Sheebah

Enjoyed reading your review and your video was wonderful. I will be back on the Jewel in 16 days.:)

Have a great time! I'm glad you enjoyed the video and review. We went on the Star last December and it was the best...right before the holiday crowds set in.

Thank You for a great review and photos. It helps planning our cruise so much. My family will be on the Jewel next month. We are so looking forward to it.

My pleasure! Have a great family trip and let me know if you have any questions :-)

Great review.

Keith

Thank you :-)

Thank you so much for your review! We will be taking the same cruise in April and you've given me some great ideas for me and my sister to check out.

I'm so glad! Have a wonderful trip! I've never been to Mexico in April but I hear the weather is great.

Here are some shots of our Entrees. The chicken Parmesan was SO delicious. I was sad when I had to call it quits- why does italian food sneak up you?

Rigatoni meatballs

Lasagna:

Chicken Parm:

Desserts:

Tiramisu

Chocolate ice cream;

Lemon cheesecake:

....Dinner at La Cucina:

Now we were in a rush to dress for dinner. It was white hot night so we put on our best shot at white clothing and rushed to La Cucina for a cozy dinner (Bad idea in restrospect...italian food and WHITE don't go together!). The sunset when we arrived at La Cucina was so beautiful it looked fake. The restuarant sits high on the Lido deck and the views are lovely.

The menu:

We started with Calamari, bruschetta, ensalata fresca, and a caprese salad. All tasty and brought to the table promptly. We chose rigatoni with meatballs, lasagna, and chicken parmesan for our entrées. To full for dessert we ordered it anyway- lemon cheesecake and tiramisu were just okay and didn't get fully gobbled sadly.

Starters

Ensalata fresca:

Calamari;

Bruschetta

Caprese salad

Bread for the table

Yes, on almost all cruises we have been on, the spa prices are outrageous. That's why you need to search out daily specials. Typically, most thermal suite packages run about $100 per week, but $150 for two is usually offered on the first day. That's why I was thinking $149 each, or $119 each if pre-booked is still a bit much. They also tag on a $18% gratuity as well. I'll keep my eyes peeled.

I agree. I didn't see a 2 for 1 for the thermal suite offered and I did hear people saying they wouldn't book because the same thing on celebrity is free. It did look relaxing and beautiful though and given more time, or a 10 night itinerary I'd have jumped on it :-)

Our family is going to be doing the water taxi out to Lover's beach for a photo shoot and just to enjoy the Arches. We are on the same sailing with you -- and Curtdesilets as well.

You can't go wrong with a trip to the arches - it's a must do for your first visit! Good choice.

Great Review. We will be going on the same cruise in a few weeks.

 

Question: Did you try the Spa Services? If so, how were they?

 

Also, we like to do the "Spa Pass" on other lines, but @ $149 per person per week, it sounds a bit pricey. Do they offer a daily spa pass option, like on Port days? Or any other discounts?

 

Thanks in Advance - Curtis.

We didn't spend any time in the spa this time- though I considered the thermal suite pass that you refer to prior to cruising. The ONLY reason I opted out was a lack of time to spend there. I highly recommend that on embarkation day you visit the spa and ask for a tour of the thermal suite. I am not sure if a daily or prorated option is available. It's a gorgeous area with killer views.

The spa was too pricey for me on this cruise, however there are GREAT PORT day specials and specials on the last two sea days where for $119 to $145 we saw 75 minute combo treatments, way less pricey than normal treatments, believe it or not!

The spa special special sheets may be delivered to your room the night b4 they are offered but your best bet is to visit the spa the morning you wish to have a treatment to inquire. The staff won't likely give you advanced notice of the specials.

If we opted to do this ourselves, how would we ensure we get back? Tell the water taxi person and ask them if they wouldn't mind picking us back up in 2 hours (and hoping they don't forget)? Or, are there enough water taxis going between all these places that it'd be easy enough to just pick up another heading out? I understand this might work on busy places like lover's beach, but we were hoping to both hit Lands End/lover's beach and a place better for snorkeling like Chileno Bay without signing up for one of the "tours".

Water taxis are mostly round trip...you pay the round trip price up front and set a pickup time with the boat driver and they fetch you. Just be sure to take a wrist watch due to time differences- dont count on your mobile phone. I've never taken a water taxi to snorkel at Chileno or santa maria but you likely could. Once we hired a water taxi to go whale watching, which was amazing. Ask about chileno just off the tender when you arrive or better yet, ask in the ports boards here on cc or on trip advisor just to be sure.

Thank you for your wonderful video tour, and all the tips!

 

Any suggestions for tours, my "boys" are 25 and 20. We only have Puerto Vallarta booked so far, hubby and I are going to Los Calitis, and boys are going on the zipline repel adventure. Stone Island? El Arco?

 

Question about disembarking. Our flight out of LAX is at 11:30 Sunday morning. I was thinking we should self disembark until I read someone else's suggestion not to. What are your thoughts?

Hello!

Great choice with Las Caletas in PV. That is a wonderful tour, and we'd do it again in a heartbeat. My mother and I had massages there, and they were wonderful- they'll tell you about it on the ride over. We also used the stand up paddleboards and that was fun. You can also do NOTHING at Las Caletas and just relax on a beach chair. Since Las Caletas is an all day tour, you won't have time for much more while in PV, and that's okay.

In Cabo, there is SO much to do, but you're limited on time, so plan ahead. You could easily grab your own water taxi (not sponsored by the ships excursion desk) and see both Lands End, Lovers Beach, Pelican beach on your own. Then, you could ask to to be taken to Medano beach (also shown earlier in my thread) and be left there for a few hours to lounge at a restaurant/bar and swim in the calm waters of Medano beach. Sometimes, lovers beach, at Lands end, is too rough to swim.

In Cabo, snorkeling tours are also fun. We went on a Zodiac snorkeling tour, and have also done Catamaran tours (with and without snorkeling) and they are all GREAT.

In Cabo, I do NOT recommend just getting off the boat and walking around. It's hot and you will be hounded all day by tour operators and timeshare hawkers.

My next activity dream in Cabo is to take a Jeep tour. I have heard great things and it would allow you to see the area, visit hidden beaches AND snorkel. Be SURE to get some chips and Guacamole somewhere in Cabo (anywhere in the ports really, it's all amazing).

You will need tender tickets in Cabo, so have someone listen for the announcement and head to the pool deck (or wherever they are handing them out) before the ship pulls into Cabo. For us, that was around 9 or 10 am on a noon to 7 port day in Cabo. That will save you waiting time.

Mazatlan is tough, because it's not my favorite City. When we're there, we take a cab or pulmonia (open air cab) to El Cid Marina Beach and spend the day at a hotel. You can see some photos of that resort earlier in this thread. Many hotels in the Golden Zone allow this, and since the beaches are just "meh" in Mazatlan, we prefer pool days. Many times, we've stayed on the ship in Mazatlan, but now that we've fallen in love with Marina El Cid we likely won't do that. We've also taken a van/taxi tour for the day to familiarize with the city, see the cliff divers, etc. That was nice, but only once. I've been to Deer and Stone island and while they are "okay", they aren't spectacular. I have heard that the Salsa and Salsa tour in Mazatlan is fun, and takes you to a good hotel, probably one of the El Cids. You get to make salsa and salsa dance...sounds fun!

Did this help you?

Fantastic Video!

 

Thanks for taking the time to put that together. Great job setting up all the camera shots and thanks for spending the extra time in your trip to get up early to get them! Nice to see the ship with no one around. Definitely one of the best cruise ship review videos I have seen.

 

-Sean

Sean,

Thanks so much for taking the time to write this! Have a great holiday

Sheri

Thank you so much!! Love the video. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Our pleasure...happy thanksgiving you as well! I'm peeling sweet potatoes right now!

I agree! Very professionally done. Was the video also shot with your cell phones? If we stop by your house on the way down to our cruise, will you give us a tutorial? :D

 

Happy Thanksgiving to you, too, Sheebah.

Yes, come on by! I'll pass your compliments to my husband. He has a steady hand, and lots of practice floating through the rooms to get the footage. I could NEVER hold the camera that still.

But to answer your question, no, we don't use our cell phones at all for the video tours. He uses a GoPro on a hand-held stabilizer (you can see a wide angle look on those shots) and two other traditional video cameras- a Sony and a Nikon.

Hope this helps!

Hi everyone,

The full ship video tour is finally complete:

Wishing you all a happy and relaxing Thanksgiving.

Sheebah, this is one fine review, and I'm enjoying the heck out of it! Thank you again for taking the time to do this right.

 

You're making me so excited for our cruise, and we have over a year to wait. :eek:

Thank you!

Day 6- At Sea

I showed up an hour early for my Zumba class next to the sapphire pool - I didn't set my clock back...oops...oh well, a great opportunity for my morning coffee and to wander the pool decks. Unfortunately, the number of chair hogging before 8am did NOT surprise me. It was a windy day, but the pool chair hogs had that one figured out with handy pool towel clips that secured their towels to the chairs, for HOURS, with nobody sitting on them.

Such a bad habit. I don't get it.

After Zumba (with a gentler instructor this time), I collected my family for a fun filled day. We had a lot planned, which is unusual for us on sea days:

Morning - walk the promenade deck and take photos

Quick sunbathing before lunch. Gotta catch those last rays!

Noon- Teppanyaki reservation

3pm- family cupcake making in La Cucina

4pm- martini tasting

5:45- dinner at La Cucina

And more....maybe....

Teppanyaki @ lunch was again wonderful and the menu was identical to dinner. I wasn't crazy about the scallops, but the shrimp and filet mignon was superb and my son again gobbled the chicken Yukiudon. We skipped dessert, full and not interested in topping off our perfect meal.

The day was flying by and before we knew it we were decorating cupcakes (another great kid friendly activity outside of the organized kids center). From there we headed to martini and champagne bar for the 4pm martini tasting which to my surprise was nearly an hour long guided event. The boss - bartender led the event, discussing the origins of martinis, their ideal composition and the ingredients in each. The flight of 6 mini martinis packed a punch and was well worth the $19 (there is also a $15 package but the $19 comes with a nice shaker with the ncl logo). Now that I’m home, and have tried the shaker, I can’t recommend it. It leaks. But it’s cute.

Here is the mini flight…I’d guess the alcohol content is at least that of 2 full sized martinis because I was feelin’ it after drinking these puppies. That may be because I am 5 foot, 0 inches…but everyone was commenting on how generous they were with the servings.

Guess what, they gave us the recipes! Here they are:

On our way back to the room we stumbled upon a nickelodeon tshirt decorating party for kids in Fyzz, so we dropped in and colored a shirt with my son.

Desserts at Le Bistro are fun. We had to order several, including the fondue for two, which is served mostly with sliced fruit, but a few little pastry puffs for dipping too.

Menu:

Apple Tatin- better than it looks.

Crème brulee:

Fondue for two at Le Bistro! SO delicious!!!

After sailaway, it was already time for our Le Bistro dinner reservation. Service was absolutely spot on and we learned tonight the up charge items are free with UDP. Whaaat??? We started with grilled asparagus with orange Hollandaise, a salad, french onion soup and the quatre of fancy little cones. Our Entrées were the beef filet for our son, seafood in puff pastry, and lobster (prepared in a cream with potato and artichoke hearts). For dessert, fondue, creme brulee and apple tart tatin.

A delicious meal with attentive service in a classy, comfortable setting but not our overall favorite. However the booth we were seated in was velvety and cozy and I could have stayed there all night.

Here are some photos of our food at Le Bistro, the French Specialty Restaurant onboard:

Menu:

Starters:

Asparagus:

Salade Gourmande:

Les Quatres Cornet (4 cones):

French onion soup, but of course!

Ready for dessert? I'll post them tomoorrow ;-) G'night everyone.

Another day of perfect sunshiny weather. Vallarta is so pretty in the morning. The green lush hills and calm bay...humidity not quite setting in...so tropical and a sharp contrast to Cabo's desert feel.

Our plan was to stay onboard today, to film the ship, enjoy the pools in relative quiet before the crazy sea day crowds and to rest a little. We love going ashore in Vallarta but wanted more to just enjoy the ship and lovely weather and watch the budget. On previous trips, we've walked to Krystal for day passes and swimming, gone ziplining, visited yelapa and majahuitas, shopped, snorkeled, and more. But this day was about enjoying the ship.

I watched several morning tours depart from the open deck while having a quick omelet breakfast at the Great Outdoors. The AC in the main buffet area was too cold for my liking, and the aft restaurant offered a balmy alternative. In no rush to get off the ship, I wandered the decks, making sure I had not missed any nooks or crannies in the days prior and checked out photos in the gallery. I love the digital viewing on this ship but don't understand why they still print the photos??? Strange, but whatever.

After a slow start, my son and I hit the waterslides and pool again for a few hours of uncrowded fun. We met some nice people (there were so many warm friendly folks on this sailing!), and the pool was warmer today. The slide was moving slowly for some reason so all the kids were sharing tricks to speed up, from arching your back to pooling water before you slid to diving like gangbusters with a running start (yah, I'm not going to do that.... did I mention I'm 42???)

Finally we had to make the choice about whether to get off the ship for a quick shopping run. We ultimately decided to go for it around 3pm and hit the little Mercado just off the ship for some new flip flops for my hubby whose sandals had turned to squeaky nightmares. Braving the aggressive merchants we found a great pair of leather shoes for $20 and spent the remainder of our cash on a little guitar for my son and a traditional white dress/top for $10. Note to self- pack more cash next time. I had spent it all on cab fair and tips. No bueno. Depleted of cash and sweating from humidity, we walked back onboard.

Here’s the little market off the ship:

I don't believe I've mentioned how impressive Ncl's port side setups are. As you're approaching the gangway, there were tents with cold water and punch, cookies, and staff handing out cold wash cloths. Such a classy touch and a warm welcome back on board. I wish I had snapped a photo.

Back at our room, I tried to secure a Moderno reservation for the last night, in lieu of Cagney's on request of our son. He became obsessed with the brown sugar grilled pineapple and wanted to return. No reservations before 8pm were available for the remainder of the cruise, but I wasn't surprised. I ended up trying again the following morning in person and was able to get a 6:30 reservation.

Service was great at Cagney's and we ordered a little differently than our first night there. We tried some different starters:

The potato soup for our son- creamy and filling:

Sliders for hubby, also way too filling:

The lobster and shrimp Linguini was tasty (though I swear I tasted Velveeta in the sauce)….

And my husbands mac and cheese side was divine.

The apple crumble dessert:

The citrus dessert (YUM after a heavier meal…lots of grapefruit):

Already packed in mind and spirit but not in reality....yet!

 

Really enjoying this, getting some great on shore ideas that we hadn't thought of yet.

 

Thanks so much again for the time putting this together, looking forward to the video!

I'm glad you're getting some good ideas. Mexican Riviera cruises are now the only cruises where we don't book shore excursions. There is SO much to do on your own, usually for much less money. If you need any more suggestions, just let me know what types of things you like to do and what activity level, and I'd be glad to throw out some ideas.

Someday, I'd love to take a jeep tour and stop at some of the isolated beaches along the shore in Cabo. I've also heard this is fun in PV. Now that our son is getting older, we'll probably spring the $ for it sometime.

Finally, we headed back to the ship just in time for all aboard. The return trip by pulmonia was much better than the ride over because there was less traffic and the driver kept us by the sea a bit more, which was great because the exhaust smell was bad on the way over. He even drove us through the historical district and pointed out many primary schools where we saw kids in uniform adjourning for the school day.

And a dance studio:

View from the backseat of the pulmonia:

We had to shower and primp fast to make our 5pm loyalty party in spinnaker lounge, but we made it. I had a glass of champagne and we all settled on to one of those giant teal chaise lounges that are big enough for a family of 4 to sleep on. I still can’t believe they hold TWO loyalty parties with free drinks for people at our low (silver) level of loyalty. Carnival and Princess do not complete in this area.

In the cozy lounge:

From that spot, we sailed away from Mazatlan while the sun set and lounged until our Cagney's reservation. This second loyalty party was far more mellow with no raffle or lingering announcements. Just a nice group of cruisers mingling and enjoying the sunset sailaway.

Sheebah, I'm loving your review and photos. DH and I took only our Samsung Galaxy S6 phones on our recent cruise, and we were thrilled with the results.

 

We've been cruising with HAL lately, but we just booked the Jewel for a return to Mexico in 2017. We've been on the Jewel three times and are excited to get back onboard. Your great review has confirmed our decision.

I love it. My husband is often asked what camera he recommends and he tells people "the best camera is the one you'll use". I love HAL too...the staff are extra caring. Wishing you a great 2017 sailing. We will have a full ship video tour coming soon - you'll like seeing the renovated areas if you haven't been on Jewel In a while.

Great info about the resort! Maybe we will do that next time. We went to old town and checked out the market.

Nice! Great pic!!!

We'll be on the jewel next month. Thank you for taking the time to do this review!

You're welcome. Have a relaxing voyage!