Cruise Reviews
Cruise Line: Norwegian Cruise Line
Ship: Norway
Date of Cruise: February 5-12, 2000
Eastern Caribbean Cruise Aboard the Norway
By: Marv
Our daughter and son-in law gave us this cruise for Christmas because my husband and I had never had that experience, even though we have been avid travelers in our 53 years of marriage. Now we can highly recommend this mode of travel for we had a wonderful cruise!
Since we live in the Atlanta area, we decided to drive to Miami (our embarkation point) and visit friends and relatives in Florida when we returned. We couldn't have picked a better date to travel for we had an ice storm the week before in Georgia with electricity out and many old trees destroyed. What a relief, after the cold, to change into shorts and use our sunscreen for we had balmy weather the entire week.
The NORWAY is a beautiful, old ship, christened way back in 1962 the FRANCE by President DeGaulle's wife for the French line. The ship was completely refurbished in 1996 and has many public places. We especially liked the International Deck with it's two promenade "avenues"-Fifth Avenue and Champs Elysee all glassed-in with small tables and comfortable seating. This deck has the popular Sports Illustrated Café. It's a great place to meet your new friends and visit in a relaxed atmosphere any time of day and nearby were many shops to browse through. You will get your exercise for she is the world's longest cruise ship at 1,035 feet and takes 2,044 passengers, has 12 guest decks, 11 elevators, and an international crew of 920.
We ate an early lunch Saturday before parking our car across the street from the ship in a large, outside parking lot for $10 per day. They wanted you on the ship by 3:00 p.m. (sailing at 4:00). How I wish we had skipped lunch for most everyone, including us, boarded early and they were serving a beautiful buffet of shrimp, pasta, salads, etc. Gosh, it looked so good but decided not to have two lunches since we had heard they had five-course dinners and we had signed for early seating at 6:00. The next seating is at 8:30 so it did give us early birds over two hours for a leisurely meal. They had a Bon Voyage party around the pool as we sailed out of Miami harbor with the calypso band, NEW WAVE, playing happy music, dancing, and drink specials-everyone was in a holiday mood!
They said we could upgrade our cabin after buying our ticket but decided we would not be in our cabin except to sleep and shower so were pleasantly surprised at the size of our room on Biscayne Deck with 2 portholes, 2 single beds, vanity-dresser, TV, a small cocktail table and chairs and a decent bathroom with shower stall. The décor wasn't all that great but clean and we really felt like we were out on the ocean when the first night out was rough and the waves came up right outside our porthole. Exciting!
Even though we were on the lower deck, they have no First Class seating in the dining rooms. We were assigned a round table for eight with congenial tablemates that were staying on the Viking and Sky Decks. We got to be good friends before the end of the week. You would enjoy eating in either of the two elegant dining rooms and they both serve the same food. They had a good selection on the menus-just hard to decide. One evening one of the fellows at our table could not decide on his entrée so the waiter served him both! Santiago, our waiter, strove to please. He was, also, quite talented and on the Caribbean Dinner night when the waiters all dance to calypso music, our waiter out did them all dancing with a full glass of wine balanced on his head. If you got tired of eating dinner in your dining room, you could make reservations for The Bistro where the menu was different. There is no extra charge to eat here but a $5 per person gratuity is suggested. The Great Outdoor Café served coffee or tea 24 hrs. a day and a breakfast and lunch buffet. I loved eating outside and the only drawback was that most of the passengers felt the same way so it got crowded since it was popular.
We had some bad news Sunday morning when they announced that they were having engine trouble (I thought we had slowed down) and would not be able to go to St. Maarten which was to be our first port of call. My husband, Jack, and I were not too disappointed for we were finding so many fun things to do on the ship, but many of the passengers that had signed up for this cruise were very upset since they had specifically wanted to see that Island. They did give everyone a $50 credit. Jack, and probably a few other husbands, were happy to keep us out of the Island's shops since that was one of the main things to do there.
After 3 nights and 2 ½ days at sea we dropped anchor at noon, Tuesday, at St. Thomas. Anyone who desired could take a tender in that afternoon to shop, etc. This was a day before we were scheduled to get there. We took the tours to St. John's and St. Thomas on Wednesday. St. John has a National Park where they keep everything in its natural environment. Saw a termite nest hanging from a tree that was much larger then a basketball. We also explored the ruins of an old sugar mill. St. Thomas seemed more populated and had beautiful beaches. Sometimes it was hard to look at the spectacular scenery because the narrow, mountainous roads were crowded, and it looked like our driver was playing "chicken" whenever we met someone on curves and would just blast away on his horn. They have donkeys, too, that stand along the roadway and was told you could take one home with you. They looked so sad!
We were at sea again Thursday and on Friday we arrived at Great Stirrup Cay which belongs to the Norwegian Cruise Lines. They had a beach party and barbecue there with NEW WAVE playing calypso music, snorkeling and water sports. Everyone got back to the ship in time for a last great dinner and entertainment with a talent show.
There is so much to tell I didn't touch on all the shows every night. The Saga Theatre presented two Broadway shows, Guys and Dolls, and Sing, Sing, Sing, on our cruise, and the comedian and magic shows were excellent. All the lounges had good music and we loved to sit in the Windjammer Lounge and listen to Tom Theobold play a variety of music on the piano , and the trio in the Club Internationale was easy listening dance music -Cole Porter, Frank Sinatra, etc. Dazzles Nightclub was for the young crowd. We were there around midnight our first night out and the disco music was so loud we couldn't hear ourselves talk. The youngun's were having a great time on the dance floor though.
Jack had to have a "fix" at the ice cream parlor every afternoon at 3:00 when it opened on the Internationale Deck.. He loves ice cream cones. I can't leave out the midnight Chocoholic Buffet the 2nd night out. The presentation and variety of all things chocolate was something to see and eat. You needed a few more laps around the track the next morning after indulging.
I think you know by now that you do want to go on the NORWAY on your next cruise for you will have a memorable vacation.
