Jewel review - 1/17 Western Carribean

[beason641]

Just got back from yesterday from the Jewel, and my house won't stop rocking back and forth. Hopefully this vertigo goes away quickly! This is mostly just snapshots of things and places that I remember, rather than a day-to-day, because I didn't keep the dailies or make any notes, so at some points things get really vague and days are certainly mixed up. We didn't eat in any of the speciality restaurants, so I can't say anything about those, but I can say that the French restaurant was fully booked all day every day, which was crazy to us. Also, probably no pictures, because we just plain forgot to take very many!

 

Pre-cruise: We flew in day-of. Never again, mainly because it was so exhausting that I ended up sleeping through sail-away. We took a cab from the airport to the terminal, and stopped at a Walgreen's on the way out travelling companions could buy some soda. The taxi right ended up being around $70 before tip, for the four of us plus suitcases.

 

Once we got to the terminal, we tried to check the sodas along with our luggage, and discovered that you have to carry it on! The porter said it was because the boxes would get crushed and the sodas would explode, and he was promptly proven right as the one of the boxes randomly opened and a can exploded all over the pavement.

 

The check-in line was crazy fast, and we were on the boat before we knew it (helped by our avoidance of the photographers - they didn't get us all week). When we boarded, we asked which dining room was open, and were told that Tsar's was full and that we should go to the buffet. However, he also told us we could go to our rooms and drop off the soda, even though it was before 2. After dropping off our things, we went to Tsar's, which was empty. We suspect he was trying to tell us that they were closing at 2:30 to prepare for the muster drill, but we were able to eat with no issues (try the shrimp burger!) Our luggage was delivered really early, and we were able to unpack after lunch.

 

Shopping presentations and team: We spent the early morning of the first sea day eating breakfast in the buffet (Day 1 of 7 spent eating that damn delicious french toast for breakfast) and exploring a bit more. We found our way through the sundecks (including the "freestyle" deck, which was quickly exited, though my husband tried to take his pants off) and located each of the lounges, restaurants, bars, and stores. The husbands went off to read while us wives went to the shopping presentation given by Dani. It was basically an hour of her telling us all her sponsored places to shop, but we did get a coupon for a "diamond" pendant to pick up in Cozumel, AND we got to hang out with Paul and Moses (our two favorite people on the entire ship) while waiting in line for the coupon. After lunch (buffet again), we went to the Gem and Watch seminar in Fyzz exclusively so that we could get a second coupon for earrings. (Basically at that point we weren't even pretending to care.)

 

Cozumel: We didn't book any excursions for Cozumel, so the wives met at 8:30am to go on Dani's "shopping party", at which point we promptly lost our husbands for the entire day, despite hours of looking. We ended up spending the day walking up and down the main drag, collecting the DI charms for our bracelets (that we'll never wear), shopping, and being offered Mexican boyfriends. We ate lunch at Viva Mexico, which wasn't great, but wasn't terrible, and had free wifi, so it was worth it. I also discovered the absolute cleanest public restroom in Mexico, which is at the pier immediately across from the Del Sol store. But be warned, while it is absolutely spotless, it also doesn't have a toilet seat, soap, or paper towels. So, you know, it's a balance.

 

Belize: Our friends booked a Mayan ruins excursion, but my husband and I didn't, so we slept in. We ate breakfast in Tzar's, which is the same food as the buffet, but more relaxing (and portion controlled). Once there was open tender, we took a boat into port and walked around the (small) tourist area. All we really did was have lunch before taking the tender back, so there's not much I can say about that. Our friends said their excursion was spectacular though, and that the river boat ride plus the bus ride plus the ruins made for a day that wasn't too exhausting (as long as you didn't climb the ruins) and let you see a LOT of Belize.

 

Roatan: Based on a recommendation from the boards, we booked the Maya Key private island excursion in Honduras. We really enjoyed it, although it seemed kind of odd that there were no waves, which is usually one of my favorite parts of swimming in the ocean. The buffet was good (tip: it's sea bass, not fried chicken), but the replica ruins were kind of meh. I really didn't enjoy the animal section, primarily because the enclosures seemed small, and there wasn't any kind of information available about why they were actually there. The facility is billed as an animal rehabilitation center, and they say that all the animals are injured or confiscated, but there was nothing about when or if any would be released, how long they were there, which ones were there permanently, etc, at least that I could see. I did read that the sea lions were there because there had been "complaints" about them being in the bay, but their enclosure seemed particularly small, especially for three lions. The cats (ocelot and jaguar) seemed particularly anxious, and there were worn paths in their enclosures where they clearly spent a lot of time pacing back and forth. Basically, although the island was close to the boat, inexpensive, and not crowded, I wouldn't book again specifically because of the lack of transparency regarding the animals. After we got back from the island, we breezed around the small tourist area and I bought a small painting from a vendor who was painting them right there, and we went back aboard.

 

To Be Continued...

Edited January 26, 2015 by beason641

[beason641]

Fyzz Lounge We really liked Fyzz, even if we were only there for trivia (multiple times per day). There was a spot in the carpet where it had ripped, which was really the only spot on the entire ship were I noticed any wear and tear. The chairs there are odd - kind of small, some really squeaky, ridiculously hard to move - but it wasn't bad and we loved the various trivias. Make sure that you get an activity card from the beginning! We didn't discover this until Wednesday and missed out on a lot of signatures. If we had gotten it earlier, we could have gotten an extra t-shirt or two at the end of the week, haha.

 

Stardust Theatre I liked the theatre, but man, if you've got hips, those seats are tight. It was like being on the airplane again! We went to a couple of shows. The first night was an "introduction" to the various shows that would be playing through the week. In reality, it was a song by the Jewel singers, then Jamie the cruise director talked for awhile, and JP the magician did what felt like half an hour, and there was another song or two, and the show ended. There were no acrobats or comedian, but overall it wasn't terrible. The shopping presentation previously mentioned was there, as well as Deal or No Deal later in the week. We also went to see the comedian (David Nassiter or similar), which we did NOT like. He's one of those comedians that wears crazy clothes and tries to talk big game about how he just tries to be him and have a good time and blah blah blah, but he turned us off with a few political jokes about Obama (played well with the mostly-Texan crowd) and then his show devolved into this weird almost preachy thing that I just couldn't wait to end. Our friends saw Jean-Pierre, the magician, and apparently his comedy was significantly better. We also saw Cirque Bijou, which was pretty good for being a Cirque knock-off. We loved the acrobats and wished we hadn't missed their show earlier in the week.

 

Spinnaker Next to Fyzz, we probably spent the most time in Spinnaker, which is likely why my vertigo is so bad today, haha. Bingo was here, as well as at least one of the Name That Show Tune trivias, and the game shows in the late evening tended to be in here. Because it's on the front top of the ship, it moves a LOT. We really liked the Men vs. Women game show, which ended with the ladies destroying the men in a game that involved the (tasteful) removal of many pairs of pants and several bras. There was also a Liar Liar game later in the week that was crass and hilarious. Leslie (the assistant director) is particularly hilarious, and his crew is well-trained and runs like a machine.

 

Tradewinds This is the duty-free store, which has SOME things you may need and MANY things that you don't. We were able to find bug spray here, which was a relief after Belize, but it didn't help with the sand fleas in Honduras, sadly. Next to Tradewinds is what we called Picture Alley, which we didn't need to utilize as we didn't get our pictures taken at all all week.

 

iConcierge This was the biggest disappointment of the cruise. From the materials I had read, it seemed like the app would assign a phone number to your phone that outside users could use to call you. Instead, it was a nine digit number based on your room number that was used for app-to-app calls. This would have been just annoying but still okay, had the app worked basically at all on my phone. My husband didn't have any problems on his phone with it, and was able to call the rest of us and send text messages, but my phone never received the calls or messages (except once, which I'll explain in a minute), and our friend's app stopped receiving any messages about three days in. During the Belize day, I took my phone to the Internet Manager to try and figure out why it wouldn't stay connected to the wifi and why the app wouldn't work even when it was connected. He told me that it was because my phone was HTC, not Android, which is the most ludicrious statement an Internet Manager could possibly make. (For those of you who don't have a cell phone, HTC makes the phone, and Android makes the operating system that the phone runs on, so yes, my phone was Android.)

 

After spending about 15 minutes trying to explain to him the difference between the manufacturer of the phone and the OS, he took me over to Guest Relations to try and get me my $7.95 back. The rep there was AWFUL. She smirked at me and dialed my number, at which point my phone promptly rang. She called her phone from mine, and it worked again. She refused to listen to me when I tried to explain that my husband had called me from four feet away not two minutes ago and it didn't work, because when he did it again to show her, it worked. She told me that they would make a note on my file and as long as we didn't use the app at all again for the rest of the week, we would get refunded on Friday. This was frustrating because it meant that we couldn't even TRY to communicate. Coincidentally, this was the same time that our friend's app stopped working, so on Friday we all got refunded our $7.95. Final verdict: save your money.

 

To be Continued....

[beason641]

We only ate in the free eateries all week, but they were fine with us.

 

Garden Cafe (buffet): Once you figure out the schedule, this place is fine. It's not 24/7 or even open all day, but their hours are extended compared to the two dining rooms. We loved the French toast and muesli in the morning, and the pretzel rolls (NOT the sticks) and Indian dishes in the evening. Somehow the pineapple is amazing, but avoid the chocolate fountain. There was chocolate ice cream at the machine in the main area, but there's a more secret second machine towards the aft if you keep walking back past where you think it should be, and that one has strawberry. Another thing we realized as time went on - there's outdoor seating by the pool, yes, but there's better outdoor seating on the aft patio, AND there's an extension of the buffet there that's usually not nearly as crowded. How we didn't discover this until Thursday, I'll never know.

 

Tsar's (main dining room): I liked Tsar's just fine, but my husband didn't like the decor at all. He said it felt like a high school gymnasium with pictures of Russian guys on the walls. The Caesar salad was fantastic, and I ordered the chocolate volcano for desert basically every night. Mind the bread though - basically every long skinny bread on the ship is crumbly and dry. Avoid hoagies, breadsticks, french bread, etc.

 

Azura (main dining room): We greatly preferred Azura's decor and overall atmosphere, but we never managed to eat lunch there because it seemed like there was always an art auction going on, haha. The nice thing about Azura (to us at least) is that because there was always around a 15-20 minute wait for dinner, we got certificates for a free glass of champagne or soda and sat in Bar City with a pager. It was never long enough to be annoying, and we got to learn about cricket while we waited. The menu was basically the same as Tsar's, but it was much more intimate and fun.

 

O'Sheehans: It took me almost all week to realize this was a pun. I really enjoyed this place, particularly the spinach and artichoke dip. The burgers were good, the chicken pot pie was hot, and they were willing to give me ice cream with my pie instead of whipped cream. Fantastic for late-night munchies and late afternoon lunch.

 

Room Service: I knew room service had a limited menu, but I wasn't prepared for HOW limited it was. I had been hoping to be able to sleep in in the mornings and have breakfast in bed, but unless that breakfast was coffee and pastries, that wasn't happening. There were a couple sandwiches for lunch, and a couple of desert options. We ended up ordering the $5 pizza a couple of times, nothing spectacular, and sandwiches another time (avoid the hoagies). Overall, okay if you really can't bear to leave your room, but you're better served going to the buffet or O'Sheehans.

[beason641]

We stayed in 10126, a balcony, and our friends stayed in 10626, the exact mirror on the other side. I wouldn't say I'm claustrophobic, but I did know that I'd go crazy in an inside or oceanview, which is why we ended up in the balcony. I was happy with the size, and was pleasantly surprised that the bed was a King instead of a Queen (which was what was listed on the website). We just recently downgraded our normal bed to a queen and hate it, and the extra space was so wonderful.

 

The bathroom was tight, but that was to be expected. We'd definitely consider a mini-suite next time, mostly because our poor very tall (6'6") husbands were a bit cramped in the bathroom, particularly when trying to dry off from the shower. (And forget trying to change your clothes in there...if you need privacy, send anyone in your room out to the balcony and close the curtain!) Also, if this is your first cruise, mind the toilets - they're a bit frightening the first time!

 

The TV channels were limited, as expected, but we did enjoy ESPN Carribean, which had a much better variety of sports than ESPN at home does. I could have done without the entire channel devoted to excursions, and seeing Dani's shopping presentation on 26 over and over and over again was taxing. But overall, we had TV when we wanted it and turned it off the rest of the time.

 

Our steward, Alston (I think! My husband threw away the card before I could get his name!), was awesome, and the make-up/turn-down service was perfect. I think we irritated him though, because we kept coming back to the room just as he was about to clean it. We asked him at one point to see if he could find a pill bottle while he was making up the cabin, because we had spent ages search for it with no luck, and his finding that more than earned the tip we left him at the end of the week. I hope his other rooms tipped as well - his job is hard and glamorous.

 

The balcony had two chairs and a small table, but I typically stood if I was looking at the view, because at my height, the handrail just blocked me from seeing anything, haha. It's fairly private, and we got to see all the docking and sail-aways from our side, which was really fun.

 

Overall, the cabin was extremely quiet - no noise above, below, or on either side. If my husband didn't mind the bathroom, we'd definitely book this room again.

[beason641]

I was leery about cruising, having never gone, and because I suffer from anxiety and was worried about being stuck on a boat in the middle of nowhere for a week. But in the end, I'm a cruise convert, and we'll almost certainly cruise again with Norwegian. I had a good time, and the parts I didn't like weren't bad enough to make us consider trying another line (but at the same time, if there's another line with significantly better itineraries and prices the next time we're planning, I don't feel like we HAVE to go with Norwegian.)

 

I've skipped over a lot of stuff, probably because I'm holding on to my couch for dear life as I type this, so feel free to ask me any questions and I'll answer the best I can.

[radlad68]

Great review! We sail on her in February and can't wait. Good luck with your vertigo. I always come home with it, but the vacation is worth it!

 

 

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[judyf]

Nice review thanks for sharing

[kumar247]

Was there a "White Hot Party" on this ship? From reading reviews I can't tell if all NCL ships have a "WHP" or if just the newer ones.

 

Also did you go to any of the clubs? What was the vibe like?

[RSFCruiser]

 

 

O'Sheehans: It took me almost all week to realize this was a pun.

 

What am I missing here, or are you meaning it's a reference to the {former} CEO, Kevin Sheehan? :)

[david_sobe]

Welcome back

Thanks for the review

[ranran87]

What am I missing here, or are you meaning it's a reference to the {former} CEO, Kevin Sheehan? :)

 

They pronounce it like the word oceans, which I believe is the pun he referenced. Took me a while to realize it as well.

[jjdshoe]

What is the "freestyle" deck?

[Spanky My]

It is much appreciated headed out this weekend on the Jewel :)

[kumar247]

why avoid the chocolate fountain on the buffet? was there anything wrong with it?

 

Is there a chocolate night as well on the cruise?

[beason641]

I never realized I got any responses to this review!!!! I never got any email notifications...

 

I know I'm a year late, but if anyone wants any answers to those questions, just let me know. Until then, I'll be over here being mortified.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report.

[Keith1010]

Very nicely done review.

 

Keith