Better late then never...Norwegian Jewel NYC, Port Canaveral, GSC and Nassau w/Pics

[dawnie216]

Ok so I'm a bit behind as we went on this cruise in August but I am feeling nostalgic and figured it's Spring Break I have nothing else going on and I have been stuck on this site for days reading everyone's wonderful reviews so the least I can do is finally post mine.

 

This was my 4th cruise, first time on Norwegian (previously traveled Carnival) and it was the boyfriends very first cruise so I was super excited. We are both home bodies and I was hoping that once he got a taste for cruising he wouldn't want to travel any other way and luckily that was the case :D

 

We live about 2 hours from the port in NYC so the plan was to leave at 10 on the dot. His dad was nice enough to drive us so that we wouldn't have to worry about paying for parking or getting car service which really helped out and my dad came along for the ride to keep him company on the way back, this made me a little nervous because although I am a daddys girl he doesn't usually make for the best company, let's just say he's not a man of many words lol..Luckily they were already bonded at this point so all was well, I think they even grabbed some lunch and did a little site seeing in the city since we barely take advantage of being so close to the Big Apple.

 

We left a little later then planned but the BF's dad got us there in just about and hour and a half...He drives a van and due to Ryan's (BF) little nieces car seat he had to sit in the back and the while way he was complaining of being car sick in the back seat, I immediately feared what was to come..already sea sick and we aren't even on the boat uhoh :eek:

 

However once we were out of the van all was well and he was feeling much better. We said our goodbyes, got rid of our luggage and got on line to set up our accounts and to get our room key..I kept referring to them as sail and sign cards and the customer service rep kept correcting me whoops lol

 

Embarkation was quick and painless. We decided to skip the about to board photo because we were super anxious to get the vacation started. The line appeared to be long but it moved very quickly. *Note we did not get our passports in time so we were using our photo IDs and birth certificates, the rep let us know this was fine but we did have to sign a form stating that we understood that bc we were not traveling with a passport if something should happen we would not be able to board a plane. We quickly decided worst case scenario we would just have to stay at the Bahamas lol if its meant to be what can you do

 

The ship was absolutely gorgeous...My only complaint is that it was a little confusing for any inexperienced cruisers once you step on the ship. There was no one really directing you to let you know what places were open to eat or not to bother heading towards your room yet. I know this is like cruising 101 but it had been awhile for me and I really wanted to impress Ryan with my cruising knowledge but as the trip went on I let myself stop having these expectations and realized he was happy to just ride the wave with me and not worry about a thing.

 

We managed to find our way to the buffet, I know what a concept exploring on your own (spoiled princess problems) what can I say. I have to say I was pretty impressed with all of the choices. They had many stations, I was excited to see they had a different cold soup everyday I was a big fan of the chillded soups on the previous cruises. I found them all to be either a hit or miss but I was excited nontheless. Some of them did end up tasting like melted icecream I believe that was the case with the peach/mango flavor but it didnt bother me, no better place then on vacation to chow down on a bowl of melted icecream. The only thing I didnt really enjoy about the buffet is that we always seemed to have trouble finding juice to drink. We ended up getting a soda card(more on that later) but Ryan doesnt drink alcohol and so I didnt want to be downing drinks the whole time or guzzling soda the whole vacation.

 

After lunch we explored the ship a bit, we checked out the spa, we really wanted to get a couples massage but it was a little to pricey for us and didnt fit into our budget this trip, maybe next time. We checked out the gift shop, I could have done a lot of damage but it was only the first day and Ryan needed a pair of sunglasses so I let him be the diva this time and we purchased him a decent pair of sunglasses which he had for exactly 7 days because he broke them as soon as we got home..I knew I should have bought the Juicy Bag haahaa

 

After the gift shop they made the announcement that the rooms were ready so we went to explore, one of our bags had made it there at this point. I was a little bummed bc it was the first time I had an inside room but Ryan didnt seem to mind. They also hadnt pushed the beds together and Ryan kept insisting we could just do it ourselves but I vetoed that right away..hellooo we are on vacation duh. The muster drill was quick and right afterwards we raced outside to get a good spot for the sail away. Ryan's a bit of a romantic especially when its just the two of us so he had already spotted an awesome spot at the back of the ship, at first there was barely anyone there but then it started to fill up. We were so happy and excited that we didn't even notice the ppl around us, it was sweet and romantic and a great start to our vacation and Ryan's first cruise.

 

Not too picture heavy but heres an outside view..Carnival Glory I believe was docked next to us.

 

 

 

 

[2Cruise4Ever]

It's never too late to post a review! Keep it coming! We're on the Jewel in less than 2 weeks... living vicariously through all the reviews.

[dawnie216]

We decided to have dinner @ Cagneys Steakhouse. We both thought it was pretty good but def wasn't one of the best dinners we had on the ship. We actually both enjoyed the steak at Azura (one of the main dining rooms better). I forgot that you can pretty much order whatever you want and how much you want of it when your on a cruise so we we ordered the jumbo shrimp and oysters to share. The jumbo shrimp were huge and the oysters were delicious although I never had oysters Rockefeller style before and after trying it Im def more of a raw oysters with some lemon and tobasco sauce kind of girl ;)

 

We both ordered the filet mignon which I found to be a little tough and I am not a pick eater by any stretch of the imagination. I ordered mushrooms and spinach on the side, and Ryan ordered the asparagus and baked potato which shocked me because at home I can barely get him to look at a vegetable, he's more of a meat and potatoes kind of guy and he must have enjoyed it because he gobbled it all down.

 

The dessert was by far the best part of this meal. I had the raspberry creme brulee which was to die for!!! I could not stop raving about it. Ryan got the assorted cakes I believe, it came with cheesecake lolipops which were amazing, and I think brownies and something else. I really could only focus on my creme brulee at this point.

 

We called it an early night, Ryan's sea sickness had hit him a little before dinner and the dramamine was making him drowsy. I had tortured him all day that it was all in his head and maybe he was still feeling the effects of his "car sickness," for those of you who suffer badly from motion sickness dont worry karma does come back and bite me in the butt later on in the trip :mad:

 

[2Cruise4Ever]

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the jumbo shrimp cocktail at Cagney's!!!

[dawnie216]

The first day at sea was not off to a good start. It was porring rain and the sky was grey and dreary. I was bummed because Im a bit of a sun worshipper when it comes to cruising although my body doesnt quite love it as much as I do :cool: The buffet was packed, we were lucky enough to find a table outside towards the back of the ship that was just under the tent. We made the best of it and like a dummy I forgot that along with being in the open seas comes a constant change in the weather. Rain at 10 am doesnt mean its going to poor all day long. The food was quickly changing both of our moods, like I said before I'm not exactly picky but I was pretty impressed with all of the choices for a breakfast buffet. The bf was obsessed with the sausage gravy and got it almost every morning. He also came across the fresh juice making station, there's a cost for it, I'm not exactly sure how much but it was delicious and def worth it. He got freshly squeezed orange juice (booorrring) and I had pineapple. When you have decided to forgo alcohol with all the amazing concoctions they have on a cruise its the little things that make you happy and I was happy with my juice :).

The rest of the day the rain was on and off so I accepted that it would be a sun free day and we headed to the spinaker lounge for some bingo. My bf foolishly made the mistake of sending me to get the boards and because I was paying no attention to the announcement beforehand I stupidly bought 2 individual packages for $60 when I could have just bought the family package for $70 with twice the amount of boards..derdy der. It def gave us something to laugh about and no shock here we won nothing :rolleyes:

We headed back to the buffet to grab something small..I love nothing more then soup and a loaded salad for lunch, I was in heaven.

We then decided to go to the coffee bar and look over the shore excursions for Nassau and GSC. We wanted to get a clam shell for GSC but they were sold out so we were like 10th on a waiting list, we really wanted it for early tender but we didnt need up needing it afterall (more on that later). For Nassau we decided to book the semi-submarine and city tour. I planned on doing most of my shopping that day and I was excited to see the infamous straw market. It was a good pick for us because it took up a decent amount of time and wasnt too expensice. We had already pre-booked and splurged on the Disney tickets for Port Canaveral. We also purchased the soda card at the coffee shop. This worked out perfectly because we did end up drinking a lot of soda and I used the bf's card a lot as well :p.

They also had different jewelery sales everyday in the atrium which if you are a compulsive shopper like me could be a problem. Especially that day because they had some greay fossil watches but I held my ground I was hoping to find some nice marked down jewelry and purses in Nassau..fingers crossed :o

We went back to the room to relax for a bit and then I went to get my shopping fix by attending the Nassau shopping guide talk and Ryan graciously headed to purchase our Deal or No Deal game boards for later on that evening. He ended up popping in when he was done which made me happy because I know the last thing he wanted to do on this trip was listen to some guy give us tips on how to spend money we didnt have so I appreciated the support haahaa. After the talk he escorted me back to the room so I could shower and get ready for dinner while he attended a Friends of Bill W meeting. He is a very dedicated member of AA and I know it was something he was a little concerned about being his first time away. He said it was small only I think 3 guys but I could tell he was happy to have the comrodary on the trip.

We went to Azura for dinner (sorry no food pics the bf thought I was annoying to the other diners)next time I'll do better! He had the french onion soup and I had the salmon tartae. For dinner he had the latin style steak and I had the pork tenderloin. Both dishes were amazing. We decided to skip dessert because it was getting close to time for Deal or No Deal and one thing we learned quickly on this trip is you pretty much had to show up everywhere about 20 min before said start time which we didn't mind because its vacation, what else do you have to do. We also had wasted about 20 min sitting around after our meal because we kept thinking we had to wait for a bill lol whoopsie

I really enjoyed Deal or No Deal, its silly and fun at the same time. We didn't get picked as a contestant but I did get 4 matches on my card which got us $50 credit which technically means we got paid $10 to watch :D

We stayed for the show that night, it was Band on the Run. I thought it was ok, again I'm not a very picky person and I'm usually easily entertained but it def wasnt my favorite show on a cruise. It was just a little cheesy for a lack of better words for our taste but I think we both expected it and just enjoyed the overall experience of watching a show on a cruise ship together.

 

 

[2Cruise4Ever]

I love it! Keep 'em coming! One time on the Dawn, it rained every day but one! I was bummed... BUT, it was still a great cruise.

[dawnie216]

Day 3 Port Canaveral

 

Previous to this trip I had only been to Disney once and I was only 3 years old so I pretty much remembered nothing. Ryan had been there a few times before so he was decided to take charge of this trip. We had booked the day trip to Magic Kingdom and since we werent planning on spending too much time or money on food once there we decided to get some room service for breakfast. He had some coffee and toast and I got a yogurt with a bananna, it was supposed to be sliced so I could put it in the yogurt, it wasnt so i just cut it up myself (I know I know princess problems)haahaa. We had awhile until we docked and had to meet the bus to disney so we decided to head to the buffet and eat a little bigger breakfast. The buffet was crowded and I believe it was around 11 or so, so time for lunch..dont judge me :D The bf had curry I believe which I just couldnt stomach, hellooo a bus ride and then a full day of rides I would have died but I have a weak stomach and he clearly does not. I had my usual soup and salad combo. I have to take a second to mention that I find people's etiquette quite entertaining when you are on a cruise. It's like anything goes. The bf got up to go get an icecream because any excuse to get dessert after every meal and this random lady came and sat down beside me. Now believe me I have no problem with that because I know how frustrating it can be when there;s a big crowd and no one offers you up a seat it was strange how there wasnt a word a gesture exchanged. Usually one would think to say is this seat taken or at the very least a Hello but like I said on a cruise anything goes haahaa. My bf thought he was finally getting a threesome ..sorry buddy no such luck :)

Getting off of the ship was fairly easy except it was raining so NCL felt the need to sell ponchos while people were trying to get off, it just added to the clutter and was a little annoying because not only did you have to wait for people to make their purchase but you also had to wait for them to figure out how to put the damn things on. We opted not to but them, it was basically a drizzle and it had stopped as we made our way to the bus. We got to the bus which was pretty full, the tour guide convinced someone to switch seats so that us 2 love birds could sit together, after spending $140 a person we def wanted to be together for the hour and a half ride to the park.

Once you get to Disney they drop you off at whichever park you choose, we were surprised at how many people were also going to magic kingdom. Very few people got off for Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios.

We stopped at the restroom and headed on the monorail. You have about 6 hours or so on this trip so if you are able to be fast paced it is a great option but if you are slower paced and looking to take everything in I'd save Disney for a separate trip. For me it was perfect because I'm not really a Disney person, its something I see myself doing more once I have children. We got the fast track tickets for a few of the rides which really helped. You can only get fast track for 2 rides at a time so we got a ticket for space mountain and buzz light year. It was crazy hott and we had some time before we had to head to buzz so we decided to go on the Carousel of Progress first because there was no line and it was air conditioned, I thought it was very cute and a great way to start the day. We then headed to buzz light year and with the fast track we barely had to wait at all. I was snapping pics the whole time, I thought it was so cute watching my bf with the little gun, until he noticed and told me I wasnt supposed to be taking pics inside the ride..whoopsie :confused:

Our ticket for space mountain was for later in the day and I had a vague recollection of It's a small world from my trip many many years ago so Ryan was patient enough to wait on that line with me, it was only about 20 min and worth it for me. I'm not much of a rides girl so I def thought he should have to sit through my stuff if I was going to have to be tortured on space mountain. We were right by the haunted house and the line for that was also about 20 min so we hopped on that next. It still wasn't time for space mountain, thank god because I was dreading it, so we went to the pirates of the caribbean which was about a 30 min wait but a lot of it is inside so you are not dying of heat while waiting. This was one of my fave rides :D After that we made a mad dash to get fast track tickets for splash mountainand runaway train. We lucked out bc splash mountain said 6:55 pm with the fast track which would be cutting it really close but a nice gentlemen gave us his fast track tickets for 6:10.

We then had to haul ass to the other end of the park to make sure we didnt miss our time for space mountain..greeaatt now im sweating and running to a ride I was petrified of. We made it in perfect time and for the record I hated it!!! I'm a wuss and totally not a thrill seeker hence why we went to magic kingdom instead of some of the other parks. I had no idea they were original seats and my bf who thought I would just love it stuck me in the first seat!!! I wanted to kill him.

After Space mountain we headed to splash mountain, the other ride I was dreading. If theres anything I hate more then roller coasters its the drop lol. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought but my anticipation was already so high that my face right before the drop was ridiculous and over dramatic to say the least (also didnt help that there was a 7 year old infront of me jumping for joy) lol. The last ride was the runaway train which I actually loved, my bf loves to torture me and refused to let me know ahead of time if there would be any huge drops. It was my kind of ride, super fast, lots of twists and turns and most importantly no big drops.

We got to do everything we basically wanted and ended the day with pics by the castle and by this time we were starving so the bf got a funnel cake for the ride back. The ride home felt longer for some reason, we were both exhausted and starving so we headed up to my favorite spot the buffet. We sat outside so we could have a nice spot and enjoy watching the ship sail away. This became one of our favorite things to do. There's just something calming about it. We snuck a pic of an elderly couple watching below from their balcony, it was the cutest thing and we joked about how that would be us one day. We decided it was such a beautiful night we wanted to stay out there for awhile so we grabbed some dessert. My bf told me about the crepe station and thank God he did, those crepes are heavenly. I had one with pineapple and whipped cream and it was love at first site. He even surprised me and had his mom make them for me this Easter Brunch because its all Ihave talked about since haahaa.

We later went to the stardust theater where we thought we would be the early birds for the newly wed not so newly wed game until we were told it was it the spinaker lounge. Made it in time to find a corner seat. It was fun and enteraining, Ryan was disappointed that I wouldnt pretend to be married to have a chance at playing lol hadnt I been through enough that day!

 

GSC Next.....

[2Cruise4Ever]

Excellent! We did Magic Kingdom on our first NCL cruise that stopped at PC. We didn't get to do nearly as much as you did... the crowds were HUGE! I'm glad you got to enjoy several attractions... Didn't you just LOVE the haunted house?

[dawnie216]

Day 4 @ Great Stirrup Cay. This was the most amazing day by far and just what the doctor ordered after running around Disney all day. We decided to get room service for breakfast again and use it for our wake up call. Ryan got coffee and toast and I got yogurt and a banana once again, can you tell we are creatures of habit. He went to get our tender tickets, I believe the call time for that was 7:30 so he headed up at about 7:15 and said there were people already with tickets in hand. We got group 3 and were called to start loading by 9.

I couldn't believe how lucky we were to find such an amazing spot once on the beach. We found a nice quiet spot all the way down the beach and pulled our chairs right into the water. It was perfect. The water was nice, it was so hot we spent most of the day swimming and lounging in the water. The only annoying part is the rocky bottom of the ocean, I kept scratching and scraping myself so I would def suggest water shoes. We ended up renting some snorkel gear, I'm not sure if it was worth the money but we had so much fun together I don't think either of us really cared. The flippers were annoying me and I couldnt swim with them so I had to take them off and bring them back to our seats, it felt like it took me forever to get back to the rock we were snorkeling by, but we both had a good laugh at my expense:D. We were enjoying the water so much we ended up taking off the life jackets and ended up using them as floating devices. As beautiful as it was it was super hot and our first real sun day so we decided to play it safe and call it a day at around 2.

When we got back to the ship we decided to shower before grabbing something to eat and thenheaded to the blue lagoon. My fave kind of food, I love nothing more then some appetizers and some bar food. I got the spinach and artichoke dip and some wings and my honey had southern fried chicken fingers, I also had a raspberry lemonade which was delicious. I wish I had known about it sooner. Sometimes as silly as it sounds when you are on vacation you forget to ask for things and tend to stick to a menu, one of my critiques about the cruise is that they never seem to really do a good job letting you know about drinks that arent alcoholic. There were a lot of good smoothies and teas and lemonades that I just never thought to ask for and it would be helpful if they had them listed. I may be impartial because my bf doesnt drink and is a recovering alcoholic but it would be nice..just saying :)

So after lunch I remembered a spa deal I had seen for happy feet, it was a mani/pedi for $65 and for those of you that have cruised before thats considered a deal so I jumped on it. The bf took a nap and I headed off to get pampered. I was really happy at first because I had a broken toe nail and she had done an amazing job and fixed it up nicely using acrylic and I was ready to tip her nicely until I received the bill. It was an extra charge for the repair which she failed to mention and we are talking like $15 extra charge so between that and the automatic added gratuity I left feeling a little salty. I am a reasonable person and expect to tip well when I receive a service like that but I dont enjoy being dooped like that.

I went back to the room to find my bf still napping. We were both pretty tired from our day in the sun so we decided to get pizza and cheesecake in the room. We had brought our lap top with us and Ryan had recently gotten me into AMC's Breaking Bad, he had downloaded a bunch of episodes on his lap top to get me caught up so we enjoyed our meal and had a tv night.

 

Nassau Next....

 

 

[2Cruise4Ever]

I'm glad you finally had some sun!

[dawnie216]

Day 5 @ Nassau Bahamas

This was a rough day for me :(. I found Nassau to be beautiful but I was a little bummed because I'm not sure if it was just the travel or the wings from the day before (sometimes I don't do well with spicy) but as soon as we got off the ship and were headed towards the tour bus my stomach started rumbling and I was not feeling so hot. I kept wanting to escape to a bathroom but I didnt want to hold up the rest of the group. It was about a 10 min walk to the van which luckily was air conditioned or I would have been really miserable. We did the city tour first which I was glad didn't last too long, I just was sad I didnt get to really take everything in because I was so focused on not feeling well. Ryan was a trooper and took care of all the photos for me. After the tour we loaded a boat and headed to meet the semi submarine. I really enjoyed the boat ride, looking out at Paradise island was amazing and I was able to stop focusing on the fact that I felt so nauseous. The semi submarine was a fun experience the tour guide was entertaining and maybe a little drunk lol He takes you to about 3 reefs and you do see some schools of fish, nothing crazy. We then boarded the other boat once again and then it was back to the ship. I was not going to let this stomach issue keep me from shopping so we headed back to the room so I could relax for a little and then headed back out so I could check out the straw market. I know some people have an issue with people who will rock a knock off but I have no shame in my game, I have champagne taste on a beer budget lol Ofcourse I love my 2 real coach bags but if A nice lady in the Bahamas wants to sell me a hot pink knock off Louis Vuitton tote bag for $40 then ladies I am buying and I did :D. Ryan wanted to try some jerk chicken so he ordered some off a truck, and I sat relaxing with a coke gazing at my bag.

Overall the tour was nice, its not something I would do twice but it was a good experience and I would love to go to Nassau again and plan on doing in the fall.

We had dinner at Tsars that night (the other main restaurant) and I can't remember for the life of me what he had for dinner. I know we also went to the show that night which was the comedian magician. We found him pretty entertaining. There were a few annoying spoiled kids in the crowd but nothing you can do about that.

 

Last days at Sea next :mad:

[tommy2811]

Wonderful review so far and you did a great thing in supporting your BF in his Quest for Sobriety... just wanted to say that.!

[dawnie216]

Ahh the final 2 sea days bitter sweet. Both days were pretty much a combination of sun and trivia. I believe the first sea day the sun was playing peekaboo again and we killed some time playing name that tune which we failed at miserably. We decided to be fancy since our cruise was coming to an end and made reservations for Le Bistro the french restaurant. I send the bf to get a shave and a hair trim and dolled myself up. This was yet again another amazing meal. We shared the escargot and he again had french onion soup and I had the cream of mushroom soup. It was all very tasty!!! I could not for the life of me decide what to eat but I had heard such amazing things on this site about the BOUILLABAISSE that i went with that and it did not disappoint, I think Ryan had peppercorn steak which he was also in love with. For dessert we shared the creme brulee, we were planning on going to the chocolate buffet and didnt want to fill up on dessert. Sadly I stared to feel sick once again so I ended up calling it a night early but I sent Ryan to see the cirque de sole show because we had both been looking forward to it and I didnt want him to miss it. He enjoyed it so I'm happy he went. The next day the sun was shining and I was super excited to enjoy our last day in the sun. I went and reserved us a spot on the top deck facing the ocean, it always shocks me when people want the chairs downstairs facing the pool. Sure its easier on hot days when you want to get in and out of the pool but the view just looking out into the ocean is amazing. I enjoyed an early morning cocktail and waited for Ryan to join me. He made his way out and upon enjoying the view we spotted 2 dolphins swimming together next to the ship, it was amazing. We had lunch poolside also, Nachos and cheese for me, another one of my faves :).

We spent most of the day on the deck relaxing until it was time to start getting ready for dinner. We went to Azura again and had a nice dinner and then went to the show fountains, which was funny. We spent the rest of the night just walking around the deck and played some checkers outside, it was a great end to a great trip.

Getting off the ship the next morning was pretty stress free. I really like how Norwegian does it, you pick luggage tags with the time you want to get off of the ship. It made the morning not so crazy and other then lines that are to be expected it was a fairly easy process.

 

Overall I really enjoyed Norwegian and the bf now only wants to cruise so it worked. At first I kept comparing it to Carnival because that is what I was used to but I really enjoyed free style a lot more then I thought. The only bummer is the cost so my next trip and review will be this November on Carnival. It's pretty much the same itinerary leaving out of NY, you just cant beat the price and this time we will be getting a balcony room. I want Ryan to experience both lines bc we plan on having a cruise wedding and bc of the prices may be going with carnival so im excited for this trip as well. His sister and niece may also be coming along so it should be a fun but different experience. Just no Disney this time!!! Hope you enjoyed :D

[mchelle77]

You can only get fast track for 2 rides at a time so we got a ticket for space mountain and buzz light year.

 

Are you talking about a Fast Pass? If so, just want to clarify for others who may be going for the first time - you can actually only get one Fast Pass per ride in a one hour window (so if you go at noon and get one that said to come back to ride between 130-230pm, you can't get another one for any other ride until 130pm)

 

Used to be that you could use your FP any time after the start time and NOT be restricted to the end time. But as of March of this year they're being more strict about it. Boo to them. ;)

[dawnie216]

Me too love this site, now I'll be on it until my next cruise in November

[dawnie216]

Thank you I appreciate that, its been a difficult journey but luckily he came out on the other side and has been doing amazing.

[Pokeraddict]

Thanks for the review. I never get tired of seeing Fountains as it seems that every group puts their twist on it.

 

I even watch it on youtube from time to time.

[2Cruise4Ever]

Thank you so much for your review! I really enjoyed it. Fountains is one of my faves!!! :D