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MITSUGIRLY'S birthday cruise on the JADE review/pictorial


mitsugirly
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Ok I seriously thought I was the only one who was like that. I HATE water-the only time I drink it is if I'm in the sun and desperate!!! My go to drink is Coke, too LOL.and I've had criticism for YEARS,esp being a nurse. But, all of my labs are healthy, my teeth are intact etc so I figure let me live as I will LOL!!

 

Stacey

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Are you serious??? I didn't think there was anyone else out there like this. You are my new best friend! It's funny the hubby text me yesterday saying he was trying out a new Thai restaurant and he says "This place reminds me of the ship. They keep trying to serve me water." LOL I told him most sit down restaurants do that sweety. :p

 

I was raised on Coke. My mother drank it from sun up to sun down. So, that's where I get it from. I'm the same way and don't drink coffee. I'm sure I'll keep doing it until my teeth rot...and even then, I can still drink it with no teeth. :D

 

This is one area where Carnival definitely has the edge! I was able to purchase high-speed internet on a Carnival Cruise for two weeks for a total of $160.

 

Yea I like the packages that Carnival has and even their messaging app and now they have the social media app. Only the newer ships in the NCL fleet have all the bells and whistles (and is pretty cheap for the messaging).

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Actually, the concierge "desk" was near the suite breakfast restaurant on the Pearl, Jade and Star depending on whether the ship has been upgraded. Since the Jade has not moved Moderno to deck 13 yet, the concierge would have been either at the Cagney's reception desk or at the entrance to the Star Bar. You do have to seek them out to get the Platinum perk.

 

The desk near Guest Services is for restaurant reservations on the jewel and dawn class ships. They aren't too helpful, so the concierge can be a big help.

 

We had the table and other desk in our inside on the Jade and in an ocean view on the Pearl. Same set up and you are right, it is a tight.

 

Yes. That is where I have seen them at on previous cruises when we had VIP status. Up at the Star Bar. I'm pretty sure that's probably where they were at this time too. The desk near guest services was for scheduling dining.

 

 

 

Yes, you're misunderstanding but that's okay! I was just wanting to know if there is plenty of spare space on lifeboats as compared to the number of souls on board Jade. I don't want another Titanic! Especially since I get on board in only four days! Thanks for the great review! :D

 

 

Oh ok. I figured I was missing something with that question. :o Be grateful that there's no ice burgs in the Caribbean. I think you'll be ok. :D

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Ok, I'm going to attempt to get a little more done this morning (although I have a little earlier start for seeing patients this morning than yesterday). Sorry I was unable to return last night. But I did manage to get 3 days of charting done and 3 assignments done. Now I only have 3 to go. :D

 

I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge a dear online cruise friend of mine-Kev Today marks 3 years since we found out he passed. As far as this online community knows, it was unexpected. He was in the middle of a review and vanished. He was a hoot on here and did super funny reviews. He is the one who inspired me to be more creative with my writing and to write as I see things with my own eyes (versus just the normal review of "I thought this was good and this was bad" with no personality type of review). He could make anyone laugh on here and people on the ship got to know him well with each cruise.

 

He inspired me to take a Bermuda cruise. He helped me plan one and gave me all the information and tips I needed. It's too bad it took me 2 years to actually go after his coaching and I wish he was still around so that I could share my Bermuda cruises with him and hear him say "I told ya so!"

 

Kevin-you are missed by me around here and I can't believe it's been 3 years already. :(

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(Sorry about the delay, I had my first Day 3 post almost done and I got the blue screen of death on my computer...which happens a lot these days. UGH)

 

DAY 3. Our first port day COZUMEL!!!

 

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We weren't due in Cozumel until late today so I decided to set my alarm for 9am. However, this sleeping in thing never works out for me and I was up by 8am and excited to be in Cozumel. Cozumel is one of my favorite ports. I have been there so many times and always find some place new to go. There's just so many different beach clubs to go to and this time would be no different.

 

I headed outside to check out the weather and found it to be a sunny and a beautiful day. We were moving super slow by this point, so I knew we were close and the Captain was just taking his time since we had a few hours before it was time to dock.

 

I got the family up and we headed up to the buffet to grab some breakfast. NOW TODAY....IT WAS CROWDED! Like super crowded. I guess everyone was at the buffet trying to get a good meal in before they headed into port. There was absolutely no place to sit. It was crazy. After getting our plates, we had to stand around watching people eat, glaring at them hoping they would hurry and leave so we could have their spot. Even the kids dining area was full...WITH ADULTS because there wasn't any place to sit.

 

After eventually finding a table we were able to sit. I do have to say that today the eggs were super runny. Like not cooked runny and gross. I have started to notice things like this on port days. There's probably just so many people at the buffet on these days and they are trying to get food out as quickly as possible that they don't cook them long enough. I searched several different areas to find the "most cooked" eggs I could and then made sure I scraped it from the outside where it has a tendency to be a little more well done. The inside was still runny and I couldn't stomach it. It always provides to be a challenge finding cooked bacon that doesn't present itself as if it could walk off your tray on these mornings too. But I managed.

 

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The hubby had went to get an omelet and told me how I could avoid this issue had I done that. Yea yea yea I know.

 

I decided to just get a waffle, smother it is syrup and whipped cream and call it a day. I fricken LOVE their whipped cream!!

 

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We headed back down to our room to change into our bathing suits and cover ups and grab our bags. It was almost time to get off the ship.

 

When we arrived at our room, Rasfah the room steward was inside cleaning. We walked in, he turned around and looked at us (no acknowledgment or words were spoken) and continued cleaning. He had moved our bags, but thank goodness it's a small room and we could easily find them. I grabbed my bathing suit and told him we needed to change real quick so that we could get off the ship. He continued to work. I went to the bathroom to change and Sakari had to wait on me. When I came out, I was like...wait a minute. This is going to take us all of 2 minutes tops to do and he acts like he can't stop working for a second...I told him "We are trying to get changed and get off the ship. Can we have just a few minutes so that we can do this privately and then you can have the room????" He finally paused for a moment, turned around and said "You need to take the Pepsi out of the refrigerator. One of them is ours" :eek: I stood there in total shock. He said, "We also have a diet Pepsi in the refrigerator and you take it all out but the diet Pepsi and you need replace!" I'm still in shock. Like how do you know that I was not going to run out of my own and BUY that one??? That's not for you to judge until the final day gets here and you do a count of everything in there and charge for what's missing. Like WHAT THE HELLO??? I can't even imagine what my face looked like at this point. I pointed at the floor and said "Do you see those cartons of diet Pepsi? Well there's PLENTY in there for me to replace your ONE diet Pepsi missing! Don't worry about it"

 

He finally walked out, we were done in probably 1 minute, grabbed our bags, then out the door we went. Yes, I gave him the stink eye as I left the room and mumbled..."It's all yours!" Like seriously. We have walked in on room stewards before and they instantly scramble with the "I sorry, I sorry, I come back" even though most of the time we are just walking in to grab something and tell them "It's ok" and we get what we needed and walk back out. Not this time. Geesh. Rasfah= the suck!

 

We headed down and off the ship we went. We'd take the long hike to the shopping mall, which is just ridiculous that you have to walk up and across and then back down, forcing you to pass by each shop as they call out "Senorita, you want jewelry?" They always make sure that the escalator is going the opposite direction that you need to go so that you can't take it. It takes forever to get out of this port and I hate it. I much rather be docked at the Carnival/RC dock in town.

 

We finally made it out to the taxi area and told them where we wanted to go. I had researched that it would cost $25 for 3 people to head to our destination, but the sign said $26. Either prices went up or the $25 was for one of the closer piers.

 

We were put in a taxi van and it was only the 3 of us. Somehow I thought that they would at least wait for others that were headed that direction so they could make more money off people and drop them off along the way, but they didn't. Shocking.

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Thanks. I love to try to capture the sunsets.

 

Sakari is a name we came up with because we wanted a unique name that you would never hear. I did a search for unique names and Sakari was on the list and it said that it was an American Indian name that meant "Sweet like sugar". I have a lot of Indian in me (my moms dad was full blood Cherokee). Then the hubby is a sugar freak and we always ask him if he'd like some coffee with his sugar. So, the sweet like sugar part was perfect. Her 2 middle names are a mixture of mine and my hubbys middle name.

 

What we did was...I had a poll on (back in the day when everyone used myspace) that told all my friends and relatives that we were looking for a very unique name that no one would ever pick. Then I listed 10 names. I took all the names that no one PICKED and narrowed it down to the 3 that had 0 on it. Then told everyone to pick again. Sakari was the name left that not one person picked....so that's what we wanted. :D See how tricky I was?

 

I have only came across 1 person that said their child was named Sakari. We were in Roatan and one of the locals was talking to us. They were from another country and said their son was named Sakari.

 

So there ya have it.

 

My other children are all K's because they are from my last marriage. Not only are they all K's, but all of our middle initials are A's. Then...to take it a step further...everyone had 1 letter off from each other. For instance...my middle name Ann-3 letters. My youngest son Aric-4 letters. My oldest daughter Alise-5 letters. My oldest son Andrew-6 letters. Their dad (my ex of 18 years) Anthony-7 letters. (Our first names do the same thing). :eek: Yea, I had 9 months to plan on this and I made the most of it. :p

. :p

 

Such a beautiful backstory! Thank you for sharing!

 

I love how much thought you put into each child's name, it truly shows a mother's love!

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All I know is that I hope you complained about the room steward to guest services. :eek:

 

Yes I agree, because if she did not he is just going to keep on treating other passengers that way! I cringe at the thought of him being our room Steward next week!!! I'm afraid I'm not as good as Mitsugirly at taking lemons and making lemonade, so someone like that would really upset me!

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I was thinking the same thing. Hopefully they won't just move him around and we end up with him as I won't be as nice as you. I'm surprised you didn't video him and his rudeness to show the HM. What is he doing in your fridge anyway? At least on HAL it isn't his job to check what was used, it may be different on NCL but there is a steward who goes around checking that every day and that is one of his main jobs. We plan to have everything removed so that there isn't a chance of a mistake.

 

Last cruise a water bottle that was on the desk was knocked off when they vacuumed and it started leaking. We were charged for a bottle of water that we never even used but they did take it off when we showed them the still sealed half empty bottle.

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I think I would have blown a gasket if I had a room steward like you had. He is the room steward from hell.

 

My gasket was getting loosened up for sure on this cruise. :p

 

All I know is that I hope you complained about the room steward to guest services. :eek:

 

 

:o

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"You need to take the Pepsi out of the refrigerator. One of them is ours"

 

(...)

 

"We also have a diet Pepsi in the refrigerator and you take it all out but the diet Pepsi and you need replace!"

 

OMG... that was so rude and out of place!!... are you sure he wasn't just trying to pick a fight with a client, out of frustration or something?

 

If Rasfah had said the same thing to me, I would have not know how to answer... seriously... I would probably thought it was all part of a prank or something like that, because it does not make even sense what he said.

 

Anyway.... great review so far, and pretty interested in how your port day went! :)

Edited by chipis
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Such a beautiful backstory! Thank you for sharing!

 

I love how much thought you put into each child's name, it truly shows a mother's love!

 

You are welcome. I did put a lot into it, but we were just lucky that it worked out that we had the same letter of our first name in order to do this. When I was pregnant with my first child, we were good friends with an Amish couple. She's the one who gave me the idea. Her name was Viola and her husbands was Vern. They would name their kids all starting with a V and then she combined names too. One of their daughters was name Vernola. That got my wheels turning and it's history after that. :D

 

Yes I agree, because if she did not he is just going to keep on treating other passengers that way! I cringe at the thought of him being our room Steward next week!!! I'm afraid I'm not as good as Mitsugirly at taking lemons and making lemonade, so someone like that would really upset me!

 

:o I honestly like to give people the benefit of doubt. However, it was doubtful that this person was just having a bad day. While growing up, I was a very shy child. If people picked on me, I would actually get sick and vomit. I used to be so anorexic thin that they use to call me "Bones Jones" (my maiden name). I hated it. I grew a backbone and became very outspoken once I got in my 20's. I guess all those years of being picked on made it happen. However, the shyness in me still comes out. I HATE to get people in trouble. I simply hate it. I hate the thought of being a reason that may cause someone to get wrote up and/or fired. If I was to say anything, I don't think I would have been able to face this room steward another day. It would embarrass me. Although it wouldn't be my fault for doing it, I just find it hard to turn someone in and still have to face them. I have had so many situations back fire on me when I stood up and do believe that these type of people retaliate. I kept thinking that if I was to turn him in, I 1) would still have to face him in the hallway and 2) he would probably get worse. I have thought about writing to NCL though (since I no longer have to face him), but that's still up in the air. :(

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I was thinking the same thing. Hopefully they won't just move him around and we end up with him as I won't be as nice as you. I'm surprised you didn't video him and his rudeness to show the HM. What is he doing in your fridge anyway? At least on HAL it isn't his job to check what was used, it may be different on NCL but there is a steward who goes around checking that every day and that is one of his main jobs. We plan to have everything removed so that there isn't a chance of a mistake.

 

Last cruise a water bottle that was on the desk was knocked off when they vacuumed and it started leaking. We were charged for a bottle of water that we never even used but they did take it off when we showed them the still sealed half empty bottle.

 

I'm really hoping that it was the end of his contract and he doesn't go anywhere else. The weird thing is, every time I have been on a ship, the room steward has a little card with their name on it saying they were servicing your room. This will be the first time I did not have one in my room. At first, I thought this was weird. Now, I know why.

 

No...he didn't go in my fridge (well, that I know of). He was basing it off all the cans and stuff I took out of the fridge. I put them down below where the ice bucket was at and he must have seen that all of them were there minus the diet Pepsi. Then of course seen that we had a few cases of diet Pepsi. But still, what if I wanted to drink that diet Pepsi and pay for it? That would have nothing to do with him! That's what they are there for.

 

OMG... that was so rude and out of place!!... are you sure he wasn't just trying to pick a fight with a client, out of frustration or something?

 

If Rasfah had said the same thing to me, I would have not know how to answer... seriously... I would probably thought it was all part of a prank or something like that, because it does not make even sense what he said.

 

Anyway.... great review so far, and pretty interested in how your port day went! :)

 

He definitely seemed like he was trying to tick me off. He managed to do that.

 

Trust me, I was speechless at first and I'm pretty quick on my toes with come-backs most days. :p

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So back to the review. I have about an hour before picking up Sakari from the bus stop and heading to my hair appointment.

 

Cozumel is one of those ports that there's just so many places you can go and experience something different each time (beach-wise).

 

With all my research in the past and going here so many times, I had always wanted to head over to Paradise. It seems like a lot of people like this place and it seems perfect for us. We knew we didn't want anything that had an admission price OR an AI this time around.

 

HOWEVER, there was also another place that I had checked out a long time ago...Playa Palancar. I had it saved in a folder, with pictures, on my computer. I have to admit, the MAIN reason I have always wanted to go there was the pictures of the peacocks I have seen people post online before. I KNEW Sakari would just love this. She has a feddish for Peacocks and has me buy Peacock feathers for her when we go to the craft store. So this is where we decided to head this time around. I will save Paradise for our next visit.

 

After our bags were checked "for fruit" by the port, we made it out of the port compound and off we went in the taxi van with just the 3 of us.

It took 30 minutes to get there from Punta Langosta. I watched us pass all the beach clubs and the hubby and I was joking all the way there. Chankanaab-been there. Playa Mia-been there, Mr Sanchos-been there, Nachi Cocom-been there LOL "Do you see any we haven't been to yet?" LOL

 

We turned off the main road and onto a bumpy dirt road headed toward the beach.

 

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We arrived and headed in. This place is like Mr Sanchos. Someone slaps a sombreo on your head and has you pose multiple ways and takes your picture.

 

At the beach, someone greeted us and tried to give us a table and chairs as we walk in. No thanks. I don't want to be in the most crowded area and it was an area that was back away from the water...which makes it hard to get to Sakari if needed. We walked on down and he followed...probably to his "line" and then another person took over. We picked out our spot that was first in line with the water and that's where we would stay all day.

 

Everyone knows what the first thing Sakari does...head to the beach. We can't even get our things put down before she's stripped and running to the water. It would be the very first time she would get to try out her Mermaid tail and she was ready. I was not.

 

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I told her she HAD to wait on me. That meant me settling in first and then getting use to the water.

 

Once I was use to the water, I had her try out just the monofin. She did really well. So, it was time for the full blown morph into a mermaid time.

 

She put her outfit on and posed for daddy where he would post on his social media site that we found the happiest little mermaid in Cozumel.

 

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This is where she would remain the ENTIRE day. Swimming back and forth all day. We would have to drag her out. She's such a fish...I mean Mermaid.

 

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So now I will give you a tour of this place.

 

The water was so pretty and pretty shallow too for the most part.

 

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There are people that do massages here as well.

 

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I have to tell you, this area right behind the beach is so beautiful. It would be the place I would have hung out at if I didn't have a kid that won't get out of the water. Simply beautiful. It was kind of weird that there wasn't really many people back in there. I think maybe 3 people with chairs??

 

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The restroom building

 

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It wasn't the best, but it would do. There's one thing I have noticed while in the Caribbean, you can't expect super clean perfect restrooms. You will find broken tiles, sometimes a mess, broken doors and so on it seems where ever I go. Just the feeling of walking in a restroom and sand being on the floor reminds me of some beach here at home at the park. Icky. So, I really don't pay attention anymore. If there's a place to potty, I'm fine with that. This place was decent.

 

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Walking out of the restroom and toward the main building (which is what you'll see when you first come in).

 

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This is the area when you first come in. It's the area they wanted to find us a table at. I don't want to have to play superman and fly over that wall to watch my kid in the water.

 

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Looking down the beach

 

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This area had a sign saying only people doing water sports could go in it. They had jet skiis for rent, but I seen the guys that worked there riding people around and just in this square area. Not my kind fun if I can't drive it myself and go more than just a beach area.

 

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Headed more toward the area we were staying at

 

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As I was walking to the bathroom, I ran across this guy. He obviously lost a battle in his day.

 

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It's a shell tree (I actually think this was located on the property next door. I don't know, maybe because it said Private Property Do Not Enter or something like that...No hablo Ingles)

 

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As you can see, there is a bit of a drop right at the sand on the beach. So those that have mobility problems, this might or might not be an issue.

 

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They do have some lounge chairs that have thick cushions on them with the umbrella over top lined along the beach. However, if you want to use those, they are $10. We decided the table and chairs was just fine for us.

 

Immediately after getting there, they handed us a menu. I felt like I had just ate breakfast and wasn't even the slightest bit hungry. The hubby said he was going to order a drink so that they didn't think we were just sitting there for free. He ordered a Modelo and I had a Coke Light. They had a LARGE Modelo for $6.00 and the regular is $3.50. So hubby said he wanted the large and save $1.00. They told him they were out. So small it was for him (and it was a can). My pop was 2.50. If I was a beer drinker, I would have opted for a beer for the extra $1 I guess.

 

Sakari the mermaid was out swimming and man, I have to tell you, she is DARN GOOD at swimming like a mermaid. She has been practicing this move for 2 years now and she has it right! She did so well.

 

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Quite honestly, I think this mono fin helped her swim even better. She's a good swimmer and can swim with regular fins, but she just knows how to put her legs together and move the flowing way to make herself go really fast. I went out with her and she actually took off from me! I didn't have my fins with me and thought I could keep up with her...not.

 

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This is the view I got most of the time from her passing me up. LOL

 

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She was wearing me out. This newly turned 50 year old had to take a break and get another ice cold drink. Sakari continued to swim.

 

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