Day 8 - heading home

So here we are December 23rd, 2018 two days before Christmas and read to head back home to the cold temperatures from the lovely warm weather we have been experiencing. This is going to be so hard. I can tell you that for sure.  So the night before they provide you with the next days Freestyle Daily. Last night it was not a Freestyle Daily rather a You'll be Leaving Soon with all the information you will need to help you get off the ship
First off everyone is asked to be out of their staterooms by 9:00 am you do not have to get off the ship right away but the crew has a lot of work to do to get the ship cleaned up and turned around for the next cruise that will depart at 4:00 pm with people getting on as early as 10:00 am.
Breakfast is available from 6:00 am to 9:00 am at the buffet, The Savor and O'Sheehans.  We chose to do the buffet as it was quick and simple and we needed to get off the ship as soon as they would let us.
You can also settle your account in the Atrium between 6:00 am and 9:00 am although you can have it set up so it charges your credit card which means you do not have to do anything at all. We chose to pay cash and to make things less hectic we did it the day before. Although be prepared for long line ups. Don't forget that there is a service charge of $14.50 USD added to your account every day for each guest. Haven and suite staterooms pay $17.50 USD. You can pre pay these charges online in your NCL account and in Canadian funds. These charges will be shared among the staff members, including the restaurant staff, stateroom stewards and other behind-the-scenes staff, who have provided services to enhance your overall cruise experience.
The photo gallery is open from 7:00 am to 9:00 am for any last minute purchases of photo's that have been taken or frames. Sadly while I really loved some of the photo captured which I mentioned before I just could not justify the cost of them. I have bought photo's on previous cruises but this close to Christmas while the cruise was our major gift we still needed some stocking stuffers that I had to take care of when I got home.
They will lock your mini-bar on Saturday night and take a final inventory and add that to your account once they do your turn down service. We never used it so it was no big deal for us to have it locked. If you purchased any alcohol in the ports it is taken from you and stored for you along with any purchases you made of it in the gift shop. They get delivered to you on Saturday night between 7:30 pm and 9:00 pm. We didn't make any so we had no worries here either.
Now the most important part is luggage if you are not doing self-assist disembarkation you must have your luggage outside your stateroom Saturday night by 11:00 pm so that it gets picked up. You will be given colour coded luggage tags based on the time of your departure. Self assist was expected to be allowed off at 7:45 am and the different colours shortly after that in 15 minute intervals Black is for anyone going on an NCL shore excursion in Miami. Some people chose to do this especially if they have late departures. My parents did this on their Alaskan cruise. They toured Seattle as their flights did not leave until 10:00 pm and you get into port do early.They leave at 8:00 am. Yellow is Latitude reward members who are gold and platinum and they leave at 8:15 am. Red is next at 8:30 am and that is anyone who has a Norwegian transfers and have flights leaving up to 1:30 pm. Gray is next at 8:45 am and that is independent guests who have their own transfers, pick up's or will grab a taxi or uber. Orange is next at 8:55 am and those are Norwegian transfers for flights between 1:31 pm and 3:30 pm. Purple, light blue and Lime follow at 9:15 am, 9:30 am and 9:45 am and they are all independent transfers usually based on flight information you may have provided. Last is brown at 9:45 am and those are Norwegian transfers for flights after 3:31 pm and anyone who has booked a post cruise Hotel Package with Norwegian.
I am not sure if I shared many pictures of our cabin from the beginning of our trip but here are a few taken the last morning.

 Toilets are always a tight squeeze between the counter and shower

 Nice amount of space for toiletries and such

We opted to have our beds apart and my son took the couch bed

I woke up fairly early this morning and did not want to wake up my kids so I went out on my balcony and watched us sail into Miami. It was so nice and peaceful and seeing Christmas lights and so little traffic. It was a nice experience in of itself. Some people walking along South Beach called out and waved. I noticed/heard a few other people out on their balconies, but not many.

 Miami early morning

Fancy yacht there were quite a few

We along with many others headed down to the gangplank to get off as soon as they released us. The line was rather long but once they allowed us to leave it went rather fast. We took my mom's luggage between us so she could concentrate on walking. I pre-arranged a transfer for us as our flight was in Fort Lauderdale and early and we did not want to take any chances in missing it. Because of us being a group of six transfers for that size are harder to find. Standard is four people. I found an amazing limousine service that catered up to 14 people, so they were more than capable of handling us and our luggage. Our driver was amazing. The kids loved the experience and we got some great pictures. The company was Dreamride Luxury Transportation and Limousines and are chauffer was Luz and I definitely would recommend her as well. I will be referring my clients looking for that type of service in a heart beat. She got us to the airport in plenty of time, coordinated with us perfectly for our pick up and helped us with our family picture at the end of our trip as well.

 waiting for our ride at the cruise terminal

 The tv had a fire playing, music was going and the lights on the ceiling changes colours. Water was provided

 Girls chilling

 Mom and I chilling

Our ride in style (yes we are celebrities lol)

The airport was fairly crowded we managed to score wheelchair service to get to security and to our waiting area which was nice. So very little walking for my mom. Our flight was delayed as was the flight going to Toronto and we were at gates beside each other so the area was quite crowded. We had a great conversation with a family who had traveled on the Anthem of the Seas and who were from Toronto. Just a quick note. Look at how my daughters are dressed above and we were flying back to Montreal where there was snow on the ground and cold temperatures. They were told this when we were leaving but they chose to ignore. Needless to say they may have been a tad chilled when we got home.

My companions on the flight home Daniel and the sloth

Now when we got home it was later and time for dinner. No drive through Montreal is complete without a visit to Smoke Meat Pete's. We manage to visit 4 ore more times a year. As usual he was prepared for Christmas. He goes all out with his decorations both at Halloween and Christmas. We love his smoke meat and there is something for everyone to eat. Which is always a bonus.

 Smoke Meat Pete's Ile Perrot (montreal)

Very weird to be discussing Christmas and the hustle and bustle when it is the end of April. But my crazy business definitely got in the way of keeping up with my blog and hoping that I will be able to keep to my scheduling much better now.
Want to experience your own cruise there are still some really great specials for 2019 and of course 2020 and 2021 are on sale now for most cruise lines!! Drop me a line and I will help you chose the cruise line and itinerary that is best for you and your family.




Where you can find me:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/stephaniethetravelagentnextdoor

Website: http://www.exclusivetoyoutravel.ca

Email: slough@exclusivetoyoutravel.com

TICO 500212282

55 York Street, Suite 1003

Toronto, On M5J 1R7

Please keep in mind that while my head office is in Toronto. I am a home based travel agent and I live in South Dundas and I can service clients anywhere in Canada. But, I meet with clients in the SD&G area

Day 7 last sea day

Well we have come to our last full day and we spent it at Sea. We got up at a decent time and headed to O'Sheehan's for breakfast. We enjoyed it. The nice things about the sit down restaurants for breakfast is that the food is much warmer then it can be in the buffet and I really enjoy that for breakfast. Since having kids eating eggs and have been hard and are a hit or a miss sometimes so having them warm definitely makes them easier to eat.

 Mimosa for breakfast

My favourite Irish restaurant

After breakfast we decided to spend the morning in the atrium. Yes we were the people who staked out our seats and sat there for a while but we did order drinks. We started off with technical talk with the Captain & Chief Engineer. I honestly did not think we would enjoy this we just wanted spots for the next events but it was actually quite informative. I learned a few things and the captain actually had a wicked sense of humour. It is quite amazing he is a family man, he is from Norway but spends months at a time away from his family sailing the seas. You must really enjoy your job to be able to do that.

Captain and Chief Engineer

After the Captain we stayed to watch the Battle of Cake Masters. It was one of the chef's up against two members of the audience. One male and one female. They were given a certain amount of time to ice and decorate a two tier cake. It was enjoyable. The guy was a bit of an underdog and when the chef would turn his back he would do a few things to his cake. Add more spray or icing etc.. It was quite fun. The audience did the voting of the final voting through clapping/cheering. The young lady was the winner but both contestants got a prize pack with wine which is why I suppose they did not allow kids to compete. Contestants had to be 19 or older. After the contest was done they served up the cake to the audience. I only had a small bite of one of the kids. I am not a vanilla cake fan. Chocolate all the way please and thank you.

 Chef in the middle, man on the left and women on the right

Women's final creation

After the Cake show we got to watch a towel folding demonstration. They had several stewards show us an array of animals that they do. Some I had seen on previous cruises like the frog one of my all time favourites that I did not get to see, At the end they even will sell you a video showing you step by step how to make the animals yourself. I am surprised they do not also sell the white towels.

 The bunny

 The frog

The ape

After the demonstration we sat an talked to some fellow passengers for a bit and then headed off to lunch and the kids spent the whole afternoon at the pool enjoying the slides. The only two they did not do were the drop slides. I was sure Elizabeth was brave enough to try one out but at last she did not go through with it. Who knows she may get another chance on our next cruise that has slides on it.
Dinner was once again in the buffet and this evening it was Italian night. It was not overly exciting but I think by this time I was wishing I had done more sit down restaurants or splurged for specialty dinning. I may just do that this September when I cruise. Teppanyaki is still on my list of restaurants I have not tried on Norwegian although my parents did when they went to Alaska. I treated them for their Anniversary. I also want to try the truffle fries at Cagney's. So much choice. I did not get a picture tonight of the display at the buffet. We headed back to our room early so we could be packed and ready to go in the morining. We were walking off with our luggage as we had a tight flight to make. So it was a take it easy and relax evening once we were packed.

Our Final towel animal. I have never seen them use a pool towel for an animal. We think he is a Salamander but not sure.

Where you can find me:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/stephaniethetravelagentnextdoor

Website: http://www.exclusivetoyoutravel.ca

Email: slough@exclusivetoyoutravel.com

TICO 500212282

55 York Street, Suite 1003

Toronto, On M5J 1R7

Please keep in mind that while my head office is in Toronto. I am a home based travel agent and I live in South Dundas and I can service clients anywhere in Canada. But, I meet with clients in the SD&G area

Day 6 Cozumel, Mexico

Day six dawned and we found ourselves in Cozumel, Mexico. Our excursion for the day was a short one. Learning about chocolate. If I had been on my own I may have braved the Ferry crossing to Playa del Carmen and grab a Pandora charm and a Hagen Daz Ice cream but the water was extremely choppy and figured it was not a good idea to drag mom and the kids along on my quest. So Sadly I did not get a Pandora charm from my vacation to add to my charm.
Some of the other options for excursions from NCL are as follows: Fly high Zip line, Private Cabana at the Cabana Beach, Jose Cuervo Tequilla Tasting Experience, Xplor Park and Dolphin Swim & Ride. The chocolate making experience was at the same spot as the Tequilla Experience. It is a museum where you also earn about Mexican culture and experience Mexican food. For the first time my mother used a wheelchair. Katherine was the one elected to push her around. She will not be getting a driver's licence soon. lol
Are experience started by walking through a mall to get to the other side of the street and to our private transportation.

 This man (statue) was literally standing in the air

Christmas/Winter display

The museum tour was awesome. We saw so many different artifacts from the Mexican culture, clothes, statues, masks etc.. I took so many pictures just sharing a couple.

We also got a family picture minus mom with the Donkey wearing her reindeer ears. Yes we paid for the picture and the frame. I wonder how many people get suckered into spending the $25 as they print the picture and the frame and show it to you when you go to enjoy your lunch experience. I do not have a digital copy so I will not share it here. After the tour and picture we went on to make our own chocolate with lots of help from the staff.

 The set up in the cooking class

 We started with a hot cocoa

 The coco beans

 Lots of strength needed to crush them up

 Forming it into the chocolate

Lots of hard work and concentration

After the hard work of chocolate making we went out and had lunch. We had hand made tortillas and fillings from a lady who speaks the old language. It was positively amazing and spicy.

After lunch we took a tour of the monuments of Mexico that were set up in diorama's around the park. We also watched the fertility show that has to do with the Mayan Calendar. I had seen it before on my list visit to Mexico, so had my mother on hers. It was brand new for the kids.

 The men have all climbed to the top of the poll

 They swing down going around 12 times t represent the months and the one man drums at the top

 Almost completely down 

 Family picture of us with the men

One of the diorama pieces

We were dropped back at the shopping mall where we managed to check out Starbucks. I bought I drink with chocolate and cherry that they did not have at home. Managed to pick up a few Mexican vanilla bottles for myself and a friends. When we were done exploring we headed back to the ship.

 Katherine outside Starbucks

 Senor Frogs (so disappointed I did not get to go in)

 Another human statue and Daniel

They did not know how to zoom in lol

After the excursions and shopping we headed back to the ship. There were ten different ships in port that day. 2 Norwegian at least 2 Royal's a Holland America a Princess and a Carnival that I saw. We watched the sail away and then we headed to the Buffet for Mexican night.

 Hal ship docked beside us

 You can kind of see the ferries

 Mexican Night

This night they were very minimalist on their decor for the theme. We were all kind of disappointed. They had the watermelon and three big hats and that was it. They seemed to go all out at the beginning.

 Tonight's towel animal

The kids successfully hide the animal from the night before.

Overall it was another awesome day!!

Where you can find me:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/stephaniethetravelagentnextdoor

Website: http://www.exclusivetoyoutravel.ca

Email: slough@exclusivetoyoutravel.com

TICO 500212282

55 York Street, Suite 1003

Toronto, On M5J 1R7

Please keep in mind that while my head office is in Toronto. I am a home based travel agent and I live in South Dundas and I can service clients anywhere in Canada. But, I meet with clients in the SD&G area