Just back from the Jewel!

[olesiabr]

Just a super short review to let everyone know how much fun the Jewel out of New Orleans was this past week. We were a group of six, three couples from mid forties to early fifties from Little Rock.

 

We arrived in NOLA Saturday afternoon and stayed at the Hyatt Regency ($120 on priceline). Had fun exploring Bourbon St!

 

Sunday morning parked at Fulton and had a pretty painless embarkation. We were enjoying Tsars in no time, and soon after our rooms were ready. Brought on two bottles of champagne ($15 corkage each) and ahem, several rrunners arrived successfully in our luggage, as well as my small travel tea kettle.

 

The ship looks good, still pretty clean and bright. IMHO perfect size and passenger to crew ratio. Almost all crew unfailingly polite and happy, washy washy guy just adorable !

 

Food: Tsars and Azura just OK, both service and quality of food has gone downhill since the last time we were on this ship in 2008. Le Bistro worth the upcharge. For the first time we actually ate dinner twice in the buffet (without kids!) and we enjoyed it. Blue lagoon speedy, uncrowded and a good option.

 

Shows: Enjoyed the production shows, esp Cirque Bijou. Honestly, less going on in the evening than I remember from previous cruises, but somehow we survived!

 

Ports

Cozumel: Bar Hop...do it!

 

Belize: got in line for tender tickets at 6:45, got #2, we were in port by 9am. Cave tubing dot com 9:15 excursion. Cool and tamales for lunch were excellent

 

Roatan. Private car with roatan adventure tours dot com, otherwise known as Ronys tours (we had Jefry) We had a nice tour and then snorkle at west end.

 

Costa maya. Only day that the weather was iffy the entire cruise. We did maya Chan...the lunch was excellent!

 

Weather was pretty good, even until about 2pm on the last sea day until it started getting cold again.

 

Overall we had a fantastic time and would not hesitate to do this ship/itinerary again!

 

 

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[deladypilot]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write about your cruise. Im starting to soak up everything I can find on the Jewel

Edited January 26, 2014 by deladypilot

[olesiabr]

No problem..trying to give back a little since these boards were so helpful in planning our cruise and excursions!

 

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[ann1bell]

Glad you had a great cruise. We are also from your hometown and had a fun cruise too.

 

We did another cruise Jan 4 on the RCCL Serenade of the Seas. We like sailing out of New Orleans.

[jdvmd]

Thanks for sharing!

[VideoTech]

Just a super short review to let everyone know how much fun the Jewel out of New Orleans was this past week....

 

Food: Tsars and Azura just OK, both service and quality of food has gone downhill since the last time we were on this ship in 2008.....

 

That was exactly the feeling we had after our New Year's cruise on the Jewel. MDR food definitely below the quality of previous cruises, and the service not terribly good either.

[snorkelgirlca]

We were on the same cruise. I agree that the ship is the right size and was not too crowded even though sold out.

 

I got a question. Did you know why there were five helicopters last night? We heard it was a medical emergency but in 15 cruises, I have seen my share of medical emergencies but never more than two helicopters. We were on the aft 8th floor and unless it was the same pilot making numerous attempts to,land, there was more than three helicopters.

 

Also I would send out a shout to cagneys as the food was worth the price.

 

I think you were with the group sitting in front of us at maya chan. Even with the wind the day was great.

 

Marsha

[agargoyle]

Hi,

 

thanks for the post.

 

Glad to hear that embarkation was painless. The last time we sailed out of NOLA was a disaster. They had just renovated the terminal, the computers went offline so we could not even start security check in. No lines for Latitudes members, the concierge was walking around looking for suite and Haven members and pulling them out of line.

 

The cruise was great. The Jewel is one of our favorite ships.

 

Looking to sail out of Nola again soon if we can get good prices on flights.

[kcwingwalker]

Glad to hear that several of you enjoyed the Jewel and welcome home:)

[jdeville71]

I'm glad everyone enjoyed the Jewel. We are going to be on her in 4 weeks.

 

 

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[mabrandt]

Also just back off the Jewel. The weather was really fantastic. Best I have had in a while. I have a question about the tv they have. One of the stations just shows reruns of tv shows that are mostly two years old or older. Watching that station fills in the time and its nice to see some of your old favorites. Can someone tell me why in the world they repeat the same episodes multiple times? It's not like something that can't be missed, so they run it again for the folks that missed it. . These are old reruns. Who cares? If they want to repeat the same shows, run them next week when the audience changes. That was my only complaint, and if that's it, it must have been a pretty nice cruise.

[BrittanyandBrodysMom]

Thank you for your review! We will be on the Jewel in 40 days! So excited!!

[BSR]

Enjoyed your review and I can't wait to sail on the Jewel in October.:D

[olesiabr]

We also heard that the helicopter(s) were there for a medical evacuation...I heard there were two that made several attempts. Hope the passenger is OK.

 

One of the things I love about cruising out of NOLA are how laid back and fun loving the population is....hate to generalize but I think southern cruisers are just more easy going and polite. (I can say this because even though I'm now from Little Rock home was New Jersey)

 

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[LAFFNVEGAS]

Thanks for your review, we will be on the Jewel doing the same itinerary on March 23rd :) And right about now wish it was this Friday we were leaving :o Glad you had a great time. We are going to Maya Chan too, this will be our second time there and heading over to West Bay in Roatan to Fosters also have been there before.

 

I know that tender ride into Belize and the time it takes is almost an Excursion in itself :D