Live from the Jewel April 29-May 13, 2024: will definitely contain sarcasm and grumpiness

[CptBoatface]

Happy Birthday! May you Pack as much fun in as you can!

[CptBoatface]

The Jewel and staff are awesome 😎 

[mimi'sgirl]

Happy Birthday! Hope you are enjoying your special day! 

[KACTravels]

Happy Birthday! I hope you had a fabulous day!!!!! 🎂🎈🎉🍰🎁 

[Seas2mountains]

Happy Birthday, Yvonne! Can’t wait to read about your day and hope it is wonderful despite the weather. I hope you get to enjoy some yummy cake, too. 

[GALSews]

Happy Birthday.

[YVRteacher]

9 hours ago, nordicacres said:

Happy Birthday! (We share a birthday!) We’ll be on the Jewel next month!

Happy Birthday!!!

[YVRteacher]

8 hours ago, KACTravels said:

Happy Birthday! I hope you had a fabulous day!!!!! 🎂🎈🎉🍰🎁 

Thank you so much, Kelly!

[YVRteacher]

5 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

Happy Birthday, Yvonne! Can’t wait to read about your day and hope it is wonderful despite the weather. I hope you get to enjoy some yummy cake, too. 

Oh yes!!!!! Epic cake!

 

thank you!!

[YVRteacher]

17 hours ago, Faulkh said:

Happy Birthday Yvonne! Wishing you days filled with love and laughter surrounded by family and friends (and a few thousand CC travelers). Thanks for sharing your cruises and your father with us. 

Thank you so much!

[YVRteacher]

What does one do when rain curtails your whale watching adventure?

 

Wise ones book a hot stone aromatherapy massage using the 25% Latitudes discount on select services while in port. Note that in Juneau there is 7% sales tax added. 

 

 

 

I just had the best massage of my life!

 

If you are on the Jewel and Andalie is on board please give yourself the gift of a massage with her.

 

When the massage began she asked if I wanted to include dry brushing. I said no thank you.

 

She said dry brushing is good for circulation and exfoliation. I said I didn’t want to be brushed.

 

I thought to myself, “does she think I’m a horse?”

 

I went in with a sore neck and tense shoulders (my shoulders are always tight) and I left with no pain and the dopey state of relaxation that leaves one incoherent. (I was not so incoherent that it prevented me from reminding the noisy spa talkers to please be quiet. After 11 days on this ship I finally spotted the minute sign in tiny font reminding people the spa is a quiet area. NCL if you read this, we need those signs to be billboard-sized with large lettering. Some people need it tattooed on their forehead. There’s more to this story and I’ll write it in a few days.)

 

Back to the massage.

Andalie did things I’ve never had done in a massage, like work through every tendon and muscle in my feet and toes, stretch my arms backwards farther than I knew they could go and stretched me from the toes like The Torture Machine in The Princess Bride. At times it was excruciating, but in a good way. When she was doing the hot stones on my back I was so relaxed I may or may not have drooled a teeny bit. 

 

I almost suggested to Andalie that she consider getting a tattoo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “though she be but little, she is fierce.” I told her it was the best massage ever and I have another Vacation Hero card to write. 

 

I wish I had booked the 100 minute massage because I did not want it to end. I had placed dad in a heated ceramic lounger and told him not to go anywhere and when I came out he was gone. I did have a heart-stopping moment of panic when I saw the person in the chair my dad had been occupying had a seemingly naked old guy with a towel draped over the mid area and I was like oh no he’s naked again but upon closer look this guy had a skin-coloured bathing suit. He has the same axolotl wrinkly skin dad has so my mistake was a fair one. Turns out dad had been wandering around the spa reception area looking for me.  It also turns out the heated ceramic lounger is not a good dad-sitter. 

[YVRteacher]

If they sold excursions in Juneau for sideways rain sightings they would have made a huge profit today. If anyone reading this is on the ship, did your excursion happen today? Did you face the elements and go ashore?

 

Cruise Director Renan just came on the PA to announce they are having an unscheduled special event in Stardust: Ghostbusters 2 movie. 

 

I just returned from the spa and surprise!  My room looks like a party ready to happen.

 

There’s even a towel birthday cake. Thank you to Fajar (our room steward who shares a birthday with me-you bet he got a box of truffles from the Alaskan Fudge Company this morning) Armando, Seka and the housekeeping team.

 

Armando and Seka (this week’s butler) sent a treat and a card

 

 

 

and Rumi sent treats.

 

We enjoyed Happy Hour

then walked around to get a few more steps in today. My dad refuted my idea to walk by all the cabins to take photos of door decorations so laps around deck 7 inside it was.

 

For happy hour we watched the pylons blow down the pier

 

 

 

 

then witnessed people dash from the shuttle to the ship, bracing against the sideways rain.  

Umbrellas were flipping inside and out faster than that little girl grabbed food off our plates yesterday; raincoats were catching updrafts and scarves were flying horizontally while their owners tried to stay vertical.  This is good quality cruise ship entertainment right here.

 

 

 Overheard in Spinnaker at 5:15pm from the man from Michigan:

“We came thousands of miles to watch rain.” 

 

The rain watching was epic this evening.

 

[YVRteacher]

Birthday dinner

 

We had a Goldilocks dinner tonight in Le Bistro.

Our first table was too high for dad.

Our second table was next to a foul-mouthed man who was dropping f-bombs every two seconds. (Who swears in Le Bistro???)

Our third table was next to a photo of something French and old and was just right.

 

What a dinner! It was a little funny at the start because three people came in a row to introduce themselves and say they would be our waiter for the evening.  The waiter Rumi always requests won and we had the pleasure of her outstanding attention to detail, sense of humour and pure joy. Thank you, Ienil!

 

Do you know what tastes better than Le Bistro Soupe aux Quatre Champignons? 
 

 

Soupe aux Quatre Champignons when it’s cold and stormy outside! So perfect and so, so delicious. It’s like a hug for your taste buds and your insides.

 

My dad ordered the Sole Grenobloise again

 

 

while I requested the goat cheese croquettes with the vegetable side dishes from the other entrees.

Look at this artfully prepared plate!

 

We both absolutely loved our food and the dinner ranks highly amongst memorable meals on NCL.

 

Siegefreid kept our bubbly filled to the brim and kept my dad in smiles, as he always does. 

 

 

Overheard in Le Bistro at 7:13pm

 

Dad: “the comedian isn’t on until 8:30.  That’s past my bedtime.”

Me:

“Remember I said you could sleep in tomorrow?”

“And remember how I said we were having chocolate birthday martinis tonight?”

“And also remember how you said we were going to the gift shop to buy diamonds??”

 

This memory loss business can work to your favour if you let it! 

(If you know me you know I don’t want diamonds)

 

The team in Le Bistro brought out a cake and started singing Happy Birthday and the passengers started singing and I just burst into tears. The woman at the table next to us said “oh, she’s crying” and she got a little teary too. I took out my phone to take a photo of the singing team but the Maître d took my phone and took photos of me and now I have all these photos of me crying and smiling at the same time.  

 

This cake! 

 

Chocolate sponge as light as a spring morning with fresh strawberries and cream, surrounded by handmade truffles and piped with pink and white icing. I love pink icing.  There may have been a hint of alcohol in there too. 

 

 

 

We cut the cake and shared with the team in Le Bistro, the incredible bartenders and bar servers in Magnums, Armando, Rumi and of course our friends.

 

I am going to print a photo from tonight because the love and joy that enveloped me tonight is a memory as delicious as the cake.

 

The cake is from Rumi.❤️

Edited May 10 by YVRteacher

[YVRteacher]

Chocolate birthday martinis will have to wait.

Duck Farts were on the agenda for tonight!

 

[YVRteacher]

I need to share what happened at lunch.
 

My dad and I just wanted something quick and easy so we went to the Garden Cafe. 6 bites into my meatless chef’s salad a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday rang through La Cucina as new friends become good friends from PEI brought their love and joy and good wishes to our table!  Thank you!!! I love you both!

[YVRteacher]

I tried to go to the comedy show tonight (one show only) but it was full. I stood for a while and loved the guy so decided I would come back with dad for his show that’s on later in the cruise.

 

I came back to the cabin to check in on dad and he was having a moment where he thought the world was coming to an end.

 

Last week when we put laundry in my dad’s laundry was returned within hours and mine came back the next morning. Today we organized the laundry after breakfast (no meltdown this time-yay!)  so it was picked up likely around 10:30am.  All day my dad was asking me when his laundry would come back.

 

Tonight my laundry was returned all folded, wrapped in crisp tissue paper and nestled in a basket. My dad’s laundry has not yet been returned.

 

My dad has now convinced himself that the ship has stolen his pajamas.

[YVRteacher]

16 hours ago, NikiPinkston said:

Hope that all of your wishes come true!❤️🎂🍷

 

I love this! Thank you, Niki!

[YVRteacher]

17 hours ago, graphicguy said:

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Party Dog!!

thank you!!

[ihate2cruise]

On 5/9/2024 at 3:06 AM, YVRteacher said:

Cookies in the Great Outdoors

 

please note that there is no shortage of cookies on the Jewel

Thank Goodness!!! I do not eat sweets at home, when I am on vacation I eat what I want and Cruise Cookies are a MUST for ME 😉  All the talk of vanishing cookies on NCL had me feeling disappointed. Please save me some 😉 We will be on the May 20th Cruise! BTW- did they have scoop hard Ice Cream at the buffet?

[ihate2cruise]

15 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes and kindness! I appreciate your words so very much!

 

We have limited internet today and the Cruise Critic “like” buttons aren’t showing up for me. Please know I ❤️ your messages!

 

We are heading to the thermal spa and I am getting a hot stone massage. 

Happy Belated Birthday!! Let's here it for May Babies. My dad's birthday was also in May, we shared many cruises and vacations together and I have those wonderful memories...I will be celebrating my(milestone) birthday on board in Juneau on the 23rd.

 

[Disney Deb]

Happy birthday a day late, Yvonne! Your day looks like it was fantastic. Did your dad get his laundry back yet? Love this trip review!

[GALSews]

6 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

What does one do when rain curtails your whale watching adventure?

 

Wise ones book a hot stone aromatherapy massage using the 25% Latitudes discount on select services while in port. Note that in Juneau there is 7% sales tax added. 

 

When the massage began she asked if I wanted to include dry brushing. I said no thank you. After having been brushed on other cruises, I elected to get myself one and exfoliate at home.

 

 At times it was excruciating, but in a good way. When she was doing the hot stones on my back I was so relaxed I may or may not have drooled a teeny bit. I've found that I do dose off during massages. My husband will no longer do a couples massage with me, as my snoring kept him from enjoying his massage.

 

He has the same axolotl wrinkly skin dad has so my mistake was a fair one. Okay, I had to look up what an axolotl is. It's a paedomorphic salamander which now means I have another word to look up. 

 

 

[KACTravels]

Congratulations on your Ambassador Status!!! 👏🏻🙌🏻👏🏻

[mjcatlvr]

So enjoying all of your posts Yvonne. We will be taking my 89 year old father on the beautiful Jewel 07/29/24. If you had a second could you please snap a picture of the breakfast and lunch menus for the Haven diners? I can't seem to find them online with much searching. Thank you in advance 😊

[schmoopie17]

Wow...that cake in Le Bistro looks awesome.

 

Probably tastes much better (and easier to swallow) than the towel cake.