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ASCSA Cruise Days 1-3 (Sat-Mon)
It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated this blog. I haven’t yet posted about my trip to Cuba in May 2016, and now here I am in the third day of a cruise in December 2016. I’m going to try to keep up with the blog on the cruise and go back and do the Cuba posts at a later time.
This is my first cruise experience. I’ve been on boats before, but they’ve all been much smaller. Those were small boat cruising…monohull and caramaran sailboats, mostly with family or on family occasions. This time, I’m on what you’d think of when talking about “taking a cruis,” a big hotel-type ship. In this case, we’re on the Norweigan EPIC, which holds 4,100 people. Holy cow, it’s huge! There are 18 decks, though some are not for general passengers.
Anyway, how I got here is that I’m on the mailing list for the Active Single Christian Scientist Association (ASCSA). I forget how I first found out about the organization, but I’ve seen these trips they plan for some years, but it’s never worked out for me to go before. Now that I’ve retired and have more flexibility in my schedule, all trip possibilities are on the table!
This trip seemed to tick several boxes for me. First, I’ve never been on a cruise before. Second, though I spent 40-some years visiting my father during vacations in St. Croix, I’ve never been to the “northern” Carribbean. This cruise had stops at a private island in the Bahamas, then Jamaica, Grand Caymen, and Cozumel. And to top it off, the group is all Christian Scientists, a definite plus in my book! So I signed up.
The adventure began during the time the tour hosts, Bob and Steve, got in touch with everyone providing info and trying to determine those shore activities we might all like to do at each port. Not knowing what to expect, I reviewed all the links and made some choices and somehow got everything decided. My only non-group activity will be the day in Cozumel when I’m off to see the Tulum Mayan ruins. That apparently didn’t excite anyone else, for various reasons, but I haven’t seen any Mayan ruins in person before, so that was very attractive. Since that’s a ship tour (not an individually-arranged one), one advantage is that if the tour gets back late, the ship waits. For everything else, if you’re not back on the ship on time, it leaves without you!
Departure day was Saturday, December 3, 2016. I had an early flight out (7 AM) and bless my friend Denise for getting up early to drive me to the airport (and taking care of my cat Goose while I’m gone).
The flight from DFW to Orlando was pretty uneventful except for this one thing: I had a row of three seats all to myself! That never happens anymore, but it did this time and was a nice thing. I was in Orlando and off the plane by about 10 AM. I had signed up for the airport transfer to the ship, so a Norweigan Cruise Line (NCL) person met me in baggage claim and escorted me to where the buses were loading. There were so many people that I waited over an hour to load. I took advantage of that time to get some walking in, banking my steps for the day.
The bus ride was supposed to be about 45 minutes, but the time was lengthened by some kind of traffic jam at the pier, so there was a lot of waiting on the bus. Once we got to the drop-off point, there were LOTS of buses there. The NCL personnel there pretty organized at not letting everyone jam up at once, so we waited a bit more on the bus until it was our turn.
Then, off the bus and into yet another line for the next stage. Goood thing here was that we left the checked luggage at the bus. NCL people loaded all those bags and delivered them to individual cabin doors within a couple of hours. That was nice.
Anyway, back to the line–this time to go through security, pretty much the same as at the airport (“no beverages past this point”). They kept things moving, so that didn’t take TOO long. Next was the actual “hand over your registration and get your ship pass key” desk. Whew! There’s a picture below from there that shows the ship’s hull with the name on it. A short walk from there, over the gang plank, and onto the actual ship!
Individual navigation on the ship was, and continues to be, a pretty much “figure it out yourself” experience. I’m glad I printed out a general map of the decks and what’s on them. That’s helped some. Now that I’ve been onboard a couple of days, I’m pretty much finding my way around, but the first day was a blur of hallway mazes.
By now it’s now about 3 PM. I finally find my room. It’s what they call a studio and is in a special area that you can only get into with your ship/room key. (That added to the confusion at first because I didn’t realize I’d be entering a “closed” hallway. I was looking at the room number signs trying to find an open hallway!
Anyway, figured that out and found my room. However, my key didn’t work. A steward was close by, thank goodness. He tried the key a bunch of times, too, and it still didn’t work. He advised me I’d have to go to guest services on deck 5 to get help (I’m on deck 11). After wandering around for a while (the elevators on my end of the ship don’t go to 5, so you have to stop at 6, walk through the casino, and then go down the escalator to 5) and standing in line, I got to the desk clerk. He went to a card reader (or two, I don’t know, but he was gone for a good while), and said the key should work now. When I told him both the steward and I had tried it multiple times, he very nicely offered to come with me to check it out. Yay! He showed me a different way to get there (avoiding the casino) and found that the key still didn’t work. He was able to call for someone to come fix it. They put me on a priority call (only two others before me).
While waiting, I went to the private lounge area for the studios and got a couple of cookies to tide me over. Soon after getting back to my room, a lady came by to check out the key situation. She said she would need to reprogram the door but let me in with her key so I could start unpacking. Yay again! (She also showed me the key slot you have to use to get the lights to turn on, which probably saved me some frustrating searching around.) Within 5-10 minutes, the door was fixed and I was all alone to settle in.
I have to say, the studio is great. It’s laid out really well and has all the space I need to be comfortable. Pictures are below. (The elephant towel sculpture will help orient you.) It’s cozy but comfortable. The only thing you could call a downside is that it’s on an inside hallway, so there’s no peeking out any kind of window to see what the weather is like. Deck space is ample and up just a few floors, though, so it’s fine.
The ship had left port by this time, so I took a few minutes to walk topside. I got a picture back to Port Canaveral, where we’d just departed from, then went out on the pool deck where most of the outdoor activities happen. I got a few pictures of the stuff there, including the climbing wall and the water slide tubes, then heard the call for the safety drill. This ensures you know where to go in case of an emergency. They scan everyone’s key card to know we all showed up, then we waited a while to hear some talking, then we were free.
After that and unpacking and cleaning up a little, it was off to dinner, which was our first group meetup. I found the place and met everyone–18 other folks. It’ll take me a while to remember everyone’s name, but it seems like a great group!
Service and conversation was good, though the dinner service went on a little long. We met at 5:30 for dinner and were going to meet elsewhere for an organizational meeting at 7:00. We didn’t start the organizational meeting until 8:00 or so. There we talked about activities for the week, then headed for our respective cabins or nighttime activities. It was a long day with a lot of waiting around!
The next day, Sunday, the ship arrived in the Bahamas, at Great Stirrup Cay. This is NCL’s priviate island. Lots of sand, swimming, food, sunning and such. I got one picture. A kind of iconic beach/sun/sand one with the ship in the distance. Most of our group made it over for at least a little while so I had the opportunity to meet and visit with a few more folks.
I was also able to test out my mask and snorkel here. The underwater sights weren’t fabulous, but there were interesting rocks and some fish, and my snorkel getup worked great. Now I know it’ll be fine for our catamaran trip on Grand Cayman.
Then back to the ship, a little more exploring, and dinner with everyone.
Today, Monday, was a sea day as we travel to Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I was out at 7:30 AM on the walking/jogging track to get my steps in for the day. Then I found a nice perch on a lounge chair in the sun to do some reading. When it got too noisy there, I headed for the stern and opted for a sit-up chair. I continued reading there, then got some lunch.
Next I finally got out the computer (back in the cabin) and started this blog post. Worked until my appointment for a facial in the spa, which was quite pampering and pleasant. Then it was time to get ready for dinner. This was a “dress up” dinner where we were all going to get into our fancy duds to eat so we could take a group picture afterwards. Dinner was great and everyone looked great. Not sure we got any really good pictures though. We’ll have to see when everything gets pooled.
That brings me up to date. I’m in my cabin finishing this so I can experiment with getting it uploaded. I purchased an internet package and used it on my phone yesterday to check mail. Hopefully it’ll work from the computer, too, so I ccan get this online and check email again.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) will be an excursion with the group in Jamaica. Sun (hopefully), water, and good times. More after that!
