Mexican Riviera on the Jewel

[ImADaneFan]

4 minutes ago, quillwercruisers said:

I was just on the Jewel in March, and they have the Atrium Cafe that serves Starbucks. It's not a full blown Starbucks as on some of the other ships.

Do you happen to remember if they had the Starbuck’s Refreshers?

 

Linda

[quillwercruisers]

No, I'm sorry I don't. I only stopped by there a couple of times for tea. I'm not really a big starbucks person as I don't drink coffee.

[carohs]

By now I've realized that I can update to CC I just can't upload pictures without turning on my minutes. Also, the wifi is as bad as anticipated so on sea days I can probably get access before 7am or after 10pm. Anything in between is intolerably slow. 

[YVRteacher]

On the Jewel, I found the best place to get working wifi was in the atrium. 

[carohs]

This morning DS struggled to turn on the shower. A little metaphor about riding a motorcycle, gears (heat) on the left, throttle (water) on the right and he's gtg.

 

The serving team walks around refilling your coffee at the Cafe. You get a bonus little jingle with the pour, too. 

 

To drop the kids off at Splash I had to sign a consent waiver. Turns out kids hurt themselves, who knew? The waiver allows them to administer medical treatment which may or may not be covered by insurance. 

 

The capacity limit is 56. We were 48 and 49 in line. There were several upset parents who showed up late. 

 

Then we were off to Bliss to paint some palm trees. I assumed mine would look like lollipops, but in the end I managed discernable leaves. Not palm leaves, but maybe a new species? I bet you can guess which is the sample and which is mine. What did I learn? That I can't blend or make zig zags. I believe you're supposed to make zig zags before you blend, or is it the other way around?

[carohs]

Picked up the kids and headed to the pool deck. The day is overcast and cold but kids don't care about that. They swam while we drank. MIL opened her book while I realized that I failed to download the book onto my Kindle app. I've got my Mudslide to keep me company so life is good. 

 

The sun came out and so did D'Revelations. I really want to attempt the Cha Cha at Spinakers though, so we headed for the Cafe to grab a quick bite. Today's offerings are all very reminiscent of yesterday, minus the paella. Double drat!!

 

We went to Cha Cha but didn't participate. DS and DD took naps while we drank Margaritas and read. Turns out I did remember to download my book to my Kindle just not the phone app. 

 

DD woke up in the middle of Mad Gab and she really wanted to play along. The clues were random words where if said aloud they were a common phrase. The easiest was Soup Herman which translates to Superman. It's a good think I drank the Margarita cuz I needed some extra tongue slurring to figure out some of those clues. 

[carohs]

Mango and Strawberry 

[carohs]

The afternoon passed mostly uneventfully. Made another trip to pool deck and this time three of us joined the people soup. MIL says she's uncomfortable with the crowd. At one point I counted 17 kids, 4 adults in one tub. There's definitely a lot of kids on this ship. 

 

[carohs]

We had rezzies at Temppanyaki tonight. The LOs got fed and dropped off at club again. We got there 40 minutes early, and we were 6th family in line. They started letting us all in 15 min early but by that time the line wrapped down the stairs and then again back up the stairs on the other side. 

 

Finding the restaurant was somewhat of an adventure for MIL. She decided to sit down in front of Chin Chin since she knew that's deck 7 mid. She had planned to let me figure it out from there but another passenger let her know it was around the way that way or something like that. I reminded her the app has deck maps, since the Jewel doesn't do a great job with signage. There's signs of course they're just not always where MIL first looks.

 

I decided to grab us wine since we still had a little time and sat by the window enjoying the last bit of daylight. Then I paced up and down the hallway since the deck map confirmed we're at the right place. I found no hidden doorways but I did find a placard no bigger than a piece of paper explaining the entrance is inside Chin Chin. 

[carohs]

We walked into a room with 4 grills. 2 of the seatings were already mid meal and 1 of the Chefs had particularly good energy. Helps that the people at that table were singing along. We ordered the seafood and it was all delicious, especially the calamari . No 🦐 in the pocket, though, in case you were wondering. 

[carohs]

[carohs]

Since we had rezzies we didn't make the early show. The kids were picked up from club and DS opted to go to bed. I don't have a thermometer but my mommy sense of touch says he's got a low fever. Guest services says they don't have children's Tylenol and I would have to check with medical. My mommy sense also tells me he's fine until morning. MILs mommy sense confirms. Now I get to go to the Farmacia tomorrow and find out what the heck they call Tylenol in Mexico. My aunt mentioned it once awhile back I think it starts with a P. Note to self, remember the thermometer next time. 

 

DD, MIL, and I joined a mostly full house for Rock You Tonight. Unfortunately the smell of smoke does permeate from the casino. Tomorrow we'll try entering on 7 and see if it's any better. DD fell asleep as expected but this time she made it to 9:40. 

[carohs]

Now I'm all up to date. I gotta be up in 7ish hrs to get those early tender tickets. Also MIL shared she doesn't do well on boats. Large ships are okay I guess but the tenders will be a test. We will decide after if the water taxis are a good idea, although the plan has been to find a local tour to the arches. I'm fine with a plan change. Worst case scenario is a beach day, and that's still miles better than another day in the office. I have an alarm set, and hopefully will get some good rest. Tonight I'm snuggling with DS, and DD gets the top bunk. 

[carohs]

Buenos Días Cabo San Lucas!Tenders begin at 8 and we are group 9. Should be enough time to feed. 

[carohs]

Feed? I meant food. This is what I get for attempting words before coffee. 

[carohs]

DS woke up when I woke up. Good news is his fever has broken, although he still feels a touch warm. We'll still hit up the Farmacia in case whatever it was affects DD. Farmacias are also like mini marts in the sense that there's candy and other goodies too.

[carohs]

Sitting outside eating breakfast. Pastries are yummy. I say things like yummy because when you're a mommy certain vocabulary words are part of your daily language. DD went for a bagel today and that makes two days in a row I had to ask for plain cream cheese. Bacon is readily available at least. The sun is sparkling in the water. If you have kids you get unique perspectives like this: "mom it looks like fairy dust." 

[carohs]

22 hours ago, ImADaneFan said:

Do you happen to remember if they had the Starbuck’s Refreshers?

 

Linda

There are no refreshers. 

[carohs]

Sitting on the glass bottom boat now. She's definitely rocking. We were the first ones on this one so we're relaxing and taking our bearings. We were quoted $20pp by the first guy to approach us which is what I was expecting. The glass bottom is a teeny rectangle that's more green than see thru. Lifejackets are on and now we're moving 

[carohs]

Tour was great. We saw the sights and even got to feed a few fishies. Then we headed to Medano beach. We brought sun screen but I still expect we'll get back home a few shades darker. DD is on the hunt for sea treasures aka rocks and DS made a Cabo sand castle. 

 

[carohs]

We decided to make the walk back from Medano to the marina. It's 85 out today and 🥵🥵. A short ways in we found an Oxxo and grabbed some 🍦 and peñafiel. Too late I saw the Topo Chico hard seltzer. I've seen Truly around the ship but haven't found where those are served, only had Vizzy so far.  We also stopped at a Farmacia and was able to locate children's Tylenol, the first place only had infants. Acetaminophen is called Paracetamol is Mexico, by the way. Anyway, we made it to the tenders only partially melted and back onboard. Our room was already cleaned and a cute towel bunny greeted us. It's the third day on ship and I still have no idea who our Steward is but so far once daily service has worked out just fine. Turns out I can be tidy when I want to be. DD set Marshmallow next to the mama bunny so we could take a pic. 

[carohs]

Just had to step over some "really okay" women who fell down in the hallway from "laughing too hard" 🤣

[pc_load_letter]

On 4/9/2023 at 4:13 PM, carohs said:

Found a nice little nook with the USS Midway in our view. It's away from the main party but we can still hear all the music.

 

Here's some pictures of our earlier exploring

 

 

 

That parking garage next to the Midway will soon be converted to a bayfront park. Will look great!

 

Nice review! I wish San Diego could get this ship permanently. 

[carohs]

NCL so far has been great! I could see booking again in the future. I love that they do have family fun activities during the day. We just got finished with a scavenger hunt. DD and I ran all over the ship taking pictures. At one point we went up 5 flights of stairs for the sake of time. Only 3 groups participated, but we won. We got all items except 13 and 15. 

[carohs]

Dinner is at Azura tonight. I can't figure out how to access the menu on the NCL app. If there isn't a menu, that's something NCL should improve upon. We were trying to figure out where to eat dinner and we just picked it not knowing what we would have for options. We were given a wine menu and regular menu, but no dessert options yet.