Day 1: Embarkation Day.
I had installed and set up both Uber and Lyft applications on my cell phone, but couldn’t summon a driver. So, I left this task up to RQS. Unlike our last trek to the cruise terminal, this ride was pleasant - even though we went through the bowels of Maspeth before reaching the Midtown Tunnel.
Unlike our last cruise, the embarkation process went more smoothly than expected. There were no long lines. Instead, after a brief delay at security (which I expected), it was over to the check in counter, where we picked up our cruise cards within 5 minutes of passing the security checkpoint. At this time, they had just opened up the 3rd gangway to the ship, and we got onboard without waiting on any line. Once onboard, I looked to my left, and there was the muster station. We checked in before even proceeding to our room.
We got to our room a few minutes early, and were greeted by our steward, Ed. He is an overly nice fellow who aimed to please. However, he misinterpreted a request of ours, an easy thing to do when English is not one’s native language. We wanted our mini bar emptied of all items, so that we could keep our water containers cold until we disembarked. Instead, he put those items that NCL charges for on the desk, not realizing that we wanted them removed from the room. This was taken care of when we returned from lunch.
Our cruise package included 2 specialty meals. However, because of my loyalty status, we were to receive 2 extra specialty meals. But I didn’t know how that would be done. This was question was resolved when we looked at a card left on the desk. It had the coupons for 2 specialty meals. So we hoofed it down to the reservations desk, where we set up specialty restaurant reservations for the week.
After a little rest, it was time for dinner. And off to the seafood restaurant we went. By the time we got out of there, we were both stuffed. I was glad that we didn’t go for steak today, or we’d see our stomachs explode before we hit the bed.
