Back from Jewel 12/18-12/25

[decemberbride]

We had and incredible honeymoon on the Jewel. This was our first cruise, and it was fantastic! I highly recommend this ship. Service ranged from good to excellent and the entertainment was great. Well, my new hubby and I have to get started on married life and unpacking :)...

[shoreguy]

Welcome back and welcome to married life.. Glad you enjoyed the Jewel.

[House_Atreides]

So glad you had a great honeymoon and cruise!!! And congrats to both of you!

Mary:D

[7SeasLover]

I hope you warmed up the Jewel for us. Still so far away to embarkation! Congrats on the honeymoon!

[Us2inFL]

We were on the same cruise, and had a wonderful time. This is our 5th NCL cruise, first on the Jewel. Big, lovely ship with a super theater, no major problem with posts to obstruct the view. Also it is true theater seating with no tables, although for drinkers this could be a problem since you have to hold your cocktail.

 

As spacious as the ship is, it does show its capacity when you're at sea.

 

We joined the Bonus Rewards (future cruise) program onboard, and received a $100 OBC.

 

The dining rooms were fine and the specialty restaurants were also quite good, with Cagney's taking the lead. Excellent appetizers, steaks, and service. Le Bistro was much nicer than the one we had eaten at on the Spirit, and comparable to Le Bistro on the Sky.

 

There were many more kids than we had expected, thinking that most would still be in school. The NCL day program for them seemed well organized.

 

With the exception of more than occasional rudeness from some of the travelers, we had a great time.

 

We are booked on the America for Hawaii and plan on looking into a European cruise when the Jewel moves over to the Mediterranean next year.

[jnv]

could you tell me what the bonus rewards program is? This is our first cruise with NCL. Thanks.

[Patrick IL.]

could you tell me what the bonus rewards program is? This is our first cruise with NCL. Thanks.

 

Yes, I am very curious about this also?

[shoreguy]

could you tell me what the bonus rewards program is? This is our first cruise with NCL. Thanks.

 

Here is a link to a thread on the Bonus Reward Program

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=268324

[zyezye]

We were on the Jewel in November and never heard or read about the Bonus program! We even met with their Travel Agent to book an Alaskan cruise and she never mentioned it.

Any idea why they don't market better?

Bobbi

[shoreguy]

We were on the Jewel in November and never heard or read about the Bonus program! We even met with their Travel Agent to book an Alaskan cruise and she never mentioned it.

Any idea why they don't market better?

Bobbi

 

Better discussed on the Reward thread - the simple answer this a brand new program first rolled out on the Dawn.

[electricron]

Congrats on the wedding. I hope you had a great cruise.

 

But I do feel sorry for both of you, suffering from Post Cruise Depression and Post Honeymoon Depression at once. :D

[decemberbride]

Congrats on the wedding. I hope you had a great cruise.

 

But I do feel sorry for both of you, suffering from Post Cruise Depression and Post Honeymoon Depression at once. :D

 

I know :). Tell me about it! We really miss being on the cruise, but we have to get back to a normal life...if we can even figure out what normal is :)!

[busy1]

Hey Decemberbride-

 

Missed meeting you on the ship!! Gald you had a great time-- We did also!- Met up with Loftguys & Tim from the roll call- but that was all-- sorry we didn't meet!

 

Linda

[ajcruise]

I'm a TA and just had clients return from this sailing on the Jewel. They called to tell me about their cruise and complained about the dining onboard. Their main complaint was that they could never get a reservation in any of the dining rooms or restaurants. I was told that they were only able to eat in the Tsar's 1 night, and the rest of the cruise they ended up in the buffet. They said that every time they tried getting a reservation or tried going to one of the other dining venues they were not able to get in. They stated that Freestyle dining wasn't "Freestyle" at all. I was very surprised to hear this since I did not encounter any problems at all on our cruise on the Star last spring. It does not sound like the previous posters encountered this?

 

I'm just curious if anyone on this sailing experienced what my clients did? Any comments from others on this sailing...?

 

Thanks!

[Cosmopolitan]

I'm a TA and just had clients return from this sailing on the Jewel. They called to tell me about their cruise and complained about the dining onboard. Their main complaint was that they could never get a reservation in any of the dining rooms or restaurants. I was told that they were only able to eat in the Tsar's 1 night, and the rest of the cruise they ended up in the buffet. They said that every time they tried getting a reservation or tried going to one of the other dining venues they were not able to get in. They stated that Freestyle dining wasn't "Freestyle" at all. I was very surprised to hear this since I did not encounter any problems at all on our cruise on the Star last spring. It does not sound like the previous posters encountered this?

 

I'm just curious if anyone on this sailing experienced what my clients did? Any comments from others on this sailing...?

Thanks!

 

I did not sail on this cruise..but I was on the Jewel in Sept.,/Oct.

 

We previously sailed the Dawn Sept., 04 and May 05 with NO problems dining freestyle...we do not do buffets.

 

The Jewel did have problems with the dining rooms.We could not determine what the problem was.

We sail in a suite so have no problem with reservations but we did notice that on the Jewel, as opposed to the Dawn, there were MANY back-ups at the dining venues.

Almost every evening. Passengers were standing all over waiting for tables.

 

The ONLY difference that I could see was that when we were on the Dawn, passengers could NOT book for the whole week on embarkation... just one day at a time...while on the Jewel they could book all reservations on embarkation.

 

Did this cause the problem? I don't know but it was the only difference that we remembered from the Dawn.

 

Sorry, I know TA's would like to know a solution for their clients...this is the best explanation that I can offer.

 

Did the elimination of "Impressions" on the Jewel cause the problem?:(

Le Bistro is larger on the Jewel...a pay restaurant!

Impressions is gone...a no pay restauant!

[Us2inFL]

We didnt wait more than 5 minutes at any restaurant on board. We called ahead for reservations in the specialty restaurants, and did one or two walk ups to Mama's and the sushi bar. The ship was at full capacity and the main dining rooms still had minimal waiting times.

[ajcruise]

Cosmopolitan and Us2inFl - Thanks for the replies.

 

Regarding making reservations for the entire cruise upon embarkation...that was one of the things my clients complained about. While it may be nice for some who know exactly what night they want to dine in Le Bistro, etc. It's not great for others who want to maybe wait a day or 2 to decide...or even decide as they go (Freestyle) and then not be able to get in or get a reservation because the restaurants are all booked up.

 

Having said that, it sounds like Us2inFl had a totally different experience on the same cruise. When you went to the dining rooms with minimal wait or to Mama's what time were you going? Just curious if it was maybe a later time or early in the evening? Perhaps my clients were going at prime time?

[Debbie in Orlando]

We were on the 12/4 Jewel cruise and had NO problems eating. We walked up to Mama'a the first night right at 5:30 and got in. Made reservations for Cagney's on Wed late afternoon for Thursday dinner at 6:30, arrived at 6:15 and were seated right away and received the half price charge. The other nights we ate in Tsars between 5 30 and 6 30 and never had to wait. In fact the only night I saw people waiting to get in Tsars was formal night. One thing we did notice was that most of the places needing reservations had seating for large parties available on the boards all the time while 2 and 4 person parties had to wait. I would think they might go ahead and seat a few small parties at the larger tables to get more people in. The whole time we were in Mama's the large tables sat empty while people told us later they couldn't get in that evening since they were couples. Also while we were in Cagney's there were several tables empty. I guess maybe people didn't want to eat earlier. But I must say, all the early shows were packed, so somebody was eating early. LOL So over all, for us, the eating experience on the Jewel was nigh on perfect.

[beebes]

We too were on the Jewel last week. I agree with your clients. We stayed in an AE suite and still had trouble making reservations to Mama's. We were a party of 7 and I don't know if that was the problem. We never were able to get into Mamas. I tried the second day (Monday) for Wednesday night and couldn't get in until 9 p.m and the I tried on Tuesday to book either Thursday, Friday or Saturday and couldn't get in before 9 p.m. This is with the supposedly concerige, which I would have though would have held some tables in each restaurants for the suites, but was told that they don't. I also asked for window tables at Tsars and Azura and were told that they couldn't do it that the windows were only set up for tables of 4.

 

We were on the NCL Sun to Alaska in a suite in 2002 and never had any problems making reservations and sitting by the windows. That guy who was the conceriege was great on the Sun cruise and we tipped him accordingly. We didn't leave any tip for this concierge as we didn't feel she did us any good at all. I do believe the fact that anyone could book restaurants for all week up front, did put a crimp in the reservation system.

 

We booked a suite on this cruise based on the fabulous extras we had on the Sun and it truly wasn't worth it on the Jewel. The suite was smaller, the conceriege wasn't worth it. I could go on and on.

 

One thing that really did bother us was the night of Cirque Bojou, the late show was really crowded. We sat in the balcony for all of the shows and when we met there 15 minutes before the show it was full. Of course there was the seating for the Garden Villas and I have no problem with that. The problem I did have was that my husband asked if we could sit up there as it wasn't full and he said that was a call for the concierge to make. Then he promptly lead about a dozen people in there that weren't from the Garden Suites. We thought that was down right terrible.

[mafig]

We were on the November 13 cruise and had no problems with dining room reservations. We did book all but the last evening immediately upon embarking from our cabin via phone.

 

When we were making reservations for our last evening's dinner, there was another couple making reservations for LeBistro without any difficulty (Friday for Saturday).

 

We were in an AF but didn't attempt to use the consierge. We found out through this board that she would be "too busy" for the AFs, and, apparently, she is too busy for other suites, as well.:(

[mbarnaby99]

We were on the 12/11 sailing and had no problems making reservations. We made our reservations each morning for that night and always got what we wanted.

[busy1]

We just got back from the Jewel and had no problem with dining reservations. We booked reservations for the entire week the 1st day and then made changes during the week to suit our tastes. This way we had a "safety net" if we couldn't get reservations to restaurants we wanted to change to during the week. Mama's was the exception-- it was always booked and it has very limited seating. Throughout the ship there are great boards showing you the waiting time at each restaurant and how many tables available at any given time. Of course- if you want to eat at prime time 7:30-9 it will be difficult but many people change times and reservations throughout the day so checking back at the reservation desk in the lobby was the key to getting in. We NEVER had to wait to sit at any restaurant and all our reservations were between 6:30 & 7:30.

[decemberbride]

Hey Decemberbride-

 

Missed meeting you on the ship!! Gald you had a great time-- We did also!- Met up with Loftguys & Tim from the roll call- but that was all-- sorry we didn't meet!

 

Linda

 

Yeah...that would've been great! Maybe another cruise :).

[decemberbride]

I'm a TA and just had clients return from this sailing on the Jewel. They called to tell me about their cruise and complained about the dining onboard. Their main complaint was that they could never get a reservation in any of the dining rooms or restaurants. I was told that they were only able to eat in the Tsar's 1 night, and the rest of the cruise they ended up in the buffet. They said that every time they tried getting a reservation or tried going to one of the other dining venues they were not able to get in. They stated that Freestyle dining wasn't "Freestyle" at all. I was very surprised to hear this since I did not encounter any problems at all on our cruise on the Star last spring. It does not sound like the previous posters encountered this?

 

I'm just curious if anyone on this sailing experienced what my clients did? Any comments from others on this sailing...?

 

Thanks!

 

We had absolutely no problems eating when we wanted. Of course, we made a few reservations the first day we got onboard, but I was also able to cancel one reservation and make another one the same day for a different time or restaurant! We love freestyle!

[ajcruise]

Thanks for all the replies regarding the dining. It sounds like there is a little more work involved to get in your restaurant of choice than on our previous cruise on the Star. We never made a reservation except for Le Bistro (we were a party of 7.) We were always able to walk up to the restaurant that evening and either get right in or wait a short while for a table. Maybe we were lucky? Is this unusual with Freestyle dining? With the Jewel's new system of allowing reservations for the entire cruise, I can see how it might make it more difficult to do that (walk up.)

However, it sounds like it's not nearly as bad of a situation as my clients described for me. My guess is that they always went at prime time and never tried more than 1 restaurant? They did state that they should have made reservations when they got on board, but being new to cruising and the Jewel they just weren't sure what restaurants to make reservations in. What I can't understand is that they state when trying to make reservations 1,2 or 3 days out they couldn't even get in to a dining room or speciality restaurant. Where others in this thread have stated that they could easily change their reservations the same day.

Hmmmm....something just doesn't make sense there.:confused:

 

Anyway, just curious, for those that have cruised with NCL in the past and now on the Jewel...do you prefer being able to make reservations for the entire cruise upon embarkation, or do you think this creates more problems?