The Norwegian Jade

The Norwegian Jade was a wonderful ship with a superb staff. We enjoyed our time onboard, even though we hadn’t planned on having quitw so many days at sea. Our balcony cabin was tiny but efficient. We had a double bed and a fold-out couch. The grandmas had the same setup but with two single beds, and the kids rotated who slept in the grandmas’ room.

The ship had several free restaurants including the buffet. The Alizar was the main dining foom that we ate at most nights. The Grand Pacific had the same menu but was fancier and had a dress code. Finally, there was O’Sheehan’s an Irish restaurant that was open 24 hours a day and an Asian restaurant called Jasmine Garden. We ate at those two a couple of times as well. There were other restaurants for an added cost, but we didn’t visit them. Every time we entered a restaurant the staff would spray our hands with sanitizer and say “washy, washy” “happy, happy” in a super upbeat voice.

The best thing on the ship was Splash Academy. It was the kids’ play area, and we let the kids go for several hours a day. The boys loved it. They played games with other kids, watched movies, and played video games. The teachers gave us a phone/pager in case something happened with Mason and his diabetes. It was one of the first times in over a year that we were able to leave him on his own other than at school. Since the kids are not in school, this structured playtime and activities were very helpful.

The boat had two pools and several hot tubs. Our favorite time to go was late afternoon, just before dinner. If it was too wavy, the water would rush from side to side of the pool making it too dangerous for kids. Once this caused a fit from Mason when the lifeguard denied him entry. The best was the days the kids got to hang out with their Splash Academy friends in the pool.

Day 1 – Embarkation

Upon waking up at 5 am, with just hours to go until our cruise ship set sail from Singapore, we received an email from Norwegian Cruise Line. Hong Kong, our final destination, had closed off its Cruise port due to the coronavirus, causing a change to the itinerary of the ship. Instead of ending in Hong Kong, we would now be sailing all the way back to Singapore which also caused them to cancel our stop in Hanoi, Vietnam and adding an additional day at sea. We had planned to spend a few days in Hong Kong after the cruise. We had also booked an Airbnb and an evening boat cruise to watch the cities nightly laser show. HK had made us nervous to begin with because of the political protests.

Adding the threat of the coronavirus was too great of a risk to take with our family’s preexisting health conditions. A day earlier, we canceled all of our plans in HK and paid extra to change our flight so thar we could head straight to the airport from our cruise. We called by phone and NCL reiterated that the ship’s itinerary was still going to HK. Now with the news of the itinerary change, we felt a slight panic knowing that we had to find flights to Japan from Singapore with a moment’s notice.

After watching the news and seeing several ships being quarantined at sea due to passengers falling ill with the virus, we weren’t quite sure what to expect. Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) took several safety measures like not allowing anybody from China, Macau, HK or anybody who had been in those countries in the past 30 days onboard. They implemented a plan to take the temperatures of all passengers as they came aboard. They would deny boarding to anyone with a temperature of 100.4. NCL would not refund anyone who didn’t want to go due to safety reasons and promised the utmost health standards.

All that being well and dandy, we still had reservations. At the cruise terminal, we dropped off our bags, went through security, stayed in a holding area, went through another line for immigration and after two hours, they let us aboard. It was not until we were about to step foot on the ship that they took our temperatures. We couldn’t help but think the temperature check could have been done immediately instead of after being corralled like cattle.

Once on the ship, the mood seemed to lighten up. Other than a few people wearing masks and gloves, it was business as usual. We grabbed a quick lunch at the buffet before finding our stations for the muster drill. During the drill, half of our party fell asleep. We were all exhausted from all of the stress from the day and the unknown.

At 5 pm, we headed up to the pool area for the sail away party. The kids had a blast watching the ship depart from Singapore Harbor, a busy place. Cargo ships packed the harbor with row after row of cargo ships as far as the eye could see. It was impressive to see the huge ships and fun to watch our ship navigate it’s way out to the open ocean. Before heading to bed for the evening, we ate a great meal at Alizar.

Day 2 – At Sea

We spent our first day at sea mainly by the pool area. The boys loved swimming in the pool and sitting in the hot tubs. Cathy purchased 250 minutes of internet so that we could buy plane tickets to Japan out of Singapore and find us a hotel room in Singapore for a night. We asked for free internet in order to change our flights, but NCL would not give it to us. The boys went to Splash Academy to play some dodgeball and other fun games. After dinner, at the Irish restaurant, the boys went down and got their photos taken with the captain. We ended the day by seeing the ariel acrobatics show Duo Aura in the Stardust Theater. The show starred a couple from Russia, it was amazing how strong and flexible they were. The boys’ mouths were agape.

Day 3 – Bangkok, Thailand

Around 7 am, we walked outside to the balcony to see the Laem Chabang port. The shipping yard full of cranes, containers and cargo ships surrounded us. We had a quick breakfast and headed out. Moments after going through Thailand immigration, we located our driver for the day with a sign. Our ship stayed in the same port for two days so we hired Thai Sabi Life Tours for both days. Our driver took us the 2+ hours to Bangkok where we met up with our tour guide Soo. Soo was born and raised in Bangkok and was a former teacher. She learned English by majoring in it in college.

Our first stop of the day was the magnificent Wat Pho Temple to see the enormous reclining Budah statue. Unfortunately, the famous Grand Palace was closed due to a public holiday, so we kept moving.

We walked from there to a river nearby to take a ride on one of the famous longboats which zoomed over waves and into side canals. We slowed and stopped to wait for the locks to let other boats through. It was a hot wait, but once we made it to the other side, we enjoyed seeing the houses and buildings that stood near the river. After the boat ride, we ate at Soo’s favorite Michelin Star Thai restaurant. We tried several wonderful dishes like shrimp pad thai, chicken green curry, kartongtong appetizer, Chinese kale fried pork, mango sticky rice, and delicious Thai iced teas. It’s always fun to be able to eat or drink a favorite dish in its country of origin; we have been fortunate enough to do this a few times like Swedish meatballs in Sweden, pizza in Naples and fish and chips in London, amongst others.

Our last quick stop of the day was Chelsea and Soo stopping at the giant fashion market to search for patches from Thailand. It was a long ride back to the ship.

Day 4 – Pattaya, Thailand

Upon waking up, we learned of a mass shooting at a mall in Thailand 3 hours from Bangkok. This was something that had almost never happened in Thailand, and it felt to close to home. Over the course of the day, we learned that a soldier had killed 26 people and injured many more. After 16 hours of standoff, sharpshooters killed the gunman. Our hearts are with all of those that were affected by this tragedy.

Soo and our driver met us at our cruise ship at 9 am. She took us to the Pattaya floating markets, a mixture of vendors selling items from their boats and on land. First, we piled on a long rowboat for a tour of the market area. Then we walked around for a few hours checking out shops and trying local foods. Soo bought the boys a dessert with jelly balls and ice cream. We also tried lots of great food including crackers and fried sticky rice and more Thai iced tea. The market was a nice experience for everyone to see how the locals and tourists live together. Grandma Nadine, Cooper, and Mason even got their feet cleaned by fish. The fish in the tank eat off the dead skin.

Our request the day before was for Soo to locate a Starbucks for us. As mentioned earlier, the internet on the ship was expensive, almost $1 per minute. We used our time at Starbucks to book a hotel in Singapore, contact family, and send some emails. At the end of the trip, we had to say “khob Khun,” Thank you in Thai. Soo had never left Thailand and told us that she has always wanted to experience an American Thanksgiving meal, see the snow, and go to the little house on the prairie museum. We told her Minnesota has all three and we would love for her to come to visit someday.

The kids had been begging us to go back to Splash Academy so we dropped them off for a few hours while the adults checked out the hot tub.

Later that evening we had dinner in the fancier Grand Pacific dining room at the back of the ship. Once again the food was excellent with many great options to choose from. Sir Niles, an illusionist was the entertainment for the evening. He performed some card magic, disappearing tricks, and topped it off with a harrowing escape from being padlocked in a tank of water. Luckily after two and a half minutes, he escaped!

Day 5 – Cambodia

A short shuttle bus ride from the ship brought us to the main gate where roughly 100 men approached the gate yelling, hollering, and waving signs. They were local taxi drivers and tourist companies looking for a day’s work. We had a small group tour prearranged, so Tom worked his way through the crowd to look for them, while the rest waited. Our tour group consisted of 3 other couples and our group of 6. Heng was our guide. Our van today was not nearly as nice as the one we had in Thailand. The air conditioning took a while to get going. 

 If you have never learned about Cambodian history, we suggest you look into it. Here is a brief version of what happened during the Cambodian Genocide. Basically, 2 million people died under the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge forced many people out of the cities and sent them to labor camps in the countryside. In the camps, there were many mass executions, forced labor, physical abuse, extreme malnutrition, and disease. Most of these people were the educated, middle and upper-class families. About one-fourth of the population was killed. Chelsea works with an amazing man that lived through this horror. As a teacher, he lived this nightmare. His family’s story is one of pure basic survival. He is a true scholar and leader in Minnesota, and his story of survival in Cambodia was with us with every step through that country.

Because of its devastating history, Cambodia is still struggling. It was left with almost entirely poor and uneducated citizens. The repercussions from the war are still very evident in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.  The city is somewhat in shambles.

In our 10 minute drive to the fishing pier, the amount of rubbish, torn up roads, and dilapidated buildings shocked us. We stepped out of the car and were immediately hit by a pungent fish smell. Chelsea thoughtfully added a dab of oil (menthol and eucalyptus) to our face masks which temporarily masked the smell. Walking down the pier, we saw families and fishermen. The brightly painted teal and chartreuse painted boats bobbed in the water, but the water was littered with plastic bottles and garbage. The fishermen hauled and sorted the fish into tubs and bags, and then workers loaded them onto trucks or motorbikes with trailers.  It was a quick stop, but we could see how many people relied on the fishing industry here. We drove by the golden lion statue which is the most recognizable structure in Sihanoukville.  

Stop #2 was the temple. Buddhism is the main religion of Cambodia. At the temple, we learned more about the monks, religion, and traditions.  It was nice, but honestly of both the temples we saw here were alright, but not nearly as nice as the one in Hampton, Minnesota called the Cambodian Buddhist Temple. However, the one in Minnesota does not have monkeys or the beautiful flowering trees.

We have been to many local markets all over the world, but this market was disgusting. With the outbreak of the Coronavirus and with the disturbingly unhealthy conditions, a stop at the live market was surprising to us. We couldn’t believe a place like this was included as a stop on our tour. It was no wonder that diseases like dengue fever are so common in this area. Most of the live animals were poultry or seafood, but the meat was butchered in unsanitary conditions. We slopped through the market quickly and found the exit.

Although we were not very hungry after that market trip, our small lunch actually wasn’t that bad. An NGO ran the restaurant, so we supported them.

Our other stops included a quick stop by the beach and another Buddhist temple. We learned that there was some investment by Chinese companies to make Sihanoukville, Cambodia a tourist destination for Chinese visitors, but many projects had fallen through and had left the city with dingy casinos and unfinished construction projects. We were ready to head back to the ship.

Although parts of the city were not clean or well developed, the people were kind. Here is a video of out tour guide teaching us a song.

That evening we saw a musician named Stevie Bor and his band. They played lots of upbeat rock and roll classics. Cooper had a great time dancing and clapping along with the music.

As we were getting ready to get to bed there was an announcement from the captain throwing another curveball into the plans. They were having trouble getting clearance to dock at our first port in Vietnam, so they decided to rearrange our three ports there. We had hired private tours in all three ports months ago. With no internet and no way to contact our tour guides, it was very stressful to contact and reschedule our plans.

Day 6 & 7 – At Sea

With the continued threat of Coronavirus, we were surprised that guests were still able to serve themselves at the buffet. On several occasions we watched people cough into their hands, and then walk up and grab the common serving spoon or tongs. Several of us wore surgical gloves when dishing up our plates. For a few meals, to our delight, staff members started serving. It slowed things down but was better as far as minimizing risk. The switch didn’t last long though and soon the ship went back to the quicker way of doing things.

Our days at sea were spent in typical cruising fashion. We ate, swam, played board games, ate, went to shows in the theater and then ate some more. The boys had so much fun playing at Splash Academy with the other kids. They played all kinds of different games and Mason won a free t-shirt playing Bingo, and Tom learned how to decorate a black forest cake from the head pastry chef.

Day 8 & 9 – At Sea

On the morning of day 8, we woke up at 5:30 am excited to finally be in Vietnam! We had confirmed our excursion for 7 am with a private company the night before. Stepping onto the balcony we thought it was weird that we could not see land yet. Tom went over to the grandmas’ room on the other side of the ship and could not see land from their balcony either. Chelsea turned on the TV and found the navigation channel. The ship was headed South instead of North, away from our port of Chan May. Knowing full well that we were not going to our port of call that day, we went down to the guest services desk to verify. The guest services staff kept telling everyone that there would be a message from the bridge and that they did not know what was going on.

Finally at 8:30 am, 1.5 hours after should have docked, the Captain made his announcement. He said that sometime in the middle of the night Vietnam had decided to deny our ship entry even though our ship had met all of their demands and had been approved the day before. He made it sound like it was all the country’s fault. We learned that we would not be stopping at any of our original 4 ports in Vietnam. Also, we would be spending two more days at sea, after spending the previous two at sea. They said that they would add an additional port of call in Ko Samui, Thailand. So we had to work on a plan for that day. People on the ship understandably upset, especially with the lack of communication from Norwegian.

We spent Valentine’s Day on the ship, with a relatively “normal” day. But the grandmas took the boys one so that we could have a meal to ourselves, and our kind waitress brought us a bottle of wine on the house.

Day 10 – Ko Samui, Thailand

With short notice, Chelsea was able to arrange an excursion at Samui Elephant Haven in Ko Samui, Thailand. The excursion we booked was from nine till noon and we knew we would be cutting it close on time. Cathy had woken up early to secure tender tickets. Thailand’s health officials boarded our ship to look through the ship’s health records, set up thermal cameras, and there was a Royal Thai Police boat parked next to our ship. After all was said and done, we didn’t reach shore till almost 10 am, one hour past the start of our tour. Luckily, our driver that was sent by the Elephant Sanctuary was waiting for us. And even with traffic and road construction, we reached our destination at 11 am. We were upset and frustrated that we might miss seeing most of the elephant sanctuary.

But, we arrived at the sanctuary to hear some wonderful news. They had decided to give us a private tour from 11 am – 2 pm which worked out perfectly since the last tender back to the ship was at 4:30 pm giving us plenty of time. After a quick safety video, we headed out with our guide, Fie, to meet the first five elephants. We got to feed the elephants a bunch of bananas and then make a rice, pumpkin, and protein powder snack to feed them too. They just grabbed everything with their trunks and put it right in their mouths.

We went in to see the two baby elephants. The smallest was Haven. He was born in captivity and will stay in the sanctuary. We learned that each elephant has one human assigned to it, a partner for life. We saw two newer male elephants. They both had huge tusks. Fie told us that when raised in captivity, the elephants don’t know how to grind their tusks on the trees and often they need to have a veterinarian trim them. The sanctuary is always looking for veterinary help and just built some more volunteer housing nearby. Often they have to fly in an elephant specialist from Chaing Mai.

We worked hard to find a sanctuary that truly focused on animal rescue and had a secondary focus on ethical tourism. Here they do not allow riding or bathing of the elephants by tourists, and they truly let the elephants live in more space and more freely than any other place out there. They also incorporated education, cooking, and an amazing Thai lunch into our tour.

On our sail away from Ko Samui, we were blessed with the most beautiful sunset. We all watched it from our balcony before heading off to dinner.

Day 11 – At Sea

For our final day at sea, we went to a meeting in the Spinnaker Lounge. A group of passengers/lawyers had decided to write a letter to the Captain and NCL demanding more than a 10% refund for our cruise. Over 1,000 people signed the letter, but nothing has been said by the company. The final show entitled Elements was spectacular, but we left with mixed emotions and feelings about the whole cruise experience.

Day 12 – Disembarkation

The general consensus on the ship was that people had no idea if Singapore would let us back in. We had heard the horror stories on the news about other cruise ships being quarantined due to the Coronavirus like the Diamond Princess off the coast of Japan, which had 624 cases. There was also the case of the MS Westerdam that was being denied entry to any country. We heard Cambodia finally took them in, but that was the last place we would want to disembark. (A few days after everyone dispersed from the MS Westerdam, and a 83-year-old lady was found to have the virus).

Around 4 am in the morning, we woke up to a very welcome sight, LAND! At 7 am, they announced that we had been cleared to disembark the ship. We grabbed one last breakfast at the buffet before leaving the ship. It was both a wonderful feeling and a sad one. The cruise, other than the obvious setbacks, was a blast. Our boys had the time of their lives and didn’t realize what they had missed. We felt very lucky to have made it safely through our cruise with no health concerns on our ship. We remain hopeful that Norwegian will come back with an offer of more than a 10% refund since they gave us no option but to sail or lose all of our money and since we missed out on 5 ports.

After having our temperature checked and clearing customs we headed over to our hotel near the airport to drop off our bags. They were nice enough to let us into one of our two rooms even though we had arrived four hours before our 2 pm check-in. The hotel also took each of our temperatures before we could go up to the room.

Since the Grandmas didn’t get to experience the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome with us earlier, we headed back to Gardens by the bay. Before being allowed in either building, we had our temperatures checked again. That made four times for each of us in one day. The Grandmas were amazed by both of the giant domed buildings, and the kids had fun showing them all of their favorite things from our previous trip.

Sitting here several days after the cruise, we are all still feeling upset by the way NCL handled the whole situation. Their extremely poor decision making and communication make us not want to travel with them again, but we would like to come back to Asia. We want to see Vietnam and Hong Kong, someday.