Quick Recap: NCL Jewel to the Mexican Riviera

[YVRteacher]

Did you provide feedback to NCL about the dreadful boarding experience?  

Edited April 11, 2023 by YVRteacher

[majmaj4]

14 hours ago, www3traveler said:

Almost every US Port city has the same issue: Miami, New York City, Los Angeles (San Pedro), Seattle (Smith Cove and sometimes the Bell Street Terminal).  If you read this forum very often, you will read horror story after horror story.

Hopefully when I board in a few weeks it won’t be as bad.
 

I didn’t mean to imply there weren’t issues.  Just that I believe the cruise line can impact the port.  Singapore I went through one week and it was terribly organized and then the next week with another cruise line and bigger ship and it was very organized and efficient. 

[robincorn]

On 4/10/2023 at 3:46 AM, natefish95 said:

This was the mob of people waiting to be let into the terminal building. We literally did nothing but inch forward for two hours in this area. 

 

I really don't think I'll ever sail out of San Diego again because this was such a bad experience. I know having two ships really screwed things up, but still, it was bad. 

Leaving from San Diego on the Jewel on Sunday and the Disney Wonder will be leaving that day again too.  Any suggestions for avoiding at  least some of the crowd and confusion?  I will have been up since 3:30am est(12:30 pst) traveling from Newark  so I will definately not be at my most patient. Got to love NCL air.

[cruiseny4life]

40 minutes ago, robincorn said:

Leaving from San Diego on the Jewel on Sunday and the Disney Wonder will be leaving that day again too.  Any suggestions for avoiding at  least some of the crowd and confusion?  I will have been up since 3:30am est(12:30 pst) traveling from Newark  so I will definately not be at my most patient. Got to love NCL air.

Best wishes without having a deviation! 

[jcollin]

Hello Natefish95,

Maybe you can answer my question as I can't seem to get an answer elsewhere.  If I use one of my FAS for dinner at the Sushi restaurant how many items can I get?  I would think its more than one otherwise why would I use it?  Thanks

[majmaj4]

51 minutes ago, jcollin said:

Hello Natefish95,

Maybe you can answer my question as I can't seem to get an answer elsewhere.  If I use one of my FAS for dinner at the Sushi restaurant how many items can I get?  I would think its more than one otherwise why would I use it?  Thanks

I have it written in some reviews  that you get 4 items at the sushi restaurant.

[jcollin]

hallelujah, thanks majmaj4.  I would think thats the case.  Any chance you can point me to that review?

[YVRteacher]

I can confirm it is 4 items.

[YVRteacher]

That said, the sushi bar on the Jewel is nothing like Food Republic.  I would not recommend eating there but would highly recommend Food Republic.

[jcollin]

YVRteacher thanks for the additional info.  Maybe we'll try it for lunch but sounds like we'll book Cagney's and Moderno for our 2 specialty dining.  We already get Le Bistro by using the Amex Platinum.

[YVRteacher]

On the Jewel the sushi place isn’t open for lunch.

[jcollin]

Well there goes that plan then, thanks.  It's more for my daughter so maybe I can her there when my wife and I go to Le Bistro.  If we wanted to take her to Le Bistro she'd need to order off the menu correct? 

[YVRteacher]

I am a vegetarian and I order items that are not on the menu a lot.  Le Bistro doesn’t have a vegetarian entree that I like so I always pre-order something different.  The best advice I can give you is to go to Le Bistro a couple days before you want to dine there and meet with the Maître D.  It can’t hurt to ask and the staff on the Jewel are outstanding.

 

Another option for you is to dine at Chin Chin.  This is a free restaurant but you could also use a dining credit to order some sushi from the sushi bar which does have an a la carte charge.  Some people like Chin Chin but I don’t recommend it.

 

If you dine at Moderno there are always 2-3 types of sushi rolls on the salad bar.

[YVRteacher]

Sorry to hijack this thread!

[FLAHAM]

In my opinion, the salad bar is the best feature of Moderno.

[natefish95]

2 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

I am a vegetarian and I order items that are not on the menu a lot.  Le Bistro doesn’t have a vegetarian entree that I like so I always pre-order something different.  The best advice I can give you is to go to Le Bistro a couple days before you want to dine there and meet with the Maître D.  It can’t hurt to ask and the staff on the Jewel are outstanding.

 

Another option for you is to dine at Chin Chin.  This is a free restaurant but you could also use a dining credit to order some sushi from the sushi bar which does have an a la carte charge.  Some people like Chin Chin but I don’t recommend it.

 

If you dine at Moderno there are always 2-3 types of sushi rolls on the salad bar.

I second that Chin Chin was not great. I looooove Asian food. Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc. It's all good in my book. I got kung pao chicken, calamari, and steamed potstickers. it was al so bland! The only things that added flavor were sriracha and soy sauce. 

 

(Don't mind you hijacking at all! I was traveling all day today and planned to work on the plane but the Delta wifi was $20 and I don't love y'all that much.)

[natefish95]

13 hours ago, robincorn said:

Leaving from San Diego on the Jewel on Sunday and the Disney Wonder will be leaving that day again too.  Any suggestions for avoiding at  least some of the crowd and confusion?  I will have been up since 3:30am est(12:30 pst) traveling from Newark  so I will definately not be at my most patient. Got to love NCL air.

What time do you land in San Diego? I would get there as early as possible. Hopefully they learned from our clusterf*** and will give better direction next time (and it may not be as full since spring breaks are mostly done (I hope for you). I took such a good nap when I got into my cabin and slept so well that night. 

 

The airport is SUPER close to the cruise port. I think my Lyft was like $8 and took less than 10 minutes. I had to get out and walk the last block or so because it was so backed up. 

[natefish95]

Hi everyone! Planned to finish this up today, but like I said earlier, Delta wifi was $20 and I don't even know y'all to be dropping that on wifi. 

 

The next sections I'm going to do are Ports, Entertainment, Food, and Debarkation. Are there any major categories I'm missing? 

 

The TL;DR is that ports and entertainment were amazing, debarkation was painless, and food was mostly good. 

[YVRteacher]

I will read anything you want to write.

[carohs]

We are on the sailing after yours and embarkation went a lot more smoothly with the exception of the escalator incident. It helped that the Wonder wasn't there, of couse; however, every DCL embarkation we've done has gone a lot better so I do believe some of the fault belongs to NCL. 

[natefish95]

Ports

So our four ports were Ensenada, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo. All four of these were new to me, so I was really excited to explore some new ports and do some new things! A couple months before the sailing, our ports were reversed, which actually gave us some odd port times. Ensenada was 7am-1pm, and we didn't dock in Mazatlan until noon. Oh whale

 

Ensenada

Port time of 7am to 1pm? I think not. I got a massage and stayed on board. The excursions didn't look exciting and neither did the port area. Don't think I missed much. NEXT!

 

Mazatlan

Again I didn't like the excursions and did very minimal research. I knew that as soon as you exit the port area, you can follow the "linea azul" (blue line) to get to the centro historico, so I decided to do that and just got for a wonder (didn't tell my mom I was just going to wonder around Sinaloa state though).

 

Side bar: I never felt unsafe in Mazatlan. It was the semana santa, or holy week, so the city was pretty quiet. There were police on many street corners and were very present. I obviously didn't see the whole city, but the walk to the centro historico was very safe.

 

Once I got the centro, I just kinda bumbled around walking down random streets. The centro itself looked really nice with some restaurants surrounding it. I think I did about 4-5 miles. Apparently, Mazatlan has a bunch of ice cream shops. Just outside the Plazuela Machado I stopped at Helarte Sano for some ice cream. The lady working there was so nice and let me try several flavors. I don't remember exactly how much it was, but 2 scoops in a bowl was $5 and I received change in pesos. the ice cream (it was really sorbet because I got fruity flavors) was delicious! Highly recommend!

 

Puerto Vallarta

So I actually booked an excursion through NCL (the latitudes discount and $50 credit is very nice, but the excursions were pretty reasonably priced in general.

 

I booked the "Horseback Ride Experience", which is obviously horseback riding plus a tequila tasting.

 

We met on the pier about 10:30am and had a group of about 20 of us. It was only about a 25 minute bus ride through town until we got to the Hacienda Dona Engracia. Our guide on the bus directed us to some tables and said the guide would come meet us in about 10 minutes. That must have been 10 minutes in Mexican time, because we waited almost 40 minutes. They did bring us water bottles and frozen margaritas. Eventually, our guide finally came and retrieved us. We walked over to the stables, read us the rules, explained how to stop, steer, etc. We were then divided into beginners and intermediates and assigned horses. 

 

Once we all mounted our noble steeds, we set off in a line and rode through a tiny town and then into a little valley type area and rode along a river and through it a couple times. My horse was pretty easy to control and I was able to trot a bit in some ports, which I enjoyed. 

 

We made it to a little river clearing and had the option to "swim with the horse" none of us had any idea what that meant and the guide didn't explain. So now I'll tell y'all what that meant. You mount a horse bareback and walk a circle in the river up to your chest in water. The excursion description said to wear a bathing suit under your clothes, and I wish I had listened. I actually did bring a bathing suit, but didn't change into it at first because I'm dumb and didn't actually plan to go "swimming". It was a game time decisions for me and now I can say I rode bareback...on a horse. 

 

We eventually rode back the same way we came and then had a buffet lunch of tacos, which were actually really good and we could go back and get more tacos if we'd like. They also served us drinks, including beer and margaritas. 

 

Once we finished that, we went to the little store area and did a tequila tasting. In total we had about 6 half shots of tequila: their blanco, reposado, anejo and flavored coffee, peach, and almond flavored tequilas, which were all actually really good. Bottles were about $45-75 I think. 

 

After that, I stopped at one of the stalls set up where they were selling hand painted tiles. They actually looked hand painted and not Made in China hand painted. The main guy at the stall was also super nice and the tile was only $15. I also bought the picture they took of us on the horse because it was only $5. Almost everyone bought it! They need to talk to the cruise lines about photo pricing...

 

Then it was a 25 minute ride back to the ship. All onboard was 3:30, but we didn't get there until 3:20 and it was a long line to get back on, but at least it was moving. They also had ice cold towels, which was a nice touch. It was in this moment I realized how dusty and dirty I was. I know I don't have foundation on, so why is this towel orange. Lord, that shower felt so good. 

 

Cabo

So in this port, I also did an NCL excursion called "Famous Arch, Sea Lion, and Whales" They should just call it a whale watch excursion because we stopped at the arch for 30 seconds and 90% of the boat ride was dedicated to whale watching.

 

We were split into 2 zodiacs and I actually really liked the setup. On the left there are room for 2 and on the right there are single seats, perfect for loners like me. There are small cubbys under the seat in front of you to put small bags. The excursion description was accurate because there is no bathroom and zero shade. We had an opportunity to pee beforehand though.

 

Our guide was HILARIOUS and super knowledgeable about whales. It's the tail end of whale season, but we still saw about 10-15 whales, including one that completely breached right as we got off shore. If the whale is on the right side, they tell the right side to stay seated and the left side can stand up to make sure everyone gets a view. Overall, really enjoyed this excursion and highly recommend it! 

 

Ports 4.5/5 stars (half point deduction for weird port times)

[natefish95]

Entertainment

So straight up, probably the best entertainment overall in my 20 cruises (except for seeing Blue Man Group on the NCL Epic years ago. Nothing will beat that show. 

 

First off, the singers and dancing on the main stage were incredible. The vocalists were actually really, really good and didn't sound like American Idol rejects. One of the lead male vocalists did a slowed down acoustic version of Stayin Alive, which was...no words...just awesome. I wish I had a video or something. The dancers were also very talented and could really move! It's easier for me tjudge singing than dancing, but the dancers were great as well!

 

The singers also did a Broadway Cabaret show in the Spinnaker Lounge one night. I love Broadway, but they were mostly doing older songs, which aren't my favorited. Talented singers, but just wasn't feeling the vibes. 

 

There were about 3 guest acts, but I only made it to one, Le Cirque Bijou which is basically just a bunch of acrobatics, which we've all seen on cruise ships before. BUT Y'ALL, they were better than all the others. They had great visual effects that were timed perfectly for their moves. There was a guy who dropped out of the ceiling on some bungie cords and did some flips and they had people hanging from the curtain things over the audience. (the chairs with blue drapes on them mean they will be spinning and twirling above those seats. If you want a great view, and to maybe get hit with a swinging curtain, seat right in front on, behind, or next to those draped off seats. I also met one of the performers in the steam one and he was so nice! 

 

Now my man Drake Allen was the solo guitarist for the week, and he is probably my single favorite solo guitarist I've seen on a cruise, but I'm definitely biased because I love country music and that's what he likes to play most (he does other non-country sets of course, but the country sets were just amazing). He also played us some of his original music, which is actually really good! I downloaded it after the cruise and have been listening to it lately. In between sets he would sit and chat with people and just an all-around nice guy. He's on the ship through June, so if you like country music, make sure to listen to his sets. (And don't forget to fill out Vacation Hero cards for musicians you like. It helps them out a lot too)

 

5/5 stars

[natefish95]

Food

So....I'm not a foodie, but I'm a bit chunky, so I know my food and I'm not that picky.

 

First of all, food was better than Carnival and Royal Caribbean (except the Jewel OTS buffet, which was weirdly on point the entire week). I just cruised on Celebrity where nearly every meal was flavorful and delicious. NCL is somewhere in the middle. Nothing was flat out bad, but very few things made me go "omg I want to eat this for the rest of my life until I pop"

 

The buffet was solid the entire week. Didn't have anything I didn't like and I thought the selection was really good. I was a big fan of the pre-made sandwiches, especially the tuna salad sandwiches. 

 

Chin chin, like I said above briefly, was sooooo bland. I needed sriracha and soy sauce to clog my arteries and give that food some flavor. A guy walked by and asked how the calamari was and I literally told him not to get in. The potstickers were also bland, but the sauce was good (i think it was literally just soy sauce and not some special sauce). I got the kung pao chicken, which is normally somewhat spicy, but I needed the waitress to bring me sriracha to give it flavor (sriracha is the only hot sauce they have for you hot sauce aficionados). Biggest let down of the week

 

MDR food was fine the entire week. I don't really remember what I had, but nothing stood out as being awful, so I guess that's good. What did stick out were the chocolate eclairs. I could about 20 of those things. Favorite dessert of the entire week. Ask for two orders. Thank me later.

 

(I only ate in Azura and service all three times was really bad. One time my server wasn't even there when the restaurant opened and another server had to cover their section until they arrived. Another time I waited almost 30 minutes between my two appetizers. There were also some food temp issues with most things being lukewarm.)

 

Now for the biggest highlight, was my specialty dinner in Cagneys. I was able to get a reservation on board the night before I wanted to dine, which was nice because it was mostly showing sold out except for reservations at like 8pm. I'm a millennial, but eat dinner with all the Baby Boomers at 5pm. 

 

I got the tuna tartare and wedge salad as starters, both were excellent. For my steak, the waiter recommended the strip and he was not wrong! Cooked perfectly and very flavorful. I got the peppercorn sauce on the side, which paired nicely. For the sides I got the truffled mashed potatoes and the mushrooms. You could really taste (and smell) the truffle in the mashed potatoes, which I liked. (they weren't as good as the wasabi mashed potatoes on Carnival though)

 

For dessert I had the 7 layer chocolate cake and it was sooooo rich and flavorful. If you're a chocolate lover, get this. I could only eat mayyyybe 3 or 4 of the 7 layers. I had to waddle out.

 

MDR: 3/5 stars

Buffet: 4/5 stars

Cagneys: 5/5 stars

Chin Chin 2/5 stars

[natefish95]

Wellllllllll, I think that about covers most things. If you have any questions, please ask and I will do my best to answer! 

 

Really looking forward to my Alaska cruise on the Jewel in September! My favorite bartender Evangeline will still be on board then too! 

[majmaj4]

Fantastic review thank you!  I will be on the Jewel in a few weeks.  

What was your favorite bar?  Any favorite drinks?