Review of Christmas Panama Canal on the Jade

[Jenlek]

We are a family of 5 (NCL platinum) and split into two mini suites for this trip on the Jade, December 24-January 4.

 

Embarkation

We drove down from North Carolina (I know, ridiculous but we wanted to visit friends in South Florida before the cruise).  Parked in the garage about 10:15 a.m. and hauled our luggage to the nearest porter to be brought on the ship.  Waited in a pretty crowded waiting area for about an hour (we were in boarding group 2) and then headed onto the ship.

 

The ship

We had been on the Jade before for a European cruise a couple of years prior.  It's a smaller ship which we prefer as there are fewer people and it’s easier to move around.  The ship is in good shape and with a couple of minor exceptions the crew was friendly and helpful.  Unlike other ships we have been on, the fitness was usually busy but not overcrowded.  We never had trouble getting on a cardio machine.  The stretching/free weights area is tiny but it usually is on ship gyms.  We did not use the spa.

 

Staterooms

Our two mini suites were definitely an upgrade on space from a balcony which is the category we were in the last time we were on the Jade.  Bigger room, bigger balcony, and bigger bathroom with bathtub.  We were able to pull the balcony chairs from one balcony so we could all sit together in 4 chairs.  My son slept on the pull out couch which was pretty hard.  My Mom’s cabin steward was not terribly attentive and we went days without seeing him though the room was mostly taken care of.  Our cabin steward was always there and he was really terrific. 

 

Dining

We had specialty dining for 4 nights as part of the package-we did Moderno twice (the kids really like it), Cagney's, and Teppanyaki.  Great food and good service in all specialty restaurants.  The Garden Café was not usually too crowded and we never minded walking through to the Great Outdoors to get away from the hordes. We ate in Alizar and Grand Pacific a few times and O’Sheehans for lunch and breakfast.  For some reason, this is the first time we had eaten at O’Sheehans for breakfast on any cruise and it was a very pleasant, relaxed experience.

 

The Kids

My son had just aged out of the Splash Academy.  He LOVES the Splash Academy and was excited about trying out the teen activities (Entourage).  Unfortunately, because he was the youngest, he had a hard time fitting in with the older kids and did not love the many scavenger and other “hunts” that were the planned activities. It would have been great if Entourage had more open hours so kids could come in and play foosball and PS4 without having to participate in group events.

My daughter is 17 and wanted nothing to do with the Teens area.  She mostly hung out with us. 

 

Entertainment

We attend the shows mostly as a diversion for our 17 year old.  There are usually a couple of good performers and the people watching is at least as entertaining as the shows themselves.  We don’t gamble and I’ve only been in the casino when I’ve gotten lost. 

 

Drink package

Because we travel in two staterooms, we usually try to divide up the “free at sea” offers.  This cruise each stateroom received two “free at sea” offers.  My husband and I took the Ultimate Beverage Package and Specialty Dining.  My Mom and the kids had 250 Internet minutes and Specialty Dining.  We shared the 250 internet minutes and most days it worked though it was slow.  Mom doesn’t drink alcohol but does like a virgin Mudslide and a Diet Pepsi once a day.  The kids like Shirley Temples and Pepsis.  We never had a problem ordering drinks for everyone with just one card.  I always leave an extra tip (bring dollar bills) but I really don’t think I received any special treatment. 

 

Ports

Cartagena

We were most excited to visit this port and I wish that we had more time there.  I would definitely go back.  I had read all of the warnings about safety but we felt very safe the entire time. We got off the ship promptly at 7 a.m. and walked through the touristy terminal with parrots, flamingos, and a gift shop.  We walked out to the taxi stand and negotiated for a van that would hold ten people.  The driver was from Switzerland and spoke perfect English, good Spanish, and some German.  We then recruited a German family to join us in the van.  The cost was $5 per person and he took us to the Old Town. 

We wandered around the Old Town for awhile and walked the wall before it got too hot.  I bought my son a Colombian soccer jersey for $10.  Negotiations started at $45.  We stopped for a snack of gelato and then walked to the Castillo (Fortress).  There was quite a line to enter but we eventually made it up the hill to explore the very impressive building.  `       

I speak enough Spanish to get by but most people wanted to practice their English with me so I would speak in Spanish and they would respond in English.  Everywhere we went took USD or credit card.  We had no issues communicating except the cab driver on the way back to the ship did not speak English.   I would definitely bring sunscreen and water.

After the Castillo, we had to back on the ship by 1:30 so we caught a small cab back to the cruise terminal (terminal de cruceros).  Negotiated price was $10 total but traffic was so bad and it took us so long (35 minutes-should have been about 10-12 minutes), I gave him $20. 

 

Panama Canal/Gatun Lake

We got up at sunrise to watch the ships enter the locks.  It was very cool but honestly the return trip had a much better view for us and I could have slept in!  Because only NCL excursions could tender from the ship and the shore excursions were not that interesting and were pricey, we stayed on board.  A lot of passengers cleared out and it was a great day to just hang out and watch all of the cargo ships coming and going.  For the return trip through the locks, we watched from our balconies and then walked in the Colon terminal just to say we had “been” in Panama.  Colon terminal has a couple of photo ops and a pretty neat grocery store that we wandered through (it takes USD and credit cards) but we had a hard time stretching this out to even 45 minutes off the boat.  We ended up just walking within the terminal area to get our steps in.

 

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

This was the second most anticipated stop.  We got up early so we could meet our private guide at 7 a.m.  We watched the ship try to dock several times.  Finally, the ship started to pull away and an announcement was made that it was not safe to dock and we would not be staying in Costa Rica.  We instead headed early for Harvest Caye.  We were NOT happy.  I emailed our tour guide and he also expressed his disappointment and the economic impact on the entire area that was looking forward to hosting the ship. 

 

Harvest Caye

Because we missed Costa Rica, we were on the ship for two sea days before Harvest Caye and we were ready to get off!  Before we left, I reserved a 6 seater golf cart from Captain Jak’s for $55 for 4 hours.  We bought ferry tickets to Placencia from the Shore Excursion desk (See story below about tender tickets for Roatan.  Initially we were also told we could not buy ferry tickets on the ship but I kept asking different people until I was directed to Shore Excursions).  Tickets were $20 per person round trip.  We were given a set time (10:50) and told we had three hours on Placencia.  I emailed Captain Jak’s and gave them our ETA and they offered to meet me at the docks.  Once we arrived on Harvest Caye, I went to the ferry desk and asked if they had an earlier ferry.  They did and we boarded about 30 minutes. I called Captain Jak’s and they were kind enough to meet us early.  Once we arrived, we hopped in the golf cart and took off to explore the island.  We stopped at the beach and several stores and had a great time on our self-excursion.  The return ferry was scheduled for us at 1:30.  We may have been able to get on a later ferry but they only have 61 seats and if we missed our guaranteed time and there was no space on a later ferry, it wouldn’t be good. 

 

We then spent a couple of hours relaxing and exploring Harvest Caye.  We found seats by the pool and there were also tons of seats near the beach.  There were lots of local vendors and places to eat. 

 

Roatan

We used a tour guide we have used before, George Lemus of Roatan Custom Tours.  George is fantastic.  He speaks excellent English, is very responsive to emails, and has great ideas for activities.  We toured the island in a large van, did a little shopping, and then hung out at Paradise Beach Club for $20/pp for the rest of the day.  We walked down the beach and did some of the best snorkeling that we have done in years (we brought our own snorkel equipment).  Great water clarity and lots of fish.  Paradise Beach Club has a restaurant and bar and we ordered food for the kids and Monkey LaLas for the rest of us.  They reported the chicken fingers were very good. My husband, Mom, and I walked down the alley to Omay’s local food stand.  We ordered fried fish with plantains, rice and beans for $15 a plate (paid in USD).  Two plates were more than enough for 3 of us. 

 

Costa Maya

We had been here before and went back to Maya Chan.  I can’t say enough good things about Maya Chan even though the day we visited the weather wasn’t great and the beach had a lot of sea grass (obviously, neither of which they control).  The service is exceptional, the food AMAZING, and the location perfect.  I got a massage (one hour-$45) and the kids played in the new pool, kayaked, built sand castles, and roamed around.  There was another large party there but we barely noticed them.  The taxi ride back to port was dominated by a couple who had imbibed too much and were the definition of ugly Americans but it just made for a teachable moment and a funny story later.  My difficult-to-please 17 year old declared it the best stop on the cruise. 

 

Disembarkation

We were scheduled to arrive at 7 a.m. and since we were driving home (not a good idea), we wanted to get up and out early.  Unfortunately, we were not let off the ship until after 8 a.m.  We always use the walk off process with our own luggage and the line moved pretty quickly.  Immigration was a cursory glance at our passports and if there was any customs scrutiny, I missed it.  We were in the van and on the road by 8:40.

 

Norwegian Generally

As I mentioned, we are platinum with NCL so clearly we keep coming back.  However, there are things that need improvement and now I just plan for NCL screw ups.

One is the specialty dining reservations and transportation reservations.  There are always discrepancies between what the NCL app says, our confirmation print out says, and the reservation desk says.  ALWAYS, check and double check the times and names of any reservation and print out your confirmations.

 

Second is the lack of communication.  On the day we were tendering for Roatan, I found out in an email about 4 p.m. the day before from our Honduran tour guide that we were tendering.  NCL did not mention it until the Daily came out that night. We have had horrible experiences tendering before where the ticket acquisition is unmanaged and chaotic and the lines are endless so I was immediately suspicious.   I walked down to Guest Services to confirm that we were tendering.  Yes, we were.  I asked where and how do we get tickets?  7 p.m. in Bliss Lounge.  Ok.

 

So we drew straws to see who would go down to Bliss Lounge and wait in a long line for part of the evening to make sure we got tickets.  But then I had another suspicion.  NCL usually tells me the wrong answer at least once.  So, I called down to Guest Services to inquire and was told that tickets would be issued at 7 a.m. the following morning before tendering began at 8 a.m.  I then asked if we get priority tender tickets because we have platinum reward status.  The answer was yes but she couldn’t tell me how we acquired the tender tickets with the status.  She thought I could just show up.

 

The next morning, I continued my fretting (as I noted we have been burned before on the tender process) so my husband dutifully went down to Bliss at 7 a.m. to get tender tickets.  After waiting in line, he was told that because we are platinum, we cannot obtain tender tickets and we should just show up, flash our cards and we will have priority boarding.  Theoretically good.  However, when we did just that, the very nice dancer who was pulling duty as queue director did not know this policy.  I politely told her what we had been told and then we just kept on walking to the tender.  So, yes it all worked out.  But I have been on cruises where it did not work out because of poor communication between passengers and crew and these situations could be easily avoided.   Maybe NCL staff are trying to give me the run around.  I don’t know.  I really think it’s just the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing and then does not communicate internally to the crew and externally to the passengers.  I should not have to hear from my tour guide in Roatan about our tender process before NCL tells me.

 

Tips

We have TMobile and our package allows us to call the U.S. for .25/minute and data and texting are free.  So anytime we were in port, it was great to check in and allowed us to preserve our 250 NCL internet minutes over 11 days.  We always bring lots of dollar bills and small denominations so we can tip and pay taxis and vendors easily with exact change.  Water bottles are handy to take when in port and we always bring ziplocs so we can pack some snacks for our time off the ship. 

[Sauer-kraut]

Thanks for your review!  I am looking at a May cruise on Celebrity that does a partial transit but haven't yet booked.  Your insights are gratefully received.

[davidpariani]

Thanks for the review. Very informative.

[holdon216]

Thank you! Lots of great tips.

[ighten]

RE Tendering - My understanding us you dont need a tkt if your gold or above you just show your card.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review!