Review: Norwegian Cruise Line - Sea - [October 16 , 2004]

[Net Reviews]

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Reviewer Comments:

This was the second time for us on the NCL Sea, the first was when it first came
to Houston several years ago.

We drove from just North of Dallas to La Porte on Friday, Oct. 15th and stayed
at the La Quinta there. It was a special on the internet for $45.00, and we
were really impressed with the location, room, and of course, the free
breakfast.

We left for the pier about 10:30 AM on Sat. the l6th. We arrived there, dropped
off my spouse, and parked the car right next to the terminal. Very, very easy,
paid the $49.00 to park, actually, I told her to keep the one dollar change, and
she was very nice.

We sat in the latitudes boarding area and were able to board the ship at 11:30
AM, very smooth embarkation.

We went to our room on the promenade deck and left our carry-on. We had booked
a room on the promenade deck because previously on this ship we had a stateroom
down from there and they are very tiny. This one on the promenade deck is a
little bit larger and we liked the stateroom very much.

We received our bags later on that afternoon and unpacked, then went to dinner
in the 7 seas restaurant. All the food on the ship was very good, and we
enjoyed eating a lot!

The service in the dining rooms is okay, but not like the traditional seating
where your waiter gets to know you and brings you your preferences like coffee,
that I like, when I first sit down, but it was okay, but not fantastic service.

We spent the day at sea the next day, played the slots in the casino, and found
the machines to be easier than on the other cruise lines. They let you win
sometimes. Yeah!

The next day we arrived in Cozumel, took a shore excursion to see a folk lore
show, and it was delightful. This was about our 4th time in Cozumel and we are
running out of things to do there. We let the bicycle take the two of us all
the way from the ship to the entrance to the pier. Nice deal! We also bought 4
litres of Vanilla for family members and ourselves at $8.00 a litre, very good
deal in Cozumel.

The next day we tendered at Belize. We were supposed to take a 3 1/2 hour tour
to some Mayan ruins which turned out to be 5 1/2 hours. The bus had a blowout
on a back tire, so we had to drive very, very slow to get to the ruins. We
toured the ruins and came back to the bus. A replacement bus had been called,
but not arrived yet. Anyway, we drove very slow again quite a ways, and
then the bus finally came. We disboarded the bus and boarded the other one.
The A/C did not work very well on the new bus and we got pretty warm, but made
it back to port at 1:30 Pm instead of 11:30 AM like we were supposed to do.
Nobody complained though because we all felt sorry for the bus driver and our
tour guide, and we did just fine.

Next day we tendered at Cancun. We took a tour of a glass bottom boat, which
was really like a half submarine. We were all seated below with a seat to look
out the side portholes. A lot of people got to feeling ill, including my
spouse, so came up to the top, and they had some ice packs ready to put on your
neck. The air was kind of stuffy down below, plus there were some kind of fumes
coming down there also. But, we made it okay and everyone started feeling okay
again.

Whoops, I left out the second port we visited which was Roatan, Honduras. We
saw a folkloric show there also and went to Marble Falls and visited a jelly
factory. The banana apple jelly was so good that we bought two jars of it to
bring home.

Anyway, the last day was at sea, and we kept very busy all day doing various
things on board and in the casino. I won a $600.00 jackpot on this cruise and
that made my cruise experience very good, or as they say on board Excellent.

This was our 17th cruise, the fourth with NCL and we have enjoyed all the
cruises we have ever taken. We think we prefer the traditional dining, but this
was okay and we enjoyed the food, company, etc. anyway. The room was kept clean
and some towel animals were made for a few nights, which we think are very
clever. We didn't tip any extra because the $10.00 a night per person was put
on our bill, and we didn't see anyone perform extra for us, so just left it at
that.

Disembarkation was great. We ate breakfast, then came back to the room to wait
for customs to be called. We went to that and it went very smooth even though
there was a long, long line, we moved along pretty quick. We then came back to
the room to wait to be called for our luggage tag color. We were called at 9:45
AM, left the ship, went to the terminal, claimed our baggage, pulled it across
the street to the car, and then drove home. So easy!

This is a very good cruise for people who live in Texas, but we also met a lot
of people from California, Iowa, Colorado, and many other states on board.
Everyone was very pleasant and we enjoyed it tremendously. We plan to do this
cruise again next spring and take our two daughters and their spouses along to
celebrate our 50 years of marriage. We are really looking forward to it.