Spring Break - Let's travel!

Unknown to me, I chose Spring Break for my next cruise.  On New Years Day,  I just knew Norwegian Cruises would have a deal and sure enough, they did.  It was out of New York City to Florida and the Bahamas (queue disappointed sound about the itinerary) but I do like NYC and cruising past the Statue of Liberty is very very cool so I did it.  It doesn't hurt that they offered so many perks, it was tough to say no.  When I booked it, it seemed the end of March was far away but it was here before I knew it.

Last Saturday, I caught my direct flight to JFK.  I knew I wouldn't be able to tour around the city much and wanted a bargain price for a hotel so I booked a hotel on Hotwire.  I got a nice hotel about 4 blocks from the port.  Unfortunately, I arrived right at rush hour traffic into the city.  In fact, we waited in bumper to bumper traffic for about 30 minutes to just get in the midtown tunnel.  Then I was whisked to and fro in the back of the taxi on the way to the hotel. It was such a rough 2 hour ride, I ended up getting car sick!  Icky.  But we came to a screeching halt in front of my hotel and I was ordered out.  There was a huge crowd in front of the hotel.  A roped off line down the street and around the block! Turns out, the hotel was right next to a new and popular burger and beer place.  They have fancy burgers and shakes!  People line up for 2-3 hours waiting in line for a chance to eat there.  Hmmm.  The hotel told me they can hold  me a spot in line if I give them a call 2 hours prior to when I want to eat.  It was already 6:00 when I got there so laid down for a minute to let my head and stomach settle and then I decided to give it a try.  Since I was not my best and didn't really want to go fight crowds, I opted to have take out which was perfect for me.

Grand Central Station

Very exciting coming into the city

Black Tap Craft Burgers and Beer

What you get for $37 in Manhattan.  Really yummy.  The dip for
the fries was a dill dip and was delicious.  The pickle was yummy too.

Sunday morning I was really excited to get over to the port and get on the ship.  After the traffic issues coming into town, I wanted lots of time so I left the hotel at 9:30 and headed the few blocks to the port.  I was able to leave my heavy suitcase with the porter.  I went in to check in and was happy to see no lines.  I checked in and waited for my number.  We were supposed to board starting around 11 but there were problems with customs and they were still unloading at noon!  But getting on went pretty quick and I was sitting in the dining room having lunch by 1:15.  I met a woman sitting alone and invited her to join me.  She was a lovely woman getting ready to retire from work and had never cruised alone.  On my recommendation, she did join the solo group so I got to see her several times.  We had muster at 2:30 and we were sailing by 3:30.  We had a long ways to go to get to Florida!

Almost on that baby!!

One of my favorite things about a cruise out of New York is cruising down the river and out to the ocean.  This time didn't disappoint!  It was quite cold though.  Once we got out on the water, the breeze was freezing but I was able to stick it out and get photos of Jersey and of course, the Statue of Liberty.  It is always surreal to see.

New York from my balcony

Heading out to sea.  That is the Freedom Tower on the left.

Jersey clock tower

The Colgate Building

Miss Liberty.  Really was stunning.

New York in the rear view

Freezing cold on my balcony

We go under this bridge before hitting the open sea.
It looks like we won't fit but we always do.

The first night, I had reservations at the Japanese Restaurant, Teppanyaki.  It was really delicious and I ended up at a table with a family from my Facebook group.  That was really fun.  It is weird to have people come up and introduce themselves from your posts on social media.

Sunday night, I unfortunately had to do my chemo shot so I was pretty low key.  I did go to the  solo meet and greet.  This is an important part of solo travel so you get in on the plans each night and start figuring out who the  other solo travelers are so you can look for them out and about.  The first night, there were about 15 of us that showed up.

Setting sun on a quiet sea.

Monday was low key for me since I did my shot.  It was still pretty cool outside and we were having a sea day as we chug down to Florida and warmer weather.  I did order some room service breakfast and joined the Facebook group for a meet and greet at 11:00.  There were about 145 of us that had been communicating for months before the cruise.  It was really fun to put faces to  names and figure out who you might like to get to know better and do stuff with.  I was quite wobbly on my feet being a chemo day and a rough sea.  I did decide to head to the pool for the pool dance party.  I found a nice spot to sit on the side of the pool.  Although I had jeggings on, I decided to pull them up and put my feet in the water.  I was really surprised to find the pool heated....which was nice for those swimming.  This ship had an adults only  pool so that was nice to not have kids running around and splashing.

These people don't care it is 70 degrees

Pool games

Feet in the water

Windy selfie

Found the greek salad buffet section.  This was lunch.
Trying to stay healthy.

Look at that wake trail!

Center chandelier.  Covers deck 6, 7, and 8.

I joined the solo group for dinner in the dining room.  It was okay but nothing to write home about.  They were all going to a dancing show but I wanted to go see the Motown singers and I enjoyed every moment of that.  Then it was feet up time for me in the cabin.

There wasn't much on TV.  One movie station, one sit com station that showed the same 15 shows on rotation through the entire 8 days.  There was news station, BBC, a European soccer channel and then ship promo stations.  I got very tired of the TV stuff.  I was surprised we didn't do any better when in port either.  Thumbs down on that part.

When we woke up Tuesday, it was warm and we pulled into Port Canaveral by 1:30.  I spent the morning with a bloody mary at the pool with dancing and a live band.  I wasn't interested in getting off the ship so I enjoyed the quiet.  I grabbed a book and went to the "Waterfront" area which is a great area on these classes of ships where there are big comfy chairs and couches you can relax on and enjoy the ocean and people.  It tends to be more quiet which was perfect for reading.  The ship gets really quiet when people get off at port which is very nice.  I spent the afternoon watching a movie in the atrium.

Reading on the waterfront

Looking down the waterfront area on the starboard side.

Watching "The Light Between Oceans" in the Atrium.  Great movie.

The shore.

I had reservations at the steak house at 8:30 so I decided to get dressed up and go meet people while sipping wine at the various bars.  I make myself say hello to people and talk to strangers.  It pushes me out of my comfort zone but I guess I am good at it because I made tons of ship friends.  I really enjoyed Cagney's and the steak dinner was fantastic!

After dinner, I went to "Howl at the Moon" which is a dueling piano thing.  It is a complete riot.  Those piano guys are very talented and good comedic relief.  It was a thing I enjoyed last summer on the Escape too.  You can request songs they will play and if you offer a cash incentive, they will play it faster.  They encourage the audience to sing along and participate.  Every 30-45 minutes, they would pull out a flash light and shine it on someone walking in.  They would say, "look what we see" and everyone in the audience would shout "Holy Shit!!".  Much to my surprise, many people were great playing along.  Everyone seems to come ready to have fun!  At 11:00, it becomes an all adult thing and they swear and play inappropriate songs.  Very funny and a highlight of the entertainment on board.

Parasailers

Wednesday, we were in the Norwegian's private island, Great Stirrup Cay.  They tender so no getting off for me so I slept in.  It was fantastic!  By the time I was up, showered, and ready for the day, it was lunch time.  I decided to go enjoy the buffet.  I lost all control and ate french fries with my salad and even had an ice cream cone!  My routine of bloody marys by the pool continued.  They are so good and by Wednesday, the bar tenders know I like them not too spicy with extra pickles, no olives which is kind of fun.  I went to the show "Rock of Ages" and didn't enjoy it at all.  People think it is Broadway quality but that is not true in my opinion.  I ate dinner by myself in the dining room (bummer).  That night, I went to late night "Quest" which is the naughty adult scavenger hunt.  There were many novices there and a couple asked me to join their group to help.  They were go getters.  I couldn't believe how fast the guy was ripping off his pants, putting on a bra, and sizzling like bacon on the floor.  Needless to say, our team won!  We each got a water bottle!  On my way back to my room, I ran into some solo cruisers, Scott and Maria.  We had run into each other before but we seemed to have some things in common and enjoyed hanging out.  Maria was pretty irritating to me pretty quickly.  Scott was interesting.  He is almost completely blind but it is tough to tell because he learns his way around and has some very limited vision.  Maria is from New York.  Scott is from Washington DC.  They talked me into having a few cocktails with them while we visited.  Before I knew it, It was 1:00 in the morning and I had more wine then was a good idea for me!

Quest.  My team is on the far right.  The couple
 had to trade clothes for the final challenge.

Thursday we were in Nassau.  I don't care for the stuff in Nassau and it is too much walking for me but the ocean was finally that beautiful blue Caribbean color I love and it was HOT.  Almost 90 degrees.  I woke up with a wino headache which was very unwelcome.  I wanted to enjoy some grub at Margaritaville but found it difficult to really enjoy a margarita although I did get a blue one that matched the ocean.  I'll be honest that my forehead was numb and I swear I could feel my liver and kidneys complaining.  

My favorite lighthouse.

Gorgeous Gorgeous Gorgeous

When your drink matches the water!

I went for hangover food.  Chicken quesadilla.

Atlantis in the distance.

I went back to my room and took a very long nap.  I can't do the late nights very well anymore.  I woke up in time for us to be getting ready to leave port.  There were several cruise ships in port and we were sharing a pier with Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas.  This ship is absolutely huge!  I was sitting on my deck when I hear the Royal Caribbean calling missing passengers names before they pulled up their connection to shore.  Slowly one by one, you would see people round the end of the pier running to the ship.  People were outside on both my ship and their ships.  Everyone would clap and shout out encouraging words welcoming them back to the boat.  It was the funniest thing I've every seen.  The people looked like they were crossing the finishing line at an Olympic race or something.  They were waving and people were shouting "Welcome back Florence.  Thanks for joining us today."  It was so damn funny.  Carnival was in port too and they left first.  Then Royal.  We left about 20 minutes after Royal's ship.  We had to call missing people too and we left someone behind.  Too bad for Michael.

I saw this little gem on the ship and laughed out loud.  That looks like me when I've drank too much.  HAHAHA

Drunk Alexis - Eyes bugged out - pink with purple spots and toes curled up.

I couldn't believe we turned our giant ship around in the little bay and followed the other ships out to sea.

That night was the Gold Level and above Latitude's party.  They have free drinks (yeah...not) and appetizers.  You get to meet the officiers and learn secrets about cruises coming.  They are super excited to start offering Cuba soon.  That would be so fun!!  Scott and Maria were there too.  They were going to drink  more but I had reservations for specialty dining at the italian place, La Cucina.  Maria has really started to bug me.  Something doesn't add up to her stories and she has some very irritating things she does.  I stopped in the Internet Cafe to figure out how to use the included internet package they gave me.  It was nice to check in with the real world for a minute.  I was way into my book so I was happy to return to my room for reading and snoozing.  By this time, I am very sick of the selection on TV.

The officers and cruise director (Dan Dan)

Friday was a sea day.  I figured out the free room service breakfast and am really enjoying that.  Some raisin bran and melon with herbal tea is perfect to start my day.  I did catch a show on traveling in Venice.  Much to my surprise, I felt melancoly about having mobility issues and can't do the things I wish I could do.  I vowed to drink more water, stop beating myself up, and start over on my dating search at home.  I haven't met any winners.  I enjoyed a lovely BBQ lunch in the Brazilian restaurant.  I had the best BBQ shrimp, fruit, potato salad, and corn on the cob!

All returned Latitude members got a free bottle of champagne in their room.  We decided to bring it to the solo lounge to have an unofficial champagne party.  The host brought in Pictionary to play.  Scott had invited me to be his guest at the steak house.  Maria invited herself so we didn't join the solo group for dinner but we decided to keep playing Pictionary.  I am not a champagne drinker but everyone else was.  There was probably 15 bottles of champaign in the room.  The last 10 of us, sat and finished the champaign and played drunk Pictionary.  They made fun of me becuase I was stone cold sober.  I was drinking  my water with plans to enjoy a glass of wine at dinner.  Maria gets sloppy drunk and invited the others to join us for Scott's dinner!!  There were 2 more that joined us but it made it fun and we ate delicious steaks.  Scott bought wine.  But they were really slow and it took 3 hours to get dinner done.  One of the people that joined was Guyslin.  She is french speaking from Quebec.  She is such a funny woman.  I loved her spirit and stories.  The other person that joined us was Gary.  He is a widower of 7 months coming on his first cruise.  He was trying to learn how to be single again after 40 years of marriage.  He was a real sweetheart from Michigan.

Drunk Pictionary

Me and Guyslin

Gary, Scott, and Maria

The dance club

Gary, Me, Maria

After dinner, they decided they wanted to go to Bliss, the dance club.  Before I knew it, Scott was bringing shot after shot to the table.  They were all dancing.  I didn't dare go dance but I did enjoy singing and dancing in the chair.  Scott ended up getting kicked out for being drunk.  I luckily cut myself off about an hour before we left.  But I was shocked to look at my phone and see it was 3:30 am!!  I was glad I didn't have too far to go to my room.  I was pretty sure I was going to have to crawl (haha) but Scott was a gentleman and walked me to my room.  Imagine the blind guy leading the mobility challenged girl.  Haha.

Saturday I woke up incredibly hung over.  I only got about 4 hours of sleep.  I took a shower and went to O'Sheeans for lunch.  I went to pick out my photos and get them ordered and used up the last of my casino credits.  By 1:00, I was ready for a nap.  We had our last solo dinner in the dining room.  They have a dancing floor with a show that night which was fun to see.  I had to pack up and put my suitcase out in preparation to get off the ship the next morning.  I decided after I finished packing to go to the last "Howl at the Moon" show.  They were in rare form and the crowd was huge and roudy.  I sang until my voice was hoarse and decided to head to bed at midnight.

They had the Rock of Ages stars come sing and play.  It was a treat.

I really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty as we came back into New York.  I set my alarm for 6:00 knowing we were docking at 8:00.  I woke up at 5:15 and jumped up to look out.  I was so disappointed that we already passed it....about 5-10 minutes before I looked out. It was so cold outside.  I climbed back in bed for a bit sad that vacation was coming to an end.  I had my last room service breakfast and got ready to get off the ship.  I had bought a bus transfer back to the airport and messed up my instructions.  Luckily I caught the very last bus out but not without a lot of panic and stress.  I had a 4:20 flight out of JFK so I had a long time to kill in the airport.  JFK is a huge airport and I found it very difficult to get around.  I have had enough of New Yorkers.  I'm ready to go home to my quiet and kind state.  

Docked back in Manhattan

The cool front hull of the ship.

The flagship Macy's store

The busy city.  The Rockefeller Center is in the distance.

How New Yorkers do spring bulbs.

I had the very best time and was so sad to have vacation end.  You always think  you will stay in touch with the people you meet but truth is, those relationships often fade over time.  Maybe one day we will meet on another cruise.  I got back to my cute condo at 9:00.  I am tired and sad my wonderful vacation is over.  I know I plan to go to the Panama Canal in 2018 but hope to get another great deal before that one.

Just so you know, you can calm down about my drinking.  I know my limits and while I drank more than usual, my blood work has been good for years.   Part of the cruise package included a ton of perks including free drinks all week, free speciality dining, $100 onboard credit, internet time, casino credit, 10 free photos, and ship to shore calls.  I think the package was worth about $1000.  I know they hope you spend more but I didn't do much spending.  I did buy deposits for my next cruises (they match you up to $500), my transfer, tips, and a little extra internet time so I could check into my flight.  Total price for this cruise out of my pocket?  $2000 but I have $1000 credit for future cruises over the next 4 years.  Pretty cheap vacation in a beautiful balcony room with great food and drink in my opinion.  I would do it again in a heartbeat!  Until next time ocean, my special love....