After-the-Fact (not live) Jewel Panama Canal Jan 14-26 Trip report/review

[Sitting here]

 

The Travelers:

I guess you’d say we’re a pretty typical empty-nest-not-yet-retired couple. We like to travel, and cruising is just a part of that. We have three kids who are all young adults and in the last 25 years we’ve done many more road trips than cruises. Even once we started cruising, we always drove to the ports, and had lots of land trips sprinkled in between the cruises. This was our fifth cruise, third with NCL, and the second time we’ve cruised without the kids.I like to travel-plan, so appreciate Cruise Critic and all of the great info I’ve found here over the last 14 years (since we were planning our first cruise). This abbreviated-and-not-live (but not short) report is at least partly my way of saying “thank you” for all of the great info we’ve found here over the years. Sorry, no pictures at this point, if I try to figure those out before I post this, it will never get posted.

 

I’ll say going in that overall I was pleased with NCL, and especially with the Jewel and her crew. It wasn’t perfect, no trip ever is, but it sure was a great vacation.

 

The Cruise:

NCL Jewel 12-night, San Diego to Colon, Panama via the Panama Canal with port stops in Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, Guatemala, Nicaragua (cancelled), and Costa Rica. General Manager: Rumi Khatao, Cruise Director: Tahani Bautista. I believe there were about 1500 passengers aboard including (we were told) 16 children.

 

The Arrangements:

We booked this cruise directly through NCL via their website over two years ago, during the heart of COVID travel restrictions. It was sort of a “dream trip” and nice to have something to look forward to when most of our other trips were being postponed, canceled, or otherwise rearranged. Because we booked so long ago, and because so many other trips have not happened as planned,this trip still felt sort of “unreal” to me, even as we were packing and preparing to be away from work and home for two weeks.

 

In the two years since we booked, we did make several “adjustments” to our reservation to re-price and upgrade. We ended up in an aft Club Balcony Suite (accessible stateroom - not by our request - it’s where they put us). We did have all of the “Free at Sea” offers, including specialty dining, shore excursion credit, beverage package, internet, and BOGO airfare.

 

I know it’s a topic of debate here, but we did use the NCL BOGO offer for our flights both because the price was really good and because we didn’t want to have to separately cancel airfare if NCL canceled the cruise (we’ve done that one too many times). We paid $374 total to NCL for them to book us flights from the upper midwest to San Diego and then back from Panama City. That does include a $25 deviation credit, and we ended up without baggage fees, so it worked out pretty well (we did pay to upgrade one flight to business class - more on that later). I will note here that DH prefers vacations where we don’t have to fly as he does not like the luggage restrictions, and all of the other things that are “out of our control” like airline delays/cancellations, gate changes, etc. Southwest having all of their issues just a couple weeks before our trip didn’t help any, and neither did the FAA software outage just a few days before.

 

Getting there: 

We opted to deviate and fly in the day before the cruise. For our pre-cruise flights, NCL booked us on Southwest, with a 3 hour layover in Denver. On the bright side, no baggage fees and we were able to leave from a smaller and less crowded airport terminal. But we were a bit nervous, especially as we watched Southwest melt-down two weeks before our trip. Thank goodness they got it together in time to get us to our destination! Because NCL booked us in a “funky way” (yes, Southwest’s phone rep repeated that phrase to me about three times) the Southwest website and app couldn’t find our reservation, so I was unable to check-in online. By the time I called 24 hours ahead, we were halfway through the B boarding group for both flights, which gave DH more things to worry about - no assigned seats, bad boarding numbers, the chance for bad weather both at home and in Denver…yergh. Note: if this happens to you with NCL booking Southwest, call the Southwest Reservations number (or say “reservations” when you get the automated system), it’s the fastest way to get connected to the people with access to check you in. I’ll also note that we were caught in the middle of NCL shifting from providing air arrangements 60 days ahead of time to 30 days… we ended up getting our flight info about 5 weeks before our departure.

 

We departed Friday the 13th (yep) leaving at 9:00 a.m. Because we live 2+ hours from the airport, we drove over the night before. We used Park’n’Fly to have covered parking, since it’s winter, and they were good (but I’d recommend taking your own notes/photos of where you leave your car as our first shuttle driver wrote it down wrong). Other than Smashburger at the Denver airport running out of Smash Tots, everything went fine with the flights and the airports. Thanks to a family of 4 whose kids wanted window seats,we ended up with aisle seats one-ahead-of-the-other on the first flight (only middle seats were left otherwise), and we were able to sit next to each other aisle/middle on the 2nd leg of our journey, so DH’s worries went unrealized. 

 

I used Cruise Critic advice for the hotel in San Diego, and we stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn Bayfront near the port. We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel, also thanks to Cruise Critic advice - quick, easy & cost effective ($20 including tip). Note that the Residence Inn and Springhill Suites are two Marriott hotels in the same building - the Springhill Suites face the port, but are more expensive. Guests at both hotels can use the entire facility (you eat breakfast in the same place, etc.) and it’s walkable to the cruise terminal. 

 

I think it was about 4:00 when we checked into the hotel. The Disney Wonder was in port, and we wanted to walk over and see her - she was the first cruise ship we ever sailed on thirteen years ago. So we dropped our bags and walked over to the cruise terminal. We got some photos of the Wonder, walked along the port for a bit, and DH stopped to talk to one of the people working at the cruise terminal. She told us to expect the next day to be a bit “crazy” as they would be disembarking and embarking TWO cruise ships, and they don’t really have enough porters, etc. for that. We stopped for sandwiches at the Beach Hut Deli (connected to our hotel) at 5:00 or so. With the 2 hour time-change, it felt later to us and we didn’t want to put much effort into finding supper. (we also didn’t want to overly commit to the time change as we’d be changing back one hour the next day). I would definitely recommend Beach Hut Deli: I had “The North Shore” sandwich which ended up being 3-inches of Ham, Turkey, Pastrami and cheese stuffed into a delicious roll (DH said his reuben was good, too). Just what we needed at the end of this travel day. 

 

Embarkation

Embarkation day dawned cool and cloudy with the promise of rain after noon. We woke up pretty early (time change), and I noticed from online cruise cams and ship locators that neither the NCL Jewel nor the HAL Konigsdam were in port yet. Not a good sign. I think they both got in at about 7ish. We ate breakfast at the hotel, and spent some time watching the terminal/port from the 14th floor elevator lobby. It was fun to have a “birds eye view” of the somewhat organized chaos. We could see people start lining up at 8:00 or so to get into the terminal. And those people were still in line at 9:15 when we walked across to the port, and still in line at 10:30 when they finally started letting people into security - the terminal worker who told us to expect things to be crazy was correct. DH had a “moment” going through security when the person working the x-ray line made him switch from a big bin that fit all his items to a smaller bin that she decided was big enough, and then his pen fell out and got lost because the small bin wasn’t actually big enough (I get where he’s coming from…not sure why they couldn’t just leave his things where he put them, but it was only a pen…). We did get through security quickly enough to get Boarding Group 1, which boarded after Haven, after Priority, and after Platinum (and above) Latitudes. We were on board at about 11:50, and waited about 10 minutes for The Palace to open for lunch. The food was fine, but not amazing. After lunch, we killed some time sitting on the promenade deck and then at the Great Outdoors until our stateroom was ready at about 1:30. I don’t think all the staterooms got called until 2:30 or so, and muster (in person at your muster station) was at 3:00, so some people barely had time to drop their things then head to muster. We did talk to the maitre d’ at the Palace - she said the crew preferred the old muster check-in as well, but that they were going back to in-person all-at-once for the future. (Ironically, NCL had sent me 2 emails asking me to re-watch the muster video, so I’d watched it three times prior to the in-person on the ship. Better safe than sorry, I guess). After muster, we still didn’t have our luggage, so spent some time walking around the ship. As we were walking back to our stateroom, we saw our luggage sitting in the hallway with all the other luggage getting set out to be delivered, so we checked with the steward who was there, and were able to “self-deliver” our luggage which saved time for us and them, and meant we could unpack before dinner.

 

The ship was supposed to sail away at 4:00 and didn’t end up leaving until after 6 - not sure why the delay - the Captain announced something about late suppliers or vendors or something like that.

 

The Stateroom

We originally booked a balcony cabin, but used one of NCL’s downward price-adjustments to move to an aft club balcony at no additional cost. When we called to make that change not long before final payment, the NCL rep wanted to put us in 11654, which is an accessible stateroom. We clearly stated multiple times that we didn’t need accessible, he insisted that was the one that he preferred to book us into. So that’s where we ended up. A couple of notes about the accessible stateroom, because I wasn’t able to find much online. I was worried about how wet the bathroom floor would get when we showered, since the shower is level with the floor. Because they had a very good drain system for the shower, we only had an issue with this on one or two days when the ship was really rocking and some water would escape the shower, and or slosh back up from the drains. Nothing we couldn’t mop up with the towel once we were done using it to dry off. Also, a shower chair was provided - we moved that out as we didn’t need/want it in the shower, and there was plenty of room in the stateroom to store it elsewhere. The other concern I had was the balcony…the online photos I found showed a ramp on each side of the sliding door for navigating over the threshold, so a large part of the balcony was used by the ramp. This had been changed: the entire balcony floor is a raised “diamond plate” level with the door threshold, and I’m sure a ramp would be provided for the inside if needed, though there was not one in place during our stay in the room.  The steel plating on the balcony was a little noisy, slippery when wet, and hot when it was hot out (conversely cold when it was cold out) so we learned not to go out barefoot. We were provided with one lounger, two chairs and one tiny table on the balcony. We loved our aft balcony - saw a manta ray swimming around the back of the ship in one of the ports , saw a couple pods of dolphins breaching on one sea day, and had the best view (although hottest temps) for the Panama Canal transit. Before the cruise, DH and I had both joked that we planned to spend the entire cruise “sitting on my aft” but we also both agree that an aft balcony isn’t worth big upcharge unless you have a specific reason (bigger balcony than usual or something where views are important).

 

Notes on Club Balcony Suite benefits: this is the longest cruise we’ve been on (12 nights, vs 7 previously) so I was very glad to have the free bag of laundry benefit, and I was quite pleased with the way it worked out. Between DH and I, we managed 2 pair shorts, 1 pair pants, 7 shirts and multiple socks/underwear into the bag, and could have squeezed in more if needed. A bag and paperwork explaining the benefit showed up in our stateroom on Day 4, which was good timing, as we had planned to send laundry out on Day 5. We had to have laundry ready to go by noon to get it back the next day by 6 or so, although ours came back right after lunch. There are also “treats” included with the Club Balcony suite - we had a plate with a few candies one day (chocolate strawberry, cream-filled chocolate, etc.) and 4 cookies on a different day.

 

We really liked our stateroom attendant/steward, Moon: he was attentive to our requests, took care of them in a timely manner, was always friendly and greeted us warmly every time he saw us, even if we were just passing in the hall and he was super busy. We had a different towel animal every day (no small feat on a 12-night cruise). The Jewel had switched to one service per day and increased each steward’s stateroom load, and I could tell Moon was working really hard just to keep up. He said a lot of his coworkers are looking for other work once their contracts are up, due to all the changes (so I’m not sure one service per day is going to resolve a staff shortage if that’s what they are trying for). Moon was one of our vacation heroes!

 

With regard to our stateroom location: I know many people say avoid booking under the Great Outdoors for potential noise issues. We don’t generally find it to be an issue (have been in a similar part of the ship twice). I could only hear chairs move when we were outside on our balcony. I actually like the location as it’s very convenient to the buffet, so I could run up and get coffee or a snack or a drink at the bar and easily bring it back to the room. It’s definitely my favorite “neighborhood” on the ship to “live” in (other than Haven…more on that later).

 

Sea Days

Our Cruise Critic Meet’n’Mingle was the first sea day at 11 in the Bliss Lounge. Big thanks to MKECruzn for coordinating. We spent some time talking to the ship’s events coordinator who said that Cruise Critic meet’n’greets are way down, both in number and attendance. He says he only has to arrange one about every third cruise now - it used to be every cruise and about three times as many people.

 

This was our first cruise with more than one or two sea days, and I will note we are not very exciting sea day people. One of the reasons we like balcony staterooms is so we can hang out in our room rather than by the pool or in the bars. My favorite sea day activity is reading: I had my kindle loaded with about 40 book options, and managed to get through 6 books this cruise. DH spends time out on the balcony snoozing and looking at the water, and he does go to more activities than I do. We did hang out in Spinnaker lounge a fair bit on this cruise, and found ourselves attending morning trivia there daily. This was a real treat when it was hosted by “cruise staff” Stefan because he was hilarious. I really enjoyed his sense of humor. Stefan also hosted the Q&A with the entertainment/production crew members and it was both funny and informative. In general, Spinnaker was a great venue.

 

Dining

I’d say our dining experiences were fine, but not fabulous this cruise. Nothing was bad, only a few things were amazing. We appreciate “freestyle” dining on NCL - not being tied to a dining time and table. We tried the MDR Azura the first night, since we had eaten lunch at The Palace. I think they were struggling due to the late ship departure, and they seemed a little disorganized and slow. They brought me the wrong soup (since both were cream-colored I couldn’t tell until I started eating it…) and it just was not a relaxing experience. We never went back - preferring the atmosphere and service at the Palace. I think that’s the only true “complaint” I have of this cruise and since we never gave Azura a second chance, I’m not sure if we could have had a better experience at another time. We just enjoyed our food, the setting, the location, and the service at the Palace more than Azura and we really didn’t find the dinner dress code to be an issue so that’s where we went when we wanted MDR. We had several very nice dinners at The Palace - and I should thank the server who whispered “chocolate lava cake” in my ear as he handed me the dessert menu - it was just the nudge I needed to order what turned out to be one of the best desserts of the cruise.  O’Sheehans was a solid choice, we ate lunch there three times and had the “blue plate special” fish tacos for dinner one evening as well (delicious). We ate at the Garden Cafe every day for breakfast (I prefer buffet breakfast; I can eat something “good for me” and then top it off with bacon and a chocolate croissant). We also ate at the buffet for lunch and dinner a few times, including several after-dinner crepes. I’d say we had good food and great service in the Garden Cafe overall. I did hit the Great Outdoors buffet for afternoon snacks/desserts on several sea days, often bringing something small back to the room to enjoy on the balcony (easy, since our room was so close).  Our specialty dining was Moderno, La Cucina and Cagney’s and Cagney’s was the standout for both food and service. I was not very hungry at Moderno, and the meat choices seemed spaced too far apart. The meats I wanted came late in the meal when I didn’t really have much appetite left. La Cucina was okay - I enjoyed my Pasta Carbonara, but my DH makes better salmon at home, and I told him so. (I guess lucky me that I get to eat cruise-caliber food at home on a regular basis 🙂). The service was good, with the assistant maitre-d’ pitching in to take dessert orders when things got busy.

 

All of that said, I can’t really eat “the best thing I’ve ever eaten” three meals a day for twelve days in a row, so I don’t need the food to be fabulous every time. Aside from the one meal in Azura, I definitely enjoyed all of my eating experiences on the Jewel.

 

Also, a bit of info for those of you, who like me, are curious about MDR dinner menus on longer cruises. I’ve heard NCL has 21 dinner menus that the chefs can choose from, but I’ve only seen the same 7 posted over the past few years, and I’ve heard some people say that on longer cruises, they repeat that 7 day rotation, instead of going on to new menus. On this cruise, they did continue to bring out new MDR menus each night of the cruise for all 12 nights. (maybe I’ll get time to post nights 8-12 later on).

 

Entertainment

Our “headliner” shows were supposed to be “Rock You Tonight,” “Velvet” and “Le Cirque Bijou” but “Velvet” did not happen. We were told that was due to turnover amongst the performers. I enjoyed Rock You Tonight, and Cirque Bijou is a standout show. We also had one night of Duo Vitaly - an aerialist/acrobatic couple who are also part of Cirque Bijou; they are definitely talented. NCL had also booked a comedian for a couple of nights and a magician for a couple of nights. The true standout was David Shannon, Ireland’s Greatest Showman, whose singing was extraordinary (during his London theater career he played leading roles in Les Mis and Phantom if that gives you an idea of his creds). He was scheduled for two shows, and provided a third on the last night of the cruise due to technical difficulties with the scheduled act. I got the feeling he had been booked especially for this longer cruise, and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to see his shows. I’ll note that the pianist/keyboardist in the Jewel Production Band did an outstanding job accompanying (as did the rest of the band), and Mr. Shannon specifically commented on how good they were, he said they only get 2 hours of rehearsal time from when they see the music to when they are accompanying him live. Overall, I’d say the theater entertainment ranged from “solid” to “outstanding” and is another one of the reasons we enjoy NCL. We did not spend much time listening to other live music in the smaller venues around the ship, but I did really enjoy one Louis Razon for about a half hour one night, and we spent some time listening to a guitar player/singer one evening as well.

 

Ports

We had three Mexican Riviera ports, two in Central America, and then the Panama Canal, which I’ll address separately. We were also scheduled to stop in Nicaragua, and that was cancelled, which was a huge disappointment to many on the ship. Thanks to Cruise Critic, I was anticipating the cancellation, so my expectations were low and I was not surprised that the port was removed from the itinerary (Basically, Nicaragua has not reopened to cruise ships after COVID). We booked all of our excursions through NCL. I know some prefer not to, but we did have a few reasons: we get some discount to do Latitudes status and the free-at-sea promotion so the prices aren’t terrible, I prefer not to have to worry about tender tickets, especially if the ship is in port late, and we were anticipating a couple of ports with significant travel time (an hour or more bus ride from the port) and those always feel “safer” when booked through the ship. 

 

In Cabo San Lucas we booked the Electric Bike Beach Adventure. This is through Cabo Adventures (they also offer camel rides) and was very fun. It was 45 minutes in a 10 passenger van to the site, then we got our bikes, did the bike ride with guide Isaac, and then Isaac taught us to make Margaritas, they fed us an “authentic” Mexican lunch (buffet) and took us back to the port. The setting for lunch was beautiful - an open air pavilion with gorgeous views of the Pacific Ocean. It was fun, and pretty much what we were expecting. If you aren’t sure about y our ability to ride a bike in a crowd, I’d recommend the camel excursion instead. 

 

Puerto Vallarta was the surprise star of the trip. We booked a Jungle Walk & Villa BBQ. The jungle/villa are about an hour away from the ship, and due to the roads, they can’t use a motor coach to get us there. So, we had what was basically an old stick-shift city bus with the windows knocked out. We drove through this little town with narrow streets and got to see people going about their daily lives - so it felt like we got a taste of the “real” rural areas outside of the port city.  The “jungle walk” was not very jungle-y, because it’s actually pretty dry there, but the guide did a really good job showing us the local vegetation and explaining the dangers of fire ants, etc. We had beautiful views from up in the mountains over the little town. Daniel was our best tour guide of the trip, he did a nice job of guiding the group, providing humor, information, and showed true pride in his country. At the villa, we had a “surprise” tequila tasting (not part of the excursion description) after which we had the opportunity to purchase tequila. (best tip learned from the tequila guide - when tasting, breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth). Lunch was very good: pre-plated with 3 or 4 kinds of meats, vegetables, tortillas, etc. served with margaritas or soft drinks. There was a nice pool, a few hammocks to lay around in, some area to walk in, and about 30 minutes after we were done with lunch, they loaded us back in the bus to take us to the ship. It was a really nice day.

 

Acapulco didn’t have much to offer in the way of shore excursions. I don’t think many ships stop here anymore, and we ended up booking a visit to a turtle sanctuary to release baby sea turtles (we were choosing between that and a party boat). It was fun, but I’d call this excursion one that was “less than expected.” It hit all the bullet points in the tour description, but barely, and nothing extra.

 

At Puerto Quetzal Guatamala, almost every excursion included a 90 minute bus ride into Antigua. We booked a Rum Tasting and Lunch, so we had rum and food in addition to the requisite “tour” of the jade factory and museum and some time in the central square with all the street vendors. The jade museum/store “tour” was short, and interesting, and another way to part tourists from their money. I did get some lovely jade earrings. The rum tasting at Casa del Ron included tasting the raw material (molasses that others use and “honey” they use at Casa del Ron), and three kinds of rum (enough to feel the effects - they weren’t stingy). I used the tequila-tasting advice to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth which did improve the experience. Lunch was in a beautiful setting in an outdoor restaurant at a conference center and hotel. It was pre-plated, and the food was good. The best part was the bunuelos for dessert. Later, after talking with other passengers about their experiences in Antigua, we were very glad we had booked an excursion that included lunch,as others had a hard time finding lunch on their own, or didn’t really get time to eat. I had a really good time on this day and thought the excursion was better than anticipated. I did feel very bad for our tour guide, Selmy, as there was a lady in our group who kept getting “lost” and would yell at Selmy for not keeping track of everyone. After this happened twice, I watched that lady wander off away from the group as we were headed back to the buses, and can only assume that she had wandered away from the group before, as well. I’m not sure you can blame a tour guide for “losing” you if you aren’t willing to stay with the group.

 

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

This port was a huge disappointment for us, but it was not NCL’s fault. The excursion we had most been looking forward to since we started booking excursions several months ago was an Aerial Tram and Tarcoles River Boat Ride combo that we had booked for this day. The afternoon before the port call, we received a note and phone message from the shore excursions desk that the aerial tram was having electrical issues and the vendor had cancelled the excursion. Of course, by  that point it was too late to book any type of jungle or river experience as they were all full. We ended up filling in with a “botanical garden” tour, that was fine, and pretty much as described, but just not what we were hoping for. We did get to see iguanas, crocodiles, leaf-cutting ants and macaws… but no Jesus-Christ-lizards for us…

 

The Panama Canal

It’s finally the day we’ve all been waiting for: transiting the Panama Canal. In order to make a daylight transit, cruise ships typically start early in the morning, and ours was no different, with the pilot boarding at 5:00 a.m. Going from Pacific to Caribbean (which is not exactly west-to-east, even though that’s how I’d want to describe it), we passed under the Bridge of the Americas at 6:00 a.m. The evening before the transit, the Cruise Director announced they’d be opening the “crew only” area at the bow on Deck 8 to passengers, so a lot of folks lined up there first thing in the morning to watch us go under the bridge. Unfortunately, the crew didn’t actually get that area open until after we’d sailed under the bridge, so many people missed it. Fortunately for DH and I, I was worried about crowds on Deck 8, so we chose to go up to Deck 14 on the forward sun deck, and had a reasonably good view of the bridge as we sailed under it. It was still dark at that point in time, which limited what we could see, but was cool in its own way as we could see the red and green lighted buoys on either side of the ship delineating the channel. We had a narrator on board, Antonio Grenald, who provided information on history, construction, etc. as we went through the canal. The narration was broadcast on open decks, in public areas and on Channel 12 (bow cam channel) on stateroom TVs. After going under the bridge, we returned to the stateroom to watch the locks from our aft balcony. There was a lot of action at the back, as there was always a pilot boat at the back when we were between locks, there were “mules” connected at the aft, and we could watch the gates close behind us, etc. Plus we could keep an eye on the bow cam on our TV. We spent most of the transit in our own stateroom, because we had such a good view of the action, and it was easy to duck back into the air conditioning when we got too warm. I did spend some time on deck 8, went up to deck 14 forward for some photos, checked out the view from deck 7 promenade, and Spinnaker lounge (they were also broadcasting the bow cam on the big screen) but I kept coming back to our aft balcony for the best experience. The one negative in the aft was that our balcony was full sun and no breeze for the whole transit, so it was VERY HOT and by the afternoon, we weren’t even able to rest our hands on the railing without burning ourselves. I can’t imagine building a canal in that kind of heat - we were dripping sweat just standing there (and we were there in January when it’s coolest). The schedule for the day included Miraflores Locks from 7:00-8:10, Pedro Miguel Locks from 8:40 to 9:30, time sailing through Gatun Lake, and then the Gatun Locks from 12:30 to 3:05. They were pretty accurate with their predicted timing. I will say, people always say how big Gatun Lake is, but I didn’t think it was that huge, as my experience with “big lakes” are Lake Superior and Lake Michigan (unsalted and shark free, ha ha) so I’m a little biased. We did pass the Norwegian Joy coming out of the NeoPanamax locks (going the other way) as we neared the end of Gatun Lake, and then we passed Carnival Pride, which ended up following us out through the Gatun Locks.  Overall, it was a really fun day.

 

Getting Home

So, this is where having NCL book our flights started to seem like less of a good idea. While we were waiting to hear from NCL about flights, I was looking online to try figure out where they might put us, and I couldn’t find ANY good options for flying home. Apparently neither could Norwegian. We ended up booked on a 12:22 flight from PTY to SJO in Costa Rica (on Copa). Then a 99 minute layover, a 4-hour flight from SJO to IAH in Houston (United) a 110 minute layover and a 3-hour flight home (United), arriving at 11 p.m. Holy tight connections, Batman!  Trip insurance won’t even cover a trip delay if you have a less-than-three-hour connection for an international flight. I was kind of worried, but at that point there wasn’t much we could do, other than hope for the best, and do our best to minimize the time needed for connecting. 

 

Once we had our flight information, we went online to reserve seats, and found that on the SJO to IAH flight, there were no economy seats left “together” to reserve, and in considering our options, we decided on a Business Class upgrade. We would have had to pay something (the nominal $20 or $30 each for “plus” seats) anyway, Business class eliminated baggage fees, and they fed us lunch - which was very good, because we didn’t have time to get food at any of the airports). We paid $300 to upgrade both of us, but I think the real cost was more like $150, since we didn’t have all those other expenses. It was so nice to have room to shift and wiggle during that four hour flight, and it helped to get us off the plane quickly in Houston, where we had to go through passport control (long line), claim our luggage, recheck our luggage, go through TSA security again, and then ride a tram to get to the (changed) gate for our flight. In less than 2 hours. But we made it.

 

I also want to make a note about disembarkation and our transfers to the airport. Colon to PTY is over an hour bus ride, and even though disembarkation started on time, the various “windows” kept getting pushed further back. NCL had assigned us to an 8:00 window which already seemed on the late side. We finally went ahead and jumped in line before they called our number, as we were worried we wouldn’t make it to the airport on time. We were supposed to be “called” at 8, and when we were finally off the ship at 8:20 or so, they still hadn’t called our group yet. Then we discovered that for some reason, they put all of the airport transfer busses BEHIND the shore excursion busses (people taking tours before going to the airport for later flights), so we had a long walk to our bus, and our bus almost wasn’t able to make it out of the port area. Our driver was squeezing between other buses and vans with mere inches to spare. It took until 9:15 for us to make it out of the port, and we arrived at the airport after 10:30. Our boarding passes said to be at the gate for boarding by 11:22 for our 12:22 flight. (One note: if you are flying from PTY to the United States, you may want to do a little research on extra security at the gate. Since we were headed to Costa Rica first, it wasn’t an issue for us.)

 

Random Thoughts:

I’ve a couple of other thoughts I want to share, that didn’t seem to fit anywhere else. I’ve heard here many times “once you Haven, you’ll never go back.” Well, we did “go back” and it was fine. In September 2021, DH and I were supposed to sail Pride of America in Hawaii for our 25th anniversary. That cruise was cancelled, but NCL suggested we cruise Alaska on the Bliss instead. We took their suggestion, and they then changed the ship to the Encore. Because cruising was just restarting, with discounts and incentives, we were able to bid on a Haven upgrade for a reasonable price, and ended up sailing in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom (including a loo-with-a-view) Haven suite on the Encore. It was a fabulous experience, I am so glad we did it, and I will remember it for the rest of my life! And I’d 100% sail Haven again if the right opportunity presented itself. But - if we only sail when we can afford Haven, we’ll either never sail again, or we’ll have to make big financial sacrifices in our “real lives” to afford our vacation lifestyle. And we’ll definitely miss out on exciting destinations and longer cruises.

 

Did we miss Haven on this cruise? Sometimes. It helped that we were on the Jewel, which doesn’t have as much of a Haven “enclave” as the Encore does, or a Haven restaurant. It helped that we had an aft balcony, and that the ship was only 60% full, and that Jewel doesn’t require theater reservations. Mostly, it’s just that we know every trip is its own experience, and we need to appreciate what’s good about it, without worrying about what we are missing out on.

 

Actually, I tried to carry that “appreciate what’s good” philosophy throughout this whole vacation. It’s easy to read other people's trip reports, look in advance at menus and drink lists, read Freestyle Dailies, etc. and make a list of a thousand things you want to “accomplish” on your cruise to try to “maximize” your vacation. But if you are so busy accomplishing that you aren’t experiencing (and enjoying the experience) you might actually be missing out on fun little moments by trying to do to much. On this cruise, I tried to focus on finding and enjoying both the things I like about cruising in general, and special experiences on this cruise specifically. I think it worked. Plus, now I have to cruise again, because there are still thinks on "my list" that I didn't get to 🙂

 

The End

That’s it. That’s what I’ve got. I’ve probably forgotten things, or left out some details, so if you have questions, please ask and I’ll try to find time to answer. If I can swing it, I will try to come back to post some Freestyle Dailies or some MDR menus from Days 8-12, and maybe some other photos, but for now I have to get back to my real life, so those things will probably have to wait for a weekend...

 

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading.

 

Teresa

 

[rxlowry]

Very nice review!  Thanks for sharing your experiences.  

[bluesea777]

Superb review! Panama Canal is still on my bucket list - on smaller ship like the Jewel class or the Spirit (hey NCL, read this!!).

 

 

[Uff da]

2 hours ago, bluesea777 said:

Superb review! Panama Canal is still on my bucket list - on smaller ship like the Jewel class or the Spirit (hey NCL, read this!!).

 

 

I don't know what your point is here. The Jewel is doing canal sailings now. The OP was on the repositioning cruise. I'm going on her soon just for this reason. It goes through the canal and does a Southern Caribbean itinerary in 9 days instead of 14. Perfect! 

[Sydneyberlin]

Thank you for the lovely report. Makes us very excited about our Panama Canal cruise in April (which will be in the other direction and on the Encore- I still can’t really fathom how this massive ship will get through those locks…).

[bluesea777]

3 hours ago, Uff da said:

I don't know what your point is here. 

The Spirit …. this is the ship we would love to go through the Panama Canal on.

 

 

[www3traveler]

There are two different Panama Canals.  The one the Jewel sails is the "Original" Canal which was completed in 1914.  The Encore will sail the "Newer" Canal which has only been operational in the last few years.  The "Newer" Canal was built to handle the "mega" ships like the Encore.  It is still a very tight fit.

 

Have you read David McCullough's book "The Path Between the Seas"?  It is a very detailed account of the "Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914".  Many people suggest (inculding me), the you read it preparation of a Panama Canal cruise.
 

[Longstockingpippi1]

Thank you. Traveling with my daughter on the jewel in march. Any pics you have of cabin would be greatly appreciated. I spent more money than I ever planned to to snag an aft accessible penthouse. I’m sure once I get onboard I will be glad I did, ( I try to be frugal). 
I will have her wheelchair and a ton of supplies. 

[mertziek]

A great review!  We were on your sailing, too, and share most of your observations.  We had a front facing cabin and were able to be on our balcony for the entire transit without baking in the sunshine plus had a nice cooling breeze.  And we did the Cabo camel ride - a unique experience.

[terry&mike]

Thank you so much for the review! We are sailing the same ship on a similar itinerary in March, from Colon to San Diego direction.  

[Turtles06]

3 hours ago, www3traveler said:

There are two different Panama Canals.  The one the Jewel sails is the "Original" Canal which was completed in 1914.  The Encore will sail the "Newer" Canal which has only been operational in the last few years.  The "Newer" Canal was built to handle the "mega" ships like the Encore.  It is still a very tight fit.

Just a point of clarification — there’s only one Panama Canal.  It now has two sets of locks. The historic (original) locks, and the newer ones built to handle the neo-Panamax ships. 

[Sea2011]

Thanks Teresa for such a detail report.  Really enjoyed reading it and getting very useful information for our cruise in March on the Jewel.

We will be sailing from Colon to San Diego so just wondering if an Aft facing cabin will not be getting the sun like yours did? 

Or anyone else have this experience?

[ExArkie]

We did the full Pacific-to-Atlantic transit (mostly, it's southeast-to-northwest direction) of the Canal on NCL's Pearl about seven years ago - October was still stifling hot, by the way - in an aft-facing penthouse suite. This was through the older set of locks.

 

I concur completely with the perspective from the aft balcony. We also went forward for passing under the bridge, then returned to our cabin to watch the process. The aft balcony, with occasional looks at the bow cam, gave us a great picture of the workings of the canal. As both my wife and I have engineering degrees, we remained fascinated the entire day.

 

There are also a couple of History Channel/Modern Marvels programs on construction of the canal that are great to watch before a transit. Should be able to find one or more on YouTube via an Internet search.

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by ExArkie
corrected a word

[weltek]

Great review! Funny how if someone else experienced your cruise the same way, they could be much more dramatically negative about it.  A cancelled excursion, cancelled port, average food, and multiple connections could've turned into a "AWFUL-DON'T BOOK NCL!!!" post.

We are considering booking a Panama Canal cruise soon, so I'm grateful for those posting detailed reviews and giving me a lot to think about.
 

[KEG21552]

Hi there

Quick question on the airfare upgrade - did you have to wait to upgrade to business class and do it through the airlines or is it possible to request upgrade through NCL?  

We have the FAS bogo airline booked for a cruise leaving from Barcelona and ending in Venice.  I’m not a great flier and not sure if I can spend that long of time in a sardine can.  Also, when did you request the deviation?

Thanks so much for any help

[CaptainBazz]

Thanks for the great review, brings back memories...we have been on the Jewel twice...pre and post renovation and loved this ship...also done the Panama Canal twice (well, once in and back out and the second all the way through east to west). 

[quillwercruisers]

Thank you for the review. We will be taking the Jewel from Panama City Amador to the ABC's and then end in Colon. We have been on the Jewel before, but looking forward to seeing the updates to her.

[www3traveler]

2 hours ago, weltek said:

Great review! Funny how if someone else experienced your cruise the same way, they could be much more dramatically negative about it.  A cancelled excursion, cancelled port, average food, and multiple connections could've turned into a "AWFUL-DON'T BOOK NCL!!!" post.

We are considering booking a Panama Canal cruise soon, so I'm grateful for those posting detailed reviews and giving me a lot to think about.
 

Just a suggestion: when you decide to book your Panama Cruise, book from the West Coast to the East Coast.  This puts the actually Canal Crossing toward the end of your cruise and not at the beginning.  For this cruise I book an Inside Cabin (on any ship) because there are so many outdoor spaces to see everything.  On  the Canal Day , you want to get different istas from all over the ship.  Recently Captains' have been opening the "crew only space" at the bow for passengers.

[quillwercruisers]

28 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

Just a suggestion: when you decide to book your Panama Cruise, book from the West Coast to the East Coast.  This puts the actually Canal Crossing toward the end of your cruise and not at the beginning.  For this cruise I book an Inside Cabin (on any ship) because there are so many outdoor spaces to see everything.  On  the Canal Day , you want to get different istas from all over the ship.  Recently Captains' have been opening the "crew only space" at the bow for passengers.

This suggestion all depends on where you are embarking. We will be embarking in Panama City (Amador) which would be considered the West Coast, then doing a full transit of the canal at the beginning of our cruise. If they are embarking from the states and doing a full transit and getting off in Colon then it would be at the end of the cruise.

 

[DorothyB]

Thanks!  I will be on the Jewel in April. 

 

re: O'Sheehan's - you mentioned a "blue plate" special.  Did they have a "blue plate" special each day?  for lunch or only at dinner?  How did you know what the special for the day was?

 

Thanks!

[Firstin87]

Teresa,

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed, thoughtful review!  We are on the Jewel this Sat., 2/4, from Fuerte Amador to 2/13 Colon.  Hitting Costa Rica, the ABC's, and Colombia.  Really appreciate the schedule you posted and info about the weather (I dread the humidity).

 

Have been trying to do the Canal since 2017 and it looks like we're finally getting to go.  It has been a bucket list item for my husband for a long time.  We are in the Haven, a forward facing Deluxe Owner's Suite with balcony, so we've got two balconies - one on the side and one facing the front.  Thanks to your review, we now know to look at the aft of the ship for some good views, as well.

 

 

[Sitting here]

Thanks, everyone for the nice responses. I'm so glad people found this helpful or enjoyable.

I'm going to try to respond to all the questions, but I'm not sure my "quote" skills are up to it. We'll see what happens...

 

13 hours ago, Longstockingpippi1 said:

Thank you. Traveling with my daughter on the jewel in march. Any pics you have of cabin would be greatly appreciated. I spent more money than I ever planned to to snag an aft accessible penthouse. I’m sure once I get onboard I will be glad I did, ( I try to be frugal). 
I will have her wheelchair and a ton of supplies. 

DH took photos of the room - I'll have to get him to download and share with me, and then I'll try to upload anything that might be helpful here.

10 hours ago, Sea2011 said:

Thanks Teresa for such a detail report.  Really enjoyed reading it and getting very useful information for our cruise in March on the Jewel.

We will be sailing from Colon to San Diego so just wondering if an Aft facing cabin will not be getting the sun like yours did? 

Or anyone else have this experience?

I can't say for certain, but I did get the feeling that a cruise in the other direction would be less impacted by sun in the aft. The sun was "behind" us all morning, shining right directly on us. Going the other way, we would have been more shaded by the ship.

9 hours ago, KEG21552 said:

Hi there

Quick question on the airfare upgrade - did you have to wait to upgrade to business class and do it through the airlines or is it possible to request upgrade through NCL?  

We have the FAS bogo airline booked for a cruise leaving from Barcelona and ending in Venice.  I’m not a great flier and not sure if I can spend that long of time in a sardine can.  Also, when did you request the deviation?

Thanks so much for any help

We upgraded after we got our flight information from NCL. Typically, once we get flights, we log into the airline website or app, use our confirmation number to find our flights, and choose our seats. This time there weren't any "free" seats available, we made the decision to upgrade, and were able to do that right through the app. I don't think that NCL would be willing/able to keep track of a business class upgrade request through their BOGO booking process, so you'd be depending on there being room left in business class after you get your flight info.  We requested the deviation a couple of weeks before final payment.

2 hours ago, DorothyB said:

Thanks!  I will be on the Jewel in April. 

 

re: O'Sheehan's - you mentioned a "blue plate" special.  Did they have a "blue plate" special each day?  for lunch or only at dinner?  How did you know what the special for the day was?

 

Thanks!

There was a daily "Blue Plate Special" printed in the Freestyle Daily each day. Off the top of my head, I remember meatloaf, spaghetti & meatballs, chicken fried steak, prime rib (the last night), and I think chicken parmigiana.  There was also usually a sign posted by Azura during the day listing the dinner "specials" in the buffet and O'Sheehans, so I had a habit of swinging by sometime mid-day to check out the menus so we could decide where to eat dinner.

1 hour ago, Firstin87 said:

Teresa,

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed, thoughtful review!  We are on the Jewel this Sat., 2/4, from Fuerte Amador to 2/13 Colon.  Hitting Costa Rica, the ABC's, and Colombia.  Really appreciate the schedule you posted and info about the weather (I dread the humidity).

 

Have been trying to do the Canal since 2017 and it looks like we're finally getting to go.  It has been a bucket list item for my husband for a long time.  We are in the Haven, a forward facing Deluxe Owner's Suite with balcony, so we've got two balconies - one on the side and one facing the front.  Thanks to your review, we now know to look at the aft of the ship for some good views, as well.

 

 

I hope you have an amazing time. You should have great views (and better breezes) on your front and side balconies!

 

Teresa

 

 

[Sitting here]

14 hours ago, www3traveler said:

Have you read David McCullough's book "The Path Between the Seas"?  It is a very detailed account of the "Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914".  Many people suggest (inculding me), the you read it preparation of a Panama Canal cruise.
 

 

David McCullough's book was available as an audiobook from my library, and was much easier to get through that way versus trying to physically read it (it's pretty big and heavy). The other book that was recommended reading before we cruised was "The Canal Builders" by Julie Greene which I also "read" as an audiobook. I do think it enhanced the experience to have some understanding of the history and human toll prior to transiting the Canal.

[natefish95]

Really appreciate you taking the time to write all this up! I'm going on the Jewel in April and really looking forward to it. 

[mertziek]

18 hours ago, Firstin87 said:

Teresa,

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed, thoughtful review!  We are on the Jewel this Sat., 2/4, from Fuerte Amador to 2/13 Colon.  Hitting Costa Rica, the ABC's, and Colombia.  Really appreciate the schedule you posted and info about the weather (I dread the humidity).

 

Have been trying to do the Canal since 2017 and it looks like we're finally getting to go.  It has been a bucket list item for my husband for a long time.  We are in the Haven, a forward facing Deluxe Owner's Suite with balcony, so we've got two balconies - one on the side and one facing the front.  Thanks to your review, we now know to look at the aft of the ship for some good views, as well.

 

 

You will love the suite at the front of the ship.  We were in it and moved between balconies for our transit of the canal.  Best seats on the ship for the PC!!!  And in the canal you get to see the locks closing and opening from the front so not sure if you need to go to the aft but it’s a great day of chilling on your balcony!