NCL2 wrapup

This was a full month of travel – 26 days on a cruise (Norwegian Jade), almost 4 full days in Anchorage and a long flight home. It was a good trip, overall, but had some bumps. I will review the ship first, followed by an accounting of highlights and lowlights.

The Norwegian Jade

This is one of the older (launched 2006) and smaller ships in the Norwegian fleet (about 2,400 capacity and carrying only 2,000 on this cruise). We expected an older, smaller ship as we had seen it in port last year. But I hadn’t cruised Norwegian in over 20 years and Marlene had never been on any cruise line other than Carnival, so neither of us knew exactly what to expect. In evaluating the ship we naturally compare it to our Carnival experiences. So how did it stack up?

Not well.

The ship itself was in good condition and the layout – with the possible exception of the main dining room – was designed well. It was relatively easy to find the venue we were seeking. The dining room, located on Deck 6 aft, had to be accessed from Deck 7. As we were on Deck 5 that meant we had to walk up two decks, go aft then walk down to 6. Inconvenient. It had a nice view out the stern, but because of the inconvenience we mostly dined in the second, somewhat smaller, dining room.

The single salt water pool was small and we used it just once – it was too chilly to use after Acapulco, which meant that the pool was irrelevant for the second half of the cruise. The hot tubs were used throughout, but we did not use them after Acapulco.

The ship has two good dance venues – the Bliss Lounge on Deck 7 and the Spinnaker Lounge on Deck 13. A third music venue – Magnum’s – has no dance floor and so is most appropriate for listening to live music and isn’t very good for that as the music competes with noise from the bar. The problem we had was that the best dance music was provided by the Rockaway Duo which was booked into Magnum’s about half the time. The Jade Orchestra, which was a pale shadow of the Luminosa Rockband, was usually in the Spinnaker Lounge, playing elevator music. So many nights there was no venue where we could dance. We appreciated the Rockaway Duo, but the other music could have been much improved – to a Carnival level – if the band had been better and if the groups had been assigned to venues more intelligently.

The casino was large. And mostly unused. Unlike our Carnival experience where the casinos are very busy, this casino was dead. Perhaps this was due to the older, more laid-back passengers, but it was also due to this having the tightest slot machines we have ever experienced on a cruise. Both Marlene and I lost money, which is to be expected, but we had less fun losing the money than we expected. These machines just never paid. I don’t think I had more than a $10 winning day the last two weeks of the cruise. Constant losing is a drag.

The big surprise to us, in the ship, was the presence of O’Sheehan’s – a 24-hour complimentary sitdown pub. We have never had the option of being served after midnight on a Carnival ship.

The passengers, as I mentioned, were generally older and more sedate than the people who travel Carnival. A lot of people on the Jade seemed to have purchased the drinks package – which is cheaper than the package on Carnival – and were content to sit in the bar all day. Others were content reading and doing crossword puzzles. Not exactly a dynamic group of passengers. But we met a lot of nice people. And a lot of German- and Spanish-speaking passengers, so Marlene had many opportunities to practice her foreign language skills. I tried to keep up with the German conversations and was marginally successful.

There were just 2 full productions in the theater in the 25 nights. Carnival would have had at least 8 full-scale productions in the same span. Most of the shows were single vocalists or comedians (and the comedy was much inferior to what would be found on a Carnival cruise). The final production was terrific, but it was too little too late.

The crew was wonderful – every bit as good as a Carnival crew. We especially appreciated the singing breakfast coffee crew and the “washy washy” girl who greeted us every morning in the buffet, cajoling us to sanitize our hands before dining. They provided a bright start to each day.

The weather was generally good, except for Juneau. We had some rough sea days, but I never got seasick. Either the ship’s stabilizers were particularly effective, or I am finally getting over my tendency to become seasick. And we were both healthy throughout, with only some minor sniffles in the days after the cold weather hit.

In addition to the mishandling of the music venues, we had some other issues with how the ship was managed:

• Three ports were dropped – Nicaragua before the cruise began, Columbia and Cabo San Lucas. We didn’t buy the reasons given for Columbia and Cabo San Lucas. And we never received a refund for the port tax in Columbia. We have to file a “claim” if we want the port tax back. Carnival would have refunded it immediately.
• The ship docked about 5 miles from where we were told it would dock in San Francisco. No shuttle buses were provided and no information on alternate transportation was offered. We learned that the change in port had been known for 3 days but we were never notified of the change.
• There were a number of times when the time to return to the ship was changed at the last minute. The worst case was San Francisco where it was changed from 10pm to 8:30pm. We nearly missed the ship because we did not notice the change. These changes should have been communicated more effectively.
• The NCL app (downloaded to our phones) was pathetically bad. On Carnival the app can be used to explore deck plans, peruse activities (and mark those of interest with notification when they are approaching), buy internet service, view menus in the dining rooms and communicate with fellow passengers. It can also be used, on shore, to check the ship’s time and “back on board” time. None of these features are available on the NCL app. Useless.

We booked this cruise for its itinerary, and, except for the dropped ports, the itinerary was every bit as good as we hoped.

Now for the highlights and lowlights of the trip, aside from the ship:

Highlights:

• San Francisco. Marlene had never been to San Francisco, except to change planes. We enjoyed a full day with the hop-on, hop-off bus and got to see many of the major sights: Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, Haight-Ashbury and the Golden Gate Bridge. We also got a ride on the famous cable cars and found our way home using trolley and electric bus. But the thing that made it truly memorable is that we nearly missed the ship. We arrived at 8:28pm for an 8:30pm departure. But we thought we had plenty of time and only returned “early” because we wanted Easter dinner. Yikes! All’s well that ends well?
• Panama Canal. This was a “bucket list” item for both of us and it didn’t disappoint. Fascinating engineering. The weather wasn’t great – light rain – but it didn’t spoil the experience. I will include our shopping experience in Colon, Panama, too. Cheap, cheap, cheap. We still marvel at the pair of insulated cups with Bluetooth speakers that we bought for $5.50 each. We do love a bargain.
• San Jose, Guatemala. This wasn’t an excursion; it was just us getting a taxi into town and wandering about. We managed to get some local currency, found some clothes for Marlene, got a free radish and cake and Marlene was given a pair of earrings by a shopkeeper. The hustle and bustle and general chaos of the city was memorable.
• Los Angeles. We did two tourist things – visited the Walk of Fame in Hollywood and the Santa Monica Pier – and both were fun. But the things that made the day truly memorable were meeting a young couple at the Taco Bell Cantina (and having a $5 margarita) and traveling on public transit all day for a grand total of $9. A triumph of public transportation!
• Astoria OR. This was a minor port but was memorable for us because we had lunch with my sister there. And she took us to the Astoria Tower. A nice day with family.
• Thunderbird Falls. This “minor” attraction turned out to be far more fulfilling than the wasted trip to Denali. A nice hike which produced some beautiful photos.
• The 4th State Brewery in Anchorage. Good beer, good food, lively atmosphere and a water view. Very, very nice.
• The excursion in Costa Rica. This was a private excursion to see the countryside. It did show us the country but the real highlight was the beers (3 at 24 oz, 1 at 12 oz) with the guide and two other passengers at the end of the excursion. As Dean, my drinking buddy would say, “brilliant!” I was lucky to find my way back to the ship
• Jewelry. Marlene left her rings at home. Accidentally, she said. But it gave her an excuse to find some rings – and earrings and a bracelet – on shore. She scored some good deals on sterling jewelry.
• The Rockaway Duo. I mention this couple above, but we wouldn’t have danced much for a month had they not been on the ship. A lovely couple and a great voice on her. Thanks, guys!

The other ports – Acapulco, Ketchikan and Skagway – were not disappointing but were not very memorable.

Lowlights:

• The Wingate by Wyndham Hotel in Anchorage. This hotel was undergoing extensive renovations while we were there. It was both annoying and dangerous. The management should have either closed the hotel or done the renovations one wing or floor at a time. Doing everything all at once made for a miserable hotel experience.
• Denali. I was really hoping to see the tallest mountain in North America, but the trip was wasted. Too cloudy and too foggy. And the road there was not interesting at all. We should have spent the day in Anchorage.
• Juneau. The town was interesting but the weather was miserable. We got very chilled, as did many other passengers on the ship. There were a lot of people with colds after we left Juneau.
• The Hubbard Glacier. Rather than transit it, close up, we did a “360 turn” several miles away. We really didn’t get to see it at all.
• The lack of an “elegant night.” Marlene loves to dress up and some of her favorite nights on a Carnival cruise are the elegant nights. She packed several gowns that went unworn.

Bottom line: not a perfect trip by any means, but a memorable one.