Jewel Jan 15-22, somewhat disappointing

[skeeter195]

Here are my ratings for the restaurants on board the Jewel. I will rate them not on personal likes or dislikes, but on the service, the way the dishes were prepared, and appearance of both the restaurant and staff. I ate in every restaurant except the tapas restaurant.

 

Azura-2.25

Tsars-2.5

Mamas-1.75

Chin Chin-3

Teppanyaki-3.25

Sushi-2.5

Cagneys-1.5

Le Bistro-3.75

Buffet-1.5

Grills-2

Blue Lagoon-2

Room service-2

 

As a comparision from the Sun last year I would rate Le Bistro-4 and Il Addagio-4.25.

 

Also as a comparison I rate Applebees-1.75, Red Lobster-2, and Carl's in NYC 4.5.

[electricron]

Thanks for your rankings. And as I suspected all along, different restaurants aboard the same ship get different scores.

While I will admit I'm not qualified to give a professional review, I would bet that on any particlular night even 5 star rated restaurants goof up, and the rankings at multiple restaurant chains ashore vary by each individual restaurant.

[newmexicoNita]

Well things do change and I wasn't on the Jewel with you, but I really can't imagine the ships overall food experience would drop to that level in just a few months. As we know food is subjective and we all have different ideas. I do think, as I have mentioned in prior postings food, overall, on all lines has declined in the past few years. Here is how I would rate the Jewel restaurants as of 4 months ago:

 

Cagney's 4.00

Le Bistro 4.25 (DH liked Cagney's better though) Service very good in

with Le Bistro being a little better.

Mama's 3.50 great antepasto (spelling) I loved my Salmon: service fair

Tsars 3.25 we didn't have a bad meal, and service good, but nothing

said "you must come back"

Azura 2.00 I had to send my steak back because it was over cooked.

when it was returned it was completely raw. I don't know if I

upset the cook or what. DH said the Duck was awful but the last

night the roast was as good as I have ever eaten and the

service outstanding.

BlueLagoon: 4.00 remember this is not a gourmet eatery, but a place for a

quick bite to eat. Great burgers, buffalo wings and fish and

chips. The service was about like you would get at a TGIF. We

were pleasently surprised with everything there.

Buffet: 2.5 about what you would expect from any buffet. The best

part was the friendly guys making the omelettes at breakfast.

Worst part; not much variety and not the greatest salad bar in

the world. Of course the lox and herring every morning was a

plus for me.

Grill 2.5 very basic, good hamburgers, fair selection but pretty average.

Tangos 1.0 at best. The only saving grace: outstanding ribs; as good as

anyplace in America, but the tapas were a joke as was the salsa.

I was expecting tapas like we got on the sun, not a bunch of

frozen and reheated whatevers. Even the service was just fair at

best.

 

This should put a little different light on the subject. as I said earlier, food is subjective and we were on her in Sept. As for comparing a ship with Applebees I can't quite see it. BTW, I hate Applebees, so you can see how we all differ. I couldn't give them even a 1 much less 1.75.

[skeeter195]

Taste is subjective, but dining experiences are not as much. My ratings were on an overall dining experience, not on taste. Every restaurant I go to for the first time gets 5 stars whether on a ship or on land. From there points are taken off for different things. Appearence, attitiude, how clean and neat is the place, menu and wine choice, dining room set-up, efficient service, flow of the meal and taste are all brought into the equation.

 

In my opinion there is no way that a restaurant on a ship could ever be 5 stars. I have only had one true 5 star experience in my entire life and I have eaten at some outstanding restaurants over the years. Even a 4 star experience should take you away to a different place and make you forget that you are actually just having dinner. Il Adaggio and Le Bistro last year did that for me.

 

I am not bashing the Jewel, but rather simply pointing out that the food and service have slipped a bit from my 3 other NCL cruises in the past 3 years. The speciality restaurants on the Jewel were not even up to the main dining room standards of the cruises of say 5 years ago. Again this is disapointing. My expectations are now lower when dining onboard, but that is OK as I will still enjoy myself only expecting a 2-3 star meal.

 

I have not had a week of really good 3+ stars all week since a RCCL cruise in 1999.

 

A cruise is still fantastic with lots of things to do. The food was always a big draw for alot of people. The quantity is still there for sure, but the quality will probrably never be what it was.

[CruisinMatt]

I have only had one true 5 star experience in my entire life and I have eaten at some outstanding restaurants over the years.

 

 

Well what is your rubric for each of the stars?? :confused:

[SailAways]

Thanks for your rankings. And as I suspected all along, different restaurants aboard the same ship get different scores.

While I will admit I'm not qualified to give a professional review, I would bet that on any particular night even 5 star rated restaurants goof up, and the rankings at multiple restaurant chains ashore vary by each individual restaurant.

 

Sounds like some of the ship reviews by different folks. They can seem as though they were on two completely different ships entirely.

 

It is difficult to give much credence to star ratings.

Some of our most disappointing meals have been served to us in upscale restaurants with many small little servings, beautifully dressed with who knows what, but leaving us wondering "Is that all we get!".

 

Perhaps these meals, due to the fact that they were "Gourmet", and looked more like a poster than real food, would please some, but not my Southern DH.

 

We are meat and potato people, and as such, find ratings just don't hold much truth for us. Just recently there was a post complaining about liver and onions, and macaroni and cheese on a cruise. No star rating for these, I am sure, but those choices would have been fine with us, along with vegies, bread, and a nice salad.

 

As stated thousands of times on these boards, food is very subjective, and will never please every one.

[hilltopfamily]

Recently off the 3 night cruise on the Sun. No cold fruit soup choices in the 7 Seas or 4 Seasons dining rooms. Vegetable soup, bean soup, chicken broth, cold leek soup, these are examples of the soup choices (seemed to have 2 per night to choose from). Not very inspiring entree choices: I had pork chop one night, friend had ox tail, another had risotto, another had beef stroganoff. I usually find it hard to narrow selections down because of so many yummy sounding choices but this time I had trouble narrowing it down to something that I thought sounded a bit yummy. Le Bistro was our best dining experience, and at least in our experience, it appeared you had to go to a surcharge rest. for better dining choices. The filet there was incredible as was the french onion soup, creme brulee and fondue. Lunch in dining room was not much better....really dried out philly cheese steak one day. Other day we ate in the outdoor buffet where I had a hamburger smothered in mushrooms & onions----now that was good! First NCL cruise for me so don't know about the "old" menus, but earlier poster was right...salads, appetizers, and soups are all put together on the left side with about 8 items listed each evening.

[MrsBrown]

Skeeter,

 

Thanks for posting your experience on the Jewel.

 

I too had the amonia smell on the lobster during my cruise on the NCL Sun last month. I was hoping that was an isolated incident but I can see it's part of a much larger problem.

 

My husband had a few bad dining experiences on same cruise but overall, most of our dining experience was good.

 

Thanks again,

Lisa

[DragonflyCruiser]

Hi, NewMexicoNita...Only 4 months ago? Seems like a lot longer!!! I pretty much agree with your ratings on the food. However, we never had to send anything back. All I know is my clothes fit when I left home and somehow must have all shrunk while on board the Jewel. Hmmm! The food couldn't have been that bad. We plan to return in Sept and I'm hoping not to be disappointed. I'm anxiously reading about all the changes and hope NCL is just testing the waters.

[Stillfloatin']

Since this thread seems to be listing all the stuff that has been taken away on the Jewel, I have a question for recent cruisers: Does the Jewel still have the "fill the laundry bag" cleaning special? If so, how much and what day? :confused: Thanks everyone.

[weloverunning]

We had it on Thursday in November with laundry returned on Sat. morning. On our 1/15 Jewel cruise it was not offered. However, I am not sure as we didn't get bath mats, replenishment of shower cap or lotion, no glasses, sometimes no face cloths, no ACE for the casino, etc. So maybe our cabin steward just didn't want to be bothered with the laundry.:(

[Stillfloatin']

We had it on Thursday in November with laundry returned on Sat. morning. On our 1/15 Jewel cruise it was not offered. However, I am not sure as we didn't get bath mats, replenishment of shower cap or lotion, no glasses, sometimes no face cloths, no ACE for the casino, etc. So maybe our cabin steward just didn't want to be bothered with the laundry.:(

 

Hmm, hope that just means it was your room steward. Any other recent cruisers who can answer this?

[sjbdtz]

We had it on Thursday in November with laundry returned on Sat. morning. On our 1/15 Jewel cruise it was not offered. However, I am not sure as we didn't get bath mats, replenishment of shower cap or lotion, no glasses, sometimes no face cloths, no ACE for the casino, etc. So maybe our cabin steward just didn't want to be bothered with the laundry.:(

 

You only get an ACE for the casino the first time you sign up for a new Players Card. You don't get one just for cruising! :(

[LindaKE]

We, also, weren't crazy about the food, but I thought that was just us. Our waiter told us at the end of the cruise that we could order several items from each heading. We had not realized that that was an option.

 

I agree that the weather wasn't the best, but the rocking wasn't as bad as we have experienced previously. I don't know whether that is a point in the Jewel's favor or just a comment on the weather.

 

That said, we really enjoyed our Jewel cruise that same week. I think our food complaint was minor compared to the cruise experience over the whole week. We enjoyed it enough to rate our first NCL experience as one of our better cruises.

[weloverunning]

:) In November, we received our ACE in our daily on either the first or second day. We did not sign up in the Casino until day 3. I really can't believe they get the cabin number from the casino and just insert into certain cabin's Dailies. Anyway, I went to Casino services to inquire about it and she told me EVERYONE should get one in their daily on embarkation day.

[DLH]

Since this thread seems to be listing all the stuff that has been taken away on the Jewel' date=' I have a question for recent cruisers: Does the Jewel still have the "fill the laundry bag" cleaning special? If so, how much and what day? :confused: Thanks everyone.[/quote']

 

On the 1/15/06 sailing we had a flyer placed in our cabin Thursday evening along with the freestyle daily. I think it was for $20.00. I could be wrong on this.

[Stillfloatin']

Thanks DLH, that's good news. We're going to be staying an extra 4 nights down in the Florida Keys post-cruise so it'll be good to get our laundry done before we disembark. And I'd much rather pay $20 than do our own while on vacation.:D

[DragonflyCruiser]

On the 1/15/06 sailing we had a flyer placed in our cabin Thursday evening along with the freestyle daily. I think it was for $20.00. I could be wrong on this.

 

I'm so glad to hear that too. We used it on our last trip on the Jewel and plan to use it again. Less packing required when you can have things cleaned. Nice service! Hope it's still around in Sept!

[LindaKE]

Yes they do have the fill in the bag laundry cleaning. I think it was $20.

[newmexicoNita]

Since this thread seems to be listing all the stuff that has been taken away on the Jewel' date=' I have a question for recent cruisers: Does the Jewel still have the "fill the laundry bag" cleaning special? If so, how much and what day? :confused: Thanks everyone.[/quote']

they didn't even have it when we cruised her in Sept, they did have free self service laundry which I took advantage of. Dragonfly, it doesn't seem like 4 months ago. I want so badly to cruise her again with my DD or Pat, but don't know exactly when. Our annual Vegas trip in early in May for about 10 days. Our company has a convention in Oct on HAL. I may have to choose between that and the Sun. I do have a few months to decide I guess. NMnita

[DragonflyCruiser]

they didn't even have it when we cruised her in Sept, they did have free self service laundry which I took advantage of. Dragonfly, it doesn't seem like 4 months ago. I want so badly to cruise her again with my DD or Pat, but don't know exactly when. Our annual Vegas trip in early in May for about 10 days. Our company has a convention in Oct on HAL. I may have to choose between that and the Sun. I do have a few months to decide I guess. NMnita

 

Hope you aren't complaining! Why don't I get choices like that??? We had the laundry special...I wonder why you didn't? Seems it's offered on a lot of ships. It's a good thing!

[2boyzmom]

Oh the wonderful laundry bag.... I thought it was great until my clothes never came back on my last cruise (CCL)!

[coka]

Wowsa, wowsa, wowsa! I do not think in all my NCL sailings I have ever seen macaroni and cheese or beef stroganoff on the dining room dinner menu. I was not aware the menu changed (fleetwide?) as of January. My previous NCL sailing was October 2005.

 

For those who know me, I do not cruise for the food...I eat anything. Even so, I am very concerned for NCL if indeed the menu (and cold soups) has been reduced. I am concerned that the NCL cruisecritic fans are feeling this way. I have read enough comments over the years here to know that the cold soups and other food offerings were unique to NCL only. If there is any consolation, NCL reps do read these boards and they have acted in the past based upon what they read. Additionally, a respectful letter to corporate office can also bring about change/improvement...or not, depending on their overall corporate objective.

 

Regarding the cruiselines, I can appreciate a company that finds cost cutting methods to increase profit...until a line is crossed and the methods end up losing customers or creating unhappy employees, which leads to more problems and further cost cutting methods.

 

Is NCL crossing the line? I do not know. Do I care? Absolutely. Am I over-reacting to this thread? I am not sure...I am an NCL-supporter. So, what am I going to do? I have a few things in mind!

 

Coka

[newmexicoNita]

Hope you aren't complaining! Why don't I get choices like that??? We had the laundry special...I wonder why you didn't? Seems it's offered on a lot of ships. It's a good thing!

oh I am not complaining, but was a little surprised. I don't know why we didn't get it; we have in the past. I waited, that's why we ended up doing laundry the second time. Anything to take home some clean clothes after almost 3 weeks on the road or should I say, the air and sea. LOL BTW: the food I sent back was in one of the main dining rooms: it may have been the only time I ever sent food back on a cruise; the meat really was cremated and the second steak very close to raw. Being a meat eater, I actually ate most of it the second time. Other than that we thought most of our food was average, good or outstanding:! Service as well.

[German]

I'm not Skeeter, but this American thinks EasyCruise is a damn good idea whose time has come. We plan to try it very soon and enjoy it for its unique qualities: very low cost and extended port time. We also enjoy traditional ships for THEIR unique qualities: diverse onboard options and rooms larger than shoeboxes.

 

Every trip is what you make it; to the adaptable go the spoils!

 

Just remember what happened to the airlines, when was the last time a hot meal was served on a cross country flight (okay, I know some people didn't like it anyway, but in a sick way I always looked forward to it - mainly because flying was new to me). Does anyone know if the menus change on itineraries such as the Med, since some of the audience is difference, also I would assume some of the food brought aboard may be different due to location.