Day 4 on NORWEGIAN DREAM in Hamilton, Bermuda (English Version)

The day began as always very early.

As I cannot sleep anymore I decided to take some night pictures of the NORWEGIAN DREAM:













































By this way: this is Panos the F+B-Manager. He always runs the extra mile and offered to run a Marathon. But this we did not want: Extra mile is o.k. but that he would pass away after a Marathon was not our intention.



And that's Ramona who knew us from our NORWEGIAN JEWEL-voyage: Assistant Maître D'. We could observe her working for hours. Her eyes are everywhere: before you see that something is missing or wrong, it's already there or solved.



And our stateroom attendants Eleser and Marcus: Very nice and no reason for any complaints.



Our breakfast:





And everybody again very nice!

Ashore some of our cruisecritic.com-friends were waiting for us to do the taxi tour:

cassrebecca (Becky und Mike)
Calypso5525 (Mary und Jeff)







When I saw the ducks in the Botanical Garden I asked the others about their experience with Canard à l'Orange in "Le Bistro". The heared it and went away...



The moose was artificial as it was part of the Museum...







A water basin with inside-shape of Bermuda in front of "my" future house...





Wild chicken are avaialble everwhere in Bermuda. That's why I was so surprised to have pure chicken for dinner on the ship... The next day I never saw a wild chicken again...



And I forgot to pay the lottery ticket before leaving home...















The others wanted to see Swizzles Inn. I do not know until today what's so special on this place...





As we berthed in Hamilton instead of St. Georges I need to get my bombs for "attack" of the NORWEGIAN DAWN...





The 3-master is STADSRAD WHATEVER. A picture is in our Newton plant but I do not remember the second part of the name.





Bermuda is still part of UK with inner autonomy. Royal traces are found everywhere.



We could have snorkeled here but we wanted our pink beach...



Here you can find pieces of Glass in the sand.



Now STADSRAD WHATEVER left St. Georges...



That's by the way the canal NORWEGIAN DREAM had to pass. Therefore it should not be windy.

They were afraid more that we cannot leave on time on Friday.





One cannon to go please...





It looks very nice from the lighthouse of St. David.







Becky and Mary on the top.



Bermuda was a former vulcan which falled down. That's why there are places where the water flows from the sea to the land.







Even at the aquarium you can see that Halloween was approaching.





Around 3 pm we were back and we were hungry. As only the Pizzeria has opene we went to the sundeck.

The gitarrist was a mixture of Nora Jones and Eric Clapton.



In the childeren clubs everybody was prepared for the farewell of NORWEGIAN DREAM.



No wonder that we never found the Latitude-Lounge in the night: It's only available during the daytime and in the nighttime is part of "La Trattoria".





The filled Croissants were still great.







In the afternoon there was reception for all-tiers Latitude-Members. Dancing music animated for same rounds around.



Denny showed his abilities with the harmonia.

Future-Cruise-Consultant and Latitude-Liaison David made also a great job as presenter.





Somehow it's sad to listen to our Captain. He does not so far what will be his next ship.



Later some Crew Members were invited to show their potentials.





The personal invitations were used for a raffle. There were two bottles of Champagne as prize: were these our bottles? We were jealous on the NCL-golden-pins. But David was great to release some to us as well, as this was my NCL-cruise No. 10.



Later the Comedy show started:



We did not understand occassionally very much (acoustical and missing backgrounds).



Including the audiance is very important. The game with the hands made a lot of fun.





Let's go to the highlight of our day:

The wonderful swan which came after the ugly duckling the evening before:

One part of the swan is the wonderful crew,

like I Gede who had the right feeling something went wrong.



... and the Restaraunt Manager Thomas Russegger who knows how to make passengers happy!



Eden and Swaroop: Swaroop knew us from the inaugural season of NORWEGIAN GEM. Therefore he could feel how we felt the night before compared to our beloved "La Cucina".



The second part of the "Swan" was the offer of the Executive Chef to cook what we wanted!

Such a great offer never got on any other of the 21 ships we know and we were curious if Thomas would have kept his promise.

The night before we checked all our pictures from NCL-fool and we compiled our most favourite "Best of NCL"-Menu. To be fair we did not choose anything from any alternative dining (except one side order) and limited our choice to the main restaurant experience. Filet Mignon from Teppanyaki would not have been fair... Extra mile - not Marathon!

This time we got first our olive oil. There was not Balsamic Vinegar in the bootle but I did not want anyway.



Our picture from our 2007-cruise on NORWEGIAN DREAM:



The score: 1:0 for Thomas' Team.



Got on NORWEGIAN SUN:



We never got a better White Bean Soup on all any voyages...



... and the last night missed cheese mill appeared so the new score is 3:0 für Thomas' Team.



Now a lunch from NORWEGIAN GEM:



Unfortunately it was not identified by mistake. But the "replacement" was very great with a lot of scallops and shrimps: That's 4:1...



That's from Cagney's on NORWEGIAN SPIRIT. We were only interested in the onions. I think Albatros from kreuzfahrten-treff.de-Forum may agree.



Because it was from alternative dining I would suggest 6:1 for Thomas' Team.



But the dessert came also from our last year's NORWEGIAN DREAM voyage...



Because Team Thomas surprised us with so far for us unknown creation we would say 8:1.



And four special poits for the crew so that we can score 12:1 for Team Thomas who did really a most challeging job!!!

I do not think there would not have been any better score. I do not think that you can show a guest your potential and to communicate: we want you back and welcome you onboard of an NCL-ship.

Unfortunately we need to tell you that you as reader of my blog cannot get the same treatment:

Because I made this experience you need to follow following rules to avoid such a disppointment as Europeans going on American itineraries:

1. Ask for Olive Oil and Aceto Balsamico
2. Tell your waiter that you want it more European Style and Prima and Seconda as separate courses.
3. Make clear that you want your pasta al dente.
4. If you have reasons to complain: say it that you do not like it BUT say why. General critics is not very helpful for anyone.

Similiar situation in other areas outside the restaurant: Ask for immediate action!!!

For our US-friends: when you go on European itineraries and expect it like in your Italian restaurant round the corner: Communicate one more time to make sure that they do it like you prefer.

The neighbour table was surprised on our treatment and food but we explained the background reason.

They told us that was there very first cruise and they were somehow disappointed. Especially if they here how bad other experienced the cruise they did not know how to handle the negative remarks.

We took the time to ask them if they know about the last-voyage-character of the cruise. Their TA did not tell. So we told them they are with the right company but maybe on the wrong ship, at the wrong time on the wrong itinerary. We told them that they might find what they were looking for on the larger NCL-ships and they were happy that we can transfer some of our knowledge to them to see it from another perspective.

The shops were covered with paper and inventory was count and packed inside.



Our towel animal for tonight:



A team can only be so strong as the weakest part.

In this case the team is strong and can compensate the weakness of one part.

That's why we decided to stay the last night onboard in Le Bistro. 1:99 is part of the team and we will not allow her to destroy our good memories on this cruise. Then all other crew members would have worked for nothing. They are so great: they should not loose!!!

That's why:

Dear Team Panos,
dear Team Monique,
dear Team Denny,

thanking for making the farewell-voyage of NORWEGIAN DREAM to a DREAM-voyage.

With you would go to the end of the world and much further...

Good Night

HeinBloed