More updates after dinner!

More updates after dinner tonight!

James

Day in Egypt

Good morning everyone,

Yesterday was one exciting adventure!  The day started when I woke up around 5:30 am (forgetting my clock was set one hour fast) and watched us pull into Alexandria Egypt.  It was very interesting pulling into port so early because nothing was moving.  All the cargo ships were quiet and you couldn’

t hear anything.  After we finished docking I got dressed and headed up to the buffet for a quick breakfast.  I was actually surprised how chilly the air was but that was because we were still on the water front. 

 

After breakfast I headed back to the cabin to get ready to meet with Jennifer Glatt, one of the journalists, as well as Courtney Recht who’

s one of the public relations managers.  At 7:05 we headed towards our shore excursions meeting place in the Stardust Theater.  All three of us did the Camel and Jeep Safari. 

 

At 7:15 our tour was called so we headed outside towards the busses.  Everyone gets a sticker that has a number on it.  That number is your bus number for the entire day.  It didn’t take long for everyone to get on the bus.  Rehab, meaning a place in heaven, was our tour guide and the first thing she said was their meaning for her name and how it wasn’

t the same as ours. 

 

As we departed the pier one thing that was very obvious is we had lots of security around the ship so that made everyone feel better.  As the busses rolled towards Cairo we drove through Alexandria.  This city won’

t win the most beautiful award but it was neat to see all the donkeys pulling huge crates of fruit, plants and fish through the streets.  After about five minutes we left the city and were on the open road heading towards Cairo.  Rehab did an excellent job of telling us the history of modern Egypt and ancient Egypt.  Did you know that Northern Egypt is the south and Southern Egypt is the north?  Any guesses why they say that?

 

The bus ride to Cairo was three hours long but it was filled with great sights and a wealth of information from Rehab.  About two hours into the ride I took a twenty minute nap but when I woke up I saw the great Pyramids of Giza.  The Pyramids are very close to the city so you could see the buildings and the tops of the Pyramids behind them.  I was thinking that the Pyramids were probably smaller then I was picturing them but they were actually larger.  Our first stop was at Pyramid number 2 pictured below. 

 

 

This is the Pyramid that has part of the limestone covering still in tact towards the top.  One thing that surprised us was it wasn’t nearly as hot as I thought it would be.  In fact I didn’

t get any type of tan or burn from the entire sore excursion.  When I reached the Pyramid I realized how important it was to take one of the shore excursions from NCL.

 

Everywhere you looked people were trying to sell you something.  They come right up to you and try to force it on you.  Our tour guide informed us on the correct prices on some items and the best way to avoid these people.  I made a mistake and never approached these guys again.  I have been collecting Coke cans in Arabic from every Middle Eastern, Arabic speaking country I have been to.  I noticed a man was selling one so I thought this would be the perfect time to go pick one up. I figured it wouldn’t cost more then 2 Euros.  When I approached him I asked “how much?” and before he says anything he opens it and puts it in your hand and conveniently puts his hands in his pocket so you can’t hand it back.  I have already fallen into his trap.  He replies “10 euros” or $15 USD for a coke.  After a few harsh “NO”s from me I gave him the 2 Euros and left.  Didn’

t do me any good because the bottle was opened but I just wanted to move on.  Turns out the bus sold cans of coke and bottled water for $1 usd each, or 3 for $2 Euro. 

 

Another hilarious example is people have their Camels all over the Pyramids.  They come up to innocent looking tourists and say “get on the camel and get a picture for $5 Euro.”  The tourist agrees, gets on the Camel and has her picture taken.  After that the Camel owner says “$20 Euro to get OFF the Camel”!!!!  When you are sitting on the Camel you are a good 8 feet in the air so you can’t just step off.  These are examples of why it’s so important to use NCL’

s shore excursions.  They have done every excursion and make sure you deal with real honest tour operators. 

 

After walking around the Pyramids we got back onto the bus and headed towards the Sphinx.  I was picturing the Sphinx to be larger then it really was.  Even with its small size it was great to see.  By this time of the day the sun was getting more intense so after a few photos we headed back towards the bus to head to the next spot. 
After the Sphinx we headed to see some of the tombs.  Sadly pictures were not allowed but it was amazing to see all the wall carvings with their colors still in tact.  They showed several of the trap and hidden doors to fool the tomb robbers. 

 

Following that we headed towards a country club for the jeep safari and camel ride.  When we arrived at the country club we were given a bottle of water then got into our Jeep.  My jeep held 6 people so on the back row it was myself, Jennifer and Courtney with three other people in the front.  At first I thought this would just be a slow drive through the desert but boy was I wrong!  We went very fast up and down the hills and were flying all over the place.  It was better then a rollercoaster.  Courtney and Jennifer were screaming the entire time.  By the time the 10 minute ride was over the carpet on the floor was all the way at the front end of the jeep.  It was a BLAST and I would love to do it again.  I was laughing really hard picturing different people sitting in the back of the jeep.  I would recommend this to anyone who likes a little adventure.  We even got some air at one point.  Absolutely amazing! 

 

The jeep ride took us to a place in the desert where lines of camels were sitting eating grass and waiting for us.  When the jeeps parked the camel drivers got up and invited us to ride on their camel.  Jennifer, Courtney and I got three in a row.  When I sat down I was told to hold on and lean back and the Camel suddenly stood up.  I was really surprised at how high we were.  We started walking back towards the resort.  The Camel driver took our cameras and took several pictures.  Here is a photo of Courtney, Jennifer and myself on ours.

 The Camel ride lasted about twenty minutes and the Camel “drivers” who were really just walking next to us didn’t bother us much but towards the end mine kept saying “tipping is up to you” but I was more then happy to leave a tip after this great experience.  A few small kids were walking with them and I was happy to see their parents give them a cut of the tip at the end.  One thing that everyone said is the Camels are always spitting and smell really bad but I didn’

t notice any of that. 

 

After the ride we had lunch at the country club with some selections of their local food as well as spaghetti and sauce. 

 

After lunch we headed towards an art gallery type place where they showed us how they made paper and we could purchase souvenirs. 

 

By this time I was exhausted and headed for the bus for the long ride home.  About three hours later we arrived back to the ship.  It really is an amazing sight seeing this huge, beautiful ship just dominating everything else around the port. 

 

Due to the hot desert air and the dusty feeling I was ready for a much needed shower. 

 

For this tour I would suggest wearing jeans and bring a hat. 

 

Overall the day was amazing. At dinner we were laughing how we just saw the last remaining 7 original wonders of the world like it was no biggie. I found everything to be amazing but I thought the amount of street venders at the Pyramids took something away from it.  That’s one of the reasons why I think so many foreign visitors coming to the states loves it.  They don’

t get pounced on the second they step in front of the White House or the Golden Gate Bridge. 

 

Overall it was an amazing day and I will remember these sights, the thrilling jeep ride and the Camel ride forever.  This was the icing to the cake.

 

James

Norwegian Jade 2.0 cruise day 2 part 2 of 2

Good morning everyone,

It is 11 am on Thursday and we are at sea bound for Alexandria Egypt.  Before I get into the days events I will continue what I did yesterday.

 

At 5:45 pm the captain announced that we were ready to leave port so I watched us pull out.  One interesting thing that happened earlier in the day was the exchanging of gifts.  When a new cruise ship comes to a place for the first time some local officials generally present something to the ship to welcome her.  Most ships have an area that has all the certificates on display.  I just happened to be walking outside when I saw the officials at the pier so it was good timing.

 

At 6:45 pm we headed to Medusa’s lounge to go to NCL “U” Before They Were Stars presentation.  This was part of NCL’s new U program of lectures on a wide range of topics.  The Second City cast members ran this presentation.  They talked about the history of Second City and talked about several popular modern actors and their history.  They had several video clips showing different skits that kept everyone laughing.  I learned something very interesting from this presentation, Tina Fey use to be a large woman! 

 

After the Second City NCL U presentation we headed towards Bar City for some drinks before dinner.  Bar city is a great little place.  It’s located on deck 6 with a two floor open air area and a set of stairs leading to deck 6.  They call it Bar City because it has three or four bars, a piano entertainer, a large lounge area and the entrance to the Le Bistro restaurant.  After a few minutes we headed up towards Papas Italian Kitchen restaurant.  This restaurant has a warm comforting feeling. The tables are plain wood without any table clothes with candles and bread baskets.  The walls have shelves decorated with flowers, pots and fruit displays.  The lighting is dimmed with some nice background music playing. 

 

Tonight for dinner we had the press group and the Hotel Director, Armando Da Silva, joined us.  He is a great Hotel Director and a very funny guy also.  His laugh cracks me up!  Dinner started with a wide selection of breads with oil and balsamic vinegar. Shortly after sitting down the waitress came and offered everyone Evian or Pellegrino water.  Next the Wine Steward brought his selection of red and white wine that would go best with the meal.  After that the waiter brought around the antipasti trolley.  I opted for the carrots with peppers and the tomato slices with mozzarella cheese.   Everything was excellent.  I ordered the minestrone vegetable soup with pancetta.  It came out hot and full of vegetables and pancetta.  No complaints there.  Following I had the chicken parm that came with three vegetable manicottis.  The chicken came with melted cheese over the top and some tomato sauce.  Overall it was a delicious meal.  For dessert I had the “Trio di panna cotta.”  This was a trilogy of cream custard with amaretto liqueur, milk chocolate and one with citrus infusion.  It was very rich but very good.  Dinner lasted a while with people trading stories and the Hotel Director had endless hilarious stories.  His first cruise was when he was working on the QE2 from Southampton to New York. 

 

After dinner I walked around the ship and headed to bed. 

 

I will post today’s entry tomorrow after I’m done with my Camel ride and Egyptian Jeep Safari!

 

James

Norwegian Jade 2.0 Cruise Day 2, Part 1 of 2

Greetings everyone,

 

Just thought I would do a mid day update for everyone.  As some of you know, this ship was launched as the M/S Pride Of Hawai’i. When the ship became the Norwegian Jade the international crew from the Pride of America came over with her.  I have run into several familiar faces and it’s been great to see everyone.  I must admit something and I was going to talk about it last night but I decided not to.  As you know I’m a huge supporter of NCL America and their US flagged cruise ship operation.  When I was on this ship last it was during a very quick tour in Honolulu about a month before she was re flagged.  The ship was full of a proud American crew and the ship showed its Hawaiian spirit with vivid colors and beautiful glass artwork all over the ship.  Yesterday when I boarded the ship the colors and Hawaiian art was still here but I couldn’t find one ex Pride of Hawaii crewmember.  I’m sure some are here but I didn’t find any on that first day.  I found two this morning during their crew drill but that’s it so far.  It sounds bad but it was a little sad seeing how this ship as transformed so successfully into a “Flag of convenient” ship.  I really do mean SECCESSFULLY this ship is amazing.  The crew is wonderful and the ship is beautiful it’s just very different then when I toured it as the Hawaii.  Last night it felt a little weird when we went to the show in the Stardust Theater and the singer said “Welcome to the beautiful Norwegian Jade!!”  I would love to see this ship back as the Pride of Hawaii one day.

 

Anyway this morning I woke up around 8 am and watched us pull into port.  Nothing was planned for breakfast so I decided to head towards the buffet and sat outside. It was chilly and windy out so I made it a quick breakfast.  I was surprised at how fresh the Pineapple was considering I’m use to being where it’s grown. 

 

After breakfast I decided to just walk around the ship and take some photos.  When I was up at the basketball court someone left the door to the courtyard area for the villa guests so I took the opportunity to explore the area.  It’s amazing.  That sums it up perfectly.  The very top deck is has a private sitting sun deck area with huge comfy couches that made me want to take a nap the second I sat down on them.  A set of stairs leads you to the enclosed courtyard with the private pool.  The area was very lush with great big comfy looking chairs.  At the end they had a coffee and snack area set up. The dome covering the pool was closed so it was very quit and the perfect warm temperature.  I walked down the hallway where the cabin doors are and it was all very impressive.  I ran down to my room to get my camera to take some photos but by the time I got back someone discovered the open door and closed it. Oh well.  I’m going to ask for a tour of it again later. 

 

Right now I’m in Spinnaker lounge in one of their fluffy green and purple chairs relaxing before tonight.

 

The agenda for tonight is:

 

6:45 pm: NCL “U”-Before they were stars, Medusa’s lounge with the second city cast.

 

8:00 pm: Dinner, Papa’s Italian, deck 12 aft

 

Stardust Theater after dinner.

 

Here are a few questions and answers.

 

Q: Any 50% off nights and or times for the specialty restaurants?

A: direct from the Freestyle Daily, “2 for 1 between 5:30pm-7:00pm in Cagney’s, Le Bistro, Papa’s Kitchen & Jasmine Garden.  (Sushi, Teppanyaki & a la carte items not included).

 

Q: Can I wear jeans every night?

A: Jeans are allowed in all the restaurants except one of the two main dining rooms.

 

Q: Does the ship have an adult only pool?

A: From the Freestyle daily, “Forward Jacuzzis and pool, deck 12, are for adults only.”

 

Now its time for dinner!  Talk to you soon,

James

Live from the Norwegian Jade day 1

note: due to the ships internet photos will be loaded on the last day when I return home.

 

Greetings from Iraklion Greece

 

I made it to the ship and I have been having a great time so far!

 

The journey started two days ago when I arrived at New York’s JFK airport to take my flight to Athens.  The plane started to board on time and because of my exit row I had plenty of legroom. After a smooth 10-hour flight I landed in Athens right around 8 am in the morning.  Once the plane pulled up to the gate I was off and in line for passport control within 5 minutes.  Once I finished that I proceeded to baggage claim to collect my luggage.  Luckily my luggage arrived so I headed upstairs to check into my next flight with Aegean airlines.  Athens’s has a nice large but easy to navigate airport.  Once I checked in with Aegean I walked to my gate and not one other person was at security so I went right through.  While waiting for my flight I looked out the window and the government’s private jet was parked outside with a long red carpet.  About two dozens soldiers were standing and saluting someone getting on the airplane.  They must have known I was coming.

 

When they started boarding my flight to Santorini I thought I would be called first because I was sitting at the back of the plane but they literally said “we are ready to board, come” and everyone got up and rushed over.  The flight was very quick but offered great views flying over the small islands. 

 

When I landed in Santorini I got a call from my contact on the ship saying that due to high winds we might have to take a donkey or cable car to the ship.  Because of the high mountain, steep hill terrain you can’t get from the airport to the ships tender base.  I met my taxi driver and another reporter joining the ship and we headed to the tender dock once the winds slowed down.  Once we arrived at the water line one of the cities water taxis came and picked us up to take us to the Jade.  It was a beautiful, rocky ride next to these huge mountains and we cruised past the site where the Sea Diamond sunk a few months ago.  I will admit working on a cruise ship we never think our crew drills will ever be put to the test.  It was very weird cruising past the M/S Sea Diamond knowing this huge cruise ship was under the water line.  Very creepy feeling.

 

Once we arrived on the Jade people to take our luggage and show us to the reception desk immediately greeted us.  The Hotel Director greeted us and he gave us our welcome aboard champagne (every guest will get a class when they board the ship after Freestyle 2.0) and invited us for lunch in 20 minutes at Cagneys steak house.  We met with Nil’s public relations people and went up to the cabins to freshen up before lunch. 

 

The cabin is beautiful and has one of the best bathrooms I have seen on a cruise ship.  One thing that I love is if you are sailing in a balcony cabin or higher you get a unlimited fruit bowel.  The first day of the cruise you will find a paper in the cabin that has a check list of what fruit you would like in your customized fruit bowl and they will make sure its filled for the entire week. 

 

I had to quickly freshen up so I could make it to Cagneys for lunch.  I had lunch with the reporter I met today, the Director of Public Relations and a Manager of PR for NCL.  Cagneys is open for breakfast and lunch for all guests holding a platinum key card.  Those guests are all the penthouse and above cabin holders as well as VIPs.  The restaurant is at deck 13 and gave great views looking out over the pool.  For lunch I had the cold apple soup that was topped with walnuts and apple slices and it was delish!  NCL is well known for their cold fruit soups and they keep raising the bar with their amazing tastes.  Following the soup I had a delicious chicken Caesar salad.  I passed on dessert. 

 

After lunch I headed back towards my cabin.  Most of my clothes were wrinkled from flying here from Hawaii so I called reception and they delivered an iron and I ironed one shirt for dinner but then decided to send everything else to laundry to get pressed.  So just remember even though the cabins don’t come with one you can call reception and they can have one brought to your cabin.

 

I decided to shower and take a nap before the nights activities. Room service came and delivered some pastries that were very good.  I’m still trying to find out if this is a perk for all cabins or if it’s a VIP thing. 

 

After my nap I got dressed and left the cabin around 6:30 pm to watch us leave Santorini.  The waves were a little choppy but I loved it.  At 7 Pm I met our group at Jasmine Garden Asian Restaurant for dinner.  This restaurant is in a great location on deck 7 with a opening to deck 6 below where you can hear live music playing.  I really liked the nightlife feel of this.  Enjoying a wonderful dinner at a table with everyone having a good time while an excellent singer sang below with a piano.  Dinner started by a huge boat model topped with different sushi was placed on the table.  It was quite a display with about a dozen different items on it.  It was quite the display so look for the pictures at the end of the week.  After the sushi we had a sample platter of all the appetizers that the restaurant offered.  My favorite was the veggie rolls.  For the main course everyone ordered a dish but later we decided to have everything family style.  Our waitress did an excellent job of describing and presenting all the food.  When the main course was ready she went and placed rice on everyone’s plate.  I ordered the orange shredded beef and it was delicious.  For dessert I had coconut tapioca pudding that was wonderful.  I took pictures of everything and at the end of the week will post them on the photo page. 

 

Following the wonderful dinner at Jasmines we headed to the Stardust Theater and saw the Classical Evening: Sinatra suite.  This was two parts. The first part was a couple dancing to Sinatra songs and the second part was an opera singer doing classics to modern hits such as Josh Groban’s You Raise Me Up.  

 

After dinner and the show I decided to call it a night.  This is my first time in a balcony cabin so entering my cabin with the water rushing past at night was very relaxing.  I will never cruise in anything under a balcony again!

 

This ship is beautiful and the crew has been amazing so I’m very excited to discover more tomorrow!

 

James

 

 

Off to Greece

Greetings everyone,

I’m at my gate in Cleveland waiting for my flight to New York then off to Athens.  I will get on the Jade late tomorrow night and will start doing my reporting!

 

James

Just Arrived Home

Aloha everyone.

 

Well I’m on my flight from San Diego to Cincinnati Ohio so I thought I would use this time to talk more about yesterday.

 

The day started when I woke up around 4 am.  I wasn’t planning on waking up that early but my body clock kicked in and I couldn’t really fall back asleep.  It’s a good thing though because I ended up needing the extra time.  The night before my roommate and I got a call from the personnel office saying that my cabin was going to become a female room on Saturday. This meant that we had to be moved out by Friday night.  I got to stay in there Friday night because I was leaving Saturday but my roommate had to move out.  It was the best nights rest I had for the entire contract.  So my roommate Jean moved out and I had to make sure the room was empty for the females arrival.  One neat thing about our cabins is people leave things in them and some stuff has been sitting on the desk shelves for over a year.  Well Saturday I had to take everything off the walls, bringing an end to the “lets see how long this will stay on the wall” game.  By the time 7am rolled around I had finished packing my stuff and cleaning out the cabin.  At 7:30 am I dropped off all my linens and uniforms to laundry and got another signature on my sign off paper.  Once that was done I headed from deck 1 forward to deck 4 aft to the restaurant department office.  I had to wait for the director of outlets to show up so he could have one of the restaurant managers come inspect my cabin.  Today Andy was doing cabin inspections.  He used to be my manager in the Aloha Café so we get along really well.  I brought him to my room where he checked off the “cabin is ready for new crew” box and headed off to check some other cabins.  The next step was to go back to the restaurant office and have the director of outlets sign the paper once again.  Getting the cabin checked was the biggest step of the day and now that I had finished that it wouldn’t be long till I was off the ship!  At 9 I called my friend Enrique and he came over to help me with my luggage.  Because I dropped off my two pieces of luggage the night before I only had my book bag in my cabin so off I went to personnel to sign off the ship.  The trip to personnel is just to drop off my nametag and get my discharge slip showing how many days I worked at sea as a Merchant Marine.  This can come in handy if I ever decide to go to school for the Merchant Marines and for tax reasons. 

 

Once I got all my papers signed at personnel and my return flight info I headed towards the gangway to surrender my crew ID card and officially start vacation.  Security was a breeze and they took my crew card so off I was.  The only problem was it was 9:30 am and I had two large suitcases, my book bag but my flight wasn’t till 10:15 Pm!!

 

Luckily the pier has a luggage check service where for $5 a bag they will hold your bags till 6 Pm. 

 

Enrique and I dropped off my bags and headed towards Ala Moana mall.  We hit up Wal-Mart so I could get some much needed Halls drops and then we went across the street for lunch.  After that we headed back to Aloha Tower and he went to work and I went to Starbucks to try to kill as much time as I could before my friend Luis came off the ship to say hello.  Overall the day was quit boring with most of the time just relaxing around the pier.  I picked the worst clothes to wear so I was very hot so I decided not to go down to Waikiki.  At 4 Pm I went to this little park area next to the ship and sat down and waited to hear the ships alarms going off for passenger lifeboat drill.  Once I heard the seven short and one long blast on the ships horns I knew nobody would be in my area laughing at the passenger’s titanic jokes..such a sad feeling.

 

By this time I have killed 7 hours and was ready for new sights.  I decided to head to the airport.  When I was checking in I was talking to the check in agent and she noticed my flight was booked by NCL.  She asked me if I had a good cruise and I told her that I worked on the ship and was leaving for vacation.  She said she brought her family on the America last year and had such a good time that she gave me a free upgrade!  I don’t normally fly United so this was a great first impression so far on this trip.  I was about 5 hours early for my flight so check in and security took ten minutes.  After checking in I decided to walk around the airport.  I headed towards the inner-island terminal.  I’m a huge fan of the airline industry and follow it religiously so with the shut down of Aloha Airlines I wanted to take some pictures of anything Aloha related.  It was quite weird walking around their terminal with all their posters up and seeing their planes parked in groups on the tarmac but not one other person in the terminal.  The next 5 hours at the airport were uneventful.  The one cool thing that did happen is I went to Starbucks and the person in line in front of me recognized me from youtube so it was nice to talk to him.  He had a great time on the ship.  The time for the flight finally came and at 10:20 we pushed back and headed towards San Diego.  The flight was uneventful and I slept for most of the time. 

 

I landed in San Diego around 7 am and I had a 4 hour connection.  Luckily my old roommate from last contract, Martin Buckler, lives in San Diego so he picked me up for breakfast.  We chatted for a while and talked about what was going on with each other and then he dropped me back off at the airport. 

 

I was feeling really tired and in a crappy mood.  I hate flying from Hawaii.  Most flights leave late at night and you lose several hours with the timing.  I hate flying from Hawaii with multiple connections even more.  I forgot I put a pair of jeans in my carry on so I went to the bathroom, changed my clothes and freshened up some and felt much better.  Right after that my flight to Cincinnati was boarding.  I’m currently writing this from row 28A. 

 

Its 4pm so I have about 2 and ½ hours left of this flight then one hour connection and I will be home in Cleveland around 9 Pm.  My flight tomorrow for Europe leaves Cleveland at noon so it’s going to be a very quick turnover.
That’s all for now!

James 

Quick

Greetings from San Diego airport,

 

Note to self: I don’t like flights that have 2 or more connections!

 

Aloha everyone,

Well its Sunday and I’m sitting on the floor at San Diego’s airport.  I have about 2 hours till my flight to Cincinnati then a quick flight to Cleveland.  I’m already very tired and I still have two flights to go.

 

Yesterday was very boring.  The day started very early.  I woke up around 4 am to start finish cleaning and packing the cabin.  My roommate and I got notice that they would be turning the cabin into a female cabin yesterday so we had to pack everything including things left behind from people 2 years ago.  After throwing tons of random things into boxes I was finished and packed by 7am.  The day started with me dropping off all my linens and uniforms to laundry on deck 1 forward.  After that I had to get my cabin inspected and then I left the ship.  I will post more details when I’m home and rested but the day was very long.  I was off the ship at 8:30 am and my flight wasn’t till 10:15 pm.

 

Anyway I will post a better update when I’m home on this very quick turnover before I head over to the Norwegian Jade.

 

  James

The Aloha day! Goodbye!

Aloha everyone!

 

The final day has arrived!!  139 days down, one to go.  This week has been great.  Great guests, great weather with a few raindrops from time to time but overall it’s been a great week.  I met some very special guests this week.  I met the Honolulu harbormaster’s friend who just happens to be Mr. Norwegian and I found out today he is buying Kauai so you never know who your guests are (Thanks guys).  Today on the Lanai it was dead so they talked for a while and I got them to try their first Jurassic Park drinks. 

 

I have been spending the last few days packing. I just put some clothes in the washer so once those are done I can be 100% packed.  The steps to signing off the ship used to be a pain on Saturdays but they have made a few changes to make it smoother.  First we have to get 7 signatures from Thursday-Saturday.  They are the safety office, security office, crew activities coordinator, finance, department and personnel.  Thursday after crew drill we can get our security and safety signatures.  I turned in my safety card today so I’m no longer evacuation team leader.  Today when I wake up I will get crew activities, security and finance.  That’s no big deal but Saturday is a pain.  Saturday I have to go drop off all my linens and uniforms to laundry on deck 1 all the way forward.  They open around 8:30 am then I head up to the restaurant office.  They have to sign off on a bunch of things then I get in line for them to come inspect my cabin.  They check to make sure everything is cleared out and cleaned.  Once the cabin is checked off I can go personnel to wait in another long line.  They make sure all paper work is in place and then sign you to go off the ship.  The next step they have changed and it really helps.  It used to be that everyone signing off the ship would bring all their luggage Saturday morning for security to go through it and it usually created long lines.  Now we bring our luggage to the gangway area Friday night from 7:30 Pm till 11 Pm and they would inspect it and store it till the morning.  This has greatly reduced waiting times in the morning.  After that we go to the gangway and surrender our crew ID cards and then we leave the ship and vacation starts.  I hope everything goes smoothly today and tomorrow.

 

I hope to be off the ship around 9 am.  My flight leaves at 10:15 Pm so I have no idea what I’m going to do all day.  I can’t use easyfly because I’m flying home on more then one airline but I can have my bags held at the pier till 5 Pm.  I will probably wonder from Aloha tower to Waikiki half a dozen times during the day.  I will have lunch at the Hilton Hawaiian Village that’s for sure.  I’m planning on doing a lot of work to the website so everything is back up including the photo albums. 

 

The next few days will be very exciting but I just realized I will be flying Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday!  Over the next four days I will be flying Honolulu-San Diego-Cincinnati-Cleveland-New York-Athens-Santorini Greece. 

 

I’m really excited to go experience Freestyle 2.0 and get a preview on what the Pride of America will have when I return from vacation.  If you have any questions you want me to find out for you about Freestyle 2.0 or the Norwegian Jade feel free to email me at shipblogger@gmail.com.  Here are the questions I have so far:

 

1. Sofa beds in the suites and new pax count in the deluxe owners, courtyard villas, Abs etc compared to before.

2. Is the “class structure” more divided between cabin types with the new key cards etc?

3. Will the suites have Mp3 players?

4. New menus for all restaurants and surcharge prices

5. Is there still self-service laundry?

6. Do standard outside cabins have refrigerators?

7. Has the teen club format and activities changed?

8. What music is offered around the pool?

9. Chair drink flag around the pool when requesting a beverage.

10. What are the new names of all the restaurants and public areas?

11. Sleeping arrangements for 4 people in a BA balcony.

12. New décor of the ship. I will take pictures of all the public rooms and do a before and after.

13. Take photos of the elevator pictures.

14. Kids clubs hours and if they are open continuously.

15. New room service (Believe me I have NO problem testing this!!)

16. What perks come with a mini suite after 2.0?

17. What is the price of the ships laundry service and what specials do they have.

18. What are your views on the new shows, what ones should we not miss

19. Does the ship have wireless internet in the cabins and around the ship

20. What is the internet price and the different packages

21. Any adult only pool

22. How many optional formal nights on a 14 night cruise

23. Can I really wear jeans every night?

24. On this ship what would be your advice for a first timer to freestyle and getting the most out of it.

25. Can you post some pictures of the courtyard villa

26. Please take any photos of anything that shows her ex Pride of Hawaii days.

27. Any 50% off nights and or times for the specialty restaurants?

 

Once again I just want to thank everyone who has supported this website over the past contract.  I have met dozens of fans and cruise critic members and it’s been a blast meeting everyone!

 

James

5 days left!

Aloha everyone!

 

Its day 134 of this rotation so that means only 6 days left!  Sorry for the lack of posts but I have been feeling ill for the past few days so I have just been working and catching up on my sleep so I’m feeling better by the time I head over to the Jade.

 

So Saturday kicked off my Aloha week.  The day started when I got off the ship around 8:30 am and headed over to Aloha tower.  We were docked in port with the Pride of Aloha so my friend Mark came over to meet me so we went up to the top of Aloha Tower to relax for a few minutes.  After he headed back to work I went down to Ala Moana mall to pick up my suit for Europe.  This is when I started to feel sick so I went back to the ship and took some Tylenol then headed back to Aloha Tower at 1 to meet Mark again for lunch.  We are going to Vegas for 5 nights over break so we talked about what we wanted to do there such as shows and just talk about how excited we are for the trip.  He isn’t sure what ship he is going back to after vacation so it was good to see him.  After that I headed back to the ship for work.  I was really starting to feel sick but I decided I would go to work because it’s my last week and Saturdays are usually pretty slow nights so I decided to go.  I had bad luck with that as you will read soon.  I went to my last passenger lifeboat drill at 4 and surprisingly no Titanic jokes this week. 

 

Once the passenger lifeboat drill was done I headed to the buffet to start the dinner shift.  I was hoping that I would stay on the Lanai for the entire night because on Saturdays it’s almost dead slow till 7:15 Pm till 8:20 when we are at sea.  With my luck I should have guessed it would be different tonight.  It was actually slow till about 7:00 but by 7:45 we had 94 people on the Lanai.  This is huge compared to normal and I was the only person out there to bus their tables.  It got even better when it rained so I had to wipe dry every table but I kept thinking we set sail at 8 so they will be gone by 820.  8:10 rolled past and we were still docked so I figure we were waiting for people probably because of the huge air travel problems to and from Hawaii due to the shut down of Aloha airlines and Ata.  It was now 9 Pm and we were still docked and the 93 people were still sitting here and once 10 Pm arrived they gave up and left for their cabins.  We didn’t set sail till just after midnight due to mechanical problems so today turned into a sea day.

 

Around 11:15 Pm about a block down the street from the pier it was quite a scene.  About 5 police cars, 2 fire trucks and ambulances had their lights flashing blocking off a street so this clearly was the result of Wal-Mart selling out of IZ cds and were holding the protesters back till the next box arrived for the tourists.  

 

At midnight I was very sick, I had a high fever because I felt like I was burning and my body was stiff so I took a few Tylenols, coldez and some cough drops and went to bed.  I woke up the next morning feeling much cooler but still a little stiff but now I feel much better.  I’m off from now (Sunday midnight) till Tuesday 4:30 Pm so I have plenty of time to rest to get better. 

 

One thing I have noticed this week is how much I love this weeks guests.  They are all so funny and so polite and nice.  I was talking to a family who was on the second voyage of the Pride of Aloha and said even with all the start up problems he had such a blast.  We were docked with the Aloha on Saturday and one good thing because of our delay is we got to see them sail past.  This was the last time I will see the Pride of Aloha so watching her sail right next to us (50 feet away) with each ship saluting each other with their horns and people yelling just made it a great goodbye.  I actually just realized that was the last time I will see her up close.  We were supposed to be docked with her today but we had a sea day.  We cruised with them to the volcano tonight but we just saw each other from the distance. 

 

So like I said the guests this week are just great.  They really helped me make it through the night yesterday and this is great because it’s my Aloha week. 

 

That’s all for now. Today was uneventful but I’m putting a list of things to find out when I’m on the Jade and I will post the questions so you can add more.

 

Goodnight,

James