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Just back from the 5/31/2014 Jewel to Alaska

brunolvr

By brunolvr,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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brunolvr

brunolvr

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We had a great cruise on the Jewel to Alaska. The weather was beautiful in Seattle on May 31,2014 for our sail away and we had great weather in every port except for Juneau where we had off and on showers (mostly on). Lots and lots of ice in Tracy Arm Fjord.

 

I was a little disappointed in the Jewel, though, as she is starting to show her age. I guess I was expecting a little more since we were the 3rd cruise out of her dry dock. There was new carpeting in all the main wear areas. The new O'Sheehan's is still waiting for their new furniture. I couldn't tell if there was new carpeting in our Haven Suite or not, but everything else in there was starting to show it's age. And there was all kinds of "junk" stored up near the Haven's private viewing area in the area and behind the seating for the sports arena -- they're still in the process of installing the "scrubbers" and you can't access the 14th deck from the Haven's private viewing area. To me it looked like they needed a longer dry dock to accomplish all that they needed.

 

I have saved my Freestyle Dailies and will try to get them scanned later this week. I took pictures of a couple of the menus but was told they're still in the process of "tweaking" the main dining room menus so they may still be changing.

 

I'd be glad to answer any questions if I can but I won't have much time for the next few days.

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airlink diva

airlink diva

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My parents and nephew are sailing on June 28(?). I will check back for the scanned info later this week.

Any suggestions, will be helpful!

Hate to hear coming out of dry dock things were not so shiny!

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brunolvr

brunolvr

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We cruise on Jewel in November. I'm sorry to hear the dry dock didn't get everything finished. Which port will be used to get the furniture aboard?

 

They really didn't say because they weren't sure -- they said they were hoping to get the new furniture soon. :rolleyes:

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brunolvr

brunolvr

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Going on the Jewel at the end of July and cannot wait to see the dailies! Did you go on any excursions?

 

On this cruise we did the Tracy Arm Fjord and Wilderness Explorer out of Juneau (a must); in Skagway we did the train (we did it 11 years ago but this was the first time for our daughter) and in Victoria we went to the Butchart Gardens. We didn't book anything in Ketchikan -- just did our self-guided walking tour. This was my husband's and my 10th cruise to Alaska but only the second for our daughter.

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brunolvr

brunolvr

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Leaving on the Jewel on the 21st. Anything that is a must see or do? We booked a guarantee ov, we usually do balconies so I am a litttle nervous.

 

Keep checking the prices and if they go down, I'd try to upgrade to a balcony. We used our balcony a lot on our cruise -- I'd never cruise to Alaska without a balcony. We even had breakfast out on our balcony a couple of times!

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brunolvr

brunolvr

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Do you remember who the Captain and Staff Captain were?

 

Our Captain was Captain Kenneth Harstrom but he got off in Seattle with us on Saturday and said he would be back sometime in August. I believe he said the new Captain coming onboard on Saturday was going to be Niklas Persson. Not sure who the "staff captain" was. I took a picture of their pictures, so I'll see if I can find it.

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brunolvr

brunolvr

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One thing I would recommend is that if your cruise has a "Meet & Greet", sign up and go to it. The dining with an officer was only offered to those attending our Meet & Greet on our cruise. We were privileged along with another cruise critic family to dine with the Captain! and others dined with the Hotel Director and others with another officer (not sure who).

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UtahCruise

UtahCruise

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I have been watching the prices right now the ov has jumped from 629 to 1299 for our week. I am hoping they will drop. Looking at the cruise that leaves on this saturday the price difference would be 240 more pp. What is a good deal on an upgrade?

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amarvel

amarvel

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Keep checking the prices and if they go down, I'd try to upgrade to a balcony. We used our balcony a lot on our cruise -- I'd never cruise to Alaska without a balcony. We even had breakfast out on our balcony a couple of times!

 

I cannot ditto this enough. Ive had a balcony (free upgrade) on a mexico cruise and it was nice, but not necessary, in alaska we live on our balcony :)

 

 

Good to hear about the meet and greet! I havent done one yet, but am already on the thread for our boarding.

 

What room were you in?

Edited by amarvel
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brunolvr

brunolvr

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I have been watching the prices right now the ov has jumped from 629 to 1299 for our week. I am hoping they will drop. Looking at the cruise that leaves on this saturday the price difference would be 240 more pp. What is a good deal on an upgrade?

 

Not sure what might be considered a "good deal". If it sounds reasonable to you and you can afford to upgrade to a balcony, I'd do it. I've found on a lot of the cruises, the "mini-suite" prices go way down so you might also check that.

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brunolvr

brunolvr

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Thank you for your review. We are leaving this Saturday. Can you tell me about the shows? What did you do on sea days? As you can see, I am a cruise newbie :)

 

We went to most of the main shows held in the Stardust Theater except for two. We really wanted to see "Jean Pierre Parent" but we were dining with the Captain that evening and it just didn't work out that we could go.

 

Day 1 was "Stardust Showtime, A Taste of Things to Come" which we enjoyed especially since they introduced the Captain and the Senior Management onboard.

 

Day 2 was "Spotlight Showtime: Band on the Run" -- it was okay

 

Day 3 was "Comedian Bill Hildebrandt" which we enjoyed very much

 

Day 4 was "Duo Deja Vu" which was exceptionally good

 

Day 5 was "Jean Pierre Parent" which we missed but heard was very good

 

Day 6 was "Le Cirque Bijou" which was very, very good! Don't miss it!

 

Day 7 was "Farewell Concert" which we missed because we got back late from our excursion and had a late dinner.

 

Lots of fun things were going on in the Fyzz Lounge.

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brunolvr

brunolvr

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I cannot ditto this enough. Ive had a balcony (free upgrade) on a mexico cruise and it was nice, but not necessary, in alaska we live on our balcony :)

 

 

Good to hear about the meet and greet! I havent done one yet, but am already on the thread for our boarding.

 

What room were you in?

 

We were in Haven Suite #14512! :D

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brunolvr

brunolvr

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Thank you for your review. We are leaving this Saturday. Can you tell me about the shows? What did you do on sea days? As you can see, I am a cruise newbie :)

 

Oh, and on sea days we mostly explored the ship taking lots of pictures. There's so much going on that it's hard to keep track of everything!

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lax19

lax19

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Thanks for posting the first day daily. We'll be on the Jewel in August! Was the cruise director Jamie DeSousa? She was the CD when we were on the Star a couple of years ago.

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brunolvr

brunolvr

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I'm trying to figure out how to post the Freestyle Dailies from our cruise. I hope this works. Here is Day 1:

 

10414393_10152476900888139_7620999670685072767_n.jpg

 

 

 

10406924_10152476997148139_4905262542397297954_n.jpg

 

10308873_10152476997158139_1861060346581590232_n.jpg

 

The second page is wrong -- I don't know how that turned up but here's the correct page:

 

10414554_10152477233328139_102592340623737935_n.jpg

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