MITSUGIRLYS JEWEL OF A CRUISE review and pictorial

[mitsugirly]

I have been waiting for this review for months. I knew the review of the Jewel would be thorough. You never disappoint Mitsugirly. :D I hope I get to cruise with you someday. After seeing the pictures of Grand Cayman, I need to go there someday.

 

I have been waiting forever to do this review. :D Thanks for the compliments. You definitely need to check out Grand Cayman. It's beautiful. The water there reminds me of Roatan's Little French Key.

 

Just spent the entire afternoon reading this amazing review!

 

Those underwater pictures are incredible.

 

Thank you for posting everything from your wonderful cruise! You are truly blessed!

 

Happy New Year and don't work too hard!

 

 

 

 

~robin and brian~

Norwegian Breakaway 2014

Carnival Miracle 2010

Carnival Legend 2006

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

 

Well you must have had A LOT of time on your hands today. :D I know I'm long winded. :p Thanks for the compliments. I'm not too sure about my underwater pictures this time around. I was a little disappointed with them and I'm not sure what my problem was. But they will have to do. :)

 

....and I worked my butt off today for the New Year. Whew. I was never so happy to walk out that door tonight.

[mitsugirly]

FYI, my journal/review is now on the Member Review page. A couple of post scripts are that we thought Jaimie, the CD, was very good and professional and not overbearing as some have been in the past, and for those of you who complain about the blandness of the food, seek out the readily available hot sauce. I'm ready to book the Sun out of Tampa for Jan.'15, as the Jewel from Houston does not go to Costa Maya and I don't like the fact that the Dawn out of NOLA is missing a Great OUtdoors and an observ. lounge. We've sailed the Sun before and really enjoyed it. steve

 

I do agree. Jamie was not over bearing as a lot of cruise directors can get with the announcements. However, we didn't even know she exsisted most of the time and to me, wasn't really "fun" like some of the cruises we have been on. We've had some awesome cruise directors that get the partys going at White Hot or on deck with dancing and also talking to us constantly and so friendly. She just kinda kept to herself and was quiet.

 

I would love to go on the Sun. We have family in the south that has cruised her a few times and love her even though she's small. Hopefully some day. :D

 

Thanks so much for the many pictures and the review. I will be cruising on the Jewel in April, my first NCL cruise. Looking forward to this cruise and to compare the experience to prior cruises.

 

You're welcome. Have a great time and I hope you enjoy yourself. :)

[mitsugirly]

Great review. Someone may have mentioned this but I think your ferret looking creature is a mongoose. :)

 

Nope, no one mentioned that yet. I was wondering what they were called. I did just now look a mongoose up (even put in Jamaica mongoose) and the pictures I'm seeing "kinda" looks like it, but the pictures on the web, the mongoose has long legs compared to this one. This one had really short legs like a ferret and was really close to the ground. :confused:

 

Kim' date='

 

I've heard before of people getting VIP status for arranging the M & G. Never happened to me, either, but it has been discussed before, so...............maybe?

 

BTW, We got home at midnight last night, and Mike gave me his cold he caught by the end of the cruise for Christmas. :( I don't return to work until Thursday, so I'm enjoying reliving the cruise through your review. Robin and I will be starting our review this weekend; it should be a different view of the same cruise but with overlapping parts. So glad to hear you're getting lots of days off now so the review gets a higher priority! Keep it coming![/quote']

 

Well lucky you just now getting home. :D Please let me know when the ma'ams get your reviews done. I would love to read them. :)

[mitsugirly]

So I'll try to continue out this day (Friday Dec 20) since I made it safely home from work (and a night of craziness I might add).

 

We had left Mr Sanchos at 3:09 and arrived back on the ship at 4:30pm. WOW. That's how bad the tender lines were. As I think I might have said already, we watched the other ships pull out while we were waiting on all the tenders to come in...leaving later than scheduled of course.

 

I went ahead and jumped in the shower because we wanted to dress up tonight and go out to eat at Tsar's tonight.

 

Then I looked at the time and discovered there's no way we would be able to eat in time (if the slow pattern with dining and everything else continued to be the same tonight) because we had to go to the Spongebob & Patrick meet & greet. I wanted to get there early so that we could get a good seat right next to the isle that they line up at and get our pictures done and get the heck out of there to go eat. We were starving by now, but the things we do for our kids. Sigh

 

This time the meet & greet didn't start until 6:30pm, but we arrived at 6pm and sat in the first set of chairs by the isle. There wasn't anyone there yet. About 6:20pm or so some parents came in and just walked down the isle and stood. Um...ok. By the time I realized they were actually lining up, I was once again at the back of the line. Double Sigh. When will I ever learn? So, I proceeded to go get in line.

 

While waiting in line I was forced to listen to a lady that complained over and over again how she was the first here the other day and everyone jumped in line and she ended up in the back of the line and she was pissed. (Hmmm, sounds kinda familiar at the moment). She went on and on about how she had been waiting for a half hour and was forced to the back of the line. Yep, been there, done that...as a matter of fact I'm doing it now, but I wasn't complaining about it. Just my stomach was complaining. Then she proceeded to tell everyone how once she made it up to the front of the line and it was their turn to take pictures she told the photographer there that they were going to take pictures of her family, the kids together and then the kids separate for them being there first but not getting to go first. Geesh people, lighten up!!! She told this story to everyone that walked by.

 

Finally it was our turn for pictures. They took my hand dandy notebook, no wait, that's Blue's Clue's, I mean my handy dandy camera and took a picture for us...

 

 

 

Then of course their picture making us look all spiffy by Spongebob's pineapple under the sea.

 

 

 

As we walked out, we were handed their "autographs":

 

 

 

I have to admit, I love Patrick and just might have a crush on him. He's so playful and did funny things constantly. <3

 

We also wanted to go to the 7:15pm show in the theater, but had lost hope by now because WE MUST EAT!! I had the worse headache. I knew it had to be because we were so hungry and the hubby swore it was from all the alcohol today. You be the judge. hehe

 

We headed to Tsar's and was seated instantly. Woo hoo. This just might go well after all. No wait.

 

They had another gingerbread display in there.

 

 

 

Ok, hate to bust your bubble, but tonight wasn't any different than any other night. But this is the part that kinda ticks me a little. We ordered our starters and food (and I tried to order desert at the same time so they would anticipate bringing it out and not delay us anymore than needed), but they told me to wait until I was done eating. Sigh.

 

 

 

So here's were the "weirdness" came in. They brought out Sakari's meal. Yes, we'll stop there because our starters didn't come out or our food.

 

So she's eating and then she's done. We are still waiting on our food. So then they ask if she wants desert. She decided on ice cream. Yes, we are STILL waiting on our food. She gets her ice cream.

 

[mitsugirly]

...and then she's done with desert. Um ok. Nice of them to bring all of her food out and we are still waiting on our starters!! Really people? Shouldn't this all come TOGETHER AT THE SAME TIME?? We would like to eat as a family. We don't want our daughter to eat her food AND be done with her desert before we even get started. What do you suggest I do to entertain her while we are trying to eat and she's done and ready to go??? Sigh.

 

It took them 45 minutes before our starters came out. Of course there was no hope that we would be able to make it to the 7:15pm show. It was already past that time by now.

 

So we take a few pictures trying to entertain her while we waited. Mommy did her hair curly tonight and she insisted on so many photos that night. LOL

 

 

 

Finally our starters came out. I had the broccoli soup and it was wonderful as always.

 

 

 

Hubby had the mushroom soft taco thingys (I'm so tired I can't even think of what they are called at this point but it's the same thing I had in Azura the first night), but minus the mushrooms. LOL So basically it was just cheese.

 

 

We gobbled that up and then we wait....for our actual meal.

 

Here comes the singing waiters. Maybe they were back in the kitchen rehearsing instead of fixing our food this entire time. Yeah, that had to be it. Either way, it entertained Sakari for a good 2 minutes.

 

 

 

Finally our food came out and I had chicken...(I have to say that the mashed potatoes are fantastic, but all I got was the smallest scoop possible and it was about 2 bites...seriously)

 

 

 

...and at this point I really didn't care what the hubby was having....just kidding, I snapped a picture with my greasy fingers as I continued to shove as much food in my mouth at the same time as possible just to get done because Sakari was complaining. I ate so fast that I forgot that I had even eaten at this point. This is the part where I'm embarrassed to say we probably would have fit in with the White family.

 

[mitsugirly]

Once we won the prize for fastest full meal eaten, we started to head out and the waiter starts with "Would you like some des..." Me "No". There's no way I was about to wait even longer.

 

Here's the picture they took of us when we were eating (and I actually had my mouth full at the time they took the picture...I swear I threatened my husband to smile and squeeze the mashed potatoes through my teeth with the camera snapped just to show the mood I was in at this point)...

 

 

Yea, that looks like a happy child. She had to fake smile it that night.

 

They had also taken a photo when we were at Azura's too that I forgot to post.

 

 

 

As we raced out of the dining room, I snapped another pretty picture...no matter how rushed you are, there's always time for another picture!!! My rule I live by.

 

 

 

Hey you guys...say cheese? Or slow service if that makes you smile.

 

 

 

I do have to comment, at one point during the "wait" time, I walked up the steps to ask the lady at the desk checking people in where the closest restroom was and she was busted shoving a butterfinger candy bar in her mouth. LOL I totally caught her off guard and I have never seen anyone try to hide a candy bar so quickly...well, I take it back, we do it all the time at work when the boss passes by. Then to see her covered her mouth while she tried to get the words out for directions was pretty hilarious as well. Don't they feed these people? I'm just kidding, I'm sure it was a WELL deserved candy bar. We laughed about it and I went tinkle.

 

One last shot as well walked out. This is the ceiling (and the lady with the hidden candy bar). LOL

 

 

 

We dropped Sakari off a the kids club and we knew by the looks of her that she would not last long tonight. We was already tired from our day in Cozumel and now her belly was full.

 

We signed up for the after hours sitting services since tonight was the White Hot party. Even though we were beat as well, we didn't want to miss it.

[mitsugirly]

We spent a short amount of time in the casino, trying to kill time actually, while we waited until it was time to go to the 9:15pm show. The hubby decided to play my Gold Fish game that I had won on earlier in the week and he was doing really well. I kept telling him to cash out while his winnings were so good, but he didn't. It was almost 9pm and I told him we needed to get going in order to get a good seat for the show. It was the Le Cirque Bijou show and this was one that I didn't want to miss. I heard it was wonderful. So that finally got him to cash out and he was pleased with his winnings. It wasn't HUGE like mine, but it was a lot more than what he walked in with.

 

We got an excellent seat and the crowd started pouring in. There were certain seats marked off up and down both isles that you couldn't sit at. We knew this meant that they were going to be using this area for the show (and NOT saving it for the VIP White family).

 

The show started late of course, but it was well worth the wait. Oh my goodness it was AMAZING. Now here's the thing. The show was just like the last show they usually put on (that we have seen) where they are doing so many things at once, using the stage, the isles, the ceiling. Just about the same thing. I expected this to be the last night show like before and we really wanted to let Sakari see this and she was missing it. I wish I would have known that's what this show was ahead of time so I could have just brought her with us. She would have been amazed.

 

At the end of the show, a bunch of the staff came out from each department and was all on stage. Of course I know that they do not allow pictures during any of the shows, so this was the ONE AND ONLY night that I decided why bother to bring the camera? I mean how many pictures did I really need of the Peacock curtains changing colors? You guys can only take so many of those right? BAD ME! I just completely contradicted what I just said about always having a camera on me. Darn!

 

We returned to our room to change after the show and get ready for the white hot party.

 

Here's our VIP plate for the day.

 

 

 

We also had a monkey hanging from the ceiling that night. (Yes, these pictures were taken the following day, hence the daylight). But we received it tonight.

 

 

 

 

His face and lips completely cracked me up. Such detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So it was time for the White Hot party. I seem to bring the same outfit every cruise. It's basically the only thing I own dressy that's white. A white mini skirt and a tank top dressy blouse with sequins all over it. Sequins don't feel too great on your arms because they scratch them when you move and especially when you dance. I always end up with marks on my arms. From the last 2 days in Grand Cayman and Cozumel, my arms ended up a little red.

 

I put the outfit on. All it took was 1 scratch and I screamed bloody murder...just kidding, I have a very high tolerance level (remember me breaking my hand on my cruise and continuing to snorkel 2 more days after that???) and didn't scream. Then I thought about it. People wear the white hot tee shirts to the party all the time. They sell them in the store on board. I had brought mine. However, I threw caution to the wind and said "You know what, this is my cruise, I'll do what I want, when I want, however I want...that's freestyle cruising". Off the clothes came and on went the jeans and a tee shirt...but I was being risky...I didn't even put my White Hot tee on! I ended up wearing my "new" tee purchased this cruise that said "Party like a Brazilian"! Yep, that's right. I changed it up. Daring huh?

 

 

Well we headed down to the party and all I can say is...boy did I feel out of place with most people dressed up. Sigh. Oh well.

 

Did you realize that the Jewel had ghosts? I thought that was only the Dawn. LOL But I caught them in a picture!!

 

 

 

They have the entrance all decked out in white. I do have to admit, I like it better when they have the party on the pool deck instead. It's a lot funner.

 

It was time to order a drink and forget about it. I was comfortable. We met up with our Epic friends and I danced and danced, then drug my hubby up to dance, then spent some time waiting for Mr & Mrs Epic to get drunk enough to get up and dance and we danced the night away. Well, at least until around 12:30am and the hubby was ready to fall asleep and couldn't take it anymore.

[mitsugirly]

We usually take a bunch of pictures at the White Hot party (or in my case tonight, not hot), but for some reason I snapped 2 pictures when we first sat down and laid my camera down on the table as I went out to dance and completely forgot about picking it up again. Sigh. Usually the hubby is busy snapping pictures while I'm dancing. Once again, he was so tired that he didn't even do that.

 

 

 

We said goodnight to our friends and we darted off to go pick up Sakari from the kids club. We just knew that she would be asleep and we were right. Daddy was forced to carry her all the way back to the room. There would be no sleep walking for her tonight. You would have thought he was in a marathon walking so fast.

 

When we made it to the room, we were able to wake her up long enough to find that Trixie was acting like a monkey with her new friend...right above the HUBBYS side of the bed and in his way. hehe Oops

 

 

We were all very tired and I decided tomorrow would be a sleep in or not kinda morning and I was throwing caution to the wind and not getting a wake up call. It's a sea day, it'll be ok.

 

 

 

So that ends our Cozumel-Friday. I'll have to gather my pictures for Saturday and will continue with the review tomorrow...another day off from work. LOL :D

[Rudyard]

I know I'm long winded.

 

I prefer to think of it as "being thorough" :D

[gardiner41]

I am so glad you have been mentioning the length of time it takes for food service. It will help us to plan accordingly. We have the dailies from our itinerary and there are a number of activities we want to do that begin at 7:00 Ballroom dancing and what not. So we will have to make sure we eat at 5:30 and tell them ahead of time we are in a hurry.

 

We have never done a white hot party . Might give it a go this time..unless there is music somewhere else we want to see more.

It's one of the things I was really pleased to see when I got the dailies..music lots and lots of music and dancing.

We sailed Epic Last feb, and unlike you it was our least fav ship. Hubby liked it ok but I did not. I discovered that cruise I like the smaller more traditional ships. I think the Jewel class ships will suite me perfectly

[lah66]

Kim,

Thank you so much for another fabulous review! We will be on the Jewel in 6 short weeks! Always love your reviews. How do you remember so much detail? Do you keep notes? This takes a lot of commitment!

We enjoy a lot of the same things..snorkeling, photography, etc so your reviews are always so helpful! We are going to the Money Bar in Coz, Maya Chan in Costa Maya and snorkeling West Bay in Roatan based on your reviews, pictures and detailed info! Maybe our review of Money Bar will entice you to visit next time!

Thanks again for taking the time to do this review! I was looking at roll calls of Jewel cruises leaving before us. Every one of them mentioned your review and they were all waiting anxiously for your next installment! You are feeding the cruise obsession in all of us!

Happy New Year!

Lauri

Edited January 1, 2014 by lah66

[mitsugirly]

I am so glad you have been mentioning the length of time it takes for food service. It will help us to plan accordingly. We have the dailies from our itinerary and there are a number of activities we want to do that begin at 7:00 Ballroom dancing and what not. So we will have to make sure we eat at 5:30 and tell them ahead of time we are in a hurry.

 

We have never done a white hot party . Might give it a go this time..unless there is music somewhere else we want to see more.

It's one of the things I was really pleased to see when I got the dailies..music lots and lots of music and dancing.

We sailed Epic Last feb, and unlike you it was our least fav ship. Hubby liked it ok but I did not. I discovered that cruise I like the smaller more traditional ships. I think the Jewel class ships will suite me perfectly

 

Yes, if you have the option to go to dinner a few hours earlier than a planned event, I would say do it. We were limited though and couldn't do that since we had the Dora and Spongebob activities at certain times it pretty much limited us. :(

 

We love the white hot party, but we love that kinda of atmosphere and music. They do a lot of the group/line dances...like cupid shuffle, wobble, electric slide and so on.

 

We have just found that we like the bigger and newer ships. They just have more to offer than the smaller ships (with the exception of the Spirit of course). I liked the Epic because of the out of this world entertainment like the Cirque experience and Blue Man. It was just awesome! Also with liked the little added extras, like the Ice Bar. It was just a ship like no other that we had been on. We also loved the water park area with the water slides, unlike the older and smaller ships that just have the super small water slide that barely even gets you down it. I guess that was another reason why we decided to give Carnival a try this past year and went on the Dream. The water park was a big draw to the ship. I know a lot of people didn't like the design of the rooms on the Epic because of the wave rooms and the glass doors on the restrooms, but we were in a studio and absolutely LOVED the design of the room. The Epic just made our cruise!

 

Kim,

Thank you so much for another fabulous review! We will be on the Jewel in 6 short weeks! Always love your reviews. How do you remember so much detail? Do you keep notes? This takes a lot of commitment!

We enjoy a lot of the same things..snorkeling, photography, etc so your reviews are always so helpful! We are going to the Money Bar in Coz, Maya Chan in Costa Maya and snorkeling West Bay in Roatan based on your reviews, pictures and detailed info! Maybe our review of Money Bar will entice you to visit next time!

Thanks again for taking the time to do this review! I was looking at roll calls of Jewel cruises leaving before us. Every one of them mentioned your review and they were all waiting anxiously for your next installment! You are feeding the cruise obsession in all of us!

Happy New Year!

Lauri

 

Well...remembering the details is really hard. I usually start off with a little book I take, so that I can jot down notes here and there, but usually by the 3rd day, I completely start to forget to do this. That's why you'll find me adding things to my reviews at a later date instead of when they happened. :o This time around, I actually forgot my notebook I usually take. :eek: But my daughter loves to draw and she had packed hers in her suitcase...so I had back up. I think I did a little better at taking notes this time around, but I do have to admit, the last 2-3 days I forgot and was back tracking to try to remember things and I got my days mixed up. I ended up referring to the dailies to get the days right. :D I also forget things and when other roll call members mention things, it reminds me of something I wanted to say. I have to say another added bonus was having the balcony...I would spend a little time each night writing out there. Then of course my pictures and the dates they are taken help remind me as well. Yep, a lot of commitment.

 

I would definitely love to visit The Money Bar. It has always been on my list. You just never know...:)

[ncklhaus]

Just curious. If you were to do a land based vacation, would you recommend the RFAD Hilton you went to? It really looks beautiful and its an all inclusive! I was checking it out and the prices are fantastic.

[ncklhaus]

I'm not sure why you think your underwater pictures are anything less than fabulous. They are absolutely breathtaking. And the picture of Sakari smiling put tears in my eyes. I have a 6 1/2 year old daughter and I know she would have LOVED every second of this trip as well. In fact, the only ship she has been on was the Jewel. We are booked on the Breakaway in October and she can't wait. Neither can we!;)

[mitsugirly]

Just curious. If you were to do a land based vacation, would you recommend the RFAD Hilton you went to? It really looks beautiful and its an all inclusive! I was checking it out and the prices are fantastic.

 

Yep, I sure would. We don't really care for Jamaica and read all the horror stories regarding Jamaica (and I have one of my own from the 80's), however, if you stay at one of the AI resorts, you are very safe. Plus the plan excursions from there to go out to other places.

 

Hilton Rose Hall is definitely a place I could spend a land based vacation at. It's very pretty and HUGE. I didn't even cover all of the grounds there. If the prices are fantastic, I would say go for it. :)

 

I'm not sure why you think your underwater pictures are anything less than fabulous. They are absolutely breathtaking. And the picture of Sakari smiling put tears in my eyes. I have a 6 1/2 year old daughter and I know she would have LOVED every second of this trip as well. In fact, the only ship she has been on was the Jewel. We are booked on the Breakaway in October and she can't wait. Neither can we!;)

 

I just don't think I had a great experience with my underwater pictures this time around compared to other cruises while snorkeling. Maybe it was just the places we went to that didn't have as much as other places we have been. Maybe it was that I kept forgetting to turn my camera on the "underwater" setting when snorkeling and then to turn it off again when I was on land. I just really struggled with it the entire cruise when it came to the underwater pictures. But thanks for the compliments.

 

Some of the best memories we have created with Sakari is while cruising. She is so happy and full of life. It's all she talks about. She has been sitting at my computer all morning watching her many videos we took while on the ship of her dancing and playing. I finally had to take charge and take back my computer so I could get this review done. :D

 

I would so love to sail the Breakaway. Hopefully some day we can afford it. I was really hoping the prices would come down a bit once the newness wore off. We'll see.

[mitsugirly]

So here we are...our last sea day and I'm so sad.

 

Sakari wanted a picture with all of her towel animals

 

 

 

...and Trixie of course.

 

 

 

I didn't set the wake up call today and we were up by 9:30 and off to the buffet we went. Today was extremely annoying, not just because of the crowd still, but there was even less cereal to chose from for the munchkin (thank goodness there was still pancakes and eggs as a back up) and we couldn't locate ANY milk. I tell ya, this cruise they were really unprepared for the amount of passengers!

 

We dropped Sakari off at the kids club for a little while and after this I honestly can not remember what we did to kill our time until we had to pick her up about a hour later when they closed. It's all a blur now. They said they were having the "circus practice" and to make sure they were there. When we picked her up, she said they didn't do anything related to the show. But, she was excited that today was finally the day that she got to get up on stage and perform for everyone. She's such a ham.

 

Once we picked her up, we decided to head to the Blue Lagoon for some lunch. The service wasn't as bad this time around.

 

I ordered potato skins and they were yummy. (If you haven't noticed, almost all of my pictures of MY plate, I have already dug into the food. I completely forget each time to take a picture when if first comes out. I have almost always done this. When I'm hungry, I'm hungry...if you haven't noticed yet. Well this would be no exception.)

 

 

 

Sakari ordered her favorite cheeseburger and fries.

 

 

 

Wait....what kind of fries were these? They were really thin and I had to try them. Um, ok. Not the greatest and not their normal fries. I LOVE THEIR FRIES...and this was not cutting it. When the waiter came by, I ask about the fries and he told me "These are our special homemade fries. It's what we make up here." I didn't disagree, but knew this wasn't the truth because Sakari had fries several times up there on the cruise and they were always the yummy fries like in the buffet or MDR. We noticed also that day that they served these fries in the buffet later that day. Is it possible they had run out of fries too and were now forced to make their own??

 

Hubby had a tuna sandwich along with the non-yummy fries.

 

 

 

My wings came out and they were slathered in sauce. I don't remember the last time I had them having this much sauce. I'm not a real bbq sauce type of girl and it was a little too much for me. Not only were they cooked with the sauce, but they had poured some over them on the plate as well. I know the picture don't look slathered in sauce, but it was just too much for me or maybe I was just having a non-sauce type of mood day. But if you look closely, you'll see where they poured some sauce on the tops of them. Look CLOSELY. LOL

 

 

 

Now here's another time that I probably could have fit in with the White family...but it is what it is. I had to take my napkin and roll my wings up in them to remove most of the sauce. I ended up with several red napkins that looked like a murder scene had been cleaned up. When the waiter walked by once and glanced over, I proceeded to try to cover up the murder evidence by rolling them up in a ball with the cleanest side possible facing the "viewing" part of the towel laying on the table. How embarrassing. I know once we left he probably wondered what had happened and started looking for bodies. Thank goodness I was never called down to the naughty room after this episode.

[mitsugirly]

We headed back to the balcony and watched tons of more flying fish. It would be the only thing we were able to see (animal related) from our balcony this cruise. I was a little disappointed. I did find myself spending a little more time than normal in my room this cruise just because I felt the need to since we had upgraded to this room. Otherwise, I would have been out and about joining the crowd and activities.

 

Our room was a complete mess at this point. I know the room steward probably walked in to our room each day with disgust on his face and wondered if this is how we live at home. Well, I'm on vacation and I try my best to stack the dirty clothes in a pile or somewhere out of the way. I usually bring this HUGE Glad ziplock bag, that is actually probably bigger than Sakari, on each cruise for our dirty clothes. I would discover the first day that I had forgotten it along with a few other items. There's always something to be left behind. I guess I'll just have to keep trying and cruise more so someday I'll get it right. This time around, we tried to stack our dirty clothes in the closet, but before long, we were running out of room and they kept falling out of the door.

 

Anyhow, I proceeded to start to pack our clothes away and wiping away the tears as I did so. I didn't want to leave. I promise I won't complain about the fries or the crowds in the buffet, or the diminishing cereal or milk or even the long wait in the MDR's....just PLEASE let me stay...at least for another week. PLEASE! I'll be good. I swear.

 

So almost everything was packed up and ready for our sad day tomorrow. It was time to take Sakari back to the kids club to "practice" for the Circus show, so off we went. Once again, it's a blur on what we did to kill time before the show. I'm pretty sure we walked around the ship taking pictures. I drug my poor husband everywhere and still didn't hit all the areas I should have. I almost felt sorry for him...well ALMOST, and then I remembered the waiting he made me do while in Jamaica and I decided to go ahead full speed with the picture tour I was doing!

 

It was now 3:30pm and we headed back to the theater to find seats for the Circus show. There was hardly anyone there. Weird. We sat in the 3rd row so that she would be able to see us this time around. (Last time on the Star, she was so sad because it was packed and she couldn't find us for the longest time.)

 

In they came...a few minutes late of course.

 

She spotted us immediately.

 

 

 

The show began and SIN was the Circus master.

 

 

 

 

The tigers piled on the stage

 

 

For some reason I noticed immediately that Sakari didn't have any tiger ears. They must have ran out of those as well....geesh. (There were several other children that didn't have them too).

 

But she was equipped with a tail...

 

 

 

She was proud to be on stage performing and you could tell it.

 

 

 

 

YIKES!! She roared at us and it scared me.

 

[mitsugirly]

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion (or tigers) sleep tonight...

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure that tigers don't like their tails to be pulled on and some of the tigers on stage confirmed it.

 

After the show, she continued to practice her roar. I guess it was a roaring good night for her.

 

 

 

We picked Sakari up from the kids club and decided to go have a bite to eat and beg for some ice cream from the ice cream police. I will add THERE ARE NOT SPRINKLES OR TOPPING NOW!! Big disappointment.

 

 

We headed back to the room and found our VIP plate:

 

 

 

We decided to get ready for the Nick Dance Party in the Spinnaker. Sakari and I decided we wanted to dress up. Daddy did not. LOL We were the "odd" couple tonight.

 

But...not as odd as the "matching family". The night we went to listen to the comedian, he told jokes about the guy who was force to wear the exact same matching outfit as the wife and child all cruise long. Yes, everyone in the audience knew EXACTLY who he was referring to. Whatever she had on, the daughter had a matching dress and the husband had the shirt to match (always some type of loud Hawaiian print). I guess the matching family didn't attend the comedy show or either they did and didn't get the hint because they continued to match each other the rest of the cruise.

 

Sakari all dressed up...with her tiger face still. It didn't look right but I wasn't about to tell her she had to wash it off so quickly. I knew that she would give the pouty face if I did.

 

 

 

Now I'm showing you the next picture, not because I know you can't get enough of my little tiger, but to show you what the bed looked like...even made (it was much worse not made). As you can see, the mattresses dip really bad and of course there was a hump in the middle. Yes, they had plenty of padding on the bed, but nothing helped. I have always had THE MOST COMFORTABLE BEDS on all of my NCL cruises and this was the WORSE EVER. I think it's time they replaced them! I do know that I was not the only one complaining about the beds. Other people I ran into had the same issue. It did not make for a good nights rest and was hard to fall asleep in.

 

[mitsugirly]

Off to the 6pm Nicktoons dance party. We had no idea what to expect, but we figured it would be something like Dora's dance party in the Fyzz lounge. (At Dora's dance party, they put up cones down the middle of the dance floor and the characters stayed on one side to dance and the kids on the other side for most of the time).

 

This party was different. Here comes the characters....Let's get this party started. Check out what Patrick does to the kids standing in the chair in the booth. LOL

 

VIDEO:

 

 

 

Now the following characters, I had no clue who they were and my sons girlfriend had to tell me their names. LOL Sakari didn't have a clue either.

 

Wanda from Fairy Odd Parents:

 

 

 

Cosmo

 

 

 

Aang from Avatar

 

 

 

 

Now notice how Sakari isn't really "close" to these guys. She's either standing within distance or looking like she's ready to dart and run. She was just unsure about this.

 

 

It's really weird. All week long she was going to all of the meet & greets, having pictures taken with them, even on the first day when we ran into them going out to the pool deck.

 

Tonight was different. She had the deer in the headlights look on her face and she wouldn't move from our seats for the longest time. I have no clue what was going on. All the kids were out there dancing with them on the floor and having a great time. We kept telling her to get out there and she would not.

 

I had to grab her hand and go out there with her to even get her to budge. Completely unlike her and her personality.

 

She felt better once she found Spongebob.

 

 

 

Then Patrick came along and the world was normal again. He's such a funny one to watch. I <3 Patrick.

 

Edited January 1, 2014 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

Back pack was along for the ride...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though we had to stay out on the dance floor with her in order for her to stay out there, we all had a great time. One of the best Nick days.

 

I even think daddy was enjoying himself...but he always dances with Sakari.

 

This picture is a little blurry because Sakari was moving around like she had ants in her pants at this point, but the look of happiness she gave her daddy in this picture was priceless.

 

 

 

 

[realtorlady42]

I think the reason we dislike the epic is the reason you like it. We no longer have young kids at home...or any kids at home for that matter. So when we travel we don't like having a lot of kids around and we are looking for grown up activities. Which is also why we can dine whenever we want. No kids programs to work around. When the kids were little vacations were plannned with them in mind..now its all grown up play :) this is also why we travel in the cusp times..just before or after a big holiday or school break.

though there was a time all those kids activities would have been a big draw for us.

[Name Of The Game]

Your daughter looks like Selena Gomez probably did 15 years ago. :D

 

Your husband better have a baseball bat ready to fend off the guys!

[mitsugirly]

What is the hubby staring at? Could it be a bird? Is it a plane? Is he reflecting on the week gone by? Is he trying to think of a way to come home and surprise me with another cruise?

 

 

 

No to all of the above. Patrick was being goofy and jumping around and he ended up in the middle of the floor right under the "disco ball" and jumped a little and knocked himself and the ball silly. It was pretty hilarious. He's such a goof.

 

They continued to dance...then check out Patrick again

 

 

VIDEO:

 

 

 

 

The dance party was over...but I don't think daddy wanted it to end.

 

 

 

Truth be known, I didn't want it to end either...but the characters were all gone. We hung around for awhile and let the kids dance. Sakari met up with her "Star" friend and had a blast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the show was over, Sakari headed to the kids club for 1 last goodbye to all her friends and we headed to the casino with all of our winning slot tickets. We knew we had to cash them in tonight...or forever hold our peace.

 

Then it was time to go to the Farewell party. Now this was the party that was like the Cirque show when we were on the Star. I really had clue what is was going to be like since we had already seen it the other night.

 

It ended up being pretty much a singing show. It was ok. The singers were fabulous, but it just wasn't what I was expecting of course. I was hoping for some type of repeat from the night before. :D They had crew members from around the ship singing songs from days gone by (one singer sure liked Journey songs).

[mitsugirly]

We picked up the kiddo from the munchkin club and we headed up to the buffet to see what type of evening snack we could indulge ourselves with as one last attempt to gain a few more pounds to return home with proof that we had a good time.

 

OH MY GOSH!!! I had COMPLETELY forgot about my favorite thing ever....the crepes! How could I have forgot about this??? I never did notice the crepe station prior to this. DARNIT!

 

Well tonight, I was gonna get my crepe on!

 

All the toppings (I swear the amount of toppings seem to diminish with each cruise)

 

 

 

Making my crepe (yea people thought I was a creep taking pictures of my crepe).

 

 

 

 

Final product (can you believe I remembered to take a picture of it prior to digging in??) So take that ice cream police, I didn't need your services tonight!

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back to the room to finish packing.

 

This is Sakari's turtle dog:

 

[mitsugirly]

I noticed on the way back to the room that people were putting their luggage out already so I finished packing and deciding what we needed to take with us the following day while trying my best to limit my carry on bag (which is actually an over the shoulder bag, so you don't want it to get too heavy to carry).

 

We had received these....

 

 

 

I finished packing one of our bags and put it outside our door. Finished the other bag within about 1 minute and put it outside the door...wait, where was our other bag? They scooped it right up and took it with out a sound...kinda like Santa Claus. I went back in for the next bag and swear it was 30 seconds later when I put it out and ....where's our other bag? There was a ninja worker out there somewhere. Finally our last bag went out....well you know the story from here. GONE! No one in site.

 

It was time for my shower and time to get ready for bed. After my shower, I started thinking about I should probably check our "balance" on our account and see what the damage was before arriving home and get sticker shock. This will be the FIRST cruise we have ever used a cc for the on board charges. We usually do cash accounts, but decided to use the Amex instead and worry about it when we got home.

 

Now after deciding I would go down to the customer service, I found that I had no clothes to wear because they were all in the suitcases packed. Wait, I still have my outfit for tomorrow laid out. Whew. I went down and got our balance statement...we didn't do too much damage. Just a little over $900, which is usually what we spend. The lines weren't long at all (maybe 5 people in line with about 5 people working the counter). So that was an added plus. I also confirmed that the cruise rewards certificate had been charged to my account because we never did receive anything for it.

 

I went back to the room and decided to enjoy 1 last night on my balcony under the stars.

 

Boy were there a bunch of stars out that night.

 

 

 

However, the weird thing was that there was nothing but fog surrounding ONLY the ship. You could see out across the water for a distance and the fog was only around the ship. I tried and tried to capture this in a picture and it just wasn't working out too well. This was probably the best I managed to get. This is me looking out toward the back of the ship along the side of it and down.

 

 

 

Pretty spooky looking huh?

 

We made it to bed around 12:30am and it was hard to fall asleep. All I could think about it the wonderful week we had and it was all about to end. The thoughts of coming back to the cold snowy weather just made me sick to my stomach.