schmoopie17

And in the words of Elvis, "Thank you...thank you very much".

"A bit of odor" is one thing. The overwhelming stench pouring out of the Casino (and even worse contained inside) is quite another. I guess, like everything else, when it comes to cigarette smoke...YMMV.

The main theater level is on six. If you go up to 7 you can sit in the balcony.

They say kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray. Walking through the Jade Casino is like rolling around in an ash pit.

I never use hotel coffee makers. Or underwear, So if you get the room after I check out, you're good.

I don't know how I failed to mention this in my initial post, but the Casino smoke was beyond horrible. You almost need an oxygen tank just to walk through that gas chamber. And the smoke permeates all of the surrounding area. Unfortunately, one of the main pathways to the theater is through the casino. (Unless you take the 7th deck). I was actually contemplating playing Texas Hold 'em, but I can't hold my breath for more than 30 seconds at a time.

In my review of our trip on the Jade last week, I talked about the failure of this game. There was a delay of over half an hour due to "technical difficulties", after which they ended up canceling the game altogether. However, the technical difficulties didn't stop them from begging for people to pay to play the game the whole time. Apparently, the suck---I mean players---who contributed money got refunds, but I can't verify it. Also, the theater was only about a third full...which is an indication of what the cruisers think about this "entertainment" option.

If you see this, say "Hi" to Shane in the martini bar from "Cosmo with a lime" and "Bulliett on the rocks". I'm sure he'll get a kick out of it. By the way...if you enjoy bartenders who do tricks, Shane is one of the best. Flipping bottles behind his back, napkin tricks, etc.,

I'm so old, the only Kravitz I know of is Mrs. Kravitz from "Bewitched". But the two Darrens confuse me...

I only went to the Vets get together because our "surprised" traveling companion wanted to go. Needless to say, he was disappointed, as well. It was also a topic of conversation around the bar the next day. They also had "impromptu" Vets get togethers every day at 4:30 in one of the bars, but I never saw anyone there. Kind of sad...

Those look just about perfect.

Duplicate...oops.

Not exactly true. There is a "logout" button on the same page you log in. Hitting the logout button logs you out. That's how I did it for the 14 days of our cruise that ended a few days ago.

We were on the Escape in November, 2022 for a TA. Great ship...and we're back on her again next September. I got all excited when I saw they now have a Beatles band. That was until I a few posts later when I saw they don't have a Beatles band. I guess I'll have one less thing to look forward to now...and they better not pull Choir of Man (but not holding my breath).

How ironic...a tanker with a "No Smoking" sign actually smoking (to protect the environment).

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the wings in O'Sheahan's. There has been much discussion on this board about the quality (or lack thereof) of the wings. But whoever (you know who you are...I'm old and can't remember) suggested ordering the wings crispy with sauce on the side... let me tell you, it made all the difference.

I liked everything I had...which was usually the orange peel beef. The spring rolls were great (I always got a double order), as was the hot and sour soup. Mrs. Schmoopie liked the steamed pot stickers, fried rice and sweet/sour pork. And I already mentioned the pudding. I'm not usually a tapioca fan, but the waiter said it was awesome and if I didn't like it he'd give me my money back 😁. He was right about the awesomeness...I had it all four times. We even asked for the recipe and it showed up in our cabin the next morning.

I am serious...and don't call me Shirley. Oh wait, obscure "Airplane" reference. Yes, it is a fact that only the pool bar was open until sailaway. They made an announcement and a bit later heard it from the Cruise Director personally. Didn't bother to ask why as I hot-footed it up to deck 12 to procure a couple drinks. I had never seen anything like that before. However, only the pool bar was open when we landed in the Cayman Islands. Something about local regulations.

Background: We recently completed 14 days on the Jade. Prior to this cruise, we had only been on larger and/or newer NCL ships (Escape, Bliss, Encore and Prima). We were pleasantly surprised by both the size and condition of the Jade. For an old gal, she's holding up quite nicely. Some of you may recall my post a few moons ago regarding the fact that we would be going on this cruise with friends who were neighbors of ours five years ago when we lived in Arizona. Mrs. Schmoopie (more on her later) and the wife of the couple decided to surprise the husband by not telling him we would be going on the cruise with them. Many on CC were appalled that we would do such a thing...while many (like us) thought it would be a wonderful surprise. (Spoiler alert: it was quite wonderful). We had driven to Tampa from the frozen tundra and we arrived just about the time their plane landed at the Tampa airport. The wife told the husband she had arranged an Uber to pick them up. When we drove up, the wife gave both of us a big hug and the husband stood in amazement, wondering why his wife would hug the Uber driver. After looking closer and seeing who we were, he was immensely surprised and thrilled that we would be joining them. He spent the ride to the hotel telling us how utterly surprised and happy he was about this whole escapade. This would be a good time to expound on Mrs. Schmoopie. Last July, she suffered a severe leg fracture at an outdoor concert. The weather turned threatening with lightning and torrential rain and the concert had to be called off after only three songs. The crowd made a mad dash to get out of the venue and somelady (I use the term loosely, since she was no lady) was pulling a cooler on wheels behind her and she managed to clip Mrs. Schmoopie from behind, sending her sprawling to the ground. The "lady' looked back to make sure her cooler was still intact and then kept going. I'd use a different term for this "lady", but the CC censors wouldn't approve. Anyway, an ambulance was called and we spent the rest of the night in the ER, where Mrs. Schmoopie was diagnosed with a Tibia plateau fracture...one of the worst places you can fracture your leg. Eight months later she has remains mobility challenged...which put a damper on our excursion activities, but not our enjoyment of the cruise. By the way, the band at the concert was the Guess Who. They sounded great for the three songs we heard. Now every time I hear one of their songs I cringe from the memory. Okay...enough preliminaries and injury reports. Let's get on the ship and set sail. I'll break this up into categories for ease of reading...or ease of skipping if a category doesn't interest you. And, no...this will not be a detailed description on every single moment on the ship...just the highlights. EMBARKATION: We had arranged for a wheelchair with NCL, just in case it was needed. However, she chose to use her cane and walk/hobble on with the other passengers. We were excited to have our first drink...then we were disappointed because all of the bars were closed until sail away (with the exception of the pool bar, which, of course, was swamped)...but I still managed to run up there and get us a couple of drinks. Hey, we're from Wisconsin...we can drink with the best of them. CABIN: We had a cabin with a large picture window. We normally get a balcony, but the cost of a balcony was $1600 more per person. I figured I could find better use of $3200 on our trip. It was okay, but had nowhere to sit, other than on the bed and the tiny vanity stool. Oh well, we were saving money. A couple of odd things were the sign that said, "Strictly no smoking in bed"...along with the ashtray hanging on the wall above the toilet paper dispenser in the bathroom. Apparently it's okay to smoke in the bathroom...but you better not do it in bed!! We had an awesome cabin attendant named Genifer who was constantly cheerful and very helpful. INTERNET: Basically a waste of time, since connecting to anything (even the "free" Cruise Critic) was next to impossible. Here's an example: Click on Cruise Critic (wait three minutes)...Click on Boards (wait three minutes)...Click Norwegian (wait three minutes)...Click a thread (wait five minutes). Give up. ENTERTAINMENT: They had Wheel of Fortune scheduled in the theater one night for 8:15. They kept having "technical difficulties" for over 30 minutes. They kept encouraging people to sign up/pay even though they were having technical difficulties. Finally, at 8:45 they announced that the technical difficulties were REALLY difficult (and apparently technical) and they would be canceling the show. I should mention that the theater was (maybe) a third full. Seems like people are not happy about the trade-off of entertainment shows vs. game shows. As for other shows, the hypnotist was hokey/annoying (and fake)...the trombonist was hokey (and only so-so), the magician was okay, the comedian was actually pretty funny, the gymnasts were awesome...and the show Elements (which included the magician, acrobats and dancers) was beyond awesome. Beats Wheel of Fortune hands-down. The lounge highlight was the Prelude Duo, great singing and music, featuring a fantastic pianist who gave a couple of solo shows in the atrium during the day. There was also a solo guitarist who was excellent at playing guitar...not so great at singing. Speaking of not so great, they had scheduled a different lounge group to do a "Beatles Tribute" in the Spinnaker lounge one night. For some reason (never explained) the group didn't perform but was replaced by a female piano player/singer who decided to try to do Beatles songs. About midway through the first song, the crowd got up en masse and made a beeline for the exits. I felt bad for the piano player, but whoever had that idea should not be scheduling entertainment. Yes, it was that bad. The cake decorating demo in the atrium one morning was a hoot. Speaking of a hoot, the Captain was highly entertaining and funny at the technical presentation, on stage at the end of Elements, and when he would make daily announcements. This was his last cruise before retirement and he will be missed. FOOD: We didn't eat in the buffet except for grabbing some pizza at lunchtime while sitting at the pool. Some days it was crispy, other days, not so much. But it's cruise ship pizza, so I never expect much. Breakfast most days was in O'Sheahan's and it was generally pretty good. Dinners in the two main dining rooms were consistently very good...even the much maligned New York Strip which was (surprisingly) cooked perfectly and quite tasty. We had specialty restaurant meals in the French and Italian restaurants...both very good. NOTE: The filet in the French place now has the fois gras built into the price on the menu, so if you get the filet there's no way to remove the extra charge even if you don't want the liver goop. We ate in Jasmine, the complimentary Asian restaurant four...count 'em...four times. It was that good. Of course, we don'r have any decent Asian places in our area, so may be it only seemed good. But it seemed damn good to us. And I could eat that tapioca pudding dessert every day of my life. SERVICE: Without exception...exceptional (pardon my redundancy). Probably the best service across the board we've ever had on NCL. Wait...no probably about it. It was the absolute best. Everyone we encountered...Waiters, bussers, hostesses, our cabin attendant, bartenders...you name it. One bartender in particular stood out. We parked ourselves at 4:30 every evening in the Martini Bar and our favorite bartender, Shane, took exceptional (there I go again) care of us. After the first night we never had to order...he was on it. He would whip up Mrs. Schmoopie's cosmo (with a lime) and my double shot of Bulliet on the rocks. And he kept them coming. And coming. We took good care of Shane as well. Unfortunately he had to share his tips with the other bar staff, but they also worked very hard, so it's all good. MISCELLANEOUS: Myself and our surprisee attended the official Veteran's reception in the Spinnaker. Every seat was taken in anticipation of a memorable event. In a word it was...disappointing. They played the National Anthem, asked who in the crowd was in the Army, Navy, etc., brought up a few senior crew members...and then adjourned the event. Ten minutes later. Seriously. Seriously disappointing. NCL does a great job of recognizing Veterans with the discount, medals, pins, etc., so it was surprising how this event went down. We arrived at every port ahead of schedule. So getting off the ship for tours, etc., was not a problem. Seas were exceptionally calm and we had no rain in 14 days. DISEMBARKATION: We purposely waited to be one of the last ones off the ship so as not to hold up others and/or get trampled (again). It was remarkably easy and finding our bags was also easy, since they were about the only ones left in the terminal. So there you have it. Looking forward to our return to the Escape in September in Rome. Ciao!

I don’t need any turn down service. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (because I’m old and entitled)…I was turned down so often in my dating years, I can’t handle any more rejection. Certainly not from a cabin steward.

I can’t remember the last time we ordered dessert in a “land” restaurant. However, I will get dessert after every meal on NCL. People have opinions on overall NCL food (like they say…everyone has one). But I can definitively say that NCL excels at desserts.

Actually, when I say “live” people, I mean those of you who do live trip reports. (Everyone reading this is a live person…or so I assume). Anyway, NCL says access to CC is “free” while onboard. Well, that’s news to me. On our last three cruises (including the one we’re currently on) I have never been able to even access CC. The only reason I’m typing this here right now is because we’re in port in Taino Bay and our T-Mobile plan includes international access virtually everywhere (except on the ship). Even when I go to the internet “help” desk they are unable to access CC on my phone. You people doing live reports must have some sort of NCL supermojo. I salute you.

We’re on the Jade right now. Service has been outstanding (as usual). Food has been pretty good (as usual). Given the great results at the earnings call yesterday, (as well as the stock going up 13% yesterday), something tells me that cost-cutting has been a rousing success business-wise. There’s no reason for them to change going forward (unless they cut even more).

That’s always been my position. Hash browns should be shredded…not molded into triangles or circles.

Rats…I guess I can stop fantasizing about it then. Speaking of surprising someone, this is the cruise where we decided to surprise our long-time friends (and prompted a huge CC discussion about surprising people on cruises.) Actually, the wife was in on the plan to surprise her husband. He had no idea we’d be joining them on the cruise.The plan was we’d pick them up at the Tampa airport. The wife told him she ordered an Uber. We ended up being the “Uber” and the look on the husband’s face when he saw us was priceless. Let’s hope he’ll be as happy to see us 14 days from now at the end of the cruise.