CARIBBEAN CRUISE 2013/14: 3 Back Home

Sunday, January 5, 2014

We chose the colour of luggage tag that would get us off the ship last, as we all have flights later this afternoon. The whole group met in the outdoor restaurant at the stern, as the buffet there remained open until 9:30 AM. At 10 AM everyone was asked to leave the ship - our bags were on shore waiting for us.

The people with the van who took us to the ship didn't show up. Ryan had his cell phone with him, and when he called they said the van was broken down and it would be half and hour. About 20 minutes later a bus to the airport had been located, although the cost was higher, so Ryan called and again was told it would be half an hour. As this was obviously a Latino half hour, we took the bus.

We all got together for lunch in an airport cafe, then everyone walked with us to the gate as the Costa Rica flight was scheduled to leave a couple of hours before the Seattle flight. When we were there we found our flight was delayed by two hours, not great news as everyone was tired. We also found the Seattle flight was delayed an hour. Our flight was also overbooked - they were buying seats for $1,000 each but we were too slow or would have taken them up on it.

Things went smoothly once we got on the plane to Costa Rica. When Scott and family arrived in Seattle he then drove to a hotel near the ferry terminal outside Vancouver BC, getting there about 1 AM (5 AM Miami time).

Michelle had a reservation for the Holiday Inn at the Seattle Airport that I made through booking.com, as her flight to Victoria didn't go until the following morning. Brayden was sick with a cold and both were tired, however the Holiday Inn wouldn't accept a cash deposit. She had lost her bank card in Jamaica, so she had loaded her credit card, but had enough cash to get home. The most the hotel would do was to let her take the shuttle back to the airport. A hotel that turns away a woman and sick child late at night when they have cash to pay certainly doesn't get my vote!! Fortunately the airport Red Roof Inn were happy to take her cash!

The Norwegian Pearl had an excellent hotel department. The cabins were nice, and stewards were good. The food was a huge improvement over the Discovery we sailed on in the Black Sea. we didn't have a bad meal on the Pearl, and for the most part the service was good. Service varied in the bars, but some had exceptional bar staff and these were the ones we frequented. On board entertainment was mediocre at best.

On the other hand, I would recommend that people with more than one child use another cruise line. This ship is not kid friendly. The only place adults can drink at night with kids present is on the pool deck - if it had rained New Years Eve I'm not sure what would have been done. There is a place where they have "clubs" for different age groups, but they break up families even if there is only a few months age difference between them. Our kids were in tears as the division separated a 9 year old from the two 10 year olds. The whole purpose of the cruise was to bring family from Canada and Costa Rica together and the ship separated them. Our teens said the teen club wasn't any good either.

No amount of arguing by the mothers helped, and when I contacted the assistant cruise director by phone he said he would see what he could do and let me know, but did nothing and I didn't hear from him again. The ship is incredibly bureaucratic - it is next to impossible to talk to anyone with authority (hotel department excepted), every phone call goes through layers of people asking what you want and deciding if you get to the next level. Head office sets ship policy in detail, and this cannot be altered by on board staff - common sense is not a factor on Norwegian.