NCL Jewel-Tokyo to Alaska live review (maybe...)

[graphicguy]

On 4/2/2024 at 4:33 AM, natefish95 said:

It's 4:26am here at DCA. I've dropped my bag off at Delta and I'm waiting for Chick Fil-A to open. I'm also about to begin my 24 hour journey over to Japan to tour around on land before boarding the NCL Jewel in Tokyo on April 10th, which will then take us to northern Japan and then over to Alaska, ending in Seward on the April 22nd. 

 

Full disclosure up front-I have no idea if I'm going to keep up this, but I figured I would at least start it and try to keep up. If I fall off posting, or the wifi connection isn't great, I'll fill y'all in afterwards! 

 

For starters, I will not be as great as a lot of the other trip reviewers on here. There might be typos. My grammar may not be the goodest, and my pictures may not be award-winning, but you're reading this so you must be at least a little interested in this trip. 

How did I miss this? What a cool review.

 

Thanks!

[bulldogmommy]

Those on board, did you guys have to turn around before Hubbard glacier due to ice or fog? 

[MohrPfun]

32 minutes ago, bulldogmommy said:

Those on board, did you guys have to turn around before Hubbard glacier due to ice or fog? 

There isn't a live report with anyone on board at the moment that I'm aware of (Nate left in Seward, Yvonne starts in YVR on the 29th), but according to cruise mapper it looks like they got within 7 or 8 miles today before doing a 180 and back out.  I'm curious if the shorex got cxld as that's what I have booked for my June sailing...

Edited April 24 by MohrPfun

[YVRteacher]

The NCL shore excursions to Hubbard don’t happen this early in the season. I don’t know when they begin. We are booked on the Hubbard shore excursion on our August cruise on the Jewel.

[MohrPfun]

34 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

The NCL shore excursions to Hubbard don’t happen this early in the season. I don’t know when they begin. We are booked on the Hubbard shore excursion on our August cruise on the Jewel.

Awesome, thx for the intel!  Booked for 6/4.

[bluesea777]

On 4/22/2024 at 11:40 PM, natefish95 said:

Dutch Harbor

Lol, nope! Maybe next time

 

Kodiak

Y'all, this was were NCL absolutely failed in my opinion. To set the stage, we were tendered in Kodiak from 8am-6pm. The last tender would leave Kodiak at 5pm. Since this was also our first U.S. port, we had to go through in-person U.S. Customs with the officers on the ship. The freestyle daily said this would occur from 8am-noon in a conference room by the Stardust. All passengers were grouped in Group A, B, C, or D based on your deck. I was on Deck 5, so I was in Group D. Funny enough, when we got information about Customs in Dutch Harbor, Deck 5 was in Group B. Wonder why they changed it...

 

They didn't call Group A until 9:00am. Group B wasn't called until 9:40. Group C was called maybe around 10:15? At that point, I decided to go grab some coffee from the Atrium Starbucks and get in line. Surely, they'll call Group D while I'm grabbing coffee and becoming alive for the day. I walked up to an absolute circus. The line started on Deck 6 outside Stardust, went up the stairs, and around the corner all the way to the photo gallery...essentially the entire length of Deck 7. I got in line around 10:30. Mind you, they still had not called Group D yet. I'll save you the many annoyed long exhales and eyerolls, but I finally finished around 12:15 ALMOST TWO HOUR LATER. They called Group D around 11:30. Someone I met got in line around then and didn't finish until 1:45. 

 

Oh but it gets more fun! Once we were done with that, we could walk to Azura and wait in line for a tender. You get tender tickets, but they were pointless if you get number 5 and don't finish customs until noon. Priority tender tickets because you're a Latitude? Not in this dining room! I waited about 20 minutes minutes for a teneder and finally got on land about 1:15 and you can bet your a$$ I was hangry as f###

 

That's a bit ranty, so I'll balance it with how NCL could have handled it better. 

• An announcement at the very start that the process would be delayed. I'm assuming since Group A wasn't called until 9am, and it was supposed to start at 8am, there was a delay getting CBP officers on the ship. 
• Maybe have a line for US passport holders and/or those with an ESTA. Half the ship was form the US, so if you have nothing to declare, it shouldn't long for them to look at your passport and mark you off a list. 
• Related, the officer marked your name off a list, so maybe they could have organized it alphabetically? The longest part was waiting for the officer to find me on the list
• They REALLY should have had a special line for those with limited mobility. There were several folks around me who were struggling to stand for that long and would take a seat whenever there was one. The line didn't move for a solid 20 minutes while I was on the stairs. Sitting on the stairs was an option for some, but that may be too low for some folks. Once we got into the room, they were pushing some people in wheelchairs in the exit. There should have been staff asking people if they were having trouble standing and pul them to the front. 
• There were a few staff members offering hot chocolate. Okay, it was chilly outside, but most people were angry and a little warm from the body heat. Folks around asked for water and were told three times in the span of 45 minutes it was coming. Never showed up. 
• For tenders, we were instructed to wait in Azura and would then be escorted down to deck 4 to board it. Some people just skipped the Azura waiting and slid into the line on Deck 4. This whole process was bizarre. 

 

I planned to go hiking around Kodiak (it was raining but not terribly), but there was no time for that. I grabbed lunch on land, and then grabbed a tender back (which was another 30 minute wait in the rain). 

We had similar C_F while on Viva TA (westbound) and stopped in St. Thomas. There were too few CBPs for the # of pax.

 

 

[natefish95]

Sorry this is so choppy! Busy first few days back at work.

 

Since we missed Dutch Harbor, we arrived in Seward a day early and got a full day to enjoy the city, which I was very happy about! They offered a few excursions for the day (including a $400 dog mushing excursion...). I originally wasn't going to do an excursion, but decide to book one for $139 to the Seward Sealife center plus a behind the scenes puffin enocunter.

 

Now, when I read it, I thought you would get to hold a puffin, feed it, etc. Yeah...it wasn't that at all. It was bascially a group of 50 people and we got an hour long presentation about puffins. They brought two out and put them on pedestals to show everyone. The "teacher" was super nice and very knowledgeable, but $139 for an hour long presentation and then time to explore the Sealife center is ridiculous. Admission to the Sealife center (which I would highly recommend and a great way to spend time indoors if it's raining) is $30 and you can walk there from the ship or take one of the free shuttles. I felt like the description definitely oversold what actually occured.

 

But the Sealife Center is great and definitely worth a visit!

 

After the Sealife Center, I walked to a restaurant called the Highlander and had a solid halibut sandwich. Y'all, please be nice to servers when they're understaffed and clearly trying their best. I've never worked in food service, but I haaaaate when people are rude to servers doing their best. Would recommend checking this place out!

 

Since I'm an ice cream fiend, I had to stop in Sweet Darlings for some cookie ice cream and would definitely recommend! It was like 40 degrees and I watched the clouds and rain roll in over Resurrection Bay. Peaceful.

 

Now getting back on the ship, lord Jesus may patience was TRIED. They had two lines for the metal detectors, which did not move fast. I swear, these people were fired from TSA for being too angry. They were screaming at people to remove all jackets and absolutely not drinks were allowed back onboard, even if you brought a ship water bottle off and didn't drink it. Made no sense, especially since they didn't seem to care at any of the prior ports. It was also the only time (other than Sendai) that made you show your ship card and a photo ID. Some people didn't have a second ID and were escorted back to their rooms to get ID. It was just a weirdly aggressive experience for no reason, especially since we had already cleared Customs in Kodiak. Someone mentioned to ship security they were taking water bottles and ship security had no idea why they were doing that BUT port security claimed it was a ship decision. 

 

To discuss the debark process. I believe they started calling for self-debark about 7am. I booked a transfer to Anchorage (for $75) with a late flight (those with flights 5pm or later) and was given the "orange" debark time of 9:00. I put my suitcase out the night before, which I have actually never done before. One paper said before 10pm and one paper said before midnight. I put it out a few minutes after midnight (was having too fun drinking with new friends) which wasn't a problem. 

 

We were called to debark almost exactly at 9am and immediately got out to waiting charter buses. They check your name off a list and then had about a 2.5 hour drive to the "Anchorage hospitality center", which is the Egan Convention Center. Now friends, if they say "this bus is going to the Anchorage Hospitality Center where you can pick up your luggage" do not complain you weren't dropped off at the airport. I hate when people get mad when they don't know how to read paperwork properly. Everything was very clear.

 

The Hospitality Center in Anchorage is where you can store all your luggage and then explore Anchorage for lunch, city tours, etc. They had a bunch of tables, chairs, and that's pretty much it. It was very nice to have a place to semi-securely store luggage and explore Anchorage. I grabbed lunch at Glacier Brewhouse (since Snow City Cafe was closed) and wandered around. At the center, you pick up a time card for a free shuttle to the Anchorage airport. They leave every hour on the hour from 3pm-10pm. I grabbed a 5pm time slot and we ended up departing around 4:45 and arrived at the airport by 5pm. 

 

There isn't much to see at ANC, but it's not a bad airport. Could barely sleep on the red eye to Chicago (who tf watches a movie an entire red eye with the screen on full brightness and the overhead lights on. If you're not going to sleep, don't disturb others ugh). The final flight to DC was uneventful (thank god) and now I'm home back to reality and starting to plan my next ones 🙂

 

Hope y'all enjoyed this not-so-live review! The itinerary was amazing and I loved being back onboard the NCL Jewel. The Jewel class is my favorite and I wish NCL would make more ships this size. The Jewel is going into drydock next year, but still is in great shape!

 

Happy sailing!

[Sugar Magnolia]

Thank you @natefish95 for sharing your journey on the Jewel as well as those fun days in Japan pre-cruise. I particularly appreciated the food pics. Hope to take this transpacific itinerary soon.

 

I agree that the Sealife Center is a great place to visit in Seward. I took the free shuttle from the port and the driver also recommended lunch at the Highlander. While at the Sealife Center, I spent about an hour just staring at the puffins. Am sure they were creeped out by me.

 

Any idea where you might want to explore next?

 

[cruiseny4life]

I'm so sorry Snow City Cafe was closed! It's one of the best cafe's I've ever been to! And I'm kind of glad to know that you know about it too! That's a lot of !'s. Anyway, thanks for sharing your experiences. I'll definitely check out Sealife Center next time I'm in Seward. Way back in (I forgot the year) I visited, but that was after we skied to Exit Glacier. We weren't feeling up to anything else other than having a hot meal. 

 

Rude security people make me laugh which they typically don't appreciate, but I still do it. More people need to respond to their antics with humor, rather than annoyance or fear (not saying you did either - more a general statement about how I've seen others respond to rude security). 

 

Thanks again! I really appreciate you coming back to close out the itinerary. 

[slakko]

@natefish95, thank you so much for this review.  My wife and I were also on this one, and agree with your assessment of both the Wi-Fi and the immigration process at Kodiak.  We were lucky enough to have picked up tender tickets and been told to show them even if our tender had gone before getting through immigration, so we managed to get to Kodiak in enough time for a late lunch (and the French Dip we just couldn't get on the Jewel...).

The Sea Life centre in Seward was probably our external visit highlight of any of the port stops.

[Von & John]

Thanks for a Fantastic Review!!

Love the SeaLife Center & the Recovery efforts they do.

We take most of our visitors to Seward & to the SeaLife Center specifically.

Traveling along w/ you on this cruise has been most enjoyable & helped to fill the void of not getting to go in real life 🙂 

Snow City & Glacier are both great choices - there a number of other downtown local restaurants in all price points I'd be happy to recommend in the future.

Cheers & Welcome Back - Von

[mattie00]

Great review, thank you!  We are booked on the Jewel next March.  I note you mentioned she was going into drydock next year.  Do you know when that is scheduled?