I will be leaving for Houston, TX Thursday (July 21) to board the NORWEGIAN SEA for her Panama Canal cruise. This cruise will mark the last cruise for NCL.

Talk to you when you return.

Have a great cruise and enjoy the ship.
Hope Pam is right in that maybe there will be some little extras as this is N. Sea's last cruise.

I will probably go to Singapore after her refit and take a look.

Hope this cruise leaves you with wonderful memories.

Calm Seas to you.

Find out if NORWEGIAN SEA will visit Australia as a Star cruise ship (in the not too distant future).

******

P.S. Keep the Norwegian Sea in good shape Wayne. Remember she is coming to my area of the world (sort of) soon.

1. The Captain is Carl Nilemark (spelling?) and he came onboard the N. SEA from Star Cruises two months ago. He is a great captain and will stay withing the NCL fleet.

2. The crew are well aware and passengers has been told that the N. SEA will head to Mumbai after her refit in Singapore.

3. A handful of Star Cruises crew (mostly "under the decks") are onboard and getting ready to take over the ship. I speaked to the Captain and he confirmed that he will leave the ship in L.A. with the rest of the crew. But this has not be confirmed, because our conceirge told my parents that she will leave the ship in Hong Kong and fly home to New Zealand...

4. This ship really needs MAJOR interior asthetic attention. The drawers and closet doors in our room are VERY worn out and open and closes on its own in rough seas....this ship does not perform well in rough seas. We encounted a storm and huge waves on our way from Grand Cayman to Catergena, Columbia. I could feel the bottom on the hull crash into the water and the ship was tilting left to right.

5. Vibrations are a pain in the butt. With the larger dining room in the aft of the ship, everything ratles and very noisy in there as the ship slows down, speeds up, and whenever the propellers does something. I can't imagine how this is like with the aft cabins on deck 2 and 3.

6. This ship is not really suited for anything longer than a week. It lacks many intimate lounges. The Oscar Piano Bar is really nice. There is not very many people in there, hence intimate and quiet. What I really hate to see go is the Butterfly Room, the ship's library. A very little room and quiet surprisingly since it is behind the casino and in front of the secondary lounge.

7. One more thing before I go, the ship's shop has began innovations. Nearly half of the shop has been closed off and some sort of work has begun. There isn't much stuff to buy other than the "old NCL" shirts, shorts, coats, etc along with some "new NCL" stuff. Obviously they are clearing inventory and the prices are OUTRAGEOUSLY cheap!

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Originally posted by Waynaro:
1. The Captain is Carl Nilemark (spelling?) and he came onboard the N. SEA from Star Cruises two months ago. He is a great captain and will stay withing the NCL fleet.

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Originally posted by Waynaro:
our conceirge told my parents that she will leave the ship in Hong Kong and fly home to New Zealand...

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Originally posted by Gundam X Divider:
Nice report, Wayne! You saw Captain Carl onboard? He was once the captain of GEMINI. My partner and me know him well, but we lost contact with him recently. He is a very nice captain!!!

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Does it mean that the ship will visit Hong Kong on her way to Singapore? There is rumour that she will visit Yokohama in August.

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We had a great first week, but the night after my last entry, many things has happened. On Friday all of a sudden, the Captain informed us that we will NOT stop at Cabo San Lucas. Instead we received an additional sea day, an extra 9 hours in Acapulco (this is why I managed to use the local internet service), and a merely $50 dollars onboard credit per person-maximum of $100 per stateroom. Since I am sharing a room with my parents, we only receieved $100!

Many passengers are NOT happy at all regarding the way NCl dealt with it. We were given few answers and totally unacceptable answers from the higher ranking officiers. Ironically there was a Q&A session with the Hotel Director, Executive House Keeper, and the Executive Chef. In that Q&A session, many questions regarding Cabo was asked and the Cruise Director and the HD once again gave unacceptable answers These include:

1. "the port authorities at Cabo noticified us all of a sudden that they cannot give us the service we need such as tenders and port personelles required"

2. In response to NCL marketing Cabo when this cruise was published, NCL said that "we don't know the details, but its a last minute thing. We just found out Friday and sent the letters to the passengers that same night"

3. "We have looked into other ports thats on the way to L.A. and we could have docked at 6 other ports including Mazatlan, San Diego, Catalina Island, Puerto Varlarta, but it would require us to dock in the late afternoon." This is the worst answer I've heard because if we can dock at Cabo, why can't we dock at Ensenada or Catalina Island, which are fairly close to Cabo...The NORWEGIAN SEA haven't cruised at full speed (15 knots average) since we transitted Panama, so it doesn't hurt if we go faster...

Moving on....

In my last post, I said that they have begun to take apart the ship's shop. Well yesterday, Monday the 1st, was the last day the shop was opened. My guess is that many reminding souvenirs has been moved on land waiting for another NCL ship to pick it up. I took a look into the shop today, and the shelves has been disassembled and its basically an empty place with the glass counters.

Anyhow, we are having a great time and enjoying the shows, the ship itself, the new friends we met, and of course I have been running around the ship snapping TONS of pictures.

Enjoy the rest of the cruise.

P.S. Any special events onboard, in reference to this being Norwegian Sea's last sailing for NCL?

Regards,
Mike--in Taipei and expecting another Typhoon

[ 08-02-2005: Message edited by: Deck 9 001 ]

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Originally posted by Waynaro:
I will sure ask him about you. Andy, what is your last name?

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Many thanks. Glad that you enjoy your cruise.

[ 08-02-2005: Message edited by: Gundam X Divider ]

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Originally posted by Waynaro:

Many passengers are NOT happy at all regarding the way NCl dealt with it. We were given few answers and totally unacceptable answers from the higher ranking officiers. Ironically there was a Q&A session with the Hotel Director, Executive House Keeper, and the Executive Chef. In that Q&A session, many questions regarding Cabo was asked and the Cruise Director and the HD once again gave unacceptable answers These include:

1. "the port authorities at Cabo noticified us all of a sudden that they cannot give us the service we need such as tenders and port personelles required"

2. In response to NCL marketing Cabo when this cruise was published, NCL said that "we don't know the details, but its a last minute thing. We just found out Friday and sent the letters to the passengers that same night"

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I think passengers transports by ship's tenders not provided by locals in Cabo.

Go to Photo that captioned One of Our Tenders Taking People to Shore

and

The Log of Captain Pieter Visser

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Early morning saw the Ryndam sailing a Southerly course along the East coast of Baja, to Cabo San Lucas. We arrived at 7:00 am and tenders began taking passengers ashore.

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[ 08-03-2005: Message edited by: Ocean Liners ]

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Originally posted by Waynaro:

3. "We have looked into other ports thats on the way to L.A. and we could have docked at 6 other ports including Mazatlan, San Diego, Catalina Island, Puerto Varlarta, but it would require us to dock in the late afternoon." This is the worst answer I've heard because if we can dock at Cabo, why can't we dock at Ensenada or Catalina Island, which are fairly close to Cabo...The NORWEGIAN SEA haven't cruised at full speed (15 knots average) since we transitted Panama, so it doesn't hurt if we go faster...

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Originally posted by GregD:
Well you have to remember that the N.Sea doesn't have the tender/lifeboats found on most other ships in that neck of the woods. She just has the regulation lifeboats. Thats why they need the ports tenders.
-Greg

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N. Sea called at George Town, Grand Cayman
Did they hire local tenders at George Town?
I thought N.Sea has two white colored tenders near stern.

[ 08-04-2005: Message edited by: Ocean Liners ]

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Originally posted by PamM:
Those seem tiny, but it appears from current photos she does not even have them anymore. See here. I cannot see any photos of her using her own tenders, and only a few using port launches.

Pam

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She carries tenders in the photo and this photo

[ 08-04-2005: Message edited by: joe at travelpage ]

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Originally posted by Ocean Liners:

Wind and Sky called at Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta on their Trans Panama canal Itinerary.

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Originally posted by GregD:
N.Sea finally got rid of those two tenders @ the stern at her last drydock cause she was only to be doing the Texeribbean year round and they didn't require them.
-Greg

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N. Sea called at Cancun on 7-day Texaribbean.
Cancun is a tender port.

[ 08-04-2005: Message edited by: Ocean Liners ]