Carnival/Royal family cruises NCL Jewel - Picture review

Thank you for your fabulous review! It brought back many of the reasons we love to cruise. We've been on the Dawn once, the Jewel twice and we are going on the Breakaway in October.

If I remember correctly the area by the bars is called Bar City. It has the staircase coming down from the Asian restaurants and is near Le Bistro. We spent lots of time in Bar City. ;)

I have to say my absolute favorite picture that you posted is the one of your smiling pup. :D

Thank you for your fabulous review! It brought back many of the reasons we love to cruise. We've been on the Dawn once, the Jewel twice and we are going on the Breakaway in October.

If I remember correctly the area by the bars is called Bar City. It has the staircase coming down from the Asian restaurants and is near Le Bistro. We spent lots of time in Bar City. ;)

I have to say my absolute favorite picture that you posted is the one of your smiling pup. :D

Thanks. And the pup thanks you too!

Here are some sunrise shots taken from the Promenade deck as we were pulling into Cozumel. Since I didn't have the luxury of a private balcony, I spent a significant amount time on the promenade deck. I love the fact that I could walk all the way around the ship on the promenade without having to go inside. I would typically take my morning walk here each day instead of heading up to the jogging track. When I was done, I would pull up a chair up and enjoy my coffee. Aahhhhhh... pure Heaven.

More Photos of "my" Promenade deck:

I really enjoyed my peaceful morning walks here with the vast ocean capturing four of my five senses (no, I did not taste the ocean). Watch out, cause the breeze can about knock you over at the front.

Edited: Oops, in looking closer at this picture, I think this shuffleboard is located on an upper deck. They also had shuffle board on the promenade deck and the pucks and equipment were in much better shape.

Random Photos of ship:

As I was wrapping this review up, I noticed that I do not have too many ship photos, so I went back through some of my photos. I wish I had included these previously in the appropriate sections of my review, but there is no back editing beyond 15 minutes on CC. I would also like to correct typos and grammar too. Of well, that happens when I quickly write the review in sections. So please excuse (especially you teachers out there :o).

More cabin photos:

See the pull down bed:

Carpet in the cabin hallways. The fish always swim to the ship's forward - my daughter really appreciate this navigational tool.

Bridge viewing:

Sun Deck during sail away from New Orleans:

There are three color rooms located at the end of the Fyzz Lounge. I think these are the private karaoke rooms, but I never saw anything about them in the Daily's, and they were always closed when I walked by.

Champagne Bar:

Stairs leading from the Champagne Bar to Blue Lagoon:

The entrance to Blue Lagoon:

You get five stars for an excellent review! The Western Caribbean ports don't usually excite me, but you've given me some good reasons to try them again. Thanks so much.

You get five stars for an excellent review! The Western Caribbean ports don't usually excite me, but you've given me some good reasons to try them again. Thanks so much.

Thank you! I have found that there is always something new and exciting to be found in every port. I love researching on CC and TripAdvisor. And I love the adventure of trying something new.

SUMMARY:

Departure Port: New Orleans is great, and so is the Big Muddy. In my ranking sheet of future cruises, a New Orleans departure would get an extra point in the port category, as it is a destination in itself.

Ship: Honestly below average, but still very nice. (Now you NCL fans, please don’t hate me for this!). My ranking of cruise line ships will be somewhat skewed, as we have not sailed on any of the newest mega ships in any fleet. But of the ships I have sailed I rank Royal Caribbean as top (beautiful décor, classy, and stunning, and lots of outdoor activities like mini golf, rock wall, and inline skating), Carnival as second (fun, flashy, lots of outdoor activities like waterparks, more pools & hot tubs, and mini-golf), and lastly NCL (The hull decor says FUN and party, but the inside just doesn't match. Much of the ships indoor space is dedicated to eating, eating, and more eating, and there are not many fun outdoor activities).

Cabin: Nice, clean, plenty of storage, but small. Carnival clearly wins this category because they have the biggest cabins (and typically cheaper). In general, Royal Caribbeans cabins appear to be the same size as the Jewel's. Disregarding size, they all are pretty much the same, in my opinion. (Please remember, we only book the cheaper IS and OV cabins).

Food: Very good to excellent (Did I make up for the earlier ship comment, NCL fans?). Loved all the options, the buffet was probably the nicest of any ship we have sailed. And the Blue Lagoon is a great free and anytime alternative, especially with children. How do I rank the cruise lines in the food category: NCL 1st, Carnival 2nd , and finally RCL. I ranked Carnival higher than RCL, just because we like the larger variety of food on Carnival, especially the lunch time options. Honestly, I have only been on one ship where the food quality overall was disappointing: RCL’s Grandeur of the Seas.

Entertainment: The Jewel had above average Main Theater shows. I enjoyed the variety. However, and this is a huge however for me and my husband: we missed our date night to Carnival’s nightly comedy club shows after the main theater shows. The kids would go off to camp, and my husband and I headed off to see a couple of comedy shows and enjoy cocktails in the club. If I were to just compare the main theater shows the cruise lines would rank in this order top to bottom: NCL, Royal, and lastly Carnival. I also really enjoy the ice skating shows on Royal. But since I put such a huge weight on the comedy club and the lounge atmosphere, I rank carnival as top in entertainment overall.

Kids Club: I was so disappointed with this aspect of our Jewel cruise. I had such high expectations, being it was a Nickelodeon cruise. The Splash Academy just did not meet our expectations for the Tweens program. It may have be great for the younger kids, but my kids were BORED. We all hated that they could not check themselves out until after 2 hours. And we had pumped ourselves up pre-cruise for the big Slime Time Live Show, only to be told that since there were only 120 kids onboard, they cancelled it. In my daughter’s eyes, it was like planning a trip to Sea World and they cancel the Shamoo show. As far as ranking the kids program, NCL definitely falls last for this family. My daughter has always raved about Camp Carnival, and loves their nightly parties. She always attends the super late night party and comes back to the cabin at 3:00 AM all smiles.

Ports:

Cozumel: Mr. Sanchos was okay for a beach day. Next time, we will take the Jeep or dune buggy tour to Punta Sur – the pictures and reviews look amazing.

Roatan: One of my favorite, if not THE favorite, ports. Dominican Republic is up there too (yes, you read that correctly – see my Carnival Freedom to Aruba and DR review in my signature). If you love snorkeling or want to try it for the first time, then Roatan is the port!

Belize: We had a great time cave-tubing. We go river tubing and caving often in western Virginia, but we have never experienced both simultaneously. I also like for my kids to see the cities and country sides of those less fortunate than us. Usually, we try to interact with local children, but we did not see any on this trip.

Costa Maya: nice little beach community. We enjoyed our fishing trip, even though we caught no trophies. The snorkeling here was wonderful too. The Malecon is a nice touristy strip and fun to stroll.

After cruising numerous times, it’s hard for a new cruise to have many aspects that stand out. In five years what will I most likely still remember about this jewel cruise?

• Cruising down the Mississippi during sunset was a great!
  
• The free-style dining was a nice twist and never felt crowded or had significant waits. We really enjoyed Teppanyaki. Loved the bread pudding and the salmon eggs benedict.
  
• I won’t remember what the ship looked like – nothing spectacular.
  
• Will forever remember my daughter and myself being pulled into the magician and ventriloquist stage acts.
  
• Snorkeling at Roatan (Maya Key) was the BOMB!
  
• Greatly disappointed in the kids program for Tweens.

So what cruise am I planning next? I have already narrowed next years cruise down to 4 choices:

• 8-day eastern Caribbean on Carnival Freedom (new port Antigua)
  
• 6-day western Caribbean on Carnival Breeze (new port Ocho Rios – believe it or not, we have never been there and the Blue Hole & Secret Falls are on my bucket list)
  
• 7-day western Caribbean on the NCL Epic (same itinerary as Breeze, but with an extra sea day)
  
• 5-day western Caribbean on Carnival Paradise (combine this with a Seaworld/Busch Gardens vacation)

Notice there are no Royal Caribbean cruises in the running. They are way too expensive for the itineraries I want, as we would have to tack on an additional $2000 for the Allure or Oasis.

<<Whew - finished>> Well, that does it for my review of our January 12th, 2014 cruise on the Jewel. We had a great family vacation! Feel free to ask me any questions!

The traditional family ship photo. I buy at least one every time, and I love to compare how the kids have grown.

HAPPY SAILING TO ALL!

Excellent review. Thorough, detailed and well balanced as you compared it to the other cruiselines.

Loved it. Well done!! Thank you for taking the time out to share it all with us.

You have such a beautiful family :)

Happy Cruising!

Robin

Norwegian Breakaway July 2014

Carnival Miracle 2010

Carnival Legend 2006

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Please....do the cruising world a favour: warn us next time that there is a tarantula on the way. LOL. I didn't see the note at the top of that row of pics, and I jumped off the couch, dumping my laptop.

Scared me half to death...LOL!

GREAT review and lovely photos (except the spider. EWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!) Really glad you had a good time.

CABIN:

 

 

 

Kids' cabin:

 

 

Our Cabin (notice the sunken spots):

 

There is large amount of space under the beds (they are high) for luggage storage ;) pity you didn't know or check about it.

Next time, you need to check!

Great review and photos!

There is large amount of space under the beds (they are high) for luggage storage ;) pity you didn't know or check about it.

 

Next time, you need to check!

 

Great review and photos!

We do keep the luggage under the beds during the cruise. This photo was taken after we had packed for embarktation the next morning. Sadly, we were almost ready to go.

Loved your review. Your pics are beautiful. We are on the Jewel in April (first time on NCL) was very interested in your ratings of the cruise lines. I know it takes time to do a review like you did and I appreciate it.

Random Photos of ship:

 

Carpet in the cabin hallways. The fish always swim to the ship's forward - my daughter really appreciate this navigational tool.

Nice observation about the cabin hallway carpets and the fish swimming in the direction of ship's forward! The Gem has a similarly-themed carpet, with fish and dolphins (and shells). I wasn't clever enough to notice the direction of their swimming! I had to track the cabin numbers to point me in the right direction back to my cabin.

i use a panasonic lumix dmc-z19 with an aquapac waterproof bag. It is not a waterporof camera, but i insert it into the waterproof aquapac bag and put it on underwater settings. I love the lumix cameras: Pocket size, 20x optical zoom, manual settings, wide angle, hdr function, hd video, etc. I carry this around with me the entire cruise. I also have a cannon dslr for when i am feeling photo happy and want to be creative or get better shots, but sometimes it is just a pain to carry around the big dslr.

 

The aquapac bag can fit many cameras, and i have the one with the extended zoom casing: http://usstore.aquapac.net/explore-product-range/waterproof-camera-cases/mini-camera-case-with-hard-lens-uss428.html

 

 

i hope to post more of the review this evening. However, i am working out of town today and may get back late.

is this panasonic dmc-z19 or dmc-zs19

is this panasonic dmc-z19 or dmc-zs19

Oops. Good observation. I just checked and it is a ZS19.

Loved your review. Your pics are beautiful. We are on the Jewel in April (first time on NCL) was very interested in your ratings of the cruise lines. I know it takes time to do a review like you did and I appreciate it.

Thanks. Have a great cruise! You will enjoy the jewel and this itinerary. Happy sailing!

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

 

Please....do the cruising world a favour: warn us next time that there is a tarantula on the way. LOL. I didn't see the note at the top of that row of pics, and I jumped off the couch, dumping my laptop.

 

Scared me half to death...LOL!

 

GREAT review and lovely photos (except the spider. EWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!) Really glad you had a good time.

Sorry!!!! The tarantula put me on edge too. I mustered up enough nerve to barely touch it, and cold chills overcame me. Nonetheless, I am glad we got to see one in the wild.

oops. Good observation. I just checked and it is a zs19.

thanks i tried to google it and all i could get was zs19. I loved your photos and may try to get this camera.

Also thanks for such a detailed review, i really enjoyed it and the photos were great. May even invest in the aquapac bag.:)

thanks i tried to google it and all i could get was zs19. I loved your photos and may try to get this camera.

 

Also thanks for such a detailed review, i really enjoyed it and the photos were great. May even invest in the aquapac bag.:)

I am glad you enjoyed my review!

There is even a newer model: ZS25. So you may be able to get a deal on the ZS19 now. It's a great versatile camera. Although the Aquapac bag is a little awkward to use in the beginning, it is a inexpensive alternative to having two cameras (everyday and waterproof).

mpcaruth

Loved your review ... very fair ... very detailed and your photos were fabulous. Good job :)

Great Review..loved reading everything. I saw that you brought your own snorkel gear but was wondering if you or anybody knew if we could rent or use snorkel vests at Maya Key. We will have our two girls 9/12 with us and would like them to have vests. Thanks