Food & DINK
We travel. We eat. And we travel to eat.
Day 7
Wherein the ship is no longer our personal resort
Getting up at 7:15 the previous morning was a real imposition, so we decided to sleep in on Saturday. We did make it out of bed in time to get to the Haven restaurant for more omelets.
The previous afternoon, Joseph left us a note that said the concierge would be giving a talk about disembarkation at 10:30. I really didn’t think disembarkation needed an entire presentation, and I was right. It’s not that different in the Haven, except you can stay in your cabin until 9:00 and you do not have to be off the ship until 9:45. And, as in port, the concierge will escort you off the ship when you are ready. It’s a nice perk, but in no way does it require a how-to chat.
We spent the morning reprising our favorite activities—relaxing in the spa, relaxing in the Haven, and so forth. We paused the relaxation to enjoy a final lunch at O’Sheehan’s, which continued to be a delight.
On this, our seventh cruise, we finally tried our hand at shuffleboard. Turns out, we’re terrible at it. Maybe we’ll practice more on our next cruise, when it’s not quite as sunny out, and when we don’t have a family waiting for us to finish, circling us like sharks waiting to attack.
After miserably failing at shuffleboard, we went back to the things we’re good at, i.e., doing nothing. We bid a sad farewell to the spa, and another farewell to the fantastic Haven courtyard. Believe me, it’s going to be hard when we one day have to cruise without that wonderful Haven retreat.
Remember when I mentioned that we were promised the recipe for the gratin at Ocean Blue? Well, several times throughout the week, we’d run in to that waiter. He’d asked whether we’d received the recipe, and we told him it had yet to appear. Well, on the final afternoon, it finally showed up in our cabin! Except—and I still can’t quite believe this—the recipe did not say anything about cheese! The only thing I truly wanted to know (the type of cheese used) was the only part of the recipe that was missing. It was simultaneously frustrating and funny.
We spent some time packing (yuck) and generally trying to get in the frame of mind to accept that the cruise was coming to an end. Luckily, we still had one final meal to enjoy.
We’d originally booked Cagney’s for our final night meal. But since we enjoyed Ocean Blue so much, and since we’ve eaten at Cagney’s a number of times, we decided to go back to Ocean Blue. I of course ordered the gratin again, and there was definitely cheese in that dish! We got a bit of a chuckle when we heard a woman complaining that she doesn’t eat seafood or steak, which begged the question, why on earth did you choose to dine at a restaurant that features nothing but seafood and steak?
The meal was amazing. Here’s a taste of what we had: champagne, calamari, crab cakes, red wine, surf and turf, spinach, gratin, and Mac and cheese. Also, not to be forgotten, the delicious sorbet dessert. It was a lovely finale to a lovely trip.
We spent the rest of the evening at Howl at the Moon. It was a lot of fun, even though they did not attempt our Rush request, despite our $5 tip.
We finished the night on our balcony, lamenting the fact that we’d be off the ship in only a few short hours.
Post-Cruise: Wherein we are sad
Haven disembarkation is so nice, it might be worth booking a Haven cabin just for that final morning. We slept until 8:00, and we then made our way up to the Haven restaurant, which was fully operational. Because we were staying in Florida for a few more days and had nowhere to be, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast while everyone else made their way off the ship.
Escorted off the ship at around 9:15, we made it out quickly. But we then hit a long line, something to which we were not accustomed on this vacation. We eventually made it to the luggage pick-up area, but we had a hard time figuring out where the Haven priority luggage was located. It turned out that it was in a separate room a ways away from the main luggage area. This was very confusing, and could definitely have used some signage to point the way.
We eventually made it outside. We’d intended to take Uber again, but the area was so chaotic, we opted for a taxi instead.
We spent a delightful few additional days in Florida, where we spent time with my family, and ate some truly epic seafood. We flew home on Wednesday, and the universe had mercy on me, because the flight was mercifully uneventful.
This concludes our review of our 7-night luxury cruise aboard the Norwegian Getaway. To read about our other travel adventures, please check out our travel page by clicking right here!
Food & DINK 