Sailing to see Santa (almost) —- Jewel of the Seas Arctic Circle voyage - June 17, 2023

[Blizzard54]

Thank you for all the information that you gave us.  We are booked on the July 5, 2024 sailing after they cancelled the July 29 2024 sailing.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Blizzard54

[mac_tlc]

9 hours ago, Laurie JJ said:

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experiences!  We are doing a similar trip on Jewel July 2024 and can't wait!  I do have a question for you.  You mentioned tendering once.  Sounds like you got on an early tender but was this a big deal?  Did you tender in many ports?  The Key is on sale and we are trying to decide if it is worth the extra money.  For us it sounds like the main advantage would be getting priority on tenders so we can easily make any non ship excursions and maximize our time in port.  

Our only tender port was Geiranger. A Costa ship got the floating dock so we had to tender. If we were the only ship, we would have had the dock.
 

We got in line for tender tickets about 15 minutes before they started distributing them, we got group 7. Was still about an hour + to get to our number. 

 

Coming back to the ship the tender line was enormous as everyone seemed to want every last minute at the port. We left about an hour late. 

 

mac_tlc

[Cruisefanatic71]

I will be following....I want to do this trip in the near future. 

[Tee & Chilli]

Excellent review. Fantastic pictures. Thank you 

[Anubi]

Thank you so much for your Live From.  We are looking at Norway for 2025 and the idea of a rear facing balcony is excellent.  Our only concern is vibration at the rear of the ship.  Did you have much of that?

[mac_tlc]

10 hours ago, Anubi said:

Thank you so much for your Live From.  We are looking at Norway for 2025 and the idea of a rear facing balcony is excellent.  Our only concern is vibration at the rear of the ship.  Did you have much of that?

We never noticed any vibrations in the back. We loved the aft views. 
 

mac_tlc

[Anubi]

1 hour ago, mac_tlc said:

We never noticed any vibrations in the back. We loved the aft views. 
 

mac_tlc

Thanks so much...rear facing balcony it is!!!  

[maggieq]

On 6/29/2023 at 4:35 AM, mac_tlc said:

Well we are sitting at Schipol waiting to check in our luggage for the journey back to Newark, NJ. It is going to be a long day, probably close to 22 hours ship to door. 
 

Flight to Newark through Iceland, then grab a rental for the drive to CT. Hopefully we will pull in by 11pm EDT. 
 

A remarkable journey, but I know the withdrawal will be severe, especially since we don’t know if we will ever be back —- don’t have those feelings on any Caribbean voyage, it’s easy to go back.

 

Spent most of yesterday being pi$$ed off at Celebrity for shafting us on our now-cancelled Beyond TA for 11/1/24. No price protection and the only similar ship offer would be $4K for for one less day. For those not following that debacle, they cancelled the entire 2024 European season to keep Beyond in the Caribbean. I could go on, and have on other posts, but won’t here. This is about the wonders of Norway and why everyone should go before the ship restrictions potentially limit access to some of the most beautiful places on the planet! 
 

Thanks for following along! Hopefully I have boosted tourism $$ for @Norwaylady ‘s country!😂😂

 

 

mac_tlc

@mac_tlc  loving this review.  I’m looking at a direct flight returning to Newark at 9:30 or a noon connecting through Washington to Newark.  Will noon be ok?  Can we walk off the jewel and are taxis readily available?  Thanks!

[mac_tlc]

21 minutes ago, maggieq said:

@mac_tlc  loving this review.  I’m looking at a direct flight returning to Newark at 9:30 or a noon connecting through Washington to Newark.  Will noon be ok?  Can we walk off the jewel and are taxis readily available?  Thanks!

I think you could do noon. 9:30 is too early. We had a 2:10pm , took Royals transfers from ship to airport, got off ship around 8:30 and were at the airport by 10:15ish. Couldn’t even check our bags because we were too early.

 

Self disembarkation started around 7, as I recall. Plenty of taxis, you should be able to make a noon flight easy. 
 

We would do this itinerary again in a heartbeat. 
 

mac_tlc

[SweetsugarNL]

On 6/17/2023 at 9:12 AM, mac_tlc said:

And she is not alone:

 

 

 

 

Looks like another beautiful day!

 

 

mac_tlc

Love the picture.
I have sail the Rotterdam and looking to the Jewel. Nice to compare the size.