Norwegian Escape Live Blog Day 1 - Embarkation Day
Author: Ric
With such a busy week, I hadn’t packed a thing yet. I had set aside some items in a Rubbermaid tote that I knew I wanted to take with me, then last night, I went to see Lady Gaga in concert at the Amelie Arena. Pretty fantastic show. Once I was back home, I started packing. Once I was done packing at around 12:45am, I went to print out my documents for the cruise. Surprisingly, because it was now December 2nd, the day of the cruise, my documents were no longer available to print. I knew this wouldn’t cause much of a problem at the port, but I would have liked to have something in hand just in case. I got about four hours of sleep before waking up to drive down to Miami to start the Escape... read more
The last day of any cruise is a sad one, but to us, it’s a bit easier when the last day is a port day as the distraction of going ashore keeps us from dwelling on the inevitable. On the final day of our Nieuw Amsterdam sailing we found ourselves visiting Half Moon Cay, Holland America Line’s private island in the Bahamas. We enjoyed the tropical paradise, thought about how it compared to other private islands, and then went back onboard to absorb the last hours of what Nieuw Amsterdam had to offer us this cruise, including dining in the Pinnacle Grill... 
Sometimes we cruise to enjoy the destinations, the activities, and the entertainment – other times we cruise for the sake of leaving our cares behind. Today’s sea day on Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam was one of those days we just wanted to look around and bask in the enjoyment of doing nothing. Don’t worry, we still managed to do something, or else we wouldn’t have much to write about… 
Today we woke up to the kind of sea day everyone wants while sailing the Caribbean, though everybody else started their great day a few hours earlier. After being up a bit late last night, a time-zone change, and a lack of morning-obligations we found ourselves up and moving around 11am. Despite this, we feel like we really got to enjoy the ship during the day, including a stroll, beer-tasting, a cooking class, and a beautiful start to our evening out on deck. 
Embarkation day is one of the most exciting days of any cruise - you're vacation is just starting and you've got so much ahead of you! At the same time, even when it all goes smoothly, there are logistics (unpacking for example), muster drill, and other things that make the day pass by quickly. Despite this, we had an enjoyable day, so we'll quickly recap our embarkation process, initial observations, and our first evening on Holland America Line's m/s Nieuw Amsterdam...
Saturday November 18th we'll be setting sail once again, this time on Holland America Line's ms Nieuw Amsterdam for seven nights. We're always excited to cruise, but this is particularly exciting as it will be our first time personally experiencing Holland America. In fact, while our