Live from the Jewel April 29-May 13, 2024: will definitely contain sarcasm and grumpiness

[YVRteacher]

Please note that the last photo I took last night and the first photo I took today were both hot toddies.

 

At least I am consistent.

 

[YVRteacher]

I am not happy about this

 

[YVRteacher]

I went to the Guest Services desk to get a print out of our account. Even though I booked this cruise and did all the paperwork and put everything in my name, the account defaults to my dad’s name so I can’t access anything through the NCL app on my phone.

 

We headed to Spinnaker at 12:00pm for the Future Cruise presentation.  Bingo ran over time and I had to sit through 7 minutes of mindless drivel.

 

While checking our onboard account printout I noticed that our shareholder onboard credit was not given for the second week.

 

Back to guest services I went.

[YVRteacher]

Sea day afternoon

 

1:00pm was Sail and Sustain.

 

 

 

This lasted until 2:00pm.  Aan gives a lot of information about each cocktail. Marko came by to say hi.

 

10 people registered and 7 attended. They pre make and pre pour the Sail and Sustain drinks on the Jewel so they threw away the unused drinks. Seems to contradict the whole sustain part of Sail and Sustain. 

 

Aan is always one of my Vacation Heroes.

 

[YVRteacher]

Sea day lunch

 

It’s a little known secret that the Jewel picks up salmon each time the ship docks in Ketchikan/Ward Cove. This is an arrangement initiated by Steven Jacobsen. The salmon has to be frozen before it can be served.

 

They were grilling salmon at the buffet and as fast as they were cooking it people were piling their plates with 4, 5, 6, 7 filets.

 

 

 

Today was last chance day so I had my veggie burger. It took forever to find and cook. I had to tell the guy to use a clean grill and not use any tools that have touched meat or fish.   It was an excellent veggie burger.

 

There was a Mother’s Day cake and cupcake table at the side of the Garden Cafe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The washy washy guys were saying Happy Mother’s Day to every woman. I’m not a mom and my mom is dead. I don’t need someone wishing me happy Mother’s Day. 

 

Last night when I carried my dad’s birthday cake up to Cagney’s the hostess wished me Happy Anniversary. I didn’t like that either.

[YVRteacher]

Honey

 

Last night during dinner I started coughing. I coughed so much I couldn’t catch my breath. This happened earlier on the van ride into Ketchikan and it was awful. Scary.

 

Armando asked Sheila, the maître d, to bring me some lemon tea with honey. She did.

 

 

She has brought me so many pots of tea and pots of hot chocolate this week (Vacation Hero!!) She makes the hot chocolate with milk for us in Moderno for breakfast.

 

 

Armando said he would send some honey to the room for me.

He did.

 

Now I have honey to take home. What a sweet souvenir!

 

I love Bonne Maman products and this year I bought myself their jam advent calendar. It’s worth it! I don’t eat a lot of jam and still have many mini jars left from this December. My friend who puts up with my daily texting about the jam flavour reports from December 1-24 calls it the preserve reserve!

[YVRteacher]

It’s official!

[libtrek]

Hi Yvonne. Unfortunately Rich did not do well on the cruise. His back and legs were much worse than I thought. Ended up renting wheel chair for the two weeks. It helped but he was still overwhelmed. We cancelled Bering tour, he wouldn’t have handled it well. I’m sad to say spending so much time in public made me realize how advanced his dementia has become. Probably no more cruises for us but we do have many happy memories. Mary Lou

[www3traveler]

3 hours ago, libtrek said:

Hi Yvonne. Unfortunately Rich did not do well on the cruise. His back and legs were much worse than I thought. Ended up renting wheel chair for the two weeks. It helped but he was still overwhelmed. We cancelled Bering tour, he wouldn’t have handled it well. I’m sad to say spending so much time in public made me realize how advanced his dementia has become. Probably no more cruises for us but we do have many happy memories. Mary Lou

OH WOW!!!  Very difficult decision to make.  Prayers and Blessings to you and to your family.

Mandy

[rnfulk]

10 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

The washy washy guys were saying Happy Mother’s Day to every woman. I’m not a mom and my mom is dead. I don’t need someone wishing me happy Mother’s Day. 

Same! I hate how everyone assumes that a woman in her 40’s must have kids. It was especially painful to hear in the years right after I lost my mother.  

[schmoopie17]

@YVRteacher I found it amusing that they had a sign next to the cookies that said "cookies". I guess they felt the need to identify these rare things since people haven't seen them in a while and may not recognize what those things are.

[graphicguy]

10 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

It’s official!

Yay...sexay lady....!!!!!

 

 

[tcmagnum]

20 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

The Banana Banoffee Cream is layers of deliciousness served in a parfait glass.  The layers consist of graham cracker pie crust, ripe bananas, dulce de leche pudding and fresh whipped cream. It is garnished with toasted coconut flakes and mint.

 

 

OMG!!  Now I'm starving (I just had some goldfish crackers for lunch).

I will definitely be ordering this on our cruise in October!!

Thank you...

[ChiefK92]

Just got home from the southbound trip and really enjoyed reading along to this! Seems getting sick is happening to a large part of the cruisers from the groups I'm in, thankfully me and my now-fiance (We got engaged in Hoonah!) seem to have escaped it so far but giving in a couple more days before I can say we're in the clear! Glad that the last-half of the cruise had some nice weather to make up for that incredibly rough 1st sea day and Juneau, and the Northern Lights were such a treat, it really was a bucket list item for us both! The staff was fantastic like you said, it definitely felt like a special ship. Sadly our paths didn't cross so we could celebrate those two Canucks wins but I'm glad you had a great time as well 🥳

[YVRteacher]

@ChiefK92 congratulations!!!! Can you share more?  Where in Hoonah? Who asked whom? Did you get mini doughnuts to celebrate? This is big news!!!!!

[YVRteacher]

11 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

@YVRteacher I found it amusing that they had a sign next to the cookies that said "cookies". I guess they felt the need to identify these rare things since people haven't seen them in a while and may not recognize what those things are.

I laughed at that too! I took the first photo then noticed the sign and retook the photo to include it.

[YVRteacher]

19 hours ago, libtrek said:

Hi Yvonne. Unfortunately Rich did not do well on the cruise. His back and legs were much worse than I thought. Ended up renting wheel chair for the two weeks. It helped but he was still overwhelmed. We cancelled Bering tour, he wouldn’t have handled it well. I’m sad to say spending so much time in public made me realize how advanced his dementia has become. Probably no more cruises for us but we do have many happy memories. Mary Lou

I wondered about that. Rich didn’t look too well on day one and I’m sure the whole cruise experience and the flights and hotels were overwhelming for him. He looked happy that first night when I saw you in Moderno, so I hope you enjoyed some lovely meals together.

 

How was disembarkation and your travel day?

 

I’m sending you a virtual hug! Thinking of you, my friend.

[YVRteacher]

If you have been in the spa on the Jewel you have heard the thalassotherapy pool gurgling. That is what my lungs sound like now. Just a constant rattling gurgle.

[MamaToMany]

2 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

If you have been in the spa on the Jewel you have heard the thalassotherapy pool gurgling. That is what my lungs sound like now. Just a constant rattling gurgle.

I hope you feel better super soon! There have been some really nasty spring cooties going around, it seems.

Edited May 15 by MamaToMany

[www3traveler]

1 minute ago, YVRteacher said:

If you have been in the spa on the Jewel you have heard the thalassotherapy pool gurgling. That is what my lungs sound like now. Just a constant rattling gurgle.

Prayers for you as you heal and for Dad.  Parts of the cruise was very hard on him.  Now that he is "home" again, how is he?

[YVRteacher]

Update on the onboard account:

 

At 4:00pm I went back to Guest Services to follow up on the missing Shareholder onboard credit. The person helping us was the Guest Services manager. He checked and the money had not been credited to our account. He phoned accounting and asked what was going on. They were supposed to do this right after lunch.

 

The guest services manager told me it would be taken care of.

 

I told him I wasn’t leaving the counter until this was fixed.

 

I didn’t yell, I was super calm, super friendly and very charming. I collected some tip envelopes and some more Vacation Hero cards while waiting.  It took awhile but it got done.

 

I should not have had to go to Guest Services at all for this, let alone twice in one day. Things like this make me so angry. This was a $100US mistake on NCL’s part and I shouldn’t need to spend any part of my vacation time fighting for it.

[YVRteacher]

1 minute ago, www3traveler said:

Prayers for you as you heal and for Dad.  Parts of the cruise was very hard on him.  Now that he is "home" again, how is he?

I don’t know. We don’t live in the same city. I worked today and just got home. 

[YVRteacher]

Note: I did a Covid test and it was negative. It felt like I had a cold that turned into a cough. I had a doctor’s appointment for something else yesterday and the doctor said he is seeing a lot of this right now.

[YVRteacher]

5 minutes ago, MamaToMany said:

I hope you feel better super soon! There have been some really nasty spring cooties going around, it seems.

Thank you!

 

How is Ben enjoying Hoonah and Icy Strait Point?

[YVRteacher]

Our last supper was in Cagney’s. 

I wasn’t hungry at all. This is a challenge when traveling with someone who is very routine drive. I was often eating when I didn’t want to be eating. 
 

Ginger mojito

 

My lettuce wedge was not-so-shockingly uneventful. The ranch-that-was-not-a-ranch was just watery white stuff that made my lettuce sit in water. Yuck.

 

 

 

@shadowmeboy do we need to start packing our own ranch dressing??

 

I just had sides for dinner.

 

I sent the broccoli back because it was cold and yellow. The potatoes au gratin were good.

 

The dessert was excellent. I ordered off the Moderno menu and my dad had macadamia ice cream. Size small.

 

 

 

 

My dad had the usual: 1/2 portion lobster bisque and 1/2 portion Jumbo Shrimp Skewer.

 

I was not in the best mood and neither was he so we pretty much ate in silence. My dad barely talks anymore so a lot of our meals are quiet. He was mad at me for telling him to stop bashing the Purell dispenser and I was mad at him for having a temper tantrum when I told him to stop bashing the Purell dispenser.   He said he is never cruising again.  I think we are both tired and need a break from being in a very crowded environment. 

 

I only had 12 grams of protein today (2 eggs. Well, three if you count the merengue on my dessert.)