MITSUGIRLY'S birthday cruise on the JADE review/pictorialDay
Day 3: Sea Day
Day 2 on the ship...it's a sea day.
Even though this was a sea day, and boy do I like my sleep, I sat the alarm for 7am because...since I am a platinum member, I get a free "behind the scenes ship tour". I did not get to take one on our last cruise because I didn't realize that you had to sign up the first day. Oops. But this time I didn't want to miss it.
We headed up to the buffet for breakfast. It wasn't too crowded up there...at least for being a sea day, I expected more. Maybe everyone was busy sleeping in...like I should have been.
Breakfast was good. No complaints here.
The ship tour started at 9am. We headed down to the atrium, which was our meeting spot. As we approached, I did see some people sitting, with name tags, and I knew that had to be the group. However, I also noticed that Sakari and I had our flip flops on and the instructions said to make sure we had closed toe shoes on. Oops. We raced back to the room to change shoes and headed back down and checked in. It was about 8:45am and the latitudes consultant said she had just left us a message in our room wondering if we were still coming. And here I thought we were early. LOL
"Barb", the cruise consultant, introduced herself and told us what we were going to see. She just recently joined the Jade back in December (I believe she said she came off the Breakaway, or maybe it was the Getaway) and she was still trying to learn her way around the Jade. She said the last tour she gave she got turned around and had to ask for directions from the crew. She told us how she has walked this tour so many times, trying to get it right, so that she didn't mess up again. We would later find out why she got lost so easily.
She first took us to the theater to meet the lady that was the production manager for the shows. They took us up in the sound booth where the lighting and music is played and explained to us what they did. We were told absolutely NO photography. Quite honest, where we were at is something anyone could take a picture of from standing beside it out in the audience at the top. Or, even when boarding the ship and wondering around taking pictures. I thought it was odd. There was nothing but a desk with computers and they had their notes, but nothing that would be a giveaway to the shows to take back somewhere and sabotage them.
Then she took us behind the stage, up and down some steps and showed us the ladies dressing rooms, told us about how quickly they had to change outfits, how many girls they had, and so on. Then took us to the mens dressing room and did the same. They were short 2 men I believe she said. Of course she pointed out how much cleaner and organized the mens room was compared to the ladies.
She also showed us a "spot" right as you exit the stage that they usually change clothes, right there in front of all the other dancers, and told us you can't be a dancer and be modest.
It was interesting to see the changing rooms, but quite honestly, I think once she told us that we were not allowed to take pictures, I instantly lost interest and tuned some things out. Just my opinion, but...yep, it's a dressing room, yep there's costumes, nope you can't take pictures of this??? I was bored and felt a little too much time was spent in this area and was ready to move on.
We headed into a hallway they call the I-95. It was all white with doors going everywhere and the main hall that the employees use to get everywhere. We were told that we were allowed to take pictures from here on out and I perked right up and started paying attention.
I tried to walk and snap a picture to show just how long these halls were...but it didn't turn out well. I forgot to put it on the sport setting. Oops
A spot they kept extra carpet for repairs.
Just a few interesting facts about the Jade:
*810 miles of electric cable & 55 miles of pipe within her hull.
*835 exterior windows & 1834 interior doors
*1000 gallons of paint used on the exterior and 3000 gallons for the interior
*12 passenger elevators & 10 service elevators
*Over 25,000 various light bulbs
*6800 nozzles & 437 fire hydrants for protection
*Max speed 25 knots=28.75MPH
*22 life boats: 20 holds 150 passengers & 2 holds 49 for a total of 3,398 people
*22 Life rafts holding 101 people and 2 hold 25 for a total of 2,272 people
This is a total capacity of 5,670 people
*43 life buoys and 2 MOB boats
*8098 Life jackets + 200 life jackets for infants
*Fuel use: capacity=713,300 Consumption at top speed with 4 engines running is 1 gallon per second.
Next up was the laundry facility.
Interesting facts about laundry.
*6 Large Washers (256 lbs. max loads)
*2 Medium Washers (125 lbs. max loads)
*1 small washer (for delicates & linens)
*8 Dryers (134 lbs max loads)
This area was the area they do passengers personal clothing
This machine was pretty neat. They put the shirt (or pants) on a thing that looked like a mannequin and pushed a button and it blew the shirt up while steaming it. The pants being blown up
These machines sounded like a jet engine on a plane starting up and ready for take off
Video of the machines
I watched a show on the Undercover Boss that had a place that did cleaning and the guy was talking about having his arm caught in one of these once and how dangerous they are and it's all I could think as I watched these guys work. Eeekk Those machines really get to moving. If they weren't bolted to the floor, they would be walking across it.
Mounds and mounds of laundry. It was just amazing to see this place run.
Barb did tell us that they keep (I think) a weeks worth of linens put away, just in case anything was to happen, then they would have clean linens for back up. Then each week those "back up" linens are rotated out.
This machine was a folding machine and was so neat to watch.
This guy had to work FAST to keep up with it.
Video of it working:
The sheets would come out on the other side and on to the next machine.
Then here the machine would fold them.
Coming out all nice and folded:
One of the guys on the tour did ask about if a machine breaks, how long did it take to fix it and how long would the machine be down. They told him it is fixed immediately and will never be down more than the day it was broke.
Next up was the galley.
Galley Information:
*There is 1 executive chef in charge of the entire ship with 4 assistants.
There is 1 exec. chef for the main galley, 1 exec. chef for the alternative restaurants, 1 exec. chef for Garden Cafe & 1 exec chef for Buffet Preparations.
*The food & beverage team is comprised of approximately 600 crew members
*All the hot dishes are prepared on deck 6 in the main hot galley between the Grand Pacific & Alzar dining rooms.
*The food is cooked and plated just before you are served.
*The Crew Galley is on deck 5 and meals are cooked for over 1100 crew members.
*Each specialty restaurant has it's own galley.
*The "Pantry" is a station that all cold food are prepared (appetizers, salads, sandwiches, canapes, as well as all ice, vegetable and fruit carvings are done here).
*Bakery-all items are made onboard and in operation 24 hours a day
*Pastries is made fresh daily. FYI: They use over 350 lbs of Dark and 150 lbs of White Chocolate for the Choc Buffet alone.
I have to say, I was totally disappointed in this part of the tour. It was really one of the main things I was interested in. There wasn't anyone that came and talked to us from the galley. We weren't explained anything about the galley really. And there was just a walkway (were I was taking pictures) that you walked down and out and you were done. I really wanted to see more action and have them tell us neat little facts about how many meals are prepared daily, how they managed to prepare so many and so on. :( But we were able to just walk down the hall and see everything that was located just right here and then we were done.
All in all, the tour was interesting. It was supposed to be a 1 hour tour, which turned in to a 1 1/2 hour tour, which was fine with me. I think the cruise consultant, Barb, did an excellent job, even though she says she's learning still, and she was such a joy to talk to. (We would run in to her later in the cruise and have a nice conversation and get to know her better).
She did give us a "fact sheet" that she took the time to research and make on her own, which was really nice. (This is where I'm getting all my info from). There's tons of other things on it, but I'm not typing all that up. LOL
Additional information:
*The Jade has approximately 1,100 men and women from approximately 60 countries working on the ship.
*The ship's personnel is divided into 3 departments: Deck (staff Captain, bridge officers, deck, medical, security, safety & environmental departments), Engine: (engine officers, electrical, technical hotel and refrigeration, mechanical, electrical and ventilation) and Hotel: (restaurants, galley, bar, housekeeping, entertainment & cruise director and staff).
*All crew dine in various dining rooms (messes) located on deck 5 aft.
*There is also a crew internet cafe, recreational area, gym, sun deck, DVD rental & a Crew Activities Coordinator.
*Garbage Incinerator & Processing: 2 garbage incinerators, which burn the dry garbage that is not disembarked for recycling.
*For safety, a simulated emergency drill is held every week for crew members. Lifeboats are lowered to ensure they are in proper working order.
After the tour, Sakari decided she wanted a snack and to go to the kids club for all of a total hour. LOL We stopped off to get her some grapes and off she went.
We spent some time browsing around the ship and I noticed the cheetah/leopard print coverings in one area and had to message my daughter (Kendra) back home to show her she was missing out on this fabulous view of the ship (she loves cheetah/leopard print anything).
We headed outside to just gaze at the water for awhile. It was such a beautiful day with a calm sea to start our journey.
Since I was (am) still in school and this was only my 2nd week for this particular class (and 7th week for another class), we needed to have internet service. Also, the hubby still had to work as well. So, we decided to purchase the full week, unlimited internet plan. It cost $209 total and we thought it was well worth it. We could do our work and schooling at any time, check up on the kids, check our social media, read emails and instant message people. It was perfect for what we needed it for.
I will admit that there were times that it got slow (late at night) and our personal small computer we brought with us and our phones were much faster than using the ships computers, but for the most part, it served its purpose for us.
The only issue I have is that for $209 you should be able to sign on more than 1 device (at least within the same cabin). UGH! It was such a hassle signing in and out between the hubby and I. We did have multiple issues (especially at night) when we would sign out of our phone, but couldn't get signed in on another phone or the computer. It would say that we were already signed on to another device. Sometimes we would completely have to go into the settings and deactivate the wifi all the way in order to get it to disconnect so the other person could sign in. For the most part, signing in and out of the phones was good...it was the computer that had issues. There were several nights (2) that I was at my wits end with trying to get signed on to the computer in our cabin to do homework. Later on that...
Here's the screen when you sign on...
We picked up Sakari from the kids club after her hour long "play" with her friends and I broke the news to her...we were headed to some place quiet to do some homework...ALL of us.
We grabbed our mounds of homework papers, the computer, pencils, notebooks and my nursing books and we headed up to the Garden Cafe. Sakari insisted on a table by the window and I told her if it distracted her, we would have to move. Who was I kidding? It was distracting ME! LOL
I got her started on her homework. Look at that determination on her face. She tried her best not to look out at the ocean and focus. Meanwhile, I'm gazing out at the ocean trying to not think about homework.
The hubby had the computer catching up on his job and could tell that I had a camera in my hand obviously...that look out of the corner of my eye told me I needed to get to work myself.
I started reading my chapters and things started out good. I did notice during the week that another child (older) had been doing his homework in here and also by the pool deck. So I pointed it out to Sakari that she was not the only "lucky" one that gets to do her homework in the middle of the ocean with a great view.
THEN...everyone started coming in to the buffet to each lunch. It got loud. It was hard to concentrate. UGH. I know Sakari has some issues with being able to focus at times, but for some reason she was doing really good. I think because it wasn't just one distraction but a bunch of talking and it was all mumbled to a constant loud blur of voices and sounds that you couldn't pin point just one conversation and that worked for her. It didn't distract her. But her belly and nose was a little distracting at this point. She said she needed some fuel to keep going. I ran and got her some more grapes and fruit.
Of course anything that has to do with drawing will keep her interested in her homework.
We all managed to get a lot done, however I'm the type of person that needs silence when I'm trying to concentrate on reading, so this wasn't working for me after awhile. The aroma of the food was also getting to me as well and I was ready for lunch. Our small 10" computer only manages to keep a charge for about 2 hours and it finally died on the hubby. So, we figured it was time for some lunch. However, I wanted to eat in the MDR. So, back to the cabin we went to put our things away and off to lunch we went.
We decided to go to the Grand Pacific for lunch.
We were seated at the back along the windows and this is always my favorite place to sit when eating in here (on other ships).
This would be our view during lunch and I couldn't be happier.
The waitress came around with the water.....ah the water. Ok, now, I know this is weird but...we do not drink water. I hate water. There's no taste. I can not drink water. It's just yucky. The hubby doesn't like it either and neither does Sakari. I know how good it is for you. I know the benefits. I just CAN'T. The only way that I drink water at home is if I have the packets of flavoring to put in it and it has to be grape and it has to have caffeine as well. I am addicted to caffeine. I get major migraines if I don't have it. I don't drink coffee. I only drink pop. (Hiding in shame now). Sakari has NEVER liked the taste of water either. Not even as a baby. She absolutely refused to drink it. She always insisted on milk. She's a milk or juice girl. I honestly hate that she won't drink it, but then again, I can completely understand since I'm the same way.
So, this entire cruise would consist of every time the waitress came around with that dreaded pitcher of water that would clutter our table with an extra 3 glasses that would never be used, we would dread it. No matter how many times we would hold up our hand and tell them we didn't want water and tell give them our key cards with the soda sticker on it or tell them juice, we'd still get water. It was like it was foreign to them why we would not want the water.
So here's my arch nemesis on the cruise. I had to take a picture.
We would decide that a glass of water was only perfect for dipping the napkins in it to wet it and washing sakari's face after eating. Hey, at least we put it to use.
The menu for todays lunch:
For starters I decided I wanted the Chicken Nachos. I had seen them brought out to someone else and they looked yummy.
They were AWESOME!! Seriously good. I could have made an entire meal out of it.
Sakari loves soup, so she ordered the Roasted Tomato Soup......And a bowl of fruit.
The hubby ordered a salad and soup, but I was so busy enjoying my nachos and the view that I forgot to get a picture.
For lunch the hubby had the Tuna Salad Sandwich:
I had the Fish & Chips:
I always hear everyone talk about the great fish & chips on the ships. I don't eat fish often (I prefer shrimp, lobster or crab legs if I'm going to do sea food), but every once in awhile I'll do fish. It's not that I don't like it, I just don't have it often.
This fish, I have to say, wasn't what I was expecting. It wasn't the greatest. It wasn't bad. Just not great. It was kinda gooey inside and you couldn't even cut it without all of the breading completely falling off. I couldn't keep it together. It just wasn't enjoyable to eat honestly. I hate struggling with food to try to get it to say together. LOL I do have to say that when others talk about how good the fish and chips are, I do imagine they are referring to that at the Blue Lagoon or O'Sheehans. But I figured it couldn't be that much of a difference.
For desert I had the peanut butter cup cheesecake. Once again, I'm a cheesecake freak. (But still prefer just plain).
Now I will say that previous dinner experiences in the MDR have been SLOW, but improving lately.
This lunch provided to be a VERY SLOW experience this time around. Our waitress was terrible. We watched people around us come in after us, be served and leave before we ever even had our main course (and they had appetizers, main and desert).
When they first brought the hubbys appetizer, it was wrong and he had also ordered the soup, which he NEVER got. It took them forever to bring us our pop and we were already eating by the time they did come. We were never once asked if we needed a refill even though our cups were empty. It honestly was not a good experience. Not bad, just not good. We spent a total of 2 hours in there and that's just not acceptable for a lunch.
Sakari was happy with her desert choice though so all was good in the hood.
After our long lunch, we decided to walk around for a bit and take some pictures. (Well, I decided we would walk around and take pictures, the hubby and Sakari had no choice).
We also stopped off at the "shopping mall" and I purchased me some White Diamonds, a ship tee shirt, and a ship ornament for Sakari's, now very large, collection.
We also checked out some of their rings. In the past we have had 2 bad experiences buying diamonds on the ship. You would think we would have learned our lesson, but they are just so shiny and blingy that we can't help ourselves. The hubby picked out one that had odd square shapes on it across the top. His wedding band has black diamonds in it and he has always wanted me to get a ring with black diamonds to match and this one was perfect.
They were having a "sale" of course, 50% off. WOW imagine that!! This ring was $4100, I believe, and now on sale for $2000 she said. So I guess I was getting a bit of a discount, more than 50%, because my math isn't that bad. The hubby told her he was thinking more along the lines of $1500. She looked in her system to find "THE.BEST.DEAL.EVER" and came back saying she could do $1900. Ehh, nope, we were still thinking $1500. Her manager came over and was trying to make the deal. We were told the manager had the authority to cut prices even more and came back with an offer of $1800. Ehh, that's still not $1500. They were trying hard. The hubby thought about offering $1600, but at this point I just wanted to leave. They informed me that we would be in Cozumel tomorrow and Cozumel is the only place that they can have the ring sized for me while on the cruise. That still didn't sway me and I told them I would let them know. It really makes me wonder just how much they pay for these rings and how much profit they are making when they keep reducing the rates over and over.
We headed back to the room to put our non-diamond purchases up and I found this...
Aww, how sweet. It's a day late, but still sweet for NCL to do this. NOW...I did read on the dailies that they were having a family cupcake decorating workshop earlier that morning. I thought about going, but we had the ship tour, homework to do, and just couldn't fit it into the schedule. After receiving this cupcake, I started to wonder which child on the ship had made it for me and my mind also reverted back to the vomit/swimming scene the day before. Yikes. Ok, my bad thoughts are over with...I gobbled it up and it was yummy.
Sakari wanted to go to the kids club because they were having a sports day outside up on the deck. She loves playing sports and is pretty competitive and likes to win. Up to the kids club she went.
She loves when we come and watch her play outside and made sure to tell us to come up and watch and she would be looking for us.
WOO HOO...kid free! Well, not really since we were being forced to still be around her by spending our kid free hours on the sports deck watching all the munchkins play.
We gave it a little bit of time for the munchkins to make it up to the basketball court and then we headed up...to spend our kid free time with our kid x20. Oh great.
They played all kinds of games using balls. When we arrived, they were playing a game that the child with the ball had to say a persons name and bounce the ball to them. The receiving child had to catch the ball without dropping it and only let it bounce once or they were out. Now think about this...how far do you think Sakari made it in this game? If you guessed almost to the end, you would be right! Why is that? Because how many kids can 1) remember her name & 2) remember how to pronounce it (even though it's pronounced just like it's spelled..SA-KAR-I (ee). But, I didn't expect the kids to remember it or even pronounce it right since the kids club staff can't even get it right. She was called Zachary the entire cruise.
Next up was a relay race between 2 teams. The first time you had to dribble with only 1 hand. Sakari's team won.
The next time they had to dribble using both hands.
Her team won again. She paraded around shouting her victory and ran over to tell us about it...as if we didn't already know. I threatened to leave if she didn't get back to the group because I didn't want her getting in trouble. She skipped away doing the happy-we-won dance.
The games lasted for 2 hours and it was time to go in and pick her up again.
We decided to do a bit more homework and at this point, I really don't remember if we headed back to the buffet area or stayed in the room. I just knew that the next 3 days were going to be port days and we probably wouldn't get much accomplished and I was going to make the most of it.
The sun was going down and I had to get some pictures.
I love the way the sun glows on the waters surface.
About 6:30pm, we headed to the buffet to get Sakari her second lunch for the day before going back to the kids club at 7pm. Once it was 7, we dropped her off and decided to head to the casino to kill some time before the show.
I love the bonus rounds. It's a $22.10 win for me. I have officially doubled my money now.
"It's a flippin tornado" I love when it says that. Add another $7.70 to my winnings.
Another win for the night...I can't remember how much I won this time, the count was up to $36.59 at the time I snapped the picture.
I have in my notes that the hubby won $94 that night and I walked away with a ticket with $54 on it and one with $89 on it. So not bad. Not huge wins, but walking out with more than you walked in with is always a huge win in my book.
We managed to drag ourselves away from the slots, even though we were on a winning streak, and head to the show. We could already hear the music playing loud and singing.
We walked in to find a full house and ropes put up that led down the isles to the chairs. Ok, this was the first I had ever seen that. We stood up above for awhile and seen that it was some type of cowboy show with country music. We really don't care for country music or cowboy shows, so we decided it was fine to miss the show and walked back out.
We spent some time on the pool deck just relaxing and gazing at the stars. But, you know me, I can't sit still for long and I was up and ready to move on.
We decided to head down the library and check it out. The hubby wanted to see if they had any interesting books about entrepreneurship (he owns his own store and just went in partners with another shop the week prior to leaving for this trip and is really into starting businesses and being successful at this point in his life).
I decided to try out the computer they had in there and check my school Blackboard to see if any grades from the previous week had posted. BINGO! One class I have only missed 1 point (still) and this new class I just managed to get 100% on all my previous papers from last week. I'm crossing my fingers I can keep this up while on vacation and knew that it would provide to be challenging. This.computer.is.slow.dot.com ugh I finally gave up on any hopes of doing any research while I was in there.
We met another couple outside the library and we started talking about the ss United States. We talked and talked and talked. We got to know each other and they were a lovely couple. I kept looking at my watch and thinking man time is really going by slow.
Around 10:20 I told the hubby we needed to head up to get Sakari from the kids club and all of us decided to go up. When we arrived, we found that we were being charged $6 for the hour we were late. YIKES! Say what? It's 10:30pm. Nope, it was 11:30pm. Somehow when the clocks were set up a hour last night, my cell phone clock was good all day...until now! It had reverted itself back a hour. Seriously? The one day that I decided not to wear my watch and it does this. Oh well, ship happens and it happened to us tonight. Poor Sakari, she was the only one in there.
Sakari was hungry and so were we. We decided to head to the Blue Lagoon for dinner since it was so late and nothing else was open yet.
Sakari had chicken strips.
I decided on a hamburger
The hubby had wings
We finished and headed back to the room to find this little guy
I packed our bags for tomorrow and headed for the shower...which would go from steaming hot to ice cold and back again. This has happened several times to us on cruises. Before you ask, no I don't complain about it. I just deal.
The head of the shower also had a leak. When you turned it on, the water shot out the side of it and all over the floor. It became a game of turning it on quickly and shutting the door, then a quick open of the door and jumping in and quickly shutting it behind you. I was going to report this, but once you're done showering, you have a tendency to forget it just happened until the next shower. Oops. But in all honestly, I'm sure the room steward knew about this. I mean after all they clean the showers and have to turn the water on and I'm sure it has soaked him several times in doing so. He has been mean to me, so I'll just continue to let him get soaked and call it a week.