Live from the NCL Jewel December 24-31, 2022 with YVRteacher and her Dad

[YVRteacher]

Hello! One week from today my dad and I will be flying to San Diego and spending two nights there before boarding the NCL Jewel for a 7 night cruise from San Diego to the Mexican Riviera.

 

We are Diamond with NCL and this is my 29th cruise on NCL. We are staying in a two-bedroom penthouse suite and hopefully the toilet doesn’t leak this time.

 

In real life I am an elementary school teacher librarian in an inner city school in Vancouver. 70% of my students are from Syria, Lebanon or Turkey and 30% are Indigenous.  I get to spend weekdays sharing books with children and listening to their connections, stories and ideas.  A lot of my lessons involve art and writing.  I love reading, writing, chocolate, stand up paddle boarding, hiking and exploring without a map.

 

My dad is retired.  He loves to complain.  When I called him earlier tonight to say hi, I asked how his day was.  He said “great” but I think he was a little bit disappointed that nothing went wrong.  He lives in a senior’s home (he had a massive stroke in October 2020 and our lives turned upside down) and he phones me with great excitement when one of the old people dies (this happens A LOT.) 

 

Our ports are Cabo, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Ensenada.  This is my 5th time doing this itinerary.  
 

Yes I will post the dailies and the list of officers  and my daily drinking escapades (I always blame my frequent typos on the unlimited beverage package) and the laundry tags on my clothes and maybe an atrium chandelier photo or two.  We travel with carry-on only luggage so will not be packing bubbles, barbecues or a musical instrument.

[www3traveler]

Can not wait to hear about your adventure.  My favorite General Manager will be onboard-- Steven Jacobsen.

 

Enjoy

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Year

[YVRteacher]

Yes, Steven and Rumi are both wonderful.  Emma, the cruise director, just ended her contract this week and Tahani will be taking over for her.

[vacation44]

Looking forward to be following along!   We will be on the Jewel next August for our first Alaska cruise that we finally booked after reading all of your experiences. 

 

Thank you for all of your reports and have a wonderful sailing.

[debenson0723]

Very much looking forward to your review. IMO, you do the best ones on CC and having your dad along again is a bonus. Enjoy your cruise!

[ChiefMateJRK]

I'll be following as well, looking forward to your humorous "dad" reports.  

14 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

We travel with carry-on only luggage so will not be packing bubbles, barbecues or a musical instrument.

LOL.  Are you sure you don't want to smuggle a bottle of bubbles on board?

[YVRteacher]

Oh, I want to bring bubbles.  Just can’t take liquids on the plane.  Maybe I’ll find a bubble store in San Diego though…

[YVRteacher]

School is out and I’m officially on vacation for 17 days.  We aren’t allowed to call it Christmas break any more- it’s “winter break” even though winter hasn’t even started yet.

 

I am excited about:

-that first drink onboard.  It will either be an old fashioned or a mudslide.

-reading the Freestyle Daily and scheduling the heck out of this vacation

-breakfasts that I don’t have to cook and that involve almond croissants

-lounge singers

-locating the little yellow laundry tags on all my clothes 

-going on a sailboat

-flip flops and denim shorts and sunglasses in winter

-walking on the sandy beaches

-just being onboard an NCL ship

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2022 by YVRteacher

[Crazy planning mom]

Have a wonderful time.  Enjoy reading your reports.

[CruzinMel]

Yay!  I love going on trips "with" you!!  Safe travels!

[Ladiedaz]

Hello!  We will be joining you on the cruise!  This is our third cruise to Mexico and we are looking forward to it.  Hope to see you on board!

[YVRteacher]

@Ladiedaz I’d love to meet you!  How will I know it’s you?  There is a very quiet roll call for our trip.

 

 

 

[YVRteacher]

So today my plan was to eat Purdy’s Himalayan pink salt caramels in the bath tub but I exercised instead.  My friends and I met in Central Park and did three loops which is about 12km.  It was alternating between snow, hail and rain and I wore my hand-knit hat that I bought in Iceland on an NCL cruise.  This hat is made from some tough outdoorsy kind of goat hair and it is warm and cozy but itchy.  It also smelled like wet goat so I spent the whole walk smelling like I had a wet goat on my head.  Driving home, I couldn’t help but think how lovely it will be next week to go for a walk in the sunshine and not smell like damp yet agile mountain creatures. 

[Turtles06]

On 12/17/2022 at 2:18 AM, YVRteacher said:

School is out and I’m officially on vacation for 17 days.  We aren’t allowed to call it Christmas break any more- it’s “winter break” even though winter hasn’t even started yet.

Neither has Christmas. 😊

[YVRteacher]

If you shop at Costco, Christmas started in August.

[armwinder]

On 12/15/2022 at 9:40 PM, YVRteacher said:

We are Diamond with NCL and this is my 29th cruise on NCL.

Have you tried the "mixology experience" we just did on the Epic, very different way of using up fruit.  We may try it again on the Jewel next week, ask your concierge about booking it.   

[YVRteacher]

Yes, I’ve done the mixology experience.  It is booked through CruiseNext, not through the concierge.  I was so tipsy afterward I had to have a nap.  All the drinks were really, really sweet.

[armwinder]

4 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

Yes, I’ve done the mixology experience.  It is booked through CruiseNext, not through the concierge.  I was so tipsy afterward I had to have a nap.  All the drinks were really, really sweet.

We just use the concierge and they looked after it. Not sure if we will do it again on this trip, depends on the timings. 

[YVRteacher]

So this is Vancouver today.  I am now scrambling to try to change our flights to travel a day earlier to give us some wiggle room in case the city shuts down, as it tends to do when we get large amounts of snow.  My dad says it will be a miracle if we get to go on this cruise.  I was supposed to take him to the festival of trees today but emergency departments are advising everyone to stay home.

[bluesea777]

38 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

So this is Vancouver today.  I am now scrambling to try to change our flights to travel a day earlier to give us some wiggle room in case the city shuts down, as it tends to do when we get large amounts of snow.  My dad says it will be a miracle if we get to go on this cruise.  I was supposed to take him to the festival of trees today but emergency departments are advising everyone to stay home.

 

Beautiful, but uuggghhhhh!!

 

🙃

 

[vacation44]

16 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

So this is Vancouver today.  I am now scrambling to try to change our flights to travel a day earlier to give us some wiggle room in case the city shuts down, as it tends to do when we get large amounts of snow.  My dad says it will be a miracle if we get to go on this cruise.  I was supposed to take him to the festival of trees today but emergency departments are advising everyone to stay home.

Were you able to change your flights?

[LMKakaThing2]

Looking forward to your review!  It was great meeting you and your dad back in May on the Jewel!

[disneylover89]

Following along!  I love your reviews and your dad! Hope you were able to change your flights.

 

[YVRteacher]

1 hour ago, LMKakaThing2 said:

Looking forward to your review!  It was great meeting you and your dad back in May on the Jewel!

It was so great to meet you and your mom! That Cruise Critic group made our cruise so special!

[YVRteacher]

Yes, I was able to change our flights so now we are leaving on December 21.  Here’s how the conversation with my dad went.  Keep in mind it was -11 degrees Celsius and he was just out for a walk in the snow.

 

me: Great news! I’ve changed the flights, the hotel reservation and airport parking.

 

Dad: fabulous! Thank you for doing all that.

 

me: You could go downstairs and get a hot chocolate to warm up and celebrate!

 

big pause

 

Dad: I think I’ll have a beer