Before moving to Europe, I didn't think I'd ever go on a cruise. Now that I've done 3 (1 with kids, 2 without), I'm sold on them. Some cruise lines are better than other (MSC is cheap and kids were free, but definitely not up to par with RC or Norwegian). This cruise was on the Norwegian Jade. The first day aboard, I kept thinking this would be an awesome boat for kids. They had a great teens area, little kids area, numerous activities for under 2's (in Jan the age to leave kids will bump up to 3 but they will have stuff each day for the kids that aren't old enough to be left), an area with kids size tables in the cafeteria, and a contained kiddie pool area. I would love to take the kids on this ship.
For us, we bought they actual cruise through Costco Travel and it came with wine (we traded out for soda), chocolate covered strawberries and $150 on board credit. It was until after we bought it that we learned about Bountiful Travel so we contacted them and were allowed to pay a fee to be added to their group (enabled us to attend on board seminars and purchase their shore excursions). Even with paying the speaker fee, their shore excursions were so much cheaper (plus had an LDS perspective and we saw more sites than the ships excursions) that we were saving money. Pretty sweet deal.
On board the ship we went down the slide at the pool, went hot tubbing, attended most of the night time performances, visited the bridge room, at lots of soft serve ice cream and even worked out. My goal this cruise was to workout twice (better than nothing right). I ended up doing much more than that. I found that I *might* actually enjoy belonging to the gym. I can easily read my books while I bike, it's a tad bit more difficult on the elliptical and impossible on the treadmill. I maxed out at 4 miles on the treadmill. I don't know how anyone can have that be their main way to run. It is painfully boring even with watching TV or listening to music. I don't love to run but if I'm going to do it, it needs to be outside.
For breakfast I lived of a bowl of blueberries topped with a scoop of muesli (so good). Lunch we did a variety of things. Then dinner I preferred to eat in the main dinning room. I thought the food was better there than the cafeteria style one and the waiter keep filling up the water glasses so I actually drank a lot. On top of that, our tour group reserved dinner tables most nights so we were able to get to know the people in our group which we enjoyed....we just had us sit at a different table than mom and dad since tables only seat 8.
Our room attendant was really nice too. At night it was fun to come in and see what towel animal he had left for us. We actually unpacked and put our luggage away then rearrange the room when we first got there. It was an indoor room which has its perk of saying dark at all hours and being very soundproof.
This was our last in port day with our tour group. We thoroughly enjoyed our excursions and on board lectures and highly recommend taking a tour with Dave at Bountiful Travel if you are interested in doing a Holy Land or Book of Mormon cruise tour. Having dinner with and getting to know the other people in our group was just icing on the cake.
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