This was Niko’s first cruise, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He was our navigator as he mastered the most important venue on the ship – eating!
On our first day on the ship, Niko was amazed that when we got pizza and drinks from the Cafe Promenade, we didn’t have to pay!
Near most of the elevators is a large touch screen monitor that shows a lot of pertinent information about the ship, and Niko liked playing with it.
Our room was an ocean view on the 12th deck, we had five floor-to-ceiling windows (we had to close the curtains at night because we were in view of the bridge), and it was larger than all the other rooms we have had on previous cruises. We had one bed and a sofa sleeper. For the first two nights, Niko and Nina slept on the bed and for the remaining, Nina and I switched.
Niko played games in the arcade, played miniature golf, swam freely with a life vest in the pool, and had lots of ice cream and shakes. Nina and Niko did a card coloring activity and Niko and I did a lot of exploring throughout the ship.
The five of us dined in the dining room for dinner, and Niko did great. The head waiter and assistant waiter made sure he was served first and were very kind to him.
One thing I did that I haven’t done on any other cruises was book an all-access tour of the ship. I got to see the engine control room, the kitchen, the bakery, the freezers that had ice cream in them, the pantry’s, the butcher room, the meat room, the laundry room, the trash room, the bridge, the sound booth and backstage at the theater, and the area called I-95 that goes the full length of the ship where the crew lives. It was awesome, and next time, Nina will do it. On the tour, I got to meet the 2nd engineer in charge, the hotel director, and the captain. Everybody else we encountered was happy and friendly.
Usually, I am camera happy and take a lot of pictures with my digital camera, but this cruise, I left the digital camera at home and used my iPhone. I did take a few, but my main priority was making sure Niko was happy.
