DAY 1: GETTING ON THE SHIP

TODAY IS THE DAY....WE MEET OUR JEWEL OF A SHIP! WOO HOO. 

I was excited, but I think my daughter was even more excited. She wouldn't stop staring out the window at the ships (well, she could clearly see the "whale tail" but couldn't tell what the other ship beside it was). All Sakari could talk about it how she couldn't wait to go down all of those wonderful water slides. Sigh. I had to break it to her that we would not be boarding the Sunshine with all of the wonderful water slides, but instead we would be getting on the ship beside it with the measly 1 small baby water slide. (She absolutely loved the Dream and the water park back 7 months ago). But we were going to have fun no matter what. I bribed her with the fact that she was going to get to meet Spongebob and Dora on our ship and that made the boo-boo face disappear really fast.

We got dressed and headed downstairs to the restaurant in the hotel: Cafe at the Square. For those of you that might consider this hotel or restaurant, they serve breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekend brunch.

We were seated and the waitress came over and brought a glass with crayons in it. She looked at Sakari in a weird scolding way and said "Now this is a special glass of crayons and the only way you can use them is if we have an agreement. You see how these crayons are all stacked in the cup? You can use them, but you have to put each one of them back the way you found them in the cup." UMMMMM.... did I just hear her talking to my daughter as if assumed she was going to dump the crayons out, break them all in half, pull off the outer paper covering them and start slinging them at other people as if they were targets or something? It kinda ticked the hubby off that she just assumed she was going to do something bad with the precious crayons. Sakari had a scared look on her face as if she had done something wrong and she hadn't even touched them. As a matter of fact, they didn't even bring her anything to color on. Sigh

Sakari ordered a HUGE waffle and I had the "make your own omelet" with a side of hash browns and a biscuit. I don't remember what the hubby had, I was only interested in getting my grub on and stretching my stomach for the food to come on the Jewel. After the waitress took our order, she ask why Sakari wasn't coloring and she picked up a crayon and started marking all over the tablecloth. GASP! Such strict rules about crayons, but you mark on the tables??? Well, it turned out to be a thick piece of huge paper that perfectly fit the tables and they change them each time. Whew, I almost had to give her a lecture of my own!

Sakari's "fancy schmancy" waffle:

My omelet plate:

Our bill was around $35 and some change. We headed out side and snapped a few pictures of the square that we could see outside of our window.

As you can tell by the pants and the winter coat, it was still cold outside.

I caught a street car zooming past us (yes, if you stay here you are right on one of the street car routes).

I am a pop, wait....SODA drinker. I live for the stuff (I know I'm bad), but we always purchase the soda package on board and also bring our own. I mean after all, you can't wake up and run up to one of the bars to grab a soda in your undies, so we like to have our fridge stocked with some. I'm not a coffee drinker, so making coffee in our room is out of the question.

So we usually walk to the nearest grocery store by the hotel. 1 block over and about 2 blocks south is a grocery store with everything you can imagine. It's called Rouses Market. We found this place when we stayed in the Warehouse district last time (but it was quite the haul, especially with a child and carrying cases as well). We were very happy to find out prior to going to NOLA that it was close by. I was also a little more experienced and by being a nursing student, I think my knowledge base is growing....and by that I mean I remembered to bring our backpack roller luggage on wheels and with a handle this time around!! :D 

Soda was on sale (yeah me) at 3 for $11. The hubby had ran out of deodorant the day before the cruise and I scolded him for waiting until the last minute to not only pack, but to figure out what he still needed to purchase for the cruise. So this was his chance to scold me back and let me know that he was winning since he could just buy it here at the grocery store...winning for him. They even had his favorite deodorant that we can't always find here back home-Swagger! Ok, I'll give him that one, but I'm sure it won't be long before I can come up with something else. (We are always joking around, nothing serious here folks, no need to call in the marriage counselor....yet <---and you'll see why I say that later). :p

We headed back to the hotel to get our things from the room (only to find the housekeeper tapping her foot at us waiting to get in to clean the room) and headed downstairs to catch a cab. Weren't we the lucky one's, there was one just sitting outside waiting for us. Well, after all was said and done, we weren't the "lucky" family after all. I had read prior to going that it cost approximately $10 for the cab ride from our hotel to the port. We got out of the taxi and he charged us $21!!!!!????? What the heck? We were suckers I guess.

Goodbye Blake Hotel. See you again some day.

The cab driver did not say one word to us along the way and when he pulled up to the port, he pulled in the middle of traffic, there was a forklift trying to get around him and I have a 5 year old, 3 large luggage, 1 small luggage, and a huge shoulder bag and you want me to do what? I'm not in to playing "frogger" (if you guys remember that game? I was never good at it and always ended up getting splattered and this is what I was picturing trying to dodge all of the incoming traffic). The guy on the forklift got a little perturbed with him parking where he did and told him to move AFTER we had all piled out of the van and started taking our luggage out. Seriously? So bad in everything went and we pulled up to where everyone else is. Needless to say, with the $21 3 minute ride, risking our safety, then having to move, there went his tip. (Well actually, I'm sure he made one heck of a tip at $21).

We made it inside to check in and I have to say this was the quickest check in from start to finish....by far! We walked in, showed our papers to the lady, she pointed us to the latitudes line, we walked right up to the desk, checked in, got our cards and off we went to board. This was all at around 11:30ish. We did have to carry our soda on with us (but remember I'm smarter this time around and we pulled it along instead).

Jewel....HERE WE COME!!! :D

So here we are...we have arrived and the welcome party is there to greet us and welcome us on board.

Sakari was thrilled and wanted pictures with everything of course.

As you can tell, it was warming up a "little" since we have our winter coats off, but it was still very chilly and we couldn't wait to get inside.

I guess Frosty and Santa had to come outside so that they wouldn't melt.

But that would soon change and the weather would be perfect the rest of the cruise.

We headed off to explore the ship and felt like Déjà vu had come over us. Yep, it was just like the Pearl, her sister, with a few minor differences as we would learn as we explored.

I like to head up and into the areas that you normally won't find people at after boarding (because everyone is either at the MDR or buffet stuffing their faces as if they had went without food the previous week trying to hold out for the Jewel). We had just eaten and was still stuffed from breakfast and this gave us the opportunity to check things out.

I have to admit, the ships that don't have the huge, open, stories high atrium with the glass elevators don't impress me. I like that "wow" factor and of course the Gem, Jewel, Pearl or whatever stone it may be, ships don't have that. But it's ok. I was prepared for this and knew this ahead of time.

So off we go (and off I go to try to get my pictures together from the ship now so that I can continue...and truth be known, throw in another load of laundry because I just got up enough enthusiasm today to start on it after that wonderful cruise).

Now on to showing you around the Jewel. Come on in and walk with me as I show you around. To some, this may be a new experience for you, for others, it may bring back memories.

I will start with Deck 6 and in the back (since I'm a backwards type-o girl)

We start out with one of the Main Dining Rooms: Tsar's Palace. This is one of the free dining rooms and the more "classier/dressier" dining options.

Depending on the day you are there, the hours are as follows:

Breakfast: either 7am-9am or 7:30am-9:30am

Lunch: noon to 1:30pm on sea days only.

Dinner: 5pm-9:30pm

It is located between deck 6 and 5 in the stairway.

When you enter, you will go down another set of stairs to enter the dining area.

Looking up at the grand entrance with 2 sets of stairs. 

It is located in the very back of the ship with a great view of the wake.

I did not notice this on the Pearl, but where they seated us this time around (near the stairway as you walk in), I noticed the neat brightly colored "balls" on the railing. You know that thing when you are talking and something catches you eye, your ADD kicks in and says "squirrel". Well these caught my eye.

More interesting balls. They had so many different types. I kept snapping pictures of the different designs and my hubby gave me that "are you really going to take a picture of each one of them" look. So I decided 4 or 5 were enough.

One of the many questions that comes up on these boards are how do those people in people-movers get down to the dining room? Well here's your answer....in the above picture and the picture below, you will see the walkway that runs alongside of the grand stairway coming in to the dining area.

You will come out to this area:

As you can see, this area leads to no-where-land. It's only a room with chairs and an elevator. Your option is to take the elevator up or come back into the dining room.

Oh one other thing, you can't walk straight through deck 6 from the rest of the ship to get here. You have to go up along deck 7 and walk down the stairs or take the elevator down, which became quite annoying to someone who is GPS challenged like me.

We will make our way toward the middle of the ship...reminding you and myself that you need to go up 1 flight of stairs and then back down to get back on deck 6.

This takes you to Azura Main Restaurant. This is another free dining venue for you to enjoy.

It is open during the following times:

Dinner: 5pm-10pm

Walking along the starboard side of the ship, you will next come to Maltings Beer & Whiskey Bar.

They always seem to be playing some type of sports on the tv's there.

Next up you walk along the Shakers Martini & Cocktail Bar. I don't know why this was considered a different bar than the Magnum's Champagne & Wine Bar because it's all the same bar, it just does a turn and down the hall. I didn't find anything interesting in this area I guess because the only thing that caught my eye were the huge signs on the side along the walk.

As we walk around the corner you come to Magnum's Champagne & Wine Bar. I loved the way this looked on the Pearl and this is identical to that. The bubbling water around the bar just makes this place beautiful. It does change colors but from the looks of my pictures, I must have caught it every time it changed to pink. Hey, pink is a good bright color right? Enjoy your pink fix for the day.

Oops, maybe I did catch it on an "off" color after all.

Run, stop, pose, you know the drill Sakari....

This place is opened to the area above and is 2 stories. Here's the steps leading up to deck 7.

If you caught a glimpse in the image above, you will notice they had a gingerbread village set up here. It was cute, but it didn't hold a candle (or lights in this case) to the one they had on the Star last Christmas.

Here's an over all view of the place. I also love the lighting in the ceiling (which is the same as the Pearl). I was almost positive that I got a picture of just it, but I can't seem to find it.

Within this area, there is also a piano and someone was playing there nightly. I don't know why I didn't think to snap a picture of this, but it's on the opposite side of the bubble water.

There is a door in the corner beside the piano stage that leads you to the Cigar Bar (I'm not sure why it's not listed on the blue prints on NCL's page, but it's there). This room would later prove to be a "good" room for us. Details later, you'll just have to stop being impatient and keep reading why. :D

Le Bistro-although we didn't eat here, we did spend some time in here off and on and another "favorite" place for a different kind of reason other than eating (I know....gasp, like there's anything better than eating?) which you will find out why later. Yep, I'm still leaving you hanging. :D 

The following picture is "R" rated, so please be advised and hide your children's eyes...

Or maybe not. 🤷‍♀️

On to one of my favorite places of the cruise....THE CASINO!!! Yes, it was good to me. The casino had a "circus" theme to it and I thought it was cute.

Now to the end of the ship (or the beginning depending on where you are at)...or the front of the ship.

The Stardust Theatre. This is your normal big 2 story venue with all the great entertainment in the evenings and game shows during the day. It was beautiful just like the Pearl and set up exactly the same. The only gripe I have about this place is the rows being too close. It really made me miss the huge rows with plenty of walking room down each isle with the tables to put your drinks on while watching the show like the Carnival Dream had. There's a lot of up and down going on once you sit down and even during the show for those "late arrivals" that usually get called out by the performers.

Sakari insisted that I take her picture on the stage because she remembered being on the stage on the Star when they had their Circus show and she was ready to be on stage again. It was all she talked about during the cruise. She told everyone she came in contact that she was going to be a "tiger in a circus show". Of course they had no idea what she was talking about and probably took one look at our family and thought "yea, there's a circus alright".

Heading back down the hallway you will find a beautiful Christmas tree. It was really pretty when they had the lights out in the halls. I tried several times during the week to get a picture of it and they wouldn't turn out. Gotta love lighting and cameras. This was the best that I was able to get.

Since we are in Stardust, we might as well get some exercise before beginning our week of binge eating and walk up these stairs and head to the 7th floor to continue our tour. Come on, no griping, you'll be glad you did by the end of the week, because by the end of the week, you won't be able to make it up those stairs unless it's by aide of a hoist. You'll be thanking me...wink wink.

So now we are heading along the starboard or port side...which ever suits your fancy because they both lead to the same place...The Fyzz Lounge and Bar.

This is really a neat little place. We went here several times for some Nickleodeon things, listen to some karaoke, and just passing through at times. It had an outer space type of theme to it. It's just a neat little funky colorful place.

I have a really bad habit of "walking and snapping" and it's not my fingers (well, it is, but you know what I mean). I just don't stay still long enough to "compose" a picture and walk and snap, walk and snap. They don't always come out, but I'll keep trying on the next round. If not, sorry guys, you get blurry pictures....or one like the next one with my finger in the way. hehe

Off to the side of this room there are 3 doors with the rooms named after colors (like the green room and so on). They were NEVER opened when we walked by or where in there. When I came home and looked up what they are supposed to be and it says they are Karaoke rooms.

Walking out of the Fyzz Lounge you will come to another open area (which is the 2nd story opening to the Champagne bar).

To the right, you will find the Sake and Sushi bar

Beyond that is the Asian restaurant Chin Chin. We always eat here every cruise (or whatever Asian restaurant they have), but for some reason, we decided we didn't feel like doing any of the pay restaurants and were perfectly happy with the free meals. This will be the first cruise we haven't done at least 1 specialty restaurant and I have to say, I didn't really miss it. We were eating all the time anyhow.

You have to walk through the Chin Chin restaurant to get to the Teppanyaki Restaurant. I didn't go in there but the place is set up exactly like the Pearl.

Walking on down the hall out of the Asian restaurant area

This is another shot of one of the similar hallways like above, I just don't remember where it was located. It always makes for a nice view of the ocean or if you just like to sit and people watch.

Now we have officially made it to the Atrium. It's not the grand atrium that I like to see, but it will do. It was exactly like the Pearl except the ceilings icicles changed colors, which was neat.

It included the piano in the middle and they had someone playing in the evenings either there or upstairs on the landing of the steps in front of the big screen tv.

Boy I have to say I can tell the difference in my 2 cameras. I really loved my Canon D10 when I got it, so much that I ended up buying 2 of them. The first one ended up quitting out on me right after we came home from our Star cruise and this one looks like either the quality of the pictures are not as good as they use to be and the pictures are not vivid anymore or either my new camera (the Olympus) is even better than I had originally thought. I can definitely tell the difference.

Looking down into the Atrium from upstairs

As you can tell the difference in the vivid colors of the over all picture, you can really tell in the lights above. Although I do have to admit, during the day they didn't seem as bright as at night and especially when you get up close to them on the second floor.

The Christmas tree Norwegian style:

The Java cafe is located right between the steps winding up to the next floor. This is also where you go to get your "soda" card stickers for those of you that purchase the soda package

Glass door in the atrium leading outside to the decks along side the ship.

Ok, last set of Atrium pictures and these are the "sparkly" one's as Sakari calls it. "They are so pretty" Then I'm off to bed so that Santa can come. I would feel really bad if he missed Sakari because I was still up. Big day tomorrow with the family and my grown kids. I managed to talk my oldest daughter into her throwing Christmas at her house (since there just wasn't enough time for me to prepare after our vacation) and she agreed. I feel bad because she is due with baby number 2 in about 20 days now, but it's ok, I keep reminding her how I did it myself with a 2 year old as well (her older brother). :p

I found that if you get right up on these icicles and caught them at the right moment, boy did they glow on the right setting on my camera. It did take a lot of tries to capture it at the right moment and trying different settings on the camera, but I think the end result turned out pretty good. This would be one of the times I actually couldn't do a drive-by-shooting and had to stay still, calm, and collected. But hey that's always me right? Nah. :p

So now walking down the starboard side of the ship from the Atrium, you will come to the Photo Gallery. This is where you will find all your pictures that the ship photographer takes of you at functions, around the ship, and when you get off the ship at each port with the people dressed up. They also have items for sale such as cameras and stuff (in case you are like me and forget your battery charger plugged into the outlet back home or all of your batteries along with the charger :rolleyes: No, this didn't happen this time, but it did when we were on the star last Christmas).

They usually sell the pictures they take of you while getting on the ship for $19.95 and then the smaller one's from during the week are $12.95. They did run an early bird special once toward the end of the cruise that if you bought an 8x10 then you could get a 5x7 of the same picture for free or something like that.

If you walk along the port side of the ship you will come to the art gallery and internet cafe.

I'm not really into art work, but they did have some neat pictures that the paint stuck out. They also had some really neat sculptures that caught my eye that were made with different things like gears and stones. They were pretty neat.

On the opposite side of the art collection is the Internet Cafe lined up along the walkway.

At the very end of the hall you will come to a huge shopping area. Most ships have the "mall-like" shopping where you walk up and down the isle and go into the different stores to shop. This is one big shopping area completely open and together. But, things are sectioned off; for instance the jewelery in a section, the alcohol in another section, trinkets up a few stairs toward the front section, then clothes and other items in another section.

Just be aware that everything they have in the store is not everything you'll see during the cruise. They will pull out other things with "specials" toward the end of the cruise. I had been looking for a sweat shirt with "Jewel" on it all week and settled for a different one that just said "Caribbean" and "NCL" on it. Then the last sea day, they pulled out the one I was looking for. So, just saying don't be in a rush to buy something if you don't see what you're looking for.

Heading up another flight of stairs....come on, you can do it, you will come to the Blue Lagoon on the starbaord side. This is your 24/7 free restaurant with excellent food from wings to....well, you'll see:

They have the best cheesecake!!

This restaurant surrounds the top half of the atrium and is open in the middle down.

At this place, you will check in with the person at the stand and they ask you for your room number then seat you. When we were on the Pearl, this place kind of seemed weird to us because it constantly had people just walking through it from the rooms on the 8th floor. You are pretty much forced to walk through the middle of the dining area (or the middle of Moderno to get to the other side. This is no different, but I guess it didn't bother me as much this time since I was use to it this time around.

On the opposite side of Blue Lagoon, you will find Moderno Churrascaria, a pay restaurant. We did not eat there, but did eat there...over flow from Blue Lagoon once when the place was hopping.

Would you get a load of those chairs? I didn't even realize it until we got up to leave and I bent over to pick up something and noticed the "fur".

Up next is a little "hidden" area that some may not know about. If you look on NCL's Jewel map of each deck, you will not see it listed.

You will go up to deck 11 taking the front elevators and head to the right and then go right down the hallway. At the end of the hallway is the bridge viewing area where you will find all of the awards and welcome plaque's along with ship navigation information and you can view the Captain's area. They also have one of these on the same deck on the Pearl. 

Everyone always wonders what the stripes on their shirts mean...I thought I would take a close up to show everyone.

On to the Bridge area:

Next is deck 12 and we will start at the front of the ship, which is the Spa area: Relaxation/wet area, Sauna, Steam Room, Treatment Rooms, and Thermal Suite.

I have to admit, I have never been in one of these before. I didn't realize you could actually go in there and look around and take pictures if you did not buy the package. I was encouraged by people here on cc to go in the first day for the "tour" and that I did.

I have never been a person that goes to the "spa", or get "pampered" or to get "massages". It's just not me. The thought of someone's hands on me (other than a friendly hand shake or hug) is about it. I kinda get creeped out when I have to go to my Chiropractor. You will never find me searching for a place on the beach that does massages. So, I will probably never buy one of these packages and now that I have seen the place, I really can't see where I would actually use anything in there. It was very hot in there...and well, I go to the Caribbean to get hot, not spend it in even a hotter area. I just don't see this as me. Now I can say that I think it would be neat to go on the Breakaway and use their salt shower steam bath thingy ma jig.

With that being said, the spa was pretty and I liked the colors being used in there. Very relaxing atmosphere.

Walking out of the Spa and straight ahead you will find a hallway with rooms off to the side. They are the Library, Card room, and Lifestyle room. Now I'm not sure what a "Lifestyle" room is, but I'm thinking this might have been the photography studio that you can schedule an appointment to have professional pictures done in there with backgrounds and props (outside of them doing pictures around the ship and in the atrium on formal nights).

Random pics:

On the opposite side of the ship across from these areas, you will find the fitness center. Once I discovered it, I ran...I ran really fast away.

Out the doors that blow like a tornado when they open and then freeze you like a piece of ice...and you make it out to the pool area where you can warm up. Brrrr

There are 2 pools located here. I know that people have said 1 is for families and children and the other is for adults. Well, there's clearly a sign that states both are for everyone. There is only the hot tub down by the Sapphire Pool with the waterfall that has an "adults only" sign.

The Jewel does have 1 small water slide, unlike the Pearl who has 2 water slides exactly alike.

Here's a few night pictures:

At the end of the pool is Topsiders Bar and The Grill. The Grill usually has a few cold breakfast items out and they serve lunch items such as hot dogs and cold food as well. Several times during the week they had BBQ's out on the deck in this area.

On the side of the Grill is a hallway that leads to the buffet area. You will find restrooms on the left, but just make sure you watch your step. There is a hump you have to step over to get in.

Along the way you will find a shower area for the swimmers. I went in here by mistake thinking it was the restroom. I don't remember anything like this on the Pearl but I just might have missed it or don't remember it (the blue prints does show it).

If you keep walking there is a small cove area with a few tables and chairs that you can sit and eat at.

On the opposite side of the Grill & Topsiders bar you will find the toddler play pool area with the little water slide. However, this part is a little different because they have a full sized hot tub just for kids in this area as well. The Pearl didn't have this and there were some type of small bouncy toys that no one seems to play on.

Right as you walk in to the Garden Cafe to the left, you will find the kids buffet area. Everything is small in size from the buffet area to the tables and chairs.

They usually had scrambled eggs, BACON, pancakes, sausage, fruit and french toast in the buffet. There might have been more, but if there was it wasn't anything we ate so I didn't pay attention.

There is also a beverage area here (and here you won't find a huge line to get your drink either). They have apple juice, orange juice and "I think" milk?? There wasn't coffee in this area of course, so this won't give you a short cut to the coffee line. ;)

They were also open for either lunch or dinner and served hot food, but we did not eat over there during that time. I just happen to notice that there was food in it during those times.

This is supposed to be a "kids only and their families" area, but we would find during the entire cruise that all the adults were using this area forcing families to find another spot a lot of the times. :( 

On to the buffet. The buffet is huge and goes on forever. I just wish that the food section went on forever as well. The food is located at several different stations around this area.

The seating for the buffet area went on forever with different sections. After the food area, you would find additional seating on the right side as well.

Here's a picture of the drink station that everyone wants to know about in several threads.

They offered Iced Tea, Tropical Mango, Strawberry Kiwi, and Lemon Lime or Lemonade.

This is the ice cream machine. Since my last cruise with NCL, there has been a lot of talk about the ice cream police. Well, I'm hear to tell you it's true. You can no longer go and get yourself an ice cream cone or a bowl of soft swirl on your own. You will only be able to touch either your cone or bowl only for a split second and then not be able to touch it again, with your mouth watering, starting to drool as you think about that soft creamy cold delicious ice cream melting in your mouth....until they decide to hand it back to you. You almost feel guilty putting in your mouth in front of them and scurry off around the corner to enjoy it.

If you decide you want ice cream during a time there isn't an attendant there to assist you and monitor you, you're out of luck (as seen in this picture).

This picture is taken from the Great Outdoors area looking into the Garden Cafe in the back. It was taken at night and the Great Outdoors has blue lighting around it, which gives off a neat blue tint to everything.

Whew, that was a long walk. We have now arrived at the back of the ship at the Great Outdoors. You will find a small buffet area (there's 2 identical sides however, we only seen 1 open at any given time). They would have breakfast items, lunch and late night snacks out there. There is also a bar on the back.

You will find table and chairs to sit and eat at that wrap around the buffet/bar area from one side to the other.

On the port side walking back you will find La Cucina. We have eaten here before on previous cruises, so we decided not to try it this time around. However, we would find ourselves eating here for breakfast several times. Not many people know you can come in here for breakfast and I believe lunch as well, free of charge (you bring the buffet food in here to eat). It makes for a nice quiet place to eat when you want to get away from the buffet atmosphere and the loud noise of everyone trying to talk over each other and the clanging of dishes and silverware.

This would probably be the busiest I ever found the place to be at breakfast. 

As you can see, not many people in here the rest of the cruise.

More of the buffet kids area:

One other good thing about this place is they also have a drink station set up so you don't even have to worry about going back out to the buffet and stand in line forever to get your drink. They DID have coffee and the juices here.

Back to the elevators past the Garden buffet and to the other side you will find the kids club Splash Academy.

This is the area for the 6-9 year olds. The 3-5 year olds are aloud to play in the ball pit during free play time.

You have to go down a very long hallway (which the cafe staff uses and it gets very sticky and wet at times not to mention they are going in and out of there constantly with carts and trays to take up to the rooms for room service).

Inside the 3-5 year old room:

These miniature bathrooms are used by both the 3-5 year olds and the 6-9 year olds. It is actually located in the 6-9 section, so that means that the 3-5 year olds have to tell someone that they need to potty.

Bigger kids hang out

Last but not least, there is also a video arcade between the 6-9 yr old entrance and the hallway leading to the 3-5 yr old area.

This completes Deck 12. :)

Ok, so where did I leave off...Oh yea, I finished up deck 12 and we are moving on to deck 13 now.

We will head up the stairs from the Great Outdoors and up to the basketball area.

Then back down the steps along the star board side you will find a golfing area

They also have the ping pong tables and the chess games

The same thing is on each side except the port side has shuffle board instead.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 open 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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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'T 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

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.

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

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.

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. They have 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.

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

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.

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 magnetized. 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

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!!!!

So here we are on the pool deck and we noticed that it was a little "cleared". Where is everyone dancing? Oh, it's Nick time! Here comes all the characters. Sakari was thrilled! She jumped up and down for joy and I was looking for my super glue at one point.

Spongebob, Dora, Diego and Patrick did the Nick dance for all of us. How they move in those things amazes me. That has to take some skill since they can barely see out of them.

Oh gosh, Patrick is coming for me. I guess I'll have to get my groove on now.

Sakari was ecstatic and couldn't wait to get out there and dance. Or maybe it had something to do with the Mt Dew (just kidding, daddy had her hold it while he went to the little boys room).

So here we are. She managed to talk me into going out to dance with her. Yep, I was kicking and screaming not wanting to......not.

We danced with SIN (next to me) and Sakari tried to learn the electric slide, cupid shuffle, wobble and everything else they did. She was that odd ball that was one beat behind everyone but she didn't care. Then we started heading out of port.

Here's a few videos. 

I told you I needed some super glue. :D

She was real excited when some of the staff dancers pulled her out and danced for a minute.

She tried her best to do the electric slide (and as the cruise went on, she got a little better). Here she is trying to follow Sin before I got out there.

Somewhere between the muster drill and the sail away party we did grab a bite to eat at the bbq they were having. It was pretty darn good and hit the spot after not eating since breakfast in NOLA. Sakari loved her corn and kept going back for more.

So now we wanted to meet up with our cc friends and previous cruise friends.

We had registered Sakari for the kids club and checked it out earlier prior to sail away and she was eager to head there and meet her new friends. We decided that would be a great idea so that we could have some adult time with our old and new friends.

Off we headed to the Star Bar to see if we could hunt them down. We did get a wave from the ma'am's while I was dancing, but when I glanced back over, they were gone. :(

So up we went to the star bar and met up with our friends. This place is not too big so there wasn't too many chairs available and definitely not enough for all of us. We quickly decided it might be a better idea to move to the Spinnaker Lounge (which was a back up plan in case the Star Bar wasn't open). We all grabbed seats and gabbed for hours. It was a great day with great friends and we had a blast with both old friends and new ones. They are all so awesome and I feel blessed to have gotten to know each and every one of them. Cruising is not part of your every day life, but friends are and making new life long friends is even better. I love my cruising family and those that I continue to stay in touch with and still cruise with. I have to add that Sakari has made cruise friends as well. They cruised with us last Christmas on the Star and they were on this cruise too. She was so excited to see her old cruising buddy. Yep, like mother, like daughter.

We knew tonight was the "lobster" night in the MDR and didn't want to miss it. So we sadly said good-bye for the night to our friends and decided to pick up Sakari and head to the room to get ready for dinner.

Back to our balcony and I couldn't resist taking some new pictures of the darkness surrounded by the lights along the river.

Off to the MDR, we chose Azura this time around. Not because it's where we wanted to go, but where we ran into first. (Remember the up to the 7th floor, go around and back down to the 6th floor in order to get to the back of the ship to go to Tsar's?)

So those that want to do the Lobster dinner, it's only on the first night (sail away night) and it's not advertised as Lobster. It's called "Surf & Turf" just to confuse you. It comes with 1 lobster tail and a steak. I don't like or eat steak so I always ask for it to be replaced with just another lobster tail or chicken breast.

Now I have to say we don't eat at the MDR's but maybe 2 or 3 times during the cruise, but when we do, I have noticed the service (or I should say quickness) of the service seems to go downhill with each cruise.

We were seated promptly and off to a good start. We were given the above menu's. However we waited and waited to for the server to come back to take our order. Since we purchase the soda package, we had ask for drinks. When he came back he acted as if it was going to be a "drop and run" type of situation, so I quickly spoke up to let him know we were ready to order. We wanted to catch the show of what's to come in the theater and didn't want to waste time. You understand right?

Well he took our order and off he went...to??? Who knows because it took forever before he came back with our starters. I had the mushroom quesadilla to start with and it was yummy as always. Then we waited and waited and waited. I knew at this point we were not going to make it to the show. Insert the saddest smiley face here because I was really looking forward to seeing this show because I have never been before. Our last NCL cruise with my daughter, she went and loved it.

So here I am trying to occupy my time and snapping pictures here and there while I occupy my 5 year old that is just sitting.

Trees on the table and the "fake" lights that Sakari was convinced you shouldn't touch because they would burn you. Good girl. Without flash.

With flash. Yea I was this bored. I took single pictures of trees, pictures of them both together. Pictures with the light. Pictures without the light. You wouldn't believe how many tree pictures I ended up with.

Pictures of the family trying to entertain ourselves.

Then finally our long awaited meal arrived. By this point only my growling stomach was talking to me because I was a bear on the search for our waiter as if he was hunted prey.

Now is this the most awesome lobster tail you will ever eat? No of course not. But it's not bad and I had 2 of them to myself. It came with a couple of broccoli stems, which I might add were not really cooked and "maybe" dipped in hot water for a second and 2 potato wedges. Really? 2 potato wedges.

We spent a total of 2 hours dining that night from start to finish. It was probably the longest dining experience I have ever had on an NCL ship waiting and not eating. It's kind of different if it's a large party and there are a lot of orders to prepare to bring out to the table at the same time plus you have time for conversation and enjoying each others company. But it was just the 3 of us and I'm not in any way saying that I didn't enjoy the conversation or company of my spouse and daughter, it was just a long wait and I had missed my show.

On a better note, Sakari was happy that they had brought her some ice cream to top off the night.

Ok now to finish up day 1 of our cruise.

After eating, Sakari decided she wanted more play time with her friends in the kids club so we dropped her off and decided to spend a little time at the casino. I LOVE me some casino! No I do not have an addiction but thanks for asking. I'm only addicted when I'm on a cruise or vacation. Last year we had a Hollywood casino built just down the street from us and I went opening night and haven't been back. :D

Honestly I usually do pretty well at the casino and I always walk away with more than I came with to play. Tonight we both came with $40. I cashed out a $11, $15 & $34 ticket. So I was up more than what I came with. Go me.

I was excited to see they had my favorite games: Cave King and Gold Fish (and every once in awhile I like the Penguin game as well). Cave King is usually my "go to" game on each cruise. I swear that game can keep me playing for hours on $20 and I have usually always hit pretty nicely on it. This cruise would play out a little different. It would keep me playing, but I never hit anything big. :(

The hubby, well let's just say he's not the lucky one. He hit pretty good on our Star cruise and ONLY on our Star cruise.