Our First Caribbean Cruise

     We always looked forward to family vacations, but as our kids got older we would occasionally take an adult vacation.  Many people take cruises but we had never been on one so we decided it was time for a Caribbean cruise.  Some people only take cruises vacations because they are pampered and say it's hassle free.  Sounds great, hassle free what more could we want.  So with this information we started looking into some cruises.

     On this trip Tom & Ann (Mimi's sister) were our traveling companions.  We all settled on a cruise with Norwegian Cruise lines.  We flew to Florida and boarded the ship in Miami.  This was Maiden Voyage but this gave us no worries because after all this was Norwegian Cruise lines and they were experienced at giving their customers a great cruise experience.  This 4 day cruise was schedule to stop at Cozemel, a private island and Key West.  There would be an endless amount of entertainment and food on board to keep us from boredom between our stops.

     We boarded the ship late because the current passengers were slow to get off the ship and there were a few passengers that were on back-to-back trips that were required to leave the ship even though they were getting back on for the next cruise and staying in the same room.  That seems a little inefficient but what do I know this was my first cruise.  When we finally boarded the ship and settled in our room we were told to go to the deck for life jacket safety training, which is a requirement on all ships.  By the time we arrived on deck for the safety training it was almost complete, but no worries we were boaters so we new how to put on life jackets.  Just put your head thru the hole and tie the straps around your waist, we got this.

     After the safety training we strolled around the ship getting familiar with the surroundings, wondering why we had not left the dock yet.  This is when we found out that the crew loading the luggage had accidentally threw some passengers bags into the water, thankfully not ours.  You could tell who the unfortunate people were because they were all wearing souvenir cruise clothing.  Woops!

    The food and wine was good as well as the entertainment but if you needed some extra towels or something for your room, the response from the cabin stewards (maids) was simply "Maybe later", which we found out means, Never.  That in fact were the only English words they knew.  I actually spoke more Spanish but not enough to properly ask for towels.  The wait staff was less attentive than we expected partly because some of the equipment (cappuccino machine, etc.) were not in proper working order.  At the end of the cruise passengers are handed envelopes, where you are expected to tip the crewmembers with a recommendation on the amount.  We thought about putting notes in the envelopes saying “Maybe Later” but we didn’t.  We tipped but not according to their recommendation.

     Despite the problems we had a good time on the cruise but it did not turnout to be hassle free.  I would not recommend cruising on a Maiden voyage because they don't have all the bugs worked out which can be a little frustrating.  Mimi wrote a letter complaining about the problems we had on the trip and with a little persistence all four of us were given a free cruise and airline fare as well.  So, in the end Norwegian Cruise Line came through providing good customer service.