Houston/Jade Thoughts 3/26 Sailing

[swymnwymn1]

I wanted to note some of our thoughts about this cruise. We sailed the Jade last week and had a great time. I will do some now and try to finish the rest this week sometime.

 

We had initially checked on the Escape for this time of year, and after doing some price-checking we were really impressed with the value of the Jade and decided to book on that instead. We have never cruised out of Houston before, so that was a new experience for us.

 

We flew into IAH using frequent flier miles (it would have been more convenient to use Hobby). We took a taxi to the Embassy Suites downtown. It was a great hotel for pre-cruise stay. Lots of snacks at evening reception, several free drink choices, a great pool/hot tub outside. We spent most of the evening at the pool area. The hotel is located near many sites downtown. Even though we also get beverages on the ship, we like to bring on some of our own things, and I had ordered some wine/soda for our cruise through instacart from Spec's; the delivery went well and the prices were fairly reasonable. They delivered to the hotel and the front desk person knew I was waiting for the delivery and it was easy to come down and get the order. We were also impressed by the breakfast at the hotel with made to order options.

 

On Saturday morning we were off to the Jade. We got a UberX lift to the cruise port and thought it was very reasonable (we also had good luck with Ubers after the cruise). The vehicles were all luckily large enough to fit our luggage.

 

By the time we got to the cruise port, they were calling group 1 to board. We gave our bags to the porter (he said he couldn't take the sodas so we ended up carrying those on board with us, along with carrying on the wine). We didn't have to wait very long, used Latitudes line to check in and pretty soon our group number was being called to board. We were able to go to our room and drop off our carry on bags and beverage stuff, and went to explore the ship. We had a good lunch at the buffet and did some ship exploration. I went to sign up kids for splash academy, the line was pretty long. Perhaps some day they can let people do this in advance or expedite this somehow. I had the kids ship cards with me so the kids didn't have to wait in the line with me, thank goodness. After I signed them up my husband brought them back to get their wristbands. We had brought our swimsuits in the carryons so we were able to get in the pool/hot tubs that afternoon.

 

We did sign up for the iconcierge, it did allow us to text each other. My android phone had some issues staying connected to the ship wifi, but I could log in. The other device I registered (a basic ipod) worked a lot better staying connected to the signal. I am not sure if I would use it again, I did like the account review feature, but I'm not sure why the one phone wouldn't stay connected. It was pretty user friendly. I did hear one person at guest services one night who signed up for the internet package, he was disappointed only 1 person in the room could use it at a time, just a heads up in case you are thinking of the package that this limitation may be in place for it in case you are counting on multiple devices getting internet. We didn't have general internet but just used the ship internet for the iconcierge texting feature. I was able to get wifi in Roatan on our excursion there. It was also available at Mr. Sanchos I was told but I didn't try to connect there.

 

We all had the UDP for the cruise so we ate in specialty restaurants every night. I had reserved dinners ahead of time, we tried to get early times since we have kids and wanted to try to catch the early shows if possible. We always had good service and good food in each of these restaurants. The Teppinyaki cover charge is $29 but it was free with our package.

 

The kids went to kids club the first night; my daughter didn't seem to adjust that well that night but had a better experience the next night when she knew some other kids more in the kids club. I don't think she was happy there the first night but part of it could be that she was shy. We did not end up putting the kids there much during the week.

 

Sunday - after the Easter bunny had visited our room and we did breakfast, we went to the kids club where they had a family Easter activity. My daughter liked the face painting and they also could sit with the Easter bunny. They had some art/craft stations too. It was well organized and I appreciated that they had something like this to celebrate the holiday.

 

After this I went to our cruise critic gathering. The officers from the ship were there, including managers of many of the aspects of the ship, and gave introductions including passing out their phone numbers. They invited any of our attendees to give them a call with any issues whatsoever. They wanted to address any issues right away if our group had any issues. The group coordinator was very sweet. They explained how the ship also puts on weddings (they were going to have 2 weddings on the sailing after ours). There were a lot of food/beverages put out for the group. They made some jokes about it because a lot of our roll call didn't end up coming to the gathering, we had maybe half at best show up, but it was a nice group. I felt a little bummed that we didn't have the turnout we had RSVP'd for (I think since I was the one who had given them the headcount), but it is what it is and I realize people have things come up or have their plans change. We had a little more quiet of a roll call this time than I have had in other cruises. Thanks to everyone who attended.

 

That afternoon my son and I did the digital scavenger hunt. We really liked this. We misunderstood the directions and thought we had to get all of the things on the list; apparently we could have just done a portion of them. We ended up getting 20 of the 21 things in the nick of time allowed, with some help from fellow passengers. It was a fun mommy/son bonding thing. I also took the kids to the family cupcake decorating which they really enjoyed.

 

Did more swimming/hot tubing this afternoon. The dinner at La Cucina was good. It is a good restaurant overall; we seem to like the food choices at other specialty restaurants better, but that is just a personal preference. We had excellent service there.

 

Next day - Monday - Cozumel - I think this was my kids' favorite port. We took cab to Mr. Sanchos. We got lots of drinks and lots of food (my hubby really liked the grilled shrimp). The swim up bar in the pool area was nice. We did the all inclusive side and thought it was really worth it. They set us up with a table and some lounge chairs near the inflatables area. My kids were in the water most of the time we were there. I had read in some reviews that it might not be that family friendly of a place, but we thought it was very family friendly. If you have really young kids you may not like it, but my son (8) was in heaven on the inflatables and my younger daughter had fun running in and out of the water for most of the day and playing in the sand. They had a lot of drink options (beer, mixed drinks, water, soda, etc). It did not feel overly crowded even though I know they had a lot of people there with spring break and many ships in port that day. We would probably go back there on our next family cruise; when it is just the grownups we would probably scuba dive but the kids loved it here.

 

Cagney's for dinner - yum. I always like their filet (the small one is more than enough for me) and hubby enjoys the seafood he can get there and everywhere else on the ship. Overall Cagney's is my favorite restaurant on the whole ship. This dinner again did not disappoint.

 

We saw the first of 3 Cripton and Renata shows that night. We brought the kids who also liked the show. My son used to want to be a magician when he grew up, so they were really captivated by the show. I think the show is good for all ages (except possibly really young children who may not be able to keep attention to the show). We did a later swim after the show and turned in a little early to get ready for the Belize port the next day.

 

Belize - we ended up booking with Coral Breeze to the island exploration tour which took us to Caye Caulker. I was very glad we did this. It was a long ride over, but we saw some dolphins on the way, and the boat driver (Junior) stopped and the dolphins swam around the boat for a while. The kids loved this. The main tour guide Ivar really had a nice way of communicating with everyone and staying organized. The other guides were chatting with the passengers on the way over too. Ivar called for a golf cart for us which we rented for the day to explore the island. We spent most of the time by Lazy Lizard/the Split. It was my favorite excursion of the trip. I did a lot of jumps off the dock by the Lizard with my son, it was a nice memory. We got some food there and drinks (DH and I also split a bucket of the local beer which was a good deal). We were able to get a table under one of the thatched/gazebo type roofs for shade, pretty near the dock, I think that is a good place to hang out where you get food and drink but are also near the dock if you can get one of those tables. It was fun watching some of the locals jump off the dock too. Using the Coral Breeze tour also maximized our time on the island; if we had taken the ferry over we would have had to leave by 1:30; I think our Coral Breeze boat didn't leave until 3 or 3:15 so we had a lot more time to enjoy the island. We drove around on the cart a bit and met the rest of the Coral Breeze group (they had all gone snorkeling) by the dock at the designated time. If it was just the grownups I don't know if I would have rented a cart, but with the kids it was a really, really nice thing to have and the walk to the split would have been a bit long for them I think. Overall it was a nice combination of being able to explore the island on our own, but having the tour group to have a bit more peace of mind that we would get to the boat on time with no issues. They were able to right us right at the dock by where the tender dropped us off, so it was easy to get the tender back to the ship. We had a little bit of a hard time deciding what to do in Belize which would be kid friendly, and I think this excursion was probably the best option available to do with them. I did hold my daughter on the rides to/from Caye Caulker, it was again a long ride but the kids did fine both ways. If you have a really, really young kid it might not be the best for them. We had brought along her lifejacket and I was glad I could just have it for her, I'm not sure if they had any lifejackets for preschool age kids but I didn't even check or ask since we didn't need one at all.

 

Dinner this night was Le Bistro. For some reason our reservation had been goofed up but they were wide open so it was no problem to get in. It was very quiet in there, I am guessing people were still getting back from the shore and getting ready for the night when we went to dinner. The kids liked sharing the chocolate fondue dessert with me :) Again no issues with food or service. We felt spoiled having so many nice meals throughout our cruise. I think my hubby had the lobster, it is a favorite of his to get at Le Bistro. With the UDP we just paid an additional gratuity for the dinner (we didn't have to pay the a la carte pricing). I am pretty sure we brought one of our bottles of wine for this dinner, we had paid corkage fee on boarding and just had them serve it to us with the dinner.

 

The show that night was Soul Duo - from the name, I would have assumed it was some type of music performance; it was actually a talented duo which performed acrobatic/cirque du soleil type stunts. The kids were again mesmerized by the show.

 

Will do more review later in the week....overall it was hard to leave the ship and we are hoping to do another family cruise again sometime in the next few years. It is hard going back to reality again! Thanks to all of you who posted tips and reviews, it was really helpful to us when planning this cruise.

[Clarea]

Well written report, thank-you.

[Keith1010]

ver nice report.

 

Keith

[karoo]

Great review. How long in advance did you order the wine from Specs?

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[bhorv67]

I was on this cruise. Disappointed about the role call. I wanted to go but couldn't find where or when it was going to be. I saw a note it was supposed to be on embarkation day at 11a, but since we didn't board until 1230p, not sure what happened. Bummer - I would have been there!

[swymnwymn1]

Day 5 - Roatan. LFK On this day we decided fairly last minute to book Little French Key. We reserved the $55/pp package. We were able to get an early tender and get over there pretty quickly. When we got there, it was already pretty full. I think we got one of the last sets of lounge chairs in the shade. There are a lot of different areas to explore. I ended up with mixed feelings about this place. I am not sure if I would go back. Perhaps if it wouldn't be so busy. We have been to West Bay beach before and really liked it. The price we paid at LFK did not include any drink tickets or meal tickets, and those add up quite a bit (even just sodas). when we got there there was a large group checking in (I believe 50 people) so it was fairly chaotic. I thought overall that Mr. Sanchos was a much better value. By the time we got some food, and drinks, and the chips/salsa (you do not get much salsa at all, and someone took our plate away before we were half done somehow), it was pretty pricey for what we got. My husband liked it more than I did. It was a nice layout and the zoo was nice. I did see them bringing around animals for people to see, but they were explaining it would be an additional $30 "donation" to interact with the animals. My son enjoyed the rope swing thing and we all liked swimming/snorkeling in the water, we like doing this almost anywhere. I just felt like we had a fairly short amount of time there and there were minor issues. I did go to 2 bars trying to get some ice for my son at one point which was difficult. The first bar was a long wait and couldn't help at all, they seemed to be too busy making drinks for the young girls at the bar. The bathrooms had no toilet paper, and the sinks did not work by the restroom area? I just have to attribute most of the issue to it being a busy day due to the number of ships in port. We did have a server who took good care of us by the lounge chairs. The internet worked okay. We just had a mixed experience and I don't know what we would have done if we got there later when the chairs/loungers were even more filled up. We got back to the ship with no issues, had time to do a little shopping by the port. In hindsight I wish I would have bought more souvenir stuff/gifts from the woman on the beach by Caye Caulker in Belize. She had some cute hand made dolls (despicable me, ice age, etc). I bought a few things for the kids there but I wish I would have bought more. Her name was Stephanie and she was obviously very proud of what she was selling as she had made it. She was very sweet. She gave us a small discount on what I was buying since it was a package, not just one item.

 

Anyways, back to Roatan day - we really enjoyed the family insanity game that evening before dinner. I thought there was a good assortment of family friendly activities on the ship.

 

Day 6/7- AT SEA - these at sea days really flew by for us. We would usually go between the pool to other activities on the ship and back. I also booked a mommy/daughter manicure this day, I think it was at 4:15. It was fun and my daughter was really proud of her pink and purple nails :) The spa personnel were all very nice to deal with and they did a good job. The paperwork says that only kids 12 and up can get a manicure, but if you ask they will let younger kids get manicures too. It was a fun little mommy/daughter activity, they did it so we could sit right next to each other. It was a beautiful view to the water from there while we were getting that done.

 

I believe we ate at Moderno this night (it was good, we pass on some of the meats but I like the Chorizo, filet, and one other spicy choice - I can't remember the name - the best, the grilled pineapple was also good). We also liked the Elements show. It is not quite as high of a caliber performance like a full fledged cirque du soleil production, but for being on a cruise ship we think it is a very good production. My kids were thrilled to see Cription and Renata as part of the show :)

 

I believe we went in the gift shop for a few things today and another day. I thought the prices were pretty high for essentials/toiletry items there, but you don't have any other choice. I brought along kids Dramamine and kids advil/Tylenol in case we needed it at all, but luckily we didn't end up using it The ship was pretty rocky on this day and the next day, but our room was towards the back and we didn't really end up feeling it that much or getting sea sick. If you were prone to motion sickness it was probably a different story. I also brought some ginger candy but we didn't end up using that either.

 

Some general things --

DRINKS: Drink prices were pretty high, I was really wishing we also had the UBP. Some people who booked much closer to the ship sailing date were able to get a lower fare, and UBP and a SDP package. I wish we could have done this. For prior trips NCL has given us some OBC for rate reductions, but we didn't get that this time. I will have to think about timing on booking for future trips. We still thought it was a good value for what we paid but if we had booked 60-90 days out we would have had a lot more for the money. We still got double latitudes points for this cruise though, since we had booked over 9 months out. (There was a nice wine/cheese party for us since we were silver or above, we stopped in after dinner one night for drinks and a cheese plate). Even though we brought along sodas and wine our drink bill added up. So if there was a way to get the UBP next time I would probably try to do that if possible.

 

GYM: The gym area was nice. I don't think you are allowed to use the weight machines until after 8am so it doesn't make noise for the cabins below. The bathrooms there had 1 shower in the women's room, so I am assuming the men's room had the same. They did have TRX equipment but you could only use it if you signed up for the class with the personal trainer. We never had issues getting a machine. The ellipticals all had TV's on them. There was one elliptical in a really nice spot towards the front, in a little "bump out" window which had a really nice view of the water. At first I couldn't find a water fountain, just a vending machine to buy water, but there is one there tucked in a corner. It is a little hard to see if you aren't looking in the right spot. They have a good assortment of free weights, medicine balls, etc. There are a lot of things in the studio which you can also use if there is not a class going on; a lot of people had mats laid out in there and were doing stretches, etc. at various times.

 

ICONCIERGE: The iconcierge thing didn't have the same functionality as on the Epic, we could see account review and text (again I had issues on one device staying connected). It didn't let us see dinner reservations or daily schedule like we could on the Epic. Make sure you hold onto your daily, we didn't have one with us the first or second night and when we went to guest services they were all out? They may want to have it posted somewhere, as a suggestion.

 

GUEST SERVICES: We did have one guest services related issue which we thought was handled fairly and without major inconvenience/issue.

 

There was one other magic show on the last at sea day, I think it was around 3 p.m., we liked that one a lot too. We ended up missing the comedian and some of the other shows so I can't comment on those.

 

CASINO - it was pretty quiet in here for most of the week. Not sure why. We each played table games some nights. I had fun playing poker one night, but it took a long time for the game to get started, I think it was a little bit after the 2nd show let out. It sounds like on other cruises they have more people in the casino so the games might start earlier. The dealers were good, there was one guy named Viktor who was pretty hilarious when I was at the table, it was a fun time.

 

OVERALL: I also really liked the servers Inengah and Jade at Cagney's. Overall we thought the crew were polite and very hard working. I did see some customers being really rude to certain crew people at guest services and other places, and the crew people handled it well. It was more of a reflection on the customer, some people are very difficult to please I guess. Overall really it was a great cruise for us. Where else can your kids get ice cream every day :)

 

POST CRUISE - NASA/MARRIOT HOTEL Post cruise - disembarkation was pretty easy. I noticed that if you had a porter with your luggage you got to bypass the really long line, just a tip. We took a uber to the Marriott in Nassau Bay since it was within walking distance to the Nasa Space Center. We got there early and they let us store our bags until our rooms were ready. We did have the Nasa package, and when I first asked for our tickets she said they didn't have any and might not have any until Monday? So I explained that the package was why we had booked the hotel, and was there a way we could get our tickets which were part of the package. After a short wait they produced the tickets. We really liked the space center, it was family friendly, we were only going to stay a few hours and ended up staying 5-6 hours I think. It was an easy walk from the hotel.

 

A tip: you can reserve NASA tram times ahead of time. We got to go through a priority line because I had done this. I reserved the times before our cruise and had a printout with me. So for the 11am tram, we walked right on. I recommend the red tour if you have kids, it is more visual, you can pick once you get in the line there. There was a long line of people who didn't have "timed tickets" and who had to wait. First they filled the tram with timed tickets and then filled in the remaining seats with others. So you probably won't sit together if you have a big group and don't have timed tickets. If you go to their website it is easy. You don't need to buy admission tickets ahead of time, you can just get free reserved tram time tickets. Later in the day we also decided to go in the shuttle/Independence, so I went online and got timed tickets for that too. The line wasn't as long, but we got to go right to the front of the line, I think we had the 3:15 time. I was surprised that more people didn't have the timed tickets since they were so convenient. The hotel was nice, the pool was a bit cold and wasn't nearly as nice as at the Embassy Suites downtown or on the ship, but we still enjoyed it. No hot tub. They also had a workout room and our room seemed huge after being used to the cruise ship room for the past week. The hotel does not include breakfast but you can buy food/snacks/drinks there. We walked to a nearby greek restaurant for dinner which was good, there is also a CVS nearby if you would need anything like that there. For what we paid it was a good deal because of the space center tickets/location, but if I wasn't going to the space center I would probably stay elsewhere. We did uber to the Hobby airport in the AM with no issue, it was quick and well priced.

 

WRAP-UP: For all of you future Jade cruisers we hope you enjoy the ship. It was probably a more fun cruise for us since our kids are old enough now to really be able to participate and enjoy the experiences of the cruise. We thought the food was good (again we ate in specialty restaurants for all dinners, our favorites were Cagneys/Teppinyaki).

 

OTHER NOTES/COMMENTS - Thanks for the feedback. Regarding the instacart question - I had put the order in ahead of time, and could just keep things in the cart without checking out, I think I ended up being able to check out two days before the delivery, you might have to wait until the day before or the day of though, I think they deliver from 6-7pm or 7-8pm or other times depending what works for your schedule. You will have to meet the delivery person with your ID if it includes alcohol. There was a limited selection of some wines but we were able to get what we wanted.

 

For more drink storage- on the first day, we asked our room attendant to clear out our fridge of the mini bar items when he could so we could put things there, and we also had him take away the coffee maker/setup so we could put more things in that area of our room. I can't remember when he could do this, I know they had to have the fridges locked until a certain time, but we liked being able to have the room in our fridge for everything we wanted.

 

We are hoping to book NCL again in the next few years. Again I am not sure if I would book so far ahead of time, or wait until closer to the cruise date since the promos seemed to get better and better. It is probably a gamble either way.

 

For those of you who get to go to Houston while the Jade is still there enjoy! I wish we could have had more time to explore the city. It is a shame since that cruise terminal seems so new and it doesn't sound like it is going to get used anymore after the next few weeks.