Back from the Jewel 4/24

[cruise2much]

Just back from the Norwegian Jewel, I am not typically one for reviews but as this was the best cruise I have ever had I felt the crew deserved some praise as this outstanding experience was largely due to them.

Keeping in mind my wife and I were in an owners suite (luck not fortune) we were afforded some amenities that others were not but if you are on the fence as to whether or not to spend the extra money it was worth every dime.

The acknowledgements are in order of title, not service but everyone was top notch. First was the Hotel Director; John O’Hara, and he take his job very seriously and you can feel his desire that everyone have the best vacation ever. I know it is impossible to please everyone and for John this has got to be the most difficult aspect of his job as I think he takes anyone’s dissatisfaction as a personal affront. Meeting John was surely a highlight of my vacation and NCL is lucky to have him representing their company. (dinkwads)

Next was Adrian; the concierge, this guy has a rye since of humor and is a blast to be around. And around he is. Always seems to be everywhere you are and edger to help. He remembers your concerns and makes suggestions accordingly; we presented him with the challenge of surpassing the service of a previous concierge and he meet and surpassed that challenge with apparent ease.

Putu; our butler, It so happens he was our butler on a previous cruise and he ruined us, afterwards we compared other butlers to him and was always disappointed. I am sure you can then understand our excitement when we boarded the Jewel and seen Putu, we were elated to find that once again Putu would be with us and our memories of him were proved to be spot on. Some of you know what I am talking about this guy is great! If you find Putu as your butler you will be in good hands.

Now to the good stuff, “Nickelodeon” the new agreement between NCL and Nickelodeon is a 3-year contract. This cruise was the introduction, that being said on this cruise I did not see Sponge Bob once, there were a lot of kids on board and I assume the Nick additions was the cause. I feel some of the adult entertainment was sacrificed to accommodate the Nick addition, for example there was no comedic entertainment on this voyage. It may also prove to be necessary for NCL to play a larger roll in separating the kids from the adults. For the sign impaired “Adults Only” is short for no kids allowed. I only say this because on this cruise every adult whirlpool was filled with children. This is not the fault of NCL as they do place signs its just that some of the parents ignore them and NCL is put in a bad position of having to confront their guests with a negative problem but with the introduction of the Nick theme it may become necessary.

I did not spend much time in the buffet simply to avoid the rush and noise so I chose to dine in the pay restaurants thinking this would provide a quieter and more intimate dinning experience with my wife but I was disappointed. Not with the food but the kid’s again. Note to parent: As little Timmy runs through the restaurant greeting other people at their tables while they are eating, the smiles you receive are not smiles of endearment but rather polite encouragement for you to come get your kid. Also a child crying for it’s favorite water cup with you cooing, shhhhh, shhhh, shhhh… pat, pat, pat… cry, cry, cry does not constitute a fine dining ambiance. There were parents that took a responsible roll and considerations of the other guests to these parents kudos.

The weather for the most part was great, we did have to skip the private island due to sea conditions for tendering, some guest were challenging the captains decision for the safety call but a good rule of thumb, if you see white caps on the waves and waves crashing on the break walls odds are your not going ashore. They got us to Nassau by 7 PM spent the night and provided a unrushed time at port before our 2 days at sea for our return home.

Cant say much for the disembark as again we had priority tags and were promptly led to the gangway, but if it was like usual people were climbing over chairs rushing for the door.

All in all it was a great cruise, I can only say the access to the private areas for us made the difference. If you have the opportunity, go for it. I was like having your own ship.

[bananasforcruises]

Glad to hear you had a good cruise. I am booked on the Jewel for 7/24/10 - 2 adults and 2 kids. One will only be 10 months and the other 10 yrs. old. He can't wait to go.

 

Is the partnership with Nickelodeon worth paying extra for a cruise to the Bahamas? I was just looking at NCL's cruises to Bermuda during July and I can get a better price for a cruise to Bermuda than the Bahamas on the Jewel. Is the Nick involvement more entertaining for the kids? I am just trying to find out if my nephew will be just as entertained going on a cruise to Bermuda just going to the kids clubs without Nickelodeon's involvement.

 

Did they have the slime show around the pool and did they have kids just join in and get slimed? My nephew really wants to get slimed or is that part of the Nick All Access cruises which they finally announced will be in 2011? Can families sign up to join in the Nick shows? Can you tell me if the kids onboard were entertained during the day or were there a lot of kids around the pool areas during the day?

 

Can anyone tell me how much the character breakfast was per person? Was it worth the price? Was it very crowded that you couldn't get to take a picture with the characters? Are you allowed to take pictures with your own camera or did you have to purchase a picture taken by NCL?

 

A question that isn't about Nick - how was the casino? Were the slots as tight as people say? What type of slots do they have? Do they have machines such as Zeus, White Orchid, Lucky Penny Penquin, Goldfish, Jackpot Party Village People, Wolf Run? Those are some of the slots that I have been wanting to try. I usually go to AC about twice a year, but since I am going on this cruise, I'm not visiting AC and waiting to play the slots when I am on my cruise.

 

About how many kids were onboard? Were a lot of the shows in the evening kid friendly?

 

Thanks for any info.

[Terrafreaky]

Excellent review, thanks so much. We'll be sailing in the Owner's Suite in a week, so your information was absolutely perfect, thanks.

[EileenN]

Sorry we got off as they were starting the Nick shows and have no knowledge of them. The casino is another thing. They have one row of "multiplay" machines than contain 4 games in one machine. Wolf run, white orchid, southern belle, etc. These were the best they had and paid off occcasionally well. These machines are backed up to the card tables in the rear. They also have penny goldfish and penguin machines in the front. Good luck or better luck than me. We were in the courtyard villa and loved the use of the courtyard and breakfast and lunch at Cagney's. It was great.

[tinker]

We are just off of the Jewel, the first cruise with Nickelodeon and there was one insert in the Free Style Daily outlining the Nick activities for the week.

 

The ones I remember were:

Scheduled time in the atrium for photos with the characters. I don't have young kids so not sure of the names but first day we saw Dora the Explorer and a male counterpart. It took place at one one side of the atrium in front of the excursion desk. Kind of a small area to do that but people seemed to enjoy it. You could use your own camera plus the ship photographer took shots you could purchase later.

 

A disco dance one morning at I think 9:30 with Dora in the Fizz Lounge.

 

Character breakfast one morning that you needed to register for and I didn't notice the cost.

 

On sea days they do a game show on the stage on the pool deck from 1 to 1:30. They do pick kids to participate but no slime, they use water balloons. The pool deck is a zoo on sunny days and lots of kids as they have their own pool and seem to love the slide.

 

One evening there was some A Slime Time Live show at both show times. I believe they use slime for this but we did not attend and were disappointed that both shows were Nick shows. All shows that we saw would be entertaining for kids, especially the Cirque Bishou where they perform acrobatic type dance suspended from the ceiling at times.

 

One other activity in the Spinnaker during the day and not sure what it was.

 

I believe they did things in the Kids Club as well.

 

Sorry to to be so vague but we did not participate so I don't have all the details. There were Nick staff on board and actually less activities than I thought there would be but they may be trying to reach a balance for those sailing with kids or without. I can say that it did not interfere with those of us without children except there were 300 kids on board and a little chaotic on the already overcrowded pool deck when they moved lounges from the area in front of the stage to get ready for the 1:00 p.m. shows.

 

Having done both Bahamas and Bermuda I would choose the Bahama itinerary if I had younger kids as more to do in port with them. I don't think the pricing has anything to do with Nick, just supply and demand. The Jewel is probably just selling better due to Nick or the itinerary for families with kids I would think.

[Tyskie]

Thanks for the great review! We'll be on the Jewel next Saturday, woo hoo! Glad to hear that it's not all Nick...............the amount of kids on board is not the best news. I love kids, but it always amazes me that while on vacation, some parents think they can let their kids run "wild".

Happy to hear you had a GREAT cruise. All the reviews seem so positive, can't wait for Saturday :D

[PACruiseBear]

Cruise ,

I was on the ship with you last week. I agree that it was a very nice trip. I have not been on NCL for about 10 years and have been a RCL person since then but wanted to try going out of NYC. I have to disagree with you on the private island though. I thought that the weather was PERFECT. If they could not go ashore that day then they may consider selling the island. I think that there was another issue and we were lied to. I liked having the extra time at Nassau and I am not complaining aobut the trip at all. I would like to know the truth though as I am convinced it was not weather. Happy to hear you had a good time also.

Jeff

[NJ Johnny]

On last week's cruise, were you allowed to leave the ship after they docked at 7pm? Did you hear of any of the ship's excursions leaving earlier than planned to utilize the extra time in port?

[NJ Johnny]

Anyone take the ship's excursion to Seaworld? If so, did you feel you had enough time to see some of the shows etc?

[KyleClark]

Cruise ,

I was on the ship with you last week. I agree that it was a very nice trip. I have not been on NCL for about 10 years and have been a RCL person since then but wanted to try going out of NYC. I have to disagree with you on the private island though. I thought that the weather was PERFECT. If they could not go ashore that day then they may consider selling the island. I think that there was another issue and we were lied to. I liked having the extra time at Nassau and I am not complaining aobut the trip at all. I would like to know the truth though as I am convinced it was not weather. Happy to hear you had a good time also.

Jeff

 

I was on this same cruise with you and was told by a server that they forgot to notify the tender service and were not prepared for the BBQ. I'm not sure if this true or not. Did any one hear anything else? Also, while I was in Tsars Place that morning I asked a server if the waters were ok for tendering and she looked outside and and said "yes they are o.k.".

[luvwater]

No, I heard from three differnet sources, Hotel Director, Captain, and Concierge that they knew we would not be able to tender when they saw that Royal Caribbean had to leave their private island. It makes no sense that that NCL would not us to use their private island. Think of all the revenue that was lost when we docked in Nassau and so many disembarked and spent their money at Senor Frogs and Atlantis.

[SuzieQ123]

No, I heard from three differnet sources, Hotel Director, Captain, and Concierge that they knew we would not be able to tender when they saw that Royal Caribbean had to leave their private island. It makes no sense that that NCL would not us to use their private island. Think of all the revenue that was lost when we docked in Nassau and so many disembarked and spent their money at Senor Frogs and Atlantis.

 

Totally agree, there was definately an issue w/tendering, although the weather was perfect the currents were too strong. The Tenders cannot safely run, this happens a lot in Grand Cayman. Perfect skies do not mean safe tendering. NCL definately would NOT want to skip this stop from a revenue standpoint, just think all the drinks they would make money on on the Island.

 

If you search thru the threads there is a story somewhere of how people got stuck on GSC for about 5 hours due to current changes, they could not get the tenders to the ship safely and I believe a RCCL ship that was docked next door at Coco Cay actually came to help

[marshabear]

I asked this question directly to the captain and was told it was due to the rough seas (didn't appear to be but in a tender boat it would be too rough) and that tendering was not a possibility..also he reported that a RCCL ship wasn't able to stop at it's private island either ...waves were "crashing" up on the shore and it was just too dangerous to tender in....

 

once we arrived in Nassau at 7pm, we were allowed to disembark... they did keep the casino open that night...was surprised by that...

 

 

 

Marsha

[mafig]

Sorry we got off as they were starting the Nick shows and have no knowledge of them. The casino is another thing. They have one row of "multiplay" machines than contain 4 games in one machine. Wolf run, white orchid, southern belle, etc. These were the best they had and paid off occcasionally well. These machines are backed up to the card tables in the rear. They also have penny goldfish and penguin machines in the front. Good luck or better luck than me. We were in the courtyard villa and loved the use of the courtyard and breakfast and lunch at Cagney's. It was great.

 

 

I've seen these machines and never play them because I'm not sure how to bet.:o

 

Do you need to bet 4 X to play all the games? For instance is your bet would normally be 25 cents, do you need to play $1 to get all four games?

[TITISSA]

Are all cruises on the Jewel out of NY a Nickelodeon cruise?

[NJ Johnny]

Yes, they are. The Jewel will also have an All Access Cruise in February, 2011 and the Epic, July, 2011. These will be totally NIck.

[FunkyMumNJ]

We are also just off the 4/24 sailing. Had a fantastic time with our family of 6.

 

The Nick breakfasts were offered on two different days, Thurs. & Fri. - they cost $15 per adult and $10 per child. The characters did come to each table, one at a time and you could take pictures with them - in our case the staff & ship photographers even took our picture with my camera a few times, which was nice. It was not overly crowded and my daughter and I enjoyed it.

 

As far as the shows, we brought our kids to all of them (except the late night adult only shows) and they had a great time. Even the 2 year old loved the singing and dancing.

[patseacruiser]

Does anyone remember what beer they serve on the Jewel? I don't remember seeing Sam Adams yet I know we have had that on some NCL sailings.