A Real Alaskan Jewel - May 7 - My first NCL Review!

Good evening Norwegian fans! As is says in the title, here I come with an Alaskan Jewel of a review from the May 7 NCL Jewel Alaska Inside Passage cruise. And what a cruise adventure it was.

First, let me just give everybody a quick little background about me, FlyingCruiserNJ the poster and what to expect in my review.

Although this was my first time on NCL, I am a seasoned cruiser and have cruised about 15 times prior to this, mostly on Carnival but also on Princess and Royal Caribbean. I am from suburban Philadelphia, in my mid 30s, single, no kids, and have a rather flexible work schedule, so I like to cruise often, up to 3 or 4 times a year. It really is my preferred method of vacation. My mother, who I cruised with on this voyage, has been on this particular ship twice however and probably a total of about twice as many cruises as I have overall. She told me coming into this one that I would love the ship and I absolutely did. I have a lot to say about everything, from the ship itself to crew, to ports of call, food, and I cannot wait to get to it.

Now, when I post a review, I love to describe the entire experience, from planning, to pre-cruise, to the cruise, to post-cruise with editorial comments included. I also love to add some humor whenever possible to jazz things up a little. I also like to take lots of pictures on vacation, and I like to make my experiences come to life a little more through pictures. On this 9-day sailing alone, I took almost 200 pictures and will include many of them in this very detailed review. In other words, my reviews are not short, but they are exciting and I like to think I am telling a great story that can allow others to feel like they were right there on vacation with me. I also hope that people can learn something about a ship or a service or a port that they might not have known about before through my storytelling.

So, with that little bit out of the way, here we go with my first NCL review….

We really planned this cruise out a long way ahead of time, which is not usual for me at least. I do like to do a lot of short cruises on relatively quick notice but this was a different type of vacation, and we really went all out to get the ball rolling on getting the whole thing organized well in advance. I had been in Alaska before, back in 2007, on the Golden Princess. I liked the experience then, and we had a few longtime family friends, almost considered extended family, who never had gone there and said they were interested. So, we figured that this particular cruise was the best way to go in terms of itinerary, ship, ports, price and sail dates/departure port.

We decided to go with two balcony cabins (they did cost more, but it really is worth it for this type of cruise), and did pay quite a bit when we booked it late last year. But, after seeing massive price drops on the NCL website early this year, we contacted the reservations department and asked if they could give us a price drop or something similar. Seeing this was the ship’s first trip to Alaska for 2015 and it was the very beginning of the season for cruises there, the prices did drop some before sailing due to I guess, lack of demand. The NCL representative not only dropped our total costs down by a good bit, but they allowed us to use the price drop to prepay our auto gratuities and port fees and also gave us the Ultimate Dining Package for free. More on the UDP later, but it was a good touch because after researching the ship beforehand, I saw that there were some upcharge restaurants I really wanted to try. So, with that done, we had everything planned out and went ahead and began to book our excursions one by one all through late winter and early spring and picked out our day-before-cruise lodging and flights so everything was done and we could relax before our sailing.

With all our pre-cruise planning done, now we get to move onto the actual vacation, haha. We will begin with our day-before cruise activities, and I will call this DAY ONE: TRAVEL DAY. I will try to include a day at a time as I go through this review, but it will take a while. Hopefully everybody can bear with me through this adventure, as it really does take a lot of time and effort to do these. This is somewhere around my sixth review on CC, I like to think they get better and better each time. Check out some of my past ones, they are in my signature. Y’all ready? LOL. Here we go.

DAY ONE: TRAVEL DAY

If you have not noticed, the cruise left from Seattle, and I am from Philly. That is only about 3000 miles away. As most of you know, if you have to travel any type of distance to get to a cruise, it is best that you travel to the city of departure the day before and just hang out there so you aren’t stressed out that you will miss the cruise due to unforeseen travel or other problems. So, we did just that. Not to mention, when I cruised from SEA back in 2007, it was summer and although we traveled out the day before, massive weather issues caused our connecting flight to be cancelled and we were re-re-routed and did not arrive until the day of departure anyway, just hours before scheduled sail time. In other words, you never know what will happen and you just can’t chance it. Especially not for a cruise that you spend thousands of dollars on and look forward to for a year or more. I will admit that I have traveled cross-country day-of for a cruise, but it was not a 9-day Alaska and I was much more flexible with my travel options, due to being a solo traveler. That was very stressful in itself and looking back, I was very lucky to make it there on time as it was.

So, we all booked a nonstop, direct flight from Baltimore/Washington Int’l (KBWI), to Seattle/Tacoma Int’l (KSEA) that worked out both price-wise and schedule wise. We learned from our mistakes to book direct if you can over connections. I actually used points/miles I had accumulated so I didn’t pay anything and free is always good. BWI is about an hour and a half or a hundred miles from Philly, and depending on traffic, can take hours so we made sure to leave home plenty early before our flight and used EconoPark, an off-site parking service that I had used for a previous cruise last fall. I can’t say enough about that place. It is hard to get to and it is a little out of the way but they pick you up right at your car, help you with your bags, give you complimentary bottles of water so you are not thirsty before your flight, and are very affordable. We only paid about $80 for 10 days of parking. Can’t be beat and great service if you get their internet special rates.

So, we got there around 1000, checked our two bags each (lol) and were on our way for a an on-time departure to Seattle. Amazingly enough, the flight was not full and I didn’t have anyone in the middle seat next to my window seat, which is awesome especially on a 6-hour flight. I also got to travel on an airplane type that I have never traveled before and it was a really nice ride. We got to SEA around 1400 local time, got our bags, and called the hotel shuttle to come pick us up. After extensive searching and reading of hundreds of reviews, we settled on the Best Western Executel, which is a few miles from the airport, but not more than a 15 minute ride or so. Nice place, good price, value, clean, friendly service, I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a decent hotel accommodation pre-cruise.

My flight from BWI-SEA

Final approach to SEA. Nice mountain scenery in the background on the way into there

We checked in at the hotel, dropped our stuff off, and went to get dinner at their on-site restaurant as we were hungry from a day of traveling and didn’t want to order delivery and there aren’t really that many dining options in the area of the hotel. Amazingly, while it was a little expensive, the food and service in the restaurant was good and filled us up well for the rest of the night. I got some pasta soup and a pizza and that was more than enough to keep me happy. I went down to the indoor pool and hot tub and hung out there for a few hours after dinner to relax. I have to say the weather in Seattle was exceptional while we were there, about 70 and sunny. There is also a game room and a nice gym downstairs if you have kids or something and are looking for stuff to do. The hotel also has free wifi but the signal could be somewhat weak depending on where you were in the hotel.

Me at the indoor pool/hot tub. The hot tub wasn't that hot and the bubblejets weren't working but it was still relaxing.

This was our room. Got it for a little over a hundred bucks for the night, and although we had to pay an extra $10 for a rollaway bed, it was worth it and cheaper than going with two separate hotel rooms.

We all hit bed early because although it was only 2200 there, I was still on east coast time and it was really 0100 to me and I was tired. Had to rest up for embarkation the next day. The next day was very exciting, and I can’t wait to get into talking about it.

So, that wraps up DAY ONE: TRAVEL DAY. That gives you an idea of what is to come hopefully, and I will try to get to DAY TWO: EMBARKATION DAY at some point in the next couple days with many, many more beautiful pictures to come.. I hope you have enjoyed so far and I am looking forward to continuing with re-living my adventures again soon. Happy cruising and thanks to all who have served in the US Armed Forces for everything you do for this nation and the world on this Memorial Day weekend.

Nice first NCL Photo Review...Don't Stop Now. :):):):)

So far, so good....can't wait for more. Thanks!

I can't wait to read more!

I can wait to read more, only because I have no choice.

I was also on the 7 May Jewel cruise. It was my 24th Norwegian cruise and my third to Alaska. For many reasons, this was the best cruise ever. The staff from Captain Niklas, Hotel Director Steven Jacobsen and Restaurant Manager Noel Chaves on down to the wait staff specially at the Java Cafe in the lobby. Very tough week for the Security Staff from Nepal with two earthquakes in their homeland. All of them were relived to know that their families and homes were okay.

Yes, there were some people complaining about absolutely everything but this cruise was too wonderful for anything to spoil it.

Nice first NCL Photo Review...Don't Stop Now. :):):):)

Thanks for following along. I have Part 2 all written up and ready to post here, with a lot of pics of Seattle from the ship and some other neat little things. I love writing these, as it allows me to re-live the cruise vacation all over again.

So far, so good....can't wait for more. Thanks!

Wait no more. Part 2 is upcoming very shortly. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

I can't wait to read more!

Coming right up! Hope you are enjoying so far. I'm just getting started. :)

I was also on the 7 May Jewel cruise. It was my 24th Norwegian cruise and my third to Alaska. For many reasons, this was the best cruise ever. The staff from Captain Niklas, Hotel Director Steven Jacobsen and Restaurant Manager Noel Chaves on down to the wait staff specially at the Java Cafe in the lobby. Very tough week for the Security Staff from Nepal with two earthquakes in their homeland. All of them were relived to know that their families and homes were okay.

 

Yes, there were some people complaining about absolutely everything but this cruise was too wonderful for anything to spoil it.

It was a pretty good cruise overall. Just so much scenery and natural beauty in Alaska. The ship was pretty nice also. lol Captain Niklas was awesome. Kept everyone in the loop and gave updates every day as to where we were, where we were going, weather, sea conditions. Made us feel welcome onboard. The food was pretty good as well but the service in the main dining rooms wasn't so good although the food was fine. Out of the five places we visited with the UDP, only two were excellent, two were average, and one was below average. I will get into that more later on though. O'Sheehan's was absolutely awesome and I spent lots and lots of time in there all during the cruise.

Overall, the cruise was pretty good and I did enjoy lots of the new things I experienced onboard, although some stuff was not to my liking and there were a few ridiculously rude staff members that I will mention later on as well. Alaska is definitely an adventure like no other though and we were extremely lucky that we weather was outstanding all cruise long. We overpacked big time, thinking it would be cold and dreary all week and it was nice and sunny most of the time.

Anyway, on with the review. Thanks for following along and hopefully this allows you to re-live the experience again as well.

Good evening all, hope you are all having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, and I am back with Part 2 of my wonderful Alaska Jewel cruise review. Day 1 was a travel day, so we will pick up with DAY 2: EMBARAKATION DAY. And an exciting day it was!

DAY 2: EMBARKATION DAY

After a good night’s sleep, I woke up somewhere around 0900 as I was still on east coast time and was hungry for some breakfast. It will become apparent throughout this review that I am not a morning person - I like to sleep late and stay up late, lol. My mom and our friends had already gotten their breakfast and while I went downstairs to get mine, they took care of putting our embarkation tags on our suitcases and took care of anything else that needed to be done at the last minute.

Breakfast was in the same restaurant that we had gone to the evening before and again, it was good and complimentary. They had hot foods such as sausage, eggs, waffles, etc and cold things such as fruit and a multitude of cereals. More than enough to keep me until we boarded the ship. I believe they serve until at least 1000 there, possibly later but I am not sure.

After breakfast, I got cleaned up and we dragged our stuff downstairs to the lobby to wait for our transportation to the ship. We did an exhaustive search prior to the cruise and settled on Seattle Express, a bus service that takes you from area hotels to the port. It cost $12 a person, each way, much less than the good $25 or so NCL charges for their transfers and you don’t have to go back to the airport to catch the bus. We got picked up at 1100, and there had to be at least two dozen other people waiting downstairs for our shuttle or another company’s shuttle bus that also stopped by to get some people. It seems this hotel is very popular for people both before and after cruises as we saw quite a few people who had just arrived on the Jewel checking in for their post-cruise stay while we waited.

We rode to the cruise port, and it is a really scenic drive up Interstate 405(?) and US Highway ???, between the hotel and downtown Seattle. The ride took about 45 minutes, and we were dropped off about a block away from the actual check-in area at the port building, at Pier 66 which is right downtown. I got a nice picture of our ship as we crossed over a bridge on the highway, about a mile or so away. We arrived at the port approximately 1200 and gathered our stuff/paid and tipped the driver and got our instructions for pickup on debark day. Obviously some people forgot those instructions, but more on that much later…..

A view from the highway as we approach the port, the ship is there just waiting for us...

The checkin process at Pier 66 is pretty neat if you think about it. Most ports make you check your bag in curbside with a porter, and they take it from there and you don’t see it again until you get to your cabin. Here, you walk inside, queue up and simply drop your bags at the end of the line where they are taken immediately by port staff and screened. Much more efficient, and orderly I think. After that, we went back outside and in through the carry-on only security line. Security did not take long, but it was nice to see that they really do check things thoroughly as they were scolding some pax behind us about prohibited items they had in their bags that would not be allowed on the ship. After that, we headed up a big escalator and up to the general check-in area.

It being about 1230 by this point, you can imagine the check-in line was very long for general boarding passengers, which made up most of the people on the ship it appeared. My mom is a returning pax with multiple cruises, so the NCL staff allowed us to check in at the much shorter Latitudes members desk. That did cut our wait time by quite a bit. I am used to the priority check-in system, as getting express checkin is one of the few things that Platinum members still get on Carnival, haha. I surely didn’t want to wait in the long line for this ship and thankfully, I didn’t have to. We showed the lady at the desk our passports and cards that we would be setting our sign and sail accounts up on, since we still had our passports out from security and we were quickly on our way.

Almost there…..we can now see the ship as we walk up towards the gangway for our obligatory embarkation group picture. After doing that, our cards are scanned, we walk up the gangway, and, we are suddenly on the ship! We entered through the main atrium, as most ships board this way and I am officially a First Time Norwegian.

It is only somewhere in the vicinity of 1300 at this point, and we are hungry. No cabins were ready yet, so we took care of a few things while we were in the area of guest services and the shore excursions desk. My mom wanted to book a particular excursion and she did once onboard, and also stopped by guest services to redeem a few gift vouchers she had gotten for a present earlier this year. I also signed up for and paid for my Unlimited Soft Drink package, since the desk was right there while I waited for them to finish up their stuff. The soda package includes unlimited soda and some juices, and can be used at any bar onboard, anytime. I always purchase this program, regardless of the line I am sailing because I like to drink soda and most lines have very similar programs in place. Total, with tax and 18 percent gratuity was like $73 and change. Not too bad. I also received a tumbler, which is neat because other lines now make you pay for the tumbler separately. Haha. Only downside is that they stock Pepsi products, and I am a Coke fan but it wasn’t enough to keep me from buying the package.

Lunch. Nice relaxing afternoon in the buffet area. Plenty to choose from, here was mine....

So, we were done with all that, and it was 1400 by this time. Unfortunately, the cabins were still not ready yet and so we all went upstairs to the Garden Café, which is the ship’s main buffet area for lunch. This is on Deck 12, aft and we got a nice table by the window and enjoyed lunch. I got some sort of chicken, curry something, rice and a hot dog and spicy sausage with a Pepsi of course. Finally, around 1530, we went to check to see if our cabins were ready. Yes! They were, so we went in and dropped our carryon stuff off and checked out the cabin some. We had not yet received any of our checked bags at this point however.

The cabin was a huge balcony, located Deck 9 forward. Although we did not ask for it, we got a cabin that was designed to be handicapped accessible, much larger than a standard balcony cabin. I also received a Birthday Wishes card, which was sitting on our desk, which was cool as I would be celebrating my upcoming birthday on this cruise. About 1600, ship staff dropped two of our bags off at the cabin and our steward introduced himself. I forget his name however, but he would only be our steward for a couple days. I will explain shortly. So, after getting settled in the cabin, it was time to head out again for the mandatory muster drill that all ships have to have at some point.

Our cabin, I mentioned it was designed to be a handicapped accessible cabin. It was a balcony on Deck 9. Not bad at all. It turns out we had to be moved from this cabin the next day and I will explain why in the next day's post but it was nice while it lasted.

View from the balcony:

We figured that there would be a mad rush to the muster stations as soon as it was announced for everyone to report to theirs, so we headed down there a little early so we could get a seat and not be rushing down there at the last minute. I oftentimes nap when I board cruises and end up being one of the last ones to the drill, lol. Not this time. As a matter of fact, when you enter the station, you must check in by name with a staff member. If you do not do this, they will count you as absent, even if you are there and it just slows the process down because then they have to look for you and call out by name any missing pax to see if they are really there. Lesson: just get there on time and it will be over much quicker. Our muster station was in the Tsar’s Palace restaurant, all the way at the back of the ship.

So, a little before 1700, the muster drill was over with and we were on our way. The ship was actually moving before we were released from the drill, which is perfectly legal but makes it harder to get up to the lido deck to take part in the sail away party festivities. I did make it upstairs and we got a table up on lido to just hang out as a group and take in the atmosphere. It was another beautiful spring day in Seattle, crystal clear and upper 60s. I got some really nice views of Seattle and surrounding areas and will include them in my next post, just pictures and descriptions because this site only allows 6 photos on one page. The pics really are nice.

Downtown Seattle, Space Needle in the background from the very top deck of the ship. Nice view. Plenty of traffic down there also, hard to remember it was a weekday rush hour for those of us not on a cruise, LOL.

They had a nice open pit charcoal barbeque going on next to the pool on lido, so I got some chicken, a burger and another sausage and we just hung out for a while and watched the sail away dance party and listened to music until Seattle was no longer visible and it was after 1800. I was tired by this point, so I went back and took a short nap until it was time for dinner. Nobody was in any kind of mood to go to the main dining room or use our UDP, so it was just a go to dinner whenever and wherever kind of night. We finally did receive all our bags by the time we returned to the room after sail away however.

I woke up sometime around 2000, as my mom called my phone to tell me that she and our friends had met up at O’Sheehan’s Pub and Bar for dinner, and to come join them before they stopped serving their daily special, which was fried chicken on this night. As we sailed close to land and were still in US waters in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, I was still able to receive a good 4G signal on my phone and was still able to communicate this way right up until later that evening, when we crossed over into Canadian waters. That allowed me to make some final texts and calls home and all that good stuff.

So, I got up to O’Sheehan’s and ordered an appetizer of mild chicken wings and some fried chicken. Both were good, although the fried chicken wasn’t exactly Popeye’s quality. I had heard so many great things about O’Sheehan’s leading up to the cruise, and was really excited to try it out. I wasn’t disappointed either, as I hit the place probably another half dozen times during the vacation. It is open 24/7 with a limited menu and has a different featured main dinner special each night. Can’t say I got anything I didn’t like there.

So, come 2130, dinner is done and the sun is setting outside the ship. Of course I had to get some pics of that and so did many other pax. The decks outside of Deck 6 are open all the way around the ship and thus allow for some great photo ops from all sides. One thing I will say I am not used to on NCL is the idea that there isn’t a ton of stuff to do after dinner in the evenings. I mean, there is stuff to do but it doesn’t see as lively onboard as some other lines do. However, we did find the welcome aboard show, which was going on in the theater and headed to see that at 2200. It was a variety show type thing, with some singing and dancing numbers and an introduction from the Cruise Director, Armen. It also included a little comedic magic routine from Jean-Pierre, who would be doing a full comedic magic show later in the cruise. The show was OK and was over by 2300. I will note that I am very happy that NCL keeps live music in their theaters and in many places onboard the ship. Other lines are cutting this and that is a mistake. Nothing like live music on a cruise and in a theater on a ship. If they are listening, they will continue to keep live music on their ships.

So, after the show we all retired to our cabins for the night and began to unpack our suitcases and get settled into cruise life on the NCL Jewel some more. We received the next day’s Freestyle Daily, NCL’s onboard newsletter and entertainment guide along with a towel animal and a few Andes chocolates and it was on to getting ready for the first full day onboard. I was asleep by 0000, in order to rest up for the next morning. The next day would be a sea day, and that is where I will leave it for this evening. Next up will be some more pics taken from this first day onboard, and hopefully I will get to DAY THREE: FIRST SEA DAY shortly. Hope you are all enjoying, and happy cruising.

More pictures of downtown Seattle and surrounding areas, right before sailaway:

Lido deck sailaway dance party. The pit bbq was at the top of the picture, next to the lunch grill and topsider's bar. Good stuff there. Fun atmosphere:

Sailaway from Seattle, see you again in 9 days:

Ahh, sunset. Beautiful on this night, first of many on this cruise:

Dinner at O'Sheehan's. Fried chicken and wings. Pretty good if I don't say so myself:

This is my kind of review...I am all about reviews with detail and pictures. Thanks so much!

Thank you so much for the effort you are taking to put so much detail into your review. Although our Alaska cruise is not until September this will give us something to tide us over until then.

Thanks so much for the review!! DH and I are going on the Pearl in August, so I am excited to see your review and your pictures!!

Can't wait for more !

Enjoying your review! We're on the last Alaska cruise of the season so it'll be interesting to compare.

BTW - we also booked the BW Executel precruise. It's nice to read a good report.

Great review and pictures of the Jewel keep them coming

Enjoying the review, especially since we got off the Jewel on the 7th after nineteen days through the Panama Canal. Looking forward to the rest of your review!

Thank you for putting this together! Getting excited for our August Alaskan Cruise!:):):)

Thank you so much for all the pics....I can't wait till I'm on the Jewel again this September!

Isn't O'Sheehan's the best...we loved that we could get a table overlooking the Atrium and watch Randon the guitar playing, while we ate dinner.

Not sure what setting your cell phone is on but you might be charged using the cellular at sea. I think the ship is required to turn it off while at port. Your cell phone will work great for most of your trip but you might be charged. Be sure to check the rules or you may have quite a bill.

If anyone has up to date info on the cell rules, please let me know.

Not sure what setting your cell phone is on but you might be charged using the cellular at sea. I think the ship is required to turn it off while at port. Your cell phone will work great for most of your trip but you might be charged. Be sure to check the rules or you may have quite a bill.

 

If anyone has up to date info on the cell rules, please let me know.

Not sure who you are talking to here on this post....but to add to that, most lines do not turn it off at ports. You usually have to get off the ship and even walk a bit away from the ship for the cell not to pick up cellular at sea.

Such a great review!!!!! :D The more pictures, the better!!! Keep them coming. Just reading these first couple of days has me wanting so badly to book an Alaskan itinerary :) Can't wait for more!

I'm in... good start.

Liking the pics...We will be doing the 7 day itinerary in August. :)