Oct. 5, 2018 At sea

I went for breakfast and sat with Juan from Puerto Rico and his roomie friend. The friend looked tired and he said it was because of being awakened several times during the night due to his snoring. What a strange co-incident! It's mentioned to me every morning; in a polite way but still mentioned all the time. Meanwhile everyone snores, even little kids snore, believe me just because i don't bring it up about your snoring doesn't mean you don't snore. It just means that you snore too and i know there's nothing you can do about it so i let it go rather than make you feel bad. Anyhow, Juan has a sore throat and can’t speak today. I feel bad for him as he’ll be departing the ship in Tokyo tomorrow and flying home. I know it’s no fun to fly when you’re not feeling well so i wish him a speedy recovery and a safe trip home.

I then went to the casino and hung out, played a few games while waiting for the slot pull people to arrive. It got underway with just 5 people paying $100. each on a Wheel of Fortune machine. When it was my turn i had a $38. win, a couple others had a similar small win and one lady hit the wheel of fortune and landed it on $400. In the end everyone shared the pot and got $115. back and the lady with the biggest win got the few extra bucks that didn't divide up properly.  So technically i played in two tournaments and got back $5. in the first one and then $105. In the second one so nothing was won or lost, how amazing was that!

We then attended the Cruise Critics group event in Spinnikers where we heard the news of a very special cruise coming up that we could get on for cheap. I forget how many days but Copenhagen, Bermuda and many more exciting ports and it ends in New Orleans. I don’t think I’ll look into it despite the great itinerary because of all that long distance flying. I’m finding that I’d like to stay closer to home now and maybe do just Pacific cruises but you never know. Flying long distances is a bummer but i may change my mind especially if it's only one way. This cruise they were talking about also had great perks like a free drink pkg, however i think they said only inside cabins were remaining. I don’t want to ever cruise in an inside cabin no matter how cheap it is. No, i am not a snob or spoiled rich girl; i’ve done inside cabins and balcony cabins and there’s a huge difference between these cabins including a large jump in price. However, your room can make or break your cruise and it's bs when people say you're not in your room very much because, yes, you are so let it be a nice room! It’s awesome to sit on the balcony and watch and hear the ocean and see the ever changing sky, when you wake up and look out at a new port first thing in the morning, the fresh air, a better quality mattress, a coffee maker, the extra space, less walking anywhere etc. I could change my mind on that though especially if i decide to cruise solo and have to pay double.

I hung around awhile and then made my way back to the buffet for lunch where i dropped a tomato sauced bit of pasta on my new white sweater. So down to the cabin to hopefully remove the stain. I had always brought one of those Tide stain remover pens with me and never needed one until this time. I think i got it all off; while it’s still wet it’s hard to tell. So i hung it over one of the chairs on our deck which you're not really supposed to do.  I secured it so it couldn’t fly away in the wind and i took off to the crew talent show. The talents some of these crew members have is extraordinary and a couple of the singers could probably be in a better place for sure.

I stopped by the casino on my way out and played a little poker but didn’t win anything. So down to the Internet cafe to get the charges on my bill removed as it said I had used $16. worth of WiFi which i hadn’t. Remember, i couldn’t figure out what my email password was and therefore couldn’t get online. The internet lady apologized that the refund wouldn’t show up on my account for 30 minutes!
I was missing Starbucks big time so went to the Java stop and got a kind of a version of a frappachino which really didn’t quite cut it but I drank it anyway. Without a straw. What a stupid thing that is to save on using plastic straws but get your drink served in a plastic cup.

Tonight we are packing as the first leg of our cruise will be over tomorrow. We have to be out of our cabin by 8:30a.m. so the steward can prepare it for the new people and they’ll move our stuff down to deck 5 where we’ll live for the next 19 days in an Ocean view cabin with no balcony. Our new cabin is in the forward part of the ship so a long walk to the buffet but very close to the Stardust showroom, Spinnakers, Fyzz and the casino and a short walk to Azura restaurant. It’ll be like a whole new cruise on the opposite end of the Jewel.

There’s excursions tomorrow for the passengers that will be continuing on to Singapore as we are but i didn’t pick one to go on. My roomie and her friends are going to take a taxi and have invited me to go with them to a botanical garden in Tokyo but right now i’m thinking maybe i’ll just stay onboard and get a seat somewhere to watch all the new passengers come on. Not sure of the count but i’ll guess there’ll be at least 2000 new passengers. As well there will be other entertainments to attend if i decide to stay onboard so no dull moments. When our new cabin is cleaned and ready i’ll be able to unpack and settle into fwd cabin #5014.

I was quite late for dinner what with packing and all. I packed all my winter duds into the suitcase as i don’t think i’ll need any of them anymore until i get home. It’s already very noticeable how it’s getting warmer every day as we travel. Then unpacked my summer clothes and hung them all on hangers as we’ve been told to do when moving from one cabin to another. The room stewards do everything after that delivering our stuff to our new cabin. It probably is their busiest day of a cruise. We’ve each been given a huge brown paper bag for shoes, cosmetics, clothes, whatever we want to put in it. I chose to put my winter stuff in the suitcase and once we’re out of the room they’ll start transferring everything. I’ll miss our cabin steward Alex, he has been so cheerful and helpful with every request we’ve asked of him. He’s friendly and talks of his family and how much he misses his wife and daughter as he’ll be away from them doing this job for 8 months. Most of the employees on a cruise ship have 8 month contracts. Some then move to a different ship and others return to the same ship after a 4 month break. I think the majority of employees onboard are Filipino and we know there’s no Norwegian workers on NCL

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new chapter of cruise life on the opposite end of a ship. I expect we might see the same shows, the same foods, the same trivia contests......well i hope not on that because i’ll still get O answers because i’ve forgotten everything i learned at trivia. But all new scenery, new and unusual countries to visit and i’m pretty sure there’ll be a lot of new and exciting things happening too.

Stay tuned.......