3 Nights Bahamas: Great Stirrup Cay & Nassau from Orlando (Port Canaveral), Florida Cruise

15 night Panama Canal cruise!

The song says, "It Never Rains in Southern California". The song lies! We arrived two days ahead of time and experienced nothing but rain! However, on the day of the cruise it stopped! That was a stroke of luck for most people on our cruise, because they had to stand in line, outside, because of a glitch in the embarkation process. I got two stories about that. One, there was a problem with the facial recognition program that Immigration uses. And two, they had to sanitize the ship because a few of the departing guests were sick. Either way, people had to stand outside. Luckily, we were in the Haven and got to cool our heels in the Haven Lounge. The only trouble was that the Haven entrance wasn't marked at all and took me about 30 minutes to find it. Once I did, it was a breeze! We had to wait for a wheelchair for my wife, but that came directly! Before you knew it, we were having lunch in the Haven restaurant. After we ate our room was ready so we went downstairs to it. Our luggage was waiting for us so we unpacked. We almost missed "Sailaway". Dinner that night was in "The Manhattan Room" It was arranged by John who started the thread for our voyage. He also set up the "Meet and Greet" which was held the following day. Now, this was going to be a relaxation cruise. Only one excursion was planned. We spent our time in the spa having massages and mani-pedis and facials and acupuncture and I got a couple of shaves! We also tried our hand at "Progressive Trivia". We came to the conclusion that we sucked at that! Not so for our friend Tim whose team finished first, or our friend Lauren whose team finished second! I also spent a lot of time in the Cigar Lounge where I meet my friends Craig and Marty every night. I also went to the casino every night to play my favorite slot machine. I limited myself to $20 a night. A few nights I doubled my money. Most nights I lost! Our one excursion was the "Ocean to Ocean Train Trip" in Panama City. It was fun. Our specialty restaurants were Cagney's(good), Teppanyaki (good, but loud), La Cucina (surprisingly good), Ocean Blue (very good), and Le Bistro(excellent). As usual, The Haven Restaurant was always excellent, be it breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Also, I would be amiss by not mentioning Irene and Rae, the two best bartenders at The Haven Bar. Probably the high point of the whole trip was on Valentines Day, when my dear wife treated me to a glass of Louis XIII cognac. Irene turned it into an event! Also, Melvin, our steward, kept our room neat and clean, and Monseur, our butler who always made sure we were never wanting anything. As with all cruises it ended way too early. The only regret I have is that I never met up with "Schmoopie" for a cigar! We'll just have to do it on a future cruise. All in all, this was probably the best cruise we ever took.

Surprisingly Excellent

My only previous cruise on Norwegian was about 15 years ago when my wife and I were traveling with our young son aboard the Norwegian Spirit in the Mediterranean. We had a negative experience on that cruise with a poor cabin attendant, which soured my taste for Norwegian. This was a solo trip for myself, an early retired college professor. The crew, the cabin, the facilities and the dining were all excellent. I did not choose any specialty dining or drink package and found that between the main dining rooms and the buffet dining was good. I purchased the slower of the two wifi packages and am glad I did. The speed was adequate for simple tasks but anything that was streaming, even Youtube was blocked. The only detractor was the average age of passenger was 75 years old and I've never seen so many walkers, wheelchairs, canes, and scooters in my life. That made getting around the ship challenging at times and excursions challenging with mobility impaired. All Norwegian excursions list an activity level for excursions. All I chose involved a lot of walking. About half the participants had mobility issues with aforementioned assistive devices. Walking 2-3 miles over rough surfaces relying on a walker made the walking difficult for the rest of the group and detracted from the excursion by waiting for the rest of the group to catch up.

Family of 5 travel highlights

We flew to lax and cruised from San Pedro. Definitely enjoyed dinner in San Pedro night before cruise! Will try to stick to tips for families that I wish I had known in planning. Kids 19,17,12. Booking - used 3rd party to book cruise as a friend works for them. Do not recommend as it’s a pain to make changes. Easier to book direct ncl or with one of their agents. Rooms - booked balcony and inside room for 5 deck 13. Rooms were close but getting adults and kids listed in rooms not easy. One adult needs to be in each room. Dining packages are only for first two guests so put your picky eater kid as 3rd person in room. We paid ala carte for our youngest at specialty places. As soon as we boarded I went to guest services and had them activate all our keys so they worked on both rooms. Then my spouse could stay with me and kids in other room and we could all access rooms. Our youngest stayed in balcony room as no one wanted bunk in inside room. I think next time we will just book 2 balconies even though kids don’t use. Also prefer our kids as Neighbors….walls thin and we heard our neighbour swearing at his spouse a few nights, not pleasant for my son. Dining- superb! Better than Bliss cruise. We all enjoyed buffet with Asian, Indian and daily fresh carvings. Hard to get my family in restaurants. We did enjoy Cagney and ocean blue for specialty but not necessary. Staff - amazing and super friendly. Disembarkation - we left our room at 7:30 as we had a noon flight from lax. Line up was well organized through main dining room. It is a long walk with luggage and there was an older passenger in poor health who tried to do it but couldn’t make it. We made it out easily and grabbed a taxi by 8:30. Entertainment- enjoyed elements but it was a bit cheesy. Comedian was mediocre. Enjoyed quizzes in atrium. Music always fantastic in sugarcane. Nye was fun with lots of choices in parties.