A Real Alaskan Jewel - May 7 - My first NCL Review!

[jenseib]

Stunning pictures. My cruise in Aug. is going to Tracy Arm and I was told Glacier Bay is so much prettier but being new to the whole Alaska area I think I will be thrilled no matter what.

It looks like such a wonderful day with such beautiful views.

 

I am loving your review. We will be doing an Alaskan cruise next summer. I am have a hard time deciding between the Carnival legend or NCL. I have been on 5 Caribbean cruises, all on Carnival. They are the only cruise line I know. Also does a birth certificate and drivers license work for customs on the Yukon train excursion or passport only? Thanks again

 

No you have to have a passport book!

[CRZe787]

Between carnival and Ncl I will choose NCL everytime.

 

 

iPhone TPTK

[CRZe787]

I was planning to sail the pearl next year. Where you disappointed at any time...?

Ship and things to do while at sea? How was the cruise director?

 

 

iPhone TPTK

[SenatorsFan]

I'm enjoying your latest review very much! You are posting some truly beautiful photos of the stunning scenery. I definitely have Alaska on my bucket list. :)

Heather

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Stunning pictures. My cruise in Aug. is going to Tracy Arm and I was told Glacier Bay is so much prettier but being new to the whole Alaska area I think I will be thrilled no matter what.

It looks like such a wonderful day with such beautiful views.

 

I think there is probably more to see in Glacier Bay as far as natural beauty and more types of and numbers of glaciers along with mountains and untouched wilderness that you are surrounded by. Both places are awesome though. It sure was fun and I have my day from Icy Strait Point all written up and will be posted in a second. I hope you enjoy that as well and I know you will love your cruise in August.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Between carnival and Ncl I will choose NCL everytime.

 

 

iPhone TPTK

 

Having only been on NCL once and hearing about a lot of the changes that are coming but were not implemented when I cruised, I still probably will go back to Carnival for the majority of my cruising. But I will definitely sail on NCL again in the future as well as I did like the Jewel and I thought it was a good value and experience.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I was planning to sail the pearl next year. Where you disappointed at any time...?

Ship and things to do while at sea? How was the cruise director?

 

 

iPhone TPTK

 

I thought the stewards were nowhere near as personable as the ones I have seen on some other lines and the main dining room service was lousy. I also was bummed that they carry Pepsi and the other lines Coke. I could also use more evening entertainment but outside of that, I was happy with pretty much everything else I got to see and do on this vacation and as a first timer on NCL, I was left with a generally pretty good impression. The cruise director Armen was professional and very visible all around the ship. I would say he did a good job considering the type of cruise this was, not too over the top but still organized and kept things running smoothly.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I'm enjoying your latest review very much! You are posting some truly beautiful photos of the stunning scenery. I definitely have Alaska on my bucket list. :)

Heather

 

Thanks! Glad to hear you are enjoying. I thought the scenery was pretty spectacular also, which is why I made sure to get tons and tons of pictures to share with everyone. You definitely have to get out there to Alaska sometime. Even if it is not on a cruise. You will want to go back time and time again. :)

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

It’s been a long time coming, but here I am with the next part of my Norwegian Jewel review from the May 7th sailing. I can’t believe it’s been a month since we have been home already, time really does fly when you are busy and summer finally arrives. These memories are still a little fresh in my mind however, and I would like to continue telling my story and share some pictures of my adventures with you all. Thanks for reading and I hope you have enjoyed and learned a few things about this ship or these ports of call through this review. So, here goes with our visit to Icy Strait Point, the 8th day of my voyage.

DAY 8: ICY STRAIT POINT (HOONAH)

Well, today featured a visit to the town of Hoonah, at Icy Strait Point. Hoonah is a town of less than a thousand, is completely isolated and is located about 50 or so miles from Juneau, if I recall correctly what our tour guide said. There was plenty to do here though, and we did have fun in our short time at this place.

How it looked out my window when I woke up:

I woke up at my normal time of 1000 and got ready to get off the ship and explore the town. It was nice today, probably mid to upper 60s and sunny. Perfect weather. Since Hoonah doesn’t even have a dock for cruise ships, or even boats that are suitable for tender use, we actually used the ship’s lifeboats as our tenders to shore. They did a crew lifeboat drill the day before in Skagway, and based on announcements that were constantly coming over the loudspeaker, it was quite an involved process. They had two lifeboats in use and it was not a long wait to get a ride to shore. Hopefully that is the only time I ever get to ride in a cruise ship life boat if you know what I mean. They were actually pretty sturdy, but still. Lol.

Anyway, we arrived onshore sometime around 1100, in advance of a 1200 island tour. The port area here features a fish cannery museum, a visitors center, and shops and a few restaurants. It is not a huge area and is completely walkable in less than 10 minutes for pretty much anyone. I walked up and down the wooden dock a few times to see if there was anything I wanted to get to eat or purchase as a gift and nothing really stood out. One of the restaurants was famous for some kind of seafood alcoholic drink (yeah, yeah) but I didn’t try it. The entire mini-mall was built like an old log cabin, very antique appearance, and you could purchase excursions here also if I remember correctly.

The little mini-mall with shops and restaurants on the dock:

We all met up in the little visitors center around 1145 and just waited for them to call ticket holders for our tour to come meet up for the excursion. We purchased today’s excursion through the ship, as there really isn’t much to do here in terms of going off on your own and just exploring. However, I did hear that you could ride a shuttle bus up into town and see things there although I also heard many of the locals sort of frowned upon tourists doing so. I actually shed the hoodie I had worn onshore with me because for a while it was really warm in the sun. We got called for our tour a little after 1215 and we all headed as a group back to the parking lot area behind the mini mall to meet our tour.

This tour was a tram ride around the island, to be followed by a theater show that explained the history and culture of the local people. More on that later….

Our tour guide was a local, but I forget his name although he was born to one of the two main local tribes in the area. He explained a little about the island, geography, climate, etc as we rode along. We rode on a pathway through the rainforest part of the island, which was huge, spectacular, and one of not that many in that part of the world. I got some nice pictures of this. We continued to ride along the other side of the island, with a great view of the ocean for much of the ride. He told us that they are in the process of building a cruise ship dock in Hoonah, should be done by next year sometime. He said it was good for the people there, as construction means plenty of jobs for the locals there.

Ride through the rainforest:

He also said that one of those TV reality shows (I forget which, not that into reality TV) was filmed there I think. He said that a huge percentage of the people from Hoonah serve in the US Armed Forces, as it is a way to see the world and to get a better education. If a young person commits a crime, they are jailed in Juneau and are then forced to get at least their GED, before they get out in hopes that it will reduce chances that they will be career criminals in the long run. Good idea if you ask me.

We arrived at a beach, and we got off the tram to get some good photo ops and for some to collect clam shells and rocks to take home. The clams here seem to be huge although I really didn’t take anything back with me as I can see similar at the Jersey shore or Florida beaches. We spent about a half hour here and although the water is cold, our guide said fishing is a huge industry in the area and during certain times of the year, that is how they make their living. We all got postcards with a tribal name on them and that would be the side of the theater we would sit on when we went to the show. We rode back to town, retracing the route we took across the island. We got to ride underneath the famous zipline they have for the more adventurous types, I think they said it takes riders down at like 50 mph or something. I would never try that myself.

The beach:

We got back a little before 1400 and our show was in the theater on the other side of the little port area at 1430. The show featured local people, who dressed in local tribal clothing and spoke in local native languages and was narrated by one of the local elders in town. Photography and videotaping are strictly prohibited during the show and one guy who thought the rule didn’t apply to him tried to record and they actually stopped the show until he put his camera away. Way to ruin the atmosphere dude. It is not that hard to comply with simple polite requests to not do something. They did allow plenty of opportunity to take pics with the cast after the show was over. The audience was divided into two sides and each side cheered for the tribe they were assigned to for the show whenever that group was highlighted. Fun.

The show:

The show did get started a little bit late and that did cause a little bit of a ruckus at the end. It ended around 1515, and the ship was scheduled to leave at 1600 with a last tender at 1530. Since it ran a little over, people actually walked out of the theater before the show ended because they were afraid the ship would leave them. Of course it wasn’t going to leave without people still on ship-purchased excursions, but I guess they didn’t understand that. I found it to be a little disrespectful of the people who were proudly presenting their culture and rituals to us outsiders to do that. The cast did heartfully thank those of us who stayed to the end for doing so and mingled with the audience some after the show was over.

We walked back to get in line for the tenders and of course, there was probably a few hundred stragglers waiting in line on the dock. Most of the restaurants and shops were closed or were closing now, due to the ship being ready to leave, so no stopping for a snack or drink while we waited. We waited about 10 minutes and finally got a tender ride back to the ship, in plenty of time for departure. Being a seasoned cruiser does help when it comes to knowing how close you can push it for returning back to the ship from a tender port, haha.

I got a Pepsi and some late lunch and stopped back at the cabin for a while. I will mention that I was getting extended network service on my phone here, but I wasn’t able to access the internet on my phone and I didn’t try to make any calls so I don’t know if that would have worked here either. So don’t plan on being connected phone-wise in this port. I had read about the bridge viewing room earlier in the cruise, so being the nerd I am, I had to check it out. It really was nice. It is located on Deck 11, on the left side of the ship, and shows a great view of the bridge operations and also has navigation data and current weather on an electronic display near the wall. Plenty of dedication plaques and awards posted on the wall there too. Neat little place. I went there a few more times later on as well.

Bridge viewing room:

I stopped in the hot tub for a little while to relax and swim afterwards, and later on, we had reservations at the La Cucina Italian restaurant at 1830. I would say this place had the best service and atmosphere of all the pay restaurants on the ship. We celebrated my upcoming birthday here, and I got a little cake and happy birthday singing from the restaurant staff. I ordered a pizza for appetizer and pasta and meat for entrée. I know, boring, but that is what I like and it was good. My mom got a steak and the little bit I tried, I think was better than the steak I got at Cagney’s. Go figure. The restaurant has a great view of the ocean and it was pretty calm again this evening, but no whale sightings. We did express our satisfaction to the staff on the way out, and they were grateful that we enjoyed the whole experience. I told them I would give them a good shout out when I did this review also, lol. People complain about bad service but they don’t praise good service nearly enough.

After dinner, around 2000, we were exiting protected waters and so our pilot no longer had to be onboard with us. I went back up to the bridge viewing room and watched the small boat come to pick him up, watched as we slowed down and positioned to meet the boat, and then we were on our way. After that, I got another nice look at sunset behind the mountains, and it was off to head through some open Pacific waters for our day at sea that was upcoming the next morning. After watching more coverage of the train disaster in Philadelphia, I hung out on the balcony with some wine and just hung out for a while as the daylight faded away into darkness. I was pretty tired so I was probably out to bed sometime around midnight.

That is it for this day, more pictures to follow and hopefully you enjoyed this part of my journey. The next day was a lazy day at sea and that is where I will pick up when I continue, whenever that may be. Have a good evening and happy cruising

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

The ship, taken from our position on the dock in Hoonah:

 

Riding through the rainforest:

 

Beach visit:

 

 

 

 

The tribal heritage and rituals show:

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

More of the show:

 

 

 

Dinner at La Cucina:

 

 

 

 

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Another picture from the bridge viewing room. We were getting ready to drop our pilot escort back off as we were exiting protected waters:

 

 

Sunset

 

Towel animal, next day's Freestyle Daily and a reminder to move our clocks forward once again.

 

[jenseib]

Another fabulous day!

[CRZe787]

Thanks.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[SenatorsFan]

Another fabulous day!

 

I agree! :)

Heather

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Another fabulous day!

 

It was cool. I wouldn't say untouched wilderness because people have lived there for centuries, but it surely is a different experience from what I am used to.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Thanks.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

You're welcome! Glad you have enjoyed this review.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I agree! :)

Heather

 

I'm quite happy you have had a good time reading this. That's what these reviews are all about-for people to share their experiences with others. I have a few more days left to go to recap, a sea day and a day in Victoria, Canada then back to Seattle on Saturday.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Hello everyone, I am back with Part 9 of the Jewel May 7 experience. Thank you all who have read all the way through and who have left their kind comments. Hopefully you are enjoying and if you are headed on this itinerary anytime soon, it has given you ideas of what to do and expect along the way. Maybe it has even enticed you to cruise to Alaska if you weren’t previously interested in it. So, I left off where we had left Hoonah, Icy Strait Point, and the next day was a lazy day at sea as we were beginning to head back towards home port. I know it has been a long time between additions to this review, hopefully I can get done this thing today or tomorrow. Without any further delay, here we go.

DAY 9: SECOND SEA DAY

Fresh off a bunch of port and scenery visits, today was just a lazy day to relax at sea and chill out. I woke up at my normal late morning time and just hung out some. I sat out on the balcony and for the first time in a while, couldn’t see anything but open seas all around. We were sailing through the open ocean at a much faster pace than we had been previously, and although the seas were calm, it was noticeable that we were going faster.

I walked around the ship today and just wandered around, with no real clear intentions. I went up to the lido deck and got some breakfast, followed by some grilled lunch after I discovered it. I don’t remember if I mentioned it previously, but I think they mentioned that they bought a bunch of fresh salmon when we were in one of the ports (Ketchikan) and they grilled it up today for lunch. It was in the same pit that they had barbecues earlier in the cruise and it was good. They had some other stuff to go along with it, like veggies also. It’s pretty neat as since it is an open bbq, ship staff (firefighting department I suppose) kept close watch over it all throughout.

I got my salmon and some other stuff and sat down poolside to enjoy and listen to some live music. I don’t know the name of the band playing, but they set up on a little stage between the pools and played a lot of cover rock songs. Nice atmosphere, they were really good. Like I said before and in my post-cruise survey that NCL sent out, live music is a huge thing for me and I am glad that they are keeping it alive throughout their ships. They think people won’t notice or care if they get rid of that stuff but they do notice.

After lunch, sometime around 1300, I went upstairs and just walked around the sports deck some. They have a basketball/volleyball/soccer court at the very back of the ship but it really didn’t get much use because it seems the netting around it was damaged and never got fixed so people didn’t play too much in there. I also walked by the golf cages but I was too lazy to go downstairs to check out clubs and hit a few shots. It’s like the indoor driving range cages you see back home and at least a few people did take advantage of them. One thing I did not like about this ship was that there was no mini golf course. I don’t think I have ever been on a cruise ship that didn’t have at least a basic 9-hole golf course. Even the Golden Princess had an indoor full course simulator that you could play for a price. Kind of a bummer there.

I like to take pics of the ship on my last sea day, so I did that today. I thought about hitting the noodle bar on Deck 7(?) for lunch and it was open until something like 1400, but they said the line was long and there would be a wait. I didn’t feel like waiting and they always seemed to have some sort of Asian cooking up in the buffet area at lunch anyway. I got some more pics that I will show in a minute, and continued on my shipwide journey. I also have to mention that everyone on this ship had to fill out a Canada immigration and customs form for our visit to Victoria, even if they didn’t plan on getting off the ship. It was a requirement and had to be turned in by 1700 I believe. We turned ours in and went off to do our thing for the rest of the day.

I hung out in the hot tub today, which was pretty crowded due to it being a nice sunny sea day. Temps in the 60s and sunny, pretty much par for the course for this week. I talked to some cool people, one guy from Texas, a few from Cleveland, a couple from Philly, fun. I got the drink of the day, which was called the Blue Lagoon, for $6.95 plus 18 percent. It was strong, and I thought about getting another one but again, was too lazy to get out of the pool to get my card when the bar waiter walked by and asked anyone if they wanted anything. Lol. Speaking of the pool, it was much colder today. We joked that anyone coming into the hot tub had to dip in the pool before they were allowed in. It felt like an actual pool today, hehe.

Anyway, around 1700 I finally got myself out of the hot tub and went to take a short nap in the cabin before dinner. We had reservations for Le Bistro tonight, which was the French upcharge restaurant. I will say although the quality of the food was OK, as was the service, I was not a fan of the limited variety or atmosphere of the place. It was my least favorite of the five places we went. As was normal with for our dining, we went at off times, around 1900 and it was not crowded here. We made reservations for every place but there would be no wait at any of the restaurants, outside of the Teppanyaki, which pretty much requires that you make one. I got some soup as appetizer and some beef tenderloin as my entrée. I can’t even remember what I got for dessert. I actually went upstairs to the buffet to get more food for dinner afterwards as I wasn’t full.

We walked around what I would call the promenade deck after dinner, and listened to a band playing piano and other instruments and just hung out. A little low-key compared to the daytime entertainment but it was OK. I went outside to get a picture of the sunset and quickly got a hold of our entire group to get a group photo with the sunset behind us. By this point we were beginning to make our way back towards the Lower 48. The professional ship photographers also got pics of us here and of others who wanted the same experience, but honestly, I still liked mine more.

Anyway, after sunset at about 2130, I headed back upstairs to see what was up in the cabin and then headed down to the casino to play again for a little while. This was also the last night the casino would be open I believe, due to spending the day in Victoria the next day and then heading right back to Seattle the morning after that. All in all, the casino was fun but I didn’t win anything except for one night but I didn’t lose a ton either. I got to spend a couple hours playing for not a lot of money each night so that was considered a win by me.

I got done at the casino at about 2300 and stopped by Spinnaker to check out the white hot party. Duh, I wasn’t wearing white so I didn’t go in there but it sounded like fun from outside. I will also note that this was the only night that the ship really was rocking due to rough seas. I don’t remember if it rained but it was windy, I think the bridge report showed like a 45-mph crosswind that was causing the ship to rock badly. It was kind of hard to move around outside or on upper decks and they actually had a lot of areas closed off. I headed back around midnight and went to sleep although I was awakened by the really rough seas a few times overnight. I have to stress that it was funny to watch my favorite TV news shows from early evening playing re-runs when it was like 9PM on the ship due to it being after midnight at home. I never did get used to being 3 or 4 hours behind home time.

So, that is it for Day 9 of my voyage. I have a few pics coming in the next post, and I am going to try to get to recap my visit to Victoria sometime later tonight. I do want to get this thing done with once and for all. I hope you have enjoyed everything so far and happy cruising.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

BBQ that featured Alaskan salmon:

 

 

Live music with lunch:

 

 

Music on the promenade deck:

 

 

A view from outside O'Sheehan's. A favorite of mine all cruise long:

 

Ship directory, posted right outside of each elevator. Ship was pretty easy to navigate, but some things were kind of difficult to find:

 

Midship, where all the Asian dining options are located. I wanted to do the noodle bar today but lines were long and I didn't want to wait:

 

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

My dinner at Le Bistro. Not my favorite restaurant on the UDP on this cruise:

 

 

More evening music:

 

[NancyL2]

Thanks so much for the wonderful review and pics! I'm going to share this on our Roll Call.

[jenseib]

I've been debating Le Bistro. I think we'll wait and see how things play out once on the ship and see if we can get in.

[Colin B]

Wow! Thank you Flying Cruiser. that has really given us something to think about when we plan our trip to Alaska.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Thanks so much for the wonderful review and pics! I'm going to share this on our Roll Call.

 

It was my pleasure! I have thoroughly enjoyed re-living the whole vacation with everyone by doing this review. Thanks for linking it up so everyone from the roll call can see it. I haven't looked there but I guess it is still active? That's cool. It was a fun time had by all, I enjoyed it. Couldn't really ask for better weather than what we had most of the time.