YVRteacher’s dad is on a cruise! Live from the Jewel Aug 19- Sept 2, 2024

[YVRteacher]

Evening entertainment for us Tuesday night was the Eliminator Game show followed by dessert (butler treats) and one round of drinks at Maltings. My dad was done by this point so I brought him back to the cabin and talked him through how to get ready for bed one step at a time.

 

At the Eliminator show my dad was totally into it, shouting out the correct answers and cheering on the players.  He may also have called some people stupid when they hit the wrong colour and I told him he couldn’t do that. His face drooped in disappointment. As we left Spinnaker dad said he didn’t understand that game at all.

 

 

Drink tally day 2

Dad:

1 Stella

8 samples of wine

1 ginger ale

7 mini martinis

2 more beers

Sake

Bahama Mama

 

Yvonne

2 painkillers

2 samples of white wine

7 mini martinis

Pineapple tequila drink (maybe Mexican surprise or Mexican sunrise? It was noisy and I couldn’t hear. Whatever it was, I definitely enjoyed it.)

Sake

Amaretto sour

 

Walking back to the cabin post night cap, dad said he didn’t know what day it was. I said perhaps we would drink a little less tomorrow. In the elevator I pressed 11 and someone else came in and pressed floor 9. This confused my dad completely and he did not understand why another button was pushed. I had to explain that we were not in a private elevator and that other people could use it too. I don’t know where he got the idea that the elevator was just for us.

[kitkat343]

On 8/20/2024 at 5:33 PM, YVRteacher said:

Dinner in La Cucina

 

Wow. Just wow. We were shocked with the new menu and reduced options. There are few pasta dishes and no vegetarian main course options. My favourite salad, the Ensalada Mista, is gone as is the fettuccini Alfredo con funghi. This menu consists of disappointment and cutbacks.

 

 

 

For the appetizer I ordered the pear and Gorgonzola salad without the Gorgonzola. It was basically a pile of too-big lettuce in a bowl. No one even tried to make it look or taste good.

 

 

My dad had the calamari which he normally loves. He took one bite and said it was tough. He winced through the entire plate.  Good thing this was a half order. 

 

For the main course I ordered the Gamberi Fra Diavolo for dad but in a half portion and with regular tomato sauce instead of spicy. This is his plate as it was delivered to the table.

 

We were so, so disappointed in dinner and if we had one word it would be ‘disgusted.’  Nothing was done to make the meal nice. It wasn’t well plated, it definitely didn’t look like the photo standards NCL provides to their chefs and sous chefs and it simply was not good. It wasn’t even next to good.

 

We used a specialty dining meal but if we hadn’t it would have been $97.00

 

including a $35 charge for this (my dinner)

 

This is how it was presented. As I said, disgusting.

 

The fly in the water was free. 

 

I was glad the fly landed in the water and not my Prosecco.

 

We both looked at each at the same time and said “we used to love this.”

 

My dad said, “when you think of the number of good meals we’ve had in La Cucina, it’s sad to see it go that bad.”

 

We looked at the dessert menu and vetoed it. Crêpes were being made one by one in the Garden Cafe.

 

They were sad crêpes. So, so sad.

 

We noticed the Jewel no longer uses Heinz and has switched to sub-par ketchup. Last year I thought the last straw was when NCL discontinued the distribution of free anti-seasick tablets. I was wrong. 

We had to bring ketchup on a cruise for my middle son this year!  He was so sad without Heinz and refused to eat burgers without it.  Thankfully, Princess still uses Heinz ketchup so he was happy on this cruise.

[YVRteacher]

I have been trying to post this one roll from the sushi bar for days!

[YVRteacher]

Who is on board?

 

Captain 

Johan Stofling

 

Chief Engineer 

Igor Sanje

 

Staff Captain 

Santiago Filevich

 

Cruise Director

Tahani Bautista

 

General Manager 

Fabrice de Corte

 

Staff Chief Engineer 

Luksa Dabo

 

Food and Beverage Director Tyson Pinto

 

Safety Officer

Andrea Brajovic

 

Executive Chef

Peter D Costa

 

Guest Services Manager

Emil Carino

 

Executive Housekeeper

Ricardo Nestor

 

Restaurant Manager

Wilson D Souza

 

Beverage Manager

Muhammad Efendi

 

Casino Manager

Bekezela Sithole

 

Cruise Next Manager

Chzariendale Aguilar

 

Shore Excursion Manager

Denisa A.

 

 

 

[YVRteacher]

Tuesday sunset

 

 

 

[cruiseny4life]

23 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

We had to bring ketchup on a cruise for my middle son this year!  He was so sad without Heinz and refused to eat burgers without it.  Thankfully, Princess still uses Heinz ketchup so he was happy on this cruise.

I immediately downgrade any restaurant that no longer uses Heinz. Even French isn't good...such a silly thing, but there's such a huge difference! Especially that House Recipe Sysco blech. 

[arizonaperson]

@YVRteacher I am so glad I stumbled upon your Live from NCL, I have only been on 1 NCL cruise-I enjoyed it, but I was a tagalong for a friend of mine on a comp. casino cruise.

Absolutely enjoying your postings and sorry that this ship is not very good with Wi-Fi - vs. Princess.

[YVRteacher]

Day 3

We are here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I had to set an alarm for 7:30am.

 

Fortunately the clocks went back an hour last night.

 

We prepared for our excursion then headed up to Moderno for a little bit of breakfast. Neither of us have a large appetite first thing in the morning and we are not morning people.  

 

I had oatmeal which was creamy and delicious and 100% better than what I make at home. I really need to learn to flavour food better. I also had mango, papaya, watermelon, orange and kiwi. One of my long-term complaints about NCL is they serve produce that is not yet ripe. No complaints about that today.

 

Dad selected a blueberry yoghurt parfait, papaya and a mini chocolate chip muffin. 

 

We both needed those steamy, creamy lattes.

 

Our wonderful butler escorted us off the ship and was all set to walk us right up to the old mill at Ward Cove. I believe he would have walked all the way into downtown Ketchikan had we needed an escort.  I thanked him and said we could manage from here. He asked if my dad needed the care cart up the ramp and dad said he wanted to walk. 

[Shellbelle28]

19 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

Who is on board?

 

I think you mentioned that the Concierge is new? Can you tell us their name? 

[YVRteacher]

 

Our tour bus driver, Dave, is from Houston. I asked what brought him to Alaska. He told us his love of wildlife, the photographic opportunities and his love of Alaska brought him here for the past 3 seasons: one in Denali, one in Seward and now Ketchikan.

 

 

Driver Dave wasn’t super talkative but when we drove by this rock slide

he told us that this used to be the site of a grocery store. A Japanese family owned the store and during WWII they were sent to an internment camp. Community members kept the store running and when the owners of the store were released the community presented them with all the profits made from their store during their absence. The family kept the store operating until the rock slide then decided to retire and not rebuild.

[YVRteacher]

3 minutes ago, Shellbelle28 said:

24 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

Who is on board?

 

I think you mentioned that the Concierge is new? Can you tell us their name? 

She is awful. By far the worst concierge we have ever had on any ship. I don’t want to name her here.

[Shellbelle28]

1 hour ago, kitkat343 said:

We had to bring ketchup on a cruise for my middle son this year!  He was so sad without Heinz and refused to eat burgers without it.  Thankfully, Princess still uses Heinz ketchup so he was happy on this cruise.

@kitkat343 The HORROR! I will have to warn my DH, he is a Heinz guy 100%, though sometimes he can manage the disappointment when the ketchup is in the little silver cups and he can't see the "wrong" label. On our cruise on the Jewel in Australia/NZ, trips ashore were difficult. Heinz there is not like North American Heinz at all. I guess I'll be carrying ketchup packets along with DH's stevia packets in my purse, LOL.  We're currently at 1/2 a large bottle of Heinz in the house and DH is getting the shakes, I need to restock!

Edited August 22 by Shellbelle28

[Shellbelle28]

5 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

She is awful. By far the worst concierge we have ever had on any ship. I don’t want to name her here.

That's sad. We've had such amazing concierges on all of our past NCL cruises. Even the ones who weren't super outgoing and whom we thought we wouldn't connect with, were organized, efficient, and very caring. I'm sailing on the 10/10/2024 Alaska itinerary on Jewel and I'm bummed if she'll still be aboard.

[YVRteacher]

Come with us on our bear jaunt! We are heading deep into the Tongass National Forest which at 17 million acres is the largest National Forest in the US.

 

Tahani said yesterday that Hubbard is her favourite glacier. If she can have a favourite glacier, I can have a favourite forest and it is Tongass (please don’t tell the old growth forest at Rathtrevor in Parksville! I feel like I’m cheating on my childhood favourite forest!)

 

I was in absolute awe of the towering cedars and firs

 

and was captivated by the lichens and mosses dropping long off the branches, often reaching the forest floor.

I stopped to photograph the tiniest mushrooms and our guide told me these are teacup mushrooms.

 

 

My dad doesn’t do well when he is rushed or has to walk fast and I let the guides know that he has dementia. They were terrific with him. Dad didn’t need any help but did need a slightly slower pace and one of the guides stayed at the back with us the whole time.  We were on an established trail and so were the bears!

 

 

 

[schmoopie17]

1 hour ago, YVRteacher said:

 

Dad should be excited to be there. You could tell him it's a great place to "Catch a Can"...or two, or three...of Alaskan beer. But draft beer is better, so maybe tell him he can catch a draft.

Cheers to Dad.

[YVRteacher]

The zipline goes through this part of the Tongass and there is a ropes course as well. I told dad that this

 

was the next part of our excursion (most of the time I’m a good daughter!)

[YVRteacher]

We stopped at the creek to watch the salmon 

 

 

 

[okpaddy]

Really enjoying your posts. DW and I were on the Jewel B2B2B this spring and we shared a wonderful adventure. The Jewel is a lovely ship with a convenient layout. We thought the crew for the most part were very hard working and cheerful. 

We also experienced several disappointing meals at the specialty restaurants. I was served a pork chop in Le'Bistro that was inedible. The chop was so badly burned that I was unable to cut it with a steak knife. It was over forty five minutes before the waiter came back to check on us, even though I had asked two other waitstaff to please send our waiter or Maitre'd to our table. . I explained the chop was inedible and never should have been served. He took the plate away and never offered to replace it or offer something different. I finally spoke with the Maitre'd and told her what had happened. The Maitre'd  returned with the sous chef who apologized for the chop. He offered to bring a different chop, but at this point DW had been finished with her dinner by over an hour. I said no thank you, but that an hour ago I would have liked the option to replace the ruined chop. I also told them I was truly surprised and disappointed that the service had fallen off so badly. We also had two disappointing meals in La Cucina. We enjoyed Cagney's and Moderno's and found the waitstaff in the main dining room to be much more attentive than in the specialty restaurants. Allergy coordinator was also very helpful.

Please continue to post and enjoy your adventure with your father. 

[theliterateleprechaun]

1 hour ago, YVRteacher said:

We stopped at the creek to watch the salmon 

 

 

 

 I'm hoping we'll see the same at Creek Street next week. 

Edited August 22 by theliterateleprechaun

[Eleanor Rigby 14]

Hi Yvonne!

I just found this live report…very enjoyable reading. I have never been on an NCL cruise. I will travel vicariously through you and see how I like it. Hope you and your dad have a fabulous time. By the way, I loved the photo of the teacup mushrooms! You have such a way with photography. 👍

 

Happy sailing,

Eleanor

 

[YVRteacher]

We hoped to see bears at the estuary but didn’t. This is where @Saint Greg saw bears last week. We have done this excursion before and our bear encounter was here. It’s a popular fishing spot!

[YVRteacher]

Eventually we doubled back to the salmon-stuffed creek and spent an hour watching one very round, very well fed, very sleek big black bear.

 

The bear spent a lot of time with its snout in the water and kept swiping at salmon. The fish were spawning and the bear was feasting upon the eggs! Free caviar at the bear buffet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[YVRteacher]

 

 

 

[YVRteacher]

I was very sad when our guide said we had to move on or we would miss our bus. She gave us as much time as possible with the bear and I didn’t want it to end.

 

If you look closely you can see the paw pads and claws

 

 

This is THE END (tee hee) of our bear encounter but not the end of our excursion.

 

[YVRteacher]

 

As we left the forest I looked down and one of those big light brown spiders was tromping up and down my arm so I did the only thing I could think of: I blew on it until it left!

 

The whole nature experience came to a close and we were lead a gift shop, snack shop, pop up bar and old sawmill. 

 

 

 

 

 

I went outside.

 

There were totem poles

and flowers

and stuffed slugs