MITSUGIRLYS JEWEL OF A CRUISE review and pictorial

[Nightengale212]

I am very much enjoying your review, and get a kick out of your comments about nursing school :) I am 56 and have been an R.N. for 35 years and wanted to offer you encouragement to hang in there because this part of your nursing journey will be over in the blink of an eye.

 

Do not know what your work plans are after graduation, but if there is a VA Hospital in your area put in an application. All full time R.N.s regardless of time in service get 5 weeks of vacation annually. That is the benefit that drew me to the VA 12 years ago which allows me to cruise several times a year and the reason I could last minute book my upcoming 12 day Breakaway cruise.

[mitsugirly]

The blinds in Spinnaker are closed so that the bridge is not affected by the light. It happens at about dusk. The forward penthouse cabins must have their lights off or their blinds fully closed and their balcony lights off at night for the same reason.

 

Thanks for the clarification Robin. I know when we were down in the bridge viewing area they started to close their see through blinds' date=' but only closed 4 of them instead of all of them. So this thought had come to mind, but I wasn't sure. It just seemed so random at times. :)

 

great stuff, Kim! Brings back memories of our trip on the Jewel

 

Thanks Mike. :D

[mitsugirly]

I am very much enjoying your review, and get a kick out of your comments about nursing school :) I am 56 and have been an R.N. for 35 years and wanted to offer you encouragement to hang in there because this part of your nursing journey will be over in the blink of an eye.

 

Do not know what your work plans are after graduation, but if there is a VA Hospital in your area put in an application. All full time R.N.s regardless of time in service get 5 weeks of vacation annually. That is the benefit that drew me to the VA 12 years ago which allows me to cruise several times a year and the reason I could last minute book my upcoming 12 day Breakaway cruise.

 

Thanks for the words of encouragement. Love the name. ;)

 

I have worked at the local hospital since 1984 and I work in the ED. So hopefully this will give me the "edge" of getting offered a job there as well. I'm not sure if it's where I want to work when I graduate, but I thought maybe it would at least give me the experience before transferring to somewhere else. I know when you are a new grad, you can't "pick" where you want to work and pretty much have to take whatever is offered to you to start. It seems like most new grads around here take about 4 months to find a job after graduation (unless you have an "in" already).

 

I didn't know about the VA hospital. That sounds like an awesome opportunity. We have a VA Ambulatory Care center here. I'm not sure if that's the same or not but it looks like a big place. Does it make a difference if it's a hospital or not? I would assume that they are all Federal jobs.

 

Thanks for the info. I will definitely look into it.

[Perfect Stranger]

I love your reviews and photos.

 

Your daughter is beautiful and has a unique name. Is her name pronounced Sa-KAR-i (like car)?

[mitsugirly]

So here we are, our official first day at sea. It's Monday Dec 16th and we were up at 8:30am. We headed down to the buffet to get breakfast by 9:30am. This place was PACKED....I mean packed like sardines. I don't think I have ever been on a cruise where it was this bad. It was next to impossible to find a seat. The buffet area seating goes on and on forever (yep, remember my picture of it? It goes all the way to the back of the ship and out into the Great Outdoors). There wasn't 1 table available for us. I would find that people were so desperate to find a table that they were sitting in the handicap seats, which I thought really wasn't right. They would also take up every seat at the kids buffet area with the miniature tables and chairs and leave no room for the families. Yes, there's clearly a sign that states it is reserved for families, but on this cruise it was to each their own, first come first serve, and people were out for the kill for a seat.

 

We walked all the way to the back and out to the Great Outdoors and finally found a seat out there. Whew. That becomes a long haul for a parent carrying both their plate and their munchkins plate, plus a bowel and cereal then trying to keep an eye on them as well because being so little, it's easy to change directions and following someone else at that eye level.

 

Once we got situated, we discovered that they have some breakfast items out there as well and the drinks were there. Thank goodness because I didn't want to have to battle that crowd again just to try to get drinks.

 

While we were eating, the staff was walking around singing Christmas songs and their joy made me completely forget about the seating arrangement and reminded me how grateful I was to be able to be spending this precious time with my family this way.

 

 

I think Sakari has grown so much since she started cruising and so has her appetite. I will pile things on her plate that I know she likes and hope that she eats some of it. Well this cruise, she cleaned her plate and more each time. Gulp. She loves her pancakes and eggs. She had to have her cereal after her hot meal every day too. (This will become an important statement as the days go by). Fruit Loops and Milk= one happy child.

 

Sakari went undercover after breakfast so you wouldn't see her messy breakfast face.

 

 

So I was the planner of our meet & greet and we were meeting at 11am in Le Bistro. They had changed our meeting place right before the cruise because we had 133 people signed up. Wow. It's probably the most I've seen since our 2010 Epic cruise. Of course we all know that people sign up and then don't show. I've heard people say you usually get about 50% of the people to show.

 

We headed to Le Bistro where I met up with the cruise planner.

 

This is the first time that I have ever seen a cc meeting set up like this. It felt so formal and reminded me of going to church. It was down right weird kinda. It didn't really give us the chance to sit around everywhere and visit with people and get to know them because you could barely get down a row to get a seat without sitting on someone's lap. You know, kinda like you do when you go to a show in the theater.

 

 

 

 

They did have a nice variety of snacks set up for us. Usually they have cookies, but this time they had also added some sandwiches as well. I think they were turkey someone said? But I didn't eat any of it since we had just finished breakfast.

 

 

Sakari was busy playing with her "friends" (our Epic friends).

 

[mitsugirly]

Now I have planned a bunch of meet & greets now and this was the first time that the cruise planner came up to me and said "So what are you going to do today? We have provided you with a microphone" Um what??? Yikes. "What do you mean what are we going to do today?" She said "What are your plans?" Um, I'm lost for words and probably turned 5 colors of red at this point. I was supposed to make "plans"? Involving a microphone? YIKES. I have never been ask this before. I felt like I was that shy kid in the classroom that had just been put on the spot for the hardest question I forgot to study for. As my mind raced on what to say while not feeling like this was the first time I had ever done this before...I just blurted out "Well I don't have any plans myself other than to get together with everyone and all of the previous meet and greets I have been to the officers came in and spoke. Am I supposed to do something else?" She kind of gave me that look and said "well, every meet & greet is different". She ask me if I brought name tags for everyone. Again, now the room lights had been dimmed and there was a spotlight on me. My hands started shaking and sweat started to roll down the side of my face. As I took a minute to gather my thoughts, I replied "Other meet and greets I have arranged, they always provided name tags that said Cruise Critic on them for everyone." What is going on here? Was I missing something? She quickly pulled out a sign in sheet and the CC name tags (just like those that have been used at every other meet & greet I have been to). Was she toying with my emotions at this point?

 

I decided it was time for me to put my tail between my legs and go back to my seat with the hubby and my friends where I felt that I was in my comfort zone. I know people sometimes plan a cabin crawl, or gift exchanges, or slot pulls, but our group really had not mentioned wanting to do any of these things, especially with the size of our group, I can't even imagine. So maybe I was missing something???

 

Out come the officers to speak to us as always. We were minus the captain today. He must have been busy driving the ship or something.

 

 

They had the normal witty jokes to tell and then open the floor for any questions. Several people ask various questions. One was if the ship was sailing full. Our answer was COMPLETELY FULL. Well that explained why the buffet felt different this time around. That prepared me for the rest of the week and what was to come. Another person ask how many kids were on this cruise and they said there was about 400 kids this week. They also added that next week there would be about 800 or more due to the holiday.

 

I had a burning question that was discussed on our roll call and I have seen it several times over the years...tendering. Everyone always tries to determine WHO becomes the runt of the fleet when it comes to tendering in Cozumel when there's more than 2 NCL ships. We knew ahead of time that we were the chosen one for this cruise, but wanted to know WHY. There has been speculation ranging from 1) the first 2 ships to get there get to dock and have priority 2) the 2 ships with the most passengers get to dock 3) they rotate every week and so on. Well, they cleared things up for us and said that non of these answers were correct. They stated that the ships that stay here year round get priority. He stated that this was the last week (or maybe the following week) the Jewel would be doing this "route" even though it would still be coming to Cozumel, it would not continue doing the Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel route. They also stated that some ships had passengers getting on in Cozumel and when this is the case, they get priority of course. I think he said the Dawn has passengers arriving in this port and they didn't think it was a wise decision to have them hauling their luggage on a tender boat. hehe So I guess there's our answer...each time it "depends" and the situation varies, but there is no certain rotating schedule.

 

Once the questions had been answered, they thank everyone for coming and everyone started to scram. I jumped up and shouted that we would like to get a "group" picture with everyone, but it was as if my voice had been turned off or something because everyone just continued to leave. Maybe I did need that microphone after all. :cool: I had mentioned this on our roll call and how we had a huge group picture of everyone on our Epic roll call and it was wonderful. On other roll calls, everyone just scrams and leaves. So it would be nice if everyone stuck around for a group picture. I guess they weren't interested. At least I stood up prior to the officers speaking and snapped a picture of people sitting in their chairs.

 

 

Those of us that did stick around that talked a lot to each other on the boards and fb decided we would get a picture of us together.

 

 

 

 

****I contacted the cruise planner later in the week and she provided me with a list of those that came and the amount in their party. Are you ready for this??? Drum roll please......

 

 

101 people were there!!! :eek: Isn't that awesome? That's 77% of everyone that signed up to come. Not too shabby huh?

 

I also wanted to take the time to thank everyone for coming and those of you that come up to me to thank me for arranging the meet & greet. It is truly appreciated. I also enjoyed running in to people around the ship all week.

 

It was noon and the workers were cleaning up while we sat around and chatted with old and new friends. We knew it was time to head to the latitudes meeting in the Spinnaker so off we went.

[mitsugirly]

I love your reviews and photos.

 

Your daughter is beautiful and has a unique name. Is her name pronounced Sa-KAR-i (like car)?

 

Thanks so much. Yes, that's exactly how her name is pronounced. :D

[jdvmd]

Excellent review and comments as usual! Thanks for sharing and taking the time to post!

[lex_n_saph]

Your review and pictorial is very interesting. We had wondered what it would be like on the "nick" theme cruises. It was nice to see some pictures of the characters interacting with the passengers.

[mitsugirly]

Excellent review and comments as usual! Thanks for sharing and taking the time to post!

 

Thanks so much and thanks for joining me. There's a lot more to come. :D

 

Your review and pictorial is very interesting. We had wondered what it would be like on the "nick" theme cruises. It was nice to see some pictures of the characters interacting with the passengers.

 

We loved the Nick theme and hope to do it again sometime in the future. There were a lot of times to interact with them. They had something almost daily. I'll be posting a lot more of opportunities with them. :)

[mickev99]

They had mentioned on our cruise that there would be double the kids and A LOT more people the next week (we had around 200 kids). I guess that explains why it never seemed overcrowded to me. I can't even imagine the ship with 800 kids! WOW!!

[Mel&Ken]

mitsugirly....

 

Add me to your fan club as well! I was looking forward to this review and you are not disappointing us that's for sure.

 

We're just across the river from Detroit and we say pop too! ;)

 

We leave in 2 months on the Jewel doing the Honduras/Belize trip. Based on your advice we have booked Little French Key and are consiering Maya Chan.

 

Thanks for all your efforts in sharing what you see and learn on your vacations - its a HUGE help to all of us planners.

 

We sat next to medicalma'am at the Chef's table on Star earlier this year - aren't the ma'ams a great group!? I love hearing about families that get together for trips like this - what wonderful memories to create.

 

Hanging on your every word.....

 

Melissa

[mitsugirly]

Now it was time to head off to the lush party, I mean latitudes party. This is that party that everyone shows up to because you get free drinks and as much as you want. They served rum punch and....I don't even know because I didn't drink anything else not did I care. I just wanted my first drink in my hand.

 

 

We sat over on the funky chairs in the corner and the servers started coming around with trays full of drinks. Here they come. The anticipation is building.... oops they ran out. The server headed back to the bar to gather more. Ok, my mouth is watering at this point. They are headed this way again...serving those that just came in and sat along the wait. It's almost our turn, oops they ran out again. Back to the bar for more. Ok, saliva is running down my mouth at this point, the excitement is building even more. Whew, they finally made it to us. But what's this? All the rum punch is gone? :confused: Ok, I've had enough. Up to the bar I went and grabbed my own. Ahhh, that's better. This is pretty much what you had to do if you wanted any where we were sitting. Everyone in our party decided the party was getting started without us and we weren't about to miss out on this freebie. The same thing happened to the "snacks". By the time they got to us, we were lucky to have a piece of cheese available.

 

 

First drink in my hand and then it was gone. Time for another...and another and ??? I lost count. I don't even remember what they said there. We were having a good time with our friends and that's all that matter. I know my name wasn't called for any of the prizes and I needed another drink to wash my sorrows away because of it.

 

Hubby was feeling good.

 

 

Wifey was feeling good.

 

 

We were both doing well. I kept my name badge on just in case I needed to remember who I was.

 

 

 

The party was over way too fast.

[mitsugirly]

They had mentioned on our cruise that there would be double the kids and A LOT more people the next week (we had around 200 kids). I guess that explains why it never seemed overcrowded to me. I can't even imagine the ship with 800 kids! WOW!!

 

I really didn't notice a lot of kids myself. At least nothing out of the norm. It felt like any other cruise we have been on and it seemed like about the same amount in the kids club for us. (Although I did notice the 6-9 year old had a line out the bazoo every night so maybe that was the "popular" group). But it seemed like there were more adults and just people in general this cruise. I felt like I was on a Carnival cruise with the amount of people. The only other time I have experienced this amount of crowd was on our Carnival Dream cruise this year. But it's ok, I adapt well. It just becomes an inconvenience at times.

 

mitsugirly....

 

Add me to your fan club as well! I was looking forward to this review and you are not disappointing us that's for sure.

 

We're just across the river from Detroit and we say pop too! ;)

 

We leave in 2 months on the Jewel doing the Honduras/Belize trip. Based on your advice we have booked Little French Key and are consiering Maya Chan.

 

Thanks for all your efforts in sharing what you see and learn on your vacations - its a HUGE help to all of us planners.

 

We sat next to medicalma'am at the Chef's table on Star earlier this year - aren't the ma'ams a great group!? I love hearing about families that get together for trips like this - what wonderful memories to create.

 

Hanging on your every word.....

 

Melissa

 

Aww thanks. From one pop person to another. :D

 

You will love Little French Key. The place is amazing and heaven on earth with it's beauty. Maya Chan has a wonderful staff and it's very nice with the seclusion. I just don't like the water. That's my only gripe.

 

Yes the ma'ams are great. We were missing 1 this time and wished she could have joined us. It's so wonderful to meet new friends and friends that are special that you can get to know like them. We had a wonderful time, a great excursion together, and great stories. :)

[BigEasyCC]

Along the way we came across this really neat place with waterfalls:

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Piazza d'Italia. It was built in 1978 to commemorate the large Italian immigrant population and their contributions to New Orleans. It's not widely known that around 1850 - 1870 New Orleans had more Italian immigrants than any other city in the U.S. Still today New Orleans and the surrounding areas are full of Italian families and celebrations.

[mitsugirly]

Well it was time to head off from the party...well, we were trying to at least. The ship was rocking a bit, or maybe that was just us. :D

 

Munchkin wanted to go to the kids club. She has had enough of this adult time and events and was ready to have her own fun with her friends.

 

We dropped her off and decided to head to the Deal or No Deal show. We seem to always go to this, but we never play. It's just fun to watch. We know that it seems like no one ever gets any higher than the free photo from the photography studio or the $50, so we never waste our money. Instead, we just waste our time watching.

 

 

We sit on the edge of our chairs, biting our nails on the "offers" that come in from the banker and thinking to ourselves...TAKE IT YOU FOOL. That's way more money than you came with or invested in the card! But they never do and hope for more. I always wonder what the audience would do if they actually took the money right off the bat. If they did, that means the audience doesn't get a chance to win anything because it takes several rounds for them to even have enough people to start to win the lowest prize. Maybe that's why I never play...I would take the money and run and have everyone on the ship after me the rest of the cruise.

 

After the show, since it was in the theater, which happens to be located right next to the casino, which you must walk through in order to get out of the there if you are on that floor...yea, they like to sucker you into playing and I'm a sucker!!

 

We headed in with $20, I sat down at my favorite game: CAVE KING. I sat there for awhile playing but it just wasn't paying off for me. I decided I would give Gold Fish a try.

 

I invested my last $10 into the game and decided that's where I would stay until my money was gone. It was a .02 cent game but this one is different than the other 2 Gold Fish games. When you put your money in this one, your $10 turns into $5 where the others don't and shows you your actual cash. Ugh, it felt like I had no money.

 

It kept me playing for awhile. The hubby had already spent his $20 and was hanging out behind me. I have this thing...he is unlucky for me. Every time he has ever came around me, I never win. When he walks away, I usually hit. So he tries to hide off in the distance like if he wasn't there and I can still see him with the eyes in the back of head (I'm a mom you know). So I sent him away to get some drinks. The minute he walks away I hit the bonus round. Go me. Now this particular Gold Fish game gave you 12 bonus spins where the other 2 games only gave you 7 I think. So here I am playing the bonus round and I hit another bonus round while playing my bonus round. Woo hoo. Then while still in the bonus round, I hit another bonus round. My husband comes over while he's looking at the money stacking up and I gave him that look and he headed off around the corner only to come back to see me hitting even another bonus round.

 

By the time my bonuses were over there were a few gathered behind me listening to the loud sounds of the machine going off. My husband came back and was like OMG! :eek: It had said I won $300 and something and he was about to jump up and down for joy. Now remember how I said that when I put the money in the machine it only showed half??? Well yea, he had NO CLUE how much I had really won. No clue at all. I kept starring at him as it was adding up and when it was over he looked at me and said "cash out babe". I looked at him and said "Are you ready for this?" and hit the cash out button (knowing what I had REALLY won). Then I handed him the receipt and I thought he was going to pass out. WHAT?!?!? How much did you win???? I smiled and said "I knew you had no clue how much it really was".....$667.04 on that $10 investment. :D

 

We walked out of the casino with grins from ear to ear and shopping on our minds.

 

I always seem to be lucky on the cruise ships (with the exception of the Star where that will remain the only lucky cruise my husband had instead of me). I have always managed to double my money and I have won jackpots on the machines before (Epic won the jackpot and bought my hubby a new black diamond wedding ring). :p

[mitsugirly]

So now is a good time to go pick up the munchkin and head to get a celebration lunch.

 

 

Yep, that was our celebration lunch...a burger and fries and it was yummy.

 

I snapped a picture of the sun out the window. It turned out pretty neat with the tint on the windows. I found that in order to get a decent picture when trying to shoot out a window, if you put the camera lens directly up to the glass, it turns out pretty good.

 

 

Sakari enjoying her lunch

 

 

Sun was going down and it was beautiful. So we are out in the middle of the ocean headed toward Jamaica and this floats by...hmmm The Sunshine is off in the distance following us.

 

 

 

Goofy girl, silly faces, happy kid and loving her cruise.

 

 

 

 

And the sun finally sets...

 

[logan25]

Mark me down as one of the cruisers who attended (as promised) and scrammed after to make a lunch date. I sat in the row right behind your family and exchanged a few lovely words with your daughter. Quite the bright and polite child.

 

Thank you for arranging the M&G.

[mitsugirly]

Sakari insist on one last picture in front of the "beautiful flower tree mommy" as we are on our way out.

 

 

 

 

The Spinnaker was hosting a party meet and greet picture opportunity for Spongebob and Sandy tonight at 6pm. So that's where we were heading off to.

 

We got front row seats. Sakari loves her daddy so much.

 

 

 

Here comes Spongebob and Sandy, dancing down the isle and onto the stage. They do their little Spongebob Square Pants routine and then it's time for pictures.

 

 

They told us to line up along the isle (of course the isle we were not seated next to) and we watched everyone run like if it was a Black Friday sale. They announced that since they had such a big turn out that we would have to take family pictures first and then if there was time, you could get back in line and take single pictures of just the child.

 

They allow you to take pictures against the green back drop, but you are not allowed to take your own. You hand them your camera and once the ship photographer has taken their picture, the Nick member will take a picture using your camera.

 

 

When you are done with the picture, they have you exit down the isle on the side we were sitting on and they hand you a napkin with their "autograph" on it.

 

 

 

Here is the picture they ended up taking of us (they add the background before processing it of course).

 

[ABCGreys]

Loving your review! You always have such detailed info. We'll be on the Jewel in March (different itinerary) and after seeing all your great pictures I can't wait!!

[mitsugirly]

We head back to the room for a minute and found our VIP plate sitting on the bed.

 

 

We decided to do a little "shopping" and headed off to the duty free store.

 

I always buy a tee shirt with the NCL logo and the name of the cruise ship on it. I looked everywhere and couldn't find it. I approached one of the employees and ask about it. He told me that they did not have any with the "Jewel" logo on it, but they do have a new line with the NCL wear and pointed to it. I was shocked. What??? You don't have any shirts with the Jewel name on it? Seriously? I have purchased one from each ship with the name on it. I start looking at this display with the NCL logo shirt all folded up and rubber banded with a hat included and guess what....I found it! It's exactly the same as my Star one, but says Jewel on it. I looked at him and said "Are you sure about" that and flipped the shirt out to show him my prized possession. Now I have to say more conversation went on prior to this and I found the guy to be a little rude and cold. So after finding it and asking him if he was sure, I had to add "I guess you don't know your product as much as I do" and walked away like a lioness that had just captured her own prey without the help of the leader. Yep, bright pink for me this time around.

 

 

I also wanted a hoodie, but couldn't find one with the Jewel on it, so I settled for one that said Caribbean. It was still kinda chilly at night and I figured this would come in handy and definitely get a lot of use during the winter and going to school.

 

 

 

Just so you know, NCL changed their latitudes program to instead of getting a certain percentage off your purchases at the store, you now only get that percentage off NCL logo items.

 

I ended up also purchasing a neat light purple wind breaker and Sakari always gets to pick out a stuffed animal each cruise (let me tell you, she has a bunch of whales from cruises and I forbid her to grab another this time around...she's a whale freak. She can tell you each whale: this is an orca, this is a blue whale, this is a sperm whale, this is a beluga whale, this is a shark whale, this is a humpback whale...and so on) So she ended up picking out a pretty Mermaid. (Pictures later...she would not give it up and carried it with her everywhere she could including the kids club).

 

Now when my husband picked this jacket out, he liked this color. I took it off the hanger and proceeded to try it on. That same rude employee that doesn't know their own product came over to me and told me "We have a dressing room right over there" and pointed to it. I looked at him like he had lost his mind and at that point I was kinda tired of his "rudeness" and said "I'm trying on a jacket dude. Do you really think I need a dressing room for that because I sure don't." I think it was time to take my purchases and leave. At this point I was getting a little irritated and Sakari was ready to head to the kids club to show off her new toy.

 

 

 

So we dropped Sakari off and she knew it was Princess night and wanted to get her face painted and do the parade.

 

We later caught up with them during the parade around the ship and they were singing songs and chanting. It was cute like always and she gets so excited when she finds us. As soon as she seen daddy she tried to run and give him a hug and they quickly grabbed her and told her she had to stay with the club.

 

 

We tried running around the other side and getting ahead of them so that we could get more pictures, but they never came. We back tracked and found that they had stopped to get a picture taken on the steps in the Atrium by the ship photographer.

 

 

 

We didn't have plans for tonight and wasn't interested in seeing the show. So we found our cruise buddies and hung out in the Atrium for awhile just chatting until it was time to pick up Sakari from the kids club at 10:30pm.

[mitsugirly]

Mark me down as one of the cruisers who attended (as promised) and scrammed after to make a lunch date. I sat in the row right behind your family and exchanged a few lovely words with your daughter. Quite the bright and polite child.

 

Thank you for arranging the M&G.

 

Thanks so much for coming and the kind comments about Sakari. :)

 

Loving your review! You always have such detailed info. We'll be on the Jewel in March (different itinerary) and after seeing all your great pictures I can't wait!!

 

Thanks so much and I hope you have a great cruise. :)

[mitsugirly]

Well crap. I just typed up and put in the pictures to my next section and it went poof with all of the typing and pictures. :eek: I'm not sure what just happened. So I'll have to continue this later tonight.

 

Today is my first day back to work in 15 days. Now THAT'S what I call a vacation!! So I'm off to work. I have a feeling this is going to be the longest day ever!

 

For those of you just joining, welcome. For those of you already here, have fun catching up and for those of you that can't wait until the next segment, you'll be waiting until around midnight. :D

 

Adios Amigos.

[Nightengale212]

Thanks for the words of encouragement. Love the name. ;)

 

I have worked at the local hospital since 1984 and I work in the ED. So hopefully this will give me the "edge" of getting offered a job there as well. I'm not sure if it's where I want to work when I graduate, but I thought maybe it would at least give me the experience before transferring to somewhere else. I know when you are a new grad, you can't "pick" where you want to work and pretty much have to take whatever is offered to you to start. It seems like most new grads around here take about 4 months to find a job after graduation (unless you have an "in" already).

 

I didn't know about the VA hospital. That sounds like an awesome opportunity. We have a VA Ambulatory Care center here. I'm not sure if that's the same or not but it looks like a big place. Does it make a difference if it's a hospital or not? I would assume that they are all Federal jobs.

 

Thanks for the info. I will definitely look into it.

 

I actually work in a VA ambulatory care facility as a case manager. Some VA ambulatory care facilities are attached to VA hospitals like mine, and some which we call CBOCs are separate but all under the same VA banner. Yes these are Federal positions. I was an ER nurse for about 25 years before I transitioned to case manager, and ER tech experience will be very helpful to you in the job search. Good Luck.

[DDMau]

Excellent review and Photos. Thanks for sharing and taking the time to post it. I will pass it on to the family for thrir April cruise.