Day 13 Early to Tampa

Saturday, November 12, 2016
Open sea and Tampa Bay, Florida, United States
It's on to Tampa but not hugging the coast around through the Keys. No we’re going south toward Havana, Cuba but we’re turning right heading west past Florida and then straight up until we hit Tampa. We’re due in tomorrow morning.



Waves are slight, water blue, very smooth, just chugging toward Cuba . The big decision is how to spend the day: participate in a lot of activities or spend the time on the balcony reading. Life is one decision after another. This morning the decision was made for me when I realized that since we were traveling south, we wouldn't have direct sunlight until afternoon. So off to shop, drink two Irish coffees, and watch a cake decorating demo before lunch.

Afternoon, the Gulf of Mexico is so different from the rest of the Atlantic (yes, the Gulf is now officially part of the Atlantic as decreed by the deciding commission). It’s smooth (today), has local boats fishing, other cruise ships. I could get used to this.

After packing, it’s dinner on deck 12 where suddenly I see shore lights through the windows. Isn’t it a few hours early? So off to deck 13 where an official confirms that we’re already in Tampa Bay and a pilot has been driving for the last hour. We’ll be docked by midnight. We’re going under the suspension bridge soon, so up to deck 14 for a close up look . Now we know why the Casino closed early, cheating all those Saturday night players of one last chance to win it all back. The casino is big money for NCL, so why would they do this?

But the last night isn’t a loss for us: off to a theater show followed by watching ballroom and singing along in the piano bar while enjoying a cocktail.

Several of us from the original Cruise Critic group that boarded together found ourselves together again on that last night. It was time to compare notes, see who was ready to go home and who was ready to keep traveling. Everyone wanted to know what the newbies thought about it, hoping we love it as much as they do.

I told them we loved it ;)

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