Cruise the Jewel RECENTLY?? - Inside Passage or NO?

[x2tpd]

We are supposed to finalize our reservations this morning and were told last night by NCL that the Jewel out of Seattle does the inside passage? After reading through the posts on here it seems at least in May 2016 the Jewel out of Seattle DID NOT do the inside passage? Can someone who recently went tell me what it did? If it is not going to go into the passage we will need to change to a Vancouver departure.

[cole]

We are supposed to finalize our reservations this morning and were told last night by NCL that the Jewel out of Seattle does the inside passage? After reading through the posts on here it seems at least in May 2016 the Jewel out of Seattle DID NOT do the inside passage? Can someone who recently went tell me what it did? If it is not going to go into the passage we will need to change to a Vancouver departure.

 

To be safe, I would change to a Vancouver departure. I think the description from Seattle is misleading.

Cole

[punkincc]

You may want to take a look at a recent thread which discussed this called "My one big disappointment NCL Jewel to Alaska by Kdzkatz. I just put Jewel Inside Passage in the search bar above and found it quickly. Their complaint was that the itinerary "map" showed an inside passage route and the ship actually sailed out to sea after leaving Seattle.

 

You should go by the actual itinerary which will either state "Sea Day" or "Sailing Inside Passage". It might help if you specified which sail date. It looks like some Jewel sailings do indicate "Inside Passage", but not all.

[Kdiamond55]

I could be wrong but when I was researching our cruise earlier this year for end of July the Jewel was a good amount less and my agent told me that was because the Pearl was the ship that did the inside passage whereas the Jewel did not. That could have been the time of year as another poster indicated. I'd probably call NCL and speak to an agent.

[dallas16]

Neither the Pearl or the Jewel do the Inside Passage on their itineraries from Seattle. They sail around the west coast of Vancouver Island rather than through the Inside Passage. I believe that it is only the cruises from Vancouver that do the inside passage

[eatdrinkfly]

As far as I know only Vancouver departures do the Inside Passage. Far better itinerary vs the Seattle departure IMO because you also get to skip the Victoria day.

[Buford T Justiice]

I think one needs to define 'Inside Passage' before an accurate description is provided.

 

Many maps refer to the Inside Passage as stretching from Vancouver Island all the way to Skagway.

 

Some define the inside passage as the eastern route around Vancouver island

[titangas]

Any cruise that goes to Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan sails the inside passage.

 

What you are asking is what side of Vancouver Island, pretty much you can guarantee that a cruise out of Seattle will sail off the west coast.

Edited July 20, 2016 by titangas

[Laszlo]

We are supposed to finalize our reservations this morning and were told last night by NCL that the Jewel out of Seattle does the inside passage? After reading through the posts on here it seems at least in May 2016 the Jewel out of Seattle DID NOT do the inside passage? Can someone who recently went tell me what it did? If it is not going to go into the passage we will need to change to a Vancouver departure.

 

Will be on the Jewel in about 5 weeks, watching ship tracker is does not go "Inside" it goes and and back the west side on Vancouver Island. The little map they have shows it does but from what I have seen and heard it does not

Edited July 20, 2016 by Laszlo

[BirdTravels]

The Jewel does NOT do the inside passage. It's still a great cruise, but your sea days are really out at sea.

[hpecorari]

The Jewel does NOT do the inside passage. It's still a great cruise, but your sea days are really out at sea.

 

The ten-day Jewel ultimate cruise October 2017 Leaving Seattle and ends up in Vancouver. According to the written details it shows that it does the inside passage the day before it arrives in Vancouver. I'm not sure how to read the map properly but if you look at the actual days and times of the ports it shows inside passage, again the day before it arrives in Vancouver

Harriet

[pokerpro5]

I went through this exact situation on the Sun in August 2014, when cruising from Vancouver to Whittier, AK.

 

The itinerary and map showed "cruising the inside passage", but instead we spent Day 2 out at sea, where you saw nothing but open ocean from all sides of the ship. I was very disappointed.

 

My review mentioning this is here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2087093

 

Here is the relevant portion:

 

CRUISING THE INSIDE PASSAGE -- IF YOU'RE AWAKE AT 3AM AND HAVE NIGHT VISION: The itinerary of this cruise claimed that you would be "cruising the inside passage" on Day 2. I looked forward to this beautiful scenery, only to find myself highly disappointed in NCL for misrepresenting what is basically a scenery-challenged sea day. The definition of "inside passage" is a rather loose one in general, but it definitely implies sailing in between land on both sides, to where there is scenery on both sides of the ship. Unfortunately, that's not what we did or saw on Day 2. We were in the middle of a very wide strait for the entire span of daylight hours, where you see nothing but water. You don't make it to an actual inside passage until well into the middle of the night when it's pitch dark. Despite fairly good visibility throughout the day, I saw almost nothing besides water in every direction on Day 2. So it looks like this "cruising the inside passage" was a marketing gimmick to avoid making it look like there are any non-scenery sea days, and they can legally get away with it because technically you're in an "inside passage", just a very wide one that looks the same as the open ocean. Still pretty shameful. Anyway, they might have learned the error of their ways, as future cruises on this itinerary now list Day 2 as simply "Sea Day".

 

Of course, some obnoxious trolls here mocked me for the complaint.

 

I was later told by another member of CruiseCritic that this occurs when there is too much fog to safely cruise the inside passage, so they take an alternate route. I'm not sure if that's the truth, but it made me feel a little better at the time. As far as I heard onboard, they made no mention of changing the route, though.

 

Bottom line is that you shouldn't expect the inside passage, no matter which port you cruise from in that area.

Edited July 21, 2016 by pokerpro5