NCL Jewel- Has it gotten better?

[happyfaerie]

Hi All,

 

Ive cruised with NCL a few times. First on the maiden voyage of the Dawn out of NYC, then a year later on the Dawn again, then a year later on the Jewel. I must say thy went downhill with each subsiquent cruise. I was very unhappy with the jewel. they had a woman cruise director who was terrible! the service overall was terrible and ppl working seemed disgruntled. My cousin is trying to get me to go on the NCL Jewel Niceklodeon cruise but im hesitant. One, because of the Nick theme (i have a 1 yr old and not sure if this is worth it) and two because i hated the Jewel last time.

 

was considering the Epic bec it goes to nicer islands but its more expensive and requires a plane fare.

 

What would you suggest? Should I look at Royal Carribean instead? Should I just fly to Florida and do a cruise with different islands? im kinda sick of Bahamas

 

thanks

 

C

[yoyocruiser]

It is incredibly difficult to predict what someone will like. If you hated the Jewel the last time, chances are that you may again. I would say look at the itinerary for one thing and make sure the Jewel is going somewhere that you wish to go. IHowever, if you were that unhappy previously, then perhaps Disney would be the best option with a small child. You may not wish to risk another bad experience.

 

We returned last week from a cruise on the Jewel and it far surpassed our expectations. We found the service to be superb, loved the cruise director, lvoed the entertainment, and thought the food was wonderful. That said, my expectations may differ greatly from yours.

 

I would suggest reading the reviews--several of them--there is a lot of detailed information and then you can match up some of those details with what is really important or not important to you.

[Cruise_More_Often]

I've been on the Jewel twice, and it's my all-time favorite. I can't imagine that it could get any better than it was those times!

[happyfaerie]

I had a great time on the first two Dawn trips I took. I LOVED THEM! but something about the trip on the jewel that sort of sucked. the CD was really terrible and that could hve made a difference. we fell in love with a CD named Collin on the Dawn and after him, everyone paled in comparrison. We just came back from Disney so thats out! LOL

 

Im not choosing the Nickelodeon Crusie for my son bec hes little and actually my husband works for Niceklodeon. My cousin has a small little girl and thought it would be a fun trip. we would just be going as a family reunion type thing. Im just concerned a cruise like this might be overrun with kiddies and be more stressful than disney land. Im glad to hear you had a good experience on the Jewel. After our cruise on the JEwel I heard that staff was headed for Europe on a repositioning cruise so maybe thats why it sucked. Everyone was burnt out and ready to change courses. Possible, no?

 

Ive read reviews and people seem to have liked their recnet Jewel trips. I might give it another go. Just wish it was to more exciting islands with more beach time. The weather down the east coast kinda stinks and it doesnt warm up till florida. would be nice to leave out of Miami bec then its warm all the way down.

 

Anyone have any experience with the cruises from Miami and those islands?

 

thanks for your response!

[tls630]

I will be sailing on her in a couple weeks. My first NCL cruise. I will let you know what I think.

[WinnieinWA]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1124875

 

I just cruised on her and she's fantastic! Do a search on here and you'll come up with lots of reviews. My formal one should be out in a few days so check the CC Member reviews for more detail.

[trish1c]

We were on the Jewel a few weeks ago. Read my review on these boards & read the one above it by Cruisin' Material.

The current cruise director is South African named Que. He's a hoot; I never met Collin on the Dawn.

The ship is in great shape. The hotel director, John O'Hara is outstanding but I thought the overall quality of the NCL product had gone down since my 2007 cruise on the Dawn & my 2008 trip on the Gem. there is something wonderful about cruising out of NYC, though.

[arabrab]

We just got off the January 10th cruise; review hasn't been posted yet, but we found the Jewel to be very nice.

 

High Points for us:

-Meticulously clean, both in the cabin and all around the ship - cleanest cabin we've ever had on a cruise

-Great, service oriented, cheerful staff who are available when you want something but who don't continually barge in to repeatedly ask if you want a drink, for example

- Everything we had in the cabin was in full working order, all week. Other than one exercise machine that was out of order, everything else on the ship appeared to be in good working order the entire cruise.

-Really enjoyable entertainment; beautiful theater.

-Wide variety of bars with significantly different offerings/specialties/ambience

-Great Jazz brunch, Indian lunch, and very good Sushi -- each of our pay restaurant experiences was excellent

-Fabulous, fabulous bread and rolls and breakfast rolls (best we've ever had on a cruise)

-No problems getting seating when we wanted it at meals -- only had to wait one evening, and then only 30 minutes

-Many good main dishes in the main dining rooms

-No strange smells, no weird vibrations, at least in the areas (mostly aft) where we spent the most time

-Judicious use of announcements -- this wasn't a ship where someone was perpetually making announcements about bingo, art auctions, and the like

 

Low Points for Us

-Hard beds. My shoulders are still sore, even with the memory foam topper they've installed.

-Garden Cafe. We're not fans of the food, though it is clean and always well stocked.

-Desserts and appetizers were very hit and miss, even in the main dining rooms, and I can't think of a dessert we enjoyed in the Garden Cafe.

-Internet is expensive and too slow -- when you can't even open your mailbox after 6 minutes at 55 cents a minute it is too slow.

-Tendering was a little slow

 

We had a very nice cruise on the Jewel, and I'd have no problem cruising her again except for the bed issue. But your shoulders might be generally happier than mine, and that might make the difference. (They had run out of egg crates by after the first night of the cruise, though, so I think I wasn't the only one.) My impression is that all of the cruise lines have cut back in various ways on food, and our most recent Princess cruise definitely didn't have food as good as we had on Princess seven or eight years ago. But having said that, we actually paid less for our recent Jewel cruise than we did on a Princess cruise seven years ago. We're finding that we spend more to eat in paid restaurants, buy coffees and the like, but it is still a very good value for our vacation dollars.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We did a TA on the Jewel last spring--first time on any NCL ship--and thought the ship was excellent.

 

We ate in the MDR every night and had very good meals. The buffet was wonderfully spacious and well-laid out, food was good but not outstanding.

 

The breads were great, the desserts not that great.

 

The shows were the best we've ever seen at sea and I like the cruise director (a man) more than most.

 

Our room was nice though the closet area was a little hard to get into, being very close to the bed. (mini-suite). It also creaked a lot, more than any ship I've been on.

 

The library almost ran out of fiction books the very first day and it didn't improve thoughout the cruise. I always managed to find something to read, but they need to add more books.

 

One of my favorite things was that they had a free exercise class in the late afternoon--I'm not a morning person and always miss the early AM classes. I wish it had started 30 minutes earlier, but I still appreciated it as I've never seen that on another ship.

 

All in all we really enjoyed out Jewel cruise and will sail her again--but if you go in expecting the worst this may not be the ship for you to try again.