I don’t normally take lyrics from G&S, but thought this was appropriate.  We are having a fine time, in spite of everything, which is great.  I don’t know why, but I am suffering from some allergies here in the middle of the Atlantic.  My guess is it must be dust or some mold, because it is better after and during my runs on the deck.  The weather hasn’t been so great for a couple days, so we have been indoors more for the past few days.  Today is a bit drizzly.  Fortunately, the first three days were very nice, so we got a lot of sun.

The Friends of Dorothy group has grown quite a bit.  Last night we were joined by two young men from Australia.  Since I last wrote we also added our first (and only) lesbian member.  She is traveling alone and says she is always outnumbered by the men.  She is from Palm Springs too, so we have five folks who are from Palm Springs including me and David.  The group may continue to grow because there are other folks on the ship who are gay too, but haven’t come yet.

We just got back from our dinner with the lone lesbian, Pam, and it was a nice evening.   We went, at my instance, to the show at the lounge with was billed as a broadway cabaret.  There were broadway songs, and it was in a cabaret setting.  I did think I would die when one of the four male cast members came out and gave an introduction that since they are at sea for up to nine months at a time, they thought this song would be appropriate.  “There Ain’t Nothin’ Like a Dame”.  Well, if by that they meant, they don’t want nothing like a dame, that might be more believable, if you know what I mean.  I thought that when one of them sang “I Feel Pretty”, that was more in keeping with what we were seeing.  I was a little distressed when they murdered selections from Les Miserables and a song from Chess.  I know, you are all saying, “what did you expect?!”  Let me say, I expected in tune and competent.  It was not.

We went ashore for a moment in the Azores, but it was drizzly and cold, so we didn’t stay for long, and just visited the dock.  When we met with the Friends of Dorothy, we heard stories about what they saw and that the weather got better as you went inland on the island I thought we missed out, but I wasn’t willing to take that chance with a cab.  It was an opportunity lost, but the next time we are on the Azores. . .

So, I mentioned we are having a fine time, in spite of. . .  Well, this ship (Norwegian Star) is odd.  I can’t quite figure it out, but it may be best described as a training ship.  The staff, while very nice, seem to not have a clue what they are doing.  I don’t think we have sat down at a meal and found that everything was in place at the table.  For breakfast there is always either coffee cups, bread plates, cream, sugar or silverware missing.  For dinner last night, they had to wrangle up some chairs for our table.  We wait for what seems like hours (maybe just thirty minutes) to be noticed by a waiter, and invariably, it isn’t our waiter.  Then, when we place an order, it is never quite what we asked for, or what you might expect.  And nobody seems to be in charge.  David and I are pretty easy going, but I see some of the other guests getting quite annoyed and the staff getting flustered.  The other thing that we find odd is most of the restaurants are “specialty restaurants” and there is a charge to eat in them.  On past cruises,  there were normally one or two special restaurants where the food and service were exemplary, but here, it almost feels like they make the “free” restaurants substandard so you want to pay the additional fee to eat at the others.  Sadly though, while the service is slightly better and the good in a bit better, they don’t come close to what the free restaurants on Celebrity are.  Let me just add that today, when we went ashore, there was a table selling ponchos to guests to go ashore with because of the rain.  On Celebrity, they always had umbrellas for free to take ashore if it was raining.  You did have to pay for them if you decided to keep them, but they were there for your use.

OK, that was my little tirade on NCL, and we are having a good time, in spite of it all. . .