NCL Jewel Review Aug 2015

[Cindyscruising]

Aug 22-Aug 29 2015 Jewel to Alaska family group of 7

 

We flew in to Seattle and used "Already There" service from airport to hotel to Pier 66 and back to SeaTac. Highly recommend this business, they were prompt, friendly and reasonably priced

 

Stayed at the Kimpton Vintage Hotel in downtown. Its in a safe area and within walking distance to Pike Place Market, the monorail, restaurants and shops. They offer a lovely wine tasting each night for guests to get to meet each other and mingle and they serve complimentary local Washington State wines. The staff here was very pleasant and helpful. Rooms were a bit small but very clean and the beds comfortable

 

While in Seattle we visited Pikes Market, Chihuly Exhibit and the Space Needle. All were fantastic. The Chihuly and Space Needle are a must see and are simply dazzling. We were lucky enough to have great weather all week so the views from the Space Needle went on forever as the day was super clear and sunny

Onto the cruise!

 

We stayed in a Haven 2 bedroom suite. Our concierge was Florentina and our butler was Ronald. We were very satisfied with both of them and loved the Haven in general.

We had the UDP and UBP and there were no issues with either one at all. I had some concerns about lines after reading some comments from other posters but we did not encounter any wait times for drinks.

We ate at La Cucina, Le Bistro, Cagneys, Moderno, Haven courtyard and had two lunches at Tsars Place. All the food was excellent and the staff exceptionally friendly. The entertainment was top notch, the ship in general is easy to navigate, in good condition and I found all the employees to be happy and upbeat

 

We did the following excursions ( first three booked through NCL)

Ketchikan: Trolley around town and to Saxman Village (amazing)

Juneau: Mendenhall Glacier Explorer ( walked to Nugget Falls- breathtaking)

Skagway: White pass scenic Railway (magnificent views)

Victoria: High Tea at Empress hotel ( so elegant and scrumptious) - this is a lovely city, full of blossoming flowers everywhere

 

We have a family group of 7 ranging from middle schooler, college teen, parents and senior citizens. Everyone agreed we hit a home run on our excursion selections. There were so many to chose from and we took a long time to finally decide which ones to sign up for. We were absolutely thrilled with what we did at each port. I highly recommend each of the above excursions if you are researching going to Alaska.

 

The scenery on this trip was just exquisite. We were blessed to have sunny days and clear nights and we brought along a good pair of binoculars I ordered from Amazon prior to the trip. ( Celestron skymaster) We saw bears, eagles, porcupines, mountain goats, salmon and one night we even saw the northern lights!

 

I have the freestyle dailys if anyone has a question I can try to answer for you.

Overall in summary this ship and itinerary are a 10 out of 10

[Keith1010]

Enjoyed your review.

 

Keith