Live from the NCL Jewel May 1-15, 2023 (caution: may contain grumpiness and sarcasm.)

[ceilidh1]

4 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

We are at the port.  Insane line to get in but fine for Haven and other priority groups.

This is the Haven line

and this is the general boarding.

I have asked for wheelchair assistance through security so now we are waiting.  They told us they are short on wheelchairs and we should buy our own.  I ignored that comment.

 

here is my luggage

and here is dad’s

most importantly, here is the Jewel

 

Vancouver port is a "you-know-what" show...and that's coming from someone that used to work there!

 

Suggested you get your own wheelchair? Uhhh, what???? Slap them. All of them.

[Yesimapirate]

I'd just look at customer service agent who told you to buy your own wheelchair and sarcastically say "no problem,  my father isn't very tall.  A short wheelchair will work just fine", smile and walk away.

[Suetravel]

Sailaway is at 5pm, the ship will sail without all those passenger still waiting on line. 

[ceilidh1]

It's also the start of the season with lots of new, untrained port staff. It's always a gong show for the first sailings...

[www3traveler]

7 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

It's also the start of the season with lots of new, untrained port staff. It's always a gong show for the first sailings...

YES  

[ChiefMateJRK]

On 4/26/2023 at 9:36 PM, YVRteacher said:

Yes! Something at Christmas.  Likely the Bliss (I know, I know!) We had the Pride of America booked but my dad felt a 6.5 hour flight would not be a good thing for him and the flight to LA for the Bliss is do-able. My preference would be the Breakaway out of New Orleans but that involves two flights and no one in their right mind would do two flights with my dad!

Solution: fly to Honolulu next summer and take the 16 day Hawaii/AK/Vancouver Spirit sailing.  That could very well be an official 🐀P cruise!!  😎

[mkcurran]

On 4/23/2023 at 12:42 PM, YVRteacher said:

More plans are coming together. 8 days to go!

 

I did something similar to this for my 80 year-old Mother in Law for our trip to Belize. It even included costs and suggestions for spending money. Yet all my spending money went to her expenses, as she did not get enough. Until the last two days we were there and she finally got cash out of an atm. Then didn't spend it and hasn't been able to exchange it in a year. 

Now I understand why none of the rest of the family wants to travel with her any more.

On 4/24/2023 at 9:15 PM, YVRteacher said:

Hi Niki. Do Rothy’s have flat soles inside or are they shaped like a foot with some arch support?  I sound like an old lady! 

It's a little late, but I have fallen in love with Ecco's. They have arch support.

[YVRteacher]

Embarkation day

The experience at the Port of Vancouver was, in a word, awful.  Even though I fast-tracked us through security and customs by discreetly telling the port staff my dad has dementia, it was still a maze of stupidity and poor planning.  I’m not going to write about it now because I’m trying to forget about it and move on.  The port employees were all friendly and positive and I give them credit for their patience.  It must be such a challenging job and so horrible to spend a day mired in inefficiency.

My friend came to the port to wave goodbye and it was fun to see him as we boarded.  Our muster check-in took 7 seconds then we were escorted to our suite. 

 

I had sent the Haven pre-cruise concierge an email requesting the pillows be removed from the main bedroom and that the back bedroom couch be made up into a bed.  Were either of these done? Nope.  But we do have a whole case of Flow water since we booked at the time where 6 waters per person were advertised.  We also got another 4 litres delivered this afternoon.  16 litres of water for one week. My dad drinks beer, not water!

The closet door in my room doesn’t open all the way which means none of the drawers are accessible.  When the butler came by we mentioned it to him and he said he would let maintenance know.  This is the same suite we stayed in at Christmas and the same thing happened. What did the guests do who stayed in the room before us? Put their stuff on the floor??  More on this later…

 

We saw Omar!! Big hugs from Omar!  He looks so great and he is loving doing Cruise Next as he was a concierge for 11 years.  He was walking through the atrium and he stopped in his tracks and hugged us both.  He remembered which cruises we were on when he was our concierge.  He told us Teo (current concierge who is filling in for Armando) is wonderful.  He also said, “but there’s nobody like Omar.”  We don’t disagree! (We also love Bruno and Armando!)

See that? That’s my Old Fashioned being handcrafted with care.  First drink on board.  

 

We are trying to figure out why Wines Around the World is at 10:00am.  We met the head mixologist (Aan) at Magnums and were chatting with him.  I asked if he would be doing the Sail and Sustain and he said yes.  He saw this piece of paper

I had sitting on the counter and he said “10:00am is for Bloody Mary and Mimosas” (and I added Painkillers!) Not for wine.  He’s going to look into it.

 

Our butler is the wonderful Rogin.  He extended his contract because his wife is on board (housekeeping supervisor for decks 9 and 10) and he goes home on the day we arrive in Seward.  If he hadn’t stayed this extra week he wouldn’t have seen his wife.  He remembered all our preferences.  He also said he just opened the card/tip envelope I left for him at Christmas. He said he saves them and he and his wife open them together.

 

Because things took soooooo long at the port (this is the Port of Vancouver’s fault, not NCL’s-that part with NCL was completely smooth, organized and efficient) we arrived at Cagney’s for haven lunch right at 2:00pm.  I knew they closed at 2:00. The hostess said “we’re closed.” Not hello, not welcome.  I just looked at her and she said hold on. She called someone (manager? Maître d? Who knows) and they said we could come in and have lunch.  My dad had soup and dessert and I had a self created sandwich: toasted burger bun, Brie, avocado, lettuce and tomato.  Yummy!!

 

The announcement that all cabins were ready happened at 2:40pm today.  We had already dropped off our luggage before our late lunch. For anyone wondering, they had a room (actually a service hallway) next to Teppanyaki to use for luggage storage.

 

We had a really nice little unofficial Cruise Critic gathering at Maltings at 4pm and it was lovely to get to know people, put names to faces and hear travel stories and cruise stories.  When the safety announcements came on at 4:30 I could see there were still people boarding.  Maybe they were some of the 78 people who had not yet checked in at the muster station.  I was telling people that one time on the Bliss I was having a massage during the safety announcements and it kind of impacted the relaxation quotient.  My dad thought this was funny!

 

As we were heading up to deck 14 for sailaway we hit the tail end of the sailaway party (we left 26 minutes left today.) We saw Emma!  She and I screamed/hugged! As one does.  She hugged my dad too!  

Sailaway was wonderful.  Beautiful night, calm waters, a Painkiller for me

and a Bahama Mama for dad, gorgeous views and the excitement that comes with anticipation of the cruise ahead and absolute joy. As we passed under the Lions Gate Bridge (did you know it was built by the Guinness family?) this was our conversation:

 

Me: You haven’t taken any photos!

 

Dad: it’s all fixed in my memory!

 

Me: 😬

 

Later we walked through the casino and he said “I forgot about this place” with a big smile.  (We returned after the evening show and dad won some money.)

We tried to do Pub Trivia but the Cruise Director’s staff member didn’t arrive on time, couldn’t get her laptop to sync and after waiting and waiting my dad started making his grumpy sighing noises.  I knew he was done with waiting so we left before trivia started and went for dinner.  I had made a reservation for Cagney’s but we had eaten lunch so late I knew neither of us would be very hungry. Tonight we ate in Azura.

 

Our appies came quickly but we had a long wait for entrees.  The sommelier saw my Prosecco dwindling and asked if I wanted more.  I said no thank you.  My dad said, “tell him we want our food!” As the minutes ticked on my dad started saying things like “bloody atrocious” and “severe problem” and “this is ridiculous.”  I tried to distract him with the video I took of a woodpecker on Sunday but that was only 24 seconds long.

 

I ordered desserts as soon as our entrees arrived to try to alleviate more waiting for my dad.  

 

Everything we had was delicious and excellent.  We had a wonderful server who did magic tricks made my dad laugh. This was probably the best meal I’ve ever had in the main dining room. We both enjoyed Greek salad, my dad had Fettuccini Alfredo with Shrimp (half order of pasta, double order of shrimp) my entree was the vegetarian burrito and we shared two desserts: honey crème brûlée and salted caramel chocolate tart.

There may not be a lot of food photos this week because as my dad was about to take a bite of his shrimp I said, “wait, wait! I have to take a picture!”

 

Dad: go take a picture of somebody else’s food!  I’m going to eat mine.

 

Part way through dinner dad announced loudly that it was past his bedtime.  The couple next to us nodded with understanding.

 

When we returned to the cabin I had a bed, my dad’s copious amount of pillows had been removed (they left 4, I swiftly removed three) and the closet door in my room still wouldn’t open, meaning I still couldn’t unpack my stuff.  You better believe I phoned the front desk. Our butler came, our concierge came and a waiter came. What’s the waiter supposed to do? Take my order for a non-broken closet and bring me a bread basket??

 

[mking8288]

Good morning to dad and you, it's 10:25 am on our side of the ocean, the Atlantic ... somewhere between Funchal, Spain & Cadiz, Spain.  Hola, that's a beautiful sunset you witnessed together.

 

 

 

[www3traveler]

WOW!!!  What a day!!!!  I was beginning to wonder about you and Dad.

Three ships trying to embark at the same time would be a bit much for any port especially this early in the season.

Glad you are safely on board.

Can not wait to read the next chapter of this adventure.

Is Hannah still the GM?  Tough position for her to be in, filling Steven's shoes would be a difficult challenge for anyone.

 

BIG BIG BIG BIG HUGS for you and Dad.

 

 

 

[ceilidh1]

You summed up the Port of Vancouver perfectly - it was mildly better most of the years I worked there (back in the days when we were cruiseline employees as opposed to contracted - I did two seasons with the company that the lines contract out to and that was enough) but it has always been inefficient, too small, and with too many moving parts. The biggest issue with Vancouver is the requirement to pre-clear with the US CBP - this gets so backed up at times (at least they now have kiosks, as opposed to one or two officers only) but the whole downstairs/upstairs/downstairs nonsense is just baffling. I'm grateful to have a port that I can walk to, but it does try my patience.

 

Glad you are on board - I was hoping you hadn't posted because you were knee-deep in Mai Tais...

[bluesea777]

7 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

We are trying to figure out why Wines Around the World is at 10:00am.  We met the head mixologist (Aan) at Magnums and were chatting with him.  I asked if he would be doing the Sail and Sustain and he said yes.  He saw this piece of paper

I had sitting on the counter and he said “10:00am is for Bloody Mary and Mimosas” (and I added Painkillers!) Not for wine.  He’s going to look into it.

 

So Aan is on the Jewel, sob, sob, rather than on the Spirit! We had him making Martinis for us twice on the Jade (2014 and 2016) and twice on the Spirit (2018 and 2020) and we were hoping he'd still be on Spirit when we board her later on this month.

 

Please give him our best - Ann-Mary & Peter from Bermuda.

 

 

[YVRteacher]

It took 35 minutes last night to post that!

 

The opening night evening show was fabulous.  If you are on a cruise with Vince Acevedo don’t miss him!  He is a comedian whose whole show is interacting with the crowd.  We both laughed the whole time and didn’t want the show to end.

 

Morning photo from the balcony

 

Mid-morning photos from the balcony

 

Mid-morning drink photos

 

We are having a great time!  Food is excellent, bartenders are excellent, Jewel is wonderful.  All is well with the world.  Internet is painfully slow. I think on future cruises I’m going to have to buy the internet package.  Or go on a ship with Starlink. 

 

 

 

[ChiefMateJRK]

45 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

Internet is painfully slow. I think on future cruises I’m going to have to buy the internet package.  Or go on a ship with Starlink.

Yep.  Unfortunately, NCL internet is reminiscent of the days of dial-up modems.  I'm enjoying your thread, but we would rather you and dad enjoy your cruise to the max than wrestle with NCL internet all day.

[www3traveler]

Have you and Dad seen any British Columbia ferries on your way North?  One of them has a former Norwegian Captain as Master.

[graphicguy]

20 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Solution: fly to Honolulu next summer and take the 16 day Hawaii/AK/Vancouver Spirit sailing.  That could very well be an official 🐀P cruise!!  😎

Man…that’s awfully tempting!

[vacation44]

Did they fix the closet?

[www3traveler]

1 hour ago, graphicguy said:

Man…that’s awfully tempting!

I can not wait for this adventure.

[YVRteacher]

They fixed the closet, apologized  and gave us spa passes.

 

We have seen one BC ferry.  We are just approaching the southern tip of Haida Gwai.

Edited May 3, 2023 by YVRteacher

[www3traveler]

1 hour ago, YVRteacher said:

They fixed the closet, apologized  and gave us spa passes.

 

We have seen one BC ferry.  We are just approaching the southern tip of Haida Gwai.

The ferry could have had Captain Tommy Stensrud on board as Master.

[natefish95]

Hope you both had an amazing day! Look for a bartender named Evangeline. Last month she was in Maltings and is AMAZING! She is hilarious. Danny was at the pool bar during the day and would make really fun puzzles using stir sticks. He kept me occupied for like an hour one afternoon with a couple. 

 

Check out the guitarist named Drake Allen. He is extremely talented, especially if you like country music. 

 

I can't wait to be back on the Jewel for my Alaska cruise in September. How have the seas been so far? 

 

Other than bus tours, what have been you least favorite Alaskan excursions? Having trouble deciding on what to do. 

[YVRteacher]

I’ve cruised with her before! She’s terrific!

Edited May 3, 2023 by YVRteacher

[YVRteacher]

58 minutes ago, natefish95 said:

Hope you both had an amazing day! Look for a bartender named Evangeline. Last month she was in Maltings and is AMAZING! She is hilarious. Danny was at the pool bar during the day and would make really fun puzzles using stir sticks. He kept me occupied for like an hour one afternoon with a couple. 

 

Check out the guitarist named Drake Allen. He is extremely talented, especially if you like country music. 

 

I can't wait to be back on the Jewel for my Alaska cruise in September. How have the seas been so far? 

 

Other than bus tours, what have been you least favorite Alaskan excursions? Having trouble deciding on what to do. 

The only excursion we didn’t like was part of the best of Skagway.  It was the portion at Liarsville.  The gold panning was okay, there were no dogs and lunch was blah.  Then we had a long wait for the bus to come.  Every other excursion has been a thumbs up from both of us.

[YVRteacher]

*some photos won’t upload. I will add later.
Day 2

We enjoyed a fantastic go-go-go kind of morning.

First up was breakfast in Moderno.  I’m not a morning person and forgot to take photos of our eggs Benedict. Spoiler alert: they looked like eggs Benedict.  Veggie for me, regular for dad.  Half orders for both of us.  All both were perfectly cooked.  Orange juice was great, French press coffee was a cross between thick and nasty.

 

Then we did the Behind the Scenes tour.  This is the tour for latitudes. We had 27 people. Juan, the Cruise Next manager, was funny, personable, knowledgeable and fabulous.  Our tour was 75 minutes. We started in the Stardust Theatre where we learned the current casts for all three production shows are 1 month in to their contracts.  Installs were 12 days. They had guest entertainers on board while they were installing the shows.  

 

When seas get rough there is a contingency plan for each show.  Cast members may  not go up a ladder, will have the option not to stand on the high platform or not slide down the pole but the actors always want to go for it.  For Velvet if the seas are rough the performers don’t wear platform shoes; they wear wear flats. 

 

The stage floor is made of material called marley.  It comes in sheets, gets placed down and is heat treated to seal it.

 

Avery, the production manager, told us how integral the dressers and set strike down people are.  They come from other departments, show up in their steel-toed work boots and take down the set. 

Performers are contracted for an additional 5 hours of gym  beyond their rehearsals each week. They are also contracted for 8 hours of technical rehearsals per week.  They are expected to be strong mentally and physically.  When we first started doing these tours 10 years ago they always told us a performer could not gain or lose more than 5 pounds.  Glad to see this policy no longer exists. 

 

The Laundry Supervisor is Orlando. He has been with NCL for 20 years. Laundry is

working 24 hours a day and there are three 8 hour shifts on the Jewel.

Tip from Juan: always book the same cabin number so you don’t have to remove the little tags from the laundry!

 

They use Ecolab products which are environmentally safe and hypoallergenic 

 

They can’t get new machines because they can’t get the roof out.  The new machines on the big ships have different technology.  Here a good portion is manual.  They have specially trained engineers to fix the manglers.

 

Now we are in the galley.  There are stations for dairy free, gluten free, celiac, nut free etc.  Within the main galley are 14 separate galleys.  There are two galleys for crew and a galley for the garden cafe.  There is a bakery and a butcher shop. On this ship there is whole separate galley within the main galley for room service.

I dropped my dad off at the casino for a while and he won again. Then we went to the Cruise Critic gathering.  All the senior officers were present except the captain. 

 

 

 

Emma spoke words of welcome. @KACTravels did a fabulous job organizing and we enjoyed meeting more people.  Then it was time for morning drinks and then we were ready for lunch.

 

Lunch was a rough.  We went to the Haven restaurant (Cagney’s.) Dad ordered the Shrimp Louie and a half bowl of soup. I ordered a burger with no meat.  His appetizer came quickly and he said it was excellent.  Then we waited. And waited. And waited. After 45 minutes we walked out.  My dad was fuming.  I was hungry.  We were both disappointed.  The people behind the counter were working hard. The waiters were working hard.  The problem is NCL has cut back and the cuts are impacting passengers.  The Maître D is not effective or present. We had the Latitudes party at 1:00 so quickly grabbed some food from the buffet then popped by the cabin. Just as we were heading up to Spinnaker our butler showed up with what we ordered from the Haven. We had not asked for food to be delivered.  I felt so badly for the butler.

 

Moving on, as one must do when there are minor frustrations on NCL, we enjoyed the Latitudes gathering.  We had a great chat with Captain Vicente. I asked if his son was on board this trip and he said he is 11 days less than 6 months old so is still too young to sail. Captain Vicente asked us to join him for dinner one night and we happily said we would love to . Actually he said “we should do something!!” He just boarded yesterday in Vancouver.  I wrote this last year: he is the youngest captain in the fleet. At the Latitudes party I tried a green tea drink, which was delicious.  I need to find out what it was so I can order one.

 

Our concierge gave us free spa passes for the week so we did a tour of the spa then changed into swimwear and fluffy robes.  You will not believe the rigamarole it was to get my dad settled on a hot stone lounger.  I put a towel down for him. He awkwardly climbed on, facing backwards.  Eventually he got himself situated with his shoes and robe still on then wanted a pillow.  I brought a towel. Then another. Then another.  We were hitting Princess and the Pea vibes at this point and he still wasn’t comfy.  I found a cushion on a chair, wrapped it in a towel and placed that under his stack of towels. That worked.  2 minutes later he loudly asked, “where’s the beer?”  The other passenger who was enjoying the hot ceramic loungers laughed. I thought my dad might fall asleep but about 20 minutes later there was a loud “aaaaachoooo.” 

Then my dad said, “I made a loud sneeze.”

I replied, “yes, you did.”

Then the other woman left. 

Guess what? This is my dad’s first time in a spa.

 

We were there for about 30 minutes and my dad said he was cooked.  He wanted to go in the hot tubs outside. I wanted to stay in the thermal spa.  He asked why his beer was taking so long to be delivered.

 

You can probably guess that we went to the hot tub and he got his beer.  I had a Mai Tai. I’m noticing all of the drinks have had double the amount of ice (thus half the amount of actual drink.) There were  nice people to chat with from Sacramento, Perth and Providence. It was beautiful weather with rich blue skies and glorious sun but it was so cold and windy.  My face got the shivers!  Our towels blew away and landed up who knows where. I told my dad next time we are staying at the spa.  He did not argue.

 

Treats from the butler and the GM were delivered.  Yum!

[YVRteacher]

Sunset is at 9:16pm tonight and clocks go back an hour. We need to be at the mill house at 8:15am for private excursion, Bering Sea Crab Fishermen’s Tour.

 

There are 1447 passengers on board including 47 people under the age of 21.  Quite a difference from the 1200 kids on the Bliss at Spring Break!