NCL Jewel NYC to Miami repo Oct 30, 2009

[CruisinMaterial]

Hey Jake, do you look for friends/family to share a cabin with, or anyone that wants share costs and possibly hang out with? If the latter, how do you go about finding someone compatible?

 

I usually go with mom or sometimes I sail solo but that's usually with Atlantis and do their random roommate share program. It's worked out thus far. Sometimes sis comes along (on hetero cruises). I have yet to find someone who is a good friend to split a room on a hetero cruise with. Managing to find someone on the Internet to split a room and go with is a whole other ball game. It takes so long and to find someone compatible to both the time to go, itinerary on which to go on and not to mention a host of other factors like if the person smokes or not (which Atlantis pairs up based on smoking preferences only which seems to have worked so far).

 

I don't know how you manage to find the time and $$ to go on so many cruises while in school. Lucky you!

 

I also work full-time as well as doing school. Hence I do have the resources to go on vacation, just not the time to do it. Summer is blackout at my work so I cruise in the winter breaks (Xmas and Spring Break). Both tend to run higher unless you sail the week after the New Year which is a little cheaper because most of the little kiddies are back to school by then.

 

 

I spoke to my TA yesterday about my FCC and she put the idea of the Epic in my head for early 2011 and am strongly considering it.

 

If I do the Epic it'd be the January 1 sailing to the E Carribean. Not sure if mom is crazy on the ship yet. So far she thinks it's completely geared to "my" type of crowd. Ha ha! Discos up the wazoo and water slides. She doesn't see much for her to do onboard. I'm sure that'll change once the Epic puts to see and the first reviews are in though!! :)

[CanCruzer]

FJS0974, welcome back. How was the cruise both in general and in terms of FoD? Was there a good gang? How many? Did they have announcements every day in the daily planner? Did you encounter any nasty people on board?

 

I was following along with you guys and reliving our last year's cruise during the lead up to the cruise, feeling the excitement as the start of the cruise approaches :D then embarkation day (I checked out the web cam in NYC for your sail away) :D the half way mark, the last couple of ports realizing the cruise is coming to an end :( the last sea day, saying goodbye to everyone you've met :(:( but making sure you have contact info, and finally debarkation :eek:

[CruisinMaterial]

I'm just eager how to hear the staff were and who was onboard for major department heads? Also, where was the FOD? I'm betting it was in the Star Bar outside of Cagneys like it was on the Jewel in 2007. I just hope they moved the time back. It was always a pain to get there during the dinner hour or to miss a show. The Spirit had the FOD much later like around 10PM so that it was near the club and it was great to roll it into the evenings entertainment. Makes more sense that way. :)

 

Looking forward to hearing from you FJS!

[CanCruzer]

I'm betting it was in the Star Bar outside of Cagneys like it was on the Jewel in 2007. I just hope they moved the time back. It was always a pain to get there during the dinner hour or to miss a show. The Spirit had the FOD much later like around 10PM so that it was near the club and it was great to roll it into the evenings entertainment.

Both the Star and the Jewel had FOD in the Star Bar. I don't think the Spirit has a Star Bar. Instead we met in the martini bar that overlooked the atrium. It was a very nice venue ... out in the open.

 

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but if the FoD times don't suit, ask them to move it. We've done that twice. The second time I had to be a little more insistent. I was met with "in our experience people like the meetings later" ...I think they were originally scheduled around 7pm. I had to say several times, "well the people on this cruise want it at cocktail hour". I think we got it moved to 5:30pm.

 

Never hurts to ask. They tend to be very accommodating.

[CruisinMaterial]

Problem with that is mom eats so darn early that cocktail hour for me would be at 4PM! That's why a later FOD around 9:30 or 10PM would work great. We'll see how it is the first night onboard. I will definitely go whatever time and plan dinner accordingly. NCL's onboard entertainment line up hasn't changed for the shows so we know what to expect. I think the Jewel is one of the last ship with the Jean Ann Ryan dancers but they might have even switched that. I'm waiting for the folks to post about the entertainment.

[FJS0974]

Hi Guys

 

We had a wonderful time thanks. There was a FOD each evening at the Star Bar at 700pm. We went each evening prior for dinner for a Martini, it was lovely. We were the only two to show each evening, and there was a lot of “Family” on board. A few of them appeared to be traveling together and were quite “Clicky” and clearly wanted it to keep it that way not even a hello, but a look! So we kept to ourselves and met some lovely straight people, and had dinner and tours, etc with them as they were nicer company! (You just never know).

 

The staff and the cruise director were all amazing and they did an exceptional job. We really had a wonderful time, and I am sad it’s over, but I am happy to be home. We stayed on for the extension and were on a total of 16 nights, that’s a long time.

[CanCruzer]

Hi Guys

 

We had a wonderful time thanks. There was a FOD each evening at the Star Bar at 700pm. We went each evening prior for dinner for a Martini, it was lovely. We were the only two to show each evening, and there was a lot of “Family” on board. A few of them appeared to be traveling together and were quite “Clicky” and clearly wanted it to keep it that way not even a hello, but a look! So we kept to ourselves and met some lovely straight people, and had dinner and tours, etc with them as they were nicer company! (You just never know).

 

The staff and the cruise director were all amazing and they did an exceptional job. We really had a wonderful time, and I am sad it’s over, but I am happy to be home. We stayed on for the extension and were on a total of 16 nights, that’s a long time.

So happy to hear that you enjoyed your cruise. Reading on the roll call from the cruise I see everyone had a great time. Not sure if you hooked up with many from that roll call or not.

 

I'm surprised at the lack of family. After such a strong showing on our last 3 NCL cruises, I assumed they were always like that. We have the Dawn booked for Jan 2011. Still a long way out, but hoping we'll have a lively crowd.

 

You mentioned that 16 nights was a long time. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or bad. Our upcoming cruise will be 18 nights. Longest ever for me, but really looking forward to it. I'm not expecting much, if any, of a FoD gathering on our upcoming HAL voyage, but do hope they schedule some.

[CruisinMaterial]

FJS - Thanks for the information on the FOD. I figured it'd be smack dab during the dinner time. I'd probably run up for a bit before the early show since mom will most certainly go for that. :cool: It's nice to hear the crew were well. There's always a ton of family on the crew! The nice part of it on the Spirit was that all of them both gay and straight were very nice to hang out with ashore in Bermuda. Sadly we don't have any overnight stays where there may be a party ashore. Otherwise, you can have a great time with the crew because they have their area and go down there to their crew parties and we're not invited for saftey reasons (below decks).

 

I can't wait for the sailing!

 

CanCruzer - You are going to be sailing with an average age that is quite older if your cruise is that long. A 10 day cruise I did on Princess had an average age that was older as well. The Jewel had a moderate average and that was 12 days and the FOD was a good size bunch - about 10 and it was international since the ship was in the Med. That was quite fun so it really is hit or miss. I'm just jealous you are taking a cruise that long. Right now I could use an escape that long!! :D

[CanCruzer]

I'd probably run up for a bit before the early show since mom will most certainly go for that. :cool:

Does your mom attend the FOD gatherings? I know there are often gay friendly folks in attendance. What's funny is the folks that are hanging out in the Star bar waiting for their Cagney's reservations and don't quite know what to make of the bar that is entirely full of men. ;)

It's nice to hear the crew were well. There's always a ton of family on the crew! The nice part of it on the Spirit was that all of them both gay and straight were very nice to hang out with ashore in Bermuda.

I second that. We met a lot of crew on the Spirit and hung out with them both on and off the ship, although mostly off since it is limited to what extent they can hang out with the pax. We had an "in" to the crew because the volunteer FoD "host" was the piano player for Second City. He had all of the perks of an NCL employee (able to access crew parties and discounted booze) but was not considered one and as such could hang out with pax as much as he wanted. We hung out with him a lot.

CanCruzer - You are going to be sailing with an average age that is quite older if your cruise is that long. A 10 day cruise I did on Princess had an average age that was older as well.

 

I'm just jealous you are taking a cruise that long. Right now I could use an escape that long!! :D

I've read about the age demographics and also heard that during Christmas it may skew down a bit. I know the ship is sold out. Whatever it is, I don't care. The folks on our roll call sound like a great bunch. We have a very active roll call for a HAL cruise.

 

I can't believe how close it is. I have less than 4 weeks of work left. Then I'm off for 5 weeks and believe me, I need it! Then my first week back is a week of self-study training. So 6 weeks away from the regular routine. :D I've never been away from work that long. Not sure what I'll come back to. :eek:

 

I'll let you know how the cruise was, either via email or on this thread, if you are interested.

[CruisinMaterial]

Hi CanCruzer - Mom did attend one FOD meeting once on a Princess sailing, I'm not sure which one it was and she was mistaken for a lesbian. Suffice it to say that she will NEVER attend one again. :eek: :D It was quite funny but she was NOT amused! Oh well... a good memory. I think it was the Star or Caribbean Princess cruise. It was on Princess because I remember it happened in the Explorer's Lounge but after so many cruises I can't remember which one it was. OMG... I'm getting old! :eek:

 

The crew party in Bermuda this season was the best shoreside nightlife experience I had. The dockyard is in need of a decent club and NCL needs to step up their disco quite a bit. Top 40 gets too stale too quickly night after night, you need to spice it up quite a bit. I prefer House music myself but I can understand the need to diversify for the pax but the only night with House music tends to be the White Hot Party.

 

Definitely post a review or email me with one. It's always nice to hear how others are experiencing cruises no matter the line (except Carnival... ick).

 

~Jake