Jewel

[FloridaKitty15]

:)

The Norweign Jewel is a beautiful ship I do recommend this ship to everyone.

The garden villas are to die for....

The restaurant Mama's Italian Kitchen was one of my favorites it looks like your inside a small cottage.

 

 

Guys don't forget to have a apple martini at the martini & cocktails bar.

I was a balcony stateroom the sizes of these cabins are much bigger then other cruises line I have been to. Royal Carribean's staterooms are a shoe box.

 

The food at the jewel was yummy we had for desert something call the crepes made with alchol and small ball of vanilla ice cream.

 

The service was great everyone on board was very nice.

 

I will be going to the Jewel out of Barcelona in May.

 

 

[mafig]

Thank you for your review Floridakitty and welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

I love crepes. Do you recall which restaurant you had them?

[FloridaKitty15]

The crepes were at azura restaurants.

[FloridaKitty15]

The crepes where at the azura restaurant.

[vivian02]

Flordiakitty15,

Great choice and time to sail the Meditterean. Which date are you sailing the Jewel in May? My wife and I , Cheryl and Zane and Minimotorin and his wife will be sailing on the May 14th schedule. Can't wait. Tim

[elephant98]

I couldn't agree with you more about the Jewel. I was on the 1 day party cruise out a Miami and couldn't believe what an amazing ship NCL has built. I've done a little bit of sailing the last several years (Disney Wonder, Grand Princess, Coral Princess, Navigator of the Seas, Majesty of the Seas, Pride of Aloha), and the Jewel was BY FAR the best ship I have ever sailed on.

 

The ship itself was absolutely beautiful. The decor and color scheme in many of the public areas is very bold, and sometimes flashy (Fyzz lounge and Jewel Club casino) but does not come off as tacky. Rather, they are fun and inviting. In other venues (Tsar's palace, Stardust Theatre), the decor is quite elegant and detalied. There are also wonderful places to sit and listen to either a piano (Magnum's Champagne and Wine Bar) or live music (crystal atrium) during the evening.

 

The buffet on deck 12 was simply the best buffet setup I have seen (many individual stations, some with the same food and some with different selections, which prevent one long buffet line). The ship has the most dining selections I have seen on a cruise (including a steakhouse, Italian, French, Japanese -- sushi, and where they cook at your table! -- and Tex-Mex). Not to mention a very good selection of diabetic friendly and healthy food options. The casino is one of the largest I've seen, and so is the duty free shop.

 

We had an inside stateroom and were also quite impressed. The rooms are elegently decorated with a dark wood finish. There is a safe, a GOOD hairdryer, a refrigerator, and a decent television with audio/videa inputs on the front for hooking up your own dvd player/camera. Also, in addition to having the usual channels on the television -- ESPN, CNN, movie channels, etc. -- the Jewel has the Fox News Channel. That's a first for me. The bathroom was impressive with the largest shower (complete with a sliding door) I have seen on a cruise.

 

The stageshow was absolutely incredible. Again the best I have seen on a cruise. The Jean Ann Ryan Company should be comended for putting together a group of such high energy performers.

 

I was so impressed with the Jewel that I have just booked a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise on it for early next year. I look forward to having a different experience each night in one of its many restaraunts and public venues. This ship was clearly painstakingly designed with the needs and desires of today's cruiser in mind. Way to go NCL!

[McDebbie]

We were on the one night cruise 11/5 and it was packed! Our balcony cabin was considerably smaller than Holland but about equal to the other lines. I missed having the bathtub but don't take baths anyway. :D I found the bathroom areas all to be a little small. Closet and drawer space were nice and right by the door is a set of shelves with the safe at top. Coffee makers in the room! Sliding glass doors to the balcony, no worry about trying to keep them open.

 

We were way in the front and most of what we wanted to do was way in the back so we got our walking in. I agree with the buffet stations, good idea and if you go all the way in the back to the open area (The Great Outdoors) they have another section with a mini buffet selelction. We ate in the Garden Cafe and then again in the Great Outdoors. :o

 

Sail away - what a disaster! The Great Outdoors had sent almost all their servers to the deck party around the pool so there was only one server left. We never saw him come around until way after sail away. But by that time so many people had gotten disgusted and left. We also stopped by the Maltings and Whiskey bar later in the day and although the area wasn't packed the bar tender couldn't keep up. One of the servers did jump in there to help him. The bar concept is good but I think the hall through that area is too narrow, you have to walk though the bar central to get to Azura dining room which means you have to walk right through the smoking section. There is an elevator in the back if you want to skip that area though.

 

We ate at Tzars, very good and no wait at all. Friends ate at Cagneys and it was a mess, service so bad they didn't even get charged. I can't understand that as this is not the first cruise for the Jewel, you would have thought things would have been worked out. But since this was the one night only maybe everybody tried to get in there. I wonder if they will put up the daily menu selections on the TV or in the newsletter? It was very tiring running to each place to see what they were having that night.

 

Shops were very nice, one entire side is Columbian Emeralds and they had prices similar to when we were in St Thomas. Tried to buy my husband his Christmas present but he wants to save the money for Wilma reconstruction (ours unfortunately) They would not sell cigarettes or alcohol since the ship didn't go out far enough, that upset some people.

 

Casino was packed! Couldn't get a slot machine anywhere. Again, I guess it was because of the one night only thing.

 

All in all, very nice and I think anyone booking will have a great cruise.

[tom_uk]

Two whole nights in early August, Dover to Amsterdam & back.

 

The ship is great - it has a real 'quality' feel, good materials, very light and airy decor, lots of buzz. However, we weren't taken with the Freestyle Dining concept. On the first night we queued for about 25 minutes to get into Tsars - all the other restaurants that we wanted were full as well. The food was very good once we got it. Then on the second night we ate in Le Bistro. Again, the food was excellent, but I felt over-charged ofr what I got - almost $80 for a meal for two that wasn't really that much better than in the main restaurant, and an ordinary bottle of white wine.

 

So although I enjoy the ship, I don't think I'll be cruisng NCL again in a hurry.

 

Although those autumn cruises to Canada out of NY on Dawn look tempting...

 

Back to the August cruise: I especially enjoyed the run back across the English Channel in a gale on the Sunday night. There was spray kicking up as high as the Promenade deck on one side. It takes a lot to make a 90,000 ton ship move sideways but some of those waves managed it.

[Cosmopolitan]

Two whole nights in early August, Dover to Amsterdam & back.

 

The ship is great - it has a real 'quality' feel, good materials, very light and airy decor, lots of buzz. However, we weren't taken with the Freestyle Dining concept. On the first night we queued for about 25 minutes to get into Tsars - all the other restaurants that we wanted were full as well. The food was very good once we got it. Then on the second night we ate in Le Bistro. Again, the food was excellent, but I felt over-charged ofr what I got - almost $80 for a meal for two that wasn't really that much better than in the main restaurant, and an ordinary bottle of white wine.

 

So although I enjoy the ship, I don't think I'll be cruisng NCL again in a hurry.

 

Although those autumn cruises to Canada out of NY on Dawn look tempting...

 

Back to the August cruise: I especially enjoyed the run back across the English Channel in a gale on the Sunday night. There was spray kicking up as high as the Promenade deck on one side. It takes a lot to make a 90,000 ton ship move sideways but some of those waves managed it.

 

From all I've read on these boards...the 1/2 nighters seem to have all areas very crowded especially the restaurants and casino.

 

People trying to get it all in in 1 or 2 nights.

 

We were on an 11 night Jewel - Canada/New England and it was a beautiful cruise. The ports were just lovely. Much more than I expected.

 

We saw lines at Tsar's on one evening. I'm not sure why that was? Just a night that many picked Tsars? We did not see lines any other night.

 

We have also sailed the Dawn with no problems in the restaurants or casino.

 

I'm not sure that you can judge a cruise on a 1 or 2 nighter though after reading many comments on them....think I'll stick to longer cruises.

[Liv4cruzin]

I got 15 of my friends together; & we sailed the one nighter on Nov. 5th. I too was a little shocked that there were still kinks to work out. I also got the feeling that the crew were not going out of their way to impress us (although they should have been so that we would want to sail again). Our group sampled every restaurant onboard. Le Bistro got rave reviews; all the other alternative restaurants got lukewarm reviews. One friend who has a discriminating palate felt that the fare in Chin Chin wasn't worth the price. (Although, she thought the sushi was quite good, especially all you can eat for $5.) I had dinner in Azura; & thought the menu selection was very good. There was no wait at 7:45 pm; but service was very slow (as it was for both lunch & breakfast in the Tzar's Palace) Excellent prime rib, jalepeno corn chowder, scallop (as in seafood) lasagna & lobster/pumpkin bisque were all delicious. Although it wasn't on the menu, our waiter brought the ceasar salad I was craving. I heard comments on board that the decor was over the top (very Carnival-like). I am a purple person; & found the bright colors visually stimulating. It created a happy feeling; but you're either going to love it or hate it. I had not sailed NCL in a very long time, preferring the more deluxe cruise lines in the last 10 years or so. But I will definitely book a voyage on the Jewel, if only to satisfy my craving for purple!

[Liv4cruzin]

Just looking at the pictures I took. One of the coolest things I noticed was the hull art painted along the promenade (deck 7). There are sections of murals on the bulkheads that depict the public rooms just inside. As an example.... just outside the doorway that leads to the photo gallery, there is a mural of silhouettes of paparazzi w/ flashbulbs popping & people dressed in '40's style clothing. Outside of the Stardust Theatre, there is a mural of a marquee that leads out to a pathway of blue (moon) circles w/ stars. Very clever way of knowing what door to enter when you are approaching from the outside decks. There was attractive use of stained glass panels. Especially, the circus themed panels that separate the casino from the passageway. To put it simply, the decor is delightfully whimsical.