Norwegian Jade - Mexican Riviera

In a very short space of time (only a week), I found myself taking another deeply discounted cruise. After leaving New Orleans [see: Norwegian Escape - Central America], I flew to LA to spend time with TFR. I had stumbled on another deeply discounted cruise leaving from San Diego. Ironically, the very same cruise on a much larger (and newer) ship was departing from the Port of Los Angeles at the same time. However, getting to San Pedro, Long Beach from T's house was NOT easy while taking the metro to Union Station (15 minutes) and Amtrak to Santa Fe Depot, San Diego (three hours) WAS easy (and likely cheaper and nearly as fast). LA is very transportation unfriendly.

I took the metro A line to Los Angeles Union Station from Highland Park. LA's premier station was gloriously refurbished. Since my last visit, it has become the public transport hub for the city. The terminal was BUSY (which I loved). I sat down in a clean waiting room in the beautiful departure hall and waited for the train to be called.

I then rode the "Surfliner" [see: Amtrak Surfliner, Los Angeles to San Diego] to San Diego and checked into a cheap hotel near the station (and port). I wish I trusted Amtrak enough to deliver me on time to a destination... I could have saved on the hotel and stayed in LA an extra day. Anyone who rides Amtrak knows it is not reliable enough to ride just before a cruise.

As it turned out, many others at the hotel were booked on the same cruise (it made sense, the hotel was convenient). Like New Orleans, San Diego's cruise terminal is on the edge of downtown making "cruise day" a matter of waking up and walking to the ship. I found myself in a group of people checking out and walking toward the pier with NCL luggage tags already attached.

Check-in was fast and easy. Again, Norwegian had the system down. I had to queue several times, but everything moved swiftly. While waiting I met Aaron and Christian, father and son who were on a bonding trip. Christian had just finished his BA in Biology at UC Riverside and was planning on med school. His father wanted to have one more vacation before his son started studying again. I found that wonderful - what a great father.

By noon I was onboard.

We sailed out of San Diego harbor in brilliant sunshine

And, of course, I scored a seat at the bar overlooking the pool to watch the send off party and the view.

I proceeded to explore some of the ship. Something I found immediately was Deck 7, the "Promenade", the one that circles the whole craft. A sign announced that 2.7 times around was one mile. I always walked three rounds each time and kept to my practice of drink or eat, then walk. Frustratingly, the deck was often partially closed due to maintenance. That allowed partial circuits only and backtracking. Cruise ships are never "off the clock" - maintenance goes on during all cruises.

Our first sunset was beautiful.

The cruise provided a full day at sea before Cabo San Lucas, so I took to more ship exploration. The Norwegian Jade is small, more like the Island Princess I sailed with my brother between New York and Los Angeles. However, I did not like the layout at all. The ship felt "chopped up" and it was difficult to walk from one end to the other without detouring up or down a deck (except on Deck 7). Other passengers had the same comment, "I'm always getting stuck/lost" (and it is a small ship).

The food quality was standard - no complaints. Unfortunately, coming from cruises that had food available all the time (somewhere), the Jade did not. It closed its main buffet and restaurants between serving times. Was it the end of the world to wait for an hour or two to eat (especially on a vacation of endless food)? Of course not. However, Norwegian champions "free style" cruising. If so, that should include eating any time one feels like it. A minor complaint (and mostly because of personal choice or returning from excursions at off times) - I always seemed to find everything closed just when I wanted to eat.

The bar that overlooks the pool actually does not have stools at the bar itself; the seats face another "bar" that overlooks the pool (better view). The main problem was being forced to depend on waiters to refresh drinks (or doing it oneself and potentially losing the seat). As usual, the bar staff were stretched thin and hard to flag down (especially in the pool area). So, I ended up at the bar on the pool level - definitely a second choice because people come out of the pool drenched and walk directly to the bar in various states of dress and water-logging. I don't care what anyone wears on vacation, but I would like to go on record that not everyone is built to wear extremely revealing swimwear. And, if someone is dripping wet, well, they tend to drip everywhere. Yuck.

The bartenders were from Indonesia mostly and I chatted with them a lot. I didn't find them as friendly as on the Norwegian Escape, but I noted that the entire crew seemed exhausted from the moment we boarded. I felt sorry for them. I don't think I would have great interpersonal skills either if I were tired. The Jade crew were the most "I am over this job" crew with which I sailed to that point.

I had a great time in Cabo San Lucas. It was my first time to go ashore there. I visited Todos Santos, a lovely small town about an hour north of the port [see: Todos Santos]. We had to tender into Cabo (all ships do) and like the previous cruise, NCL muffed the transfer. We waited a very long time to get off the ship and, again, the passengers were displeased. Add to that, NCL used a local tender service rather than their own boats (which hold far more people). No one appreciated the guys bothering us for "tips" on the tender - something that was provided as part of our basic package.

The sail away came just as night was falling - it was beautiful.

I discovered one lounge (Spinnakers) "late" into the cruise with floor-length windows encircling it on a high floor at the front of the ship. It was set up for entertainment as well as being a bar. Every time I went there, I saw very few people. Either it was only hopping at night (then what was the point of the windows?) or no one could find it. On the "hard to get around" Jade, I was guessing the latter. Someone later related that on Alaska cruises it is used much more.

We arrived at the industrial port of Mazatlán where I took a walking tour of the old downtown [see: Mazatlán]. The young guy I met at check-in, Christian, was on the tour (he said his dad was relaxing). The walk in the old city was enjoyable, but the port area is not nice whatsoever. For how many cruise ships that city hosts, I would think building a dedicated pier with a better reception area would be a priority. I noted many people didn't even get off the ship because we pulled in amongst a bunch of containers stacked on the pier next to our boat.

The sail away from Mazatlán did provide for some nice views of hills silhouetted against the setting sun, but the industrial foreground was hard to ignore.

The next morning we arrived at Puerto Vallarta. It was my third trip there, so I elected to walk to the beach near the ship (which is actually beautiful). I had done a tequila tour years before (excellent) and the city tour a few months earlier (not so great). I only wanted to walk on the beach and feel the sand under my feet. Puerto Vallarta was our only "hot" destination, so I made sure to walk in the early morning. I completely enjoyed it.

What I did not appreciate was being forced to zig zag through shop after shop to exit the "Magic Port" only to be harassed upon leaving by touts. Then, after walking along a busy highway, I entered the hotel zone (right next to the port) to get to the beach. I was happy to walk on the sand (it really is beautiful), but considering the beach is literally next to the pier (it was clearly visible from the top deck - a 3 minute walk!), I didn't appreciate being forced through a shopping mall and down a busy street in order to get there. The shameless desire of both the cruise line and the locals to get passengers to buy things in port can be overwhelming and frustrating.

There were great views of the ship from the port area anyway. I took this photo from a pickleball court inside the terminal. I was surprised that people were getting off the ship in Puerto Vallarta to PAY to play pickleball inside a dull, cement building.

We departed 30 minutes late - why? The ship waited for two passengers. We were constantly told that if we turned up late, we would be left behind. Of course, I knew NCL (or any cruise line) would be flexible, but I wasn't sure how flexible. We waited 30 minutes - they finally came (running) to the applause of everyone on the top deck. I wondered what the cut off time was for such behavior?

Puerto Vallarta's situation at the base of green mountains with its lovely crescent beach is appealing, not to mention the beauty of the entire Bahia de Bandaras (Flag Bay) that encloses it. Even if it is very developed, PV remains a great destination in its own right.

We watched the huge Norwegian Bliss leave ahead of us for Los Angeles (just a few feet away!) and then our small ship (by comparison) turned into the setting sun to exit the bay. We had two sea days to return to Los Angeles.

The first sea day of the return greeted us all with a lovely sunrise.

Sea days are great for relaxing. I walked deck 7, took in a map trivia (almost won), and sat at the bar listening to people who cruise a lot. I was thinking that many people who know me thought I was suddenly going "cruise crazy". I felt like informing them that I was a total "newbie" compared to many others. Taking many cruises also means some people learn to game the system - the frequent cruisers are always a wealth of information. A significant percentage of cruise passengers are "frequent cruisers" and the ships need to accommodate (and satisfy) them. Many frequent cruisers rarely get off the boat in port (been-there, done-that). That means that the entire cruise is a series of "sea days" for them. I was not sure I was ready for that (or ever would be). Cruising for me was still primarily about the ports.

The weather turned colder as we headed north. San Diego is never extremely cold, but air and breeze became decidedly cooler than Cabo San Lucas and points south. We were heading back to winter. In fact, the final sea day opened to gray skies and the heaviest seas of the voyage (which were not very heavy). In fact, it rained on and off and was actually cold the whole day. As the day wore on, I was bombarded with news about a large snow storm pummeling half of the USA. Of course, the ship's weather was not that bad - but still, it was not "warm" at all. I found it strange because San Diego and Los Angeles are normally pleasant in the winter. That kind of weather meant no sitting at the pool bar and enjoying the sun for one last day.

I mostly relaxed and napped (and thought that winter somehow was finding me no matter where I traveled). At one point I had a deep nap and woke with a start - I had no idea what time it was nor where I was. That has happened to me several times on long trips and is quite unnerving.

We arrived into San Diego early and could exit the ship right on time. I elected to leave at 7:30 in hopes of reaching the hotel by 8:00am. In fact, it was the fastest disembarkation I ever experienced! (no complaints) I checked my bags into the hotel and sat in the lobby to make plans for the day until I could actually get into the room.

The cruise was over.

Afterthoughts:

I am most reminded of the year that Brian and I went to Broadway shows - often. In fact, it was the only year the Tony Awards made sense because we had seen most of the shows. Prior to that year, seeing a show was something special - we treasured each experience. Once we started seeing shows frequently, we began to compare them and became very critical. Although the experience was priceless, it also taught me that even something wonderful can turn sour with too much repetition. That year we became Broadway snobs - liking some things and hating others. Previously, we "loved" everything we saw.

The Norwegian Jade was my fourth cruise in five months. I started to become critical about small things. Mainly, I didn't like the Jade - it wasn't that it was "small"; it was not "user-friendly". Even on the last day I was still confused how to get from point A to point B. The crew was lovely, but they were not "exuberant". Food was not available all the time on demand. The TV programming was terrible. However, for first-timers (whom I met), they all had a wonderful time. I tried to keep things in perspective.

The Norwegian Jade was going to do a journey from Lima, Peru to San Diego with stops up the entire Pacific Coast of the Americas for 17 days. That itinerary intrigued me; however, I decided that 17 days on that ship would not make me happy - mainly because I endlessly compared it to other ships. Even though the ports were fascinating, I would only do it on a ship (and crew) I liked a lot. I did NOT like the Jade enough to sail onboard for 17 days.

In the end, I did have a good cruise. The Indonesian crew were a lot of fun to chat with. I loved Todo Santos near Cabo - it was a great discovery and a place I could easily return. Old town Mazatlán was way better than I expected. Nothing was "bad". I had become hyper-critical.

With a lot on my mind, I was back in San Diego (in cold and cloudy weather) to ponder my next step.