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Review: Jewel 02/14/16 14 Nt Panama Canal

Wavesprite

By Wavesprite,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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Wavesprite

Wavesprite

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This is a mini review for the 2/14/16 Jewel 14 night Panama Canal cruise from LA to Miami. We are in SC category 2 bedroom suite 11024 (non haven).

 

We still have 5 days left and tomorrow is the Panama Canal!!!!!

 

We are three generations of women. Myself: 49, my mother: 77, and my daughter: 11.

 

We flew to LA from our home in Carmel, CA, on the morning of the cruise, and took "On Time transportation" to the pier. They were awesome. We were in a private car for $60. They will stop at a store for you for $15 more.

 

We arrived at the terminal really early so we dropped out luggage (one of the first to do so at 8:15). We walked through the port and got breakfast at a nearby diner. We walked back to the terminal around 10:45 and were in the suite boarding area and on the ship by 11:15. They escorted us to Maderno's for lunch. The rooms were all ready at 1:30.

 

We got settled in and our luggage arrived at 3pm or so. Life jacket drill was the shortest ever at about 10 minutes.

 

Dining: We have felt that the food has been very very good. We have eaten dinner in the buffet a few times, Teppanyaki twice, and La Cucina so far. We haven't gone to the main dining rooms. I really like the set up of the buffet and feel the food has all been hot and fresh. They've had quite a few bbq's by the pool that are quite good. The grill by the pool is yummy.

 

Bars: I think a lot of people have the UBP, but no lines ever at the bars, lots of staff being in drinks at the pools, cold towels, and waters around.

 

Shows: have been absolutely OUTSTANDING! I've cruised in NCL, Princess, Carnival and Holland America and this cruise has absolutely had the best entertainment ever. El Gaucho was on and he is amazing! We have gone to the shows every single night! Every one is great, including the staff dancers and singers.

 

Splash Zone/kids: There are only 33 "children 17 and under" on board. So the kids are all mixed in together. My daughter has made a few great new friends her age. It's SO nice that there is an adults only pool on board. She has enjoyed the slide (be advised if you use it the slide a lot with a light colored bathing suit, it will stain the bottoms with black) and pool a lot! My daughter is well behaved and is being treated like gold!

 

Laundry: we've been offered the laundry special quite a few times. Fill the bag for $20. The interesting thing is that our bag is a nylon cloth laundry bag and we fit one weeks worth of clothes for three people in that bag. We have seen the paper bag in the halls so I'm not sure if it's because we are in a suite that w shave a larger nylon bag.

 

Concierge/Butler: Our concierge is Joaquin. He doesn't pay us much attention which is fine. He seems very distracted even when he is talking to you. He showed up at one of our dinner reservations. We haven't needed him for anything. Our butler is Jennifer and we love her. We want to take her home. She is so sweet and nice. I want to just hang out with her. She beings all kinds of treats for our daughter: M&M's, giant gummy bears, cookies, chocolate milk! We love her sweet personality!!!

 

We received an invitation to go to the Haven during the canal transit tomorrow which is really great!!!

 

That's it for now! I'll come back and finish after we disembark and will try to answer any questions on my remaining wifi minutes.

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labbro58

labbro58

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Thanks for the great review...there hasn't been much about the Jewel lately. We will be boarding on March 20th, and can't wait! We will be in an SC suite as well, 11006. This will be the 4th NCL cruise for my wife and I, but our adult son's first!

 

26 DAYS TO GO!!!!!

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Aprille

Aprille

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Loving the review! Keep it coming.

 

We were on the Jewel Panama Canal cruise last April from Houston to Seattle. 19 nights. It was awesome. The day we went through the canal my hubby was running all over the ship. He must have said, "This is AWESOME!!!" 100 times. LOL!

 

We were in an aft penthouse suite on deck 10 and also had Jennifer as our butler. It was our first experience with a butler and let me just say she spoiled us for all others. We were in a 2 bedroom suite in The Haven on Jade in December and our butler was less than impressive. I wanted Jennifer back! Please tell her Aprille & Marty said hi and we missed her SO MUCH on our last cruise. She deserves a promotion to The Haven (assuming that's a promotion - lol).

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Aprille

Aprille

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Aprille, Jennifer remembered you and said thank you for the kind words no to say hello!

 

She was wonderful and I hope we get a butler half as good as her on our upcoming cruise Saturday on Jade. But I'm not holding my breath. Her shoes are hard to fill.

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise!!

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Wavesprite

Wavesprite

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Disembarked this morning :(. I'm sitting on our plane home to San Francisco! The rest of our cruise was just as good as the start I wrote about, we went to Maderno's and it was great! A funny thing is hat after I wrote the comment about the slide leaving bathing suit bottoms stained black, the next day the slide was closed and they fixed the issue......(seemed to me like NCL was maybe reading the forums??).

 

My ONLY complaint would be the pool chair hogs that had their stuff out at 7 am then never showed up until late afternoon... We got lucky and always found a chair or two when we were ready for the pool, but it was annoying to see the same towels out for two weeks basically....and the same people hogging....

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roger001

roger001

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We heard him say April! It looks pretty good to me!!!

 

Having cruised through the canal twice and read Path Between the Seas twice, I love the PC. I wish the best for the completion of the new locks. However, I have my doubts as to the latest advertised completion date being accurate. Here's a couple of links about what's going on at the moment. I also read that if a lock is ever compromised to the extent that it breeches completely, it will drain Gatun lake...and after repair are made, it will take the lake three years to return to intended capacity and the PC to function again. Apparently some pretty shoddy concrete has been used in the new locks.

 

http://latincorrespondent.com/2015/12/leaking-locks-disrupt-panama-canal-expansion/

 

http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/panama-canal-opening-delayed

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