Day 2 of the cruise - Maui - Back on the ship for dinner

I've heard some differing reports from cruisers on this itinerary on whether they had IDs and cruise cards checked upon returning through the port gates or just cruise cards. The Freestyle Daily always urges cruisers to bring their photo ID (doesn't have to be passport book, can be driver's license, passport card, or even your child's ID card) along with their cruise card and from my experience, we needed both every single time returning to the ship. It didn't matter whether we were on a ship tour, a small group tour, or the free shuttle that runs back and forth to the ABC store. The procedure was always two checkpoints - the 1st had the driver show their ID. Then at the second checkpoint, a guard entered your vehicle and checked to make sure every passenger had both their photo ID and a cruise card. The drivers and tour guides will always say "Please have your IDs and cards out and open so this process goes quickly." Some of them inspected really closely, some just did a quick scan to confirm everyone was holding up two things. I've heard a lot of people express caution about having to carry their passport book around on shore. That's what we did personally because usually we don't bring driver's licenses unless we plan to drive something on the trip. If you're concerned, leave the book in your cabin safe and take your license or the passport card with you so that if the unforeseen should happen, you always have an alternate photo ID. 

Once back onboard we were able to drop our stuff in the cabin and freshen up for a short while before it was time for dinner. 

I'm so used to towel animals being a night time treat - a sort of smile inducing surprise when you are ready to retire for the night. Wasn't until my last cruise on Carnival did I start getting them during morning cabin service. This cruise was the same though we were never asked to choose morning or evening service like Carnival proposed.

Back when Spencer had told us our next in cabin treat drop off would be sweet, I joked with Dad that it would end up being chocolate covered strawberries. Once you've been on a good number of cruises in suites you find that at some point, chocolate covered strawberries will show up. On other lines, it's a formal night thing or at any line, it's a peace offering when one reports a bad experience to management. I'm not usually a fan of chocolate covered strawberries but a bowl of just strawberries and I'd be all over that. This time they put a Hawaiian spin on the treat and added chocolate dipped pineapple pieces. I noticed that the chocolate had a waxy finish to it and picked up one of the strawberries to check my suspicions. Yep, each piece on this tray was frozen solid. I even tapped it on the plate a couple times and it didn't budge. This would be the case for every chocolate dipped fruit tray we received during the week. 

So now it's either left sitting out when it should have been refrigerated like the seafood canapes the first day or they get left in the freezer so they can give the dentist some business when you break a tooth. By now the rest of the wines we had Adam and Amy choose had been delivered so we called Adam over to retrieve them for them to store and use at their discretion. 

On the first night we had discussed dinner reservation options with Spencer and he had brought us copies of the dining room menus for the nights we didn't have specialty restaurant reservations. While Adam was over in our cabin picking up the wine, we had him check out the menu and confirm that both he and Amy could find something they'd like on tonight's menu. We had planned to call Spencer about making a reservation for tonight but as luck would have it, he was walking up the hall when we stepped out to help Adam carry the wine bottles back to his cabin. Spencer had come up wanting to officially meet Adam and Amy but the timing wasn't great because Amy was just getting out of the shower. We took the opportunity instead to relay our request for dinner and Spencer made the call on the spot. He also let us know that when we were ready to use those wines at dinner to call him and he'd have the bottle sent down to the restaurant we were dining in that night. Amy loved being able to tell the wait staff that "our butler" brought down our wine for us. We also asked Spencer if we could get some bananas added to our fruit bowl since that's our go to for something to eat quick when we don't have time for breakfast in the mornings. He told us later that we'd turned in so early this evening he had to wait until the next day to bring them. Who knew bananas would become such a hot commodity later in the cruise?

While the menu is the same in both the Skyline and the Liberty dining rooms, the dress code is different. NCL still sticks to their freestyle mentality, the only difference is that in Skyline you can wear shorts but in Liberty you have to wear long pants guys or gals. If you really like the idea of dressing up for dinner each night and being away from those who walked right in from their tours in the hot sun, then always head upstairs to Liberty. We discovered later that while the main way into Liberty is to walk into Skyline and up the red carpeted staircase, there is an elevator off to the side to get you upstairs if you can't do stairs. We ended up at a table for 6 but only had us 4 at the table. Service was great and everyone stayed on top of drink refills and food delivery.

I found it interesting that each table had a little comment card you could fill out and turn in later if you wanted to give feedback on the spot about your dining experience.

Like most other cruise lines, NCL had a small section on their menu that was the "always available" options that featured simpler dishes in case nothing appealed to you on the main menu. I went with the smoked mozzarella ravioli for an appetizer which was good. While it wasn't in the always available list, I did find this appetizer listed as a choice multiple times during the week. For an entrée I went with the shrimp and mushroom alfredo from the "Classic Entrees" list. I found where they'd been keeping the baby salad bar style shrimp. Or at least it looked that way given how little shrimp was piled on top of the pasta. Still tasty though as shrimp and pasta will always win over this gal's heart.

On the dessert menu, it lists Boston Crème Pie as having chocolate sauce and strawberries. Visions of a breakfast swimming in strawberry compote from our Celebrity cruise came flashing back but I decided to try it anyway. Turns out the "chocolate sauce and strawberries" came in the form of decorative dots surrounding the littlest wedge of Boston Crème Pie I'd ever seen. I also think this dish had the same fate as those chocolate covered fruits because dipping my fork into the piece to get a bite made the layers separate. The supposed to be creamy soft center was like putting a slab of butter straight into your mouth and having to wait on it to melt. Dad and I both tried it (this guy would live on chocolate cake if you let him) and we both gave it a thumbs down.

With nothing really enticing on the evening schedule (a common theme that sometimes had us going to bed by 10PM), we went our separate ways. Tomorrow we start and end our day at Cagney's Steakhouse with both groups visiting turtles in between.