Photo review of 14 day Panama Canal Cruise on NCL Jewel

[MamaS]

Let me start by introducing myself. I am MamaS. A 30 something mum who lives in Sweden. This trip, a 14-day Panama Canal cruise from Los Angeles to Miami on the Norwegian Jewel on January 6th-20th, was done together with my DH, DS aged 5 and DD aged 3. This was our third cruise, second with NCL.

 

My plan is to divide this review into different topics that might be of interest, rather than making it a day-to-day review of the cruise. But of course that won´t stop me from posting pictures. :)

 

I hope you will find the information you are looking for. If not, feel free to ask questions!

 

 

 

Debarkation

 

We arrived in Los Angeles a few days before the cruise in order to see some of southern California, and get rid of the worst jet lag, before the cruise. On January 6th, the first day of the cruise, we returned our rental car and took an Execucar shuttle to the port. This is actually the same company as SuperShuttle, but since there were four of us, it was cheaper to pre-book our own private car, than to share a shuttle with others. And the part of the company which run the private cars is called Execucar. In hindsight, I might consider taking an ordinary shuttle next time. We ended up being at the airport 30 minutes earlier than expected, and the private car could not come earlier than booked, so we needed to wait, instead of just taking the next SuperShuttle van that showed up.

 

We arrived at the port about 10.40 a.m. We left our check-in luggage with the porters and went inside. Quite a few people had arrived before us, but there was only a short line through security and a somewhat longer line for check-in. Looking around, we could quickly conclude that we were all far below the average age among the passengers and we could not see one single child other than our own. We were given a paper with number 8, which was the number of our boarding group.

 

The woman who checked us in was quite slow and disorganized, but we finally managed to get our key cards and headed to the waiting area. It later turned out that the woman must have missed to file one of the papers we signed, because we were later required to go to the Guest Service desk on the ship to sign the same paper again. Oh well, no harm done.

 

NCL had put up several tables where you could get assistance with several things already before boarding the ship. We took the opportunity to change one of the dinner reservations we had previously made online. Once done with that, as well as a short bathroom visit, boarding group 9, which was one number higher than we had, was already being called, so we hurried to join the line to board the ship. Once passed the mandatory photographers, we were finally boarding the ship at 11.40, only one hour after arriving at the port. Everything had gone extremely smoothly and we were impressed that the lines were not longer, considering the cruise was sold out.

[MamaS]

On previous cruises we have had mini suites or balcony rooms. This cruise, however, was quite pricey since it was a two weeks Panama Canal cruise, and we decided to settle for room 5590, an outside mid-ship room with a picture window.

 

I was a bit concerned that the room would be too crowded and that we would miss not having a balcony. And yes, it was a bit crammed with four people in the room, but it was manageable, especially since the children didn´t mind sharing bed, so we did not need to use the forth bed. For those who do not know, there are two standard beds in this kind of room, one fold down bunk bed and one bed that is hidden during the day and folds up between the two normal beds at night, so that the full short end of the room is filled with beds. It works, but makes the room quite crammed.

 

 

We didn´t miss the balcony as much as I thought we would. When the children were younger and took a nap in the afternoon it was great to have a balcony to sit on while waiting for the kids to wake up. Now we were busy most of the time and didn´t spend much time in our room. The only usage of the balcony that we really missed was for drying clothing, because our swimwear did not always get dry overnight in the room.

 

A feature of this room that I had not thought about previously was the window. The children quickly figured out that it was cozy to sit in the windowsill, which is quite deep, and look out over the ocean. The sill is wide enough to also fit an adult.

 

I had read many reviews criticizing the shape of the bathroom, which makes it crammed to sit on the toilet. Maybe I had set my expectations too low, because I found it working out perfectly fine. Neither of us had any problems sitting there straight.

 

Overall we were happy with our stateroom. It was very quiet. Actually, there was quite some noise from the engine the very first night, but whatever it was it disappeared, and after that we did not find any noise disturbing.

 

As usual, there was plenty of storage space for our luggage, including stroller and car seats. However, since the 4th bed is stored under one of the ordinary beds, suitcases etc. can only be put under one of the beds.

 

We had a great steward – Moncito – who quickly learnt our names, learnt our schedule, made us towel animals every night, and who took care of us. He really made us feel spoilt. Our three year old suggested that we bring him home with us. :-)

 

 

 

[mugtech]

Great start, I love seeing and hearing about Jewel class ship, did the canal in the other direction on the Sun. Looking forward to seeing the new locks.

[QuattroRomeo]

The towel bird's nest is so cute!!

We did a partial Panama transit on the Pearl in December, and the crew members were fantastic. Looking forward to hearing about your experience.

[MamaS]

Since our kids are 5 and 3 years old, we concluded before the cruise that they would be in the same group in kids´ club. However, with only 32 kids under 18 years on the ship, and not all of them being in Splash Academy, there were very few children there and all age groups were merged into one. Our children were often the only ones in the kids´ club, where several staff were waiting for something to do.

 

Splash Academy on a Panama Canal parade. Four staff and two kids... :D

 

Our five year old absolutely loved Splash Academy, wanting to spend as much time as we allowed in there. With so few children in the club, they did not seem to stick strictly to the printed program, but often let the children decide what they wanted to do. Our 5 year old learnt chess in Splash Academy, and we often found him playing against one of the staff. Our 3 year old was thrilled to get her face painted one night, so after that we found her with a new face paint pretty much every day, since she was asking them for one.

 

In the evenings there were generally more kids in Splash Academy and they had more organized activities.

 

If you haven´t been to Splash Academy you might be wondering what it looks like. Well, to be honest, it does look kind of boring. The main room is big with only a table and a few chairs in one end, and the rest is empty. Off the main room there is at least one other room where parents are not allowed where they watched movies and played computer games.

 

 

 

But no matter how boring it looked, the staff somehow managed to keep the kids entertained and happy. Several times our kids came out of there all sweaty, so they must have been running around. They also did crafts, made drawings, and after lunch they generally watched movies. A few times our kids came out of Splash Academy with items they had won when playing games.

 

Even though our kids were not in the right age to attend, I also want to mention that there is the Entourage for older kids, as well as a program for toddlers. The room for toddlers is actually a bit tricky to find. It is hidden behind the splash pool on deck 12. It is a rather small room with toys for young kids where they have age appropriate activities a few times a day.

 

The hallway leading to Entourage´s part of Splash Academy

[MamaS]

The NCL Jewel has two main pools: One only for adults and one that is open for everyone. There is a splash pool with a mini-slide for young kids as well as one big water slide. Don´t set your expectations too high when it comes to the water slide. It is slow. Very slow. However, our kids who are young and not very daring loved it.

 

 

The signs for the water slide is ambiguous. There are two signs: one says you need to be older than 6 years to go alone on the slide, and the other one says that you need to be taller than 42 inches. To facilitate for ourselves we decided that the 42 inches one was the sign to follow, which allowed our 5 year old to go by himself. It made things much easier, since we were climbing those stairs about 20 times a day anyway to go together with our 3 year old.

 

Oh, I almost forgot. There are also five hot tubs. Two are for adults only, two are for everyone and one is by the splash pool and is reserved for children and their families. The latter was very convenient for us. Since there weren´t many children onboard, it meant that our family in practice had a hot tub for ourselves. Only once were there other people sharing it with us. The best thing about the family hot tub is that it is right next to the splash pool, so my husband and I could sit in there, watching our kids play in the splash pool.

[MamaS]

We didn´t attend many organized activities onboard. We were too busy enjoying ourselves. However, we did go to a class on how to make animals and flowers out of balloons, which the kids really enjoyed. They also got balloon animals from Splash Academy and by the end of the cruise our stateroom was filled with balloons of different shapes.

 

Since the average age was pretty high on this cruise, the sports court was not frequently used. We did go there a few times to play with the kids and have them run off some energy. One very cool game was to bring a balloon (the ordinary round ones) and toss it to one another. Because of the wind, the movement of the ship, and the fact that the sports court is hidden behind the chimney of the boat, strange flows of air are created and the balloon flew around in unpredictable ways which was a lot of fun. And yes, the sports court has a net all around, which made the balloon stay within the court.

 

 

On the 13th floor there are two stations for tossing bean bags, which was another game the children liked to do. Depending on the location of sun and shade, this area was crammed with sun loungers some days, which of course made the game impossible to play.

Edited January 27, 2017 by MamaS

[easyboy]

Very nice photos.

[MamaS]

Very nice photos.

 

Thank you!

[MamaS]

In general, the food on the ship was good or great. Personally, I am fond of desert and if there are any “musts” that I would recommend you not to miss on this cruise ship it would be the Oreo cheesecake in Cagney´s, the grilled pineapple in Moderno´s, and the white chocolate mousse in the main dining rooms. Actually the chocolate mousse comes in two versions with the same name. The good one is served in a high glass. Then there is another version with the same name that has a lot of gelatin and is served on a flat plate and it is not half as good. We soon learnt to ask the staff which one was the version of the day.

 

Oreo cheesecake at Cagney´s

 

White chocolate mousse from the main dining rooms. This is the version which we found very tasty, served in a high glass

 

This is the white chocolate mousse which is not as good... :p

 

 

The buffet

 

We generally find the buffet a bit loud and stressful. This might partly be related to the fact that we have two children and running back and forth for everybody´s food, drinks, etc. at the same time as keeping an eye on the kids is a bit stressful. However, we did eat breakfast a few times in the buffet, and once or twice also for lunch. Our favorite spot to sit was the Great Outdoors in the back of the ship. We loaded up with food in the main buffet and then sat in the Great Outdoors, which is a very calm, relaxing, place to sit in the open air, looking out over the ocean. The Great Outdoors has a pretty good selection of food and drinks as well, so if wanted more food it was easy to fill up.

 

Actually one thing that the buffet is really good for is for trying out new things. I had never tried dishes such as fried cassava or Peruvian stew before, and it was fun to pass by and just try a little bit of each unfamiliar thing.

 

And yes, in the evenings there was also the crepe station, where they made crepes on demand with the filling and decoration of your choice. It was extremely good and we ended up going there for an extra desert every other night, even if we didn´t have dinner in the buffet.

 

Our favorite - crepe from the crepe station

 

[MamaS]

 

 

 

 

[MamaS]

The Great Outdoors

 

The buffet and drink station at the Great Outdoors

[craiginoregon]

Nice review, and great pictures. Thanks

[MamaS]

We often ate in the Tsar´s Palace, both for breakfast, lunch (on sea days) and dinner. We liked the calm ambiance of the place, and the fact that we were served food instead of needing to run around in the buffet.

 

 

Having the kids in a formal restaurant was not a problem at all. They mainly ordered food from the kids´ menu, which has food items such as hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken tenders, which were served as soon as it arrived. We always brought the kids´ tablets with games and movies, which kept them occupied once they had finished eating.

 

Food from the kid´s menu

 

Food from the kid´s menu

 

We also tried Azura, which is the other main dining room on the Jewel. This dining room is less formal than the Tsar, and we did not like it as much. We liked the lightness of the Tsar´s Palace, with its huge windows towards the aft, and also on the sides.

 

The Tsar´s Palace and Azura have the same menu. The left side of the menu keeps rotating dishes, whereas the ones to the right remain the same every day. However, most items also on the left side of the menu appeared several times a week, and since our cruise was for two weeks, we did go through the same menus twice and in some cases actually three times.

 

Many times I forgot to bring the camera when we went for lunch or dinner, or if I remembered to bring it, I forgot to take a picture before starting to eat. But still I managed to take quite a few photos, so here you get a sample of the food in the main dining rooms:

 

Atlantic salmon

 

Cuban roast chicken

 

Beef tenderloin teriyaki

[MamaS]

Water melon with sweetened feta cheese. It was very good and refreshing and I had it several times during the cruise.

 

Moussaka. It did taste better than it looks

 

Stilton cream soup

 

Scallops gratin. This was one of the favorites of my husband.

 

Chicken salad sandwich

 

Asparagus and artichoke risotto

[MamaS]

Lime and dill shrimp

 

Spinach beignets. I am afraid I can not recommend this dish. Some pieces were not cooked properlyin the middle.

 

Mushroom stroganoffp

 

Steak frites. This is one of the items which is always on the dinner menu of the main dining rooms.

 

Chicken nachos

 

French onion soup. It is much better than it looks like.

[MamaS]

Grilled vegetables

 

Flounder Milanese. This was another item that was always on the menu. It was pretty good and I had it twice.

 

That was all the photos I had of appetizers and entrees from the main dining rooms. Next come the deserts:

 

Crème brûlée

 

Chocolate volcano

 

Blueberry cheesecake

[MamaS]

Mango swirl cheesecake. Yes, I do like cheesecake... :D

 

Madagaskar vanilla bean creme carmel

 

 

O'Sheehan's

 

A couple of times we went to O´Sheehan´s. It´s good if you just want a quick bite. You can either watch sports on the TV-monitors, or follow whatever is going on in the atrium, where many activities are held. The food is good, even though largely unhealthy. The service is not in par with other restaurants on the ship though. The happiness and the drive to try to give good service was often lacking. At times service was slow, and we needed to ask for things like our water glasses to be re-filled.

 

 

 

[Speasda]

I love your review. We have been on the Jewel in March 2015 and going again March 12, 2017, but I am enjoying your pics and stories. Thanks for the review!

 

Can you tell me when you had the chicken nachos - lunch or dinner? Also, how was the steak? I remember them being tough in the main dining rooms.

 

Thanks!

[luv2travel06]

 

 

O'Sheehan's

 

A couple of times we went to O´Sheehan´s. It´s good if you just want a quick bite. You can either watch sports on the TV-monitors, or follow whatever is going on in the atrium, where many activities are held. The food is good, even though largely unhealthy. The service is not in par with other restaurants on the ship though. The happiness and the drive to try to give good service was often lacking. At times service was slow, and we needed to ask for things like our water glasses to be re-filled.

 

 

We were on that cruise with you. We had to laugh about your description of the service in O'Sheehan's. 100% accurate. Someone else's review described it similarly.

[cincicruisers]

I am enjoying your review and photos.

[easyboy]

Nice food porn.

[MamaS]

I love your review. We have been on the Jewel in March 2015 and going again March 12, 2017, but I am enjoying your pics and stories. Thanks for the review!

 

Can you tell me when you had the chicken nachos - lunch or dinner? Also, how was the steak? I remember them being tough in the main dining rooms.

 

I am happy to hear that you like the review. It takes some time to write and go through all the pictures, but little by little I am getting there.

 

The chicken nachos was served for lunch. It was quite good! Also the steak was good. We actually had it twice. The first time it was excellent - the same level as the one served at Cagney´s. The second time the cut was a little bit worse, but it was still quite good.

[MamaS]

We had a dinner package that included four restaurants. We decided to go to Moderno, Le Bistro, Chin Chin and twice to Cagney´s. The specialty restaurants all had very good food, had a nice calm ambiance and the service was superb. The latter two was especially true for Le Bistro and Cagney´s. However, if we would need to pay a la carte prices, I am not sure we would choose to go as often. Tastes are different, but the main dining rooms have good enough food and service for our taste.

 

Let´s start out with Cagney´s:

 

 

Beef short rib confit. It was very good, but small.

 

Wagyu beef sliders. They were good, but kind of big considering there were many more courses to go

 

Lump crab cake

 

Shrimp cocktail

 

Mexican caesar salad. The crust of the bowl was very good and crunchy.

[MamaS]

Arugula salad

 

Grilled bison strip

 

Ribeye

 

Some of the sides: Cagney fries with truffle oil, gratin potatoes and onion rings

 

Porterhouse

 

Grilled sea bass