alainamarie

Looking forward to your review. The pictures are great so far. We stayed at the Marriott too & you can’t beat the location.

It was the best location! Our room was great so that didn’t hurt! Thanks for reading.

hopping onboard!

 

 

 

 

 

and agree about the sadness of having to prerequisite no negative comments. I have noticed that trend too. :(

Isn’t it so frustrating? I love reading reviews but get dismayed when you see the negative interruptions. What can ya do?

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Going on the Jewel in August Following your review

 

 

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Thanks so much for reading!

Thanks Alaina - looking forward to the next installment!

 

 

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Thanks for reading! Embarkation day is coming soon!

I will try to post dailies as well - I saved all of them, but it’s a matter of remembering to take photos!

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We walked across the street to Anthony's and had dinner at the upstairs bar. We watched the sun set with a beautiful view of Elliott Bay. We had wine and appetizers and really enjoyed ourselves. It was literally steps away and Pier 66 is just a few more steps away.

We got back to the room and were blessed with this view from our balcony -

Pre- Cruise:

Hotel-

I booked my hotel one year in advance, basically as soon as the books opened up. I had my eye on the Marriott Waterfront, mostly because of its proximity to the ship. I chose the corner room, large guest room with 1 king, panoramic view. After taxes, it came out to just under $300 for the one night beforehand. We decided to keep this room even though we now live in Seattle. I also made a reservation through expedia for the Fairmont Olympic Hotel because it was a dream to stay there. I was able to book this room before Marriott, but I did cancel due to the port proximity of the Marriott.

So word to the wise - book early and have deep pockets. There are less expensive options further away from downtown (near the space needle & near the airport are much more affordable); it's all about where you want to be and what you want to pay. I love a good location, so it's worth it to me to pay a little more. Afterall, it's our 2nd honeymoon!

This is our corner, water-view room.

A view of the other rooms from our balcony

Another view from our balcony, this time - Elliott Bay!

Service/Food:

I'm going to briefly touch on a subject that I know a lot of people have varied opinions on. We had some issues with service throughout the duration of our cruise. This is my first time on NCL, so I can only compare to the 3 other cruise lines I have been on. Aside from service, my husband and I found the food outside of specialty dining was slacking. Very little change in the menus at the MDR and buffets. We also noticed our food was never really hot when served. We noticed a theme with fish - each time we ordered a fish dish, it was either over/under cooked.

I will note that I spoke with multiple people throughout the week and even after the cruise and this seemed to be a recurring theme. So before you said I'm picky or snobby, just know that it wasn't just us.

Many of the people I talked to have sailed with NCL before (some have only sailed NCL) and they said this cruise was definitely a "one off".

The cruise prior to ours was 3 weeks long and came from Hong Kong... What a lot of us "heard" was that many new crew were coming on - hundreds to be exact. I'm unsure if the crew that stayed on were tired or perhaps it was just the new crew that were not quite properly trained. Either way, I wanted to touch on this subject because I'm not making this the focus of this review. Alaska was beautiful and our cruise was not ruined. The bartenders made up for any misfortune!

Dining:

O'Sheehans - wow. The service did seem to get better, but it still wasn't good even on the last day. It just seemed like they could never get it together - long waits to be helped and an overall poor attitude with the few servers. The food is bar food, but it did the trick, it's just a shame that we had such poor service every time. This place was right outside of our cabin, so I really hoped to love this place.

MDR - We tried Tsar's Palace twice and Azura once. Food was okay, the service here definitely got better after the first few days. I will say, I would have gotten tired of the menu if we ate here every night.

Buffet - There's something for everyone here. Food was okay and it filled us up when we needed breakfast, lunch, or a snack. There was a lot of staff assigned here, so plates were cleared quickly and tables were turned over before you could blink. I dreaded looking for a table in the morning because it was hard to find an available table. We only noticed this at breakfast.

Specialty Dining - I cannot recommend this more. This really made a difference with our overall dining experience. We tried every restaurant and visited Cagney's twice since we had 6 dinners. I'll touch on each meal as I go through my day-to-day.

Cabin/Bidding:

I booked this cruise before Paul & I got super serious and started a long distance relationship. AKA before I had any idea I would fall in love, move across the country, and get married and want to share my cabin!

I was going to travel solo and I had friends who booked separately (one couple cancelled and my previous coworker did come on the cruise). I knew I would not be in my cabin often, so I booked an obstructed OV cabin, OK category - it's a horizontal shaped cabin right outside of O'Sheehans. Cabin # 8592.

Bidding: I placed a bid for a balcony and a mini-suite and both were rejected. In hindsight, if I knew my future mate would be traveling with me, I would have booked a balcony cabin. The price was sooo steep and never did decrease - only went up for our cruise. The only way I could potentially afford to get a balcony would be through rolling the dice with bidding.

You live, you learn. Our cabin was just fine for the two of us. We are both extroverts, so we did not spend much time in the cabin.

Here are some photos of our cabin -

Our view

Hello everyone! Wow, this is my 5th photo review. I am reporting back after my 9 night cruise to Alaska on the Norwegian Jewel. It was an interesting itinerary that lured me in because it included ports that are new to me (Sitka and ISP).

I also created a packing guide for Alaska because I noticed this question popped up so frequently. Feel free to check it out if you have any interest. My packing worked out perfect and I had very little excess.

A little background about me... This was my 9th cruise, first time on Norwegian, and 2nd time to Alaska (first time was on Celebrity Solstice - see signature for photo review). I have been on 4 Carnival cruises, 3 Celebrity, and 1 Royal. I am 33 years old, from New Orleans and recently moved to Seattle for love. Paul and I were married in early April, so he joined me and we pretended that this was our second honeymoon (first was on Maui late in April).

Here I am in Skagway -

I love to travel and cruising is not always my first choice. I'm not the type that wants to take 1000 photos or capture every meal I eat - I believe you should live in the moment. I did make more of an active effort to photograph my meals because we did a 6 night specialty dining package. My husband gifted me a nice mirrorless Canon for Christmas, so all of the photographs are from that one camera.

**I do want to put a disclaimer on this review and I hate that I have to do this. I'm starting to notice a growing trend on CC of people chiming in with negative comments and wordy opinions. This is NOT an opportunity for you to voice your opinion. This is my review that encompasses my own opinion based on my own experience.

With that said, let's get this review going! Here's the photo from the NCL website - it makes it appear that we sailed through Glacier Bay, but we did not.

Saturday 5/26/18 - Seattle

Sunday 5/27/18 - Sea Day

Monday 5/28/18 - Ketchikan

Tuesday 5/29/18 - Juneau

Wednesday 5/30/18 - Skagway

Thursday 5/31/18 - Icy Straight Point

Friday 6/1/18 - Sitka

Saturday 6/2/18 - Sea Day

Sunday 6/3/18 - Victoria

Monday 6/4/18 - Vancouver

I just got off of jewel and I was in an obstructed OV cabin (OK category). It is my understanding that these are the only cabins with an obstructed view.

I agree with a previous poster about a ton of outdoor space. Spinnaker was a great place for chilling and looking outside.

Hope you win your bid!

Alaina

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I don’t know if I’d panic if my husband was missing, but the app sure came in handy when we woke up and discovered dd14 was missing at 1:30 am. Turns out she was playing monopoly with some other teens, and was dismayed she couldn’t finish the game. It worked pretty well for our family of 7, we had a group text going on the whole week. The first time we used it on the Breakaway, I had an Android, it didn’t work fir me so I got a refund, but it did work with the iphones.

I didn’t panic because he was missing - I panicked because we had dinner reservations and I couldn’t find him. :)

It came in handy for us, but some messages did get delayed - not all.

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I just got off of Jewel today, my husband and I each paid 9.95 per phone. We had an incident on night #1 when I woke up from a nap to go to Cagney’s and he wasn’t there... I rushed the ship looking for him. He ended up in Spinnaker just reading a book, but we both decided to get it to prevent the drama from happening again! Came in handy but still seems like a lot of money to see where you are at that moment. Hope this helps!

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Alaina --

 

We'll be on the Jewel in September. Can you come back & let us know how your trip went? We are interested in the ship, activities/entertainment & the food...

 

Have a GREAT Alaskan Adventure!!!

 

Cheers -- Von & John

Von & John,

I will do a full photo review, so you will have a lot of info to sort through. If you look at my signature, you can see my writing/review style on the other reviews I’ve done.

Happy sailing to you!

Here’s the Jewel outside of my window this morning at Marriott Waterfront.

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Lisa, Your review has been incredible! I embark on the Jewel tomorrow and Your review was so helpful. I’ve also enjoyed our chats on messenger!

Thanks for taking the time to walk us through your adventure.

-Alaina

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Finishing up my backpack & purse. I always slip my jewelry bag into my carryon even though I don’t bring really expensive jewelry.

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I am bringing my binoculars!

I thought about purchasing some, but realized I never used them on my last cruise to Alaska. It’s on my list, but not shown. [emoji6]

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WOW! Thanks for all the tips and info...got some good info I didn't think of!!

Thank you so much for reading! If you want a more concise guide, here’s the link to my blog post.

http://ontheroadwithalaina.blogspot.com/2018/05/packing-guide-for-alaskan-cruise.html?m=1

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...anyone heard anything on a bid for the Jewel out of Seattle this Saturday?

I still haven’t heard.

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What have you decided to do in the ports? Are you taking shore excursions?

 

 

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Feel free to email me and I would be happy to tell you about my excursions.

Alainamarie2003 at hotmail dot com.

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Thank you for the helpful tips. I am also from the Seattle area so luggage space will not be an issue when we sail to Alaska this Sept. I will also be on a Caribbean cruise next March and I will have your tips on hand.

Thank you for reading! Living in Seattle provides the luxury of packing a few more items that you wouldn’t typically pack if you needed to be mindful with Airlines. I’ll be doing a full photo review of my cruise on the jewel next week, hopefully that will help, too!

Alaina

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https://www.containerstore.com/s/travel/totes-bags/baggallini-pacific-blue-city-tote/12d?productId=11005552

 

 

 

This is the purse/tote I bought last summer. It's nylon and easy to clean. The outside pocket unzips at the bottom so that you can slip it over the bars of your rolling luggage as you navigate the airport. It's large enough for a bottle of water, a Kindle, camera, etc. The inside zippered pouch was just right for my passport.

 

 

 

It's well made and should last through many more travels.

 

 

 

Patti

I’ve heard wonderful things about the baggalini! I just don’t need a new bag right now. I also love the container store!

Thanks for reading :)

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I am on this cruise on the Jewel with you. This is my carryon all packed and ready to go. In the bottom roll, I have 9 shirts, 5 pairs of pants, cuddleduds for extra layer/ warmth, gloves. In the pouch, I have my chargers. In the red bag is my coat and I have another baggie with toiletries. I am unsure whether to not bring a coat and buy one instead in Ketchikan which I plan on doing anyway. I have never used packing cubes. Would they take up less space than I have here?

 

 

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It just depends on how much you’re putting in each. It worked well for me, but you’re packing into a smaller bag than me (congrats on that by the way! I’m envious!!). I’ll post of a photo of my suitcase. I’m bringing a separate bag for our toiletries and my husband’s fishing gear. He uses a Patagonia bag that I find ridiculous for a long trip. It’s not even a suitcase! So I’m bringing the extra smaller bag for our extras.

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If you pack fine without cubes, there isn't a reason to use them. I'm super obsessive about many things, but I can't use packing cubes satisfactorily. I have one small one I use to isolate lingerie and that's it. I love bags - I have a ton of small nylon bags I use for various items (usually the small bags that come with my lesportsac totes) - makeup, jewelry, cables.....

I totally agree with you. I rarely use them but find it helpful to separate layers. I don’t have a lot of “other” bags, so everything fit fine so far. :)

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Beat place to order packing cubes? Thanks.

I purchased my eagle creek packing cubes from bed bath and beyond. I used the 20% off coupons and got free shipping.

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But..how do you carry those 6-7 bags?

They all fit into my suitcase. The packing cubes just keep the clothing together. I have one cube for sweaters, then bottoms, tops, and dresses. Just helps to keep things organized. I don’t always use them.

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All of the cubes are filled. I have a small stack of 2 pairs of jeans/1 sweat-pant and the other stack is outerwear (jackets).

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This is my large eagle creek cube that I have all of my tops rolled into. This includes the 3 blouses for dinner for the nights I do not wear a dress.

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This is a smaller cube that I placed my 4 folded sweaters. It’s easy to unpack your cubes if you pack like things with like things.

Yes, I unpack everything from my suitcase and bring a garbage bag for dirty clothes.

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