{"id":404,"date":"2009-10-28T20:58:19","date_gmt":"2009-10-29T04:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desoren.com\/?p=404"},"modified":"2026-03-25T15:48:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T23:48:29","slug":"the-last-2-50-days-on-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desoren.com\/?p=404","title":{"rendered":"The Last 2.50 Days On Board"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A few people have emailed us and wanted to know how much this cruise cost. We paid $549.00 each plus airfare (which was cheap as well, LGB is the best LA airport!). Which worked out $69.00 a day per person. The price covers room & board and all onboard activities. It has been to date the cheapest vacation we have ever taken together. It’s pretty easy to see why people like cruising so much.<\/p>\n

Our last few days on board the Norwegian Star were spent relaxing. We got into the habit of heading down to the Blue Lagoon restaurant and ordering dinner and lunch and then hiding in our cabin.<\/p>\n

Having the balcony was a HUGE plus for us. It became Joshua\u2019s default position with a book in hand. \"CIMG0068\"While Anthony started to work his way though the stack of DVD\u2019s he packed. Most of the time we had the sliding glass door open, day and night. If we ever do another cruise a balcony will not be optional but a requirement.<\/p>\n

The last two days were really non-eventful for us. We did a little onboard shopping for trinkets and gifts. We have continued our tradition and got a magnet and coffee mug from each vacation destination we traveled too. The on board market covered that little need nicely.<\/p>\n

Anthony attended the future cruise planning seminar, which turned out to be a plug for the new NCL Epic cruise ship. Again nothing helpful other then \u201cGo to our website for more information\u2026\u201d. Onboard internet was free only if you traveled to the NCL homepage. Anything else was a scary 75\u00a2 a min! We checked out the NCL homepage and the speed was terrible for the rate they were charging, their own homepage took over a min to load. We kept looking for the commodore 64 300 baud modem that just had to be attached to the ship board computer.<\/p>\n

Joshua became a fan of the cigar lounge and visited it nightly for a cough\/cigar and scotch. He even bought a Cuban cigar while we were in Mexico and tried it while on board. Anthony made it every clear that this was a vacation only event and this dirty habit would not come home with us. Both of us are ex-smokers and know how easy it is to start back up.<\/p>\n

We attended the on board magic show, which was really funny\u2026 but not like you would think. We sat in the side balcony and were able to see how the magician did most every trick. It was pretty funny as we debunked each trick to each other.<\/p>\n

We did the Asian restaurant and Anthony had his first taste of Sashimi. Joshua who is a huge fan of Sushi was not impressed.\"CIMG0074\"<\/p>\n

Thursday night was the Chocolate Buffet. We both got a full plate of chocolate goodies and headed off to bed as the buffet was at 10:30 pm (that’s about hour past Anthony’s bed time).<\/p>\n

Disembarkation day was the most \u201cexciting\u201d part of our last 2 days. We woke early again as we wanted to get off the boat during the first wave of debarkation. The process turned out to be a mad house. Half the ship seemed to have the same idea. We are going to a separate blog on the horrific personal behaviors we saw on this trip, debarkation day was the highlight of the selfish nasty behavior we saw in our fellow passengers.<\/p>\n

Joshua broke the handle on his suitcase as we tried to take our luggage down the stairs rather then the elevators, which were packed with rude unbudging passengers. It took us about 30 mins to get off the ship, from cabin to customs, which was about 15 mins longer then it needed to be. All because of our childish fellow passengers<\/p>\n

\"total_recall_x-ray\"<\/p>\n

Customs was by the way a huge joke. Don\u2019t understand why I have to take my shoes off and\u00a0x-rayed and scanned if I get on a plane, but take a\u00a0cruise from a foreign port and they just wave you through.\u00a0They didn\u2019t even look at our passports!<\/p>\n

We had kept the tube that Joshua\u2019s Cuban cigar came in for a kept sake and were worried we might get questioned or have it taken away. They did not even look in our bags. So much for Homeland Security. We could have brought back a case or two of Cuban cigars, or even a global thermonuclear\u00a0device<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We got picked up by Enterprise car rentals, as we had booked a car for our 2 days in LA. The rental shop was close by and we were driving off to Harbor Avenue in Anaheim within 30 mins. Yes, that makes 2 trips to Disneyland in one year.<\/p>\n

OK WE KNOW WE HAVE A PROBLEM\u2026<\/strong>. admitting it is the first step to recovery.