Trekeo

BACKGROUND INFO: Scot and I took our first cruise in the fall of 2005 on the Disney Wonder. It was a four day cruise to the Bahamas. I immediately fell in love with cruising. Scot enjoys it and is certainly a willing participate, but doesn’t think of cruising constantly like I do;) Our second cruise was on the Fascination in November 2006. Another four day cruise. This time we visited Key West and Cozumel.

We knew we wanted to cruise again this fall and started checking out our options. We wanted to sail out of Miami and Scot was only willing to be gone one Sunday. I was hoping to try our first week long cruise, but couldn’t find anything that would put us gone only one Sunday and fit our budget. We decided on a 5 day Western Caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Pearl October 14 – 19, 2007. I was very excited about the concept of Freestyle cruising. We were taking this cruise to spend time as a couple and were looking forward to tables for two at dinner every night. We booked through an online travel agency.

TRAVEL TO PORT: Friday, October 12th we loaded up the kids who were on fall break and our luggage and headed to Indianapolis. First stop was at my SIL house we picked her up and headed to the airport. She dropped us off and left with our children and our vehicle. Drop off service and babysitting, can’t beat that. We flew Delta with a connection in Atlanta because I wanted to use a travel voucher I had with Delta. Our flights were smooth and on time. During our layover in Atlanta we ran into some friends from home and chatted with them for a while.

We arrived in Miami and so did our luggage which is always a plus. My BIL and his family are stationed in Miami currently with the Air Force. He picked us up from the airport and we stayed with them the next two nights. We had a great time visiting with my BL, his wife and our nieces. They are so cute.

EMBARKATION: Sunday, October 14th we were dropped off by BIL and family at the Port of Miami around 12:30pm. As you entered the terminal building three lines formed. We entered the far right lane, big mistake. The left lane seemed to be moving along quite well. The middle and right lanes advanced very slowly. An hour later we realized why this was so. These lines lead to the metal detectors. The line on the left fed into two metal detectors and moved quite briskly. The middle and right lane merged and fed into one metal detector and moved at a snail’s pace. Several people pointed this ridiculous fact out to the people working this area, but no change was made.

After we cleared the metal detector the line picked up. We were on the ship an hour and 45 minutes after we arrived. This was very frustrating and could have been easily solved. Hopefully, they will make some changes for future cruisers. The ship had been sailing in Alaska and this was the first cruise out of Miami for the season. Hopefully, this was just a bug that they have worked out.

STATEROOM: The good news about the embarkation process moving so slowly was that our stateroom was ready when we boarded the ship. We headed to cabin 10609 on deck ten and dropped off our bags. It was an inside cabin and small. I knew this would be the smallest cabin we had ever had and was somewhat concerned about that. We have always has inside cabins, but Disney and Carnival had more square footage. The beds were apart when we arrived which made it feel more spacious, but once we had our cabin steward put the beds together it seemed as if the room shrunk. It was difficult to get around the side of the bed with all the tables and chairs in the room. There was a large table for the coffee pot. The table would have been great if we had space for it, but it just made everything tight. Check out the link to my pictures.

There was plenty of storage space. We had our closet plus three drawers and four or five deep shelves. The bathroom was great and functional. Lots of storage there as well.

I have motion sickness and take Bonine daily on cruises. I was a little concerned about having a cabin on deck 10, but we had very calm seas and I had no problem.

SHIP INFO: The ship is just under a year old and she looks it. She is very clean and modern. We loved every public room on the ship. My favorite was the Spinnaker lounge. We didn’t take hardly any pictures of the ship itself, but if you check out shipcafe you will find gorgeous pictures of every area of the ship. It is very nicely done.

DINING:  On embarkation day, Scot was starving so we headed to the Garden Café for the buffet. There was a wide variety of good food available. For dinner we made reservations for Cagney’s. It is one of the specialty restaurants on board. There was surcharge of $20pp to eat there, but we had a coupon and only paid $20 total. As appetizer’s we had the shrimp cocktail and crab cakes. Both wonderful. For our entrée we both had the Filet Mignon. It was tender and delicious. Our sides were all good, asparagus, mushrooms, and gratin potatoes. For dessert I had the Mocha Crème Brulee. I think it was the best dessert of the cruise. Excellent service. Great atmosphere. Here is a great link to the ships menu’s.  

ENTERTAINMENT: We went to the Welcome Aboard Show with the Comedy Magic of Bob Trunell Scot is not to fond of magic shows, but we decided to give it a shot anyway. We got there a bit late after dinner and found a seat in the very forward balcony on the right. They were great seats to watch a magic show. We were above and to the side of the stage. Let’s just say we figured out how some of the magic happens. It ended up being very entertaining from our angle.