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

[Shellbelle28]

1 hour ago, Travelicious said:

Bushwhacker is not enough either.  Need something that would catch fire if you put a match to it.

This face after just one is testimony to its efficacy! 

[YVRteacher]

Best part

[Shellbelle28]

6 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

Moderno is now open and it is busy!

 

Dad: where did your drink go?

Me: I drank it all.

 

Waiter at Moderno: you’re a vegetarian. Is chicken fine?

 

Me: no, chicken is not fine

 

Waiter: so what are you going to eat?

 

Me: the sides and the salad bar

 

My plate from the salad bar

 

 

Dad’s plate from the salad bar

 

These were raw inside

 

This is dad’s lamb. He tried to cut it and said “crikey.” Perhaps it is Australian lamb.

 

 

Dad didn’t enjoy his dinner at all. He was absolutely miserable. The service was terribly slow and the meat had come around many times before any sauces or sides were delivered.

 

There are few things I love more than mashed potatoes. I once ate mashed potatoes for Christmas morning breakfast. The ones we were served at Moderno were not edible. They were so salty and full of gritty chunks.

 

Dessert was fine.

 

 

Gosh I'm starting to feel bad for you and your dad (and a teeny bit worried for myself, we're on the Jewel for one of her last Alaska trips in October). 

[YVRteacher]

Drink tally day 6

Dad

Coffee with Irish Cream (bargain brand since NCL is too cheap to include Bailey’s)

1 beer

1 raspberry guava mojito 

 

Yvonne

Coffee with Irish Cream (bargain brand)

2 margaritas

1 Mudslide which was not as good as it used to be. Very watery.

Coco Loco

Raspberry guava mojito but I think the bartender made it wrong. It tasted virgin.

[DeclanJohn]

3 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

Who the heck is Kathy Casey, what is her liquid kitchen and who removed the Brugal Ginger Mojito from the mojito bar menu?

Back in the 80s she was Seattle's first celebrity chef and since that time she's acted as a food and beverage consultant for many, many restaurants and organizations. She doesn't always have her name all over the menu, unless that's what her client(s) want(s). I worked with her husband John for years in the 90s. Back then, she'd been hired to completely revamp the menu of another cruise line and I got to taste many, many of her recipes in development. I've seen her Liquid Kitchen items on the NCL menus for a while; looks like sometime earlier this year, many (including my very favorite, the Blackberry Bourbon Smash) were removed from menus in favor of new cocktails that could be mixed in batches ahead of time.  If you're ever at SeaTac; she has a couple of restaurants there with some really nice, healthy grab-and-go options.

Edited August 29 by DeclanJohn

[kitkat343]

5 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

 

 

Waiter at Moderno: you’re a vegetarian. Is chicken fine?

 

Me: no, chicken is not fine

 

Waiter: so what are you going to eat?

 

Me: the sides and the salad bar

 

My plate from the salad bar

 

 

 

Dad’s plate from the salad bar

 

 

These were raw inside

 

 

This is dad’s lamb. He tried to cut it and said “crikey.” Perhaps it is Australian lamb.

 

 

 

Dad didn’t enjoy his dinner at all. He was absolutely miserable. The service was terribly slow and the meat had come around many times before any sauces or sides were delivered.

 

There are few things I love more than mashed potatoes. I once ate mashed potatoes for Christmas morning breakfast. The ones we were served at Moderno were not edible. They were so salty and full of gritty chunks.

 

 

Dessert was fine.

 

 

 

I sailed NCL 10 years ago, and back then the specialty dining was an extra package you could purchase.  We usually eat the free included food in the MDR on the other cruise lines  but based on NCL's food reviews, we got the specialty dining package, and the food in the specialty restaurants back then was amazing.  Moderno was my favorite on that ship 10 years ago. On my last cruise 2 years ago even the specialty restaurants had issues, with lots of food being served ice cold and Cagneys ran out of all the sides I wanted.  We tried bringing  leftover lunch back on the ship from St. Kitts, and it got caught by the screeners.  I was so sad because I was hungry and when they questioned me I gave them one package of leftovers, and thankfully managed to sneak the rest onto the ship.     

 

Hopefully, you have long port days because there's some amazing food in Alaska.

Edited August 29 by kitkat343

[xkritter]

We were just on Encore and noticed that speciality dining quality and service has declined. We wondered if now that pretty much everyone gets at least 2 specialty dinners included if it has become more like an MDR experience.

 

The Haven restaurant on Encore was exceptional and so was the service. But aside from Los Lobos we were disappointed in our speciality dining dinners.

[Disney Deb]

11 hours ago, Shellbelle28 said:

This face after just one is testimony to its efficacy! 

Those are my favorite as well! They fix all the world's ills lol.

[laudergayle]

 

While I’m not a germaphobic, the lack of wax paper covering in the basket irks me.  I understand cost cutting, but at least buy a piece of wax paper large enough to keep the food from touching the table.  

[schmoopie17]

15 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

 

Onward we trudged and I took photos of funghi

 

Dad may not like funghi...but he's a fun guy.

[cruiseny4life]

40 minutes ago, laudergayle said:

 

While I’m not a germaphobic, the lack of wax paper covering in the basket irks me.  I understand cost cutting, but at least buy a piece of wax paper large enough to keep the food from touching the table.  

I so adamantly agree! 

[quillwercruisers]

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

So....I'm not a germaphobe. In fact I know I eat a lot of hair. We have four dogs and a cat...when I see it, I pick it out, but I'm pretty sure I down a bit that is never seen. 

 

Having said that, I never thought I'd really care if I saw someone's hair in my food. I'd do like I do with the dogs and just pick it out. Well! A week ago I was at a restaurant where I found a hair in my burger. I had that wonderfully nauseous feeling in my belly as I struggled to pull the entire hair out of the burger. Thankfully! I was over it in a minute and could keep on eating, but gosh, that was a scary moment before I got ahold of myself. That moment will still be with me for a bit.

 

I'm hoping for better eats, fewer hairs, and good drinks for you!

We have 3 dogs, so I know what you mean. 

 

I have a friend that has dogs as well, but when it comes to eating at peoples houses, restaurants, or food brought in for a pot luck and she finds a hair in it, she will never eat at that persons house or that restaurant again. She found one once more than 20 years ago at a restaurant and has never been back there. The place isn't even under the same ownership anymore, but she won't go back.

[YVRteacher]

Day 7

Sea Day/Hubbard Glacier

 

Morning balcony photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bow cam view

 

 

I needed a break from being fawned upon so we ate breakfast in the Palace. Our waiter was a bit toooooo attentive and kept checking in even before we had taken sips or bites.

 

All our food was good but the coffee was like someone had run the water through the grounds a few times without replacing the coffee beans so I sent it back. Round two was better and I got some hand exercise trying to open those horrendous half and half packages. 

 

I ordered fruit salad, one scrambled egg and one piece of toast with no breakfast potatoes on the plate.

 

 

Dad had his yoghurt parfait and a small order of eggs Benedict.

 

 

 

 

Dad woke up in a bad mood today so he had to swear at the knife a little bit because it was dull. I think he swore at his egg too but I didn’t ask why. I was busy watching the Hubbard glacier excursion boat return to the Jewel. We were eating breakfast and they were coming back from their excursion. Imagine how early they had to wake up.

 

 

 

Welcome to today’s Hubbard Glacier viewing. This is the best photo I took.

 

I’m just so grateful for all the times we’ve been here in sunshine and clear skies. Hopefully next week will be better because I booked the small boat excursion. That is two days from now. This morning’s announcement was that due to the weather we would not be able to get close to Hubbard today.

[YVRteacher]

Dad wanted to watch cupcake decorating so we did.

 

It started at 10:00 and ended at 10:10am.  It was held in Bliss and they were setting up a Bingo while the cupcakes were being iced. There were cupcakes for all but we didn’t partake. These things look way better than they taste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got to choose the next activity and since the NCL app has not switched from day 6 to day 7 I can only access the freestyle for Icy Strait Point. This means I can’t see today’s schedule so we are at the bar.  The poor bartender is alone and the weather is crummy outside so lots of people want morning drinks. He has to take all the orders, make all the drinks, keep the glasses stocked and clear away the used glasses. 

 

We are two rounds in with Painkillers (me) and Bahama Mamas (dad.)

 

It is day 7 and the sniffling and coughing are rampant. I am trying to dodge all the sickies and am constantly sanitizing. I really hope I don’t get sick for back to school.

 

We sat at O’Sheehan’s until lunch time then went to the Garden Cafe. Jackpot: it is Mexican fiesta lunch.

 

yes, this is a taco made of icing

 

The chefs did a great job with today’s lunch and there were many vegetarian items. 

 

I got dad set up with some ham and black bean soup then he went to the pizza station. We met in La Cucina which is the overflow seating section and dad looked at my plate which was mostly lettuce-based with some fajita vegetables and lentil dal and he said “I was lucky enough to get some hot pizza fresh out of the oven.”

[YVRteacher]

Sail and Sustain was not fun. Aan was running an extra session of Mojito tasting so we had an inexperienced bartender who read word for word from the paper. It was stilted and awkward.  The bartender didn’t cheers, didn’t thank us for being loyal to NCL and didn’t infuse any personality into the experience. If Aan isn’t doing this next week I’ll skip it.

Normally I somewhat like a couple of the Sail and Sustain drinks but this time I didn’t like any of them. They were all way too strong and unpleasant. 
 

 

 

The bartender offered everyone (all six of us: 5 latitudes and an interloper) a free full sized drink of any of the Sail and Sustain drinks. I asked for drink I enjoyed at the latitudes party which involved passion fruit and tequila but I think I received a Bahama Mama.

Dad looked confused when the bartender asked what he wanted so I said a beer.  

 

Shhh. Don’t tell anyone but I poured the beer into one of the water cans and now dad has his vacation dream come true: spa with a beer. Unfortunately both the spa noisies and the spa Coughy McCoughersons are out in full force today. I should have brought my ear plugs and hazmat suit.

[YVRteacher]

The ceramic lounger was hot and cozy. For the first time this trip I was able to read a few pages before drifting into a luxurious nap. Don’t worry, @troyphoto it wasn’t your book that lulled me to sleep. Actually the book is great- I just needed a nap.

 

We were in the spa for quite a while and it was the perfect way to spend a cold dreary Alaskan afternoon, like bears in hibernation.

Edited August 29 by YVRteacher

[YVRteacher]

Our wonderful room steward was working on cabin cleaning this afternoon and we said hi to him in the hallway. We have to change cabins for next week and we wish both our room steward and our butler could be our steward and butter next week. Luis (room steward) said he would tell next week’s room steward that we are very neat and that Sir John would only like one pillow on his bed. We have to be out of the cabin by 8:00am tomorrow with all our luggage all packed up. My dad is complaining like heck about changing cabins but he is the one that couldn’t make up his mind whether or not he wanted to do an August cruise and I didn’t book this cruise until April and couldn’t get the same cabin both weeks. Even I don’t want to change cabins and I’m pretty good about just dealing with things. My dad is mad at me because we were on the Starboard side going north and the Port side for the southern journey so we will see the same scenery. We barely spend any time in our cabin!

 

I’m going to have to figure out some morning Irish Cream in the coffee situation for breakfast tomorrow to help dad with the arduous trek across the hall.

[theliterateleprechaun]

5 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

Sail and Sustain was not fun. Aan was running an extra session of Mojito tasting so we had an inexperienced bartender who read word for word from the paper. It was stilted and awkward.  The bartender didn’t cheers, didn’t thank us for being loyal to NCL and didn’t infuse any personality into the experience. If Aan isn’t doing this next week I’ll skip it.

Normally I somewhat like a couple of the Sail and Sustain drinks but this time I didn’t like any of them. They were all way too strong and unpleasant. 
 

 

 

The bartender offered everyone (all six of us: 5 latitudes and an interloper) a free full sized drink of any of the Sail and Sustain drinks. I asked for drink I enjoyed at the latitudes party which involved passion fruit and tequila but I think I received a Bahama Mama.

Dad looked confused when the bartender asked what he wanted so I said a beer.  

 

Shhh. Don’t tell anyone but I poured the beer into one of the water cans and now dad has his vacation dream come true: spa with a beer. Unfortunately both the spa noisies and the spa Coughy McCoughersons are out in full force today. I should have brought my ear plugs and hazmat suit.

"Coughy McCoughersons" LOVE THIS. 😃

[Disney Deb]

What is with those half and half packets??? I forgot to say something about this earlier. We could have injured ourselves trying to open those with forks and knives. Crazy!

[Shellbelle28]

5 minutes ago, Disney Deb said:

What is with those half and half packets??? I forgot to say something about this earlier. We could have injured ourselves trying to open those with forks and knives. Crazy!

I dislike those plastic cups SO MUCH!! On our last cruise on the Jewel (2020, Australia/NZ), I was whining about it at dinner in Cagneys, saying how much I didn't like not having a pitcher of real half-and-half in the fridge in our suite. A few minutes later, our waiter came by the table with what looked like a wine bottle wrapped in a cloth napkin. But it was a quart of half-and-half! He said, "Don't tell anyone where you got this!!" I was happy with my morning coffee for the rest of the trip. 

[Disney Deb]

1 minute ago, Shellbelle28 said:

I dislike those plastic cups SO MUCH!! On our last cruise on the Jewel (2020, Australia/NZ), I was whining about it at dinner in Cagneys, saying how much I didn't like not having a pitcher of real half-and-half in the fridge in our suite. A few minutes later, our waiter came by the table with what looked like a wine bottle wrapped in a cloth napkin. But it was a quart of half-and-half! He said, "Don't tell anyone where you got this!!" I was happy with my morning coffee for the rest of the trip. 

They aren't plastic cups anymore-now they are packets like you get with condiments but they are impossible to tear open! Our waiting even pantomimed using a fork but I felt like doing that could potentially cause an injury.

I love the waiter that you had :).

[Shellbelle28]

Just now, Disney Deb said:

They aren't plastic cups anymore-now they are packets like you get with condiments but they are impossible to tear open! Our waiting even pantomimed using a fork but I felt like doing that could potentially cause an injury.

I love the waiter that you had :).

Oh lordy, I'm going to have to start drinking my coffee black. Or with Bailey's!

[laudergayle]

With the creamer packets, if you bend them back and forth horizontally where the little groove is, most of them (not all) tear open much more easily.  

[troyphoto]

1 hour ago, laudergayle said:

With the creamer packets, if you bend them back and forth horizontally where the little groove is, most of them (not all) tear open much more easily.  

and only tear from the side with the horizontal arrow. It's like doing a rubic's cube. Once you understand the secret, it's kind of easy.

The problem is, what to do with a half-full tube of creamer if you don't use all of it. I ended up putting my open one back in the creamer cup with all the packets, standing upright. I'd use it on the next few cups. When I was out of that single packet, it was time to hit the bar.

[YVRteacher]

We needed to start packing up our suitcases for our cabin switch tomorrow. Dad told me emphatically he was never going on another cruise. 

 

I had booked Le Bistro thinking it would make a lovely final meal for this week but my dad just pouted and sulked through the whole thing which ruined my dinner. I think this is sundowning which is so brutal to witness. 

 

I had prearranged for the mushroom soup to be made for me without chicken stock and for dad I just ordered the regular soups aux Quatre champignons. I could tell dad was waning so we didn’t order entrees and just had the croquettes, bread, butter and a cheese plate off the dessert menu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For real dessert I ordered two scoops of ice cream for dad and the Fraisier for myself. I haven’t tried this before: it gets two thumbs up from me. My dad said his ice cream was “cold.”

 

 

For the umpteenth time today dad is complaining about moving cabins. I will be glad when tomorrow comes and the move is done and he will forget this move happened. We have to be out of the first cabin by 8:00am so no sleep-in for us.