20240301 NCL Escape Neighbors Cruise - Day 7 - Unplanned sea day

NCL Escape Neighbors Cruise Day 7 - Yeah, that's not going to happen

Bong-bong-bong - the sound of an announcement woke us up. It was 7:20 AM. The announcement was in the hall - a public area announcement that we had arrived at Great Stirrup Cay, Norwegian's private island in the Bahamas. We were in position and tender group #1 could make their way to the theater in advance of going ashore. OK, that announcement was a little early and annoying, but OK - the day is starting.  

BONG-BONG-BONG - 7:30 AM, this time in our room. For the uninitiated cruiser, announcements that play in your room are never of the nature, "We're giving everyone an extra week on the ship at no cost!" Announcements in your room, especially early in the morning, are never good. This time, it was the captain, telling us that winds were howling at 35 knots and the sea swells were running three to six feet. Not good for a day when we were to take tender boats to shore. He further stated that the forecast for later today was 47-knot winds and swells greater than six feet. They were evaluating and would get back to everyone.

At this point, we knew that the day on Great Stirrup Cay was canceled. But, they never tell you right away. They let you have hope, but also to reconcile that it might not happen. Sure enough, about 15 minutes later, BONG-BONG-BONG - another announcement in the room - the day on Great Stirrup Cay was canceled and we would start heading back to Port Canaveral. Yay. Ultimately, NCL refunded $30 per person - the port fee for The Bahamas to everyone's onboard account and we had another sea day.

Here's a look at Great Stirrup Cay.

Great Stirrup Cay sits right next to Coco Cay - Royal Caribbean's private island. Here's a look at Coco Cay. See if you notice anything (other than the stupid reflections in the glass).

That ship is Royal's Icon of the Seas. Do you see that it is docked? Every other cruise line we've sailed on that has a private island in the Bahamas dredged the island and installed a dock, allowing ships to dock in weather that prevents tender operations. But not NCL. So, the cruisers on Royal got to enjoy their day on the island while NCL cruisers sailed away. Par for the course.

The day was similar to yesterday when our group just hung out and socialized. For us, that was a good thing. Spending time with friends was what this trip was all about and we did a bunch of that. We sat, we ate, we drank, we told stories. It was still a good day. We got in a round of trivia and had fun talking with folks. One thing that stood out on this cruise - there was no encouragement to meet people. With trivia on other ships, they encourage you to for teams of six or eight - meet your fellow cruisers. On NCL, there was none of that, and nobody was looking to form teams. Everyone or every couple played by themselves. It was odd as trivia is typically a very social activity. We've met lots of people this way, but none on NCL. We tried. 

We did a little packing to prepare to put our bags out tonight. We met up with the group for a pre-dinner drink at the Skyline Bar before heading to Manhattan for our last dinner together.

After dinner, we got our packing finalized and got our bags out before heading to the theater for one last live comedy performance.

Comedian Heath Harmison did his last performance and we had some laughs before heading to the room for our last night.

A couple observations:

We had rough seas today. Nothing horrible, but certainly considerable movement. On the ship, we felt...nothing. Not a roll, not a pitch - nothing. It was pretty impressive. Granted, we were cruising slowly as we had all kinds of time to get to Port Canaveral, but still, the ship was like it was sliding on butter. That was impressive.

Not so impressive - we wound up with a credit balance on our account. That meant that NCL owed us money. It happens sometimes when credits get applied - not a huge deal. Any balance gets applied to your credit card. Well, that happens on any cruise line except NCL. We heard that we needed to get a cash refund from the service desk. That made no sense to us but we went anyway. I asked the person at the desk and she said it would be refunded to our card. Perfect - just like I expected. But then...

I got to reading comments online about NCL and they all said you had to get a cash refund. I went back and spoke to the supervisor, and guess what? We had to get a refund in cash. So #1 - that's really stupid, and #2 - the crew member gave me crap information initially. Wow. Oh, and, since NCL divided the room account into one for me and one for Arlona, we both had to wait and get refunds - $9.45 for Arlona and $20.25 for me - $29.70 in total.

When I asked what would happen if we didn't get the refund, she said that when we disembarked tomorrow, we would be pulled aside from the line and would have to wait for a cashier to pay us. Seriously. Yet another strike for us against NCL.

Oh well, the cruise is coming to an end. Lots was below par for us, but we still enjoyed ourselves because we got to spend the week with friends and that is what this week was about. Steve, our bus driver will be here tomorrow at 8:45 AM waiting for us. We should be cleared to disembark at 8:30 AM, collect our luggage, clear Customs, and hop the bus for home. I'll wrap up this trip tomorrow with one final post.

Don't fret that it's coming to an end. Two days ago, we booked a 32-day Princess cruise, roundtrip from/to Los Angeles (San Pedro) to the South Pacific, so you'll only have to wait a month before more travel ramblings.