Bermuda Cruise - Norwegian Majesty
Monday

I woke up a few times during the night, but mostly I slept right through until about 9am the next morning. The sea was VERY choppy now, at least relative to before. It was doing jigs and jags. The captain came on the loudspeaker while we were all still in bed explaining that this was the Gulf Stream causing it and that we should be through it relatively soon. I went up to the breakfast buffet with Jenn and Jeremy and my stomach was starting to bother me. After a few fresh fruits I went down to the room and had a Dramamine and felt much better. We took another little nap from 10:30-12 to get caught up on what we'd missed before leaving for the cruise. The motion didn't seem to bother any of the kids at all, so I suppose it's different person to person. The 3 boys had the buffet too, although Billy was disappointed they didn't have pancakes. I suggested he try the main restaurant tomorrow - it's only "formal" in the evenings.

Jenn spotted a sushi lunch on the menu, so she and I went to have the sushi while Bob and Marc came along to watch. It was an extra $10, all you can eat in the "fancy" pay restaurant - El Bistro. This restaurant is really small, maybe 15 tables, and is all "interior" to the ship. The artwork on the walls was all auction artwork. For this lunch they had a Japanese doll on the front desk and oriental soft music playing.

The waitress gave us each a tray with soy sauce and wasabi, plus another tray with a few different things - tuna sashimi, salmon rolls, then eel and crab rolls. There wasn't a huge selection. The tuna sashimi was nice, medium thick. The rice in the rolls was very sticky, and generally I'm not a huge roll fan since they are 90% rice. I'd rather have either sashimi or sushi. After we finished that set we each asked for a second set just with what we wanted, i.e. the tuna and salmon. Once we finished that set we were done. I did see the back of Billy's head as the 3 boys walked past our table. :) It was funny just how often we all did run into each other on such a large ship.

I walked along towards the Fireworks and found Dad, and talked with him for a while. I went back for my laptop and ran into the 3 boys and chatted a bit. I then sat by Rendezvous to start typing notes, and finally got a Bar Hopper card. This card has 6 spots for stamping : disco, sports bar (by pool), pool deck, piano bar (rendezvous), observatory and nightclub (by the theater). It was really smoky in Rendezvous, so I wasn't very keen on this area. There were 2 TVs built into the walls and nice leather seats. Ironically it seemed to be where the teens liked to hang out. At one point Jenn came by to say hi.

I went in to the art auction but Mom wasn't there yet, so I just looked around. I left and came back and found her - but now I'd missed the free Champagne :) I did get an internet buy-5-get-5 free coupon. At 2:30 they hadn't started yet so I went to the wine tasting. There were only 10 people in there (at the Bistro again) and I was seated with a single guy. The wines were a riesling, pinot grigio, pinot noir, merlot and cab. Really the wine steward just told us what each one was, with little to no other information as we drank. He would say things like "all rieslings are sweet" and "all French wines are dryer than all Californian wines". He zipped through the list and we were done in 1/2 hr. I was very disappointed; even for an intro, it wasn't quite like any tasting I'd been to before.

I went back to the art auction but Mom was gone. I then moved back to sit by Dad in a nook by a window, in front of the Bistro and got a pair of drinks for us on another card. I had to walk back to Rendezvous to get the drinks without missing a stamp opporunity. I saw the back of Billy's head as they walked past. Katie stopped by to say hi, then Bob did. We began to formulate plans for meeting up at 6pm with everyone for the formal dinner tonite. Dad said he didn't want to go, nor did Bob. Everyone else seemed interested, though.

I swung by the Lords room for our Cruise Critics Meet-n-Greet, and Mom & Len were already there (4pm) so I went downstairs to grab my green leis and drop off my laptop and stuff. We got all the camera gear and went back at 4:30. We had a good turnout, getting to meet everyone, but Disco was missing! It was fun, talking with the head chef, the hotel director, and other key officers. As the editor of cruises.bellaonline.com I'd written about Cruise Ship Blues and NCL's environmental director had written me about it, enjoying my commentary greatly. He'd invited me to look around the Majesty during my cruise with them. The hotel director knew about the letter from the Environmental Director said he'd arrange for the meeting between me and the captain sometime later in the week to go over the ship's routine.

We had to break up at 5:30 to head down to get dressed up. We all took some photos at "crossroads" in the center of Deck 5.

Lisa & the boys

Lisa, Mom, Jenn and Katie

Then first tried getting into the Four Seasons, but they were full. We went to 7 Seas and they had a spot ready for us. Shortly we were in at a large, round table against windows. We all put in our orders. Luckily they had bread on the table for the kids because they all ordered main courses only and had to wait while us adults had things like sturgeon with roe and wild mushroom soup, both which were tasty. Bill had lobster for his main dish, James had beef wellington and in fact ate mine too. This wasn't because I didn't like it - it was because he was still hungry and I was getting full :). Billy had a pizza. Pretty much all the kids vanished after the main meal was done, while us adults finished up with dessert. They had 3 dessert offerings and I had the chocolate cake. It was nice. This room again was like a nice dining room, on a fabric soft color scheme.

Mom and I wanted to go see the show, which began at 8:30, so we pretty much ran down to the room and tried to get there. Despite our speed, it was already full and locked up by the time we got there. Bob showed up and we tried to go to the hot tubs, but while they'd been empty earlier they were now overfull of people too. So we got the laptop and went up to the Observatory and cleaned out our memory sticks. Mom and Len met us up there and we hung out and chatted for a while. We got more stamps for our bar hopper cards. We returned the laptop and camera stuff to the room and went back up to the hot tubs which were now off (it was after 10pm) but at least not full of people. We got to sit and enjoy the hot tub for a little while sans bubbles.

When we were done, we headed back down to get into regular clothes again. I'd talked with Mom and Jenn about the Funkalicious disco party at 11:15 in the disco, so Bob and I went over and got one of the last chair sets. This is a pretty small disco area, maybe 6 tables of 4 on either side of the small disco floor. Katie showed up with 2 boys, and then one of the boys' parents came by. We had them sit with us while Bob went and hunted unsuccessfully for Jenn. The music was discoey but not Funky, and they did a contest for about 1/2 hr of the time where 3 women sang I Will Survive at 3 guys, and then the 3 guys disco danced for the ladies. I thought that one of the boys with Katie was a sophomore in college and that his parents still had him on a 2am curfew - I think actually that he's a sophomore in high school though.

Katie finally left with the guys about midnight, and Bob and I gave up on either Jenn or Mom shortly after that. Back in the room, nobody was around. Bob got me some iced tea (mistake!!) and pizza as I was hungry, and I finally got all my notes into the laptop for the first 2 days. I still didn't know how to get them online, but that was my task for tomorrow. I could see the ship's network from our room, but I didn't know what username/password to use.

We set a wake-up call and a breakfast delivery so that we could get up early enough to see the entry to town at St Georges. Luckily I was so tired that the iced tea didn't hinder my falling immediately asleep. This time I slept on the top bunk which I found equally easy to sleep in. There's a small night light up there, and the mattress seemed equally soft. I really like the duvet like covers here, too.

Towel Dog!

Tuesday Notes - Bermuda Majesty Cruise

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