Carnival/Royal family cruises NCL Jewel - Picture review

[mpcaruth]

Port Day 4: Costa Maya - continued

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mpcaruth]

Port Day 4: Costa Maya - continued

 

 

 

 

After snorkeling we were dropped off at Pez Quadro where we changed our clothes and warmed up some. We were welcome to stay at their beach and bar area as long as we liked. We decided to walk the entire Malecon before getting a taxi back to the port area. I really enjoyed the walk and seeing all the beach club, though the vendors could be quite annoying. We bought a few trinkets along the way, and made our final stop at a shack at the beginning of the Malecon. The sales lady there really wanted to sell. I ended up buying a beautiful hand-painted decantor set for $28 (originally she wanted $65).

 

 

 

Freezing cold after snorkeling but still having a great time!

 

 

Pez Quadro/ 40 Cannons Hotel, picture taken from our fishing boat:

 

 

Love the bathrooms at Pez Quadro:

 

 

 

 

[mpcaruth]

Port Day 4: Costa Maya - continued

 

 

Pictures taken from our walk back along the Malecon. Notice the lack of cruise passengers. I can only assume that it gets really busy when the temperatures are higher than the 60's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Empty pool at the cruise port:

 

 

 

[mpcaruth]

Port Day 4: Costa Maya - continued

 

 

 

Costa Maya was a neat port. I really liked the Malecon idea. Too bad the weather was cold, windy, and cloudy, or it may have been the perfect port day. (At least it was not raining) My son gave the day two thumbs up, and THAT is what it is all about!

 

 

Photos taken from ship at sail-away:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bye bye beautiful Costa Maya!

[destaw7182]

I am really enjoying your review and amazing pictures. Thanks for sharing!

[NYGirl1002]

Very enjoyable review. I love your photos.

 

The Jewel is my favorite NCL ship so I'm quite partial.

[gelo7]

Great review and photos.

[bluesea777]

FOOD

 

Buffet: The buffet had more than 6 different stations and we never had to wait in line for food, even at breakfast. Sometimes finding a seat was a challenge, but the Italian restaurant was opened up during the days of over flow seating. The food at the buffet was really good for buffet food, and honestly more appealing than the main dining room for most things. Every day there was a salad station, hot food, Indian (my favorite), Wok, sandwich-station-turns-into-a crepe-station-randomly, desert, etc. I thought the deserts were not were the calories, except for the amazing bread pudding. I could never figure out why the back outside buffet line was almost always closed (even at 12:00 on a sea day). This was irritating as we had to go all the way to the back to find an empty seat, only to find the drink station there was closed, and we had to go back forward to get a drink.

NCL wins the buffet category mostly due to good food, variety, and NO WAITING in line.

Royal comes in second, as the food is usually good, and they have the best salad bar.

Carnival comes in last as it is always busy, congested and my blood pressure always seems to rise when I go there. Carnival ships typically only have 2-3 super long stations and everyone must wait in line, even if they just want a roll.

 

 

The Great Outdoors usually open at 12:30pm. You could have checked the Freestyle Daily ....

 

Great Review and Terrific Photos so far!! Keep it up.

Edited February 9, 2014 by bluesea777

[Hyedee]

Enjoying your review - and your snorkeling photos are amazing!

 

Thank you!

[meatball_nyc]

Great review so far!! Well done and your photographs are breathtaking!

Looking forward to more.

 

Happy Cruising!

 

 

Robin

Norwegian Breakaway July 2014

Carnival Miracle 2010

Carnival Legend 2006

[mitsugirly]

I'm really enjoying your review. :)

 

I'm so glad you all enjoyed Maya Key. The snorkeling there is just so amazing. We love it there.

[mpcaruth]

Entertainment:

 

 

Overall, we really liked the entertainment on the Jewel. We typically do not like the main theater shows which entail only singing and dancing. I love Broadway, and just prefer to pass on the shows on the cruises. One thing I have always wondered: why don’t the ships have a play or musical show? That would be much more entertaining than just the singing and dancing.

 

I liked the magician and so did the rest of my family. During the show, my daughter was called up by the magician to assist with the jewelry ring trick. She is somewhat shy, but I think she did a great job in front of everyone. By the way… she figured out the trick at the end, but we will forever keep it secret! And no, she had not talked with the magician beforehand. I like to capture photos of all our vacation moments, but the no photography rule during stage shows kept me from getting photos of my daughter during the show.

 

We also attended the comedian/ventriloquist show. It was funny until… I got called up on the stage at the end. (I am starting to think that big curly hair really draws attention from the performers – what are the odds of both my daughter and myself getting called up on stage?). While on stage, the ventriloquist gave me my instructions for being the dummy, along with another guy from the audience. Okay, I got this…I can do this… Apparently I make an excellent dummy, as the audience kept laughing. I had at least 8 different people ask me later during the cruise if I had practiced with the ventriloquist before the show. Nope, I am just a natural dummy when staring into the stage lights.

 

One thing that I really liked about this cruise was the fact that there were always seats available at the main theater shows. On Carnival and Royal, we would have to show up at least 20 minutes early to get decent seats for the four of us. Though there were always seats available on the Jewel, if you showed up late you had to either make the entire row stand up to let you through to an available seat, or as some did, climb over the seats. The theater was not set up to have exterior aisle to access seating.

I loved the décor of the theater (probably because I really love teal).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also saw the Cirque de Bijou. The show was fairly good, but honestly, I did not think it met up to the hype others had made of it. I was anticipating a little more Cirque and a little less dancing. My son was reluctant to go, but we convinced him beforehand that there would be acrobatic action. Well… his comment when it was over, “glad that is done!” My husband was bored too.

[NSinMG]

I'm enjoying your review. Your photos are great.

[cruisinsly]

Great review. Love your pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[mpcaruth]

Thanks you all for the compliments. I am glad I can share our experience!

 

I apologize for taking so long to complete this review, but things are just so crazy here.

 

 

SHIP:

 

 

The ship was nice, not elaborate or extraordinary, but very nice. I suspect after taking so many cruises, it takes a lot to get that WOW factor we used to get on our first few cruises. I always like the large atrium on most of the ships, and the Jewel lacked this feature. The ship was always clean and I loved the tropical fish carpet in the cabin hallways! We seemed to have spent a lot of time in the Fyzz lounge, as it was convenient to get to and there were always activities and trivia going on there. I think the ship size was perfect, offering lots of public space and activities, but never feeling over-crowded. We never had to wait for anything (except dinner one night we waited for about 15 minutes, but was given complimentary drinks while we waited).

 

It looking at my photos, I did not seem to get too many of the ship, except during family activities, which I present earlier. I will share a few that I have.

 

 

Hallway leading into the Stardust Theater

 

 

Interesting artwork in the Fyzz Lounge:

 

 

[mpcaruth]

SHIP Continued:

 

 

This hub area seemed to be the social center of the ship in the evenings (I cannot recall the name of this area). It is located midship near the casino, so it was on the path to just about everything. The live music here in the evenings was nice.

 

 

 

 

 

Night time shot of the pool deck:

 

 

The "atrium" area, Magnum's Champagne and Wine Bar:

 

 

I never understood the purpose of this video monitor. I think it could have been put to better use showing music videos, ship videos, entertainments, etc. Every time I walked by this faux-live time shot of ?somewhere? was always showing:

[mpcaruth]

Casino:

 

I am not an avid gambler, but I do like to play in the Casino a few times during each cruise. For this cruise, I used my NCL credit card points to redeem $20 in table chips. Typically I come out ahead when I play roulette, but I lost all my game chips quickly this cruise. I played the slots a few times and overall, I came out about $10 ahead. So, I was entertained in the casino for a few hours and they paid me $10 for my fun. One thing that I don’t like about the slots on NCL (and Royal Caribbean) is that the machine will only accept cash or the printed ticket. On Carnival, you insert you Sail & Sign card (room key), download/upload money from your onboard account onto the machine. On Carnival, I can even use my free OBC to play in the casino. When I sat down at the first slot on the Jewel to play and it did nothing when I inserted my room key, I did a big SIGH. I had to go back to the cabin to get cash. Then, when I was done playing, I had to collect my ticket from my remaining machine balance. SIGH again, as I had no pockets. (I keep my room key on a lanyard around my neck). I lost one of my tickets later in the week, only to find it on the floor in our cabin. I am like a child when it comes to keeping up with small stuff!

[mpcaruth]

CABIN:

 

Our cabins were nice, clean, and small. We have been spoiled with larger cabins on Carnival, and I typically get a special inside or OV quad cabin which are 220 square feet. I saw no cabins listed on the Jewel that big, unless we jumped up to suites. And since I am all about the bargain and getting the most vacation for the buck, I ended up booking two IS cabins (at only 143 square feet each). The kids loved having their own room, and so did the parents! Our cabins were in a great location: mid-ship, deck 9. We could use the stairs to go 2 decks up to the pool deck, and it was only 3 down to the promenade areas.

 

Our cabin steward, Raymond, was wonderful! Probably the best steward we have ever had. The kids mistakenly left the door sign to “Do Not Disturb” one evening and did not get a towel animal. The next day Raymond personally gave my daughter a lesson in towel animal making and made her an extra animal. By the way, Raymond says he practices his animal towel making skills a few hours each week.

 

 

<<R

 

 

 

 

We had the beds pulled together for our room. Whoa, the beds are a little old and sunken in the middle. There was to be no cuddling in the middle where the two were joined, as you would only roll back into the hole. Surprisingly, the beds were still comfortable. Both my husband and I have back issues, and neither of us has increase back pain. My daughter said of her bed, “It’s like some big guy slept in my bed for a year and left his impression”.

 

For those interested, both our cabins were quad cabins and had one fold down bunk on the wall, and a trundle bed hidden under one of the beds. I think I could handle all four of us in a single cabin, but I am pretty sure my husband would be a lion and eat his cubs!

 

Kids' cabin:

 

 

Our Cabin (notice the sunken spots):

 

I know many people ask on CC about “switching” cabins and getting extra room keys for kids. It was really an easy process. My daughter and I were assigned to one cabin, and the guys to another. We went to the customer service desk immediately upon boarding the ship. As an adult has to be assign in every cabin, they do not switch cabin keys. They give you extra door keys. I got a Guest Door Key and so did my son. After we got our keys, we went to the shop/store and had holes punched into all our cards so that we could put them on our lanyards. We were all set, and no one ever lost or forgot there card all week.

 

[RoobyDoo]

Thank you so much for the great review, the amazing photos, and for sharing your family's experiences! I was on the Gem last month, and your review and photos allow me to see the similarities (and differences) between Gem and Jewel. With all this snow in NJ, oh how I wish I were back on that ship!

[mpcaruth]

As I am winding down this review of our amazing tropical vacation from 3 weeks ago, I look outside and am reminded of why we cruise every January.

 

TO GET AWAY FROM THIS!

 

I opened up my patio door and my dog LOVES it! See her smiling?

 

 

A few more photos I took of the snow:

 

 

 

 

 

There are two reasons I am planning to retire to Florida: to get away from this snow and to catch last minute, resident cruise deals. I am jealous of all you folks that are getting ready to head out on your cruise. Have fun!

[52marv]

Hello from a fellow Virginian!

 

I really enjoyed this review, you have a gift for answering all the questions a cruiser would have and your pics are gorgeous!

 

I'm going to read your other reviews. I had been skipping Belize and Roatan, but thanks to your review, I'm going to give them a try.

 

Awesome job!

[mpcaruth]

Onboard Credit: How to maximize this even if you sail the cheap cabins.

 

Wow! We really racked up on the free OBC. $600 total from numerous sources. One of the reasons for justifying the added cost of two cabins over a single cabin was that we could double dip on some of the free OBC. At the time of booking, NCL was offering $75 OBC per cabin, while our TA threw in an additional $25 per cabin. After we booked, I found out on the CC forums, that there was a Home Shopping Network $100 OBC promotion: all you needed to do was sign up online at HSN for a NCL catalog to be mailed to your house. The paperwork stated for new bookings only, but the great advice and info on CC suggested that I give it a try to get the HSN OBC added. It took a few phone calls, but it worked! AND we kept all previous OBC, AND got cabin upgrades to a higher deck.

 

We are Loyalty members with our online TA, and following each cruise, we get a $25 OBC voucher for the next cruise booked through them. We had two vouchers, so that added another $50 OBC. Last year, prior to booking the cruise, I signed up for the Norwegian Credit Card and received enough free points to earn $100 OBC. I used the card for a couple of months to get another $50 OBC (and $20 in casino chips). I love signing up for credit cards to get the initial free perks and then I cash in and cancel the cards shortly thereafter. I know this may affect credit ratings, but we are not concerned as we never borrow money (our only debt is our primary house).

 

It took a little work, but we got $600 OBC total. We used it for our excursion in Roatan, dinner at Teppanyaki, drinks, rum cake, Deal or No Deal, and souvenirs from the onboard shops.

[mpcaruth]

Hello from a fellow Virginian!

 

I really enjoyed this review, you have a gift for answering all the questions a cruiser would have and your pics are gorgeous!

 

I'm going to read your other reviews. I had been skipping Belize and Roatan, but thanks to your review, I'm going to give them a try.

 

Awesome job!

 

Hello Virginia! Thanks.

 

Do not, I repeat DO NOT, skip Roatan. That is my favorite island. Belize is more controversial for some folk, but we have really enjoyed both of our stops there: Cave tubing, and Altun Ha & Belize River excursion. I need to go back to Belize at least two more times, as I want to do the Goff's Cay excursion and to see the Great Blue Hole. The West End beaches on Roatan are so nice with the snorkeling right there along the shore, that I don't think I could ever have the attitude of, "been there, done that".

[ksimpso3]

Great review. Loved all your pictures. I think I will buy the waterproof camera case for our cruise in May. We have not sailed the Jewel yet, but plan on giving her a try soon.

[Barb Nahoumi]

Your pictures are heartwarming, when I'm looking out my window at feet of snow.

 

Can't wait for my next cruise, when we're going to the Eastern Caribbean.