NCL is (and has) put a lot of money into this little slice of island paradise. It’s actually right next to RCL’s island, which is kind of cool. Haven guests gathered in the lounge and proceeded out on the first tender boat before the masses. Chris and I had nothing booked. We found a couple chairs under some shade which was short-lived as the sun moved and began to rage. We then bought one of those clam shells which are great if you don’t want to be burned but instead prefer to die from suffocation. I swam a bunch. The island was, like many other aspects of this stellar sailing, the least crowded I’d ever encountered. Bars had no lines. Servers traversed the sand seeking to keep busy and wait on guests. When I went to Abaco Taco, conveniently right behind the pay-for umbrellas and shells, there were seven (no really - I counted) staff members standing awaiting my arrival. No one else was in line. This was at 1:00 p.m. I proceeded through the line, got a cold bottled beer right there with my UBP, and sat up at the bar looking toward the water. Once I told Chris about it, we both made a couple trips through the line. On the way back to the ship (we left the island kind of early to return to the Courtyard), we found our concierge Omar who ushered us past a very short line and onto the first available tender. This service would have been even nicer if we’d stayed longer as the lines grew in the afternoon.

We arrived maybe two or three hours late which didn’t bother us. I sat on the balcony as we floated by at least a couple dozen active naval warships…so that was cool as it was my first time to this port. My friend and I booked and took the Norfolk Highlights tour. We were the youngest attendees by decades ;). We spent about a half-hour at the closed-on-Sundays MacArthur Memorial Museum opened just for us. We then drove all around downtown to up and outside of the military base and we stopped for ice cream at Doumar’s: the Home of the Cone! The guides for the day were friendly and inviting; the excursion was the perfect quick-hitter for a new-to-me city.

We did EPCOT. NCL used to do an excursion where you bought a ticket + bus ride for a particular park. Now, you just buy the transfer which I think was about $60/pp – so half off almost with our SE credit. Then we bought the EPCOT tickets separately. We had about 5.5 hours from end to end in the park. The tour operator actually was able to explain well Disney’s new ticket/park reservation/magic genie/extra-pay-per-ride fast pass option. EPCOT that day was nearly as crowded as I’d ever seen it. I think we got five rides in – all planned with the Genie + option – which was solid for the crowds. The bummer of course is that as a ride comes to an end, you must immediately take out your phone to book your next option. Living “in the moment” at Disney is now actually impossible, as the lead planner guests are now even more phone-bound. The park was so busy there was a wait just to get into the indoor portion of the Mexico pavilion. Yikes. We ate at the new Regal Eagle Smokehouse which was fine. EPCOT was tiring but fun, and a day well spent.