised number is wrong.) Anyway he said that if I ran out, the next block of minutes would be heavily discounted (which it was not).

I'm still having a problem turning the computer on, so I'm just closing it and letting it hibernate instead. I plugged in to the plug up there and worked for a little bit and finally got the program to tell me how many minutes I'd used and how many I had left when I
logged off.

I finished at about 11:45, so I called Bob on the phone from there (the Internet cafe is on the 8th deck and our stateroom is on the 6th deck) and asked him to meet me at the Yacht Club (on the 7th deck) for lunch. Yesterday at 12:30 the line was real long for the buffet, so we went earlier today. That meant that we actually got a table - again back by the pool. There were people sitting outside at the pool all bundled up. Why do that?? No water in the pool yet.

I hadn't taken my camera so Bob brought the other one and I showed him how to use it. We have found the bulletin board outside the Yacht Club where they have the ship's progress charted. We are now about 240 miles SE of Charleston - on the other side of the Gulf Stream and way south of where Wilma is and we have a following wind - it would be a terrific sail.

Crepes Suzette

Tonight is the optional formal dress night with lobster. So about 5:30, we got dressed - I wore the dress mom sent me. or at least the skirt, because the dressy green and blue blouse stuck out below the jacket. We ate with a couple from San Diego, and a couple who were British but are living now in Ontario. He wanted to know why people wouldn't evacuate, and whether people would rebuilt. The guy from San Diego got tired of discussing that so he took out some cards and did card tricks.

The service at our table was a bit slow, and the other two couples wanted to go to the captains gala, so they left before dessert. We weren't particularly interesting in the free champagne at the captains party nor did either of us really want to dance (they give dance lessons on board), so we waited. I got the crepe suzettes which were on the menu the first night by mistake, but I didn't really like them that well. I guess because of the fire danger, none of the traditionally flaming dishes are flamed at the table which sort of misses the point.

We did go to the show afterwards which was singing and dancing. I think they must have been lip syncing some of it. At least I heard male voices in the chorus and there were only females singing and the band wasn't singing. They had a male singer, and a male dancer/singer (more dancer) both from NY and a female lead singer (who was doing the trivia the other day) who also danced quite a lot, and 5 girl dancers. When they introduced everyone afterwards they said one of the dancers was from NZ, two were from Canada and one was British. One was an acrobat and one was a ballroom dancer. They certainly changed costumes fast.

After that they had a game called Newlywed and Not So Newly Wed Game. Three couples, one newly wed, one married about 25 years and one married over 25 years. People volunteered and three names were drawn from the hat. It was a riot. They asked the women what their husband reached for when they first woke up. The newly wed said he reached for her (and that's what he answered), and the oldly wed couple said he reached for his partial plate, and they got it right too. They asked the men what their wife's bra size was.

I think tomorrow I'm feeling well enough to go up to the exercise room and see if I can do some of that.

Disney ship going north

The morning of the 26th, I went down the right side of the buffet again and they didn't have blintzes (what I thought was blintzes was French toast), but I finally realized that what they called Grist was really Grits. So I had some of that and also scrambled eggs with tomato. Bob had figs, and a lot of bacon. The pool had been filled overnight (which I expected would happen), but it was still a little chilly out on deck.

After breakfast, we walked around the deck and it was warm enough not to need a sweater. We are down about even with Nassau. We saw one of the breakfast buffet crew trying to shoo what looked like a wren out onto the deck, so either we aren't very far offshore, or we've had a stowaway. Later one of the guys at dinner said he was sitting out by the pool and a goldfinch came and sat on his knee. We also saw a frigate bird at lunch.

There was a BBQ lunch up on the 10th deck, and I decided it was probably warm enough to go up there for lunch. Deck 10 is where the hot tubs are. The buffet line had tuna salad, pasta salad, rice, bbq chicken, ribs, hot dogs, hamburgers, beans and French fries. There was a carved pumpkin in the middle of the buffet line. We found a table and ate, but just about when we finished it started to rain. We saw a Disney ship going the other way.

The exercise room and spa is also up on the 10th deck, so after lunch, we went to look. I tried to weigh myself, but either the scale is wrong, or I've lost 15 lbs in 3 days. Bob did some time on the treadmill, and I used the recumbent bike. I was going to wait for the stretching, but there was still 45 minutes before that was to start, so I went on down to the cabin. About two we went to the cruise consultant's talk on San Juan, Curacao and Aruba.

At dinner, I had consomme 'with Welsh rarebits'. The Welsh rarebits turned out to be ONE tiny triangle about an inch with cheese baked on top. I've noticed that the portions are often smaller than the descriptions. So I had Louisiana Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms, Spicy Bechamel Gratin, and that was three medium sized mushrooms. This is good, in that you can try a lot of things without overeating.

I had the pork roast and it was OK but not terrific. The other thing I've noticed is that even things that are 'spicy' aren't very. I had the souffle for dessert and Bob had the Mardi Gras sundae. He's eating quite a bit of ice cream for someone who is lactose intolerant. They also had bread pudding, but it was with peaches and pecan nuts and a caramel fudge sauce and I like it plain. We didn't go to see the show, which was a singer.

Pool at noon Thursday

Thursday morning, we ate breakfast outside and then I went into the pool to swim after breakfast. It was pretty warm. Then while I dried off a bit, Bob walked around the deck. We had an early lunch and Bob had a shower and changed his bandages. By lunch time, the pool was full of people - Bob said it was an adult wading pool, and I thought it was like a not-hot tub.

The captain made an announcement that we were in the deepest part of the Atlantic - the San Juan trench. He told us that he was going to test the engines in reverse. When he did that, the ship shuddered a lot and then we stopped going forward and went backward.

At dinner it was Italian night, and Bob and I both had salmon. The menu description was "Broiled Salmon Steak on Spinach, Tossed with Orecchiette Pasta and Bean Stew set in a Light Tomato-Vegetable Broth with Lemon Zest and Fried Parsley" We were on the other side of the dining room, and I notice a projector in the ceiling and there was a screen at the end (rolled up). The people at the table were a couple from Vancouver and a guy from Doylestown who worked at Warminster and knew a lot of the people Bob knew.

During these four days, we got a lot more acquainted with the ship and had a chance to really relax. I have pictures of all the food and the best 50 from the Seven Seas. Tomorrow we will be in San Juan.