14 night Jewel to Hawaii and Tahiti

[Scubadoc]

3 questions- First - not sure if this cruise has been done in the past. I see it offered Fall 2020. Has anyone done this itinerary? What did u think? And how do u like the ship?  We have been on Epic, Spirit and Getaway but have been on Princess the last few years. 

 

2nd - we are hoping to do this cruise in Fall 2021. Does anyone know when Norwegian will announce Fall 2021 cruises?  I sure hope they do this itine sry again. We are only interested in an Aft suite and those seem to go fast. We want to be ready to book as soon as cruise is available. 

 

Finally - a balcony deep enough to have lounge chairs facing the water is very important to us. On videos of the Aft suites on Jewel some of the balconies look very narrow. I have read a few reviews where people say the balconies on Deck 10 are much deeper. They don't look deeper on the deck plans?  Can someone advise - or even better show pix? 😊

 

 

[ronheg]

We had an aft balcony.. it had a nice big balcony.  We were bothered by food being dropped from the outdoor garden cafe and by a cruise staff party late one night around 11 or 12.  If you call ncl directly to make a reservation, the agent has access to the square footage of each cabin and balcony.  She can tell you which balcony is the largest

[julig22]

47 minutes ago, ronheg said:

We were bothered by food being dropped from the outdoor garden cafe

uck - I have an aft-facing mini-studio/balcony on deck 11 for a December cruise on the Jewel and I wondered about having the cafe overhead when I booked.  Fortunately noise doesn't bother me but raining food might!

I also booked one of the Tahiti to Hawaii cruises in March 2020 (opposite itinerary) on the Jewel but only booked OV for now.

Of the ships you mentioned, I've been on both the Spirit and Jewel - much prefer the Jewel.

[mugtech]

Gotta agree Jewel a better ship than Spirit.  On our Singapore to Hong Kong cruise in March, 2019, we found the food to be better than any other NCL cruise, probably because we enjoyed the great variety of Asian food.  We have done Sun, Spirit, Gem, POA, Breakaway and Jewel.

[Turtles06]

3 hours ago, Scubadoc said:

Finally - a balcony deep enough to have lounge chairs facing the water is very important to us. On videos of the Aft suites on Jewel some of the balconies look very narrow. I have read a few reviews where people say the balconies on Deck 10 are much deeper. They don't look deeper on the deck plans?  Can someone advise - or even better show pix? 😊

 

Those reviews say that because it's true.  On the Jewel-class ships, the balconies of the aft-facing cabins on Deck 10 are larger (deeper) than they are on the other decks. 

[bonvoyagie]

We have stayed on the aft penthouse suites on the Pearl and soon on the Gem. We have learned from past cruisers that indeed deck 10 have the largest balconies. Soon those four  suites will be in their own category and probably more expensive than the others on decks 8 and 9. 

 

Our deck had enough room for two loungers a table and a chair.  While the photos show the view to the side and down from our deck 10 . The 010 image shows the mini suite decks on deck 11. 

[ronheg]

The worst food dropped was a soft ice cream cone!  It just missed me.

[Newleno]

Just came back from 29 nights ,hnl to syd, the jewel coming into these islands was spectacular, in bora bora, and moorea the ship sits in the bay and we tender ashore, 

Edited December 7, 2019 by Newleno

[bostonfred]

We are also curious about this itinerary....would welcome more feedback about that and less about balcony..that has been covered...pun intended..😉😉

[dexddd]

TBH if you have an interest in FP, go on Paul Gauguin.  They have two beautiful private islands and they know the area.

 

The initial price will shock but it includes air from LA, transfers, day room both ends of trips, all tips, drinks, excellent food, small ship with less than 400.

[FranknBeans]

Decks 9/10 have larger balconies than 8/11. We always book aft cabin and always with 1 deck between us and the Outdoor Cafe

[jvsnana]

1 hour ago, dexddd said:

TBH if you have an interest in FP, go on Paul Gauguin.  They have two beautiful private islands and they know the area.

 

The initial price will shock but it includes air from LA, transfers, day room both ends of trips, all tips, drinks, excellent food, small ship with less than 400.

Hey dexddd!  What type cabin did you have on Paul Gauguin?

[Newleno]

4 hours ago, dexddd said:

TBH if you have an interest in FP, go on Paul Gauguin.  They have two beautiful private islands and they know the area.

 

The initial price will shock but it includes air from LA, transfers, day room both ends of trips, all tips, drinks, excellent food, small ship with less than 400.

29 nights on the jewel, 2 nights sydney at the sofitel, air fares, self "excursions" to the islets/motu for 2 people total cost a liitle UNDER $6000, so if you are a budget traveler 4 hawaiian islands, 5 islands in french polynesia, 2 stops in Fiji, 1 stop samoa, 1 stop vanuatu, 2 stops new caledonia, downtown Sydney  including the beaches in manly and bondi is doable. We saw the paul Gauguin anchored in the bay right next to us in bora bora and met a couple taking the same $5 shuttle vehicle to the beach.  

[dexddd]

22 hours ago, jvsnana said:

Hey dexddd!  What type cabin did you have on Paul Gauguin?

We had booked insides for four of us, got upsell offer, declined, got free upsell to balconies.  Don't think they sail full especially on longer trips which we had 11 nighter.

 

Ship about size of original Pacific Princess but less than four hundred pax.  Very relaxed atmosphere, they provide excellent service yet they seem like on vacation themselves.  Private island has bars in Ocean you can get drinks at.  They have a kids program that lets parents go with many of the land and water trips with two naturalists.  So it was our two kids, one kid from LA, two guides, and sometimes the kids two dads.  We figured one or both were actors and looked them up once home.  The one guy was on one of the soaps and some movies.  Think he played a doctor, DW would recall.

 

We had booked another trip for last year and brother and wife were going to go but we canceled due to DW changed area with employer.

 

Have a great Xmas to you and yours.