Nickelodeon All Access Cruise: Day 7 (At Sea)

Today was fun but I must admit that I’m ready to go home. By the end of Day 6, the kids were starting to bug me a bit (and vice versa). By the end of this day, the kids and my husband are all bothering me. (For the record, “it’s mutual,” my husband laughed.) We’re still having a really good time, but we just need our individual space!

We missed our last opportunity to have breakfast with the Nickelodeon characters. Oh well…we’re just not morning people while on vacation! After a quick breakfast, we went to the Nick Jr. Story time featuring Team Umizoomi. We signed the kids into Kids Crew, so that we could have a couple of free hours. I planned out the month of March before taking a Hip Hop dance class (with a bunch of kids and a few other moms). Reggie chilled. “I’m done with dancing for this cruise,” he declared. (Some people – they win a first place dancing prize and then refuse to show their moves – whatever :-)! )

We spent the rest of the day hanging out – watching movies and playing sports. “You’re so competitive!” Reggie said as I scrambled for the ball. (No, I’m not. I stopped being a “Type A” personality almost 7 years ago…really.) In any event, I banged my knee up playing soccer, but it was a lot of fun. We were so relaxed that we totally missed a highly anticipated press group dinner at Teppanyaki.(Someone – I’m not naming names – said that it was at 8pm. It was really at 6pm.)

Everything worked out well though. We were able to see “Le Cirque Bijou”, which was amazing. My husband remarked, “I think that I like them even more than Cirque du Soleil.” That’s a pretty huge compliment! At the end, there was a special tribute to the officers, staff and crew of the Jewel. We all applauded with gusto, because they were all wonderful. I truly believe that every single one (that I came into contact with anyway) went above and beyond the call of duty. After the show, we had dinner at Teppanyaki, a hibachi styled specialty restaurant. We all enjoyed the entertaining Japanese cooking technique that was performed directly in front of use. I ordered the “Samurai” – a combination of shrimp and chicken. I wrote down the recipe for the fried rice, vegetables and chicken so that I can recreate it at home. It was actually pretty simple. Garlic, scallion, rice, butter, scrambled eggs and soy sauce were cooked on the grill to make the rice. The side vegetables were simply sliced onion, yellow squash, zucchini, and carrots that were grilled and drizzled with a butter and soy sauce mixture. The chicken was grilled chicken breasts that were cut up into bite-sized chunks and coated with a sauce made of garlic, butter, lemon juice and rice wine. What a great way to end our cruise. Suffice it to say, we went to bed happy…and with full stomachs!

Norwegian Jewel Officers, Staff & Crew

This was a “press trip + 1”, so I only paid the normal cruise price for 2 family members (since everyone insisted on coming along).