MITSUGIRLYS JEWEL OF A CRUISE review and pictorial

Replicas. The real ones were small and are worth MILLIONS. Only a few still exist I think. The Queen of England has at least one.

There are actually 5 of them in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. I vividly remember visiting them in school and being captivated by them. It is the largest collection of eggs outside of Russia!

Mitsugirly, I doubt you would have seen them on other ships, as it would fit with the Tsar them of the dining room on the Jewel. They were created for the Tsars to give to their wives and mothers as Easter gifts.

 

***I almost forgot, tonight we would also come back to find our balcony door unlocked...I made note of it****

I just mentioned your door lock issue with your room steward to my husband. He mentioned that our room steward would come and go from the balcony each time, because he would put our little table (the one that goes in front of the sofa) out on the balcony at night and bring it back in the next morning when the room was made up. I did not go back to see if you had a table, but could that be why your room steward would open the balcony door?

After Grand Cayman I believe, my husband wrote "Wash Me" on the balcony glass with his finger so we could find it when we were out in Cozumel. Unfortunately our room steward decided that it was the day to wash the glass, or he took the message seriously. My parents (different room steward) next door never got their glass washed.

Did you room finally get cleaned? New glasses, and the trash emptied?

Thank you for the awesome review.

We are cruising on the Jewel in April and are really loking forward to it!

I am following.....hanging on every word (and PICTURE), hitting refresh refresh refresh late at night.

Last night, after the Polar Express, then an hour in the hot tub with the grand girls, Planma'am and I were in recliners in my living room, exhausted. I was reading your most recent posts aloud to her. I put her to sleep at about 2 a.m. and realized that I didn't have to read aloud any longer!

Keep the review coming!!!

Loving every word and picture of your cruise. On our Pearl cruise in 12 the M&G organizer was given VIP status - we saw them for breakfast in Cagney's every morning. We were in a suite - second one in four NCL cruises. We were upgraded on our very first cruise and this last time we had my MIL with us and the suite ended up being cheaper for her than a solo inside on the same floor as us. We have not cruised in anything less than a balcony.:D

Loving your review. I am finally caught up and can't wait to read more. :)

So the show began and I'm a huge Jeff Dunham fan. I go to his shows every time he's in town and I just love him. Well, I'm sorry, but this guy doesn't hold a candle to Jeff and I have to say that I really didn't find "too" much of his material that great. Even the hubby didn't care for it. He does have a character that is an elderly man (kinda looks like Jeff's character Walter), but the rest of the characters just wasn't appealing TO ME. But, at the end of the show, he brought up a lady and a man from the audience and made it seem as if their voices had changed and it was hilarious to watch. So, I'm glad it picked up a little toward the end and we chalked it up to a decent show.

We left about half way through that show. Congrats for sticking it out.

Also our elf came along for the second time. "He" goes all out for some reason...hung Christmas lights one night, decorated our door one night, brought stockings one night to hang on the wall, and of course our elf has to bring a gift each night between Thanksgiving or whenever it is he arrives until Christmas. I think the gift's are overkill but "He" apparently doesn't...

Let me know when it comes time. I will give you step by step instructions and can include screenshots if needed. ;) :)

I need detailed instructions I have never been able to figure out how to get pics up here and have them not be thumbnails. Let me know if it would be easier to have you email me.

There were buses coming back a few people here and there and NONE of them were witnessed running or seeming to be in too much of a hurry. Then a bus load of people would show up. You could see an employee (someone in a white uniform) standing on our side of the fence and another guy with a list on the other side of the fence. They seem to be waiting for others. Then a lady in a people mover showed up. They had to take her scooter out of the van and put it together, then get her into it. Once she made it to the landing to roll up to get on the ship, she got stuck. I mean STUCK! They were trying everything to get her unstuck and fit on the ramp. Then more people came. Then more. I finally gave up and said I was getting in the shower. It didn't seem like we were leaving any time soon.

I'm wondering if it was the lady we kept seeing all the time. There was a lady in a scooter we kept running into much to our dismay. She always had something ugly to say to everyone and was a seriously nasty individual to be around.

Sorry I did not meet you in person. We had to dash from the meet and greet. That was the one time we were able to drop Cole off at Kids Club and they called our phone asking us to come and get him. More on that if I ever figure out the picture posting thing to do my own review.

I did see you once in the picture gallery but I think I was a bit star shocked to say hi! It's like a celebrity sighting!! :p

Love your review...keep it coming! I love all the pictures and details!

As someone who has cruised Carnival and Royal ..I am tempted to book NCL from your review.

What is your fav NCL ship?

Remember this, Kim? haha

Let me know when it comes time. I will give you step by step instructions and can include screenshots if needed. ;) :)

Great! Thanks I will! :) We leave Jan 14 and will be back around the 26th so so a few days after that I will be ready to start dealing with photos and rewviews

Thank you so much for all your wonderful pictures and detail in description of your cruise. We're on the Jan 19th cruise on the Jewel. You've given me so much to look for while on our cruise!

There are actually 5 of them in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. I vividly remember visiting them in school and being captivated by them. It is the largest collection of eggs outside of Russia!

 

Mitsugirly, I doubt you would have seen them on other ships, as it would fit with the Tsar them of the dining room on the Jewel. They were created for the Tsars to give to their wives and mothers as Easter gifts.

Since the Pearl is the sister ship, The Summer Palace had them too (since they have the Tsar's theme as well). I did look at my pictures and found one in the picture, but just never noticed them.

I just mentioned your door lock issue with your room steward to my husband. He mentioned that our room steward would come and go from the balcony each time, because he would put our little table (the one that goes in front of the sofa) out on the balcony at night and bring it back in the next morning when the room was made up. I did not go back to see if you had a table, but could that be why your room steward would open the balcony door?

 

After Grand Cayman I believe, my husband wrote "Wash Me" on the balcony glass with his finger so we could find it when we were out in Cozumel. Unfortunately our room steward decided that it was the day to wash the glass, or he took the message seriously. My parents (different room steward) next door never got their glass washed.

Nope, that wouldn't be the issue. We had a table out on our balcony and also a table inside in front of the couch. He would move the table to the foot of our bed, making it a little harder to get around it. We just noticed the door was unlocked each night and each night he never cleaned. I believe he actually cleaned the balcony twice while we were on the cruise. There's more to come with this "unlocking of the balcony door" issue. Stay tuned.

I had thought about bringing something with us to put on the glass (like a Santa face or something) but forgot about it. I was afraid it would get blown away, but now that I know it wouldn't, I hate that I didn't. (We had a daily on the balcony and it never moved).

Did you room finally get cleaned? New glasses, and the trash emptied?

I have to say the room steward we had was terrible. The trash would get emptied at least once a day (inside the room), but just not every time. The glasses were not always replaced with clean or the dirty glasses we brought from the ship removed. The balcony was cleaned maybe twice during the entire week. It took them until mid day (some time after 2:30pm just to make up the room from the morning). :rolleyes:

Thank you for the awesome review.

 

We are cruising on the Jewel in April and are really loking forward to it!

You are very welcome and hope you are enjoying it.

I am following.....hanging on every word (and PICTURE)' date=' hitting refresh refresh refresh late at night.

 

Last night, after the Polar Express, then an hour in the hot tub with the grand girls, Planma'am and I were in recliners in my living room, exhausted. I was reading your most recent posts aloud to her. I put her to sleep at about 2 a.m. and realized that I didn't have to read aloud any longer!

 

Keep the review coming!!!

 

LOL, you crack me up. I loveed the pictures of the Polar Express. Sakari would love something like that.

I just got done with our day in Grand Cayman and the pictures downloaded. I get to show us having a blast that day with our rum punch. :D

Loving every word and picture of your cruise. On our Pearl cruise in 12 the M&G organizer was given VIP status - we saw them for breakfast in Cagney's every morning. We were in a suite - second one in four NCL cruises. We were upgraded on our very first cruise and this last time we had my MIL with us and the suite ended up being cheaper for her than a solo inside on the same floor as us. We have not cruised in anything less than a balcony

Lucky you to be able to do balcony and up. I wish we could. The only reason we got to this time was because it was fairly cheap to upgrade. I wish it was that cheap every time.

Loving your review. I am finally caught up and can't wait to read more.

Thanks so much. A little more coming right up soon.

We left about half way through that show. Congrats for sticking it out.

 

 

Also our elf came along for the second time. "He" goes all out for some reason...hung Christmas lights one night, decorated our door one night, brought stockings one night to hang on the wall, and of course our elf has to bring a gift each night between Thanksgiving or whenever it is he arrives until Christmas. I think the gift's are overkill but "He" apparently doesn't...

LOL, trust me, it crossed my mind. Then this darn board popped up in my head. I remember being a part of a thread that was criticizing people who would get up at a show and leaving say it was rude. I don't necessarily agree. People leave for different reasons and have the right to. But I kept myself firming planted in the seat just in case. I'm just glad it got a little better toward the end.

I have always wanted to get an Elf on the Shelf, but never had time to do it. With Sakari getting older, I just didn't want to wait any longer. It has been quite the challenge with her because she is a night owl like us. We found that the cabin was even more of a challenge, but Trixie pulled it off. I will definitely have to come up with better things next time around.

I'm wondering if it was the lady we kept seeing all the time. There was a lady in a scooter we kept running into much to our dismay. She always had something ugly to say to everyone and was a seriously nasty individual to be around.

 

Sorry I did not meet you in person. We had to dash from the meet and greet. That was the one time we were able to drop Cole off at Kids Club and they called our phone asking us to come and get him. More on that if I ever figure out the picture posting thing to do my own review.

 

I did see you once in the picture gallery but I think I was a bit star shocked to say hi! It's like a celebrity sighting!!

I didn't run into anyone nasty in a wheelchair during the cruise. It was just the opposite for us. I remember one night there was 2 older gentlemen pulled into the elevator, face toward the back mirror, then we got on. They were cracking jokes and talking about how much they like sitting in front of the mirror talking to themselves because it was an intelligent conversation. They were cracking us up.

OMG :eek: You're hilarious with the last comment. I completely started cracking up and my husband looked at me. I read what you said and he is cracking up. :p I told him not to hate, he's only the husband of a celebrity. :D

Love your review...keep it coming! I love all the pictures and details!

 

As someone who has cruised Carnival and Royal ..I am tempted to book NCL from your review.

 

What is your fav NCL ship?

Which Carnival ship did you cruise? We have only tried the Dream this year and we loved it dispite what others said. I would book them again in a heart beat as long it's one of the bigger, newer ships. I also want to try Oasis or Allure.

As for my favorite ship, it still remains the Epic. I just love the bigger and newer ships. My second favorite is the Spirit and her Asian flare (even though she is a smaller ship). She is totally different from the rest of the fleet. I have a feeling that if I cruised Breakaway or Getaway, they would become my favorite. I like the water parks and slides. I love the outdoor sports area (like the Dream, Magic, Breeze...and now Breakaway and Getaway).

Remember this, Kim? haha

 

Oh my gosh Mike, you didn't just do that. LOL I remember those days well!

Thank you so much for all your wonderful pictures and detail in description of your cruise. We're on the Jan 19th cruise on the Jewel. You've given me so much to look for while on our cruise!

Awww, thanks so much. I hope you guys all have a wonderful cruise on that roll call. Thanks for taking the time to join me.

Tell hubby his new official cc name is Mr. MITSUGIRLY! He could maybe have a chilled towel ready for you at all times along with carrying all your gear/cheesecake

So here we are. It's already Thursday and where is my time going on this cruise? It started out slow and it's going by so quickly now. Sigh

Today we are in Grand Cayman and I have been looking forward to this for a long time now. Last time we were here was last year in March and the Pearl. We did not have the greatest experience (you are welcome to read my review in my signature for a complete detail).

So just a short review of last time. We booked the Stingray sandbar, snorkeling and Rum Point with Nativeways. We received several emails stating that their time in Cayman was the same as the ship time. We met, they left without us. They put us on another tour (which I believe to be a ship sponsored tour). They, IMO, were reckless, impersonal, and in a way put our daughters life in danger. It was one mess up after another. After posting my review on TA, someone on my thread came back to inform me that Nativeway said they would give us a complimentary excursion next time I was there. Well...this trip would be that time to get it right.

Just to make sure of this "time" issue (like before), we checked and double checked with the front desk the time of the ship versus the time at Grand Cayman and were assured the ship was on the same time as the island. We were going to get this thing right this time!!!

Our wake up call came at 6am. This was our view from our balcony:

We seem to have a ship following us still. I'm pretty sure it was the Carnival Sunshine.

Yep

It was a race to get to the anchor area. I believe we won.

Then we were eating at the long, no place to sit, buffet for breakfast by 6:45am. HA, I was way ahead of schedule this time. No way I was missing this excursion.

No worries, we received this:

The ma'ams and our Epic cruise buddy had decided to join us for this day adventure and we were excited to all be together.

Now the night before, we had planned on trying to meet up with the ma'ams and our Epic cruise buddy and the ma'ams thought they were getting their priority tendering by meeting in the Star Bar. I know ours said to meet in Le Bistro. I figured it shouldn't really make a difference and I was just going to go up there and meet with them so we could all go down together.

When we got to the Star Bar, there wasn't anyone in there, so we sat down for awhile and let our daughter entertain us for awhile.

After awhile, I told the hubby we should probably go down to Le Bistro and just go ahead and get on the tender. We would meet up with them once we got to the port. We were informed that the first tender had already left and it would be just a moment before another would be here.

The weird thing I found during this cruise, on the tender ports, I never did hear ANY announcements saying they were cleared and ready to start tendering. Could this be because they getting all the VIP people and the people with NCL excursions off before making an announcement? That's the only thing I could come up with.

As soon as we sat down, it was time to get back up and go to the tender. Here's where the Cigar Bar comes into play. This was their secret stairway to get down to the front of the line.

We got on the tender and sat down and waited and waited for 30 minutes before we ever even left. Well....looky who is getting on the tender now....the ma'ams and Mrs Epic friend. See we met up after all.

We docked at the south dock (which is opposite of where we docked last time). We looked around and didn't see anyone with the Nativeways tour sign but was told to wait around. After awhile, I stopped a lady on the sidewalk and she called Eldon (the owner) up and he said he would be right there. He walked over, checked everyone in and told us to meet in the gazebo over on the north dock at 9:15. We just hung out for awhile waiting there at the port. Another member of our roll call showed up and introduced themselves. This was pretty cool that we were all roll call members. (Well, we did end up with 2 other people on the excursion, but that was it). So a total of ONLY 12 PEOPLE!!! How awesome is that??? You talk about amazing to not be crowded on a boat and excellent service.

A few pictures I told while we were standing there.

So it was time to leave and we walked over to the parking lot down the street and around the corner from the port to get in the bus to take us to the boat dock.

We were informed that the authorities had shut down the sandbar today!!! The winds were too high and the waves too high and dangerous. However, the were hoping that it might die down later and maybe we could do our excursion in reverse. I was so bummed. We had wait over a year for this day and now mother nature did not want us to do it. We did hear this rumor prior to the company telling us about it. They had cancelled all of the ship sponsored tours to the sandbar and people were forced to make different plans. The vendors on the streets trying to get you to take tours also confirmed that the sandbar was closed. Sigh...I just can't win. :(

So Sharon made sure we understood that we might not make it to the sandbar and everyone agreed to do the tour anyhow and off we went with sad puppy dog faces but yet still hopeful.

Grand Cayman was decorated with Christmas things like all of the other ports we have visited during this time of year. I managed to snap a picture of a huge wreath hanging on a building. The other pictures did not turn out when you're moving too fast or on the wrong side of the bus. Why do I also pick the wrong side of the bus???

Gas prices in Cayman

Cayman $$ of course.

We arrived at the boat dock and was ready to board.

It was just a moment before we were headed off...but not before we got our rum from Sharon for our rum punch.

As you can see by the palm trees, it was windy outside:

However, we were informed that we were going snorkeling first and then on to Rum Point. Now how the sandbar is closed because of the winds and waves but snorkeling isn't is beyond me.

Iguana hanging out in the sun on the wall:

Headed out into the beautiful ocean now....ahhh. I swear Grand Cayman has the most beautiful water ever.

Let the Rum Punch start....and start....and start....

A few pelicans hanging out as we entered the ocean

We didn't have a tightrope on the boat, so this was our stunt bar. Drinking + standing up and walking during going fast on a boat=Kim not experienced enough to try it. Remember...I'm the crutz around here.

This is called my blackmail picture. I will need this picture some day to scare off the boys when Sakari gets older. I have full intention on using it too!

I took this picture because I thought it was so neat to see how the water changes color depending on if you were under a cloud or not.

Good to have you. I was wondering where you have been. :D Yes, she is growing like a weed these days. I think I need a second job just to feed her...or go on another cruise so she can eat all day long. :p

We returned from our Epic cruise at 1am on December 15th and proceeded to remodel our upstairs starting at 2pm on the 15th. Finished the remodel at 10:20pm on Christmas Eve. We also went back to work on the 16th. Needless to say it has bee crazy in my world the last few weeks. I will attempt to put together a review of our Epic cruise in the next week or so. It won't be near as entertaining as your reviews of course.

Still reading along and totally enjoying your review as always!

This is Mr Epic Friend...he's the quiet and shy looking type, but when you're not watching...look out. He does tricks!

One little girl excited to go snorkeling:

I didn't realize that the reef they were taking us to was a marine national park in the middle of the ocean. It definitely wasn't where we were last time snorkeling (with the other company). It was neat to see signs in the water marking the marine park. I was thinking that I got a picture of one of them, but can't find it. This is us coming up to the park. There was another boat there that day snorkeling. We pretty much had the place (area) we were in to ourselves.

Ok a lot of pictures to share here of our snorkeling. Trust me, I really cut them down a lot and there's still a lot.

This is were we anchored and you could see the rocks and coral from above. The water was so pretty. Since it was kinda windy and the waves were going, they put out 2 ropes with a life perserver on the ends of them. They told us to stay within these ropes for safety. The waves were taking you out away from the boat and they didn't want us going too far and not be able to get back in. 1 rope was a little ways out there and the other was pretty far. I really don't think anyone adventured too far because of the waves. I have to admit...I think this is a WONDERFUL idea and all snorkeling tours should do something like this so you can tell how far you are getting out and it makes it really easy to just grab the rope and pull yourself back in after snorkeling. Super easy. Great idea Nativeway!!!

As soon as we got there...I was ready to go. I have my own snorkeling equipment and the only thing I didn't bring was my snorkel vest (since I knew they would have actual life vest for us). They told us to wear them around our waist to make it easier to put our faces in the water to snorkel. WOW, another great idea. Why hasn't anyone else ever told us this or had us do this? We've always had to wear them around our necks while it crawled up around our neck and made things difficult. Way to go Nativeway!! Another added plus.

So who do you think was the first to jump in?

Yep, that was me! I couldn't wait!!!

You could look off in the distance and see the waves crashing...on the waves. It looked pretty scary over that way, but it never reached us.

So as soon as we got in the water along came a stingray. WOW, we were going to get to swim with a stingray no matter what. They had a name for her (I don't remember what they named her), but I guess they all know her. I couldn't understand how you would be able to tell one from another.

But he jumped in and brought her up. I think she was as eager to meet us and we were to meet her.

Yep, that's me out there snorkeling toward her of course.

I was a little worried about the water being a bit choppy and letting Sakari go in the water. It really made you drift quickly away from the boat. But she was having an absolute fit at this point and the guide said to let her in and he would make sure she was safe and with him.

She couldn't wait to get to the stingray and squealed with excitement. That smile is just priceless.

Does anyone notice anything about this stingray?

Yep, I got my time with her!

So it was time to do a little snorkeling.

I just want to say...I have NO IDEA what was going on with my camera today during snorkeling. To me, most of the pictures came out horrid and I'm almost embarrassed to share some of them, but I'm throwing caution to the wind and doing it anyhow. I don't know if I forgot to turn it on the underwater setting, or it got on a different setting at different times. I do know that whenever I try to zoom in, I either zoom in too far and get half a fish body or it's too hard to focus and it ends up blurry. I should probably just stop zooming, but I always forget. With this being said...here's my mostly terrible with a few good pictures from snorkeling.

This picture will clearly show you how they named this particular stingray and how they tell her apart from the others if you didn't already figure it out.

This was her man...he was shy and didn't want any part of us.