Sail Away, Skywalkers Night Club, and Turn Down Service

Seattle's fireboat sending us off in style.

The Space Needle.

Goodbye Seattle.

The Norwegian Jewel just leaving Pier 66.

We had been on our way

and turning around,

before I realized 

that it was us that was moving,

and not the fireboat.

The Golden Princess had moved

away from the pier so smoothly

that I didn't notice it.

We're on our way!

The Norwegian Jewel heading out

in front of us.

Neptune's  Reef and pool 

during the sail away.

I read that

 sail away drinks are a tradition.

Here's my very first Nojito, 

a non-alcoholic Mojito.

Muddle mint and lime together,

add a touch of sugar syrup,

 a little bit of grapefruit juice, 

 and top it off with club soda.

Oh ~~ so very good.

Calypso Reef and Pool.

Meanwhile, 

back down in the Piazza

a string quartet played.

It reminded me of the Titanic movie.

The music was beautiful,

as long as they weren't playing

"Nearer My God to Thee",

it was all good.

At some point near dinner time,

Rick and I had gone our separate ways.

I headed down to our assigned dining room

with our friends.

Meanwhile Rick was late, and a bit lost.

Rather than have our tablemates wait

and wait,  I asked them to go ahead and order,

and not to wait any longer for us.

I left the dining room and headed

back to our cabin in search of Rick. 

Meanwhile,

 he finally made it to the dining room

after I had already left to find him.

Arrrgggghhh.

He had been misdirected to a different

dining room, and the biggest issue

was not knowing that some lower decks

on the aft end, have no access through

to mid/ship and forward. 

It wasn't a quick lesson in getting

around on the ship.

I had time to finish unpacking while 

I waited for him to find me.

We ended up having our dinner

in the dreaded buffet...

which wasn't memorable because I can't

even remember what I ate.

It probably involved fish though.

I didn't even think to take a photo,

except for this dessert.

This was some sort of blueberry 

concoction which wasn't very good.

It did have several gigantic blueberries

hidden inside that creamy fluff.

Ah well, there were only a couple of misses

food wise on our trip. 

Everything else was fabulous.

Afterwards, we headed up to Skywalkers.

I had read on Cruise Critic that it was a very 

nice quiet place to visit during the day time.

We had gone up there several times 

during the week to find it empty, 

or nearly so.

(link to the photo source)

I found a photo (not mine) of the Golden

to show you where Skywalkers is.

A view of a light house we were passing.

This is looking through some salty dirty

windows, but can you imagine

trying to keep those windows clean.

Here are some inside views of 

Skywalkers.  At night, the music

is on, the dance floor is lit up

and it's much livelier.

We did attend a photography class

in here the next day.

We liked having this space

to enjoy views of the wake.

Looking down.

I loved the ever changing colors 

of the water.

Turn Down Service.

Every evening our room steward

would come in to fluff pillows,

turn down the comforter,

and leave sweet chocolates on the bed.

Earlier in the day,

we unpacked our suitcases

and Rick had put his pajamas behind

the pillow ~~ like we do at home.

Well,

our terrific room steward Julio

prepped the room for the night

while we were gone for the evening.

Coming back, 

there was Rick's pajamas laid out

on the bed. The folded bottoms

underneath the top with it's nicely

tucked in waist.

That felt a little bit weird and,

after that we kept our pajamas

tucked away in the drawers next 

to the bed.