Peg Caldwell-Ott wrote:
> 1 Night Dinner/Dance Cruise to Nowhere
> M/V Norwegian Spirit
> September 8, 2007
>
> This was a total, but wonderful, surprise trip!! Some colleagues of
> mine at school, who have all cruised before (on Cunard, HAL and
> Windstar-or some combination thereof), gather annually in April at our
> apartment to talk about our sea-faring experiences, have a nice meal,
> and play our Cruise IQ game. This year, everyone was admiring our NCL
> voyage scrapbooks in great detail, and talking a lot about the
> advantages of having a ship sailing in and out of NYC all year 'round.
> All were interested to hear of our experiences (3 previous voyages on
> the Norwegian Dawn and 3 previous voyages on the Norwegian Spirit--by
> the middle of this summer), but none of them had ever tried NCL
> before. Query into the leaflets and brochures that we get from the
> company (in the mail, on line, and on board the ships), led us to the
> realization that NCL was running a series of one night "dinner/dance"
> voyages out of NYC in September and October to compliment their
> Canada/New England 6 night trips. For fun, for interest and (as it
> certainly transpired) to make the beginning of the school year a whole
> lot more palatable, we decided to book a one night cruise for a group
> of us, inviting all of the other faculty at the school to come along
> too, if they chose to join in. A packet was distributed to every
> faculty member at the school, including how to make a booking, prices
> for the various cabin categories (provided by our wonderful TA, Lori
> Cunningham), a cruise guide book description (Berlitz), deck plans,
> color photographs of the public rooms, and 6 pages of FAQs that I
> drafted.
>
> Although any number of colleagues expressed great interest at the
> thought of a one night trip, only 6 of us actually booked to sail
> together. We had a simply MARVELOUS time!!! Derek and I sailed on
> the Norwegian Spirit this summer (the 07-07-07 voyage, together with
> my 75 year old Aunt, 90 year old mother and 89 year old stepfather)
> for the same 8 night itinerary that we did a year ago, but this time
> with the ports in the reverse order-Bermuda, Tortola and St. Thomas.
> Traveling with the senior generation was good fun, but somewhat
> stressful owing to the age and medical problems of the oldest parental
> units. Our one night to nowhere crowd was considerably younger, and
> the "party" atmosphere on board was positively electric for all of
> us!!
>
> Getting to the pier was the only problem we encountered. Both the
> Carnival Victory and the Carnival Miracle were in port, along with the
> Norwegian Spirit. Traffic on the West Side Highway was completely
> jammed up, and even our favorite little short cut route on 59th street
> was chock-a-block with buses and garbage trucks. But, once at Pier 90,
> things moved quickly. For a one night voyage, there is no luggage
> service, so we rolled our bag along behind us, passing through
> security, check-in, and the "Welcome Aboard" photograph, this time
> taken with our great friend, Hotel Manager Frank Hassenwinkel. The
> cabins were not ready for occupation until 2 pm, although you can
> leave your luggage outside your cabin door, or stow it in Frank's
> office in our case!
>
> We enjoyed a delightful luncheon in Windows (Main Dining Room) before
> heading up to the cabin to settle in (and munch on a plate of
> delectable chocolate dipped strawberries, generously placed in our
> cabin by Hotel Manager Frank), and hunt down my colleagues, all of
> whom had found the pool with no problem at all!! They assured me they
> had already toured every public room of the ship on their own and
> enjoyed the buffet or Blue Lagoon for their lunch. We passed the
> afternoon hours simply enjoying all of the on board amenities-Derek
> got a hair cut in the Spa, I went shopping, and my colleagues checked
> out the whirlpools or toured the various dining venues in more detail.
> No one felt compelled to "stick together" and everyone enjoyed
> themselves thoroughly!! All of the ships' services and offices were
> open and functional after the mandatory life boat drill at 3:30 pm
> (which consumed all of 15 minutes). The duty free shop and casino
> opened once we were beyond the 12 mile limit, and (since this was a
> cruise to "nowhere"-quite literally) there were no restrictions on the
> amount of booze or cigarettes one wanted to purchase; duty free prices
> were in effect. The lines outside the duty free shop were almost
> staggering!!
>
> For us, this was our first time on board the Spirit under the new NCL
> smoking policy-smoking is now only allowed in your cabin, in the
> casino and on the open decks in designated areas. While this
> eliminated one of our most favorite spots on the entire ship-the
> smoking corner of Champagne Charlie's-we quickly discovered a new
> haunt that was even better: new sets of tables and chairs set up for
> smokers on the open deck outside Henry's Pub. Despite the heat of the
> day, there was a refreshing breeze all afternoon and evening on the
> open deck, and only a few fellow cruisers popped by from time to time
> to have a cigarette or chat. Our night time visit back to "our table"
> was wonderfully breezy (becoming positively chilly as the night wore
> on!!) and we had a gorgeous view over the expanse of the ocean without
> having to look around a pillar or even out through a window! We were
> in "cruise heaven", especially for me-I love the ocean far more than
> being on land!! The new smoking policy worked out to perfection in
> our case, and was absolutely no problem at all!!!
>
> In the early evening, we were treated to a delightful visit for the
> whole group to meet some of our officer friends and get acquainted
> with Captain Gunnar Hammerin, the Master of the Norwegian Spirit, who
> rotates with his counterpart and our great friend Captain Frank
> Juliussen every 3 months. Owing to my school schedule (which allows us
> to cruise only in the summer and at Christmas/New Year's) we have
> managed to sail with Captain Frank three times, but never with Captain
> Gunnar. Getting to meet him, and seeing Captain Martin Holmqvist
> (Staff Captain), again was absolutely fabulous!! They were so gracious
> to give us almost an hour of their time, chatting about past voyages
> and many mutual friends, while the rest of the group got what can only
> be described as "the tour"!! Of course, we also had to tease our
> great friend Captain Niklas Persson (Chief Officer), who we watched
> take the ship out of her PST berth from the comfort of our balcony,
> joined by Hotel Manager Frank, our next door neighbor, on his balcony.
> Somehow there always seems to be a small pleasure craft passing behind
> the ship whenever Captain Niklas is at the controls, and we certainly
> hope the skipper of the little boat got the fright he so richly
> deserved at seeing the back of a cruise ship bearing down on him,
> having already signaled her intent with three sharp blasts!! In fact,
> the harbor was more full of little boats on this particular gorgeous
> Saturday afternoon than we have ever seen it before, all trying to
> bounce around in the wakes of both the Norwegian Spirit and the two
> Carnival giants.
>
> Our group gathered again for dinner in Cagney's, a wonderful private
> dining room having been reserved for us by Hotel Manager Frank and his
> incomparable assistant, Concierge Lisa Meyer. Dinner Waitress
> Jennifer did a wonderful job of looking after all of us (including
> taking our group photograph), and Hotel Manager Frank was able to join
> us for most of the meal-a most gracious host in every respect!! Even
> our favorite bartender, Irina, who has now been assigned to bar duties
> for Cagney's in the evenings, gave us an incredibly warm welcome. The
> Maitre D' and other servers recognized us from our July 7 voyage, and
> were just happy to have us back on board. It was all a very warm and
> happy time, and made us feel totally at home-even more so than we have
> experienced on any previous cruise-and this was Derek's 29th, Peg's
> 44th!!
>
> Although we had planned to have a little more time with our officer
> friends after dinner (at their suggestion), we made the one fatal
> mistake that is a common pitfall whenever two or more teachers gather
> in one spot-we started talking about work and our students!! We moved
> the conversation to "our table" outside Henry's and enjoyed ourselves
> thoroughly before the group broke up, some disappearing to the casino,
> and others to the disco, while we just reveled in being back at sea,
> drifting at this point, some 110 miles beyond NYC and some 35 miles
> South of Montauk Point (we could see the intermittent light from the
> Lighthouse). As we headed back to our cabin in the wee hours, we were
> surprised to see the crowds still gathered and obviously having a
> grand time in both Henry's and Champagne Charlie's. No doubt the
> casino, disco and show lounges were similarly full of frolicking
> passengers enjoying one last fling to end the summer. As exhausting as
> this combination of itineraries is for the ship's officers and crew
> (having to disembark their Canada trip passengers, embark the Nowhere
> crowd, disembark the Nowhere crowd and Embark the next load of Canada
> passengers-ALL in the space of 48 hours), there is no doubt that this
> is quite a revenue generating itinerary for NCL-especially with 2200
> passengers on board (on this particular voyage).
>
> This morning brought a wonderful opportunity to watch Captain Gunnar
> ease the Norwegian Spirit back into her berth, this time sharing the
> PST with the Norwegian Crown and Holland America's Veendam. Even
> Captain Martin was into the "spirit" of the day, posing for a special
> photograph that Peg took looking into the Bridge Wing from the comfort
> of our balcony once the ship was tied in! Announcements to disembark
> the vessel appeared to be totally ignored by hoards of passengers
> (including us) in the buffet for breakfast. We joked to each other
> that they only way they were going to convince everyone to get off
> this ship on this particular morning would be to shut down the food
> and beverage service, then gently escort the passengers off the ship,
> one by one!! No one wanted to leave (including us)!!
>
> We were lucky to have one last chance to thank our officer friends,
> kingly arranged by Captain Martin, who was heading out to go running
> and spotted us in the passageway outside our cabin door. Hotel
> Manager Frank and Captain Gunnar got (and will always have) our
> deepest gratitude for a most fabulous single night spent at sea, and
> we had a special treat for Captain Niklas, signing off the ship for
> vacation this afternoon- an airplane "treat envelope" to put in his
> brief case! It contained a special book about Lighthouses of the USA
> (one of his particular interests), a children's book about how to tie
> knots-complete with practice strings and holes in the cardboard pages
> to practice the knots yourself (just for fun-what else to give a
> ship's senior officer to keep him happy on the long airplane ride back
> to Sweden??) and a 10 dollar bill to purchase his first alcoholic
> beverage after 77 days of "dry" work (bearing in mind that NCL senior
> officers are not allowed any booze, in any form, at any time, for the
> days that they are on board-they live off caffeine instead!!)
>
> As for our group, the 'phone calls have already been flying and have
> hardly stopped since we arrived back home and greeted our cats-one
> couple is eager to book to join us on them Norwegian Gem for her
> Christmas voyage to Florida and the Bahamas, and the others are
> already planning to encourage other faculty friends to come with us
> for a one night at the same time next year. Still others have called
> to request yet another copy of pre-cruise information packet I
> assembled for this voyage, so that they can be better prepared to book
> for next year-and maybe even join us for one of the two "back to back"
> voyages we have booked for July 2008. As for us, we can't wait
> either!! What a TERRIFIC way to end the summer!!
>
> Skaal/Prosit/Cheers/Filakia!!
>
> PegNDerek
Hi Peggy,
Sounds like you had a fabulous time on your one nighter. At least you
didn't have to spend a minute deciding what to do in any ports. LOL
I was wondering how you would compare the NCL product with the
much-loved Celebrity line. We have enjoyed both, as I am sure you have.
But somehow, I think we lean towards the Celebrity ones.
Nice review. Thanks.
Ermalee
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