Boarding the NCL Jewel

NCL Jewel 21-Day Transpacific Cruise Tokyo to Seattle

May 6, 2018 (Sunday) -- Yokohama

I decided to get up early, before 6:00A.M, to watch the Jewel sailing into port. There were rumors that she may very well not dock at Osanbashi Pier as planned. She actually docked at a pier further away on the last cruise before taking off for the chartered sailing right before this one. Fortunately, as I was watching, the Jewel slowly backed up and docked right at Osanbashi, what a relief!

A very short video taken from our hotel room of NCL Jewel docking at Osanbashi Pier.

Yokohama was much quieter this morning.

We decided to take a walk along the waterfront since it was such a beautiful morning. It was very nice walking around this seaside town that was well-designed and pedestrian friendly.

Such a lovely day!

View of Intercontinental Yokohama Grand from the waterfront of Shinko Park.

NCL Jewel waiting for us at the pier. We were near the Red Brick Warehouse at that point.

After getting back to the hotel, we had a very simple breakfast of interesting pastries and coffee in the room before checking out at 10:30.

As we were checking out of the hotel, the staff asked if we were going on a cruise and which ship we were on. Apparently, there was a MSC ship docking or anchoring in Yokohama but we did not see that ship at all that day. I jokingly told the staff they really should provide free shuttles to the pier for their guests. He said they are actually planning on doing that especially with the Summer Olympic Games coming up in Tokyo. They feel that there is a need to provide such service. As for us, we had to hire two taxis to take us to the pier, about $10 USD per cab which was quick and hassle-free. 

As soon as we arrived at Osanbashi Pier, we dropped our luggage off at the entrance on the left and were given check-in tickets #4. I did not even think about asking for priority check-in tickets since we are platinum. We got through OK by showing our boarding passes when they called for priority check-in later on even without the "A" tickets. There was a "Priority Check-in" sign near the waiting area in front of the luggage mailing counter which I don't know why it was there. I am sure many people thought that the luggage mailing counter was the check-in for the cruise. The check-in area is actually way in the back of the hall behind the partition. Not sure if those people waiting at the wrong spot was able to hear the check-in announcements. 

As we went through security they also passed out the notice of itinerary change. There were many uniformed staff taking care of the check-in process but for some reason it took us a long time to finally got our key cards and walked up the gangway. It could very well be that the woman was in training and needed help from several people around her. 

I don't know if I am the only one, but the elated feeling walking up the gangway and onto the ship always give me goosebumps. The feeling of being on vacation and the beginning of an adventure on a floating hotel is always exciting! 

Embarkation Lunch at Tsar's

As soon as we boarded, we headed over to Tsar's, the main dining room where lunch would be served on embarkation day other than the buffet and O'Sheehan's. As always, the crew members tried to divert us to the Garden Cafe but we knew that was exactly where we didn't want to be. 

It was very quiet and empty at Tsar's and we were lead to two tables near the big windows in the back with a view of the pier. What a great start of a cruise!

Tsar's Palace, the main dining room on board.

Enjoying our lunch with views of Yokohama and the pier.

Practically empty at that hour.

This is the typical menu for NCL embarkation lunch. It also rotated with another menu on sea days during this cruise.

Most people who tried the Shrimp Burger raved about how good it was. 

I'll have to try that next time.

Scallops Gratin, great!

My fried chicken.

ChC's Philly Cheese Steak

MOR's Poached Salmon

Roasted Peach for dessert, good!

Mango Cheese Cake

UDP and Main Dining Room

They announced that all the cabins were ready as we were finishing lunch. There was one more thing that we needed to do before going to our cabins, that was to make reservations for the Specialty Dining. We did not get the Ultimate Dining Package as we booked our cabins on the Sail-away (guarantee) rates. But with the $100 per person non-refundable OBC for the canceled port of Shimizu we figured the best way to spend it on would be purchasing the 3-meal UDP for around $95 each. With our group of 13, it would be wise for us to book it as soon as possible. Our experience on the Getaway transatlantic cruise last year was disastrous. Even with so many sea days on the Getaway we were not able to book our specialty dining without running into problems and we had to skip Le Bistro totally because of their availability, and that was only for the five of us then. Fortunately, I found that it was much easier to book specialty dining on the Jewel this time. We even changed schedules a couple of times and still worked out fine.

After purchasing and scheduling our specialty dining, we had to get in line at guest services to get our new key cards with UDP printed on. By the way, we also arranged with the main dining room to have our fixed time dining everyday at 5:45 for our big group of 13. For a big group like ours, they prefer to have us either before 6 or after 8. It was fine for us to have early dinner because we can always go to the buffet if we ever get hungry later in the evening. Alvin, the restaurant host, was top-notch in helping us getting our reservations down in the main dining room. He was my go-to person whenever we needed help in Tsar's. What a wonderful person!

Cabin 10092

Now, we finally got to our cabin on deck 10, #10092. This cabin is right next to the mid-elevator on the ship. I was worried that it would be noisy with people congregating there but it turned out to be a perfect location for us. It's centrally located and just an easy walk up or down the stairs to get to all the dining venues and lounges. There was never any problems regarding noise or busy foot-traffic even on the days when they had to distribute passports at the mid-elevator area on each deck.

Drinks inside our fridge which I have asked the room steward to remove since day one so we could put our own drinks and snacks in.

A bottle of sparkling wine and our bottles of water, benefits of being platinum members. The two bottles of water in the back are the expensive ones you have to pay for.

So happy that a coffee maker was provided in the cabin.

safe in the cabin

The cabin  was a little tight for the three of us but we are used to that and worked out just fine.

The best part was the balcony. With the ever changing view outside, it's wonderful to have the balcony especially when sailing through Alaska. We do spend a lot of our time in the stateroom so it really helps to have the balcony for extra space.

I was thinking that we could go ashore in the afternoon for a quick trip to Chinatown or the nearby Yamashita Park but with the 4:30 muster drill scheduled it would not be wise to rush in and out of the pier. After unpacking, it was time for the muster drill anyway. Our muster station was C3 at the Azura Restaurant on deck 6. I was surprised that they did not scan our key cards but just asking for our cabin numbers instead. The drill lasted longer than I like with all instructions given in three languages, English, German, and Spanish. Some people around us were dozing off probably due to travel fatigue. One good thing was we did not have to take our life jackets to the drill and we did not have to actually go to the life boats like some other cruise lines.

First Dinner at Tsar's
It was time for dinner after the drill and it was good that we had reservations so we did not have to schedule a meeting time everyday and then wait to be seated. We were put in two tables near the back windows again. Dinner took more than two hours. Our waiter was not that efficient even though his assistant Diana was working very hard to help him. It turned out that we had more problems with him in the next few days.

Always available appetizer, Smoke Salmon Tartare

Sushi

Always available Classic Ceasar Salad, very good!

Yankee Beef Pot Roast

That must have been the always available Grilled New York Strip Steak.

Warm Chocolate Lava Cake with the melted ice cream.

After dinner, we decided to take a walk over to the Red Brick Warehouse where the German Beer Festival was. We were not sure if it was over with but it would still be a nice short walk from the pier.

Poster

There were still a lot of people...

enjoying their beer and German food.

Ahh.... the Jewel, our home for the next 20 days.

By then, it started to rain so we made our way back to the ship for a quiet night on board.

Another bottle arrived, a gift from our travel agent.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."      Psalms 19:1