Saturday, April 12, 2025

After jetlag kept me awake until 4am I awoke… at dawn. Hopefully If I can power-through this day and go to bed at a normal hour local time I will be in rhythm with the sun at this meridian. LOL

I spent the night at the Mina Hotel and Residence by The Torch which I had booked, of course, through American Airlines Hotels. It is a very nice hotel. Staff were wonderful, room was beautiful, and it is located at the end of the pier leading to the ship. Every person getting on or off the ship that day had to go right past this hotel.  So, if like me, you arrive in Doha the evening before you’re getting on a cruise, the location is great. If you’re arriving a day or two early to sightsee in Doha, I would suggest getting a hotel in the city center and then taking a cab to the ship. Speaking of taking a cab to the ship, the hotel has golf carts for the waterfront shopping area it sits at the end of, but they were prohibited from using their golf carts to transport me to the ship itself. They therefore called a cab to drive me the 1100 yards to the ship.  The breakfast at the hotel was great! Eggs cooked just like I like them, orange juice, and BEEF (of course) bacon.  The only negative thing I will say about the hotel is the room has a very light, almost beige carpet which in theory looks beautiful, but in reality, once it’s more thana month old there’s going to be stains, and that was the case in my room. I only mention it because I know SOME westerners would be bothered/grossed-out by that. Personally, I didn’t care.

I Arrived at the Cruise Terminal at About 9:45am

Once again, for the 16th time on Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) since covid, no one gave a damn about anyone’s assigned report-to-the-port time.  They had us line up OUTSIDE, but in the shade. At about 10:15 things started moving.  At the first stop, just outside the building, they checked passports, asked if he had received a Saudi visa (more on that in tomorrow’s post), and verified names on a paper printout. That was followed by verifying bags to be checked were properly tagged and those bags were handed-off to the porters. We were then given paper slips with “group 1” printed on them. Finally entering the building, we went through typical airport-like security with metal detector and bag scan like any other cruise port. Finally, there was Qatari immigration where we received exit stamps in our passports. I was annoyed later when I noticed she had put said stamp on top of my Brazilian stamp from last month. C’est la vie.

And Then We Were Told to Have a Seat and Wait…

This is not unusual when boarding a cruise. What WAS unusual is they had not done the computerize check-in and given us our keycards. They explained that would happen on board.  Not long thereafter they called group one and off we went, walking outside (most cruise terminals have a gangway not dissimilar to a jetway at an airport) to board the ship where we were ushered to the largest lounges where final check-in took place, keycards distributed, and we were officially scanned onboard.  The usual things followed: register at muster station, introduce myself to the Cruise Next (NCL’s loyalty program) Manager and ask if she knows my friend Shannon (she did), and get some food and a drink. I often say “If I’m not onboard with a drink in my hand and food in my belly by noon they’ve robbed me of a day of the cruise.” NCL is not disappoint on that point.

And Then We Waited

One of the more frustrating things for me personally is waiting for rooms to be ready on embarkation day. I understand they just had the ship clear-out and now need to ready all the rooms for the next batch of guests. Thing is, NCL cut the housekeeping staff a couple years ago when they eliminated evening turndown. That has made the process of readying the rooms on embarkation day take longer than I wish it did. Finally, at about 2:15, the “rooms are ready” announcement was made. Hooray!

Norwegian Sky is an OLD Ship

Built in 1995, Norwegian Sky shows her age, especially considering just five days earlier I was on the brand-new Norwegian Aqua.  Her age is evident in the design of the ship, which I expect and forgive, and some of the decorating which I again expect and forgive. My room, a porthole room on deck 8 is a pretty typical cruise room. Where is shows its age is the bathroom. Two words: shower curtain. That and not much counter space screams mid-90’s cruise ship bathroom. The buffet is small, but this is a smaller ship than the new ones, so it’s fine. One of my favorite things about these old ships is the six-story open atrium with glass elevators. This was an engineering marvel thirty years ago and I love it. Sadly, at some point the suits in Miami determined it is a waste of a lot of interior square footage so those super-tall atriums are nowhere to be found in newer ships. For example, the atrium on the NCL Aqua is only three stories and no glass elevators.  I have never been on the Sky before and need to learn my way around because I will be on her sister (identical) ship, the Norwegian Sun a few days after this cruise is over.

That Evening

Since Jess is not with me on this trip, I went to the solo travelers meeting. A good number of people, but the room was loud. Hopefully the future meetings will be better.  I ran into the cruise director, Will, who was the assistant cruise director on my transatlantic on the NCL Getaway in 2022 and Queenie, a member of the cruise director staff, who was the solo host on my cruise to Norway and Iceland in 2023 on the NCL Prima. It’s always fun to run into people I’ve meet on ships before. 

I ate at the buffet for dinner, walked-around outside for a little while, and attended the “welcome aboard” show. The theater on the Sky is reminiscent of the theater on the Norwegian Majesty, my first cruise back in 2004: more night club than theater.  After losing fifty bucks at craps, I finally went to bed at 11pm local, hoping I had jetlag beat.

Tomorrow: Damman, Saudi Arabia.

Until We Meet Again, May You Have Fair Winds and Following Seas.

Eric Cable

April 13, 2025