Travel Log

Bermuda Cruise: Day 1

I would not necessarily call myself a superstitious person but I have some faith in good and bad omens, mostly because they tend to be self fulfilling. A good  or bad omen can affect your mood for the rest of the day.

    Before Mom and I boarded the Norwegian Dawn, we were given these cards which act as our boarding passes, the keys to our stateroom, and a sort of credit card to use while we are on board ship. By the time we made it to our stateroom, I had somehow managed to already. We had to go to guest services and wait in a long line to get another one. Mom and I were more than a little irritated with one another as we went up to Deck 12 to have lunch in the Garden Cafe. Things did not improve when after lunch, there was a mandatory safety drill. It must have taken forever for everyone to to file into their seats and for the cruise director to drone out the safety instructions over the loudspeaker. When we were finally freed, Mom and I returned to our stateroom, changed into our bathing suits, then went back up to Deck 12, where the pool is.

    The words I would use to describe sitting by the pool are "crowded" and "loud." There was some sort of send-off party by the pool and pretty much the entire ship was there. A band played and the cruise director were introduced to us. Finding a spot to sit and put down our stuff was nearly impossible, since they were all taken. The hot tubs were nearly filled to their capacity and I would not move very far while swimming in the pool without bumping into someone. It was difficult for Mom and I to talk to one another because the music was so loud.

    At 5:30, we went back to our stateroom, where I took a shower and dressed for dinner. Our stateroom is on the cheaper end of the scale, so the bathroom resembles the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Mom informed me that one of our excursions was reschedueled and conflicted with another, so she had to go and sort this out. She changed the time of the glass bottom boat tour from Monday morning to the Monday night.

    We took a look in the duty free shops, where I bought a postcard, before our 7:30 dinner reservation at the Aqua Dining Room. Mom and I each had a glass of white zinfandel, which was sweet, smooth, and superb. I started off with the chicken caesar salad. The chicken was cooked with some sort of lemon sauce and was nice and juicy. Chicken is my favorite meat, though it can often be dry and bland.  For my entrée, I had beef meatballs served with steamed broccoli, which was delicious. My dessert was a butterscotch brownie served with vanilla ice cream but by this point, I was too full to eat much of it.

    At 8:30, there was a welcome aboard show in the Stardust Theater. The ship's production cast did a few musical numbers; the cruise director introduced the ship's officers and asked if anyone was celebrating a graduation, birthday, or anniversary. Among those celebrating their anniversary was a couple who had been married for sixty years. The also featured a pair of aerial acrobats and a comedian. My favorite joke of his was that he had a bottle of the ship's finest champagne in his mini-bar and was going to convince a woman to come back to his cabin with him and convince her to pay for the champagne.