Norwegian Encore - Transatlantic - Day 5
Norwegian Encore - Day 05 - December 7, 2024 - AT SEA
After a couple busy days in ports, we had a sea day. I love sea days.
No alarm was set and I woke up when I was ready to. My routine on this trip was to go from bed to the balcony, carrying my phone, my DSLR, and a little film camera I bought before the trip.
So out I went to take my daily balcony selfies and photos and videos of the water and the view.
The film camera is like a toy. It’s a Kodak Ektar H35 half frame camera. The “half frame” means that you get two photos for every normal one. So you can take 48 photos with a 24 exposure film. Then, when they are developed/scanned/printed, they will show in pairs. I had seen it available online a few weeks before leaving, but I have a lot of film cameras, so thought I could resist it. But then, at the last minute, I gave in. My thought was that I would take two photos per day. So far, so good!
I then went to The Local to get breakfast. I ordered the English Breakfast. Something always seems to be missing from the menu description. This time it was the tomato.
Although there are a lot of activities on the ship throughout the day, I generally choose to do my own thing. Today, though, I went to the Atrium for a Q&A with the cast of Choir of Man. They talked about things like their starts in entertainment (the tapper was a class clown and needed an outlet for his energy) and their dream roles (one had been trying to get in Choir of Man for years, others mentioned wanting to be in Jersey Boys and Book of Mormon). Our Cruise Director, Tiara, was moderating and throughout the event, she made a lot of comments about their relationship statuses. “This one’s single, ladies!” It must be a little tough if you are a performer on a ship and don’t feel like interacting with passengers every time you leave your cabin.
After that, I headed to the CruiseNext desk. This is where you can plan your next adventure or buy certificates toward a future cruise, which gets you a bit of a deal. (For instance, if you pay $250, you get $500 towards the next cruise.) I wasn’t looking for that, though. I wanted my new status pin - Gold. I’d already collected Bronze and Silver on previous trips. Each level gets you some perks. One that you get with Gold is 50% off a bag of laundry, which I planned to use.
From there, I headed back to my cabin. It was a good day for an afternoon nap, so I took a hearty one.
When I woke up, I needed a nosh and headed to the buffet. I had a hankerin’ for Indian food and it’s usually pretty good on Norwegian. It’s easy to go overboard on the buffet, but I went in knowing what I wanted and managed to ignore the rest of the offerings. While there, I overheard someone say “I’m not real hungry, but I’m going to eat.” See what I mean?
The main entertainment in the evening (for me) was the second Beatles show. As I mentioned previously, seeing these shows was a priority for me, so when I saw a line forming outside the Cavern Club, I got in it. In line, I met Mike & Silvia. He was from Queens and she was from Brazil. They were happy to have left their 14 year-old twin daughters in Tampa, where they live now, and get a break. It’s hard to be a teenager and also hard to be the parent of a teenager (I assume)! My plan had been to sit in the same spot I’d had at the last Beatles show, but when they invited me to sit with them, I took them up on their offer. They were a lot of fun and I hoped to run into them again at some point.
The set list this time was:
She Loves You
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Feel Fine
She’s a Woman
All My Loving
Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby
This Boy
Help
Ticket to Ride
Drive My Car
Can’t Buy Me Love
Day Tripper
Rock and Roll Music
I had dinner in Savor, one of the main dining rooms. I had the Grilled Vegetables with Moroccan Spices, arugula, lemon dressing and couscous. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s very tasty.
The next day would bring us to the Azores and I wanted to be ready for it, so I hit the hay.
