Jewel Review 3/13 - 3/20

[hunterJay]

So we just got home from the cruise and just wanted to share some of our experiences, etc.

Overall it was a pretty good cruise. Weather was perfect, stewards were great - the key to a great time.

Room: we had a BB cabin 9602 (3 of us). We utilized the pull down bunk rather than the pull out bed. It worked out pretty good. I only hit my head once while coming in from the balcony, but easier to get to and from the balcony than with the sofa pulled out (as we did in an earlier cruise). Yes, room was small compared to a standard hotel room, but good enough for the 3 of us so no complaints there.

Casino: We got slot credits on line ($50 for $25) so we spent some money there. We're not huge gamblers (maybe $60 a day between the 2 of us). No complaints there either.

Kids Club: Daughter is 7 years old. At first the club bored her (she said they didn't really do anything), but by the end of the week she found more friends and didn't want to leave. The conselors didn't put out a tip jar or envelopes (which I found tacky on our last cruise) so we gave them cash (and they seemed appreciative).

Port Canaveral: We got the $10 shuttle and went to Cocoa Beach (about a block from where they dropped us off). Nice beach day.

Great Stirrup Cay: Really nice snorkeling. We got a clamshell and hippo slide pass (which got us out on the first tender). Didn't use the clamshell much, but daughter loved the hippo slide. One of my few complaints - NCL needs to police (clean) the beach better. There were bottle caps and tabs on the beach. Daughter cut her toe on something there - not sure what, but her toe didn't fall off, yet. My advice - wear water shoes. Overall, a memorable day (again with the weather, the snorkeling was really nice).

Nassau: We did the stingray excursion. Pretty fun. After the rays you get to snorkel in the roped off area of the beach. Problem here is that I found 3 pieces of glass (not nice smooth sea glass, but sharp broken glass) in the water. Again, a nice trip, but I'd recommend water shoes.

Ship Food: We ate at Tzars, Azura, Blue Lagoon (actually got it to go back to the room), Le Bistro, Cagney's, and the Buffet. No complaints about the food. Some food was better than others, Le Bistro was my fav, but the soft ice cream machines in the buffet were key for the family.

Ship Layout: I got confused on more than one occasion on where I was and what direction was what. Elevators were slow when we used them. But don't worry, we survived.

Ship Shopping: Got some nice Duty Free liquor. FYI - If you're a latitudes member MAKE SURE THEY GIVE YOU YOUR 10% off. We got some souveniers and I had to ask to get the 10% off (he blamed the computer). When we bought cosmetics, the lady took it off without us asking.

Shows: We did more shows this time than both of our cruises prior. They were pretty good. The Magician / Comedian was hillarious (my personal fav). Crazeehorse was amazing as was Cirque de Bijou. My only peeve here was people that came late to the show. The shows START at 7:30 and 9:30. Get there 15 minutes early and you get a great seat. Show up 2 minutes before the show and you get whats left, if anything. Show up late and you get people pissed that you can't tell time.

Disembarking: We didn't do self disembarking as we had a lot of heavy luggage. Regardless, when they call colors (we were blue - after purple and yellow and self) there were still people with their luggage waiting to get on the escalators - that was a mad house - you got one lady yelling for people to move forward, buy you have two ladies making sure only a few people go down the escalators at a time. Welcome back to NY. My advice - get a porter when you get your luggage. They have a separate (very quick) customs line and they brought our luggage to our car.

Overall, we had a pretty nice vacation. There were the normal rude people (cutting the buffet line, etc) and crazy people ("why are we on a yellow security alert, why is it yellow, what does that mean, why are you taking pictures of everyone" - this was a crazy lady coming back from GSC questioning the security staff) but the weather was perfect and the staff was friendly so we had a good time.

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer them.

[BBTT]

2 questions:

 

what is a yellow alert and how do you get $50.00 slot play for $25.00 and can you get more than one per person or if 4 people in room can they all get 1 each

 

Thanks in advance

[hunterJay]

Yellow alerts are nothing. The sign just says they have the right to search your bags when you come on board (so it's just the standard screening process). The guy taking pictures was doing the video for ncl.

The slot coupons were at slotplaycoupon.com. There's a thread about them titled "Casino Question.". One per person but you can get another for your spouse, friend, etc. You do need to have or get a Players card for each credit.

[A1SusieQ]

Welcome back. Thanks for the info!:)

[JColquhoun]

thanks for the info

 

I will be on the Jewel in Oct

[Carnac767]

Thanks for the report. Love the Jewel. Glad you had a good time. Thoroughly agree with you on Jean-Pierre, the magician/comedian. That guy is hilarious and not to be missed.

[rkeate0804]

Thanx for the great post....we will be going in about a month....

[rkeate0804]

OMG just got slot play for both of us.....tyvm kathie

[Journey11]

Thanks for taking the time to write your review. It contained helpful information.

[cabrioclo]

So we just got home from the cruise and just wanted to share some of our experiences, etc.

Overall it was a pretty good cruise. Weather was perfect, stewards were great - the key to a great time.

Room: we had a BB cabin 9602 (3 of us). We utilized the pull down bunk rather than the pull out bed. It worked out pretty good. I only hit my head once while coming in from the balcony, but easier to get to and from the balcony than with the sofa pulled out (as we did in an earlier cruise). Yes, room was small compared to a standard hotel room, but good enough for the 3 of us so no complaints there.

Casino: We got slot credits on line ($50 for $25) so we spent some money there. We're not huge gamblers (maybe $60 a day between the 2 of us). No complaints there either.

Kids Club: Daughter is 7 years old. At first the club bored her (she said they didn't really do anything), but by the end of the week she found more friends and didn't want to leave. The conselors didn't put out a tip jar or envelopes (which I found tacky on our last cruise) so we gave them cash (and they seemed appreciative).

Port Canaveral: We got the $10 shuttle and went to Cocoa Beach (about a block from where they dropped us off). Nice beach day.

Great Stirrup Cay: Really nice snorkeling. We got a clamshell and hippo slide pass (which got us out on the first tender). Didn't use the clamshell much, but daughter loved the hippo slide. One of my few complaints - NCL needs to police (clean) the beach better. There were bottle caps and tabs on the beach. Daughter cut her toe on something there - not sure what, but her toe didn't fall off, yet. My advice - wear water shoes. Overall, a memorable day (again with the weather, the snorkeling was really nice).

Nassau: We did the stingray excursion. Pretty fun. After the rays you get to snorkel in the roped off area of the beach. Problem here is that I found 3 pieces of glass (not nice smooth sea glass, but sharp broken glass) in the water. Again, a nice trip, but I'd recommend water shoes.

Ship Food: We ate at Tzars, Azura, Blue Lagoon (actually got it to go back to the room), Le Bistro, Cagney's, and the Buffet. No complaints about the food. Some food was better than others, Le Bistro was my fav, but the soft ice cream machines in the buffet were key for the family.

Ship Layout: I got confused on more than one occasion on where I was and what direction was what. Elevators were slow when we used them. But don't worry, we survived.

Ship Shopping: Got some nice Duty Free liquor. FYI - If you're a latitudes member MAKE SURE THEY GIVE YOU YOUR 10% off. We got some souveniers and I had to ask to get the 10% off (he blamed the computer). When we bought cosmetics, the lady took it off without us asking.

Shows: We did more shows this time than both of our cruises prior. They were pretty good. The Magician / Comedian was hillarious (my personal fav). Crazeehorse was amazing as was Cirque de Bijou. My only peeve here was people that came late to the show. The shows START at 7:30 and 9:30. Get there 15 minutes early and you get a great seat. Show up 2 minutes before the show and you get whats left, if anything. Show up late and you get people pissed that you can't tell time.

Disembarking: We didn't do self disembarking as we had a lot of heavy luggage. Regardless, when they call colors (we were blue - after purple and yellow and self) there were still people with their luggage waiting to get on the escalators - that was a mad house - you got one lady yelling for people to move forward, buy you have two ladies making sure only a few people go down the escalators at a time. Welcome back to NY. My advice - get a porter when you get your luggage. They have a separate (very quick) customs line and they brought our luggage to our car.

Overall, we had a pretty nice vacation. There were the normal rude people (cutting the buffet line, etc) and crazy people ("why are we on a yellow security alert, why is it yellow, what does that mean, why are you taking pictures of everyone" - this was a crazy lady coming back from GSC questioning the security staff) but the weather was perfect and the staff was friendly so we had a good time.

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer them.

 

nice review w/good info, thanks.

glad you got the first tender to GSC - we did NOT do an excursion and got tender ticket # 24!