I got a cruise bug last summer and booked us on the Jewel. I had been on the S/S Norway in 1996, and again for our honeymoon in 2002, right before it went out of service. Of course, by late July, the biggest room we could get was a minisuite. It slept 4, so that seemed reasonable. (our kids are 3 and 6)

We drove to Houston, stayed at a hotel near the terminal, then boarded fairly early the next day. The staterooms weren't ready until about 2 pm, so we had about 3 hours to kill. We had lunch at the Garden Cafe (which was always quite good) and checked out the ship (and bought thermal spa passes....amazing). I also had to stop by guest services/the cruise concierge because they had me listed as a first time passenger, which I am not. THey fixed it for the voyage, and said I had to get it resolved after getting home. Ive been working on it since I got back, and hopefully the techies will merge the accounts soon. I had a great experince with the latitudes customer service lady - she found both accounts, but one was under my maiden name, and the other was "in the archives", whatever that means, so she couldnt merge them. But she told me exactly what to write in the email and where to send it to get results. It says 4-6 week wait for a reply due to the transition for Latitudes to Latitudes Rewards.

We were in 115566, which was just down the hall from the elevators, 1 floor down from the Garden Cafe, and right below the kids club. When we got into the room, it was nice and seemed spacious. Our luggage arrived, and we went to dinner at Cagneys (we had the UDP), then dropped the kids off at the kids club. Read more