Back from my 4th Cruise from NYC to Bahamas!

[chillinatsea]

Hi Everyone,

 

I just wanted to share some of the details of my recent cruise. My teenager daughter and I just got back from the March 24th-31st cruise on the Jewel. This is the 4th time I went on this cruise, although the 3 other times it was on the Gem. I know this may seem a little boring to some people, but this trip is so convenient for our family. We live in Manhattan, a ten minute taxi drive from the pier and this particular itinerary coincidies with our children's spring break week. We usually go with our whole family of 4, but hubby and teenage son could not make it this year, and the 2 of us went solo!

 

My daughter and I stayed in an aft balcony on the 10th floor and we loved the room, especially the balcony. It was indeed deeper than other balcony decks, and it was already set up with a lounge chair on it...heaven! I often went out there in the morning with my pillow before my DD woke up and read or just admired the beautiful view. Very protected by the wind as others have mentioned before. I really recommend this room, great balcony and extremely quiet location.

 

Since we have done this cruise before and knew what to expect, I felt comfortable pre-booking all our dinners ahead of time. I pre-booked (and pre-paid) specialty restaurants for our entire cruise since we love these restaurants. Since this is a new feature, I want to mention that I did wind up canceling a dinner reservation onboard (more than 24 hrs. in advance) and had no problem whatsoever with getting credited. FYI the credit will appear on your statement after the night of the canceled reservation, NOT immediately upon cancelation, so don't worry that you don't see it right away.

 

We really had a wonderful time on the cruise. This itinerary has been covered alot already, so I don't want to repeat too much info, but we especially loved the shows. The shows were tremendously better than the first time we cruised. Le Cirque Bijou (spelling?) was just phenomenal, and my daughter LOVED the comedian/magician! I did too!

 

The restaurants are wonderful as usual, and we did a spur of the moment trip on an airboat in Port Canaveral. Lots of fun, and loved the marine biologist, who gave a lot of interesting facts on the bus to and from the excursion.

 

One last thing to mention, the dreaded noro-virus appeared on the ship but I give kudos to the captain for his announcements and updates, asking for the passengers help in containing the spread. Obviously no one likes to think of this on vacation, but I would rather be warned and be extra careful, and appreciated the alerts.

 

Thanks to all on cruise critic; we really got a lot of usual info on these boards!

[ladybugpug]

:D So glad u had fun with your daughter!! My family is taking this same cruise in a few weeks . Our first ever. We reserved La Cucina for the whole family one night and then Cagneys just for me and DH one night. Were these good choices?

[chillinatsea]

Oh, you'll love these restaurants! We went to La Cucina twice, the 2nd time we came back the hostess actually recognized us and thanked us for returning...so sweet! And Cagney's is amazing you cannot go wrong with anything on the menu. Enjoy your cruise; I bet you will get hooked like our family :)

[ladybugpug]

Ty!! I'm sure we will get hooked too. :cool:

 

Now I just need to start saving!!

[ladybugpug]

oh and how was the weather please?

[chillinatsea]

The weather was really good overall. They were predicting rain all week for our sail away, but it held out and was pretty nice that Saturday. Sunday was a little overcast, but nice and sunny the rest of the cruise!

 

Oh and I never mentioned how easy it was getting on and off the ship. We got to the pier around 11:30, checked in and never even had to sit down in the waiting area....they just called our boarding # and off we went!!!

[ladybugpug]

Awesome how nice to live so close!! We are driving in from PA. A nice 6.5 hour trip. Ugg. Leaving home around 5:30am.

[2Cruise4Ever]

Oh, I'm so glad you had a good time. We have an aft penthouse on Deck 10 booked, as well (sailing in 17 days! - whoo hoo!!!). Did you take any pictures?

[chillinatsea]

Wow, you will really love your deck! Way wider than ours, and I thought our deck was incredible! My daughter was the photographer on our cruise, so I will have to get pics from her! She brought along her laptop, and made a hilarious slideshow of the 2 us on board, which I won't post, lol, but I will see if there are pics of the deck, room etc.

 

I forgot to mention that the DAY BEFORE our cruise, we got a call from the upgrade fairy!!!!! She offered to upgrade us to and aft penthouse on the 8th floor, for $700 total for the both of us. I did turn it down after agonizing about the decision for about 5 minutes on the phone! Ultimately it was a lot of $$ (for my budget) for just the 2 of us, but the NCl woman on the phone was sooo patient and nice while I decided. I only hope I am not permanently off the upgrade fairy's list since I said no.....

[Highboy90]

While my future review of the same cruise may not be as positive, I do share agree is some areas.

 

AFT balcony's.... sweet! Also got the upgrade fairy call. Decided to stick with the plan.

 

Airboat ride... was really nice to get off the ship and do something that wouldn't take all day. Ride down and back was informative. Saw what we paid to see. We were in the second group at 4:00. All good.

 

Thanks for the review!

[chillinatsea]

That's funny, we were on the same cruise and the same airboat ride. Since we booked it late the first one was sold out and we did the 4pm excursion too!

 

I hope that you were not one of the people to get sick :(

[Highboy90]

Yes, one in our group was quarantined. I felt lousy by the time we got back from the airboat ride. Got worse as evening approached but was better (not 100%) the next morning. :) Airboat ride was one of the better points of the cruise. This was our "Captain."

[shof515]

how was the airboat ride, did you book it from NCL?

[Highboy90]

Yes, booked thru NCL. Nice Volvo bus and all. ;)

[chillinatsea]

@Highboy90 so sorry to hear that you guys were not feeling well. My daughter and I were on a different boat, and we were both too nervous to try the alligator! We were wondering if it was a joke and really chicken or something, but still did not feel brave enought to try, lol.

[shof515]

how much was the airboat?

[chillinatsea]

The airboat excursion I took was $75/pp. There are 2 different airboat excursions and I took the shorter 3hr one. Really liked it and saw about 7 or 8 alligators:D

[peg013]

@Highboy90 so sorry to hear that you guys were not feeling well. My daughter and I were on a different boat, and we were both too nervous to try the alligator! We were wondering if it was a joke and really chicken or something, but still did not feel brave enought to try, lol.

 

We tried the alligator in Cocoa Village and it was so good we ordered a second order.:D

[fjvigor1]

@Highboy90 so sorry to hear that you guys were not feeling well. My daughter and I were on a different boat, and we were both too nervous to try the alligator! We were wondering if it was a joke and really chicken or something, but still did not feel brave enought to try, lol.

 

 

I wouldn't have tried it either! ;) It definitely IS alligator. My brother-in-law is a Chef in FL and his restaurant serves it also. My son tried it last year. His vedict....it tastes like Chicken. LOL It seems that everything tastes like chicken!:D

 

Thanks for your update!