Pacific Coastal NCL Jewel including Fleet Week and air show. With lots of pics

[FranknBeans]

We too were on this cruise, the weather was just amasing as were the ports.

 

We had done this cruise before and knew that we wanted to take advantage of the deep discounts in the stores especially the smoke salmon which we bought a lot of.

 

I wont go into detail on the cruise as it's all been covered.

[Sensenigr]

Thank you for sharing this lovely review so far.  We were on the Bliss for the Panama Canal in March of this year.  Our next cruise will be on the Jewel in February 2021.  We are looking forward to trying out the Jewel.  Thank you for your insight! 

[trivimp]

I was on this cruise as well!  Did you jump when the F-35 came in low & buzzed the Great Outdoors? 

[skierjj]

5 hours ago, FranknBeans said:

We too were on this cruise, the weather was just amasing as were the ports.

 

We had done this cruise before and knew that we wanted to take advantage of the deep discounts in the stores especially the smoke salmon which we bought a lot of.

 

I wont go into detail on the cruise as it's all been covered.

Yes we visited the ship store on the sea day and the last day. They were getting rid of all of their Alaska stuff, which was a lot! We were happy with our purchases. We did not need to fly so no worries about weight, but you can only carry home so much! We bought Zacapa XO and Zacapa 23, fine rums from Guatemala, “aged in the clouds”, at high altitude, which we fell in love with on our Panama Canal trip.

Glad that you enjoyed your cruise too!

Joyce

[BSR]

We were also on this cruise and had a great time.  Enjoyed seeing the Blue Angles from the ship.

[skierjj]

11 hours ago, Sensenigr said:

Thank you for sharing this lovely review so far.  We were on the Bliss for the Panama Canal in March of this year.  Our next cruise will be on the Jewel in February 2021.  We are looking forward to trying out the Jewel.  Thank you for your insight! 

Thanks for following along. I think that you will enjoy the Jewel. Where will you be going?

[Sensenigr]

Just now, skierjj said:

Thanks for following along. I think that you will enjoy the Jewel. Where will you be going?

We will be doing a 12 night Auckland to Sydney -- Bucket list cruise for us.  Have never been to that part of the World. 🙂

[skierjj]

9 hours ago, trivimp said:

I was on this cruise as well!  Did you jump when the F-35 came in low & buzzed the Great Outdoors? 

Yes! Everyone’s jaw just dropped! It was so loud!.

I think I sat with you at the meet and greet. Loved your tiara!

Joyce

[skierjj]

3 hours ago, BSR said:

We were also on this cruise and had a great time.  Enjoyed seeing the Blue Angles from the ship.

So impressive and so entertaining!

Glad that you had a good cruise too!

Joyce

[skierjj]

3 minutes ago, Sensenigr said:

We will be doing a 12 night Auckland to Sydney -- Bucket list cruise for us.  Have never been to that part of the World. 🙂

Ooh I may have to check that one out. We’ve never been to New Zealand or Australia. I’ve got 4 cruise next certificates to use up by 2022.

Joyce

[Sensenigr]

Just now, skierjj said:

Ooh I may have to check that one out. We’ve never been to New Zealand or Australia. I’ve got 4 cruise next certificates to use up by 2022.

Joyce

Well, you should definitely consider it.  It is 02/15/2021 from Auckland to Sydney.   We are SoCal residents as well 🙂

[skierjj]

Just now, Sensenigr said:

Well, you should definitely consider it.  It is 02/15/2021 from Auckland to Sydney.   We are SoCal residents as well 🙂

Did you get reduced air fare as part of your perks?

[Sensenigr]

Just now, skierjj said:

Did you get reduced air fare as part of your perks?

 

We actually decided to take the bonus $50 per port excursion credit instead ($100 total per port).  I believe we will be able to find airfare relatively close to the same cost as what NCL was offering....I think 😕     They won't really release schedules/fares until about one year out.

[skierjj]

Here a few photos and videos of the naval ship parade and the air show. Not the best quality but you get a taste of the experience that day.

Like trivimp said, one of the highlights was when the huge F-35 flew right over us with the rocket engine fire blazing out the back end. It was so loud and fast. We were blown away! Car alarms went off 12 decks below us on the port of San Francisco. We were stunned and then everyone just started laughing, it was quite a shock! I don’t think I have any photos of the F-35.

Here are the naval ships, if you look close you can see the sailors at ease on every deck. You can also see Alcatraz island behind the ships.

[skierjj]

Next are some of the air show:

The United 777 is the only commercial plane in an air show.

[skierjj]

Here’s to the air show and staying onboard ship for all of the action. Luckily we live in California and have seen San Francisco many times. But I still want to see Muir Woods and I would have liked to see the science museum. Mike said that we will come back to do the things that I want to do in and near this beautiful city.

These are photos of sailing away from San Francisco and going under the Golden Gate:

[skierjj]

Going under the Golden Gate Bridge, 5:30 October 11, 2019.

[skierjj]

More of the Golden Gate:

And the setting of the moon in the middle of the night:

[skierjj]

The night of San Francisco, we saw the show Velvet which was very good.

We had a late night dinner at La Cucina and a nice bottle of Spanish wine. I think it was a Tempranillo. The wine steward came over and suggested that we put it in a decanter. It was all very fancy. I had veal shank and I think Mike had a veal dish also. It was very good. 

[FranknBeans]

29 minutes ago, skierjj said:

The night of San Francisco, we saw the show Velvet which was very good.

We had a late night dinner at La Cucina and a nice bottle of Spanish wine. I think it was a Tempranillo. The wine steward came over and suggested that we put it in a decanter. It was all very fancy. I had veal shank and I think Mike had a veal dish also. It was very good. 

 

 

This show w s one of the best ever and even stood up to the old Jean Ann Ryan Group of productions, this show was also made special by the fact that Candyce Glover winner of season 12 of  American Idol was one of the leads and she also did a show on her own to a stand O.

[skierjj]

The next day was Monterey. We had been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and we have driven the 17 mile drive before. So we decided to rent bikes through Adventures by the Sea, on our own. We rode our bikes along the recreational trail along the coast. It was beautiful.

Monterey is a tender port. They had early bird tenders, I think starting at 6:00 am! I was still sleeping then! There were no lines getting on the tenders. We ate breakfast first at great outdoors, which I love. 

We tendered a short distance 10-15 minutes at most. There were otters in the bay among the private boats in the harbor.

We walked along the sea path walkway about 1 mile and 1/2 to Cannery Row to pick up our reserved bikes. We filled out lots of paperwork and signed our lives away because we decided not to wear helmets provided.

We biked to Lovers point and had coffee, then we biked all the way the other direction to Sand City area. It was a beautiful day.

We saw pelicans, otters, sea lions and other sea birds. We rode through huge old growth Eucalyptus grove that smelled so good. We walked along a sandy beach. Took pics of our Jewel in the bay.

[Lovetotraveltami]

It looks like the biking was fairly easy on the Coastal Trail?  How about in Astoria ?  Appears to be the perfect trip and the weather looks wonderful.

[skierjj]

11 hours ago, Lovetotraveltami said:

It looks like the biking was fairly easy on the Coastal Trail?  How about in Astoria ?  Appears to be the perfect trip and the weather looks wonderful.

Yes the biking was easy on both trails in Astoria and Monterey. In Astoria the trail is mostly on a boardwalk with trolley car railway tracks. It takes a little practice to cross the tracks. Our guide said to get as perpendicular as you can to cross them. Then it was easy. 

I think if I had known about an ebike tour of the 17 mile drive beforehand, in Monterey, we might have  been interested in doing that. But we thoroughly enjoyed our 2 days of biking on this cruise. The weather was perfect.

[jmh3791]

I was on this cruise as well!  I can see why the Jewel won an award for the friendliest ship - the crew is AMAZING! We had gone to Alaska with them in May and loved the crew so much that we went back for this cruise.  We were so impressed that many of the crew remembered us (tbh it was mostly bartenders that remembered me! 🤣🤣)  I can't wait to go back again, but unfortunately, their schedule doesn't match mine for next year.   😥

 

Thanks for the photos of Oregon!  I got sick from the rocking the night before, so the only thing I remember from Oregon was going through customs.  I suspect a bit of my day was spent at the bars, so that could be another reason why I don't remember!   That may have been the night where we hit Moderno and Magnolia became my new best friend.  She kept me stocked up on Pineapple 

🍍 the entire rest of the cruise!

 

We did the tour of LA with the stop at the farmer's market after the cruise.   I would have rather spent more time in San Francisco.  BUt now I know I don't need to spend any more time in LA. HA!

 

Here are some of my photos of the F-35 and Blue Angels.