Just back from the Jewel 5-22-10 to the bahamas

[NJfoodie]

I figured I'd post my quick review while I try to write up the review for the main review area of cruise critic.

 

In general - we had a great trip! There were 6 adults and a baby in our group, several of whom had never been on a cruise before. In the end, I think everyone had a good time, including my 14 month old son.

 

Cabins -

pros: Our stewards were great with accomodating my son's schedule and making up the room or turning down the room around his nap and bedtime schedule. We had a balcony on deck 10, and our friends were in inside cabins across the hall from us. having the extra balcony space was a godsend since the packnplay for my son took up a lot of cabin space. We had no problem fitting a small inflatable pool on the balcony which served as my son's bathtub.

cons: i'm still not keen on the toilet "stall" in the cabin bathroom as it's a very tight squeeze in there and I'm fairly petite so I'm not sure how anyone taller could sit down w/o banging their knees into the wall. The inside rooms actually don't have the extra door and seem to have a better layout in the bathroom. For the new cruisers in our group, they've learned that next time, they will not sail inside again. While the cabin was adequate, they realized that they did not like the lack of light when they got up in the morning. Nothing wrong, and they understood this would be the case when they booked; they just did not know how they would fare and have decided for future cruises, they'll happily spend more for a window or balcony.

 

Food -

pros: My son has a dairy allergy and they were wonderful with accomodating his needs. Many many thanks to the restaurant mgr, the assistant managers and maitre d's who arranged for all of his meals wherever we chose to eat. Overall, I found the food quality to be pretty good across the board. We only did 1 specialty restaurant - the mongolian hotpot, which was tasty, but not anything special since it's a food style I grew up with (I'm asian). There were nights when there wasn't anything on the MDR menu that was a particular favorite dish for me, but I did not have anything that I would have considered a poor quality meal. We tended to eat early because of DS's bedtime so we generally had no problems seating a party of 6+ highchair quickly. Even in the buffet, it was pretty quiet since we'd be getting breakfast no later than 8am.

cons: This is more an issue for one member of our group but I think there are things she could have done to have a better experience that she chose not to do. She gets indigestion from onions and almost all of the dishes contain onion in some form, even when it is not noted in the description of the dish. I had suggested she talk to the restaurant mgr and ask what they can do but she chose not to.

 

Service -

I cannot say enough good things about the staff all throughout the ship. They doted on my son all through the trip, and took care of whatever any of us needed.

 

Entertainment -

pros:We found there were plenty of activities, both free and for fee, to keep us busy on the sea days, and we were out all day for the port days. I can't judge the nightlife since we did not go to any shows mainly because at least one of us would have to stay in once DS was tucked into bed. The music all around the ship was hit or miss. My friends really liked Angel the guitarist and would follow him from venue to venue, but some of the other musical choices around the ship weren't to our tastes. When you can get one, the private rooms in the fyzz lounge are great for some place to hang out for an hour and play wii games, or sing our little hearts out w/o making fools of ourselves in front of everyone else at karaoke. We made use of the under2zoo with DS and he enjoyed running around the room playing w/ other little ones. Nickelodeon at sea program was not obtrusive in any way - we had a discussion about this w/ Ian, the CD, and he had noted that they put a lot of effort into finding a good balance between offering new activities for those interested while maintaining nick-free time for those who don't want anything to do with it.

cons: Pools and hot tubs were adequate, though I'd say I can always appreciate bigger pools or more hot tubs. As usual, plenty of chair hogging going on. Kid's pool had plenty of diapered babies in it since no one was really monitoring it. DH wasn't happy w/ the casino policies (in terms of the cut that the house takes in card games being larger than land-based casino standards), and the poker game offerings (he prefers limit games to no-limit) so he didn't gamble this trip.

 

Ports:

Port Canaveral - we rented a car and went to the kennedy space ctr. The rest of our group went to universal islands of adventure w/ the ncl excursion. Everyone had a good day out.

 

GSC -

pros: nice beach area, not too bad w/ crowds, we were on the first tender so no problems getting loungers. Quieter space to see more fish if snorkeling off to the right side (when facing the island from the water). BBQ was ok. Friends enjoyed the kayaking excursion.

cons: Bar drink cups had an annoying tendency to leak. Shade was really hard to come by. There were a limited number of clamshells for rent ($30) and that really was it for shade. Having read this ahead of time, we brought our own beach umbrella - apparently, we were the only umbrella on the beach and the envy of many fellow guests. And we all got bitten by no-see-ums, mosquitos and horseflies. Bring your deet!

 

Nassau - We did a tour that we booked through Island marketing to fort fincastle, the queens staircase, Atlantis, and the fish fry at arawak cay. We had a great guide, an airconditioned minivan, a small group of only 4 adults, and the company arranged for a carseat for DS. We walked around the port as well, finding our way to Junkanoo beach which was actually a pretty nice beach though the view on one side wasn't exceptionally scenic.

 

That's pretty much our trip in a nutshell. Now we're trying to get used to being back on land and at home again w/ a dose of PCD until we decide where to sail next!

If anyone has any questions about the Jewel, feel free to ask!

[3boyswrestle]

Thanks so much for the great review. My family and I will be on the Jewel next month and are very excited. Did you have to get a ticket to get on the first tender to GSC? Where do you do this? When you were in Nassau, was the traffic very heavy and were you concerned about making it back to the ship on time? Thanks for your help!

[NJ Johnny]

Welcome Home! Glad to hear that you had such a great cruise. This is the first time on the boards that I heard of pesty bugs and bug bites on Great Stirrup Cay. Do you know if this is seasonal or maybe due to the construction there now? How was the construction coming? Were you able to get lactose milk for your son? We'll be there in less than four weeks now and can't wait.

[*Luv2Cruz*]

Thanks for your review.:D I'm putting together a CC Group on the Jewel for next year and can't wait to go!:cool:

[NJfoodie]

Thanks so much for the great review. My family and I will be on the Jewel next month and are very excited. Did you have to get a ticket to get on the first tender to GSC? Where do you do this? When you were in Nassau, was the traffic very heavy and were you concerned about making it back to the ship on time? Thanks for your help!

 

Re: tendering process - we really lucked out and were invited by John O'Hara to join the suite guests for priority tendering. Adrian the concierge was absolutely wonderful! The general process seemed organized but lines could get long. They announced where to line up for tender tickets in the freestyle daily the night before, it looked like by 9am, the lines were already getting pretty long. On the upside, the tenders were 400 passenger ferries and they had them running continuously all day so beyond waiting for the tickets, there didn't seem to be much wait to get on the island.

 

Nassau traffic - yes traffic is pretty bad in the afternoons! If you're on an excursion through the cruiseline, no worries, the ship will wait. Since we did a private tour, DH was a little nervous about making it back to the ship in time, but we actually had plenty of time. Our tour was scheduled to finish at 4:30 and we got back to the terminal at 4:30 on the dot. We had to be back onboard by 5:30.

[NJfoodie]

Welcome Home! Glad to hear that you had such a great cruise. This is the first time on the boards that I heard of pesty bugs and bug bites on Great Stirrup Cay. Do you know if this is seasonal or maybe due to the construction there now? How was the construction coming? Were you able to get lactose milk for your son? We'll be there in less than four weeks now and can't wait.

 

re: bug bites - Our friends who did the kayaking tour (which they really enjoyed!) were the ones who got the scoop on the mosquitos, not to mention the bites. There are a couple ponds on the island that are effectively stagnant pools so the mosquitos breed like crazy on the island. I didn't see the mosquitos myself out by the beach but I did see and brush off a couple gnats that were apparently biters as well.

 

re: milk - my son is allergic, it's not just a lactose intolerance so he drinks soy milk and soy formula and we had no problems requesting soymilk for him at meals. For the most part though, he's still on formula so we had packed a can of formula powder so we could prep his bottles/sippy cups onboard. If you need lactose-free milk, I would contact the access desk beforehand and check if it's available. It very likely is, or soy milk would be your other lactose-free option.

[NJ Johnny]

Thanks for your prompt response. Two years ago on the Spirit, they carrried soy milk and last year on the Dawn, they had Lactose-free milk. I already inquired through the Access Desk and was told the ships only had regular milk and Soy. I just thought that with the difference I experienced between the last two ships, that possibly you found out something different through your recent experience on the Jewel.

[raventhebouv]

What a great idea! Will bring our own next time since DH needs to be in the shade at the beach. Glad you got to go to GSC...seas/current were too rough on our May 8 cruise so we ended up in Nassau a day early, which wasn't so bad really.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post your quick review!

[Crusin6]

Can you post the details about your car rental in PC? What size...we are 5 this trip...did you get? Where did you pick it up? Did they bring it to you? And bring you back to the ship at the end of the day? What time did you get to KSC? How long did you stay? etc etc

 

 

So the blow by blow of ou day in PC Please? Thanks:).

[Ms belp]

OP, thanks for your concise review. Very informative and enjoyable.:)

[bahama2]

it was a terrific cruise. Couldn't have asked for better weather, accommodations, food or service. I would like to acknowledge some of the staff that went out of their way to make our cruise the best. First Mirasol La Morena in the Blue Lagoon, never had to wait to be seated or wait for our food. The food and the coffee were served nice and hot and coffee was always refilled without asking. Ana Abadines -Jr.Bar Server, always acknowledged us by name and remembered what we drink. Arlene d. Elemia - Hostess at Tangos, Nyoman Winata, waiter in LeBistro and last but certainly not least, Caesar Hapa Head of Housekeeping. Thanks again Caesar for remembering John's birthday. Only 2 small cons from us: they advertise a "Posh Cooler" which looks like a most refreshing drink, however we could not find 1 bar out of 11 that carried one of the main ingredients "cucumber". They had the mint, the vodka, the club soda but no cucumber. If you can't serve it don't advertise it. Now isn't that a terrible, terrible complaint:eek: LOL. Oh yeah the 2nd con - I thought gold latitude got priority tender tickets. I've gotten them since 2005 and I wasn't even gold then. It was really no big deal because we had no intention of going ashore. Took pleasure in spending that time in the casino. I found the casino to be very kind. I told it at the beginning that I would leave my money at the end but just make sure I get to play whenever I want and it listened to me. I played at least 4-5 hours a day every day and I was good to my word I left them my money.:D Again this was a fantastic cruise.

[bmwnurse]

I just submitted a lengthy review of my experience on the Jewel May 22nd-29th in the "Review" section of CC. It should be up on the site soon. Just fair warning- I was honest. This was definitely not the best cruise I've taken, but when we did write a "Dear John" letter, the problem was fixed....for a day. I agree that the music was excellent--we loved Angel, Fabrizio and Los Amigos. Second City was great! Snorkeling at GSC was really one of the highlights of the trip. I'm sorry to hear about all the bug bites!!

[NJfoodie]

Can you post the details about your car rental in PC? What size...we are 5 this trip...did you get? Where did you pick it up? Did they bring it to you? And bring you back to the ship at the end of the day? What time did you get to KSC? How long did you stay? etc etc

 

 

So the blow by blow of ou day in PC Please? Thanks:).

 

We arrived in port canaveral at noon on monday and it's a port at which you can just walk off. When you exit the terminal into a parking lot, there will be a variety of forms of transportation available trying to get your attention. There will be the buses w/ the official NCL excursions w/ guides holding signs, there's the ubiquitous NCL photographer stopping everyone as they try to walk out, the travelynx shuttles to the right by the curb, and in the middle of the lot are the rental car agency shuttles to go from port to whereaver the agency is located. The travelynx shuttles are $10 for unlimited rides for the day and go to cocoa beach, ron jon's, and the local walmart. The area car rental agencies are Budget, Hertz, Dollar/thrifty, enterprise, and avis. We used budget and got a compact car (toyota corrola) for ~$50 including the additional rental of a infant car seat. It's about $35-40 in general for a compact to midsized car, comparable between agencies and we reserved in advance though walking up wasn't a problem either - quite a few pax from our ship were able to rent right there and then, no reservations needed. I don't know about the other companies, we used Budget - they will run their shuttle until 8pm. We picked up our car, installed our seat, and were on our way to KSC by around 1pm. Getting to KSC is pretty easy, we got back on the road in the direction from which we came, and just followed the road signs. It's about 30 minutes from the rental office. Stupid me forgot my discount coupon for KSC for $5 off each admission. It's easy to get a code online or through the tropicana rewards program. General admission is $38 for adults, then there are packages that include different tours.

 

KSC runs a general bus tour to sites spread around the complex and that is the main part of the visit. The tour takes about 2.5 hrs during which they drop you off at each site to tour at your leisure and then wait on line for the next bus when you're ready to move on. We didn't expect this and it was a little challenging w/ a toddler who we were hoping would be able to nap in his stroller. Unfortunately, our stroller, as well as any wheelchairs, had to be parked back at the first bus stop and they provide loaners at each stop. The 3 stops are the observation deck for the shuttle launch pad, a visitors center about the missions to the moon, and a visitor center for the international space station. There's also a video tour playing while you're on the bus and the bus drivers would also point out buildings they drove past and all the wildlife that can be viewed from the bus. Most of the land is actually a wildlife preserve. We got to see a couple eagles, an eagle nest, alligators, and a number of aquatic birds. note: KSC closed at 6pm the day we visited and the last tour departs from the main visitors complex at 2:45. There was also often a wait for the bus to the next stop. We skipped the attractions at the main complex since those were predominantly movies/imax movies. We would have loved to see them but we figured the likelihood of DS sitting still and not bothering anyone else was slim to none so we'll return when he's old enough to enjoy the trip more. We visited KSC this time because it was DH's first trip to FL and he's wanted to see the space center ever since he was a little kid. There's also the astronaut hall of fame museum included w/ admission (open til 7pm and is a separate road off the route to theh visitors ctr) but we decided to head back to town when we finished the tour and walking around the main complex around 5:30.

 

The drive back to town was a little harder to track since the signs aren't as clear and we were trying to remember where we turned when coming in but we got back to town just fine. We stopped in town to do a bit of shopping/baby supply restock, and brought the car back to the rental office at 6:30. A very friendly staff member at budget started up the van to take us back to the ship, and we were back onboard enjoying dinner by 7pm.

[NJfoodie]

What a great idea! Will bring our own next time since DH needs to be in the shade at the beach. Glad you got to go to GSC...seas/current were too rough on our May 8 cruise so we ended up in Nassau a day early, which wasn't so bad really.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post your quick review!

 

I had read on here that shade could be hard to come by and DH is pretty pale - he tends to need SPF 50+ (we refer to it as liquid shirt) w/ constant reapplication every 30 min or so in order to not look like a boiled lobster after as little as an hour in the sun. Plus w/ a baby, we didn't want him to be out in full sun too long either so we figured the beach umbrella wasn't too cumbersome to bring along and we don't have to fly to port. it was totally worth having guaranteed shade! We seriously contempkated selling it to the highest bidder though when we were packing up to go back to the ship! :D

[bmwnurse]

NJFoodie- Just wanted to say your son was an adorable host at the M&G! So cute!

[NJfoodie]

I just submitted a lengthy review of my experience on the Jewel May 22nd-29th in the "Review" section of CC. It should be up on the site soon. Just fair warning- I was honest. This was definitely not the best cruise I've taken, but when we did write a "Dear John" letter, the problem was fixed....for a day. I agree that the music was excellent--we loved Angel, Fabrizio and Los Amigos. Second City was great! Snorkeling at GSC was really one of the highlights of the trip. I'm sorry to hear about all the bug bites!!

 

Just curious since it may be a little while before our official reviews get posted - what was the issue? Your mention of a dear john letter reminded me of a couple minor issues at the beginning of the cruise that came up. On the first evening at sea, there was a plumbing problem - I don't know how widespread it was but at least in our corridor, no one's toilet could flush. It was fixed by the time we got back from dinner, but we were worried that it didn't bode well for the remainder of the trip. Also, one of the rooms in our group had a leak from their toilet that was causing water to pool in their bathroom. When they reported the problem to the guest services desk, they said it seemed like the desk staff had a difficult time understanding the problem - they were trying but it seemed like there was a language barrier. The front desk sent the steward to clean up the puddle several times but it took a few trips to the desk to tell them the problem wasn't that the puddle needed to be wiped up but that the leak needed to be repaired. Later in the evening, they finally sent maintenance to fix the leak and they didn't have any problems after that. My friend was planning to write a Dear John letter recommending that multi-lingual staff be available at the guest services desk to make it easier for guests from whatever country to discuss issues or make requests.

 

Having only cruised 3 times and having enjoyed each one for different reasons, I wouldn't say this was the best cruise I've ever been on. it was not a particularly exciting itinerary, we also were not able to enjoy a lot of the ship amenities while taking care of a baby, and there were periods of slightly rougher seas. We very much appreciated the kind gesture of NCL in extending some of the suite benefits to us, and felt that the staff really went out of their way to take care of us and keep our little munchkin happy. For the life of me I can't remember her name, but the Asst Maitre d' in tsars and cagneys especially was really wonderful w/ our son.

[NJfoodie]

NJFoodie- Just wanted to say your son was an adorable host at the M&G! So cute!

 

Awww, thank you! DS was quite happy to be the star of the show wherever we went this trip! He's coping w/ PCD now that he's home and no longer has all his adoring fans instead of only mom and dad. ;)