Review of Jewel 2/13-2/20

[Anginette]

We just disembarked this morning in time for the Nick cruise going on this week... hope everyone sailing enjoys it :)

 

Trying to keep this as concise as possible!

 

Embarkation

Could not have been any easier. Our car service dropped us off right in front of the ship just after 11:00 and we were on board and seated in Tsar's by 11:40. The number system they use in the terminal is very efficient and I like it a lot.

 

Stateroom

We had a pair of mini-suites on deck 11. They were very nicely sized for two people and I'm glad we decided to take them over the balcony cabins because having the little extra seating room and the bathtub was very nice. Our stewards were Ritzel and Abdul and they were great. Once we left the room for no more than 20 minutes to get some drinks and our cabin had been turned down, complete with a towel monkey, by the time we returned. The other animals they left were just so cute... an elephant, a lobster, and what we think was a bunny but might have been a puppy. We meant to go to the folding demonstration but there aren't enough hours in the day. Internet was accessible from within the room. The balcony had plenty of room for two chairs and a table... didn't really get to enjoy it until the third day due to the cold but we made the most of it when we had the chance!

 

Dining

Lunch in the Tsar's Palace was very nice but it would be nicer if they changed the menu at least once! The food was very good, though, and I'll post some pictures of that later. When we didn't feel like having lunch there, we went to the Blue Lagoon, and those chicken wings really are the best chicken wings I've ever had. Dinner in the Tsar's Palace was hit or miss. The most disappointing night was the Beef Wellington/lobster tail night - the Beef Wellington just wasn't very tasty and the lobster tail was small and dry, even with butter added. That was really the only bad meal we had. The prime rib redeemed that for us, though, because it was very good. We also tried Cagney's, which was delicious, and Tapas, which was surprisingly MORE delicious. The spring rolls and the lobster tacos were probably the best things we ate on the ship. We did not go to the buffet at all.

 

Entertainment

In my opinion, the best show was the International Crew Show. I haven't laughed as hard as I laughed at the "Fountains" finale in a long, long time. Silas and "Ferdalicious" were wonderful. The NCL performers were fair (about the same quality you'd get at a mediocre off-Broadway show - this does not mean that they were bad, in fact they were probably a bit better than what you'd expect to see on a cruise). I was not impressed with the comedian/magician (Jean Pierre, I think) but the comedian David Graham was alright. Alessia and Massimo were a lot of fun to watch. Cirque Bijou, the final show, was fun, but it still wasn't as fun as the talent show, and honestly I think it was overhyped.

 

Ports

We hit Port Canaveral, Great Stirrup Cay, and Nassau. In Port Canaveral, we had planned to go to Harry Potter but realized we'd only have 3-4 hours there so we switched to the Kennedy Space Center excursion and really enjoyed that. Everything was very well-organized and we had no problem getting out or coming back. The weather was initially nice at Great Stirrup Cay and we took an early tender out, but some dark clouds rolled in and we also ended up taking an early tender back. The tender process was slow and frustrating but I think that's the nature of a tender port and not something NCL could have changed. Nassau was the easiest port as far as getting off the ship goes because of the close proximity of the port to the city... really had a great time shopping there after we braved the fray of "need a taxi?!" and "hair braiding?!" close to the entrance.

 

Disembarkation

Definitely not as much fun as embarkation, and not just because they were making us get off the ship. There were lots of delays, the 10:00 luggage tags didn't get called until close to 10:30, the lines were long, people were testy, etc. They announced delays in customs but when we got down to customs everything moved very quickly so not sure what the real hold-up was, but we made it through the terminal and our car service found us easily.

 

Nickelodeon

We saw SpongeBob and Patrick twice - once during the opening show and once when we bumped into them when they were headed for a costume change after a photo op. There was also a SpongeBob statue in the Crystal Atrium in preparation for this week's cruise. Other than that, it was entirely unobtrusive... not that we would have minded seeing SpongeBob, really! There was lots of Nick stuff listed in the dailies and I'm sure the kids enjoyed it. We didn't see a ton of kids and we didn't see ONE child misbehave... the adults, though...

 

Other People

Feel free to ignore this section as it's by far the worst part of the cruise and is mainly just me blowing off some steam.

 

The game room was unusable most days because a large congregation of Chinese people were in there playing Mahjong (loudly) at all hours. The tables in the game room are two-sided, with one side having felt (that would quiet shuffling tiles) and the other solid wood - guess which side they chose? You couldn't hear yourself think. The members of this party who weren't playing observed from their own personal buffet table, which they commandeered to cover with food. At one point, where there was no table available, two of these people went over to a couple playing cards and asked to "share" their table - how do you "share" a table? - and when the couple agreed, they proceeded to spread their things over 80% of the table and eventually drove the couple out.

 

During the shopping demonstration, a young girl and her mother were sitting beside two other people I don't believe they were traveling with, but were talking to. As you know, items are thrown to the audience. The woman beside the young girl caught a T-shirt and the young girl caught a tote bag. An older woman behind her and off to the side loudly proclaimed, "SHE got TWO things!!!" in a voice that should only be used by preschoolers. The girl turned around, gave this woman That Look that can only be perfected by young girls and said, "No, I didn't" in That Voice that can only be perfected by young girls. I could have burst out laughing.

 

NCL really does its best with organization but people just don't listen. "No children under 18 in the first two rows" appears to apply only to children under 18 who are not yours. Some people seem to believe that if you sit on the stairs in the Stardust Theater before your shore excursion is called, you get out FIRST and thus get to board a magical bus with flowing champagne fountains and free cruise vouchers. I don't live in this universe but perhaps someone will one day tell Cruise Critic what the big deal is about the FIRST BUS.

 

We purchased a few Cruise Rewards certificates on board and will definitely cruise again... this was our "upcoming college graduation" cruise so hopefully we can also pencil in an "upcoming grad school entrance" cruise too.

[yoyocruiser]

Great review! Glad you enjoyed yourselves. We sailed on the Jewel last year and loved her. I have never had the mini-suite so was interested in your perspective.

 

Yes--I always get a kick out of the people that complain about the behavior of children on cruises--like you I have never really encountered bad behavior by anyone other than adults--and quite frankly--usually older adults. I have seriously had my children get run over by those mobile chair things without even recognition and our whole family got run down by a tour group of elderly. That's just my experience--not discounting others--but it has always made me laugh.

[*Luv2Cruz*]

Thanks for the review!:D Can't wait for our turn in May!;)

[yoyocruiser]

Also I agree about the beef wellington/lobster night. Honestly--every meal we had in the MDR was really quite good--with that one exception. LOL And frankly I could eat those wings at Blue Lagoon every single night!!

[patseacruiser]

Glad you had a great time. I sailed the Jewel in September and quite frankly was so pleased I am on her again in July.

[Anginette]

Also I agree about the beef wellington/lobster night. Honestly--every meal we had in the MDR was really quite good--with that one exception. LOL And frankly I could eat those wings at Blue Lagoon every single night!!

 

After I discovered them I think I did eat them every day... ! :D

[NYcruzzer]

I was on the same cruise. I agree about the crew show. Almost peed myself during the Fountains.

[crimmper]

We just disembarked this morning in time for the Nick cruise going on this week... hope everyone sailing enjoys it :)

 

Trying to keep this as concise as possible!

 

Ports

We hit Port Canaveral, Great Stirrup Cay, and Nassau. In Port Canaveral, we had planned to go to Harry Potter but realized we'd only have 3-4 hours there so we switched to the Kennedy Space Center excursion and really enjoyed that. Everything was very well-organized and we had no problem getting out or coming back. The weather was initially nice at Great Stirrup Cay and we took an early tender out, but some dark clouds rolled in and we also ended up taking an early tender back. The tender process was slow and frustrating but I think that's the nature of a tender port and not something NCL could have changed. Nassau was the easiest port as far as getting off the ship goes because of the close proximity of the port to the city... really had a great time shopping there after we braved the fray of "need a taxi?!" and "hair braiding?!" close to the entrance.

 

 

Thanks for posting your review. :D

I have a question regarding the tenders. Are the tenders using the new tender docking basin or are they still dropping folks off right on the beach.

Was there any construction going on at GSC, and if so was is noisy?

[Anginette]

Thanks for posting your review. :D

I have a question regarding the tenders. Are the tenders using the new tender docking basin or are they still dropping folks off right on the beach.

Was there any construction going on at GSC, and if so was is noisy?

 

Having never been to GSC before I don't know if the location was different... the tenders came in to the left of the main beach if you were looking straight ahead at the island, you had to walk a short distance to get there.

 

I didn't hear/notice any construction but we left after only a few hours. Even the hippo slide had to come down due to the changing weather so I think that would have affected any construction activity.

[mking8288]

:D I have a question regarding the tenders. Are the tenders using the new tender docking basin or are they still dropping folks off right on the beach. Was there any construction going on at GSC, and if so was is noisy?

 

BTW, Anginette - agreed 100% with your brief review - ditto, DH and I both felt the comic/magician wasn't quite up to par, could be better with his bag of tricks ?? - working on mine w. a bit more details & some compressed thumbnail photos to be uploaded to share - should be helpful for those sailing the Jewel soon down to the Bahamas like the rest of us.

 

Okay, here's my take on it - having been there in 2003 and 2005, GSC is vastly improved (even better than 2010 per another frequent CC we met) - it's labor intensive for crew to load, transfer & get things ready for pax to come ashore as they're doing this starting at 10 am as we watched from one of our balconies above them, using the new & larger tender boats with 460 pax capacities. We got group #11 tickets (not in a hurry) and our #'s called around 1 pm - ate our lunch first - and we're ashore around 1:30 pm - missed the brief shower that the early birds got & some came back to the ship early (and, waters were a bit on the chilly side to some)

 

When we're there last time, we had to use the ship (Dawn's) smaller tender and it was much slower.

 

I don't believe that there was "active" construction activities going on while we're anchored but it's definitely work in progress as evident in the photos.

[crimmper]

BTW, Anginette - agreed 100% with your brief review - ditto, DH and I both felt the comic/magician wasn't quite up to par, could be better with his bag of tricks ?? - working on mine w. a bit more details & some compressed thumbnail photos to be uploaded to share - should be helpful for those sailing the Jewel soon down to the Bahamas like the rest of us.

 

Okay, here's my take on it - having been there in 2003 and 2005, GSC is vastly improved (even better than 2010 per another frequent CC we met) - it's labor intensive for crew to load, transfer & get things ready for pax to come ashore as they're doing this starting at 10 am as we watched from one of our balconies above them, using the new & larger tender boats with 460 pax capacities. We got group #11 tickets (not in a hurry) and our #'s called around 1 pm - ate our lunch first - and we're ashore around 1:30 pm - missed the brief shower that the early birds got & some came back to the ship early (and, waters were a bit on the chilly side to some)

 

When we're there last time, we had to use the ship (Dawn's) smaller tender and it was much slower.

 

I don't believe that there was "active" construction activities going on while we're anchored but it's definitely work in progress as evident in the photos.

 

Thanks for the info & the photos. I noticed in your 6th picture that there seems to be a very long line. I am guessing the line is for lunch?

[mking8288]

Thanks for the info & the photos. I noticed in your 6th picture that there seems to be a very long line. I am guessing the line is for lunch?

 

Yes, the line was rather long for lunch and it was alreay pass 2 pm (supposingly the cutoff time for BBQ food on GSC) - DH went to grab some corns, chicken & hotdogs and stood in line for 15 minutes. Officer in white was screaming at the crew to hurry & finishing up. Thank god we ate in the buffet on deck 12 after seeing the clouds moving in before going ashore.

 

We went back to the ship around 4 pm and there was no long lines for the big tenders, they waited for it to fill up before going back to the ship.

[KirkNC]

Ah yes the Jewel, nice ship. Thanks for the review.

 

Kirk

[spacewoman]

Glad you had a great time. I sailed the Jewel in September and quite frankly was so pleased I am on her again in July.

 

Us too Pat!!! We're making a decision about vacation by mid-March and family consensus is do the Jewel before she leaves next year. A few reviews getting posted of not so nice time and it's too bad our experience was completely the opposite.