NCL Sea 11/25/02

We arrived in Miami the day prior to leaving, we chose to stay at the closest physical hotel to the cruise ship, the Hotel Intercontinental Miami. This upscale hotel is located a adjacent to the the beautiful Bayfront Park and the popular Bayside Marketplace. The mall features a wide variety of shops and eating venues ranging from Lombardi's to Hard Rock with a nice food court located on the second level. This lively, but not crowded mall features some excellent ethnic music to get you into the vacation mode. The hotel itself is just a $20 cab ride from the airport and a $8 ride to the port. The hotel is located facing the Dodge Island terminal with extraordinary views of all ships in port (ask for a port/bay view, not a city view).

A very quick 7-minute cab ride from the Intercontinental gets us to the Port of Miami, after a little confusion on the cab drivers behalf we finally get to the ship (make sure you read the signs because your cab driver can/will not). Arriving exactly at 12:00 pm the porter takes the bags (double checks your tags) and states they will be in front of you stateroom in two hours. We proceed thru one check point to check passports and they direct us to the shortest line (no waiting at all!), a quick check-off the list and another passport check we are directed to a security line, the standard airport style check-point and metal detection we are directed up and escalator and out side for a 1000-foot walk to the ship (seniors take note, this is quite a hike). Upon entry we are greeted with a staff member to escort us to our stateroom just one floor up on deck 6 promenade (see room review below). Total time from cab to stateroom 8 minutes! We proceed to the pool deck for an arrival lunch featuring Hamburgers, hotdogs, sub sandwiches and some salads, exactly what the doctor ordered.

We chose a Deck 6 Ocean View (6231) room partially for it's quick access to the main areas on the ship. Our room was located just 20 feet from the center set of stairs and bank of elevators (slow and often overloaded), the majority of ship is either on deck 4 & 5 or deck 9 & 10, we could make it back to our room within 5 minutes from anywhere on the ship (that can not be said to those with cabins on deck 2). The room itself is exactly what I expected, measuring 16'x9' (144 sq. ft) provided plenty of storage once we unpack our luggage (tip: You must unpack your bags, living out of your luggage is not an option on a ship). The total size of the bathroom area is approx. 4'x5' with the shower area measuring 24"x30", tight but manageable. The bathroom is one combined room featuring the head and sloped floor to drain the shower, the vanity features a shelf below the sink to store a shaving kit.

Being an older ship there have been several reports of being a little worn, I paid particular attention to this an found the following minor issues: 2 cracked tiles in bathroom, one broken hinge on storage cabinet, loose toilet seat, slightly frayed carpeting in two elevators, one elevator inoperative, minor rust on window on deck 9. That is it!!!! I found the ship to be in excellent condition.

We managed to make it to all of the restaurants on this trip, the food overall is only average, I had a prime rib cooked to the consistency of beef jerky, we really enjoyed the afternoon poolside cookouts held daily. The last evening we had dinner at the "high-end" LeBistro ($10 cover charge), The food was just slightly above average with Cindy having the Vegetarian special and myself partaking the steak. The service for a group of 6 was painfully slow taking nearly 2 hours to complete.

Belize - The day we arrived in Belize City we brought along three other ships, in this newly developed stop bringing in 7,000 passengers by tender proved to be a Herculean challenge. We actually heard two excuses for some of the problems of the day, the first being only one (monopoly) excursion operator and he simply did not have the capacity to handle all of four ships, we also heard there was a tour bus operators strike due to non-payment from one cruise line. What ever the excuse all shore excursions were cancelled at about noon, with all this confusion and lack of proper tenders it took us to nearly 1:00 pm to get a tender to shore. The tender took no more than 10 minutes. The tenders drop you off at the Belize "Tourist Village", this newly constructed pavilion feature numerous t-shirt shops, craft stores, a band, a pharmacy, tour operator, a few restaurants and a bar. We breezed thru this and thought we would "explore" downtown, about half-way to downtown the wife thought we ought to turn back (chicken). On the way back we stumbled across a wonderful art gallery run by two British citizens, wonderful, reasonably priced artwork featuring many local artists. After about an hour in Belize back on the tender we go.

Cozumel - After a less than productive day in Belize we set our hope on Cozumel, The Sea parked at the highly desirable downtown pier next to NCL Sun. The pier end convenient enough in a brand new mall where you can find any number of clean, friendly taxis available to you. We decided not to take a preplanned tour and head off on our own, we decided on Chankanaab National Marine Sanctuary, located just an 10-minute cab ride ($8 US) we arrived at the beautiful park and promptly paid the admission ($10/pp US). Incredibly nice, clean and plenty of space to explore, we quickly found some beach chairs and scouted out some snorkeling gear ($5/pp US for everything). The snorkeling here is as good as anywhere on the island, plenty of room and very manageable crowds. Chankanaab features several restaurants, numerous restrooms, lockers, changing areas, volley ball courts, miniature golf, a guided ruins tours and a dolphin habitat where you can swim with the dolphins ($120/pp US). After a few hours we made it back to the ship for a quick shower and some shopping! We took a $4 cab ride to Los Cinco Soles & Pancho's Backyard located at the end of the main drag to start, Los Cinco Soles features a huge collection of shops and a great restaurant! This a great place to start! We proceeded to zigzag thru the streets and shops (never feeling threatened) and having a few tequila shots along the way, we finally made it back to the pier. A few too many bags we make the decision to drop the bags at the ship and head back out! Directly across from the pier is a Cozumel landmark, Carlo's & Charlie's! This high-energy bar features some great music and my favorite Sol beer! This is the place for both passengers and crew (I saw the guy who made my omelet that morning dancing on the bar! Great fun and close enough to run back to the ship before it departs!

I can't say enough good things about our cruise (even being home a few weeks now), we have traveled to resorts in Arizona, Las Vegas, Mexico & Key West and of them all cruising is the way to go. You do as little or as much as you want too and the cost (if booked correctly) is extremely reasonable ($349/pp for Ocean View DD)! The food (while just average) has never been a deal breaker in my eyes, but the atmosphere really makes this special. We met some excellent people from around the world and plan on joining them next Thanksgiving for another cruise. The cruise lines have this own to a science, they created a little slice of America wherever these ships travel. As for the NCL and the Sea, the staff was just friendly and accommodating enough, they could use a little help in that area (we struggled to engage any bartender in any sort of conversation, perhaps the Freestyle tipping has something to do with this). When it comes to Freestyle cruising this is definitely the way of the future! I struggled to where khaki pants on a nightly basis for dinner, but keep telling myself this is so much better than either a suit or tuxedo! I encourage your questions at the address above. Here is the rundown on the costs for our trip (for use as a guide what to expect):

Airfare for two MKE-MIA	$567.00
Pre-cruise hotel (Intercontinental)	$135.00
Cruise (Cat. DD) includes taxes	$823.00
Travel Insurance (we both have highly volatile jobs)	$58.00
Belize - Art Purchases	$35.00
Cozumel - Excursions, drinks, food and purchases	$204.00
On-Board Credit (Drinks, Bingo, Purchases, Internet, Tips)	$508.00
Cabs & Off-Ship Gratuities	$65.00
Total	$2,395.00

How much are drinks??? - They are equivalent to any major city in the US, we stuck primarily with drinking our normal Corona, they were $3.75 each. At each of the poolside bars they offered a beer bucket special with 5 beers for $13.00 domestic / $15.00 imports. I had several "rail" drinks ranging from $3.50-$4.00. Everyday there was a "drink of the day" available, these were mostly Rum Runners, Margaritas or Blue Hawaiians, these ranged from $5.95-$6.95 including a specialty glass, with refills available for $4.95-$5.50 depending on drink. Wine is available at all dining venues starting in the low $20.00 range, they feature a program where you buy 4 bottles get the 5th bottle FREE! **PLEASE NOTE: All bar services add a 15% gratuity to all purchases.

Can you feel ship move? - Yes! You really get used to it, most of the movement is from side-to-side not front to back. It makes the pools create some amazing waves! We especially noticed the ship move in the gift shop/drug store area.

How much noise/vibration are created from those engines? - Yes, it's a little noisy and vibrating (especially in the aft dining room and the Stardust lounge). It's not gonna spill your drinks or anything like that but if you had a stateroom in the area near the rear of shift I might reconsider. In my center deck 6 room I felt no vibration or noise.

Monday - Miami	Resort Casual	Thursday - Cozumel	Resort Casual / 70's
Tuesday - At Sea	Formal Optional	Friday - At Sea	Resort Casual
Wednesday - Belize	Resort Casual / Caribbean	Saturday - Miami	Resort Casual

What are the restrictions on evening attire? - Resort Casual. No shorts, T-Shirts, blue denim jeans or beachwear after 5:30pm in the main Restaurants, Pasta Cafe and Le Bistro. Craig packed a number of pairs of Khaki pants and golf shirts, Cindy had a number of light sun dresses with a light sweater for the air-conditioning chills. We did not do formal, however about 50% of the crowds in the main dining rooms participated by either wearing a dark suit or tuxedo on the one formal night. We never felt uncomfortable with our attire. A few of the nights we chose to dress down and just eat at the Big Apple Cafe (Buffet).