A Jewel of a Cruise (on NCL Jewel)

[uppitycats]

This was our first cruise on any NCL ship. I signed up for it with many reservations, after having read so many critical comments on this site and elsewhere, but there was a group of us going to participate in some specific workshops on "sea days", and I went for those, not necessarily for the cruise line or itinerary.

 

The cruise was the 10-day "Fall Colors" cruise, starting in New York City, stopping in Boston, Halifax, then Quebec, then back to Charlottestown, Sydney and back to New York.

 

Some general comments: We loved the cruise, particularly the free-style aspects of it. Not having to rush for dinner, not having to put up with tablemates or feeling obligated to make small talk, not having to deal with over-solicitous waiters, not having to worry about being "underdressed"...all made for a very pleasant experience. We never saw anyone that we'd consider totally inappropriately dressed. Perhaps because this was a fall cruise -- and cool -- people were covered up, but generally we thought that people were generally dressed in "Sunday best" if not "resort casual", at dinner. Lunch and breakfast were much more casual.

 

We found the employees all to be friendly, helpful, some going out of their way to be helpful, never pushy. Food is such a subjective issue that I'll not elaborate much more than to say about the only dish we didn't like was the pizza, either "room service" or at the specialty restaurant. Some other dishes were outstanding, many others mainly good, but only the pizza was a real disappointment. We didn't experience what others have reported as "pushy drink servers", or "aggressive selling of bingo cards", or "nickle-and-dimeing". Instead, we found people willing to sell if we were willing to buy, but if we smiled pleasantly, said "no thanks" and moved on, the interaction was ended.

 

As for all the frenzy here about restaurant reservations: Here is what it says clearly on every issue of the Freestyle Daily that we saw: "Reservations aren't required forany of our restaurants. But if you want to make a reservation, say for a special occasion, feel free. Reservations can be made for the day of or the next day before dinner time.. "

(and followed by instructions on how to do that).

 

Note the first line: RESERVATIONS AREN'T REQUIRED FOR ANY OF OUR RESTAURANTS. Now, we didn't cruise by all of the specialty restaurants every evening. But in our experience, there was only one time that we saw people being turned away, on the first Friday night of the cruise, from Le Bistro. We had seen a large party being seated a bit earlier- - perhaps that group had booked a large table or tables? Otherwise, the longest line we saw was about 5 couples, moving pretty quickly up to be seated. We ate at Le Bistro, Chin-Chin, Tango's, Mama's Italian, and Teppanyaki. At Le Bistro and Teppanyaki we did make reservations, only because we took advantage of the "2 for 1 cover charge" specials -- only during a designated time (7:30 -8:30 p.m) on a special night. Otherwise we simply walked up, asked for a table, and were seated quickly. Even on those speciality nights, if folks didn't make reservations, there was plenty of room for folks to simply walk in and be seated.

 

As for the two "regular" dining venues -- Tsar's Palace and Azura -- we did encounter lines, sometimes snaking down the hallway. But we discovered those primarily at Tsar's at 5:30, and when we meandered down the hall (and down one level) to Azura's, open at 6:00, there were no lines, no waiting (and remember, the menu is the same!), so we suggest that you try that, if you get caught in Tsar's lines. There seemed to be a rush at 5:30, then another around 7:30 -- but in between, people just walked up, were greeted, and seated within a few minutes. Only once were we given a pager and told that we should come back in 20 minutes. We returned in about 15 (before our pager went off) and were seated immediately.

 

The ship was very clean. Apparently on the cruise before us (and carried over on to our cruise!) people were sick with some gastro-intestinal virus, so everything was sanitized before we got on the ship, and the hand sanitizers were abundant and their use encouraged. We always saw people moving about the ship with cleaner and rags in their hands, wiping down elevator key pads, hand rails, cleaning bathrooms, etc., and wearing plastic gloves when serving food at the Garden Cafe.

 

Our room stewards were evident, and kept our room tidy. We got towel animals 7 nights of the cruise, missing at least one night because we'd forgotten to move the message board on the outside of our cabin from "Do Not Disturb" to "turn down our room", so they "did not disturb". Ironically that was the one time that we had left a message for them for a particular need, so when we then went looking for them, they were hugely embarrassed and apologized profusely for not tending to us.

 

I got off the ship only in Boston (where I visited with friends) and Charlottetown, so can't help with information about the ports, and neither my husband or I attended any of the shows, so can't speak about those (just not our thing!). And we were laughing today as we talked about our cruise -- we did not so much as step in to the casino! (which, by the way, I really appreciated that it was set up in such a way that we didn't have to step inside to get from one part of the ship to another, which seemed to be the case on the Carnival Spirit, our last cruise.)

 

So it seems that, from my experience, all the "bad" things I'd read about NCL weren't in evidence in our cruise, and we had a great time. My husband, who doesn't usually notice such things, even commented how much better he liked this cruise than our last (on a Carnival ship), and even liked it better than the Princess cruises we were on (although I did miss Princess' afternoon teas!)

 

All-in-all a great cruise, lots of happy memories, and I hope to book on NCL again, and soon.

[silkhair1]

I am happy you enjoyed the Jewel. I can't wait to go on her!!!!!!!

[caribou9]

Your cruise goes to show that the "bad things" are really just matters of opinions. You say, "Food is such a subjective issue that I'll not elaborate". How true!

 

On our Jewel cruise this year, we did find that without reservations, we would not have gotten into any specialty restaurant. We learned a lot, so we are ready for our cruise next year on the Jewel. We are already looking into sailing her again in 2010, so we affectionately call her our Jewel!

 

Thank you for recognizing that what one person finds unacceptable may not be a big deal to you.

[Cruise_More_Often]

A really enjoyable review! I'm so glad you had such a good first cruise on NCL. We loved the Jewel when we cruised on her in February, and we're booked for a Fall "colors" cruise next October on her as well. Thank you for the excellent review.

[mississauga]

Glad you enjoyed your Jewel of a cruise. :D We were on her for a 9 day cruise last November and loved it.....one of our top 3 cruises from all our Carnival, Princess and Norwegian cruises. We are now going on the 12 day one next week and looking forward to it!

 

Thank you for taking the time to give us your thoughts! Great job!

[retiredonthesea]

Thanks for taking the time to give a review--and a very fair one. It's enjoyable to read a review that has the pros and cons without getting so upset over the little things. Glad you had a good cruise. We along with "mississauga" will be enjoying the Jewel next week. Our first time on the Jewel.