I am currently dealing with the post-travel blues. I got home from my cruise to Bermuda yesterday and am already back to work and a long to-do list. Above all, the gloomy weather I came home to hit me hard.

I have been to Bermuda twice before this trip, each time with Celebrity Cruises, but this time I took Norwegian. I will write a separate article with a complete review of the ship, because I do have some strong opinions that I would like to share based on the staff, the food, and the boat itself, but I wanted to focus on two things that really impressed me, or at least struck some serious interest in me, while on the cruise. I noticed that Norwegian made a strong effort to be both environmentally conscious and sanitary.

Environmentally Conscious

On the cruise, one of the first things I noticed was that Norwegian was either very cheap or very, very environmentally friendly. I shared an interior room (without a window) with 2 friends and we only had 2 outlets in the whole space. This was the reason for many dead cell-phone batteries and 2-hour long sessions of straightening or curling our hair since we had to take turns. More so, was the fact that you could only use electricity in the cabin when your key card was inserted into a slot near the cabin door. This means that any time you left your cabin or went to sleep, you had no electricity whatsoever.

Another thing I noticed regarding ways Norwegian might be trying to help the environment was their choice in portion regulation, both in the dining room and in the bathroom. In the bathroom, the machines gave out very, very small squares of paper towels. I’m talking TINY! I needed at least 6 just to dry my hands. So, whether they meant to be conservative or not, I think their attempt was futile because I ended up using just as much paper in the end. However, the portion sizes of each meal were incredible. If you haven’t been on a cruise before, you might not know that you can order as many appetizers, dinners, and desserts as you please. You can try one of everything if you really want! So one thing Norwegian did right to avoid excess waste was keeping the plates small. I’m a relatively small girl, so I can never finish my plate at most restaurants, but on the ship, I almost always was able to finish and I was comforted by the fact that I could always order more at no extra cost, all while producing less waste.

Sanitary

On the ship, I was extremely impressed by the technology of the bathroom. I always say it is one of my life goals to put an end to water waste caused by automatic flushing toilets, so I was very pleased with Norwegian’s decisions in this department. All toilets on the ship only flush when the lid is closed. So, even the automatic toilets are regulated by solar panels that read when the lid is up and when it is closed. This prevents both wasted water and the spread of germs and bacteria throughout the ship. Each bathroom was also equipped with a sign that read, “Wash hands often.”

In the buffet area, where you can get food all hours of the day and night, there were some other interesting and some very funny elements that struck my interest. One was that you were required to take a new plastic, reusable cup each time you needed a refill. This was obviously done to prevent the spread of germs throughout the ship, but I can’t help but this of all of the water that was wasted washing all of those cups that were only used once and could have been refilled multiple times.

Lastly – I can’t help but chuckle at the memory of the men and women who stood by each doorway of the buffett saying, “Washy washy!” in various accents as they held a spray bottle of hand sanitizer to my hands. Basically, this was a nice way of telling us to wash our hands before we all get each other sick.

While some of the elements of the cruise that I mentioned were inconvenient to me, I am overall impressed with the direction Norwegian is going to keep both the people and the environment healthy and happy. Now, I guess I need to take another cruise with a different cruise line to compare! That doesn’t sound too bad to me…