iceprincess0407

It was our first port day! We had been to Rotan on our last cruise and loved it. The landscape is hilly and gorgeous. It was so green. Last time we went to Little French Key, and since there was only a week to plan this trip we decided to go back. DD loves scuba diving and he wanted us to try it. So we booked the 'Discover Scuba diving' package. This package was great because, in theory, we would get to try scuba diving and still have time to relax on the beach.

Since the ship didn't dock until 11 I had time to sleep in. I woke up around 8 and then went for a run before breakfast, the jogging track still wasn't open! The boat has been rocking the previous day so I was feeling a bit sea sick. I brought fresh-squeezed glass of orange juice because I wasn't feeling well. The ship docked and cleared customs by 10:45 and we disembarked by 11. Due to port rules the drivers for Little French Key can't come inside the contained area. So you have to go outside the gates to find Dave or Larry. Dave was easy to find and he sent us with a driver and we were on our way.

DM was not participating in the scuba diving course so she headed off to the island to read a book. DD stayed with us to help us fill out paper work, he left but was coming on the actual dive. There was roughly thirty minutes of pre lesson before we were allowed on the water. I was extremely nervous, I've snorkeled a lot but never dove. In the water we learnt basic skills like what to do if your mask gets too tight. At this point my fearless DS got scared. This is my sister who zip lines, goes after her jumps at skating without fear and takes the window seat on planes because heights terrify me. She didn't like the feeling of breathing out of a tank. She bailed on me and tanned in the boat for the remainder of the dive. We drove by the island and picked up dad and then went to our dive site. Scuba diving was really cool. We had roughly 30 under the water. But it took forever, the entire course was supposed to be about three hours it was closer to five. We eventually made it back to the island and we only had 45 minutes. DM who didn't expect us to be that long was in a slightly panicked state. We ate lunch and then took pictures on the beach before it was time to go. The free wifi was great!

After our limited time on the beach we headed back to port for some shopping. For supper we ate at the buffet because we were in port until 7. It was Italian night and the food was good.

That night there was a teen's only pool party. My friends and I met up early to hit the pool before everyone else arrived. After an hour of hot tubbing all the teens arrived and it was busy! To get out of the full hot tub I started a volleyball game with a friend. Within ten minutes all of the teens had joined in on our game. The game then turned into a 'who can push who' into the pool. There was a couple of competitions after the volleyball game. After the pool party there was a teen movie night but I didn't go because of our early port day the next morning.

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Monday March 28

Since it was a sea day I slept in until 9. This trip was over our spring break but it was also a break between my winter and spring figure skating season, so I went for a run to keep my cardio up. The jogging track wasn't fully opened so I just jogged around the perimeter of deck 13. After my family went to market cafe for breakfast. After breakfast DS and I went to the already over crowded pool deck to kill time before the teen brunch at 11. We did eventually manage to find two pool chairs beside each other. It was extremely windy but we relaxed for about 30 minutes before we went to brunch. Not making friends the first night was a new experience for me, I was worried. But I decided to got back and try to find a group of friends to join.

At brunch I ended up sitting with a group who became my friends for the rest of the cruise. Lesson learned, if you don't make friends the first night, try again.

After the brunch there was a dodgeball game on the sports deck. I stayed for about 30 minutes. I went back to stateroom to get out of the sun and to get some water. After dodgeball DS and I went to get a snack before heading to Entourage for board games. I love playing games so I was more than happy to spend an hour playing Apples to Apples. After the board games we all moved to the library and hung out until we had to leave for dinner. Tonight was formal night so I headed back to our stateroom to get ready.

I planned to wear a strapless dress only to discover that I got brunt when playing dodge ball! Thankfully my hair covered the burns. We had a 5:30 reservation for Versailles. I had a French onion soup to start with clam liguini as my main, for my dessert I went classy with a banana split.

The show that night was Band on the Run, I would highly recommend making time to see it. It was all 70s and 80s music and the dancing was amazing. Even through I didn't know 90% of the music I still enjoyed the show.

Afterthe show I met up with my friend on the pool deck and we hung out in the hot tub until 10. After we went to the teen dance party to awkwardly stand around because we didn't know the music. I went back to my room around 12 to get ready for our day in Rotan.

Sunday March 27

Cruise day! Even though this cruise had zero build up time I was still super excited. We booked a shuttle to the port for 11. Since we booked so late the only port arrival time was 2-2:30. I knew that open boarding would start around 12 so arriving at the port around 11 would allow to take advantage of opening boarding and get on the ship sooner. We booked a balcony guarantee (BX). Because balconies on the Star only hold three people we had to book two rooms. DD and I were given 9136 while DM and DS were in 9138. We decided to switch rooms once on the ship. I was very relieved to have staterooms right next to each other, I assumed that we would be on two different decks! We ate breakfast at the hotel and then watched reality TV to kill the time before the shuttle picked us up. In the shuttle there were two other families with us so there wasn't enough seats. We ended fitting our whole family on three seats, without seat belts. Thankfully the drive to port was only 20 minutes. Check in took about an hour. And we were onboard by 12:45.

First order of business was to eat, we headed up to the Market Cafe for a bite to eat. After my parents registered myself and DS for Entourage, our counsellor Dulce told us there was around 150 teens on the ship. After signing up for the teen club we headed down to guest services to switch our rooms. Physically, you cannot switch rooms but you can get an extra key.

Sail-away was low key as we watched it from our balcony, my DS's friends watched us from land and we were able to see them!

We ate at O'Sheehan's because it was prime rib night. Being Canadian we ordered poutine to start. I also had a brownie for dessert.

DS and I killed time to the teen club opened at 8. There were a lot of teens. I met a group of people, but we didn't stay friends. The first night activities included a dance party (with music I did not know!) a battle of the sexes (this wasn't finished) and a selfie challenge that I got lost during. I went to bed around 1 as the under 17 curfew was one, I know most of the teens stayed out later.

We are on our way to cruise on the star on Sunday and would love to hear what you thought as a teen. My daughter dare a bit younger, 13 and 10, but I hope they enjoy the activities. Thank you!

I definitely suggest going to the club on the first night as the majority of groups are formed during that night. Activities included dance parties, sea day brunches, a pool party and much more.

Have a great cruise!

Thanks for starting your review! Of course, now you have to keep writing because we're all hooked.

 

I'm interested if the smaller ship activities for you and especially your 14 year old DS were enjoyable, or if you all hung out as a family and enjoyed the cruise that way.

I am definitely planning on finishing this review! My DS and I are actually very close. We hung out with a group of friends we met at the teen club. We also both enjoy swimming and tanning so as long as there is a pool deck we'll be happy. I actually enjoy cruising on smaller ships because crowds are smaller. Hope that helper!

Hey all, I've decided to write a review of my recent cruise on the NCL Star for anyone who's interested on reading about cruising from the perspective of a teen.

Background: My name is Brenna and I am currently a junior in Canada. This was my third cruise (two on NCL and one on DCL). My family includes my DM, DD and DS (14)

We enjoy traveling and try to take a family vacation once a year. This was actually a last minute decision to cruise (we booked a week before). DD and myself had travelled to China in November so a spring break holiday was basically out. But we had a free cruise certificate to use from one of our vacation clubs so we booked a last minute cruise on the NCL Star with stops at Rotan, Belize, Costa Maya and Cozumel. We've done all of these poets before so planning was a bit easier. As a planner the week I had was a stressful one. It didn't help that it was the week before spring break so all my teachers were having tests. Anyway after an extremely busy week we were ready to go.

Saturday March 26

We live in small town Saskatchewan so our drive to the airport is four hours. We decided to fly out of Minot ND because that's where flights were the cheapest. We had a five AM out of Minot with a layover in Minneapolis. The new airport in Minot just opened and it is way nicer than the old one! Dad got slightly lost trying to find the airport, but we made our flight so life was good. The flight from Minot to Minneapolis was delayed by about 15 minutes because of de-icing. Because of this, our hour layover was much shorter. We were those people running through the Minneapolis airport.

After boarding, the flight from Minneapolis to Tampa was delayed because of problems in Jacksonville. I don't remember much about that flight as I slept the entire way. After landing in Tampa we made our way to rental car place and then to our hotel. My ds's best friend moved to Tampa in the summer so we went to visit the family for the afternoon. We stayed at the La Quinta. It was right by the airport and not far from the cruise terminal. All of us went to bed early because we were all tired.

Feel free to ask any questions!

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I cruised during semi finals in 2013 and nothing was shown. Grey Cup is different and I'd hope that the ESPN would show the game.

Fingers crossed for you. And good luck to your team as the Riders are out.

I hope that helped

On our Jewel cruise in February I had a friend who's younger brother was a week away from turning 13. They wouldn't allow him to move up.

It was a winter break cruise so that may have come into factor.

I like to think I am a responsible fifteen year old. I had full run of the ship but I had to check in with my parents. My general rule for my self was always make to always make sure I was with more girls than guys.

Entourage is from ages 13-17. Don't worry, 13-14/15 year olds hang out together and then the older kids hang out together. My younger sister is 13 and I barely ever saw her, she had her own little circle of friends.

Out***, some day I really hate auto correct

I would honestly recommend not to use the app. I planned and read reviews and how to use the app and still couldn't figure out the texting feature. Our of my group of ten I was the only one using the app

Here goes the last installment of my trip report, I hope this helped and gave a little insight a teenage cruise, if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask.

Final thoughts.

Freestyle concept

I liked this, dad did not. Even though we still made reservations every night, I liked how you didn't have set times. The one thing I did miss about Disney was the waitstaff following you, that was a nice touch. I do like how you could go to either show, you weren't limited to one time.

Food

Overall I found there was a lot more variety than Disney. I liked how there was the classic choices and then the chefs special that changed daily with the other side of the menus, I totally forget the name. I also thought the food was better with the exception of my meal on the last night. I loved all of the seafood and the fresh fruit. We did not get soda package but I never actually missed the drink stations on Disney.

Entertainment

Definitely better on NCL. I loved how all of the shows were variety acts instead of musicals. Most of the shows I saw twice and I didn't mind that. My favorite show was Cirque Bijou.

i concierge app

Honesty, I never actually figured out the app. I used it a lot to see what was going on but the texting and calling was confusing. From what I can figure, you need to leave the app open and running to receive the messages on your lock screen. Really, the old fashioned way of checking in a certain time and certain place works way better

Teen clubs

I never went swimming on Disney, I hung out a lot in the club. It may have been different because we travelled with friends. This cruise I had to make my own friends. We didn't really spend a lot of time at Entourage but the activities we did were fun. On Disney the club never closed, so that was nice. But Entourage was fine. Making friends is what made my cruise.

Overall, I would cruise with NCL again, but like I've said before a cruise is honestly what you make it. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts. And I hope this gave a little insight to the parents and families with teenagers. I hoped you all enjoyed review as much as I did.

Here goes the last day, finals thoughts and a comparison will come later.

Saturday February 21

Today was disembarkation day, my least favorite day. Since we had Aqua luggage tags (our luggage had to be out by 10:30 the previous night) and were one of the last to disembark we didn't have to wake up early.

We all got up around eight, changed and went up to the Garden Cafe for one final breakfast and one final washy washy. Today I didn't change up my meal and enjoyed one more bowl of fruit. I saw most of my friends that morning so we all stopped to talk and say a final goodbye. My family ended up seating my one of my friends, it was fun to have one last meal together. After we went back to our stateroom one last time to finish packing up. By this point they were calling colors and we knew soon it would be our turn to leave. Our color was called and we left the ship, hoping one day to return.

Thanks everyone, again I got really busy and didn't have time to update. But I'll try to finish this review by Monday

Friday February 20

Today was our last day. I woke up around 8:30 and decided to try and run again. With about five minutes left I started to get super bad side cramps. My life hack for running is to run with your arms stretched over your head to relieve the side cramps. It actually really helps. Anyway during that process up with my friends who in turn looked at me like 'what in the world is she doing'.

Anyway after my run I went down to get breakfast, my usual bowl of fruit. After I went back to our stateroom to shower. At 11 there was a bullying presentation, my mom being the teacher she is, required my attendance at this event. I went down at about 10:30 to start looking through our pictures. While walking to the theater I met up with my friends who I convinced to attend the presentation with me.

Now the presentation was by David Naster. He was the same comedian from night three. His presentation on bullying was amazing, I've seen many being a teenage girl in today's society. But his was easily the best. I highly suggest that you take time out of your day to watch it. He shared stories of real people who were bullied and then how they overcame it. We ended up buying all of his books plus multiple DVDs.

Anyways after the presentation we decided to go look at our pictures. Most of them were pretty good, so we ended doing the buy ten on a memory stick, and then purchased three extra. The memory is literally the cutest thing ever, it looks like a cruise ship. Needless to say finding the memory stick at home was the highlight of my week back.

After I went to try and find my friends who were in, guess where, a hot tub . I know shocker right. After hot tubing for about thirty minutes we decided to take the elevator and see what deck four looked like, don't ask me why. Anyway on deck four we found this adorable little area that was tucked under the stairs. This quickly became our new area and everyone was confused how hadn't found the area yet. Anyway for the rest of the afternoon we sat, talked and ate ice cream, multiple times. The only negative about our spot was the long walk to get ice cream!

So after hanging out for our last afternoon, it was decided that we should probably get some actual food. So around four we went up to the Great Outdoors for some snacks. We carried out food into the Garden Cafe to eat. There were actually a lot of options, including baked macaroni! Anyway we had planned to do the selfie challenge at Entourage at 4:15, I looked at my phone realizing it was 4:12.

We all got up and went to Entourage.

Now the selfie challenge was one of the most fun activities I did all cruise. We were given a list of things we had to video. They ranged from proposing to a crew member to slow dancing with a random passenger. My challenge was to pretend to cry, a random person was suppose to ask me what was wrong and I was suppose to tell everything and run away. Of course after I would go and explain what this was for. Anyway we tried this on the midship stairs but no one stopped. So I had the brilliant idea of using the stairs in the atrium. My brilliant plan also included me running in. Now thinking back the was not a good idea as I have no balance what so ever. Anyway as I was running I slipped and fell down the stairs. Again no one stopped to see if I was okay and the whole event is on video.

After the stairs adventure we went back to the spot on the deck twelve stairs. And just hung out and talked. After we decided to go for one last hot tub. Then I realized that I still had to pack. Whoops I went back to my cabin, packed and hopped in a shower to get ready for the teen super. As I was getting ready three of my friends showed up at my stateroom to wait for me. Trying to get ready and pack and trying to stay in conversations is not that easy.

Anyway we started to make our way down to the teen diner, which was at Tsars at around 7:40. We just walked around and waited for everyone else. There, we showed our counsellor Santa the videos. In the end we won the selfie challenge due to my fall!

Anyway we went in and were seated. Before we were even given our menus the other teen tables has finished their appetizers. This would be a reoccurring theme throughout the diner. We were finally given our menus, the other tables had finished their main course. For my appetizer I ordered French onion soup. Appetizers also took a while to come. The other tables were finished their desserts before we got our main course. This meal was the only bad meal of the cruise. My main, calamari and fettuccine was really not good. Not that I am a food critic or anything I just like a decent meal. But hey you always have to have one bad meal.

Anyway since we didn't really want to wait an hour for dessert we decided not to have any. After if was off to the Garden Cafe for awards. I didn't win any. Then we went back to Entourage for one final dance party. We all danced for about 45 minutes until we went to get drinks. Then after no one really felt like dancing so we all hung out for one final time on the stairs. We all stayed and talked until I left at one. Goodbyes were said and hugs, phones numbers and contact information were exchanged. I went back to my stateroom for one last night.

English is easily my favorite subject, and creative writing is one of the courses my school actually offers so I want to take it.

The teen club does not serve soda, actually there is a strict no food rule, you must finish any food outside. I never noticed slushies anywhere but there might have been.

Little French Key was busy, but I would not consider it crowded. Chairs were easy enough to get, we had no problem finding four beside each other.

Your boys should have enough to do. There is kayaking, you can snorkel off the beach too, and multiple places to swim.

Hope that helps

Honestly a cruise is what you make it. The theory I went on all week is I will never see any of you ever again, so if I say something stupid or do something embarrassing it won't matter. For other teens, as scary as it may be, just talk to someone. Who knows you may become friends. Again I've said before and so have others, go and the first night, and remember just because you are shy at home doesn't mean you have to be on a cruise.

Okay on to day six

Thursday February 19

Sadly our cruise was coming to an end. It was our second last sea and it was windy, very windy. I had a new strategy, run before breakfast and maybe I'll feel hungry for breakfast. I don't even know if I can call my run a run. I always used the jogging track up on deck thirteen, for half of my run I basically sprinted due to the wind pushing me. And other half it felt like I wasn't even moving, I felt like I was running on the spot. So my theory did not work, I still was not hungry, this reoccurring theme was really starting to bug me. Anyway it's a good thing I really liked fruit because that's what I ate, again.

After I saw one of my friends at our regular meeting place, the stairs. I told her I'd be back in 20-30 minutes because I needed to shower. I got back to my stateroom talked to me family hopped in a shower and then went back to meet her. We walked and talked, casually meeting up with the rest of our group as we went. Then we decided it was to go hot tubbing, everyone was feeling the boat move and we thought hot tub would make us feel better. Again that theory also proved to be wrong. You could see the water swishing back and fourth. You could really feel boat move. We had rough seas on our last cruise but this might have been worse.

Anyway we had planned to do 'The Quest' at Entourage at 12 so we all made sure we changed before 'The Quest'. Apparently the quest is supposed to take place on the sports deck but since it was so windy we moved into Entourage.

'The Quest' was basically series a of challenges made up to decided a winner. In the end my team won!

After 'the quest' everyone went their own separate ways. Some went back in the hot tub, my other friend went for lunch with her parents. My other friend and I went down to O'Sheenans to eat lunch. For lunch I had mozzarella sticks and a spinach and artichoke dip. And brownie cheese cake for dessert. I highly recommend the brownie cheese cake. Eventually we all met up again, went back to hot tubing and ate more ice cream. Later we all went to hang out in Entourage before dinner.

Dinner tonight was a Cagney's. We had 5:30 reservations and we were seated right away. For my appetizer I had the shrimp cocktail, with a 7ounce filet mignon for my main. I decided on Cagney fries as my side after reading many positive reviews on Cruise Critic. The fries were very good and my entire family enjoyed them. For my dessert I had the Oreo cheesecake, again based off of cruise critic reviews. This again did not disappoint.

After supper we decided to go see Le Cirque Bijou or the circus of jewels. This show was amazing, out of all of the shows onboard it was the best by far. If you only have time to see one show I suggest you make time for this one. Word of advice, the seating fills up very quickly.

Any way after I put on my white clothing and went to meet my friends, who decided that they also wanted to see the show. So I went again, and this show kept my on the edge of my seat for the second time that night.

After it was time for the white hot party. Outside there was face painting which was really cool and cute.

The party was super fun and super busy. The dancing was great and everyone was having a fun time. First 100 people on the dance floor received free glow sticks. My one friend and I left probably at 11 to go down to O'Sheenans to get water and just to sit. Eventually we met up with everyone else and we all just hung out until I left at 12:30

Thanks everyone, if we go on anymore cruises I will write more reviews.

On with day five

Wednesday February 18

Today was our final of three port days, since we were in Rotan we decided to go to Little French Key. When planning I read some very good reviews on the island plus our TA always goes there when she goes to Rotan. We booked the full island plus package. Which include two drink tickets, a snorkeling tour, lunch and full use of the facilities.

We all woke up around 7 excited for our day in Rotan. No run again for me this morning, I wasn't getting up any earlier than necessary. Today the garden cafe was supper busy, I guess everyone was up for the last port day. I had my usual breakfast a bowl of fruit and some yogurt, I still wasn't feeling good. When we got the all clear we made our way down to deck four to exit the boat. One thing I noticed when docking was how gorgeous Rotan was. Not the every port we visited wasn't gorgeous but Rotan was so pretty. I loved the trees and hills, I guess it reminded me a little bit of home.

We were suppose to look for our driver, Dave or Larry but that was a struggle. We went back through the main shopping area and then had to ask someone where the little French key drivers were. Eventually we found Dave and got into the 15 passenger van with two other couples.

Now, words of advice driving in Rotan is crazy. Like the roads are pretty rough plus it's one way so passing in scary. And it's hilly and the roads are super narrow. The drive to the Frenchys 44 was probably 20 minutes but Dave was nice and told us some history about the island on the trip.

After 20 minutes of crazy driving we arrived at the place where we would catch our boat out to the island.

The boat ride out was about five minutes. When we got to island we were given a short tour of the facilities. And then it was off to our snorkeling tour.

We got on a boat with five other people. We drove for about 10 minutes to an area about 7 minutes away from shore. From there we were given instructions on where to snorkel. We had about 20 minutes in the water. Snorkeling was really cool. I want to get my Scuba certificate one day but for now I will settle for snorkeling.

There were lots of cool fish to sea and the coral was gorgeous. I highly recommend trying to find sometime to snorkeling in Rotan.

After snorkeling we went back to Little French Key and attempted to kayak again. This time there were two normal paddles and two kayak double edged paddles. My sister and I got the doubled edged paddles while mom and dad took the normal paddles. I kayaked for a little bit but then I just floated enjoying the da

After kayaking it was time for mani pedis. This was something cool we decided to do, plus my nail polish was coming off already. I told my dad he was getting it for me as a congrats for passing finals present.

Now it wasn't anything special but it was cute and my toes looked amazing so it was all worth it. I went first, mine took about an hour. After my younger sister started hers and I went to eat with my dad.

The food was very good, I honestly don't remember what was all on the plate but it was a lot. I made it through maybe half of the plate.

After dad and I went back to our chairs and just sat in the sun. Dad took a nap while I just relaxed. Eventually my mom and sister came to join us after her nails we done and they had eaten. In the tour my sister saw a rope swing into the water. Of course she wanted to try it.

And of course I was volunteered to go first. Now being scared of heights plus the whole swinging into the water, not my cup of tea. In the end my dad ended videoing me in slow motion doing a back flop into the water. It was not a fun experience.

Then it was time to go. We took the boat back to the mainland and took a van back to port. When at port we shopped for an half an hour before getting back onto the boat. I found a nice sweatshirt that I bought right away. No repeat of Belize.

Once back on board I met up with my friends in Entourage. We hung out until I had to leave for supper at 5:15.

Supper tonight was at Azura again. I had calamari for my appetizer, I love sea food. A seafood pasta for my main meal, inside the pasta there was scallops, shrimp and pieces of lobster. For dessert I had a strawberry pound cake. Every night we made advanced reservations for 5:30. It wasn't busy at 5:30 but come 6-6:30 it was really busy.

After I met up with my friends on our new regular meeting place, the stairs. We walked talking for about a half an hour before we met up with everyone else. Then we hung out some more before the 9:15 magic show.

The magician was Jean Pierre. He was also a comedian so the show was so funny. And the magic was awesome. I highly suggest that you try to see all of the shows at least once.

After there was a teen movie night, we were watching Pitch Perfect! Now I have seen the movie a billion times but it's like Mean Girls, it never ever gets old. The movie finished at 12 so I headed home after, I was pretty tired from my day in Rotan.

Sorry guys, I've been super busy with school and skating lately. Thank you for all of the support. Here goes day four!

Tuesday February 17

Today was the day I had been waiting for since my last cruise. I finally got to see Mayan ruins. Last cruise I really wanted to see some but it didn't work out. So when I was planning this cruise I made sure that I would be able to see ruins somewhere.

On another side note I planned most of this trip with dad giving me the final okay, so I considered it my baby.

So we woke up at 6:45 because we had a 7:50 meeting time for our Lamanai Ruins and Ricer Safari. Dad and I has a week long talk if we should book with the ship or with an independent tour operator. In the end we decided to book with the ship because Belize was a tender port.

My sun burn was better today but I still covered it with after sun and sunscreen. And planned my outfit to hide the burn. I wasn't feeling hungry again. Like what is the point of going on a cruise if you never want to eat. So I had a small bowl of fruit.

Since we had to tender we met in the stardust theatre and left from there. It was really cool because we had to walk through the crew area to get to our tender. Anyway once we got to the main land we found our tour pretty easily. It was in a cute little area with some cute shops. I saw a really awesome pullover that I wanted to buy but we didn't have any time, so we were going to stop and shop on the way back.

We had about an hour bus ride through the country side of Belize. Our guides were brothers Roy and Edgar. They were super funny and shared a lot of information about Belize. So we drove to a restaurant where we would board a boat to take us to the ruins. The river safari was suppose to take 45 minutes. On the ride we saw birds and a little boy in the tour got to fed a monkey, it was adorable. The boat almost broke down a couple of times but we made it to the ruins.

Once at the ruins we saw the four main sites. We got to climb the high temple. There were stairs going up the back so it wasn't as authentic. We also saw the mask temple, and the Jaguar temple. I honesty didn't really see the jaguar. We also saw the royal court where games were played, apparently the winner of the game was sacrificed, want a way to win. We also took a detour and saw the ball court.

After about an hour we left the site to board our boat back to the restaurant. We were riding on a new boat because our old boat broke down. So we got on the new boat, it broke down too, in the middle of the river. We kind of just floated for about 15 minutes in the river. Another boat came to help us out and eventually we were up and running again. We made it back to the restaurant and started to eat lunch. By this time it was almost three so I don't remember what lunch honestly was but it was good. For not wanting to eat I actually had some! We had about 30 minutes before we had to board the bus back.

For the first 45 minutes I napped. And then the bus broke down. As you can see today was not our day for vehicles. By this point it was four and everyone was starting to get worried about catching the 5:30 tender. But since we booked with the ship we wouldn't be left in Belize. So we stayed in the side of the highway for about 15 -20 minutes while the bus was being fixed. And then we all filed back on only to have the bus break down again. So this time it was five minutes and we were up and running, again. Now we drove for about five minutes and then we hit a bump the bus broke down, again.

Now today was obviously not our day for vehicles. This time they decided to call in a new bus, it was about 4:45. The bus took about 30 minutes to get the bus to where we were. At this point we were about 10 minutes from port. It was getting tense mostly because people did not want to make the boat wait. And I really wanted to get that sweatshirt! Eventually a new bus came and we all got on. We made it to the pier at 5:25 and basically ran into the next tender. We waited for about 10 minutes and then left to the boat.

Once we made it back to the boat we had missed our diner reservations. I still phoned to cancel even though our 5:30 time had passed. We decided to eat at the buffet because no one was really hungry. I had a make your own pasta.

After I went to meet up with my friends to tell them about my adventure. We just sat and talked on the deck twelve to thirteen stairs, don't worry we moved out of the way for people. We saw a person who had a cupcakes, apparently it was Mardi Gras that night. Now since I'm Canadian I've never actually celebrated Mardi Gras, there was a dance party up on deck. At fist we were dancing with everyone, I went to dance and slipped, in front of everyone.

Then we decided to dance in the hot tub. Which was really fun. People noticed us and we received multiple high fives. After we decided to go to the show, in bathing suits and towels. We dried off enough. The show tonight was Duo Deja Vu. Which I highly recommend you make time to see. It was very very good.

After we went back to the hot tub and just hung out until I left at 11:30 to get ready for our last port day.

Monday February 16 Cozumel

Today was our first port day, first of three. We had booked a jeep and passion island day through shore excursioner. We had been to Cozumel last year, we went to the mainland and did the Xplore Park. That was pretty cool minus the point that there was zip lining. I hate heights.

Anyway we were told to met at the hard rock boutique. So we were walking through the main area of shopping by the pier, and this man shouted 'passion island' I was like 'ya' and my dad was like 'no Brennna, keep walking' anyway. Apparently the hard rock boutique didn't exist anymore. We started walking back the way we came from, and I was right. The guy was calling at us! Anyway we met our guide Carlos, who was the best and the couple we were touring with. We were driving the quote unquote uncool jeeps as according to my father. The jeeps actually we pretty cool, but the road we took was super bumpy. After a rough ride we made it to the boat that would take us to passion island. We had about 3 1/2 hours on the island. I went swimming for about 15 minutes and then just laid down for an hour.

After I attempted to kayak, it didn't go so well. Somewhere during the day I managed to get burned. I never burn. I did no wheat to do! After we all went for lunch. Which by this point I didn't want to eat. This was the worst possible situation, what kind of person doesn't want to eat on a cruise. I just had some guacamole.

Passion island was gorgeous, and there were only about 450 guests it wasn't hard at all to get a chair or a drink. All of your drinks and food are included. There are no frozen drinks though.The shopping was decent there too.

Soon, our three hours were up and it was time to catch a boat and take a jeep back to Cozumel. The back road we took in the jeep was awful, it was the same rode we took up. After we did a little bit of shopping and then I decided that it was time for me to get back to the boat. Yes, I went by myself. On Disney I remember that you had to be over eighteen to get on the boat by yourself but I guess that wasn't the case here. Another nice touch by Norwegian was the cookies, juice and towels they had waiting for you before you boarded. Disney never had anything like that and I appreciated the gesture after a long day. I went back on the boat and napped until sail away. At sail away my family watched the dock runners, that was probably the best part of the day. It is actually very amusing to watch.

Diner tonight was at Azura. I double appetizered and ordered a seafood soup and a pork spring roll. For my main I had chicken cordon blue. Since I doubled appetizered I wasn't feeling dessert so I ordered a melon dream, because I love fruit. After diner my family went to watch the comedian. He was so funny, like I haven't laughed that much in a long time. We found out he was doing a bullying presentation later in the week and my mother, once. A teacher always a teacher decided we were all going to go.

After the show I went to meet up with my friends at washy washy. Apparently every else wanted to see the comedian. So I went again, I pretty sure I laughed just as much as the first time. After we went up to the sports deck and watched a pretty sad game of dodgeball. By this point our group had had gone from nine to four. We all just hung out at entourage. Nothing was really happening so I went back to my stateroom around 11 to have an early night.

Thanks everyone for the support.

Sunday February 15

Today I woke up at 6:3pm feeling slightly sick. The week before I left I wasn't eating because I had the flu not flu. That's what I stated calling it because you feel sick and don't want to eat but you never actually threw up. My moms says it's kinda like your pregnant, which I'm not! But I felt kind of off.

I hope it's just the late night food. Breakfast was eaten at the garden cafe, I still wasn't feeling great, so I really didn't eat. After breakfast I decided that I should go for a run, due to the point that ice cream has become my main meal. I also had a skating competition the weekend I got back so I thought it would be a good idea to try to stay in shape.

On a side note, to try and stay on able o would do the stairs whenever possible. Is there was no one on the stairs I would jog them.

After a hard 20 minute jog I went for a shower to wash off all of the sweat that I was covered. I went up to the buffet to get some water and saw one of my friends eating. So water forgotten I stopped and talked with her and to eat more food. Then we both went to entourage and meet up with more of our friends. We all decided to go tanning but we ended up meeting my parents.

We were up on deck 13 and it was super super windy. After meet the parents we all went down to the garden cafe to washy washy to meet up with everyone else. After lunch we went back to tanning, no parents this time. Somehow in the process of tanning I managed to unclip my room key from my lanyard. Skill I know. So I went down to guest services to get a new one. I went alone, I was surprised that I was actually issued a new room key without my dad or mom with me.

In the process of my room key adventure I lost everyone. Eventually we all meet up in the end. Then we attempted to go down the water slide, you've all seen the people who get stuck going down the waterside, ya that was me. I had to walk down the rest of the way. Like how embarrassing can my life get. After we all got down we decided to go swimming, first of all the pool is really deep. I'm 5,5 and I thought I would touch the bottom but nope I went under. And the pool is freezing! Plus it was salt water so I inhaled a lot. So we all jumped in the hot tub with about 10 of our closest friends. The hub tub was packed. Most of us were siting on each other, legs were all over. Since it was so cold none of us wanted to move or get out. After a good hour of sitting and talking to each other we decided it was time to go. The girls went back to to entourage to see what was happening, nothing was really going on so we started to dance. I left at five to get ready for supper. I love to dress up, I never get to at home because it's always so cold. So tonight was formal night, I wore a basic skirt and shirt combo. We went to Le Bistro for supper. I order the scallops for an l appetizer, followed by swordfish and an apple dessert, sorry I forget the official name. After we all went shopping at the duty free store, I went to look at guess purses. I didn't find one though. Then it was back to washy washy to meet everyone. Washy washy was quickly becoming our meeting place. The teens were having a group supper but we decided not to join in. So we chilled in the hallway of entourage until the supper was done. That night we played at speed dating game of basically how fast could you get to know someone. And another game where you had to think of the answer to a situation. After we had a dance party. Then it was time for me to go to bed as we all had an early morning in Cozumel.

Thanks everyone, again. About the last name comment, that was stupid on my part but I'm so used to signing my full name I wasn't even thinking. I was more worried about not making any major spelling or grammatical errors.

Day Two - February 14th

We all woke up at about 8, everyone was super excited for our cruise. Since

we were taking Norwegian transportation to port we had time before we had to

leave. Luggage had to be ready by 9:30 and then we would be shuttled to port at 12:15.

We had breakfast, finished packing and sat in our room and watched the food network. Since it was valentines days the restaurant gave us cute little goody bags with chocolates inside. That was so sweet.

So the drive to Bayport was interesting to say the least. We left our hotel at about 12:30 and started driving. Now, I had no idea where we were suppose to go but I have enough sense of direction to tell that we were driving in circles. We drove in two circles around the airport. People got on the bus, others got off, people who just got on got off realizing they were on the wrong bus. Eventually we stopped driving in circles and started on our way to Bayport. The drive from IAH to the terminal took about 45 minutes.

We arrived at the cruise terminal at about 1:20. Security was a breeze and took about 5 minutes. The other line for room keys took about 20 minutes. After all of the confusion we made it on board before 2. Since we got on board later our room was ready right away. I was surprise at how big our room was, I was expecting it to be a lot smaller. We were in room 11066 which was a midship mini suit. I love how much storage was in the room. After that my parents went to register me and my sister for Entourage, the teen club.

For those of who don't know, Entourage is a club for teens 13-17. It's not like the splash academy where you have to be singed in and out, it's come and go as you please. After that we headed over to the garden cafe for a bite to eat. After eating we decided to go for pre sail away drinks at the great outdoors, pop for me and my sister. On a side note: I loved the great outdoors. It was the best place to grab a bite. Then it was on to the muster drill which was quick and painless.

After the muster drill we went to talk to guest services because my i concierge app wasn't not working. They in turn sent me to the Internet cafe because they didn't know what wasn't working. Apparently I didn't download the full app yet so I purchased a minute by minute Internet plan to complete the task. Since we were still docked the app took about three minutes to download. I signed up for the texting and phoning with my dad and sister. I'll talk more about the app later. Because of this we completely missed the sail away party. So we improvised and hung out on our balcony and watched Texas go by. Our luggage was here by this point, so everyone started to unpack. Like I said before I loved loved loved how much storage there was.

Then it was 5:30 and off to Tsars for our first supper. By this time you could feel the boat move. I had the squash pancetta for an appetizer. It was really good I loved the arugula salad that come with it. For my main course tried manezane parmigiana. I totally didn't notice that there was blue cheese on top so I ended up taking off all of the cheese. I had a Creme Brûlée for dessert. I once made Creme brûlée for a French project on 7th grade and have been addicted to it ever since. Food was better than Disney but again I will do a major comparison later. Mom and dad went to the show and my little sister and I walked around and tried to find our way, we had time to burn since entourage didn't open until 8.

Again this has been said before but go at about 7:55 on THE FIRST night. Little compliments go along way. Outside in the hallway before we were let in was how I meet two of my friends. The other five I met like five minutes later. And yes, it's awkward. I can't even sugar coat it but remember everyone probably feels as awkward as you.

Once we all knew each other we played 'recruits' which basically meant that we run all over the ship taking selfies and finding new teens to bring back. We won! After that we as gender wars, girls lost. Then we all went to get ice cream only to find that there wasn't any. So one of the guys suggested that we go hot tubbing. Hot tubbing was nice but it was super windy out on the pool deck. Then we all went to get more ice cream, this time there was some! Oh, I slipped on the wet floor, in front of everyone. The nice part was some man tried to catch, it didn't work but the thought was nice. After when I recovered from embarrassing moment number one (yes they are numbered because there will be more.) I went back to my friends. An employee came over to make sure I was okay, that was super nice and I wasn't expecting that. We all just hung out and talked until 11:30 when I decided I was done for the night.

We made plans to met at noon the next morning at the washy washy in front of the Garden Cafe.

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback!

I'll try to update later today.

I will finish this review, I am pretty busy but this will get finished!

Hey all. I have decided to write a review of my Jewel cruise from February 14 to the 21. I've been debating on actually writing a review but I have decided to try. This is my first review so stay with me because it might be rough. Anyway here it goes.

My name is Brenna, I am fifteen and love to travel. Traveling and planning have always been my passions. This was my second cruise, my first was in Disney. I'll get to the comparison later but for now I will say I was pleasantly surprised. One of the main reason I am writing a review is because many teens don't and I had a real struggle finding information on teen activities. On to day one.

Day One Friday February 13

My mom is a teacher so our vacation time is limited to school breaks, so we decided to go over February break mostly because it is so cold in Canada! We originally booked a flight out of Regina leaving at 8:50 but Air Canada changed our take off time to 2:55. Since we had such a late afternoon flight we decided to leave the morning to Regina. We left at 7am to get in some last minute shopping done. I don't like flying in general but flying on Friday the 13 was really scaring me. Anyway we got to the airport at about 1, checked into our flight and waited for boarding to start. We met my mom's coworker at the airport we was on the same flight as us. So as we were waiting we found out our flight was overbooked. They needed two people to volunteer to go through Toronto and then onto their final destination. In the end my moms friend and daughter ended up going through Toronto. Anyway back on topic our flight left at 2:55 so boarding started at 2:15.

The flight was an hour and a half and was super loud. Since we were in such a small plane it was really loud. We landed in Calgary went through customs and airport security. We had maybe thirty minute to eat before boarding so we grabbed a bite at the whopper bar. I love the California whopper. The flight from Calgary to Houston was about four hours and man that flight was rough. I've flown a lot and I've never been on such a rough flight. By the time we landed in Houston it was 10. We got our luggage and checked in to the Marriott at IAH. Then it was off to bed before our cruise.