Jewel to Alaska Review July 29 - Good Trip!

[KarimaJ]

For background, we have cruised Disney, Royal Caribbean andmost recently the NCL Getaway all Caribbean destinations so we were excited totry Alaska. We are generally easy to please people, we go with the flow.Myexpectations were not high for the Jewel based on some of the reviews, but wehad a great deal and went with it. The fact that we had fabulous weatherhelped, not a drop of rain on our whole Alaska trip! Everyone said that washighly unusual.

Pre-Cruise: We flew in the night before, stayed atThe Roosevelt Hotel and decided to explore Seattle the morning of the cruise.We liked Seattle a lot, we mostly spent our time in the Pike’s Market area. Wehad a fantastic salmon/avocado/egg/cheese breakfast sandwich at the Rub WithLove Shack. We then walked back to the hotel and took Uber to the cruise portaround 12:30pm.

Embarkation: I didn’t print enough luggage tags so wepaid a porter to get us a couple tags and take our luggage away, very muchworth the $5-10 to avoid the lines. Once inside there was no wait at the CasinoAt Sea line or Lattitudes line. We checked in and got right on board.

Room: The ship is older but it was surprisingly cleanand kept up well, and I loved the “Jewel tone” colors. The only exception wouldbe the carpet in our stateroom, it was pretty worn. I know the ship isscheduled for a dry dock, so hopefully this will be part of it. We had aninside room for the first time, besides not knowing if it’s day or night itwasn’t bad. We would do it again. There was a lot of storage and the bathroomshower was a decent size. The legroom by the toilet was a bit tight and we aren’tbig people. Our room steward Paola was great, she came twice a day always witha smile and kept us stocked with towels. Not having enough towels is our onepet peeve, but we had plenty of towels the whole trip so we were happy. We areeasy to please. She also cleaned the bathroom with bleach, loved that as well. Likeother NCL ships, the TV programming isn’t the best, not many choices. Howeverthey do have 2 movie channels for free which play some new movies (Beauty andThe Beast, Kong: Skull Island). We brought along some of those battery tealights from the Dollar Store, this was a good idea for a nightlight. We alsobring those magnetic hooks for hanging things.

Pool Deck: This was a huge improvement over The Getawayship. There were 2 good sized pools plus a smaller kids area. They never seemedoverly crowded and the pool deck was fun without the obnoxious games or drunkpeople. There is only 1 waterslide which was for small kids though, nothing forolder kids. This was fine with me since I wasn’t traveling with kids, but if Iwas I’m not sure I would take this ship. There didn’t seem to be too much forthem to do.

Food and Drink: I was also surprised here. We likedthe food at the buffet especially the Indian food and salmon choices. My hubbyis Indian so we were able to get our fix of Indian food during the entirecruise. They also had a nice Mexican night which we enjoyed. We ate at Tzardining room mostly since we didn’t like Azure, ceilings were very low and itwas darkish, we prefer open and airy. Service was always good and attentive,they are quick to take your plate no matter where we were. Food always came outwarm, we didn’t have cold food like others have posted. I think I ate differenttypes of fish every night, it was delicious. A few times they brought out thebig charcoal grills onto the pool deck for BBQs, we saw salmon, chicken, beefand pork. We didn’t see this on the Getaway. The layout of the buffet wasbetter as well, I didn’t like the big horseshoe shape of the buffet on Getaway.At the back of the buffet is a nice outdoor area to sit and eat with abeautiful view. We thought the desserts were also better on this ship(especially on the buffet), not sure why though.

This time we took the drink package and certainly used itand got our money worth. I found that drinks such as martinis or rocks drinkswere much stronger then the fruity drinks. I never got the drink of the day,often they came out of a pre made mix.

Employees: Here is really where the Jewel shined.Everyone had a smile, I think the tone was set by Captain Pelle. He was verypersonable, we often saw him out and about talking with people, takingpictures, joking, and even greeted us getting back on the ship once. I haven’treally seen that on other ships but I have limited experience. The cruisedirector Richard was great, always out and about as well, very energetic andfun. Always someone to take your drink orders.

Shows: We caught the Cirque show, one other “dance”type show, and the Tina Turner show. We liked them all. You would think Tinawas with you! I don’t usually do the comedy or magic shows so we skipped those.

Activities: From what I remember we watched icecarving, fruit carving, officer and captain Q&A, entertainment crewQ&A. Those are the types of things I like, we skipped bingo, deal or nodeal, game shows. We had Thermal Spa passes and this was divine! The spa isold, still has the 80s seafoam green motif going on and is a little worn. Ihope this will be revamped during dry dock. But anyway, there is a steam room(scent didn’t work in womens), sauna, cold pool, hot tubs, relaxation areas.Those heated loungers made me fall asleep. On the first day we were the onlyones in there. I heard they didn’t sell a lot of passes so it was nevercrowded. We often found ourselves heading to the Spinnaker lounge to sit onthese comfy chairs and watch the ocean with its panoramic view. It had a greatvantage point with glass all around. We saw some whales, a seal, and (I think)pod of dolphins swimming by.

There were a few nights we were so tired from being out allday that we went to bed pretty early so we wouldn’t be dead getting up earlythe next morning. We are not generally early morning people.

Ports:

Ketchikan: We took an early bus up to Totem Bight.This was much smaller and not much of a “hike” as I had hoped but it waspretty. We then had to decide between Rainbird trail and Creek St/downtown. Weopted for Creek St/downtown. We only saw maybe 10 salmon in the creek, but didsee eagles. We enjoyed all the shops and general atmosphere of the place.Things were cheaper here, the Glacier soap was less here than in Juneau.

Juneau: We bugged out early again ~7:30 and took ataxi straight to Mendenhall glacier. It was nice to get there a little beforethe tours. Saw a bear with 2 cubs on the roadside. We saw many more red salmonin the stream there and more eagles. Hiked down to Nugget Falls which wasfabulous! We ended up taking the blue bus back and walked around town for abit. We then boarded the small boat tour for Endicott Arm and Daws glacier. Wegot pretty close to the glacier and saw some calving. This was a great day forus but we were pooped after all that.

Skagway: Wetook the Dyea Dave tour to the Emerald Lake. This was very enjoyable, stoppedat waterfalls, a small desert, and again saw a bear with 3 cubs on the road. Wehad to drop people at the train on the way back and it was late, so this ate upsome of our shopping time in town. The guide was great and knowledgable aboutthe area.

Victoria: We got off the ship and took a Pedi-Cabtour for 2.5 hours. It was really good, we saw lots of beautiful gardens atBeacon Hill Park, fed a peacock, and got lots of history from the guide. We hadplenty of time to explore downtown and Fishermans Wharf. We wanted to doButchart Gardens but then we wouldn’t have much time for anything else. We werehappy with the gardens at Beacon Hill though. We took a nice walk back to theship.

Disembarkment: We had an early flight (11:00am) so welined up for early walk off at 7:15. The line started moving at 7:53 and off wewent. We heard some yelling up front, I think people were trying to squeeze inthe line from the atrium area. Security came and took care of that, some peoplewere in line a long time and were not having any of that nonsense. We took Lyftto the airport which was very quick. Checking into Jetblue was easy, no line.Security lines were a bit long, it took about 25 minutes to get through but westill had plenty of time to spare before our uneventful flight back home.

Let me know if you have any questions!

[mayinindy]

Thanks for the review! Where did you lean that the ship is scheduled for dry dock? I have seen some people on here speculate based on the sailings, but just wondering if you had actually seen something official or heard from someone official. I am on it in Aug. of next year and would love for it to go through dry dock before then.

[KarimaJ]

Thanks for the review! Where did you lean that the ship is scheduled for dry dock? I have seen some people on here speculate based on the sailings, but just wondering if you had actually seen something official or heard from someone official. I am on it in Aug. of next year and would love for it to go through dry dock before then.

 

 

 

Hmmm I thought I heard the captain mention it on board but I may have misheard. He was also talking about how nice the Dawn was now, maybe I got them mixed up.

 

 

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[phissy]

Thanks for the review! Where did you lean that the ship is scheduled for dry dock? I have seen some people on here speculate based on the sailings, but just wondering if you had actually seen something official or heard from someone official. I am on it in Aug. of next year and would love for it to go through dry dock before then.

Speculation is that dry dock will happen sometime after Austrailia/Asia cruises finish next Spring.

[goldie888]

Thanks for the review on the Jewel. This is one ship on the short list for Alaska next year. The only negative point is we are from Victoria and feel a bit cheated with it being one of the port.

 

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[easyboy]

Thanks for the detailed review.

[KarimaJ]

Thanks for the review on the Jewel. This is one ship on the short list for Alaska next year. The only negative point is we are from Victoria and feel a bit cheated with it being one of the port.

 

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We did like Victoria though! Nice city you have.

 

 

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[phissy]

We did like Victoria though! Nice city you have.

 

 

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One question....what was the fare for the pedi cab into town in Victoria?

[bluesea777]

Thanks for the review on the Jewel. This is one ship on the short list for Alaska next year. The only negative point is we are from Victoria and feel a bit cheated with it being one of the port.

 

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Jewel will be doing 7 day one-way cruises in 2018 - northbound Vancouver-Seward and southbound Seward-Vancouver - and neither will stop in Victoria. You can do 14 day back to back N & S but it would mean visiting the 3 ports twice.

 

We have booked the 9-16 July NB one, and are planning 4 nights Van, overnight Seward, 3 nights Anchorage and 3 nights Seattle :D

[KarimaJ]

One question....what was the fare for the pedi cab into town in Victoria?

 

 

 

We did a 2.5 hour tour with the pedicab, it was $145USD for 2 people. We got it right at the port and had them drop us off downtown. We walked back to the ship so I'm not sure how much the shuttle was.

 

 

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[BunnieBear]

Thanks for the review on the Jewel. This is one ship on the short list for Alaska next year. The only negative point is we are from Victoria and feel a bit cheated with it being one of the port.

 

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Not necessarily. We're doing the last of the season and won't be calling into Victoria. We have Seattle, Ketchikan, Cruise Sawyer Glacier, Juneau, Skagway, Cruise Glacier Bay, Icy Strait Point (Hoonah), Sitka & Prince Rupert, ending up in Vancouver. Can't wait!