Suite Jewel Pacific Coast Review with Pictures

Background:

This is our 12th (wow) cruise, the 4th on NCL, Both DH and I are 41 and love to travel. My job involves lots of stress, plus unpredictable overtime hours and often, right before I go vacation, I work weekends and late nights before we go, it was the same this time. We take three weeks of vacation normally split into 3 vacations and most recently all cruises.

We enjoy the eating and drinking, the thermal suite, I enjoy the casino and DH enjoys the people watching.

Last year when I was going to book the cruise on Princess, I noted that they had banned smoking on the balcony. I don't smoke and DH doesn't smoke that much but likes to have an occasional cigarette on the balcony. I knew if I said he couldn't smoke he would be fine, but I started looking around. The price for a suite on NCL was less than the balcony on Princess, on NCL it was 6 days instead of 7, but included an extra sea day which I love. Ok decision made, we were going to have a suite for the first time.

I booked 9 months in advance so we got $300 onboard credit. I found out that the curtains had to be closed on certain rooms (due to lights reflecting) and we both enjoy sitting outside at nights for a time. Ok, there was a 2 bedroom suite available, which was not subject the curtains being closed. There was only 2 of us. The idea of 2 bathrooms sounded wonderful, we only have 1 at home, and I always say what I want is my own bathroom. Now I would have it if only for a week.

After counting down forever, and working long hours to get everything ready it was finally time to go.

Next, we leave for Vancouver.

The cab picked us up at 6:20 am, DH had a cigarette before we left, it would be his last for several hours. We flew United and had no delays, but we are spoiled by living in Tampa, we cruise from Miami, Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale, even New York are short flights, neither of us like to drive and sitting on a plane felt like time did not move.

We arrived, Vancouver had some amazing displays in the airport, but DH insisted I not stop for pictures, he wanted to get through customs. It was a long line, but moved, we then had to get luggage and had declaration form checked again when we left. We walked outside, I decided a cab would be worth it instead of hauling our luggage on the skytrain, why DH did not have a cigarette when we walked outside I don't know. We had a 20 minute cab ride to hotel, DH complained the whole time, he wanted a cigarette, AARRGH!

We got to the hotel, we stayed at the St. Regis, which was great. DH had his cigarette and acted like a normal person.

Below are pictures of Vancouver from the hotel:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

Now it is 3 in Vancouver, 6 p.m. East Coast time, we had planned to go to Stanley park, but neither of us were up for it. Neither of us had eaten, we went to st. Regis bar and grill, we had drinks, shared a shrimp tempura appetizer, DH had a reuben and I had Yorkshire pudding sliders. I always make an attempt to try local food, I don't know if Yorkshire pudding is particularly Canadian, but they weren't Florida food, so I felt like I was branching out a bit. No pictures of the food, I left the ipad in the room. As I told DH, I am sure the sliders were not the best thing in the world, but being hungry, they sure tasted like it.

We next went to the Vancouver lookout, we both enjoy overviews of cities like that, Boston has a great one as well. Some pictures:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

More Vancouver Lookout pictures:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

Thanks for doing a review! I'm reading and watching along as you post!

The original plan was to go to Stanley Park and do a self led pub crawl. After the lookout we decided to do our Gastown pub crawl, we first went to Steamworks brewery.

Pretty:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

At steamworks, i tried Poutine for the first time. It was great.

We left looking for the steam clock, which I thought would be bigger:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

Thanks for doing a review! I'm reading and watching along as you post!

Thanks! I am trying to get as much done as possible tonight, since I am back to work tomorrow and might not get much of it done until the weekend.

We then went to the Revel Room:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

Then we went to Metropole-no pictures, but very nice pub, they indicated that they donated a percentage of their profits to charity.

Then we went to the Blarney Stone, it was our favorite, for several reasons, not least of which included the fried mars bar.

We ordered some fried mac and cheese and the waitress told us they used to serve as a loaf, but no one could finish it. No wonder it was very rich. No pictures of the mac and cheese, but here are some of the pub.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

Then there was the mars bar deep fried in a Guinness batter and served with ice cream, I wanted to share an order, but DH ordered one for each of us. It was so good, I was glad I had my own and DH still talks about how good it was.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

We grabbed a cab back to the hotel and it had started raining quite steadily. We both fell asleep almost instantly but I kept waking up to some noise. I finally got up and saw my husband left the window open, I closed it, much better.

I woke up, DH does not drink coffee, which I don't get, but I went downstairs to have mine and had breakfast, which was included.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

Loved the bathroom in the hotel, a couple of pictures:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

Here is a picture of the bed (unmade) and desk:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

We took a cab to Ballantyne Pier. We went through security and when we went to check in we had the shorter priority line and our suite experience was about to begin.

Thanks for posting, looking forward to more. :D

We went to check in. We were told to wait in the suite area, which was some folding chairs, as Ballantyne is not regularly used, I believe, there were also pastries and coffee. The John the concierge introduced himself, gave us our cards, our invitation to the captain's party, daily planner, his card etc. After a few minutes John escorted us to the ship and to Cagney's for lunch. We kept bypassing these crowds and before I even got to the ship, was that I was going to have a hard time convincing DH to not want a suite on NCL.

We had lunch at Cagney's, a little underwhelming. DH wanted beef burger with turkey burger toppings and it took a while to get that. I wanted the french dip with cheese on the sandwich. When I got my sandwich I dipped in container which I thought was au jus, but ended up being A-1. It was a nice quiet meal, especially in comparison to buffet, but we did not eat in Cagney's for lunch again.

Next we still had time until the room was ready. DH wanted after meal cigarette so we went to Sky Bar on 13, he smoked and I took pictures:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

Afterwards we got our spa passes. We liked the spas on the Star and Dawn better as we preferred the lap pool to the heated tile loungers. Epic is our favorite spa, the Thalassotherapy pool is huge with different stations. We liked them on Carnival but not as much as we like them on NCL.

The rooms are ready. Time to see the suite.

The master bedroom:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

The dining room and coffee maker:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

The living room and balcony and DH in his natural habitat:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

The second bedroom, which we used for luggage storage, DH locked himself in this room unintentionally, more than once.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

The master bathroom:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

DH thought the greatest thing was the bathtub with a tv. There was also a list of dvds and he got several from our butler.

Went to the muster drill. I went back to the room to get my ipad to take pictures and Nelson our butler dropped off a plate of canapes. We went to sail away party, they had a Nickelodeon kids presentation, we never saw that many kids on board. I didn't stay for the party very long, it was cold and windy.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

Off to the martini bar. I went to both of the martini tastings and the bartender said they had a new menu. I didn't care for it. The drink menu seemed to have more and different selections, depending on which bar you were at. Still I had my cosmo.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

After a while, I went to movie trivia in Fyzz lounge, it was fun some of the questions were hard.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

By now it was 7:30, time for dinner. I was off to get surf and turf in the MDR. When I left Fyzz the dining screens showed yellow, but by the time I got there it was red. It was a 30 minute wait, I liked my lobster, but did not want to wait 30 minutes. I went to the buffet, but nothing stuck me and since Mama's the Italian restaurant was around the corner I went there.

Moscato and Bread:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

One of my favorite foods in the world is fried calamari and this did not disappoint:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

I had the osso bucco and the veal was tender and fell off the bone, but the polenta was excellent:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

I had dessert, nothing on their dessert menu jumped out, I had the cheesecake with lemon, I don't care for lemon, but sometimes it is the essence of lemon, this was a layer:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

After dinner, I went to the casino and then back to the room, it was time to call it a day. My DH met Nelson and asked for some dvds and ordered room service, it would become one of his favorite activities.

That's it for tonight, I will try to get some more done tomorrow, but the first day back from vacation is always crazy and I may be working late. Until next time. The next day is Victoria.

Thanks for posting, looking forward to more. :D

Thanks!

So looking forward to this! Thanks

Great review and pictures! thanks for sharing!

Which suite did you have? Did you hear any noise from above deck?

So looking forward to this! Thanks

Thanks!

Great review and pictures! thanks for sharing!

Which suite did you have? Did you hear any noise from above deck?

Glad you like it so far. We were in 11012, it is the Jade Suite and are very close by the forward elevators, but we never heard any noise, either from the elevators or the decks above or below.

Were there any staff that impressed you?

Very nice...............thanks for sharing!