And ... poof it's over ...

Well fudge!

Clearly I didn't post to this blog as I had hoped ... MOSTLY because the shipboard internet (like ALL shipboard internet connections) was slow as Christmas and expensive ... I used all of my minutes sending texts back and forth to home and checking Facebook ... sigh

So ... this post is Thursday 1/19/2017 5 days after returning home.

We didn't stop at the private island as planned due to inclement weather.  That's the second cruise in a row where I have missed out on a stop at the cruise line's "private island" ... thus and extra "sea day" which are really not my favorite parts of a cruise.

We did the following day make port in Nassau, Bahamas.  Scott and I did a quick hour and a half walking tour of the Atlantis resort.  Carolyn and I had done this on a previous cruise and I felt like it would be a good experience for Scott.  I think he enjoyed it.

That brings us to the morning of our disembarkation ... IT WAS ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE ... let me rephrase that ... IT SUCKED SCISSORS AND BARKED AT THE MOON ... ABSOLUTELY THE WORST SHIPBOARD EXPERIENCE I HAVE EVER HAD!

Scott and I planned to do the "easy walk off take your own bags off be the first to leave the ship" exit ... apparently most of the other passengers had the same plan ...

After a hurried breakfast, we rode the elevator down to the 5th floor as instructed to discover several hundred people in front of us all jammed into a narrow hallway with no a/c, no water , no bathroom access and no announcements about what was going on.  We waited in this line for over 1.5 hours and eventually made it to a point where they had us carry our bags down another flight of stairs and wait in another line ... when we FINALLY got off the ship the customs line was quick and easy.  I have no clue what the actual hold up was but I know there were a couple of thousand passengers behind us ... I guess they are off by now ...

One of Scott's friends was kind enough to pick us up at the port.  We joined him and his family for church at one of the biggest churches I have ever seen.  I treated his family to lunch which they really seemed to enjoy.  We camped at their house for a couple of hours and then Scott's friend drove us to the Miami airport.  We really appreciated his  hospitality since we had about a 10 hour layover.

Our plane did leave Miami on time and was a direct flight.  Due to weather it was a fairly bumpy takeoff ... the flight was only moderately rough ... THE LANDING WAS SOMETHING ELSE ALL TOGETHER ... Our pilot made two aborted landing attempts before he finally got the plane on the ground ... it was pouring rain  and we got home about 11pm central.

The STAR TREK part of the cruise was enjoyable ... there were several stars from the various series and for the most part they were very  friendly and accommodating of their fans.  William Shatner (Captain Kirk of the original series) had 14 family members onboard and was definitely the least open to interaction of all the stars ... as expected.

I do believe this was a good experience for Scott ... for me it made me certain I would NEVER sail NCL and will stick with Princess.

I was glad to get home ... anyone want to buy a Star Trek Admiral's uniform?

Lottsa steps and lines...

Well clearly posting to this blog is more of a problem than I hoped.

Today is Thursday January 12th... A sea day.

Yesterday was our biggest excursion day. We took a ferry from Cozumel over to Playa del Carmen, bused to the XPLOR Park. At the park we did 6 Ziplines... I have done several Ziplines in the past but I have to say these were the best I have done. The downside was the number of steps Up required. According to my wrist tracker I climbed 34 floors! I'm clearly not in shape!

We also took a fairly lengthy ride in an ATV. It was an interesting trip through the jungle.

Then we took the ferry back to Cozumel. This was the first ferry trip I have taken from Cozumel and back. It's 45 minutes each way and frankly not for the queezy of stomach. I was very glad I was wearing a patch!

So besides the many stair steps my other observation on this cruise is that there is A LOT of standing in line. There are 2300 or so people all wanting the same autograph or picture.

Carolyn and I have sailed several times on Princess ships... I have to say this NCL ship as far as food quality and dining room service is concerned is far far inferior compared to Princess.

Tomorrow we dock at NCL's private island and then on to Nassau.

I'll see how well my attempt at posting this goes

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER
--
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

To Boldly Go .... Or .... I think we're all Bozo's on this ship ...

So ....

About 18 months ago ... there was a pop up notice on my FaceBook news page that  there was going to be a "50th Anniversary Star Trek Cruise" in January of 2017.  Sounded interesting and my son Scott has always been a huge fan of Star Trek so I asked him if he was interested in going on this cruise ... basically he said "sure if you are paying ..." ... and so it began ...

I looked at the web site indicated and reviewed the fairly scant information available at that time ... it was "expensive" but there were going to be several big Star Trek stars aboard for the cruise including William Shatner (The Original Series "TOS" captain).  There were several other main stars from the various different Star Trek TV show incarnations also advertised as being aboard for the cruise and several "Star Trek themed" activities on the ship.

What really to me seemed to be unique about this cruise was that it was ALL STAR TREK meaning the entire 2300+ passenger ship would be dedicated to the Star Trek theme.

I rolled the dice and ponied up the initial minimal deposit for a balcony cabin with the notion ... "... it's 18 months away and probably won't get enough interest to make the thing actually happen ... "

WRONG!!!  The cruise sold out in less than 60 days!  People from all over the world (literally ALL OVER THE WORLD!) gobbled up those 2300+ bookings like they were free candy --- (they definitely were NOT FREE!!) 

And so here were are .... 18 months later ...

For the last 18 months there has been a HUGE flurry of Facebook activity for the group going on this cruise ... people are going all out with cosplay costuming, make-up, door decorations ... it's really fairly incredible.

The ages range from early teens to people older than my 64 years and in fact I'd say the apparent majority of folks on board will be 50+.

We leave for Miami Sunday January 8th and board the ship Monday the 9th.

I'll TRY to keep some sort of updates to this blog but as always the ship's internet is expensive and S.L.O.W ...