Review: Alaska on the Jewel, May 18th - 25th

Apologies for the delay in posting this review. A little bit about your reviewers, first. We are a well-traveled family of three - myself, Mrs. OzCanuck, and little OzCanuck. (Sometimes known as little monster, or LM, our 20 month old). This is our third cruise as a family, and our third cruise in six months. Previous two were the Pearl out of Miami in December, and the Jade out of Rome in February. Some of you may remember my review from our Jade cruise, posted here. We have chosen NCL exclusively because of the 2-bdrm Family Suite, which suits our needs perfectly.

I’m going to use a little different format here, and not do a day-to-day summary. This is mainly because I didn’t take notes on this cruise and don’t exactly remember everything we did every day. I will also post a bunch of photos, and some time-lapse videos. There will be no gratuitous interior cruise ship photos or stateroom photos. There are enough of those kicking around that I would just be covering old ground.

Anyways... after returning from the Jade cruise in mid March, I swore I would never, ever travel with LM on my lap again – that flight back from Rome/Munich was hell, even with the extra seats. Having said that, I immediately started looking at far-flung places to go, as soon as possible. Memories are SO short when you’re a parent!

We did a driving holiday in Alaska about 4 years ago, and we were both kind of underwhelmed. Flew in to Anchorage, drove to Seward and Whittier over a few days. The highlight was a full day trip to the Kenai Fjords. We both decided at that time that our preference would be to see Alaska from the water – if we ever traveled there again. With that in mind, I began scoping flights and dates. It made sense to go the week of May 18th because of the Canadian holiday on the 20th, so we would only use up 4 days vacation. Perfect!

Long before we booked the cruise, we locked in our flights to Seattle. We would arrive late on the Friday night and depart early on the Sunday. A day lead time, a day lag time – this was done solely to make the trip with LM easier. No rushing around. The flights seemed ok; my only worry was the yyz-sea portion. It was scheduled as an Embraer E190 – a single aisle, four seat across commuter jet. We would have two seats, a window and an aisle. LM would ride on the lap again – but it would be a night flight, hopefully he would sleep! (Laughing nervously).

I knew that three ships were leaving Seattle on the 18th, so I started scanning fares and cabins on all three (HAL, NCL and Princess). Princess was the likely backup to NCL if we didn’t get the price/cabin we wanted. At the time we booked our flights, there were 8 SC cabins available, but not at a palatable price. So, I watched and waited.

Over the next few weeks, the price dropped slowly, then quickly! With about three weeks to spare, we purchased the cruise, including $225 OBC ($150 from the sale, $75 for a member rewards cert). We were all set to go. I was pleased to learn that the price subsequently only dropped $49 more before selling out.

I had booked Homewood Suites Tukwila for arrival night (I love the Homewood brand, even more so since I had a child), and the Airport Hilton for departure night. After doing a bunch of research, I also booked:

- Duck Tour in Ketchikan for three (seats were filling up fast, and I assumed LM would love it).

- White Pass & Yukon Rail Bus/Train combo from Chilkoot Tours in Skagway

More on these later.

Nothing else to do but wait, and pack (ok, well, we always pack right before we leave, or the night before, and this time was no different.)

To be Continued....

Keep it coming! Great start!

The Flight, the Transfers, the Embarkment

Having learned from the last time we flew that we really needed to budget an extra hour for the process, we arrived about 2.5 hours before our flight. Mrs. O got our boarding passes while I dropped the car off and brought LM back to the terminal. Unfortunately, because we were using an ‘infant’ fare, we could not print our own luggage tags, and had to line up for service. Tick Tick Tick.

I’m not going to go into details, but by the time our bags got tagged and we approached U.S. Immigration/Customs pre-clearance, we only had 30 minutes until Wheels Up. RIDICULOUS! Anyway, we dropped our bags after customs and ran through security (sort of), and literally walked onto the plane. I had very little hope our bags made the flight, and started making a list of things we would need to buy at the 24 hour Wal Mart near the hotel. (Always be pessimistic, that way you are very rarely let down!)

The flight was ok – LM was ok – he didn’t fuss too much, he didn’t cry at all – the tablet kept him entertained for about 10 minutes. All in all not a bad experience. Upon arrival in Seattle, I noted the location of the baggage desk for Air Canada as we sat waiting for our bags to appear. HA! Last on, first off…. All three were there. I can finally relax a bit more.

We called the shuttle to Homewood and very soon we were checked in and calling it a night. I will say that the staff at this location were excellent. Very helpful, very considerate (digging through the kitchen for a bit of milk for us). We had a great night’s sleep, and went easy on the free breakfast.

I had booked a transfer with Seattle Express - $12/pp, LM/free – for 11:30. I figure, 30 minutes to the dock, 10 minutes to check in, and we’ll be sitting in Cagney’s by 12:30 at the latest…

Around 11:40 they called and said everything was running behind because of some issue at the dock. They eventually arrived around 12:20 or so. It was a bit annoying, as everyone on the shuttle bus (and it was full), except for two passengers - were sailing NCL. The other two were sailing Princess. So of course, they dropped off the Princess passengers first at the far dock, and the rest of us had to wait.

We got to the pier around 1:15. I didn’t notice the ‘VIP Check-In’ queue on the far north end of the building, but a friendly NCL staffer pulled us out of line when they saw the priority tags on our bags. This is more like it! We were quickly escorted to the front of the line, through security, and checked in. John the concierge was in the lounge introducing himself, and we were escorted to Cagney’s – sitting down right at 1:30. Because there was such a backup in processing people, they kept it open for another half hour.

We enjoyed our usual Bean/Lentil burger and soon after, we were relaxing in our suite (11006).

Out butler, Naveen stopped by and we were also introduced to our Steward, Richard. LM called him ‘Joel’ a couple of times (that was our Steward on the Jade, 3 months previous – wow, good memory!). But – he soon mastered ‘Richard’ and ‘Gerry’ was down the hall. John D’Souza (Souza?) also stopped by and re-introduced himself. He brought meaty canapés which we sent away, advising him we were vegetarian and didn’t want anything that had a mother.

It was raining in Seattle now, quite hard at some points. We unpacked and got settled. I set up my Hero2 to do a time lapse of the departure It was having a difficult time with the shutter speed – a bit of flicker on some of the shots. You’ll note also a guest appearance by the Star Princess. The Westerdam was about a half mile in front of us (but out of camera view, except in the following photos.

Departure Time Lapse video:

Seattle Skyline:

Westerdam and Star:

Sunset in the Juan de Fuca Straight:

And another:

I'm enjoying your review. Naveen was my butler on the Jewel in November! What did you think of him?

I'm enjoying your review. Naveen was my butler on the Jewel in November! What did you think of him?

Not too much, actually. More on that later..

I'm curious to hear. I didn't think much of him either but I thought it was me because it was my first time in a suite.

I am enjoying your review.

Keith

The Jewel – Overall Impressions

Understand that our cruising history is very limited – three cruises on three jewel-class ships. (Plus two weeks on the QE2 almost 10 years ago, which I don’t count). So – I don’t have much of a point of reference for other lines or other NCL class ships.

The thing I like about these ships is that, at least unless you’re disembarking at Victoria, they never seem particularly crowded. The public areas, while busy, always seem relatively spacious. I’ve heard people lament about the lack of an impressive atrium – but really, who cares? Do you spend much time there? With folks booking their tours, sorting out their accounts, rummaging through “sale” priced duty free junk – it’s actually the last place I like to hang out.

Over the course of the week we went pretty much everywhere on the ship, as you do. Is she showing her age? Mmm… I guess so? I found her pretty well maintained and very clean. We did not spend much time on the open decks on this cruise – I think even on our February Med cruise we spent more time outside.

I like the interior design of the Jewel the best of three I’ve seen I think. The Hawaiian art work on the Jade is just out of place. The stairwell photos are quite amazing on the Jewel – I always found something interesting to look at. We made a point to take the stairs as much as possible on this cruise. We are teaching LM to go up and down stairs these days, so it made sense.

One thing I noticed, considering we did spend quite a bit of time outside our stateroom. On the other ships, we seemed to run into the captain and senior officers all the time. On the Jewel, they seemed conspicuous in their absence. We did see the staff captain dining at Chin Chin one night (our only specialty restaurant experience). But – apart from the Captain’s cocktail party, I never actually saw him. Possibly just bad luck/timing, who knows.

I would definitely consider another cruise on the Jewel (though just to get the four of a kind I suppose we have to do the Gem sometime.)

Dining

To start, you all have to understand (and many of you do) that “dining” with a toddler takes on a whole different meaning. Also, this is a bit wordy....

On our Pearl and Jade cruises, we ended up eating at the buffet way too often, just because it was “easy” to find him something to eat, we could pace the timing of the food, and we could tag off and get our own food at our leisure.

We sort of made an agreement that we would NOT eat at the buffet on this cruise, if only to reinforce meal time etiquette and meal time experience for LM. He does eat out once a week or so at home, so he is no stranger to restaurants. And, we are VERY cognizant of his behaviour – and we will not accept crying or fussing that might overly disturb our fellow diners. At least, that is always the plan – and while it doesn’t always work out that way, generally, it does. I have no issues with taking him out of the table action and walking him around just to distract him and get him ready for the next course.

But – more than anything, the serving speed is the most important aspect of dining with a toddler…

Every morning, and every lunch (excepting a meal we ordered in – more on that under the ‘butler’ section, to come), we ate at Cagney’s.

Cagney’s is a blessing, and a curse. I like the consistency of the menu, but I hate that it never changes for breakfast and lunch. Breakfast is ok – we’re vegetarian so we can always make do with fruit and carbs. But – there is only ONE vegetarian item on the lunch menu, and it’s the same EVERY DAY. Fettuccine with Portobello mushrooms in a cream sauce. Yawn. It’s actually tasty, but not day after day after day after day. I’m a suite guest, and I’m sure there must be others that are vego, so why not offer just ONE more vegetarian dish? How about a nice pizza?

Something I learned during my behind the scenes tour of the Jade in February was that they actually make, from scratch, bean/lentil burgers. This is not on the Cagney’s menu, but if you ask – they will fetch some. So you ask – am I happy with having that EVERY day? Well, to me it’s more palatable than fatty pasta. With a soup or a side salad, it’s not bad. (Not to mention a bottle or two of Alaskan IPA – my new favourite beer.)

As with our previous cruises, we were extremely happy with Cagney’s service, save for maybe one confused foible when nobody seemed to know who was serving us, and our meal was quite delayed. In particular, one server, Shetty – was exceptional. Very quick off the mark to get things for us or LM – pre-ordering the bean burgers so they would be upstairs in Cagney’s for us rather than having to go down in the bowels of the ship to get them. Rolling the high chair over to our table before we’ve even sat down, etc .etc. All of these things made him our vacation hero, actually.

As I mentioned, the food was very consistent. Every order was received quickly (save one time), and exactly what we had requested. What more could you ask?

Our evening meals were taken at either Tsar’s or Azure. We did try Chin Chin one night as well – more on that later.

I had read multiple times how the service seems to vary between Tsar’s and Azure – we ate at each 2-3 times and found it all fairly similar, with the exception of an excellent service staff in Tsar’s in one particular corner. As we were going to see Cirque Bijoux, we told them when we sat down that we wanted all the food brought, all at once. Amazingly enough, within 5 minutes, all of our dishes were on the table. It’s a good approach with a toddler, and it worked out perfectly.

One criticism I will offer was the wine service in Azure. We ordered a bottle from the ‘odd’ list – I think it was an Oregon Gewürztraminer. Our server disappeared for a very long time, and then reappeared – letting us know that they were out of it. We changed the order, and again, he disappeared for a very long time before coming back with our bottle.

He also poured way too large a serving size of wine for the glasses in question. I can’t decide if that was a push to finish the bottle, or just inexperience. I’m not a wine snob, but my white wine will get warmish if there is too much in the glass.

A positive comment – we never had to wait very long for children’s meals to be brought up from wherever. Grilled cheese, cheese pizza, etc. were always delivered very quickly. And once again, LM loved the mushroom quesadilla – very carefully dipping his in the guacamole.

We elected to try Chin Chin’s one night for dinner, in particular the vegetarian / tofu “hot pot”. We did not book in advance, but just wandered in. Sadly we discovered that the hot pot came cooked in chicken broth – however a quick conference in the kitchen confirmed they would make a vegetarian broth for us, it would just take a few extra minutes. We also ordered three order of edamame – which is one of LM’s favourite foods. He ate his own, he ate mine, and he ate Mrs. O’s. We didn’t even try them. The waiter was kind enough to bring us another full three orders of the edamame. LM polished off those three as well! That’s a lot of beans for a little kid, lemmetellya.

Eventually the hot pot showed up, and we ate very well on a very tasty vegetarian broth, tofu, and vegetables. I would definitely order this same dish again in the future – but I would pre-order and let them know we were coming, so they could have the broth already made. (I guess that’s what the butler is for?)

We also tried to get into Mama’s one night – but it was actually booked solid! First time I’ve seen that on a jewel class ship! I suppose our butler could have gotten us in, but again we didn’t plan it that way – we just decided to give it a try on our way to the MDR.

The chocolate buffet was ok – cheapish chocolate (what do you expect). But I won’t say no to trying a little bit here or there.

So – all in all, we were quite happy with the food on the ship, apart from the lack of variety for lunch.

Good getting your perspective as we were on the same cruise. I happened to run into the captain and hotel director every time i turned around, so it must have been timing. Was a nice cruise, ready to go again!

Looking forward to reading the entire review, even though we have no toddlers.

A couple comments about butlers:

"Every morning, and every lunch (excepting a meal we ordered in – more on that under the ‘butler’ section, to come), we ate at Cagney’s."

Yes, any meal served inside your cabin would involve the Butler.

However in the following cases:

"Eventually the hot pot showed up, and we ate very well on a very tasty vegetarian broth, tofu, and vegetables. I would definitely order this same dish again in the future – but I would pre-order and let them know we were coming, so they could have the broth already made. (I guess that’s what the butler is for?)

We also tried to get into Mama’s one night – but it was actually booked solid! First time I’ve seen that on a jewel class ship! I suppose our butler could have gotten us in, but again we didn’t plan it that way – we just decided to give it a try on our way to the MDR."

...the Concierge, rather than your Butler, is the person to contact for meals, excursions, shows or just about anything outside your cabin. This is also our go-to person if there are problems with the Butler's performance. (In one case, where it was the brand new Concierge' first few weeks, we gave him a courtesy notification but also informed the Hotel Director when said performance remained sub par).

So, the Concierge can help you get into Specialty restaurants that seem to be booked to capacity, troubleshoot the pre-ordering of the vegetarian rather than chicken broth for your delightful Hot Pot and so on. Possibly useful for you on your next/fourth Jewel class ship adventure? ;)

Yes of course, I put butler when I meant to put concierge, my mistake. The first morning when the concierge swung by Cagney's, we mentioned our vegetarianism to him. He jotted down a special food service number on his card and said to give them a call if we had any special requests.

Rather innocently, I am thinking maybe HE should make that call for us, but as we had no plans to eat at any of the specialty restaurants, it didn't seem worth the effort.

Yes of course, I put butler when I meant to put concierge, my mistake. The first morning when the concierge swung by Cagney's, we mentioned our vegetarianism to him. He jotted down a special food service number on his card and said to give them a call if we had any special requests.

 

Rather innocently, I am thinking maybe HE should make that call for us, but as we had no plans to eat at any of the specialty restaurants, it didn't seem worth the effort.

Gotcha. It sounds as though you are vegan rather than ovo-lacto, correct?

And no, I'm not even going to bring up the topic of Moderno. Excellent salads, fair sides and desserts. Hmmm, I may be wrong, but have been told that if you do not order the entre/main in a specialty restaurant, then you would not be charged for the remainder.

And on the subject of NCL food and vegetarianism, I recall several rather good Indian dishes in the buffet. Were you able to sample any this time around?

Gotcha. It sounds as though you are vegan rather than ovo-lacto, correct?

And no, I'm not even going to bring up the topic of Moderno. Excellent salads, fair sides and desserts. Hmmm, I may be wrong, but have been told that if you do not order the entre/main in a specialty restaurant, then you would not be charged for the remainder.

 

And on the subject of NCL food and vegetarianism, I recall several rather good Indian dishes in the buffet. Were you able to sample any this time around?

We are both lacto-ovo, but LM is a full omnivore. We had the indian dishes several times on the Pearl and the Jade. For consistency, they are very good - but I found they overspice them a bit. Indian cooking is about subtleties, not about burning your mouth. The one day we ate in the buffet (well actually it was more for LM to eat - we'd had a very late lunch in Cagney's), I tried the daal. Again, it was good texture but it just doesn't need to be so spicy.

Ok, time for some more review.

Ports -Ketchikan

After essentially doing no shore excursions on the Jade or the Pearl, we decided we would try to do as much as possible on this trip. We only booked one with the ship, the AK Duck in Ketchikan, which we reserved we in advance.

Look, I know it’s kind of lame, but – don’t forget we’re toting a 20 month old who is fascinated with large modes of transport (dirt removal, fire extinguishing, etc. etc.). So – we thought he would love it. He loved it SO much, he fell asleep about 10 minutes into the ride, and woke up when it was time to get off. An observation I'll make - although he was free to take on the Duck, the seating is very, very cramped - too cramped to really hold a toddler.

But – as any parent will tell you, a sleeping child is a happy child. I have done one duck tour before (Sydney Harbour) and it was pretty much the same thing, only with semi-humorous Ketchikan anecdotes thrown in. It was a bit disturbing how close we came to some taxiing sea planes though.

After finishing the Duck tour, we embarked on a long walking tour of Ketchikan, checking out Creek Street, then walking up into a residential area to see one of the long “stair streets”. We were back on board in time for lunch, as we realized most of the eateries around the ship were very heavily seafood/fish weighted (Mrs. O. is allergic to fish. Not shellfish, but fish.)

Some photos from Ketchikan.

Sunrise as we neared the port

The view from our stateroom balcony. Duck tour started right in front of the ship.

Large bird out the window of the duck.

Looking back towards the port from the duck:

Your author, with a sleeping LM.

Ketchikan - Continued

Entrance to Creek Street, etc:

And finally, a timelapse video departing Ketchikan:

Hi :) We you may recognize us as we were on the cruise with you. I saw the Hotel Director three times a day, every day at the very least. As for the Captain, I believe his place is to be on the bridge but for dinner and the occasional picture taking. Also, he was quite ill from Thursday night on (which is why he wasn't present at the Thursday night Cirque Bijou) with the same respiratory garbage that at least half the ship caught thanks to the selfish pax who arrive on board ill.:rolleyes:

On the other hand your review was great and spot on. And your 20 month old is to die for :).

Hi :) We you may recognize us as we were on the cruise with you. I saw the Hotel Director three times a day, every day at the very least. As for the Captain, I believe his place is to be on the bridge but for dinner and the occasional picture taking. Also, he was quite ill from Thursday night on (which is why he wasn't present at the Thursday night Cirque Bijou) with the same respiratory garbage that at least half the ship caught thanks to the selfish pax who arrive on board ill.:rolleyes:

 

On the other hand your review was great and spot on. And your 20 month old is to die for :).

Yes! I do recognize you and thanks for the comment about LM. He gets so much from these cruises. It is hard to convince people sometimes that it is worth all the extra work especially when he won't remember it...(apart from the hundreds of photos.

I was wondering why he wasn't at Cirque Bijou - which we all enjoyed very much. Even LM was riveted by the show, which was great as the theatre was PACKED.

I can only draw comparisons from my other two cruises - but I suppose the laws of probability would allow for us not actually crossing paths with the senior officers very often. They were all quite affable at the Captain's party though - unfortunately I was too busy wrangling LM to socialize with anyone.....

I am thoroughly enjoying your review and it is getting me excited for our cruise on the Jewel in 3 weeks and 2 days - Yipee!

I am thoroughly enjoying your review and it is getting me excited for our cruise on the Jewel in 3 weeks and 2 days - Yipee!

Thanks! Be very excited! You will love it!

Ports –Juneau & Tracy Arm

Most of the Juneau excursions did not look toddler friendly, but we did decide to take the Tramway. It was such a beautiful day – the sun was shining at first light as we glided into Juneau, and didn’t let up until sunset. Just magnificent!

Toyed with the idea of walking over to the tramway, but the bus was right there so we took the quick ride instead. For any of you with a stroller, by the way, you are free to take it up the tramway – but there is literally nowhere to go with it once you are at the top. In fact, there was nothing really to do apart from the movie, which we didn’t bother with, we just enjoyed stretching our legs and taking some photos.

I’m not entirely sure the tramway is worth the money. As tourists we all seem to have this overpowering need to get as high as possible when we go places. Must be something evolutionary. Usually once we get there though … what do you do? The quality of food is inversely proportionate to the height at which it is served (culminating in economy airline food). But anyway, I digress.

We took some nice photos of an Oceania ship coming North up towards Juneau, then rode the tramway back down and went for a long walk in the “town”. I asked a couple of proprietors what it’s like here when the cruise ships aren’t in town. Dead. Ghost Town. Some people don’t open. Etc. Etc. I get it – the entire downtown area near the cruise port exists only for cruise passengers. It’s a weird little place, but in some ways no different from the Caribbean.

I know – we could have headed out to see Mendenhall, but we’ve seen many glaciers before and honestly we would not be able to walk up close with LM – too far to take the stroller, too far for him to walk, and too far for him to be carried. So – with that we headed back to the ship.

He curiously fell asleep on the ride back, and we managed to get him out of the bus, into his stroller, back on the ship, out of his stroller, through the x-ray machine, back in his stroller, up in the elevator, back to the room, and into his bed without him waking up!! While he does sleep long, and deep – generally if he’s moved he will wake up – so this was quite a unique event for him. (And us).

It did give us the opportunity to order in lunch and enjoy a nice quiet meal before he woke up. Well, at least that was the plan. More on that later when I talk about the butler.

We soon departed and started heading out towards Tracy Arm. The Pearl was just arriving. I will post a very short time lapse video of that on the weekend. It’s kind of neat.

Tracy Arm was nothing short of SPECTACULAR. It reminded me very much of a small-ship day tour we did into the Kenai Fjords a few years ago. Floating ice chunks, seals, gorgeous weather… The ship toddled down Tracy Arm, whispering, almost sighing her way down. Chunks of ice glided by our balcony. Birds chirped. Fish swam. Considering the behemoth that we were, the Jewel almost seemed to fit into the scenery.

It was, without a doubt, perhaps the best “cruise” day I’ve ever had. (not that I’ve had very many). After a couple of hours we ground to a stop, stayed still for a while, then very, very slowly made the turn to head out of the fjord. Ask anyone who was on this cruise, it was a highlight.

Here are some photos from the day.

Looking back down the valley .. you can just see the Sapphire Princess coming into view:

Sapphire Princess breezing past us to dock:

Juneau from our balcony:

Looking up the tram:

Looking down the tram:

Yet more photos.

The Jewel as seen from the top of the tramway:

Hello bird. (LM's words)

Oceania ship arriving:

Starting the crawl down Tracy Arm:

Tracy Arm:

Tracy Arm:

What's that? You want more gratuitous Tracy Arm photos? OK!

Difficult to work such a contrasty exposure:

Lean, check horizon, click. (2 out of 3)

The money shot!

Thanks for your review OzCanuck, I'm enjoying hearing about your trip and the pictures.