Before I begin to write this blog, I would like to make a note of why I, Nadine, is specifically writing this one.
Ben wrote an amazing blog about our cruise on the Norwegian Jade we sailed with a couple weeks ago. The post was long, detailed, and humorous. He listed pros and cons to the cruise, ship amenities, and activities we participated in. It was truly a legendary post. It was so great I wanted to add video and pictures to it.
While attempted to post a video, I accidentally deleted the ENTIRE post. It took Ben about 2-3 days to write this particular post and I felt soooooo bad! After about 10 reminders from Ben that I had deleted the post we have finally come to the agreement that 1. He will stop reminding me of the situation and 2. I will rewrite the post to the best of my ability. I will advise the audience, it will never be as good, but I will write it anyway!
After spending a rainy yet enjoyable day exploring Singapore, we rode the subway to the marina terminal. Checking in to the cruise was easy , security was a little long, but after an hour we were on the gangway leading into the Norwegian Jade.
Ben and I like to think of ourselves as cruise connoisseur, dispite only being on two cruises together before this one (Mediterranean and Yangtze River in China). We enjoy looking them up, checking their reviews, features, etc. So when we booked the Norwegian Jade we had a pretty good idea of what we were getting. Starting with free style dinning, where guests can go to the dinning room in relaxed clothing without a specific time period. The ship is also geared towards a family atmosphere, with plenty of activities for all ages.
Video of the cruise:
When we first walked into the cruise we were not yet allowed to go into our cabins until a few hours later, as the rooms were still being cleaned. We dropped our things off at the Bliss Lounge and went to explore the Jade.
The cruise had tons of raffles going on in every corner of the ship. The first was a “guess the artwork price”. Another raffle we entered was guess the carrot size of a unknown stone. (We are 95% sure they made up a stone just for this cruise, Zamzibir. They insisted it was some mine in Turkey.)
After entering almost all of the raffles we could find we moseyed on over to the dinning room for a peaceful lunch.
Ben had a burger with no bun and Nadine had a smoke salmon. We shared some popcorn shrimp and a chocolate mousse for dessert.
After the feeding it was time to enter our accommodations. It was surprisingly big and comfortable, slightly bigger than the Holland America indoor cabin.
The location was halfway between the gym and the dinning room.
If you ever get lost on a ship just look down at the fishes they will tell you were the front of the ship is. The red fishy going the other way will tell you were the food is.
After organizing all our belongings in our new home for the next six days we continued our exploration of the ship, making our way to the heath spa for the first of many raffles.
Spoiler alert, we did not win anything in any of the raffles.
Soon after the boat left the Singapore port, we headed off to dinner.
The food was ok compared to Holland America standards, and service from the staff seemed forced. That night we decided we would enter a “battle of the gender” competition.
It was very entertaining. In the end the men won due to popular audience vote, but we all knew who the true winners were.
The next day was a day at sea, which we spent at the gym in the early morning, eating every couple of hours and traveling from raffle to raffle. And a disappointing bingo session that cost us 50 big ones.
Day 2 we stopped in Langkawi, Malaysia (side note, when entering the cruise ship they took both our America passports and told us they would return them on the last day of the cruise) after taking our time to get off the boat, we decided to get off and wing the day. It was a bright sunny day before the rain clouds made an appearance. We were walking outside the port entrance when an Australian family was looking for a taxi as we were on the “grab” app.
We have talked about this app in previous posts. If you are traveling anywhere in Asia download this app. It is one of the best ways to get a taxi at a reasonable price. Or just use it for reference when getting a cab on the road. Anyway, since it’s a cruise port, the system blocks it off so that no grab taxis can enter. We decided to join forces with this family and take a cab to the center of town. To put it in perspective how the tourist industry all over has tried to take advantage of tourists, the grab app said it would be 7 Malaysian Ringgit to go to town (less than $1). The cab driver charged us $30 Singaporean dollar ($22) to take us to town. We agreed since we had no other choice and we went with this nice Australian family into town. After a 10 minute ride we were dropped off the aquarium in the center of town. Since we are backpackers and Australians love backpacking and understand the struggles, they covered our fare. Also, we didn’t have any Malaysian Ringgit or Singaporean dollars. We then parted ways for the day. (we would later see them at lunch, where we jokingly offered to buy them lunch for the transportation. food is free on the cruise).
Remember how we said our passports were with the cruise? Well, we took our Israeli passports with us. Some back story. Since the creation of Israel there are many Muslim states that do not recognize Israel as a country, and therefore do not allow Israeli passport holders to enter. To most of the world this is not something that people know, but almost all Israelis are aware of these policies.
For this reason we had a very fun time telling people we are from Tel Aviv just to get their reaction. We also took pictures with our Israeli passports with the Malaysian flag in the background.
Besides having a nice stroll on the beach that day, we also enjoyed being criminals for a day simply by being in the country illegally. On the way back we were able to hire the grab for 7 ringgit (our driver was a woman! Surprising since most drivers are usually men!)
Back on the cruise we went straight to O’Sheehans for some chicken wings, burgers and fajitas! Yum!
On this day we also discovered the game room, and the start to our Monopoly playing days.
Scoreboard: Ben 3 & Nadine 1
Day 3 we arrived in Phuket. We had already been to Phuket the week prior, but the cruise took us to the other side of the peninsula. It was all the same, boat tours, motorbike rentals, and massage parlors. We went to get a massage ($10 in Thailand, $200 on the cruise) SCORE
After our massages we went back on the cruise ship for lunch, Monopoly, and a little pool/jacuzzi sesh.
Day 4 we arrived again in Malaysia, to the city of Penang. There was not much to do there. We boarded a free city bus towards the center, walked in a mall for 10 minutes, found a hotspot, and caught up on the news and messages we had missed in the previous day. Soon enough we were back on the cruise in our safe space playing Monopoly.
Another day at sea followed, with the sun and rain clouds fighting each other for domination of the skies. Gym, food, Monopoly, reading, food, pool, food, reading Monopoly. That sums up the day quite nicely.
The next morning we docked in Singapore once again, ready and prepared to face the real world, having to once again struggle to find decent accommodation and sing for our suppers.
Pros:
⁃ the room was relatively big
⁃ The gym was big, clean, and had a variety of equipment
⁃ The food was ok, it had various restaurants you could choose from
⁃ Free boardgames
Cons:
⁃ The pools were small and dated
⁃ The shows were a bit uneventful and old.
⁃ The ship it self was dated
⁃ There was no place to hangout and read like the crows nest on the H/A.
⁃ The room service was an extra charge on H/A it is not.
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