kismetique

Thank you so much for this info. I keep going back and forth about the time constraints. I would love to see these cities, so I'll contact him and see if he's available and can work with our port schedule. Appreciate it!

Did you do this tour as a private tour with him and how long was this tour? We only have 6 hours there in our upcoming cruise and have been to Ephesus already as well. Thanks!

Get a taxi and go to La Guerrerense Carreta for tacos. It's a street vendor, very famous but you'll stand shoulder to shoulder with the locals to eat. Get a shrimp or octopus cocktail here... Very good! Then go to Coastal Brewery for their artisanal beers. They are very friendly and have a great in door area to sit in the breeze look out at the ocean and drink all kinds of beer. Then taxi to Tacos Fenix. They have fried fish and shrimp tacos with amazing garnish. You order and eat and order and eat and then pay. Crazy! Lots of locals here as well. Then back to the ship. Great day!

Consider the Observitorio 1873 in Mazatlan. You can book your tickets online or get them in the terminal to the right just as you walk inside. They had a very nice van waiting to take us up the hill to the old fort that has been turned into a museum of sorts. They have a bird sanctuary where you can go in and interact with them. They get comfortable with you and land on your head and shoulders. They have a lizard sanctuary, a guava garden and an open air restaurant overlooking all of Mazatlan. The food was amazing and we sat in the shade with a cool breeze and enjoyed lunch. When we were finished (this port was a short stay) the van was waiting to take us back. Our group was least excited about this port excursion, but turns out everyone really enjoyed it.

Recently back from Cabo and PV. In Cabo we walked past most of the vendors on the pier and on into town where we found a group of guys selling boat tours and asked to be taken to The Sand Bar via boat. It was pricey, but they assured us they would return in the afternoon for the return trip. They did so. I had made my reservations online at The Sand Bar and they had a table and chairs on the beach under umbrellas set up for us. We ate and drank and drank and drank more and the beach was right there in front of us. The food and drinks were good. The service was slow was friendly. There was quite a few sellers that you had to shoo away. In PV I hired a guide to take us to Quimixto Beach. I wouldn't hire one again now that I've done it. Take a taxi to the pier in mid town (15 min). All the directions to Quimixto online tell you to take a bus to a town half way and then water taxi on to Quimixto, but it adds 45 min to travel time. Just go to the pier and ask around for a water taxi ALL DAY to Quimixto ($200 for 8 of us). Make sure the tank of gas is full and away you go. 45 min and you're delivered right to the beach, tell them not to take you to the pier, just drop you off at Charly Bar. Omar runs Charly Bar and will take excellent care of you, even taking beers to you out in the surf. The food was amazing (delivered right to your lounger) and our chairs and umbrellas were RIGHT ON the beach. Absolutely no sellers to bother you and we had the beach to ourselves all day. It's really a nice kept secret. Our water taxi waited on us right there off the beach until we were ready to go back. We waved him back in, boarded and away we went. The only warning would be, the pier in mid town PV. You need to be able to get on and off the pangas in rough water as the pier isn't anything more than a very very steep concrete slab. Lots of small boys hang around to help you, for the tips. Pretty sure it's why you're advised to take the bus half way, but really there is no need. And saves time to take a water taxi or panga straight there. If you go, this will be your very favorite beach day!!! Have fun!

Agreed! We've had our fair share of inside cabins and probably why I found this so embarrassing. If we hadn't been sailing as a group and needed the living area to gather in, I certainly wouldn't have booked that suite and likely we would have been in inside cabins as well. Why pay that much more for somewhere to basically sleep? I'm sure there are ppl who get a kick out of feeling superior, but coming from humble beginnings, this was nothing more than a convenience to us, not a status thing. NCL should offer an up charge for the connecting room to get the perks, I would have paid it in a heartbeat, only so we all could have enjoyed Cagney's for breakfast and lunch, and I wouldn't have had to bribe the conceige! 🤣🤣

I won't do it again. If I don't get to the port early enough to get on without having to pass everyone in line, I'll decline being paraded through and stand in line with everyone else. It was AWFUL!!!

Yes, you're correct. It worked out ok, I slipped the Butler and Concierge money with a note on the front end and we all got priority tender, all got priority seating at shows and I could have had the meal served by the Butler to us all in our cabin, but our Butler was not very good, so we passed. When I ordered room service , I was only brought what the Butler decided was enough for just our cabin. My husband is a huge breakfast eater, but not other meals so I would order him 2 omelets, but he would only get 1. Needless to say the Butler didn't get much in his second envelope!!!😁

I guess, but when I booked the cabins I had no idea about Haven. They weren't in the Haven proper, because there really is not a Haven on the Jewel It was on deck 11 and was a 2 bedroom family suite with balcony and the connecting room was a mini suite, so no perks.

Oh, I know what you mean! We didn't book the Haven and after not cruising for a decade, I didn't know anything about it! We booked a 2 bedroom suite with connecting room for our son and his wife. I paid for both rooms, but found out his room didn't qualify for perks because of the category, only our cabin got Haven perks??? I wasn't happy. I couldn't go to Cagney's because I wasn't going to tell 3 ppl in my party of 7, you can't go with us! I guess NCL counts on this and it's a way to cut down on ppl in Cagney's. I had no idea my keycard told on me, or I'd have been like you and would have turned it upside down. We arrived at the port late because of the flight and were paraded past 100s of ppl with me apologizing profusely the whole way. It was a lifesaver due to our age, but so very very embarrassing. You can't tell me that there isn't a separate entrance they could take us to for this perk, rather than shoving this down everyone else's throat. Simply disgusting. While getting off we had 2 of the people you described trying to push past everyone trying to get off. I told her to wait in line like everyone else. I asked her where is your concierge.. She pushed past me exclaiming "ppl like me caused her to have a bad cruise". My daughter held up our pink,/purple room card and she just huffed away. Pretentious ppl just irk me so much. My conceige didn't say anything to us about priority disembarkation, but I didn't care, we can stand in line like everyone else. We had a great time reminiscing about the cruise while inching towards the pier. We're sailing again in November and have booked the same suite on the Dawn, but we are sailing alone this time. I love that room! A separate bedroom from the living area and a HUGE bathroom. I hate that the 2nd bedroom will go unused, but I simply love that cabin!! It truly feels like a hotel room instead of a tiny cabin. I looked at the newer ships and I can't get this cabin (that's located out of the Haven) for a good price and it's the Haven or tiny cabins on the newer ships. May be time to look for another go to cruise line. Disappointing after having so many perks from our years of cruising with them. Thanks for your honest review!

Our recent cruise was booked in my name, the credit card was in my husband's name. No problems. I failed to add the card (NCL CC) to the account for my 3rd passenger before the cruise. We get to check in and the lady STILL forgets to add the card to the 3rd person, my daughter. She said, just go do it before the last day. On the last day I go and tell her to put the 3rd person's charges on the same card for the whole room. Ahhhh NO, can't do that Miss. You'll need the card... Which is with my husband somewhere on the ship. I said, ok, no problem... You can figure out how to charge her then, I guess mail her a bill! Hahaha My conceige brought me the bill later and low and behold all her charges were on my husband's card! So totally opposite from OPs experience. That's crazy.

I'll be on the NCL Dawn in November and we have 2 stops in Egypt as well. The stop in Safaga is an overnight!

And we all know how strict they are on blanket policies! 🤣 Supposedly door decor is no longer allowed...but I had 3 birthday banners on our doors as well as I saw many others with decor. Nothing over the top and mine weren't either - just put on with strong magnets. But it sure helps find that cabin after 2 flights of Whiskey Sampling! Thanks for the info - I'll know for next year! This was our first cruise in 15 years - (kids had said they hated doing them so we stopped) - suddenly it was their idea again! SO MUCH has changed!

Oh, I had no idea. We've always had them opened on previous cruises. It all worked out just fine. We would just peer over the railing to visit and look in each other's rooms to see if they were still asleep first thing in the morning. 😳

No, he would never come with the square key to open them. We sussed by the end of the cruise, we could have unlocked them ourselves with some ingenuity, but for some reason we still never did. I think the parents enjoyed the children being separated while on the balcony, not sure if they ever figured out they could go inside the room and out to the other balcony or not!!! 🤣

Back from the Jewel and very pleased to report my poems (or maybe it was just the greenbacks) did the trick! I got all 8 of us priority tender off the ship and the concierge allowed us all to sit as a group in the balcony for the shows. Additionally, he made reservations for us at Cagney's for 8 one evening - although we were NOT impressed enough to even go to the second specialty dining room. We ate at the Palace MDR and requested Daisy each evening. She asked the Hostess to hold a table of 8 for us each evening. She gave great suggestions and would bring alternate dishes - just in case! When she saw us at the top of the stairs, she would go ahead and order our drinks. It was like having the old style servers from days gone by. She was wonderful - we tipped her well. The Butler was less accommodating, however, we didn't really ask for anything special from him. He decorated the room for the birthdays and served breakfast in the room each morning, but would only bring just enough food for 3 (in his opinion). We are hearty eaters and would have appreciated getting the cut fruit along with our omelet's, but I guess he decided we needed to be on a diet. He was not a very good Butler as I had to tell him each day that I wanted the same exact drinks as the day before. I had asked that one evening dinner be served in our cabin for the birthday celebration with a cake - instead I received the cake the first night with the decorations when we returned from dinner. He kept saying - Madame - I read your letter. So his English was not very good and there is the problem with my poem, I suppose. All in all, it was a great trip and we got pretty much everything we wished for. It took me a whole day to get the doors unlocked between cabins and we never managed to get the balcony door unlocked....Oh well - you can't have it all! Priority Embarkation was embarrassing and since my children decided not to wait on us to check in (we didn't use priority check in trying to stay with them) - they had to wait in line while we were paraded past everyone with me apologizing all along the way. However, we didn't get priority debarkation and were met with a very rude woman trying to swim past everyone in line claiming she had paid a lot of money to be the first off the ship! I laughed at her and said - so did I, but I'm no better than these other people and neither are you - get behind me sister! She scoffed at me and told me there was no way I could afford such expensive cabins...so my daughter whipped out her pink/purple cabin card and the woman put her nose up in the air and said - whatever - people like me were keeping her from enjoying her cruise. Some people! I swear.

Of course I could have, but choose not to, with the knowledge that I didn't even know that we would eat in ANY specialty restaurants, due to the makeup up the group. I find it to be a wash since we ate in only 1. There actually was a different planned trade off in place for the meal from one of the other rooms that didn't work out as planned. Ppl do things for all kinds of silly reasons. Could I have saved money? Yes, but I might also have spent $100 needlessly had we not eaten there. I really don't see $100 or even $200 as an issue. I threw larger sums than that to my Butler and Conceige, even Daisy in the MDR got more than that... It wasn't about the money. It was about the treatment I received even AFTER assuring everyone I was fine to pay for the meal. It was absurd for a line that claims to treat their suite/haven guests as VIPs. Why does anyone care how much I spend? I seemed to be the only who who didn't. 🙄

I don't eat oysters so I have no clue and could have misunderstood the issue with them. I was at the other end of the table and we didn't speak of the meal after we left Cagney's, other than agreed as a group to for-go the second specialty dining. We called at 4:00 to cancel the 6:45 reservation and was told we had missed our time slot and could no longer eat there. Ok.

Shouldn't the waiter then query you about the sauces? My husband's steak was so dry he asked for chimichuri, but never received it. I don't like ANYTHING on my steak but seasoning, and also couldn't even put salt on it, as the grinder was out of salt crystals. We asked for more but service was so slow, it arrived when the desserts were served. I just cannot imagine why you would ruin such a beautiful piece of meat by not seasoning it before packing for sous-vid or before searing it. If it were cooked on a wood fired grill, maybe you could get flavor from the fire, but that's not the case here.

My daughter was the 3rd in our suite and I just couldn't bring myself to buy the specialty dining package for her and decided I would just pay, in case we never made it to a specialty restaurant. We had the conceige get us reservations and from the moment we arrived, I was berrated about one of our party not having the package. I assured the hostess, I understood and would pay. No problem at all and it was fine. Multiple times this had to be conveyed. Once we sat, the waiter started in on me about the issue. I was tempted to stand up and announce to the entire restaurant my daughter has no dining package and we will be paying full price for her meal. 🤣 It was absurd. We all put our orders in and waited and waited and waited. Sitting right by the kitchen I could see the appetizers ready to be served, but our waiter kept flitting about the room.. despite having to use the conceige to get the reservations, the restaurant was NOT terribly busy. Finally, the appetizers made their way to the table. The shrimp were slimy and a bit limp. The crab cake was good and it was served the correct temp. I heard the oysters were boiled, not raw as is customary... But that was at the other end of the table of 8, so I'm not positive on that issue...I just know they were not consumed. I and several others had the lobster bisque. I swear it was an instant brown gravy mix with 5 lobster bits and it was barely luke warm. The waiter kept putting his hand on the bottom of the bowl to check the temp, but never did anything about the lack of warmth. It was strange. The ceaser salad was just ok. My husband said the balsamic dressing on his wedge salad was tasteless. None of the steaks were prepared with ANY seasonings, although they were cooked to perfection, eating a rare piece of extremely tender meat without any seasoning was disappointing. The salt shaker was empty and although we asked to have it refilled, we didn't receive it back until the dessert showed up. The baked or grilled tomatoes were hard as a rock. The mushrooms were a variety and the shitaki's were chewy. The mashed potatoes tasted like instant. The only dessert that anyone raved over was the chocolate cake. The rest seemed to be of the MDR quality. My daughter ordered basically what every one else did and her bill was $108. That meal simply was no where near worth $108. I would have been ok paying $55 for it, no more. Food was not up to par on that cruise. We finally found "our" server in the Palace MDR and fell in love with her. Tipped her extremely well and said we'll be back the rest of the cruise. She had the hostess hold a table of 8 in her section each night and as soon as she saw us at the stairs, she ordered our drinks. She made wonderful suggestions and brought alternative dishes to the table... Just in case. She treated the 2 children in our party like royalty bringing them over the top desserts. She was like the old style servers getting to know the guests and visiting with us on a personal level. She made out quite well as each family tipped graciously each and every meal she served us. If anyone is interested, her name was Daisy in the Palace MDR. She's the best server on that ship.

Just got off the Jewel on Sunday and I found these little viles of bubbles with their own wand on Amazon. 100 for $9 or something. If they spilled, it might be a half teaspoon. I bought them, put them in a ziplock in my bag. No problems at any security port. These viles made lots of these little bitty bubbles and we all had a great time blowing them. I brought them for my grandkids but the adults ended up having more fun with them. We blew them in the room and off the balcony. I never found any dots of soap residue. Great fun! Take the bubbles and blow them to your hearts content!!!

We just got off the Jewel doing the Mexican Riviera and got 4x points. I had no idea I was going to get those points...I was expecting 14, but got 28!

My daughter just sailed with us on the Jewel as the 3rd. I just couldn't bring myself to buy her a dining package, as I wasn't sure how things would shake out on our cruise as far as meals went. We went to Cagney's and the hostess and servers all made such a big deal out of the fact, it was embarrassing. I told the hostess I was fine paying full alacart prices.. No problems. I understood exactly how it worked. It was absurd at how they hammered me over the issue. The meal was AWFUL. The shrimp was slimy, the soup was brown gravy with lobster bits, and the steak was cooked to perfection without ANY seasoning whatsoever. We promptly cancelled our second specialty dining reservation and went to our regular waitress in the Palace MDR. On our next 20 day cruise, we will NOT be buying the dining packages.

We had problems on our way home off the Jewel this last Sunday the 24th. When I get confirmation of the tickets from NCL I always log into our airline accounts and add the tickets to our reward numbers. If the names aren't the same, it won't let you add them and sometimes the airlines will take care of it. American got us to San Diego just fine. But going home on Southwest was a different story. After 3 hours on the tarmac in Albuquerque, we couldn't make the connecting flight in Denver. Southwest at least issued vouchers and comped our rooms. Make sure you match those tickets to your rewards accounts to ensure there are no name snafus!

Just off the Jewel Sunday the 24th. We were in 11518. No tub, but a wonderfully huge shower with 3 windows, a rain head, 2 body heads, and a wand. Descriptions say queen bed, but ours was a king and so so so comfy! The second bath was small but not tiny. The shower was a stall with a corner toilet. The bed had a hump when made out, not the most comfortable. The balcony had 2 nice chairs, not loungers. The Butler was Felix and was acceptable, but had to be told each and every day that we wanted the same thing. He didn't ask when we wanted the birthday cake so had it the first day when we returned to the room after dinner. Tipped first day and last day... Likely too much for the service. He did want to please, but I don't want to tell you every day that I want the same thing. The concierge was Teo and was wonderful! We got everything we asked for, even over and above. Tipped first day and last day and would feel I hadn't tipped enough but we didn't get expedited debarkation (no biggy)... Ran into a rude woman who screamed to get out of her way, she paid a lot to get off quickly. I told her I had as well, but we were no better than the rest of the people waiting to get off. She called me a liar, that I couldn't afford a suite. 🤣 Some ppl!!! Food was not very good on this cruise. Azure host and servers were rude and disrespectful. Granddaughter went to sleep as entree was served and they charged my son and his wife $11 EACH to deliver the entree to the room!!! We were setting at a different table, or I would have grabbed them up and taken them myself! I should have called my Butler and told him to come get the entree's!!! We finally found Daisy in the Palace MDR and she gave wonderful suggestions, service, and would bring an alt... Just in case! She was an old style server, having our drinks already on the way once she saw us arrive and she also had the hostess save us a table each night, since we were a party of 8. She catered to the 2 children in our group bringing wildly over the top desserts! We tipped her extremely well and skipped our second specialty dining night, to dine with Daisy, as the first dinner in Cagney's was AWFUL. Shrimp was slimy, soup was brown gravy with lobster bits, steak cooked to perfection without any seasoning whatsoever. The 3rd guest in our room didn't have a dining package and it cost $108 for that meal. Totally not worth it! Have a great trip and enjoy that room... It's awesome and I'm missing that shower and view already!!!