Jewel review from 12/22/13 - not a fan of anytime dining and won't be back.

[paulgraff]

This was our second cruise on NCL and have cruised many times out of New Orleans (our home port) on CCL and RCL.

 

We (wife and I) have been on over twenty cruises and have never had a bad time.

 

Getting on the Jewel was very fast, get to the pier around 10:45 or 11 and you will be on board around 11:30. Don't forget if you are a latitudes member there is a special quicker line for you. Parking is $112 in the outside lot called the whale lot.

 

Food on this ship in all areas is very good and some of the best I've had on a cruise ship. However, the service in the main dining rooms for either lunch or dinner is some of the worst and slowest service ever. I believe because they already have their tips and the staff does not really work for them anymore as they did back in the day of tip envelopes. Many cruise lines are going with the prepaid tips and service is really suffering because of this.

 

Dress on this ship anywhere is VERY casual and the majority simply wear slacks, nice shorts, polo style shirts or simple sun dresses. Leave your formal items at home.

 

Multiple times we waited in MDR for either lunch or dinner for over 30 minutes before we were served ANYTHING, and several times we were the first ones into the MDR.

 

Our main problem with NCL is the Anytime Dining which is anything but "anytime." We had a group of 11 and the only time we could ever get a reservation was either 5:00 or 9:00. Then when we showed up for our time we were given a pager and told they would beep us when the table was ready. usually this wait would be from 15 to 30 minutes. This also seemed to be happening for others with groups for two or more.

 

The two specialty restaurants we ate in were outstanding, The Brazilian restaurant where they served all the carved meat is not to be missed and the fry table is outstanding.

 

Overall the food is excellent, but repeats items often, but the service is some of the worst ever.

 

The ship is very clean and the staterooms are your average cruise line type in decent condition. The shower is larger than most other lines and the hairdryer is the best hairdryer I have ever used. The TV is horrible with no ability to access your account online and the channels come and go for no reason.

 

Our room steward was excellent and most of the other cruise staff are friendly.

 

We did not like the lay out of the ship and found it flowed poorly with us always having to go up or down and front or back, it seemed like a boxy old house and not planned very well.

 

Had a great time, but due to the anytime dining we won't cruise NCL again.

 

If you have additional questions please ask and I will try to respond.

 

Thank you,

 

PG

[gooch47]

I think your problem with anytime dining was mostly caused by the size of your group. We've never had problems, but then it is just the two of us.

 

I think that service has declined in some areas because of cutting the number of crew members, not the tipping. We have noticed this in the room steward category.

 

I agree about Moderno, the "meat" place.

 

The layout of the ship does take getting used to.

[Froggitt]

I sailed the Spirit last month, most evenings with a party of 6 or 7, and the only real issues we had were with the MDRs. Particularly the service in the MDR was poor, the food was warm at best. However Le Bistro and Shogun both service and food was top notch.

 

MDR service was total contrast with what we had on Allure of the Seas in the summer.

[DDMau]

Sorry you won't be sailing NCL any more. I have been reading other reviews on the slow service and long waits at the MDR. I hope NCL can improve in this area, it seams to be a big complaint.

 

We had the slow service on our past cruise but the wait wasn't bad, we only had 2 - 4 people in our party.

 

Thank You for your review and enjoy your future cruises.

[jimd909]

I was on this cruise also and did find that the service in the main dining room (Tsar's) was a bit slow. I went to the main dining room only once. When I went at my reservation time, I was seated immediately. Maybe because it was only 2 of us. Once we were seated, it took about 15 minutes just to get water. Once that happened, it went alot quicker. Maybe it was slow because it was Christmas day and the dining room was pretty packed.

 

Other than that, the cruise was excellent. La Cucina (Mama's), Le Bistro and Cagney's was all wonderful. Excellent service and excellent food.

 

I believe you had problems because of the size of your party.

[paulgraff]

I believe you had problems because of the size of your party.

 

So its OK to treat us poorly because of the size of our party? And we've never had these issues on the other cruises we have been on.

 

PG

[kcwingwalker]

It seems overall that you and your family did enjoy your cruise. And I have to agree that you should have had better service in the MDR.

 

Did you talk with the dining staff and/or go to customer service to find help in resolving your problem?

[NYcruzzer]

This was our second cruise on NCL and have cruised many times out of New Orleans (our home port) on CCL and RCL.

 

We (wife and I) have been on over twenty cruises and have never had a bad time.

 

Getting on the Jewel was very fast, get to the pier around 10:45 or 11 and you will be on board around 11:30. Don't forget if you are a latitudes member there is a special quicker line for you. Parking is $112 in the outside lot called the whale lot.

 

Food on this ship in all areas is very good and some of the best I've had on a cruise ship. However, the service in the main dining rooms for either lunch or dinner is some of the worst and slowest service ever. I believe because they already have their tips and the staff does not really work for them anymore as they did back in the day of tip envelopes. Many cruise lines are going with the prepaid tips and service is really suffering because of this.

 

Dress on this ship anywhere is VERY casual and the majority simply wear slacks, nice shorts, polo style shirts or simple sun dresses. Leave your formal items at home.

 

Multiple times we waited in MDR for either lunch or dinner for over 30 minutes before we were served ANYTHING, and several times we were the first ones into the MDR.

 

Our main problem with NCL is the Anytime Dining which is anything but "anytime." We had a group of 11 and the only time we could ever get a reservation was either 5:00 or 9:00. Then when we showed up for our time we were given a pager and told they would beep us when the table was ready. usually this wait would be from 15 to 30 minutes. This also seemed to be happening for others with groups for two or more.

 

The two specialty restaurants we ate in were outstanding, The Brazilian restaurant where they served all the carved meat is not to be missed and the fry table is outstanding.

 

Overall the food is excellent, but repeats items often, but the service is some of the worst ever.

 

The ship is very clean and the staterooms are your average cruise line type in decent condition. The shower is larger than most other lines and the hairdryer is the best hairdryer I have ever used. The TV is horrible with no ability to access your account online and the channels come and go for no reason.

 

Our room steward was excellent and most of the other cruise staff are friendly.

 

We did not like the lay out of the ship and found it flowed poorly with us always having to go up or down and front or back, it seemed like a boxy old house and not planned very well.

 

Had a great time, but due to the anytime dining we won't cruise NCL again.

 

If you have additional questions please ask and I will try to respond.

 

Thank you,

 

PG

 

Welcome home. Thank you for taking a few moments to write a mini review. Carnival did away with "little envelopes" for gratuities years ago. They collect $11.50 per person per day. From my conversations with waiters on NCL and Carnival they all say they are much happier now that cruiselines added the service charges to passangers account. Prior to that plenty of folks "forgot" to fill those tiny little envelopes with tips. In regards to slow service, any time you are a large table service tends to be slower.

[gooch47]

I meant the problem with reservations, not the poor service.

[david_sobe]

I meant the problem with reservations, not the poor service.

Most people knew what you meant ;)

 

Sorry to hear about the slow and poor service the OP encountered. Unfortunately, those stories are becoming more frequent.

 

But it is true, the larger the party, the more difficult to get a reservation, table and sometimes the service does bog down.

[roger001]

Sounds like a very fair review. All sounded fine except the MDR not being able to handle your larger group of diners. Maybe something for NCL to look at then. Otherwise, if you are sailing sometime , just the two of you, with all else that you did enjoy, perhaps you would enjoy NCL again. But for large groups, yes, go to a line that does have the assigned dining times and assigned seating. Because we do have so many choices, it does make cruising great. Something for everyone. Sounded like a good cruise and good ship otherwise.

[SeaShark]

Thank you for sharing your review. It was well written and informative.

 

Sorry to hear that you aren't a fan of anytime dining (Which is actually a Carnival term, btw) as it is really the norm. There are probably hundreds of restaurants close to your own home, and ALL of them have anytime dining. If the whole same-table, same-time, same-server thing was so popular, somebody would be operating their restaurant that way. :rolleyes:

 

You also mentioned slow service. Might I point out that this is on purpose? Remember, since there isn't another seating waiting, there is no need to rush people thru the meal to get them out of the restaurant. Also...unlike a land based restaurant, these MDRs don't rely on turn-over to be profitable. Dinner is supposed to be a prolonged, relaxed experience. We as Americans with our hurry, hurry, rush, rush mentality sometimes forget that. I have found that when I want a quicker meal, that I can be out of the restaurat in 20-30 minutes...you just have to say something so they are aware. If you don't say anything they aren't going to try to rush you thru your meal.

[mickev99]

We sailed on the Jewel on the 12/8 sailing. We had 13 people, got right into Tsar's the first night at 6:00. The manager came over during dinner and asked if we would like this same set up every night at 6:00pm and we said yes. She said just to call her during the day if something changes. I thought that was really nice, and will ask for this next time if it's not offered, I didn't know they did that. Now, to be fair, our cruise was not fully booked, so maybe that's why. We were in the back room and it was never filled up back there.

We did switch from Tsar's after the 3rd night because the service got really really slow and they forgot a meal one night and we had to ask 3 times before it was finally brought out.

I completely agree with the gratuity built in. I think the servers don't work as hard because they don't have to. However, our room stewards were wonderful.

Personally I loved the Freestyle dining...I hate to be tied down to a specific time each night, especially with shore excursions that make for a late lunch, etc.

[mypleasure]

I am going to throw something in here that is just a hypothesis.

 

I think the reason for all of the complaints about slow service are very valid and very real. I also think that there is a reason for this and it has nothing to do with not needing to work hard to get a tip. I believe it is because NCL has taken on huge amounts of new staff this year. The new staff are not sent to breakaway nor are they now getting Getaway ready to sail in a few days time. They want experienced staff on those ships not trainees. So the trainees join an older ship come under tutelage of more experienced staff and then have to fly on their own. Meanwhile all of the experienced staff are sent to the new ships. I expect that some of the trainees don't cut it or don't like it so they leave making gaps for more trainees.

 

Those big ships need a lot of staff in all departments and I know the Spirit lost a lot of it's best staff recently.

Edited January 3, 2014 by mypleasure

[Love my butler]

I am going to throw something in here that is just a hypothesis.

 

I think the reason for all of the complaints about slow service are very valid and very real. I also think that there is a reason for this and it has nothing to do with not needing to work hard to get a tip. I believe it is because NCL has taken on huge amounts of new staff this year. The new staff are not sent to breakaway nor are they now getting Getaway ready to sail in a few days time. They want experienced staff on those ships not trainees. So the trainees join an older ship come under tutelage of more experienced staff and then have to fly on their own. Meanwhile all of the experienced staff are sent to the new ships. I expect that some of the trainees don't cut it or don't like it so they leave making gaps for more trainees.

 

Those big ships need a lot of staff in all departments and I know the Spirit lost a lot of it's best staff recently.

 

NCL has enough ships that your theory is probably true to some extent, but should not affect the quality as badly as recent reviews have indicated. Something(s) else is causing the majority of this 'bad' service and I don't think the main reason is the new ships are taking all the competent staff.

 

I think that NCL is having trouble attracting motivated employees given the wages offered and work required. The only way to increase the wages without increasing cruise prices is to reduce staff so they get a larger cut of the static DSC. Less staff means more work means slower service means unhappy customers. I believe that is more to blame than attrition to the new ships.

[paulgraff]

Sounds like a very fair review. All sounded fine except the MDR not being able to handle your larger group of diners. Maybe something for NCL to look at then. Otherwise, if you are sailing sometime , just the two of you, with all else that you did enjoy, perhaps you would enjoy NCL again. But for large groups, yes, go to a line that does have the assigned dining times and assigned seating. Because we do have so many choices, it does make cruising great. Something for everyone. Sounded like a good cruise and good ship otherwise.

 

Sometimes it was just my wife and I in the MDR's at lunch or breakfast as we did not always eat as a group of 11.

 

Walked out once because it took over 30 minutes for us to get our drinks. Twice we were first into the MDR's for lunch and at least 30 minutes to receive food. During dinner once at waiter walked by and took my Dad's soup, he was still eating it, without even asking him if he was finished.

 

Seriously, worse MDR service ever in over 20 cruises.

 

NCL not for us.

 

PG

[vols_159]

I read over on the ccl boards mdr service takes 2.5 hours I've been in and out on ncl between 30 and 45 minutes

[clackey]

We did the Jewel cruise 12/8 and had the same experience in the formal dining and it was just the two of us. It took 30 to 45 minutes to get in a couple of nights and one meal took over 2 hours. So much for anytime.

 

 

I will say that the food was good even though some servings were small. We simply went to the buffet to top off.:rolleyes: The entertainment was some of the best that we have had. And the live bands, OMG. It was so nice to hear real live bands instead of DJ 's and crapioke. There was definately talent on our cruise.

 

Thumbs down on Anytime, thumbs up on everything else.

Edited January 3, 2014 by clackey

[newmexicoNita]

This was our second cruise on NCL and have cruised many times out of New Orleans (our home port) on CCL and RCL.

 

We (wife and I) have been on over twenty cruises and have never had a bad time.

 

Getting on the Jewel was very fast, get to the pier around 10:45 or 11 and you will be on board around 11:30. Don't forget if you are a latitudes member there is a special quicker line for you. Parking is $112 in the outside lot called the whale lot.

 

Food on this ship in all areas is very good and some of the best I've had on a cruise ship. However, the service in the main dining rooms for either lunch or dinner is some of the worst and slowest service ever. I believe because they already have their tips and the staff does not really work for them anymore as they did back in the day of tip envelopes. Many cruise lines are going with the prepaid tips and service is really suffering because of this.

 

Dress on this ship anywhere is VERY casual and the majority simply wear slacks, nice shorts, polo style shirts or simple sun dresses. Leave your formal items at home.

 

Multiple times we waited in MDR for either lunch or dinner for over 30 minutes before we were served ANYTHING, and several times we were the first ones into the MDR.

 

Our main problem with NCL is the Anytime Dining which is anything but "anytime." We had a group of 11 and the only time we could ever get a reservation was either 5:00 or 9:00. Then when we showed up for our time we were given a pager and told they would beep us when the table was ready. usually this wait would be from 15 to 30 minutes. This also seemed to be happening for others with groups for two or more.

 

The two specialty restaurants we ate in were outstanding, The Brazilian restaurant where they served all the carved meat is not to be missed and the fry table is outstanding.

 

Overall the food is excellent, but repeats items often, but the service is some of the worst ever.

 

The ship is very clean and the staterooms are your average cruise line type in decent condition. The shower is larger than most other lines and the hairdryer is the best hairdryer I have ever used. The TV is horrible with no ability to access your account online and the channels come and go for no reason.

 

Our room steward was excellent and most of the other cruise staff are friendly.

 

We did not like the lay out of the ship and found it flowed poorly with us always having to go up or down and front or back, it seemed like a boxy old house and not planned very well.

 

Had a great time, but due to the anytime dining we won't cruise NCL again.

 

If you have additional questions please ask and I will try to respond.

 

Thank you,

 

PG

 

PG, thanks for a very honest and objective posting. I wish all postings were this way. I will just throw in my 2 cents worth, but this isn't an attempt to change your thinking, just me thoughts. All lines now have the pre tipping, or service charge and yes, I do think service is suffering because of this. The worst service we even had was on Princess a couple of years ago, we too will, most likely not return to Princess, but not only because of the lack of service. Anyway that is a subject for another day.

 

I do think you need to remember, on holiday cruises with sold out ships and lots of families service is going to suffer some. Getting decent reservations with groups so large can be a challenge as well, especially at holiday time, when a lot of people are traveling in larger groups. Was that the reason your service was so bad? I really don't know, but we got off the Sun on the 22nd and we couldn't have had better service. The first night, it was, pretty much what I would call standard. The MDR was packed and the wait staff certainly worked hard to do as good a job as possible. The food was hot, but he wasn't too friendly. One other night we had a waiter take our order, disappear and suddenly we have someone else serving us. Still the service was fine, even if we had to ask about the chefs special cause the guy never said a word about it. Otherwise, we had nothing but friendly, smiling servers and the food orders were always correct and served nice and warm.

Edited January 3, 2014 by newmexicoNita

[newmexicoNita]

NCL has enough ships that your theory is probably true to some extent, but should not affect the quality as badly as recent reviews have indicated. Something(s) else is causing the majority of this 'bad' service and I don't think the main reason is the new ships are taking all the competent staff.

 

I think that NCL is having trouble attracting motivated employees given the wages offered and work required. The only way to increase the wages without increasing cruise prices is to reduce staff so they get a larger cut of the static DSC. Less staff means more work means slower service means unhappy customers. I believe that is more to blame than attrition to the new ships.

 

Do you really think other lines offer a much different salary? We just got off the Sun. Every single crew person we talked to with the exception of one, had been with NCL 5 years or more. A few 15 years.

[newmexicoNita]

We did the Jewel cruise 12/8 and had the same experience in the formal dining and it was just the two of us. It took 30 to 45 minutes to get in a couple of nights and one meal took over 2 hours. So much for anytime.

 

 

I will say that the food was good even though some servings were small. We simply went to the buffet to top off.:rolleyes: The entertainment was some of the best that we have had. And the live bands, OMG. It was so nice to hear real live bands instead of DJ 's and crapioke. There was definately talent on our cruise.

 

Thumbs down on Anytime, thumbs up on everything else.

 

Hi, almost neighbor. We had no problems on our recent cruise. I think the first night we may have been a hour and 1/2, but we were visiting with our table mates and the time just slipped by. We did have questionable service a few years ago, but it was rare.

[Love my butler]

Do you really think other lines offer a much different salary? We just got off the Sun. Every single crew person we talked to with the exception of one, had been with NCL 5 years or more. A few 15 years.

 

Have no idea or care what other lines pay their staff, I focus on NCL. Try to stay focused we are on the NCL boards.

 

I was on the Sun a couple of times last year and chatted with many 'new' employees. I guess they all left before your cruise..........

 

P.S. Our trips on the Sun were awesome.

[CruisinMaterial]

I am going to throw something in here that is just a hypothesis.

 

I think the reason for all of the complaints about slow service are very valid and very real. I also think that there is a reason for this and it has nothing to do with not needing to work hard to get a tip. I believe it is because NCL has taken on huge amounts of new staff this year. The new staff are not sent to breakaway nor are they now getting Getaway ready to sail in a few days time. They want experienced staff on those ships not trainees. So the trainees join an older ship come under tutelage of more experienced staff and then have to fly on their own. Meanwhile all of the experienced staff are sent to the new ships. I expect that some of the trainees don't cut it or don't like it so they leave making gaps for more trainees.

 

Those big ships need a lot of staff in all departments and I know the Spirit lost a lot of it's best staff recently.

 

A lot of the Jewel crew that were very good were pulled when Breakaway came along and so were the Dawn's crew. Luckily most of the management on the Jewel has stayed the same so I know I'm in good hands sailing on her. I'm surprised by the reports of long dinner service. On my Jewel sailing this fall with a very large group (1/4 of the ship) I didn't experience any significant service delays. I dined in Azura quite a bit though because of friendly crew I met during the embarkation lunch in Tsars. :cool:

 

I do agree though there is a HUGE surge in new trainees on NCL's older ships. It is impacting service. The Getaway's delivery being bumped up didn't help NCL fill in the gap from the expansion with Breakaway. Now it's really starting to show. Hopefully with the gap before Escape and Bliss come out they will get to weed out the bad apples and service will improve.

[EileenN]

Just a second thought...When we are on a cruise, we learned to enjoy a leasurely served meal. What is the rush? It is not like you have to get the kids to school or you may have to get to work. It has been a long time sincr many of us remembered to eat slowly, enjoy the surroundings or talk about our day. We enjoy it.

[bobg529]

The very first cruise I ever took was on the Jewel. They had a drawing at the beginning and I was very happy to be chosen to sit at the Captains table. We had dinner in the MDR and the food was the same for us as for everyone else in the dining room, except we got free wine. :) ( the captain abstained, he said he was driving) There were 10 adults and three children at my table and dinner took a little over 2 hours. I had a WONDERFUL time!