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Welcome from Day 4 of our Panama Canal/Pacific Riviera cruise on the beautiful MS Norwegian Star.
Recap of previous days:
Day 1: Arrived in Miami at 7:30-ish Sunday morning. We had received not one but two recorded phone calls from NCL telling us to arrive at the port at 2pm "because of limited seating", so we attempted to kill the morning at the airport. We walked the length of the North (longest) terminal 3 times stopping for something (breakfast, a beverage, black bean soup) at a different place each time. At 11:30 or so we could stand it no more! and found our way to the taxi stand whence we were delivered to the port at 1pm, where we were "processed" and on board at 2pm. Because of the late hour, our room was ready, so I unpacked our daypacks and R stretched out on the bed. We had checked our carry-on sized cases at the curb, to avoid having to jockey them around, and they arrived after the daypacks were dealt with. I was JUST able to get them unpacked before "muster" (evacuation) drill. Our evacuation gathering site is one of the restaurants, and that is where we went - not out to the actual lifeboat as on previous Holland America cruises. After that we went to the uppermost public deck (the Bier Garten) and met up with some people from the web community Cruise Critic for Sailaway as the sun set! Which is the Photo for this Blog Entry! Just below the BG, they had set up a barbeque and we made that our supper, and turned in early.
Day 2: Overcast. Breakfast at the buffet, a nap (!), and an "official" Cruise Critic meeting that included an introduction to a number of upper level ship's staff - in fact the captain greeted us, and said he would arrange for a bridge tour! The cruise director, hotel director, restaurant director, and several supervisors just under the directors all made pleasantries and gave us their direct phone extensions "in case of problems". After a sit-down lunch at the Versailles restaurant, some 18 of us from Cruise Critic met for a Cabin Crawl, which was supposed to show off all the classes of staterooms - although due to some late-happening upgrades and volunteers, we ended up with two sideways insides, two midship balconies, an aft handicap balcony, and a 2-bedroom family suite. After that dispersed, I ran some errands (tee hee) including getting pocket guides to the ship and buying decent sized coffee cups in the gift shops. We spent what was left of the afternoon reading and went to dinner early in the Aqua dining room, then to the "Seventies" music show.
Day 3: Partly cloudy with a little ship movement, not bad, and the Captain announced that it would be lessening (my observation: it came and went and was never bad enough to give even R motion sickness). We slept in and had buffet lunch for breakfast! We went to the library which had more books for loan than other ships we've been on. After a while reading there, we returned to our home-away-from-home, where R read up on Cartagena (papers I had produced at home on history and "features") while I arranged the shore papers to carry with ourselves tomorrow. We again went to early dinner in the Aqua and to the early show, a standup comedian. Back at the room, I downloaded my photos and wrote up the first three days for the Off Exploring Blog (what you are reading if you made it this far!).
Day 4: Cartagena, chance of showers predicted but all it is, is overcast and muggy. We signed up for the Hop-On, Hop-Off (or HOHO) bus, really just a way to get us to the Old Town city and back, with the drive around the peninsula known as Boca Grande just a bonus! There was a surprise guided walking tour which we joined and it left off at the Hard Rock Cafe, with wifi, whence this blog entry is being posted! The signal is too slow to upload the rest of my photos, have to do that later.
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