Family Travel Story

A daily diary of Vicki on our April vacation

Let me first preface my review of our Norwegian cruises by saying that although my family are experienced cruisers, with my seven year old
daughter going on her 8th cruise and my wife and I both in are early to mid-thirties going on our 18th cruise together, we have never cruised out of
the North East, so a voyage from New York was both exciting and proved to have some new experiences for us both.

We started off Friday night leaving Boston’s North shore around 5:30 PM and drove south to Stamford Connecticut
to visit with my brother and sister in law for the night. This made sense as we wanted to break up the drive to NYC and avoid the hotel prices in New York, while staying only 45 minutes away. We had dinner at a fantastic seafood restaurant called the Kona Grill in Stamford.  The Sushi was outstanding. Following dinner we settled in to our hotel the Court Yard in down town.

On Saturday morning when we awoke, after a small breakfast, Vicki, my daughter, Ilona, my wife and I retrieved our car and headed south of I-95 to New York City. After a short drive, we arrived at the terminal, where we were able to park are car right on the roof and then take the elevator right to the embarkation station. Let me say this for embarking in New York. We have sailed form numerous ports in Florida, as well as Honolulu, and San Juan, where the lines seem to take forever. While I don’t know if it was because we were there by 11:00 AM or if this is just the way it goes in NYC, but as a latitudes member we were put in a very short line, and within 10 minutes of getting in line, we were having our picture taken by the NCL photographers and on board the beautiful Norwegian Jewel.

Once onboard, we made a quick reservation for Le Bistro tomorrow night, and then promptly headed up to deck 12 for a buffet lunch in the great
outdoors. The buffet is separated into many small stations, and they even have a kid’s area where the serving counter is only about two feet high for the little ones to serve themselves. I tried the Indian cuisine. It was not bad, especially for buffet quality food. I also made my traditional first stop at a bar and purchased the soda card for the week. This is a great savings tool, as they only charge you $6.25 per day for unlimited soda and juice, which comes out to about 3 drinks per day. I know it may not be the most honest thing, but I often use this to get my wife a soda or two each day at the pool too, so it really works out well financially.

After lunch, we checked out our mini suite room. This room is a good size for a family of three with a queen bed, and pull out sofa bed. The mini
suite has a curtain to give some privacy to Ilona and I while, Vicki gets her own space too. The bathroom has a tub instead of the shower stall in the
standard rooms. The balcony is also nice with a chair and recliner, as well as a small table.

Once we unpacked, we headed over to one of the lounges on deck 12 for a family introduction to the camp and more importantly a meet and greet with Vicki’s favorite pouras friend, Sponge Bob Square Pants. After that it was dinner and a great teaser show of all the entertainment to follow. The
magician/comedian named John Paul was the headliner. He was very good and I look forward to seeing his full show later this week.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

This morning, Vicki and I got up early, about 6:45 AM and walked around the ship a bit. I figured that we must now be down around the Virginia area so the weather would be warmer. Well, the sun was out, but so was the wind, either naturally or as a result of the ship sailing into it. We tried to walk on the jogging path this morning, but it was just too cold. After that, we attended a cooking demonstration in the main atrium, where they chefs made a couple of the specialty dishes of Le Bistro, peppercorn filet of beef and an apple tureen.  Both were very good, and a great foreshadow of our meal to come this evening.  By 10:30 AM we had sailed far enough south for Mr. Golden sun to come out, and shine on us, he did. The rest of the morning was a great pool day lounging out, swimming in the pool, soaking in the hot tub and even taking a ride or two down the twisty yellow water slide.

That afternoon, Vicki did a little time in the camp and then we took part in family cupcake designing. While Vicki and I had fun doing family stuff,
Ilona tried her hand at winning some money at the black jack tables for about 2 hours.

Sunday evening was dress up or not night on the Jewel. Many people were dressed to the nines, men in fresh pressed suits and a few tuxedos, and women in elegant evening gowns.

Monday April 16, 2012

Monday morning we woke up and had breakfast at the buffet on the 12th deck. After that Vicki and I headed over to the pool and hot tubs where she
played for a couple of hours, and met some new friends. Shortly thereafter the Jewel pulled into Florida at Cape Canaveral. Today we took the ship excursion to the Kennedy Space Center.  This is a very educational and fascinating place for both kids and adults. We arrived after a short 30 minute bus ride, which where we received a narrated tour of the route and learned some interesting facts about rockets and American history. The first exhibit we took part in was the 3-D IMAX movie about the Hubble telescope. It was truly intriguing to see some of the images taken by this amazing piece of technology. We also watched an IMAX movie about the space station and training astronauts go through in preparation for their missions.
There were also some great exhibits on the rockets that have gone into space and other NASA related events.

Monday evening dinner at the “free” restaurants did not look too appetizing, so we opted for Mama’s Italian. To be honest, I can’t imagine the
food being any worse at the “free” restaurants. However, I should state that I have dined at Lachuchina, on the NCL the sister ship of the Jewel at least 4 times in the past year and a half, and I found the food to be at least as good as most chain level Italian restaurants generally. After dinner we checked out the Brenda Kay hypnotist show. It was really funny and it is always amusing to me to see what some people will do once up on that big stage. Ilona again had a good night at the casino, while Vicki and I took in some karaoke.

Tuesday April 17, 2012

Tuesday we arrive at Great Stirrup Cay, NCL’s Private Island.  After a short tender to the island, we found our clam shell, which essentially
a large canvas is shaped like a giant clam shell which blocks the sun over two lounge chairs. Vicki and I snorkeled off the beach. At first there was not much to see, but as you progress further away from the shore and closer to the reef and rocks about 200 yards or so the water clears up a bit and there a many blue, yellow and other colorful tropical fish to view. There is also a very interesting underwater landscape with mini caverns for the fish, reefs, rocks and coral to view.

NCL puts on a pretty good barbeque considering they are cooking for 2,000+ people, with burgers, hot dogs, chicken and even my favorite, BBQ ribs with sauce. Gourmet it isn’t, but good comfort food it sure is.   After we got back to the ship, we tried the Cagney’s steakhouse for dinner.

Wednesday April 18, 2012

Today we awoke in Nassau Bahamas. We had an early morning excursion to the lavish Atlantis Resort, where we headed over to the aqua park. We had been to Atlantis for a week last summer so we had a good idea of the lay of the land. As such, we knew exactly where we were headed, right to the wave and rapids river. You can either sit in a single or double person pool inner tube or ride the river around the park. It takes about
30 minutes to complete the course which goes from a lazy river to 3 foot waves to simulated white water rapids. So much fun. There were also 9 slides, but unfortunately for Vicki, she was 3 inches too short for those, so we did the rapids a few more times though and then laid out by pool.

As it turned out, lounging by the pool in the hot Bahamas sun was my biggest mistake of the cruise for me. I fell asleep for about an hour, and
when I woke up, the lobsters in Maine had nothing on me when it comes to red skin. Wow, was I in pain that night. A little burn gel later when we got back to the room and I was good to go see John Pierre, the ships magician and comedian that night. He has some amazing card tricks and is pretty funny too. I finally joined Ilona that night at the Casino to try my hand at some black jack, but after losing $100, and then winning back 80% of it, I decided it was not my nigh and should take my minimum loss and leave.

After picking up Vicki from the camp we had a late night snack of Buffalo wings, cheese cake and strawberry short cake, then came back to the
room and sat out on the balcony listening to the sound of the ocean for a few minutes before bed.

Thursday April 19, 2012

Thursday is the first of two days at sea. I awoke to the pain of my sun burn in full force, but was determined not to let that stop me. Vicki and I
tried the buffet on Deck 12 again for breakfast. I did have to check in with the office today, as it has been almost 3 days since I spoke to anyone. The
good thing about being on NCL as opposed to other lines such as Carnival and RCCL is that NCL does not block Skype, so I was able to have a 20 minute video conference with my staff back in Massachusetts.  This day was filled with card playing and scrabble in the game room. Later that
night, we attended the production show Circus bijou, which was a circus O type of show. Great acrobats and dancing, a show I would not hesitate to go to again.

Friday April 20, 2012

Friday was our last full day on the cruise and day at sea. As we approach the North east again, the weather stated getting a little chilly requiring pants and sweatshirts. Not too much to report on this day, just a take it easy and relax before heading back to work next week. It was a little
too cold to sit by the pool, so we stayed inside for the most part. Ilona went to the Casino again and Vicki played with the kids at camp. Friday night we had dinner at Le Bistro one last time, the three of us. Vicki tried escargot for the first time, and she liked it. Imagine that, how many 7 year old little girls will eat snails, knowingly and say they enjoyed it. There is a video up on YouTube of her first snail dining.

Overall, our family really enjoyed this trip. We were not too sure about it with the limited itinerary and lack of Caribbean islands, but this cruise
really was a lot of fun, and we did get all the sun we were looking for, (trust me, my skin still is red and in pain With that said, I would come back to the NCL Jewel anytime, a great ship, good times and a nice voyage.

Videos from our Norwegian Jewel Cruise during April school vacation 2012 from New York City to Port Canaveral Florida, Nassua Bahamas and NCL’s private island, Great Stirup Cay in the Bahamas.  While on vacation, we visited the Kenedy Space Center, the Atlantis Resort and aqua park and a great caribbean beach.

Tour of the NCL Pearl:

Shore Excursions to the Western Caribbean on the NCL:

In anticipation of my upcoming Western Caribbean Cruise, which stops at among other islands, Grand Cayman, I have started doing research on the port. Now, I have been there many times, taken the tender boat ride from the ship to the island and have had a wonderful time there. However, in reading up on the Cayman Islands, I recently learned that there is a plan in place to build a pier, so that we as cruise passengers will not need to wait in line and board small crafts to take a short voyage to the town. At first, this sounds like a very good thing. What I did not know was that, in order to accomplish this task, Grand Cayman is in the process of making final arrangements to destroy the little reef that remains in George Town by constructing large enough piers to accommodate today’s mega ships. The plan also includes adding a pier by the Turtle Farm which will eliminate the coral reef up there as well.

The reason that this small but profitable island government is considering this is of course driven by the economics of the day. As cruise visitor numbers continue to dwindle, the government has been advised that it is mostly due to ships avoiding Grand Cayman because of the requirement for passengers to take a tender to the Georgetown. They can not simply walk off the ship as they do in Cozumel, Ocho Rios and other Western Caribbean Ports. The Government has also been advised that the lower cruise visitor numbers will continue, if not accelerate, to dwindle as the larger classes of newer ships bypass the island all together because tendering with ships that size simply would not be feasible. It is certainly true that the local economy is very dependent on tourism, with cruise visitors playing an important part in the economic equation, but is this really progress?

Let me start by saying, I am by no means an environmentalist. I drive a luxury automobile that takes high octane gas; I like to go to destinations where there are modern luxuries and built up towns. I typically book suites on cruise ships that take up way more space then I and my family really need. In addition to that, the fact is Grand Cayman like much of the Western World is driven by capital markets and revenue potential.

With all of the foregoing stated, Grand Cayman, is one of my favorite islands. I think the water is bluer, the weather is just the right temperature and the snorkeling is fantastic. More to the point, the tender ride from the harbor to the terminal is only about 5 – 10 minutes, and frankly, it is usually a very nice ride. I must say that destroying a reef system to avoid a short tender ride is where I absolutely draw the line. I have no qualms about taking that tender ride, if it would save even a small strip of coral, I would be more then willing to take that short and frankly enjoyable tender ride. Though I do wonder how many other Caribbean islands have destroyed coral and other natural beauty to build the piers that I so do enjoy? I am not sure, I want to know the answer.

So our family winter vacation is fast approaching. I am very excited this year as we are going to be taking along several family members, my grandmother and uncle as well as possibly my wife’s mother. Last year we loved the NCL Pearl so much that we are going back, but changing up the Western itinerary just a bit. Doing the traditional Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel trip. What I am really excited about is that my uncle a Vietnam war veteran, has not been on a “real” vacation in over two decades and he has never been on a cruise. As such, this is a real honor for me to be able to take him on the Pearl.

My wife and I are now in the process of deciding what excursions to do and if any will work for our elders. On Great Stirrup Cay, we are thinking of just relaxing on the beach with the family, but also taking an hour out of the day to rent a Jet Ski for us. In Ocho Rios, we will take the whole Mishpacha to see Dunn’s River Falls. Ilona and I have done this about 4 times already, but none of our family has ever seen it. We are thinking the best way to get there is on the cool running’s catamaran, to give the real island experience. In Grand Cayman, something that may be a little fearful for everyone, (although Ilona and I have done it several times) a trip out to the sandbar to view the stingrays. In Cozumel, is where we have there real decision to make. Ilona and I are trying to decide between renting a small two person mini speed boat, or doing snuba for the first time. Any thoughts on this one?

Well, we are getting ready, and will post video and photos along with our review when we get back.

Above is a slide show of our summer family trip to the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island just off of Nassau Bahamams. It was so much fun that we are planning on going back again in 2012 somtime.

Just as there are different levels of cruise lines which offer various services, some of which can really change the whole cruising experience, there are cabins that do the same.  Some of the “budget” or “family friendly” cruise lines offer larger rooms that they dub as suites.  However, on one such line, NCL, the suite perks and multiple bedrooms per cabin, really do make a difference.  When it comes to NCL and their “suite life on deck”, it has been said by many passengers including myself that once you stay in a suite, a standard room just will not do, or as I like to say, a suite can not be beat.

As on any ship, the term suite relates to many larger, service intense cabins.  For the purposes of this article, I am not talking about the “mini-suite”, which is really just a deluxe balcony cabin, but rather penthouses, 2 bedroom family villas, owner’s suits and the 3 bedroom Garden Villa.

Now, I am not going to for one moment suggest that booking a suite is an economical way to cruise, but One thing I would suggest to those who like to occasionally treat themselves is that upgrading your cabin does provide significantly more value then upgrading your ship.  With the NCL freestyle concept does not limit you to a restrictive meal time or the need to attend a specific show time after or before dinner.  Whereas with the more “luxury” liners, cruising becomes a very formal activity.  Additionally, you may want to take into account that the larger lines like NCL offer many activities that the elite lines do not, such as the grand shows and other entertainment.  Then there is also the issue of price.  I was recently reading a thread on the popular, cruisecritic.com website, where one posted wrote, “I just went to the Seabourn site, it’s beautiful! For two of us to take a 7 day cruise in their ocean view stateroom would be $6000! For $3000 I can get a penthouse on NCL! If I wanted to spend $6000 I could get an owner’s suite.”

            Presuming that you have decided to cruise on a family friendly line such as NCL, Princess, or Celebrity, etc. I am taken back to my original question, is it worth putting up the extra money for a suite?  I have found that the nicer and more amenities such as extended balconies in the cabin, the more time my family spends in the cabin.  If you have ever traveled with 3, 4 or more people in a cabin, you know how cramped it can get.  Not so in a suite.  As a matter of fact, the last time I cruised on the NCL with my wife and daughter, my little girl had her own small inside cabin contained with in our larger 2 bedroom family villa.  In addition to the extra room in your specific cabin, there is a special pool and sun deck set aside just for suite guests called the court yard.  This was a great feature as it is contained on the same small deck as your cabin and is limited to only the select few who choose to book an available suite.

            Additionally, when we stay in a NCL suite, a morning benefit is the privilege of having breakfast and lunch in Cagney’s steakhouse, which is open only to suite guests.  This means no long lines at the buffet, and if you like, your butler, will come to your cabin, set the dining table on your balcony with linens and serve you the specialty restaurant quality food just any other waiter would in the restaurant.  Oh yes, did I mention that one big benefit of the suite life is a private butler and concierge for each suite.  This also means no long lines at customer service, or waiting on hold for 30 minutes from your room phone, the butler can take care of this for you.

            There are also benefits that you will receive even before stepping on the ship, such as no waiting on embarkation.  You will go into a private room, ahead of the other thousands of passengers, check in and then be privately escorted to your room.  Upon leaving the ship, I find the most convenient suite benefit, which is that you will not be waiting in line for hours moving a few inches at a time to disembark, rather, your butler or concierge will escort you to the front of the line when you are ready to make like a tree and leave.

            All in all, to suite or not to suite may be the question, but for me, the answer is very simple, yes.