NCL Mexican Riviera Cruise 2008

Sunday was our first "At Sea" day in the southern route to Los Cabos. We woke early, but not early enough to catch a sunrise from the top deck. The port side got the sunrises on the way down. We were on starboard side. I had pre-ordered room service breakfast the night before, and thus discovered that room service was a waste of time. The menu is limited and boring and stale. We wandered up to deck 12 and found some real food in the buffet; the "Market Cafe". Just like Aqua it had awesome service and food. Lots of healthy choices in addition to not so healthy splurges. My husband's plate of 2 muffins, cinnamon rolls, and french toast was enought to make my heart stop, but heck. We're on vacation.

I decided to take advantage of the sun and get some color. We found a nice spot in the "Quiet Section" at the forward end of the ship to read and sip some rum & cokes my hubby had ordered without thinking. I had snuck on my own bottles of liquor and arranged for him to have the Adult Soda Program which gave him unlimited sodas for the trip. Otherwise we would have paid for each and every soda and mixed drink, which are overpriced and have a 15% gratuity attached. As it was we ended up paying $13/each for our poolside cocktails.

After a quick shower (showers are stalls about the same size as those in the apartments of my single life) we did a stroll around our ship and ended up in the Red Lion Pub. It being Sunday we sat down for a beer and some football. The Red Lion easily became one of my favorite bars. It really captured the classic relaxed pub atmosphere. It was also the only place you could get popcorn on the ship.

We decided to have dinner at one of the ship's specialty restaurants, for which there are additional cover charges. Tonite it was Teppanyaki, a teppan style steakhouse where we joined 4 other couples around a grill and the cooks prepared our meal in front of us. I've been to plenty of teppan houses and while the food was pretty standard, the show the cooks put on simply wasn't interesting. Disappointing even, and not worth the $50 we spent to walk in there. But... we had to try it to find that out. Dessert was at the Market Cafe; BAD cake, good ice cream.

After a $14 glass of cheap champagne in Gatsby's Lounge where we listened to a very very sad singer turn just about any happy tune into a wrist slicing tunnel of doom, we saw our first show in the Stardust Theater. It was An Evening with Andrew Lloyd Webber and we were pleasantly suprised at just how much we enjoyed it. Wonderful talent and renditions of the classics. Back in our stateroom we had a little friend waiting. :-)