WASHY WASHY! SMILEY SMILEY! HAPPY HAPPY!

So Doug and Shelley were finally able to take their trip they have been postponing since Doug got sick.  We had some cruise points laying around and were expiring, so we had to use them or loose them, so we booked a cruise almost 2 years ago and had to postpone it, but finally got to go!

We went on NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line) which is a new line for us, so we were excited to try them out.  We went on the Pearl, a relatively newer ship (4 years old) and went with some good friends from Utah, Max and Stephanie.

We flew to Miami (which took ALL day – got there at 11:55 pm) and the next day boarded our new home for the next 7 days. 

Here we are heading out of the port of Miami out into the open ocean.

Here is Shelley and Stephanie.

No, this isn’t NBC Studios, but it’s the theater on the ship where they do all the big shows. I’m not sure why, but it was peacock themed.  Also is a shot of the entrance into the theater.

This is our comfy bed, and look at the huge floor to ceiling windows we had!

Before long, it was nothing but water!  Everywhere!

Water Everywhere

Soon the water turned from a dark blue, to this nice turquoise blue!

Here is where we have been:

We got a special gift of wine in our room.  Needless to say, it sat there the entire week.  We gave it to our room steward as a gift when we left. I think she was happy.

Here is a night shot of part of the pool deck. I like the palm tree lights.

Max was so happy to be on a cruise, he volunteered to be part of one of the shows – Dancing with the Pearl Stars.  He and a crew member were a team, and they actually lasted a few rounds!  When the cruise director came and picked Max, the cruise director asked Max where he was from, and Max said Utah. The first thing the cruise director asked was if he was Mormon. Max said he was and then the crew director asked three times if Max was sure he wanted to participate, because sometimes the dance moves might be Un-Mormon like.  Max said it was fine and then the cruise director turned to Stephanie and made sure she would be ok with it, and she said yes.

Then when the cruise director was introducing the participants to everyone, of course he had to say Max was Mormon and he and his wife were ok with what was going to happen.  THEN, Max’s crew member partner came over and talked to Stephanie, asking her if it was ok and that some of the moves she was going to do might be a little ‘wild’ for Mormons, but that she wanted to win, and assured Stephanie that it was all for the game. Stephanie agreed, and we were all laughing at how concerned everyone was about this!  ha ha..

Anyhow, here is Max and his partner being introduced to the room.  And following that are some not so good videos of them dancing.  It was hilarious!  We all almost wet our pants we were laughing so much!

Max dancing Part 1

Max part 2

 

The next day we arrived at Samana, Dominican Republic. Samana was not touristy like other Caribbean ports, and once you ventured out of the ‘safety’ of the port, you would often see military police keeping order. We didn’t do much there except walk to some shops, and then came back and spent the rest of the day at the spa on the ship relaxing.

Here is a fishing boat casting it’s net.

Back on board we left that night for St. Thomas.  Here we are at dinner.

Here we are getting our hair (ok, Shelley’s hair) all blown outside on deck.

On St. Thomas we took a ferry to St. John and went to  “Trunk Bay” to do some snorkeling.  The water was not as clear as it normally was, due to a storm that passed through the week before, but we still had a great time. We had the beach almost all to ourselves, when normally it’s packed with people.

One of the shows we saw was called Shark Bait and it was two guys who for 8 years, were clowns with the Ringling Barnum & Bailey circus and they did a juggling/comedy/whatever show and they were very funny and very good.

Here is a shot of one of the lounges we spent a lot of time in as it had a lot of the game shows and other shows we saw.

Here is one of the dining rooms:

And the bowling alley:

And the fitness room (nope, we didn’t step foot in there!)

Here are some other misc pics around the ship:

Sports Court:

Pool Party:

Pool Party

Pool Party

The next day we were at Tortola, British Virgin Isle, and we took a bus to the ferry station to take the ferry to Virgin Gorda and the “Baths” and beach and snorkeling. (the bus we took was the same as the local’s take, as it was only $2 per person vs $10 per person to go via taxi).

Here is a school we passed with the kids outside doing class work.

The Bath’s are very cool, and are a bunch of huge boulders that you climb through, over and under to get to the beach. Unlike St. John, snorkeling here was fantastic! The waters were very clear, calm, and again not very crowded as we were the only ship in town that day.

Nothing says Caribbean vacation like a palm tree!

Here is the back of our ship. You can see the rock climbing wall at the top. 

Once we got back on board, it was a sailaway BBQ, and they had this HUGE wok full of fried rice they were cooking up on the pool deck along with BBQ chicken and ribs. YUM

Goodbye Tortola!

Here’s a shot of the sports court at the back of the ship.  And the rock wall.  Doug and Max climbed it, but the camera was not available at the time to take a pic.

Here’s a shot of the buffet area where we ate breakfast and lunches.

EVERY time you entered any area where there was food, a worker was standing there with a spray bottle of hand sanitizer and would squirt your hands and saying at the same time, “Washy Washy!   Smiley Smiley! Happy Happy!”  It became the saying everyone was saying.

Here are in the card room, getting ready to play some games.

Our favorite desserts – Shelley loved the cheesecake, and I loved the chocolate raspberry truffle thingy with caramel.

Unlike most cruise lines, you can eat whenever and where ever you want on NCL.  There were multiple restaurants to eat at, and all around the ship with the status of each restaurant and the wait time, so you could decide where you wanted to eat.

Like most cruise lines, when the room steward gets your room ready for bed, they make a towel animal. This was our favorite – a  monkey hanging from the ceiling.

Here we are in the ‘chapel’ on the ship. There was a couple that got married during the cruise.

Chocolate Buffet – need I say more?

The chocolate strawberries were so good!

They even had chocolate sushi!

And chocolate fruit loop bars!

We were now headed to our last stop, Great Stirrup Cay, NCL’s private island. We tendered over on these pretty big tenders that held 300-400 people. The waves were very big and they almost cancelled our stop here, but we were glad the captain decided to let us go!

Lots of Waves

 

Lots of fun beach time and relaxing and exploring the island.

Beach Day

This was a huge blow up waterslide (biggest in the world they say)

Max and Doug went exploring to the other side of the island, and instead of sandy beaches, it was sharp lava rock all over. They found lots of shells and this really weird looking sea creature – looks like one of those fossils I learned about in school called a Trilobite!  They were alive and were all over in all the nooks and crannies.

 

We called this the ‘brain rock’

 

 

Of course there was a lunch BBQ buffet on the island.

And for those in wheelchairs, they had these special sand wheelchairs so everyone could participate!

All too soon, it was time to leave. Here is a shot of all the taxi’s lining up to take everyone to the airport.

And here is a shot of the ‘gas boat’ – filling up the ship with gas in Miami. The gas boat is the black rectangular floating thingie there.

**Correction:  The photo of the velvety bed and huge windows?  It really wasn’t our bed, it was in one of the lounges. But our bed was REALLY comfortable! And we had a window.

We had a great time for our 20th Anniversary (that was a year and a half ago). So the verdict on NCL? It was great! We loved it! 

After all, how could you have a ‘bad’ cruise?  We have heard of some who complained the entire time, but you won’t find us doing that!

Now when it’s time for dinner, remember to WASHY WASHY and SMILEY SMILEY so you can be HAPPY HAPPY!