Week 10: Onboard the Norwegian Gem

This week we arrived at a cruise! The name of the cruise ship is called the “Norwegian Gem” and we will be on it for 11 days! On the cruise everyone was really greeting, and when I first arrived and stepped inside of the cruise boat, a lady came up to me and offered if I wanted to go to kids club. Kids club is one of the funnest things in the whole entire world (in my opinion). After I registered into kids club, we went to the Garden Cafe which is the buffet, where we got lunch. I had a hamburger, fries and cookies and cream ice cream with chocolate sprinkles on top! When it started to get a bit later into the night, we were just checking out what the cruise boat had looked like and on the way we had a little stop at a karaoke room. We got a bit distracted and mum and I went on the stage and sung a song! The name of the song was “Walking On Broken Glass”.

On the second day of week 10 we first went to a birthday breakfast at the Garden Cafe for brekkie. I called it a birthday breakfast because we ate birthday food! I had two waffles, two bites of a cinnamon roll, and lots of syrup on top. This time in kids club we did 10 games in only five minutes. I was so red and thirsty after. I also learned how to juggle. It was really difficult but also super fun once I got the hang of it.

On Wednesday we went on a tour in Costa Rica and I saw my first ever sloth! You will definitely get to see some photos. When we saw one of the sloths we got about half a metre close to it. It was really cool getting so close 🦥. On the tour there were also lots of turtles at a little river, lots of monkeys and and lots of big iguanas. There was also a type of lizard that looked like a leaf with a Mohawk🦎! It was really funny. To get around the tour we were on a boat and the boat driver had his eyes everywhere. First he was just looking to drive, and then he was spotting all of the animals! It was crazy 😲!

After the boat ride, we went on a hike, and it led to heaps of monkeys. On the way the tour guide was looking for a bright yellow snake that is very poisonous. And guess what?! On the way we saw it! Then we had arrived at the monkeys. It was so crazy because everywhere we looked there was a monkey. One of the monkeys was being crazy because there was food that people in our group were holding, but then it came jumping everywhere around them trying to get the food. Luckily it never got it 😈 .

On the way back in the van, we saw a really cool type of toucan with a red scar on its beak, and its wings had red, yellow and blue colours on it. Wow, that’s all the primary colours. Before we had arrived at the cruise boat, we had stopped at a banana plantation. It may be my least favourite food, but it was a very cool tour. When the wind is strong, or there is a hurricane or something that has a strong breeze, they tie a rope from each tree, so then the wind won’t blow it down just in case. Then we had no other stops and we were about to arrive back at the cruise boat.

That night there was a comedy show on so we decided we should go to it. At the show I was the star! I was the star because the comedian asked if there was any kids in the whole place and I was the only one so he asked what was my name, and I said Olivia. That’s how I was the star of the show. TADA 🎉!

The next day was a sea day. We were travelling to our next destination, which was “🎵 Aruba, Jamaica, oooooo I want to take you to…🎵” If you know that song, you’ll understand why my dad and Mum and I were so excited. Because the next day we were arriving in Aruba; but back to today. We had a chill day where I spent a lot of the day at kids club playing super fun activities and also chilling in the spa with mum and dad. It was awesome.

After the sea day, we had arrived at Aruba! We went to two really nice beaches. The water may have been cloudy, but it was a beautiful sunny day that and the sun was shining on the ocean, and it looked so amazing. It was definitely one of the best beaches I’ve been to. On the way to the next beach we stopped at a little drinking spot for a lemonade and two beers (uno lemonade y dos cerveza). After we went to a clearer beach, not fully clear, but it was still a really nice beach so we went there for a few minutes or hours and then we left back to the ship. After dinner we had a spa and chilled in there for a few minutes with some other people who were in there first.

Then in the morning we went to Curaçao. In Curaçao, we went to a few nice beaches and we also saw flamingos. My favourite beach was probably the one where we got to jump off a rock really high above the water. To be specific it was about 6 to 7 meters high! To get up there was really hard because there’s cactus everywhere. I got spiked so many times and now dad has a big scratch on his back. The funniest thing at the beach was that there were pigs everywhere 🐷. One pig got so close up to us and everyone else, and started sleeping next to them. Some people even started to touch them. Don’t worry I’ll definitely show a photo of them.

Then we started to head off to the next beach where we went in a lot more times than the other one, mostly because it had the most clearest water in the whole entire world. I think it was the best beach in the world! After a few hours at the beach we went and saw real-life wild flamingos at a little river! The females were white, but the males were bright pink. The males were really cool because they looked just like the flamingos in photos on safari! After a few photos of the flamingos we went back to the ship 🛳️.

Fun facts

Can sloths swim?

Answer: yes, the three toed sloth can swim without sinking!

Can you eat wild bananas?

Answer: no, wild bananas are not edible because they have too many seeds so they would hurt your teeth.

How much did the Norwegian Gem cost to build?

Answer: $510 million US!