Life at Sea

We also sometimes ate by the pool. Daniel loved the waterslide and they have a grill poolside which was also very good. The rule on the boat is that you have to be six years old to go down the waterslide alone. So Daddy ended up going down the waterslide with Daniel about 100 times during the trip. Daniel really liked the water slide. The pool was heated but temperatures on the boat were about 65 to 70 degrees and it was sunny most of the trip so it was comfortable enough to swim.
The ship was a lot of fun. Rachel got books to read from the Library and spent time on deck reading in the sun when Dad and Danny were swimming. We also spend some time looking at the duty free shops on board, but didn’t find a whole lot we wanted to buy on the ship.

As you can tell much of the ship’s life revolved around food but there were other activities. We got some free Bingo cards and Rachel played Bingo with those. We also were able to play Nintendo Wii on the ship a couple of days. They had special rooms with different colors like lilac, turquoise, and orange, just off of one of the lounges. This was something we all enjoyed. We play Mario Party games and well as Super Smash Bros. There were also art auctions on board. We only showed up for the one drawing – and overall art auctions are really silly on a ship if you ask me. Justin hit golf balls on the sports deck and we all enjoyed the views of the sunrise and sunset from the ship. Rachel spent time online using the ships internet to work on her school work.

At night time there was quite a bit of entertainment on board. The first night they had a welcome and an overview of some of the upcoming acts that were going to be on the ship including the comedian Lenny Windsor who had written for the show Benny Hill. He was pretty funny – and made a couple of appearances early on our cruise. There was also “Las Vegas” style stunt show. This was ok but rather mediocre if you compare to any real Vegas shows. The ships entertainment cast put on several musical performances which were enjoyable. The best part of the evening entertainment was that often Danny would go to the Kid’s Club and we could have a “date” and enjoy the shows. Some of the show we saw included a Celine Dion look/sing alike performer, a Spanish ballet performance, and the SHOUT musical. We missed several shows because we either just got back from port and were eating or some nights we just wanted to crash or Danny was worn out. Our excursion to Cairo and the pyramids took 12 hours for example.










Life on the Ship
Lots of food and fun on the sea!

Daniel played in the kids club on board the boat. This was a great thing as it was fun for him and for us. He would typically spend up to four hours a day in the Kids Club. Daniel did lots of crafts on the boat in the Kids Club. That gave us time to read, catch a show, or just relax. The ship has many different dining options. We ate typically at either the two main dining rooms or in the Garden Café which is more of a buffet style restaurant on the 12th floor of the ship – adjacent to the Kid’s Club and on the same deck as the swimming pool and water slide. Daniel’s favorite restaurant was the Garden Café. They had a special area setup for the kids there with small tables and stools that were the perfect size for him. If we ate in the Garden Café we sat in that area a lot as the Garden Café was the most popular place to eat on the ship and it was often pretty full, plus Danny loved the little tables. It was funny as sometimes you would see people in their 50’s or 60’s at the kid’s tables with no little ones.

Every day Justin would get bacon at breakfast. Daniel got pancakes for breakfast most days with four links of pork sausages. The food was great on the ship and they had a lot of good fresh fruit. The salad bar was very good as well.

We talked with the ship’s Kid’s Club and they said often there can be 600 kids on the ship but now that school in not out there are only 75 kids on the boat. There we still lots of older people but there were still enough children Daniel’s age which was great. The second to last night on the boat Daniel had a pirate party on the boat with the Kids Club and all of the Kids walked around the ship singing we are the pirates – Aarrgh! They painted his face and they made pirate hats. Daniel had a lot of fun being a pirate with the other kids. Daniel also was able to have a pajama party during the cruise - and the last night he colored an NCL kids club shirt.