Norwegian Star, 3/1/11, CABO SAN LUCAS

Okay, no Cabo for the wheelchair. There was breakfast at Cagney's though. Steak and eggs. First piece of beef I have had all week, and it was most excellent.


And then morning trivia. And then, hang out and admire the scenery from the floor to ceiling windows in the suite. Shortly after the tendering got underway, the captain did a slow 360. Kind of nice to sit and watch the panoramic view. After the extra day at sea, everone was dying to get off the boat. so it was pretty much empty for those of us who stayed on board.

We grabbed lunch in the buffet, met a nice couple from Montana, and went to check out the golf putting contest. I am pretty sure I won, since I was the only contestant. Maria sat and chit-chatted with Steve and mom for half an hour or so, and then I took Steve to the Spa for a massage/facial/scalp treatment/etc. Winnie from Zimbabwe worked him over for an hour plus and he came out glowing...or shiny from oil, or something.

By the time that was done, the Afternoon trivia was on. People were making it back on board, so there was a pretty good crowd.

We had an early dinner at the Aqua main dining room. Prime Rib for me, Sea Trout for mom and some sort of pasta something for Steve. All the food was good, and the service was excellent. The maitre' d and the hostess both greeted us by name, and during the meal Sawant, the Restaurant Manager, again came by to say "Hi" and see how we were doing. He really is great. He has shown up nearly every time and every place we eat, and never fails to greet us.

After dinner we caught the show "Shout". A Mod 60's musical. Lot's of Dusty Springfield tunes and the like. Great, colorful costumes. While it was a pretty typical cruise ship show, musical numbers interspersed with fairly lame comedy vignettes, the five girl singers were all excellent.

After dinner we did a quick trip to the casino. Mom won a little. Me and Steve compensated for her by losing a little.

Steve was done, so I took him back to the room, and headed to the Spinnaker for the game show. Not as good as Pyramid the day before, but fun. I was feeling a little hungry, so I decided to try out Endless Summer, the tex-mex restaurant. As someone who grew up in a Mexican restaurant, has family in New Mexico, and has spent a LOT of time in Texas, I know a little about tex-mex food. My expectations were fairly low, given this is Tex-Mex, as designed by a Jamaican Executive Chef and implemented by cooks from various South Asian countries. I was pleasantly surprised. A few things, like the guacamole, were perfect. Everything was good. I had a quesadilla to start, tortilla soup and the signature warm lobster tacos. The tacos were filled with some sort of lobster bisque-y stuff, and it did slide out of the tortillas, which is definitely not how we would do it, in Tex-Mex land, but it was tasty. During the meal, the F&B Manager, Claus, came over to inquire about my day, and to see if we have gotten the wheelchair ashore in Cabo.

After the late dinner, I went down to check out the party at Spinnaker. Apparently the port call wiped out some of the late-night partygoers. It was pretty quiet (the last couple nights, I have been impressed with how many people have been out dancing late). So, I decided to join them and turn in pre-midnite.

Now, one thing I have got to get off my chest. I don't really like to blow in bad employees. You can see, I make a point of singling out the good employees, and pretty much ignore the rest. But the so-called Access Manager on this ship is completely pissing me off (even now, I am not going to name her...the people who should, know who I am talking about). I put in a call to her the first day, which has never been returned. So far the only contact, as I mentioned in an earlier post, was a letter stuck in the door, with a key coded for the elevator to Versailles (which, by the way, quit working after one day, and had to be replaced at the Pursers Desk). And while I can't go anywhere without Andrew the Concierge, or Maria, Ray-Ray, Sam, Beverly and Henry from the cruise staff saying "Hi", and I can't go to any dining room without Sawant and Claus and various others checking up on me, etc, I have had the Access Manager walk right past me and look the other way EVERY SINGLE TIME. It appears she has an aversion to people in wheelchairs. Which is not uncommon, but not a very desirable trait in someone whose job description includes dealing with people in wheelchairs. Seriously, maybe someone at NCL needs to actually take the time to find someone on each ship that WANTS to help disabled guests, rather than assign it as a task to a certain job, regardless of the person holding that job on each ship. What they have done would be analogous to assigning Equal Opportunity compliance duties to someone, and not bothering to ask if they are KKK members, first.

Now, the ship, as a whole, is pretty good, access-wise, given that it's 10 years old. The suite, which was designed and built more recently, is EXCELLENT. And still I am in a position where I can NOT recommend this ship to my disabled clients. Which is a shame for NCL and for me, as I really love their product in a lot of important ways.

Anyway, down off that high horse.

We are now in Vallarta, it has rained during the night, and is still cloudy, but with a promise of sun later...stay tuned for more...