An EVENTFUL Boarding Day in Le Havre on the Norwegian Dawn!

An EVENTFUL Boarding Day in Le Havre on the Norwegian Dawn!

[Music] heat heat good morning it is cruise day and I have just walked down from my hotel to find the Norwegian dawn right there behind me welcome to Laa France i am sure I’m butchering the pronunciation forgive me for that for the rest of this cruise but today marks the start of a 12-day cruise hitting 12 countries and today in France is the very first one welcome to Mar Cruis’s Solo let’s go get on board the Norwegian Dawn if you’re curious about the hotel I stayed at I chose the Hilton Garden Inn which overlooked the water right near the Port of Lahar the room was spacious and beautifully laid out with this amazing balcony that had a waterfront view of this [Music] marina the drive to the port from my hotel took less than 10 minutes via Uber and it cost me €12 there were also taxi options available but I found Uber to be the quickest i arrived at the port around 11:30 a.m there was a quick passport check at the gate and then we were sent into the building to check our luggage and go through a pre-check-in process where they confirmed we had all obtained the UK travel authorization form before going through security and boarding the ship so interestingly enough we are not actually getting our key cards until we get on the ship [Music] [Applause] [Music] once on board we were able to check our luggage in the Bliss Lounge until stateaterooms were ready i then headed up to the fitness center and the spa to do a little tour [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] heat up here [Music] okay I just came outside from the gym it looks like there’s a kids pool out here oh there’s hot tub looks like a water feature wow i can’t imagine there’s that many kids on this type of sailing though but that is pretty cool or well I found the jogging track it looks like it goes all the way around there’s another view of this kids pool i just don’t know how you get in there look at those tiny little chairs and tiny little lounge chairs how cute are they they’re so little [Music] i am officially on the Norwegian Dawn and I am sitting out by the pool watching live music just went around and did a very very little tour of the Thermal Spa and the fitness center which looks amazing so our sail away is not until I think 7 or 8:00 p.m i just kind of getting my feel for this ship it’s very very similar to the Norwegian Star a little bit later I’m going to give you a whole rundown of the itinerary this is not going to be my typical cruise because I am not doing excursions in most of these ports like I typically do totally different type of cruise very busy very packed but I’m super excited so if you go past the bar and walk towards the front of the ship ooh we got a hot tub over here that is very nice i know on some ships the front of the ship has like a kids area i guess on this one it’s at the back but there’s so many loungers down there and like areas where you can kind of get some quiet yeah man that hot tub great spot i’m going to take advantage of that at some point and then it does look like that this side of the bar out here is the smoking section so I don’t think the other side is but this side appears to be so I will be on the other side let me explain why this imbarcation is so different than the typical so I have never before done actual check-in where you get your key card on the ship itself but today we went through security and they validated our documents because we are stopping in London you have to have an ETA they confirmed we had all that in the terminal area but then once we got on board we were directed to go to probably one of the main dining rooms but I can’t tell because they’ve spread everything out and separated chairs and tables so that means that all of the lower decks right now are blocked off rearranged not really accessible so I am avoiding that area right now until everybody has boarded the ship so far um there’s no spice H2O which is a fantastic area on the Norwegian Star but um I don’t think this cruise is going to be in fact I have not yet seen any children whatsoever on this cruise so let’s talk about the itinerary i will go ahead and put the itinerary up on the screen because it’s much too much for me to actually go into in specific detail so you can take a look at the itinerary we only have one C day and it is our like fifth day all but two of these ports are places I’ve never been so I’m super excited this is going to be such a great cruise great itinerary it’s getting a little windy out here on the pool deck i’ve enjoyed sitting in the sun but I think I’m going to actually head down to Oceans and I’m going to get a snack for lunch [Music] okay rooms are all ready so I can finally go to my state room yay let’s go okay there are lots of twists and turns on deck eight but I think I’m almost there we’re getting there more turns here we are we have arrived welcome to 8020 this is a solo balcony in just a second I will give you a tour i just met my room attendant in the hall already i was passing by he asked my room number i told him and he said “Meredith.” And I’m like “Yes.” It’s truly incredible how well the crew can remember names and faces and they’re just incredible so let me give you a little tour if I’ve not said this before Norwegian does dedicate certain cabins to solo travelers only i booked in one of those this is a solo balcony considered a solo cabin so you can only book it if you are one person they also offer solo ocean view solo inside and some ships have studio cabins which are were originally built only for one person so they’re a little bit smaller but let me give you a little tour of this stateateroom all right so we are in 8020 as soon as you walk in the door you have some storage here on the left right in there is the safe in here you have hanging storage so looks like we have a good amount of hangers there are shelves down here plenty of shelves lots of storage the mini fridge up here another shelf here with it looks like there’s a plug back there european outlet and you have three drawers down below trash bin and the vanity area here’s your blow dryer and a nice big mirror and there’s a light here as well up above a gigantic king-size bed very very nice i don’t know if this cabin has the USB plugs near the bed but it doesn’t look like it so this light though you can control right on the side so turn that on and off there and you have the floor length mirror right here then over on the other side you have your little couch and another light that is controlled on the side unfortunately there are no plugs you’ve got another table and chair over here i pre-ordered water so that’s why there’s so many waters here and then you have a light control outside light so this actually controls the light out on the balcony and I don’t see any other plugs in the room so there are very few then you got your TV and of course the balcony so the interesting thing about this balcony is we are on deck 8 so it is sort of like a cove balcony it’s a little bit enclosed i’ve never had one of these before it’s the first experience I’m having with one so it’s quite different but it’s plenty spacious and you’ve got your full view out here of the port and let me tell you I’m glad I arrived when I did because that line right there to do the check-in wow i do not I’m so glad I’m not in that line so let’s head back in and check out the bathroom so you’ve got a couple light uh hooks here on the wall and then you have your air conditioning so I’m going to turn mine all the way down you don’t want to touch the quick cool button because it will only cool it down for a small amount of time and then the whole thing will shut off the bathroom have your toilet area here over to the right separated there is a sliding door here there’s your privacy door then you have your sink area here nice big sink with your towels there’s a shelf here there’s a um magnifying mirror which is interesting i’ve not seen that before your hand soap and your shower areas this is a full shower not a bathtub you’ve got a shelf here body wash and the conditioning shampoo but as I always say bring your own conditioner because this stuff is not great for long hair looks great i don’t think I’ll have any issues with this cabin for 12 days i like it so far my room steward is amazing so far so no complaints other than very few plugs so good thing I brought my European adapter we’re good to go well my bag has arrived my room steward just played a joke on me and knocked on the door and said it was lost totally kidding though it was actually right outside he’s amazing i just got back from my spa appointment and it was wonderful got a little massage but uh it’s still very sunny outside so nice outside still lots of people boarding and I realized that I have a dinner reservation tonight i did all my reservation bookings before the cruise online ahead of time through the Norwegian website so tonight I am going to Bamboo which is the Asian restaurant it used to be a complimentary restaurant but when they changed from free at sea to more at sea they changed the bamboo Asian restaurant and all the Asian restaurants on board their smaller ships to complimentary but they also changed the menu so I will show you what the new menu looks like and tell you how the food is so we are going down to deck six oh no we’re not it’s closed okay we’ll go back up and then to midship shops will open at 9:00 p.m cuz we sail away at 8:00 so they have all the shop hours posted for the entire cruise and if you’ve watched my channel before you know that I always look to get a ship model so hopefully they have some in stock this area down here is where they have live music and then there’s Leistro and there’s a couple bars down there as well but this restaurant right here is Bamboo and this is where I’ll be eating dinner tonight so I’m going to go down one level and see what’s going on in the next deck down so they still have it blocked off down there for the imbarcation process so I can’t get through to show you what else is down there but that is Gatsby’s Champagne Bar and they do martinis and drinks like that so I’m sure that I will be back there to get a drink and hang out on deck 7 right now and it looks like this prominade goes all the way around so you can do some full laps down here and get some walking in this side has the sun right now so I’m just going to enjoy this ooh that looks like the wine bar in there i don’t know if it’s open but I can see a bar and I’m going to have to go in and check that out in a little bit so we’ll see if I can get inside using this door i like this feature on these old ships that they have this prominade area on the outside that loops the entirety of the ship really nice for extra viewing space when especially when there’s not an observation lounge which is the case on this ship so any extra outdoor space is always appreciated so this is the other side bliss Lounge looks like there’s a notice here access to Bliss Lounge is for 18 and up after 11 p.m when it turns into the nightclub and here is Sellers this was the whiskey bar in the Norwegian Star but it looks like it is the wine bar on the Dawn so I’m definitely going to have to go check this place out looks so cute i love these port hole windows it’s really nice spot and they have live music in the atrium right now right up here it looks down over this area where there’s some seating in a coffee location okay and Aqua is one of the two main dining rooms okay it’s a little bit hectic down there so I’m going to head back to my cabin right now get ready for dinner and then head down to grab a pre-dinner drink so it also looks like there’s another little lounge up here just nice little area just overlooking the atrium and Oian this is a great spot nice and cozy [Music] wow multiple bus loads of people just arrived and are just walking in to go through check-in and it is 7:32 we are supposed to sail away at 8:00 p.m and it is technically a 2hour cutoff is the requirement when you’re sailing away from your imbarcation port so they must have made some exceptions i don’t feel like we are going to leave at 8 if there’s like 50 people that just got here but it could be that they had a delayed flight and if their flights were through Norwegian they were booked through Norwegian and they had to do the transfers then most likely they’re holding the ship because they flew you know with Norwegian so I don’t know but that’s a lot of people i decided to try this the French raspberry i’m getting a drink down here at the champagne bar before I head up for my dinner [Music] do it again [Music] delish all right heading to dinner got a window table there’s like nobody in here so it’s just me so I’ll be able to hopefully see us sail away if we sail away while I’m eating dinner there’s terrible glare but hopefully we can watch Sail away here’s the new menu so they have the appetizers here entre sushi everything looks so good i actually don’t know how I’m going to decide okay so he just explained the new specialty dining deals so you get is it three three appetizers including the sushi okay thank you so you actually can choose three menu items from the appetizer section and the sushi rolls and there are four pieces that come with sushi rolls and then you get one entree and one dessert so I ordered chilled sake comes in this cute little carff you can also order sake options from here as well as in tanyaki which is right next door to me so you might hear some background noise from Tanyyaki but wow you guys look at these lettuce wraps those look absolutely divine i cannot wait to dive into these this is the crispy salmon these have actually I’ve had them on several cruises one of my favorite things on the menu look at this delicious appetizer spread here my entree has arrived here is the almond chicken and it comes with steamed rice and fried rice wow this looks delicious and it smells so good too it’s 9:00 we are still docked it’s still light outside uh I’m still at dinner ladies and gentlemen may I have your mayor apparently there are technical difficulties and they’re working to resolve them but we don’t have a departure time right now so departure is delayed we are still in port until the foreseeable future we are still in Port Alahar so the first port of call tomorrow is Bruge Belgium Zbrouge actually if we miss that port I will be bummed because I’m supposed to meet a friend there tomorrow so I’m still trying to finish my dinner and then I might go out and see what I can see i came out from dinner at the exact perfect time [Music] wow now that is the sunset it is 9:30 9:26 right now and we are still in in port we have not gotten an update since the last um the last update from the captain and the cruise director saying that we would be delayed in departure looks like there are still gangways attached so there must be something serious going on so this is still attached and there’s one down there too so I don’t know what’s going on but I’m going to walk down this direction towards that sunset and soak it all in wow how gorgeous i feel so lucky i know you can’t really see it from here but that sun is absolutely gigantic in the sky i wish that you could see the proportions but it’s so big off camera and absolutely beautiful and we are still very much stuck in port lines still there still still attached nobody nobody around looking like they’re about to take them off so whatever these technical difficulties are that we’re experiencing on the Dawn right now it doesn’t seem like they’re being resolved anytime soon which is a real bummer because that feels like we’re going to be delayed into port tomorrow in Bruge bummer we’ll see what happens got to go with the flow on a cruise you know you never know what’s going to happen and you can’t predict anything but at least I have the most beautiful sunset I could ask for on an embarcation day in France can’t can’t get better than that i mean honestly how can how could anyone complain in a experience like this okay there’s live music going on in the Champagne Bar and I think that it’s one of the same musicians that I’ve seen before on a different ship the Norwegian Sky like 2 years ago and he’s really really good super talented on the guitar i think it’s the same guy so I’m going to go watch a little bit of that get a drink and see if we sail away anytime soon so good so good so good [Music] papa well it is now day two on the Norwegian Dawn and our plans changed from the original itinerary i’m just going to roll yesterday’s video into today just to give you an update on what happened on boarding day so last night due to a technical issue that I am still not clear on exactly what it was or what happened uh the ship did not leave until very very early this morning sometime around 4:00 a.m or so so we did not make it to Bruge today which is a bummer because I had plans to meet a friend in Bruge that uh unfortunately did not happen so we have had a sea day today instead so we’ve just been moving very slowly through the English Channel making our way to our next port which is Tilbury but I wanted to wrap up boarding day just to give you an update on how things went stuff happens and I’m sure that there is a good reason for whatever caused the issue and safety is always the first priority of the captain and crew so it is what it is uh it’s a bummer but you know when you cruise you just have to go with the flow and let you know let these things roll off your back and adjust and move forward uh so I did stay up pretty late last night i met an amazing group of folks from Canada so great night super fun but today has been a very lazy day for me i went to the spa for a little bit and hung out in the relaxation room i am going to head to one of the main dining rooms so I will show you that this evening and just wrap up today’s uh this video with today’s meal so you can see both my dinner at Bamboo last night as well as my dinner at the main dining room tonight so let’s head out to dinner and then I will wrap this video up later just came out on the prominade to watch the sun setting it is 8:00 so still early sunset probably won’t be for another hour and a half if it’s anything like last night it’s so nice and warm out here we actually had a beautiful day uh it’s sailing through the English Channel which sometimes can be really rough but it’s been very calm today very nice and warm they’ve got loungers out here there’s not much of a breeze so this is very pleasant i am very much enjoying this outdoor prominade walk right now very nice you can see the fish on the door fish swim forward and Venetian restaurant is where I’m going to go it’s the other main dining room okay that dining room is super crowded there’s a line so I think I’m going to try the other one tonight okay never mind this one’s even worse i’m going back to the other one yikes okay there’s the entrance i just got a buzzer it’s 30 minute wait so I’m just going to go get a drink and wait till they call me was about exactly 30 minutes and the buzzer went off so I’m walking in now to get seated this one got a window seat very lucky [Music] and that officially wraps up the first two days on the Norwegian Dawn on this incredible 12-day cruise this itinerary was already a packed one so only one C day was an intense itinerary to start with so I am perfectly fine with having one extra C day i hope you enjoyed watching imbarcation day it’s going to be an adventure and if you want to come along with me please hit that subscribe button and give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it thank you so much for watching i appreciate all of your support let’s get ready to do 10 more days of this amazing itinerary on the Norwegian Dawn happy cruising i’ll see you in the next one good night [Music]

Welcome to Le Havre, France! Today I’m boarding the NCL Dawn for a 12-day solo cruise on an incredible packed itinerary around Eastern Europe and the Baltics! Join me as I board this ship for the first time, do lots of exploring to get familiar with the venues onboard, try various food and drinks and listen to live music! Sailaway and our first port day don’t go as planned but we are treated to an absolutely gorgeous sunset on the first night!

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