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A great week aboard the Jewel - A heavenly experience

jmele999

By jmele999,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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jmele999

jmele999

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We are just off the Jewel (January 19 - 26) after spending a heavenly week in the Owner’s Suite and visiting Cozumel, Belize, Roatan and Costa Maya. I am going to provide a detailed review, but need time to sort through over 500 pictures and notes. In the meantime, please feel free to ask questions.

 

Overall, we had a great cruise filled with fun, sunshine, fine dining and fellowship. The Jewel is a great ship and the owner’s suite was incredible. It was great to finally meet our roll call friends and spend time making memories that will last a lifetime.

 

As per introduction, there were two of us on this cruise. My dear partner (dp) and I are both 38 and enjoy travelling, meeting new people, and cruising. We started cruising in April, 2010 on a four-day cruise to the Bahamas and Key West aboard Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas. Later that year, we did a five-day cruise on Norwegian Dawn to Grand Cayman and Cozumel and have completed a total seven cruises in the last year four years. We now exclusively cruise NCL because we like freestyle cruising and whenever possible splurge and book a suite.

 

Please stay tuned for more as we have both returned to work today and are experiencing a rare and highly contagious form of a post-cruise illness.

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jmele999

jmele999

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Looking forward to your review as I will be on the Jewel in Oct. Can you tell me who the CD, HD and other officers were? Thanks.

 

Will reply tonight. Need to look at notes when I get home. However, the officers might be on vacation since your cruise is 9 months away.

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jmele999

jmele999

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Before moving on and describing our experiences on the cruise, I would like to describe how we ended on another Western Caribbean cruise and in the Owner's Suite.

 

Prior to this cruise, we had visited the Western Caribbean twice and so we wanted to try other itineraries. In May 2011, we used a future cruise credit to book a large balcony cabin on the Epic to the Eastern Caribbean for January 2013. While doing some research for our Epic cruise, I learnt about the American Express OBC promotion ($500 OBC for booking a suite), which is no longer available. In addition to the AmEx promotion, we were also eligible for more OBC from a latitudes promotion, and so we decided to switch our reservation from the January 2013 cruise on the Epic to a penthouse suite on the Pearl for January 12, 2014 going to Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios, and Cozumel from Miami. Since we had $650 OBC, there was no difference in price between a large balcony on Epic and a penthouse suite on the pearl. Additionally, the Pearl was going to Ocho Rios, which we have never visited.

 

But wait, there is more.

 

In December 2012, we received an e-mail from NCL letting us know that our January 2014 cruise on the Pearl was cancelled because the ship had been chartered. They offered to move us to other cruises on the Pearl in December 2013 or March 2014, but since I like travelling in January, I requested to be transferred to the Jewel for another Western Caribbean cruise in January, 2014. Luckily, they agreed and we received an additional $100 OBC - Yes - now we are up to $750 on OBC.

 

Well, the story does not end there.

 

While looking at our reservations in June 2013, I discovered that NCL had increased our OBC from the latitudes promotion, and that now we had a total of $850 OBC. So, our cruise was finally set - we had an Aft Penthouse on Deck 10 on the Jewel for our January 19th, 2014 cruise from New Orleans and a HUGE OBC.

 

So, how do you go from an aft penthouse to an owner's suite?

 

The Monday before our cruise we received a phone call from the upgrade fairy. They were offering us an owner's suite at a discounted rate (25% percent of the original price). I forwarded the e-mail to my DP and called him several times regarding the offer. When DP finally called me back he told me that while the offer was good, he was not sure about it. We agreed to talk about it over dinner. However, I could not wait and since he had not said no, I quickly called NCL and accepted the offer.

 

And here is the best part of the story.

 

When he got home that night I told him that I was very upset because we were not going to be in that suite anymore, and proceeded to show him a video that I found on youtube of our new suite. He was surprised and did not believe me and asked me to show him proof, which I quickly produced by showing him an e-mail from NCL confirming the reservation and listing all of the amenities of the Owner's Suite. Needless to say that he was surprised, confused, worried, and happy all at the same time. That night he spent a lot of time online learning about the owner's suite and the perks that come with that suite.

 

At the end he was happy, but even today he constantly reminds me that he cannot believe that upgraded us to such a nice room. He is now hooked and wants to travel in that type of luxury all the time.

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jmele999

jmele999

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Sounds great may I ask what the actual cost - in dollars -of the upgrade was ? We are on deck 10 in a aft PH next year and am hoping for this call.

 

I think that the difference will be based on how much you paid for your current room and the current cost of the room that you are trying to upgrade to. For example, at the time when we upgraded, the cost of the Owner's suite was $3100 per person and we paid 75% of that. We also got to keep our OBC since they were the ones who contacted us. Also, keep in mind that in the owner's suite you get three bottles of alcohol for your room.

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Cruzface

Cruzface

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While on your picture in photobucket, you have to look to the right side and it will have options to copy the pic. Click on the one that says copy URL and then go back to your thread post and paste it in there. You won't see the pic until you post your reply to the thread [but you should see the codes] and you can only paste max 4 pics in each reply.

Edited by Cruzface
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jmele999

jmele999

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While on your picture in photobucket, you have to look to the right side and it will have options to copy the pic. Click on the one that says copy URL and then go back to your thread post and paste it in there. You won't see the pic until you post your reply to the thread and you can only paste max 4 pics in each reply.

 

Thanks. I was copying the URL, but then realized that I need to click on the picture and copy the URL.

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jmele999

jmele999

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Great pictures. I was in the Owners Suite on the Jewel a year and a half ago. It is a beautiful Cabin. I will be on the Jewel in Oct this year with BSR. .My question is what Tours do you recomend for Cozumel, Belize and Roatan. Thaats quite an upgrade!

 

Hi Redheel,

 

I would highly recommend doing one of the Mayan ruins. In Cozumel, you can Tulum. Tulum is great because there is a beach right next to it so you can go swimming right after you are done exploring the ruins. In Belize, you can try the Lamanai ruins. It is a full day which include a bus road, followed by a river boat ride (great) and then the ruins. In roatan, I would recommend looking into booking a tour with Vitoc Boden. You can do a private tour and he will take you wherever you wan to go.

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jmele999

jmele999

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Congrats on the great upgrade. I can only dream that the upgrade fairy would visit us for our first NCL cruise on Jewel in March. Looking forward to hearing more about your cruise!

 

Thanks MariTenor - The Jewel is a great ship. There is lots to do and the ports are great.

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jmele999

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Since we had previously visited all of the ports of call before, I spent a lot of time online and cruise critic looking for ideas as to what to do and see while in port. In our previous cruises, we had visited both the Tulum and Lamanai Mayan ruins, and done the all inclusive beach breaks in Cozumel. In our previous two cruises to Roatan we had never gotten off the ship or left the port area so we knew that we wanted to do something in Roatan.

In addition to reading reviews on cruise critic I also joined our roll call early last year. At first, very few people were posting, but after September our roll call started to pick up. As part of our roll call, we planned several activities, including a pre-cruise river cruise, meet & greet, hometown gift exchange, slot pull and cabin crawl. Additionally, we also planned to enjoy some of the ship activities together including the Mardi Gras parade and party, white hot party, jazz brunch, etc. A fellow cruise member even started a separate closed group on another online site (starts with an F), which allowed us to exchange pictures and plan activities. Overall, our roll call was very active, and we all had a great time meeting each other before or during the cruise.

After much planning, my DP and I decided on the following activities:

Cozumel – did not plan anything because we wanted to stay onboard and enjoy the Haven, but ended up meeting some friends at the Money Bar in the afternoon (More to come later).

Belize – A trip to Caye Caulker – Perhaps the highlight of our trip (Pictures to come later on).

Roatan – A tour of the island and beach break. Lots of fun including a visit to a monkey farm. Stay tuned for pictures.

Costa Maya – Tropicante – A beach break.

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