Norwegain Jewel Sails to Canada 10/18-10/28/08
Written: Nov 24 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Mini Suite AFT #11656, BOGO meals
Cons: Previous cruise illness' constant scrubbing, disinfecting & fumigating
The Bottom Line: Wonderful crew that tried to make it special with all the fumigating & disinfecting happening the whole cruise.
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| theawesome1's Full Review: Norwegian Jewel |
Got a 9AM flight so we get to sleep in til 6AM, then shower & dress & drive to the rapid station for the one stop ride to Hopkins Airport for our flight to Newark. D/L boarding passes so we zip thru luggage check in with a piece having 4 days worth of closing for each of us with Tide & dryer sheets for day 4 & 8 to keep us clean for 11 days.
Early arrival at 10:10AM in Newark & Super Shuttle was there in 15 minutes to get us to the terminal by 11AM. There we see 10,000 folks for 5 ships all straddling to the outside doors. 3 hour wait in amusement park lines 10 deep to get thru security, then the clerks (6 per ship) to get folks their keys. Then we are on the ship! We went right to Tzar's for lunch & that was packed already but luckily 2 folks left & we got the table. Then we get a taste of what the next 10 days will be like, and that secret word is PATIENCE.
Menus do show, coffee or iced tea takes 15 minutes to show & even longer for cream or lemons to be added. All served with 2 forks in one hand. In fact just about everything was served by waiters for the cruise due to GAS as described in a letter from Food & Beverage Director Fabian Ferraro. We mistook it here on CC for Norovirus from the prior cruise. As Fabian told us, only one person brought it & passed the germs from sneezing, talking, shaking hands, etc. 373 sick folks & crew. All are working for our cruise not be canceled double shifts. We both felt for them. We learn the cruise is basically Germans & Asians with us Americans on it. All announcements are in those languages also with English.
Then up to 11656, mini suite in the middle of Jewel. Beautiful sea awaits us to leave NYC, saying hi & bye to Lady Liberty. Great dinner that night beef tenderloin done perfectly, double stuffed potatoes, veggies that were crisp not soggy & cappuccino was splendid for both of us. Then back up to unpack the 8PM arrival of luggage, since that had to be sanitized, as did we to enter & leave dinner, enter & leave theatre, stores, as well as the ship. Then we hit the bed, just exhausted from waiting so much, a 1/4 of our day in NYC. Oh, was it a great bed for a cruise ship. SO I uncover it to investigate that it is not a Visco mattress like our $3000 bed we got earlier this year. But a mattress cover with Visco pad atop it. Same mattress size but new atop steel frame. Big square pillows with down pillows atop it that were queen size. Duvet has a quilt inside of it & we love the balcony door open to hear the sea & smell the fresh ocean air. 12 hours of sleep we got. Just about every night since we were so comfortable. But a problem with the rocking of 25 foot waves for a week, was the glass doors from the shower & the toilet room going back & forth making quite a racket. The balcony door was slamming away, so the chair went into it with 2 small pillows from the couch. Worked perfectly.
Day 2 is Boston, which I have relatives there, so no big deal to walk around in, so we just checked out the ship. More & more workers knew us by name from Dawn last April and were transferred to replace sick employees from previous cruise. So a few joined us for the day on the ship to sit & talk & meet new friends. More slow meals tho the food was great. Swedish dishes, many German ones with sauerkraut, pork, and hot potato salad which we enjoyed. The Asian dishes were also very good. I was told the Exec Chef was from Jamaica and found it hard to picture him cooking German. Then lunchtime we had a lady join us who unfortunately got very ill from the hip rocking so she was taken to the doctor. Plenty of barf bags around, plenty of folks using them. Amazing that people do not know they will get seasick in the N Atlantic which is historically a very rocky ride on every cruise we have had. So we dropped dinner from the smell of sick folks to stay on our balcony & watch in amazement the wake disappear within 10 feet from the waves eating it. Relaxing to rock away in the comfy bed watching TV until it zips out to the NCL logo. That happened the entire cruise. Football game advertised in the daily was zapped after the first quarter. But folks just sat & waited. So we went to bed.
Day 3 is M&G day. Down to the bar to meet everyone with about 15 folks showing. The Captain named Constantios, was just a great man to meet as was Julian, the Hotel Director, Fabian, the Food & Beverage Director, Rich, the Cruise Director and I hope I didn't forget anyone.
Great to meet folks you type with for months and have made a great friendship with to cruise again with in the future. We learned that NCL had passed out letters that if you wanted to cancel the cruise you could, but after you flew to NYC? Why not the week before tho we would still cruise. For 50% off with the DMLAT promo on July 3, and I hope we see more in the future. Got a free Bingo card, so we went. Pretty boring since it is the last game & you sit thru the first 6. Second City had a great get together with folks. One gal from Cleveland made instant friendship with us as did the whole crew of 5. Funny that I am wearing my tux T-Shirt for Monte Carlo night & more folks think I work onboard. The casino was rocking with free drinks, champagne tower with ladies pouring a bottle of bubbly into the top glass to cascade down to all of them, then they are passed out. Gambled $.02 machines & made $100 each....... so we were up $1000 by the time we left. The be felt very good after a money making evening with no smokers around in the back.
Day 4 was Halifax & what a beautiful city she is. A free shuttle takes us to downtown from the port. Then we walked up to Fairmont Hotel as we call it. 4 blocks by 6 blocks and it started in the 1800's by the railroad as one boarding house for workers. As more folks wanted to stay there on the water, they just kept building. We pent a good 2 hours going thru the massive structure. The rooms do not look like the NYC or SF Fairmont's but still beautiful. And the people of this city are all smiles, all very kind to those visiting. I was looking for small snow globes for a 9 year old and a dear lady took us to 5 stores asking the owners if they had them. Guess end of season makes for nothing of certain types yet great sales for many other folks. Rode the elevator that goes like an inclination up a mountain. $2 a person USD for a O/W ride. Get back to ship, have a great meal of blueberry soup, Singapore noodles, BBQ ribs & raspberry sherbet. Then to a show with a comedian who was not too funny. He sounded like an infomercial. But people were laughing since they were tanked maybe. Many left. People are still sick in elevators which clears them right out....
Day 5 sea day and NCL has BOGO dinners at named specialty restaurants: Chin Chins, Le Bistro, Tango, Mama's Italian Kitchen from 5:30-6:30PM. We phone at 4PM 2 days in advance & Le Bistro is booked for the 50% off. So we did Tangos for 2 days, Chin Chin for 2 days, and then we saw Kathryn from Dawn one night & she got us in or Le Bistro for Day 7. She even tagged it our anniversary to make it special. More Second City fun with folks yelling out one liners from movies or TV ads for their people to work into their dialect. It was so funny when a guy is a cowboy talking about Viagra & how the 4 hour "hard on" is dangerous & you should see a doctor. That got the theatre rocking..... The production shows were great other than Country night which we skipped. Saw the other 2 on Dawn with Bollywood which Jewel dropped. The 70's show "Band on the Run" is very good with dancing, singing, and great costumes. The Cirque Bijou was fabulous as the guys from the ceiling were in my lap & Jerry's. How that Russian gal can make a wish with her legs in a Russian split got me having cramps watching it & feeling it. Met Julian, who tells us they are lucking out with no sick folks other than seasick pills curing them. I tell him it is Halloween on 11 with the masked officers & stewards who are fumigating staterooms. He tells us the entire ship has to be done by midnight. They they spray carpets from 14 down to 2. Then we got to do laundry & the laundry rooms are closed for the entire cruise due to illness. Julian explains that waterborne illness as GAS make it necessary. So he gets us FREE LAUNDRY slips to get our 4 days worth done very 4 days. So they picked them up & 4 hours later we are set. Clothes hung up & undies in a basket wrapped in tissue paper. Now this is service!
Day 6 is Quebec, another beautiful, very clean, very quiet city. FRED, the city bus that is FREE is only one bus that rides then entire city in a circle. Drive is a great storyteller & Citadel is a stop. What a view, what history is there. They even have a black powder house for the cannons which have not been fired. The man there joked that Iran may make them use them. Then we caught the return bus for the other half of the city which ended at the ship since half the bus was Jewel folks. Great guy! After dinner we walked to the Titanic museum but $10 PP was too much for what we saw at home at the Science Center exhibit.
Day 7 sea day - Le Bistro at 5:30 and we are ready. We skipped lunch other than cappuccino & a pastrami sandwich. Hillbilly shows tonite, so we skipped them to play bingo. $75 for a machine that plays 18 cards per game & it tells you when you have one so you stand, we took turns doing that but didn't win at all - BOO! So now it is Le Bistro time. What a charming look in the restaurant. Hostess was very accommodating telling us we can have a booth or table, we took the finely dressed table with a majestic plate that we were told the French name by a female French Matre D with the pink & gold shade, butterflies, beetles adorning it. AND THE FOOD!!!!! I had French onion soup which was thick with cheese, very hot in a bowl with the lid removed by the waitress when served. Jerry had cream of mushroom soup in a bread bowl. Then escargot that was the greatest ever eaten, so we had 2 apiece and they appreciated our love of it. Beef tenderloins, double baked potato & asparagus, this dinner which has twice the size of what we had at Tsar's was just magnificent. Then our table is surrounded by the waitstaff a the Chef delivers a rose covered cake with a sugar HAPPY ANNIVERSARY cake. Then the Matre D joins our hands across the table as they sing "Let me Call You Sweetheart" an the whole restaurant joins in. What a show! Then a table sends over 2 champagnes & it was the Captain who was leaving next morning. A Norwegian Captain will take over. He was a dear man but a tired one. This illness just stripped them all of sleep with meetings, etc.
Day 8 Charlottetown, another adorable city, also very clean, small & walkable to see it all. Meet great people who are interested in boarding a ship next year to be dropped off at home & we told them that NCL could work that out for them. Their TA's were not sure. So I gave them my TA's contact info for assistance. Some even walked us back to it but didn't mind no getting on as they wanted to. They understand security. The last Second City show and to hear them tell us thank you for sharing a good cruise with them. Cruise Critics got a mention & that the next cruise has another impostor, as they called it, getting on. So I guess another cruise group. The show was "The Professor" Watson show, a guy with hair that looked like he stood in water when a power line fell on it. But he play numerous instruments & can sing very off key or try to be right. But we left. Our balcony with a calmer ocean was what we wanted. Many neighbors were out also, one who left their light on all night. So we learned that is what curtains separating balcony from bed is. Missed rocking to sleep tho.
Day 9 Sydney which is the smallest of cities. We walked off the ship to a race of runners, walkers, wheelchairs and it looked major. $10 PP for a double decker bus that drove the entire city & street after street. Homes go from $400K to $5 mil for a Riverview home with their own lighthouse. 4 hours of enjoyable people with us to see Sydney. The speaker knew we wanted snow globes & there is a store that makes them so they waited as folks saw them. $5 for a large one with a moose in the center with her baby. SOLD! That was wrapped in bubble wrapped & put in a box for safety. What great people we have met & enjoyed on this cruise. We would do it again too. Then back to the ship for dinner, the worst of the nights since many either left or were too tired to work, so they got time off. But now we wait 45 minutes to place an order. And the meal delivered is not what we ordered but we ate it since it was last night onboard. Got 3 deserts and they deliver one with my escargot. Appetizer shows with desert. Just unbelievable! So back to the room to pack for them to pickup by midnight. Open the door to a bed size alligator towel animal with the undie basket in his paws. Our steward put the clothes into our suitcase that we added the souvenirs to, and everything that we didn't need in the morning. That went into my Zoo bag that was added to the suitcase when we ID'd it.
Day 10, how fast the cruise went by, so unfair when you wait forever for the cruise to arrive. But I am told when we are having non stop fun & are rested also with good sleep every night, that makes it fly by. So many folks just hugged instead of the sanitizing spray to say goodbye. Super Shuttle was at the entrance for us to ride to Newark Airport. Then we hear that flights are canceled or late due to storms moving in from N Atlantic Canada, just where we were. Our flight moved gates 4 times in 7 hours we waited. Then we are paged & we are told we have a hotel to stay the night in & show tickets to enjoy from Hilton Hotels since we are HH Signature Visa customers and we are to be taken care of. Dinner, breakfast & lunch if we are still there. Taxis to the hotel & back paid for. As we are leaving for the flight again, we are glad to be going home with our parrot missing us.
Flight not late, snow greets us with ice, but car handled great for the 10 minutes ride. Then to unpack with no laundry other than freshening sheets, towels, etc from 2 weeks with no use.
Day 11 home, not interested in going anywhere. Ellie, our friend who is also our letter carrier who bird sits for us with her daughter who gets the snow globes & she gets 5 this trip. Mom's eye when she saw the beautiful creations we got. Pizza for everyone including the bird.
Back to normalsville. THANK YOU NCL FOR A GREAT TIME ON A GREAT SHIP WITH A GREAT GROUP OF OFFICERS & CREW.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
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Epinions.com ID:
theawesome1
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Location: Cleveland, OH
Reviews written: 93
Trusted by: 2 members
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