MITSUGIRLYS JEWEL OF A CRUISE review and pictorial

[mitsugirly]

Next up you will come to Cagneys. We didn't eat there even though we could have with our VIP access.

 

 

Then on the other side across from it is the Star Bar. We did meet people from our roll call here the first night, but it was so crowded with no place to sit that we later moved to the Spinnaker Lounge instead.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Now we will walk over to the Sky Bar (the area between it and here is open to the pool below).

 

Now the Sky Bar seems to be a place where we normally hang out during the day and evenings. It's a great place to have a drink, get soda refills, and just watch the activities around the pool during the day. For some reason, we only went up there twice and one of them was just to take pictures. So I'm not sure why we didn't hang out here more often.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Next up is the Chapel. It was very small and cute. I went in here several times during the cruise to take pictures and my husband would remind me each time that I have pictures of it and why did I need more? Well because for some reason they kept turning out dark and I needed to retake them according to my computer screen. :D

 

 

 

Sakari insisted that I take a picture of her by the pretty wall. She was all happy that she was dressed up this night and I did her hair curly.

 

 

Yes, that girl knows how to pose, living with a mom that takes so many pictures, she can turn it on and off in the snap of a finger.

 

[mitsugirly]

At the front of the ship, we are now at the Spinnaker Lounge. I think I was here more this cruise than ever before. This is where they have the White Hot party, all of the Nick Jr events with the meet & greet and dance party, then they also had bingo in here among other events (not that I played bingo, I was suckered into that once, never again) and events like the latitudes lush party.

 

I have to say that I love the atmosphere in the Spinnaker-especially the ones that still remain original and wrap around the front of the ship with a beautiful view of the ocean. Some ships have been transformed into suites and they no longer have this place.

 

The chairs in here are always cool and funky as well. I like cool and funky.

 

 

These are the "butt" chairs. They have a hole in the middle and you sink your tush in them. We won't mention that Sakari kinda fell in and couldn't get out for awhile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2013 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

The bar located in Spinnaker

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the funky seats

 

 

 

 

The dance floor that my daughter spent many hours dancing at during the cruise. Don't worry, mommy and daddy got our dancing in here as well.

 

[mitsugirly]

And last...I think this is Deck 15. Come on up and take a "peek"...we sure did without knowing.

 

We were wondering around one day outside and noticed another set of stairs going up. The gate was opene and the hubby headed up the steps.

 

 

 

I looked over and seen that there was a sign posted that said no admittance. Then proceeded to act like I didn't see the sign and ran up the steps. :D

 

What we found up there is what I "think" might be the Garden Villas private area.

 

We found the courtyard villas sundeck to not even have anyone there and it looked like it wasn't being used. :confused:

 

 

Then I peeked next to it and could see the courtyard (at least I think it was)

 

 

This will probably be the closest I will ever get to one of these places so I had to snap a picture and run.

 

Also, it brings you VERY close to the NCL stack (is that the right term?). It was almost scary to see that big contraption and noisy.

 

 

After snapping a few pictures, we decided we had better get out of that area before someone came along and took us to the naughty room.

[mitsugirly]

Now normally I go around and take pictures of the art work hanging on the walls. For some reason, I didn't find the artwork to be too exciting. Most of it was boring and a lot of it had nothing to do with cruising either. (Like the time they had all the ocean and fish pictures). Other cruises have had really neat metal sculptures as well that I adored. This one was a little boring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did find this one likeable and colorful

 

 

 

I must have really liked this one because I ended up with several pictures of it when I returned home.

 

 

 

Other than those, that's all I have. Maybe I just didn't adventure to the right stairs. :confused:

[mitsugirly]

I usually walk around and around the outside areas taking pictures of the artwork on the outside of the ship. I didn't really get to do this this time around. We really didn't spend a whole lot of time outside this cruise (I think it was due to having our own balcony).

 

When I had discovered that I really didn't have any pictures of the outside artwork, we walked around once and took some, but it was probably only this deck only.

 

The outside artwork usually corresponds to whatever venue is located right inside of there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

Another thing that I "normally" do is take pictures of the name of the ship during the day. As you can see, this didn't seem to be a "normal" cruise for me. I only obtained pictures of the name once and during the day instead of all lit up.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Here's a few odds and ends pictures.

 

They did have a channel on your tv that you could see the route we were taking and where we were located:

 

 

Here's a little tid-bid of information that I have never seen anyone on here mention, nor did I figure it out until mid-cruise.

 

If you look at the screen on the elevators, it will of course tell you what's on each deck as you pass it and give you the numbers as well. But what you don't realize is there's a little number up above it that will tell you where the elevator is going to stop next. For instance if you started out on deck 6 and was going up to deck 12. Let's say that someone on deck 8 pressed the button to catch the elevator. You would see a big 6 (the deck you are on) and then a small 8 above it indicating this would be the next deck the elevator is stopping at even though you are going to deck 12. Ha ha, neat huh?

 

 

Various tv's located everywhere on the ship telling you your waiting times at any of the dining rooms:

 

 

 

For people like me that can't figure out what deck what is on during an entire week, these signs come in handy.

 

 

 

 

Random pic...the floor in the elevator

 

 

 

We only found 1 stall that was not in working condition during the entire cruise. Everything seem to be in good working order that I found.

 

[mitsugirly]

I found this picture kinda funny but not. If you find yourself sick with vomiting or diarrhea, the medical staff will give you a complimentary examination. Come on, nothing is free and especially the doctors on the ship. They will probably come look at you and say "Yes, you need to come down to the medical area to have a full examination" then charge you more than what your cruise was.

 

 

 

DON'Y THROW PAPER TOWELS IN THE TOILETS!!

 

 

 

 

Well I "think" that's all of the ship pictures I have for you.

 

I will start my actual daily review of what we did each day (with more pictures of course) and the ports. :D

[BigEasyCC]

I know what you mean about the bathroom thing. One of the few restrooms open to the public I'd at the Aquarium by the gift shop. You weren't close to there though.

 

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

[medicalma'am]

Kim, you should have had your breakfast at Cagney's with your VIP status - they had cereal and milk ALWAYS. You don't have to sit down and order, you could just use the buffet tables they had set up, sit down and eat, and be in and out of there in a flash. Next cruise....check it out!

 

Nice to see the Haven area with the roof retracted. We were there for a cocktail party at night and I was trying to figure out how the roof worked. Now I can see it!

 

[medicalma'am]

Note - Teppenyaki (sp?) had only three seating times: 6:00, 7:30, and 9:00. Notice there is one hour allocated for the actual dining experience, and the at least 30 minutes for cleanup and setup for the next seating. I think that is how it works from watching those boards and dining there once this cruise. There were 4 tables with I think 8 at each table. All four tables started at the same time and finished about the same time.

Edited December 26, 2013 by medicalma'am

[Demonyte]

Note - Teppenyaki (sp?) had only three seating times: 6:00' date=' 7:30, and 9:00. Notice there is one hour allocated for the actual dining experience, and the at least 30 minutes for cleanup and setup for the next seating. I think that is how it works from watching those boards and dining there once this cruise. There were 4 tables with I think 8 at each table. All four tables started at the same time and finished about the same time. [/size']

 

This seems to differ by the ship, on our first visit to Teppanyaki on Jade this July the reservations for the two islands (with two stations for eight customers each) were scheduled overlapping so that when we ate in the "first wave", the other island (two times eight customers) was occupied only about an hour later (so there was a seating available for every hour IIRC).

Edited December 26, 2013 by Demonyte

[mitsugirly]

Kim' date=' you should have had your breakfast at Cagney's with your VIP status - they had cereal and milk ALWAYS. You don't have to sit down and order, you could just use the buffet tables they had set up, sit down and eat, and be in and out of there in a flash. Next cruise....check it out!

 

Nice to see the Haven area with the roof retracted. We were there for a cocktail party at night and I was trying to figure out how the roof worked. Now I can see it!

 

[/size']

 

I guess I didn't realize that they had a buffet for breakfast at Cagney's. Before when we had VIP and ate breakfast there, they took our order. I assumed that the buffet looking area was just where the servers went to pick up the food. :eek: Dangit. I should have went up there anyhow. The only thing is on port days, we always head to the buffet to grab a quick bite and leave. The other days is when we should have went up there because the buffet was a pure cluster flark the entire cruise just about. I have never seen it this bad before. We usually like the buffet because once hunger hits me, I want it right then and there and not have to order and wait on it. I'll remember this next time...if there is a next time. :D

 

Note - Teppenyaki (sp?) had only three seating times: 6:00' date=' 7:30, and 9:00. Notice there is one hour allocated for the actual dining experience, and the at least 30 minutes for cleanup and setup for the next seating. I think that is how it works from watching those boards and dining there once this cruise. There were 4 tables with I think 8 at each table. All four tables started at the same time and finished about the same time. [/size']

 

We have only ate at Teppenyaki once before. It was ok, but I didn't find it to be as good as the restaurants we go to here. So we decided to pass on doing it again. We had the experience once and that was enough for us. I guess that makes it more spending money on the ship. :D

[mitsugirly]

So here we are, wondering around the ship like somewhat experienced cruisers as if we had been on this ship before (since we had already been on the Pearl) when you here ding-dong and the cruise director announces that the rooms were ready around 1:30pm. YIPPEEEEEE! It's time for a BIG surprise for the hubby and munchkin.

 

Prices were dropping right before the cruise and I decided to give my TA a buzz and see about upgrading to a balcony. We have never cruised in a balcony before...EVER (not even when I cruised in the 80's & 90's). We have always been in an interior, port hole or obstructed/unobstructed ocean view, but never a balcony. (Remember, I'm a poor nursing student and cruising in an interior gives me the luxury of being able to cruise twice a year). It was only another $221 to upgrade from our interior and I figured "what the heck". We (both hubby and I) have had a really rough year. My schooling has been so stressful and the hubby and his business took a big leap this year and he has been slammed non-stop. We SO deserved this. However, I kept it as a Christmas surprise to him. (I know, even though it was part of his Christmas present and I benefited from it, we'll still go with it was his present. I feel better that way). :D You don't even know how hard it was for someone like me to keep anything from my husband. He is my best friend, my confidant and I tell him everything.

 

We head down to deck 8, we were in room 8026. When we get to the 8th floor, everyone is standing by the closed doors leading to the rooms. Hmmm, this is weird, they just said ALL rooms were ready. Well me being the shy person that I am (not), went by everyone, opened the doors, walked into the hallway and ask the room steward if the rooms were ready. "Yep, they sure are" he replied. Well color me purple, I was happy as can be. HOWEVER....they had EVERY room door open so you could see that to the right of us were all balconies. Grrr. So much for that open the door and be shocked factor.

 

So here is a picture of the hallways in our area. They look just like the Pearl did.

 

 

My mind was racing about how to go about this now that you could tell if I took the slightest turn to the right, we were heading in a balcony room. So, we're walking along and I hear Sakari go "wow, look at that room mommy" and I said "hmmm, which room would you guys like to go in?" The hubby just kinda gave me this strange look like this wasn't a buffet that you could pick what you wanted type of thing. As we got closer to the room, I turned and said "this one looks nice, you wanna call this home for the next week?"

 

 

 

 

I turned around and snapped this picture of the hubby and Sakari walking in....darnit it was blurry, but I'm still sharing because it was priceless.

 

 

 

We made our way out to the balcony and my husband was still asking me what we were doing and if this was really our room. hehe

 

I could tell by the smile on my daughters face that she was loving this.

 

 

I have a feeling that any interior room after this, she is going to be questioning where the balcony is.

Edited December 26, 2013 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

Here is the port from our balcony. Not quite the view we wanted....yet, but it was kinda fun to watch the hustle and bustle of the port workers bringing in luggage and food and everything else. Man a lot of work goes into getting passengers off the ship and new passengers on in time to sail away. My hats off to these hard working people. They looked like like ants running in a colony for their queen. Busy, busy, busy.

 

 

 

While we were sitting on the balcony someone knocked on the door and came right in and gave us the following:

 

(The following few pictures were taken with my cell phone, so not the best quality)

 

 

 

VIP STATUS BABY!! Oh yes, we knew this was going to be an awesome cruise. But here's the catch....we would continue to receive all of the VIP stuff in our room daily, but some things would have our name on it and other things would have someone else's name on it. :confused: They all had our room number. Could someone else have been upgraded from this room that was VIP? Where we receiving their stuff? But then again, our names were on a lot of the VIP stuff too. It was kind of weird that the letters addressed to them said things like "we are so happy you decided to try NCL and freestyle" and "now that you've had a chance to try freestyle cruising with NCL, we hope you will come back" and so on. Is it possible that they give people VIP status if they have never cruised with NCL to try to get them to come back? I have never heard anyone mention it before. Either way, I'll take the status.

 

Turn on the tv and hear that beautiful ringtone "Cruise like a Norwegian" that I have on my cell phone.

 

 

 

Me enjoying the balcony sun

 

 

Another view from the balcony

 

[mitsugirly]

Come on in and I'll show you around.

 

The bathroom is exactly like any interior room. The set up is the same and the size is the same.

 

Toilet area with a sliding glass door.

 

 

 

Sink area and plenty of space to store things. Trash can located under sink and you will also find the bath mat and bags for those ladies who need to dispose of their "private stuff" in the trash.

 

 

Closer shot:

 

 

Shower area, the same as all of the interiors with 2 racks, the shampoo/body wash dispenser and removable shower head.

 

 

The bathroom door where you could hang your towels to dry or bathing suits.

 

 

Knobs outside the bathroom in the hall area to hang more "stuff". Also the thermostat. Notice how we have it on a little warm, yes it was chilly during sail-away, but not too bad.

 

[mitsugirly]

Heading outside of the bathroom and in the "hallway" you will find your shelves to put things on and your safe.

 

 

Behind the doors to the wardrobe there are a few hangers and a little shelf.

 

 

Here you have your refrigerator on the top and the shelf underneath was the ice and glasses. I removed everything from our refrigerator and store behind the ice tray and never bothered to ask the steward to remove them from the room. It wasn't in our way, so no biggie. Above the refrigerator is another shelf for even more storage.

 

 

Do you see the Diet Coke sitting on the table? Well when I removed the items from the fridge, I found 4 of these inside. Now I know that NCL only serves Pepsi products, so these must have been left behind from the last passenger. So if you stayed in this room right before me, thank you! They were good and cold.

 

 

There is a huge mirror above the bed (I guess they know how to make the room "appear" larger than it really is).

 

 

 

There is a vanity desk here with 1 110v plug and a mirror along with a little round stool to sit on. You will also find your wall hair dryer here and for me, it is more than sufficient to dry my really long hair.

 

[mitsugirly]

Everyone on here always ask what type of hook ups are on the tv's in the rooms.

 

So this is for you guys:

 

 

 

Yet another desk on the other side of the room. It also had a 110v outlet along with some extra shelves for storage, a flat screen tv and a chair.

 

 

 

The sliding glass door had a handle that you push down in order to lock it. It took me a few days to figure this out. I hung a Christmas bow with bells on it since this was our first balcony, I didn't know how Sakari was going to be with it. She was good and I never had to worry with her. Even when we left the sliding door open, she wouldn't even go out there unless we were there sitting. She would just sit on her couch or bed and look out while she played.

 

 

 

I also discovered the "child lock" as well. At first I had a problem trying to get it to lock. I later discovered the reason I was having problems with it is that you needed to lock the handle on the door first and then push the child lock in and turn it. Silly me, there should be a "Balcony for Dummies" book included with your room for people like me.

 

 

One thing I did find interesting this cruise is that the room steward was folding the toilet paper this time around. I know when we stay in hotels, we will find them doing this and we also discovered that Carnival does this not only in your room but in the public restrooms as well. Not that it's a biggie, but it's just an added "I care" touch to make you feel pampered I guess.

 

[mitsugirly]

On to the balcony now. We booked a category BD which is the "enclosed" type of balcony toward the front of the ship. I wasn't sure how I was going to like it, but having nothing to compare it to, I guess it would have to do.

 

I was warned ahead of time about what they are like and that actually people like them because since they are kind of enclosed, it would block the air...or even rain if needed. Well, we found this to be true and LOVED it. The only time we ever really felt any wind is if we stuck our heads out past the wall to look overboard or down the side of the ship. It worked out great and felt kind of "private". No one from the other balconies could see in either which was an added plus. Of course the view was still spectacular either way.

 

One other thing that I really liked about it was this little "shelf" that went around it under the window. We could put our drinks on there (even though we had a table, it was small) and they would not blow over or spill. We also used this ledge to prop our feet up on and it was really nice.

 

 

This is one of the doors leading to the balcony next to us. Everyone always ask if they can be unlocked. Well this is the key hole and it looks like it's a hex key that fits it. However, I can say it must have been used a lot because you could see that it was really worn. I do know another roll call member was complaining because their balcony was unlocked and there was no privacy or they were afraid someone could come in their room. Yikes! But I can see if a family had 2 cabins side by side how wonderful this would be to open it up and have all of that room.

 

 

 

This is a shot of the top of the balcony, which gave the added "protection" from the wind, rain, and peepers from any of the other balcony rooms above.

 

 

 

Now this brings me to a question I have for those of you that have sailed the balcony and are experienced with it.

 

This appeared in our room and I have no idea what it is or where it came from. It was not there the first day when we arrived and you can see from previous pictures that the blinds where pulled all the way back.

 

At first I thought it might be a cushion from the couch that pulled out into a bed. However, each day the bed was made and this huge black cushion remained in this spot. The couch did not feel any different (like sinking in or a cushion missing).

 

 

I have to say that I really hated this thing. We were unable to open our blinds all the way and if you were sitting on the couch you only had half a view. I was constantly fighting with the blinds to keep them open and having to shove them between this cushion and the couch, which didn't work out too great. I finally gave up since the one time I did get it really pushed back for the following picture, you still had the cushion in your viewing way.

 

 

One other thing I wanted to point out to everyone, in case you didn't know, was that the walls are magnatized. We discovered this about day 2 or 3 when we had purchased some magnets for the refrigerator and left them on the bed and when the steward made up the room, he had put them on the wall. Again, I need that cruising for dummies book. However, this will come in handy next time. I have big plans for this! hehe

 

[gotksgirl]

That cushion is the rest of the sofa bed! We realized after a few days that we could remove it from the end and slide the bed in since our kids were small. I guess your room steward realized your kid was small enough to not need it. So normally it would go on the end and the bed based would slide out more. I am sure it made it much easier for you to get in and out of the balcony after turn down. For those that are curious, our 4 person balcony cabin had a bunk that came down from the ceiling in front of the sliding door. It was not very convenient for balcony access.

 

Our room steward said that the balcony connecting doors were not allowed to be unlocked. We had them unlocked when we were on MSC. There was no real place to store the door anyways as it would have blocked a sliding door. The interior connecting door was the one we had a problem with. There was no lock other than a key lock that we did not have a key for.

 

Okay maybe I read it wrong. The black cushion was only there when the room was made in the morning? It is part of the sofa bed. Honestly I am not sure where ours was stored, but it was never out for us other than when it was used for the bed.

Edited December 26, 2013 by gotksgirl

[mitsugirly]

I decided I had to pull myself away from enjoying the balcony and put our pop, I mean soda, into the fridge so that it would start to get cold. No worries though, I still had the 4 freebie Cokes awaiting my taste buds.

 

I hear knock-knock and the door opens again. The room steward was there with another VIP item. This time a goody tray compliments of the Captain.

 

 

We enjoyed our snacks and then I hear a knock knock and the door opens. Our luggage has arrived. I started to put things away and managed to get most of it away when we started hearing the announcements from the cruise director, Jamie, saying that it was 3pm and almost time to gather for the muster drill. I hurried and finished off what I was doing and we went to our station in the theater.

 

There we would sit and listen to the assistant cruise director, Sin, and some of the other staff make jokes. They were funny to hear and funny to watch them. Sin announced that there was a mens wallet found with $200 in it and no ID. If you could describe it, then you could claim it. A few minutes later, he made the announcement again, a mens wallet was found with $75 in it. If you could describe it, you can claim it. A few minutes later, the wallet had $10 in it. At this point, you should just go buy a new wallet.

 

We were torn on what to do for the sail away party. Some friends from the roll call and some friends we previously cruised with had mentioned meeting at the Star Bar for sailaway and if that wasn't possible then we would head to Spinnaker. We wanted to meet up with them, but I always love dancing on the deck during sail away and didn't want to miss that either. This time around it was also a hard decision to make where to go since we just acquired that nice new balcony as well. Decisions will drive me (I mean my husband) crazy.

 

We decided to head out to the pool deck and see if things were hopping there yet and play by ear. I knew I wanted to get my groove on.

 

On the way to the pool deck, Sakari ran in to these guys and was THRILLED! "See!!! I told you that Dora and Spongebob was going to be cruising with you on this cruise. Now aren't you glad you are here instead of on the Whale Tail?"

 

 

 

 

 

I think it's time for sail away now and time to get rid of this ugly brown water! Let's do this!!!!

 

[mickev99]

We were also told that the balcony doors couldn't be unlocked during sea days. Port days we were gone the entire day, so we didn't even ask about that. We had two mini suites (one for hubby and me and one for our 3 girls), so it would have been nice to have had them opened, but oh well.