We Were POSITIVELY Spoiled by NCL/Jewel April 9-16

[claudie]

We just returned today from our cruise on the Jewel. To our surprise we were treated as VIPs for our positive letters to NCL praising the captain and the crew on the Dawn during the rogue wave event in April 2005. We were so spoiled during our cruise with all of the special perks. We had a fabulous time on this beautiful ship. We had great weather, great room stewards, Winnie and Filemon, great itinerary (my favorite port-Antigua), cheerful staff (loved the bartenders and servers), treats in our room each evening, on-board credits compliments of NCL, etc. I could go on and on. In summation I have no complaints. We never used Ruth, the concierge, but her services were available to us as well even though we were not in a suite but a BA balcony. The food was good enough, no complaints. I enjoyed the waffles EVERY morning in the Garden Cafe after an hour-long workout. I enjoyed the spa treatments hot-stone massage with Francisco from Spain, facial with Mandy from the Netherlands and De-Stress treatment with Janet from South Africa. We really didn't see much of the shows, just the end of the staff talent show, Fountains. We enjoyed that as it was quite funny. Embarking was quite easy. We were in our room by 12:15 after zooming right through the Latitudes line. Disembarking was a breeze as a VIP with Ruth as an escort to about 50 of us. Led us right to the busses and off to the airport. (Sorry this seems to be a bit scattered but I just want to get something written before I get back to work and forget to post anything).

 

OK so nothing's that perfect right?. My only gripe is the amount of cigarette/cigar smoking in areas that are off limits but people ignored the signs. We had a neighbor from hell who was relentless with his cigar smoking on his balcony. I like to keep the door open but found the smell was coming in so it had to be shut. He was also foul mouthed and loud. Of course I found out that smoking was acceptable outside on the balcony of the cabin. We never had this problem. So now I'm thinking I won't even bother booking balcony rooms.

 

By the way, if shoreguy is reading this-thank you for posting Dan Farkas' name on the thread about the class action lawsuit. I did send him an email and the VIP treatment was in response to my positive feedback. I had written to Colin Veitch shortly after that cruise praising the captain and crew as well. NCL really went above and beyond.

 

Now I can't wait to start planning my next cruise.

[shoreguy]

I read this - glad you had a great time - you earned it. NCL does know how to roll out the royal treatment:)

[Cruisinbunnies]

 

OK so nothing's that perfect right?. My only gripe is the amount of cigarette/cigar smoking in areas that are off limits but people ignored the signs. We had a neighbor from hell who was relentless with his cigar smoking on his balcony. I like to keep the door open but found the smell was coming in so it had to be shut. He was also foul mouthed and loud. Of course I found out that smoking was acceptable outside on the balcony of the cabin. We never had this problem. So now I'm thinking I won't even bother booking balcony rooms.

 

 

Funny you should say this, Claudie. We were in a BA on the Dawn and we enjoyed keeping the doors open at night to get the ocean sound but the smoke wandering into our room in the early morning made it impossible to keep the door open, and we also wondered if we should even bother to book a balcony again.

 

We did not have rude neighbours like you, but just the smell of smoke first thing in the morning was not really pleasant. I wonder if their isn't a solution to this, besides the obvious.

 

Glad you had a nice trip out of Miami. I'm glad NCL treated you well. I personally thought that the company handled the wave incident properly, and this just proves it!:D

[shoreguy]

 

 

We did not have rude neighbours like you, but just the smell of smoke first thing in the morning was not really pleasant. I wonder if their isn't a solution to this, besides the obvious.

 

 

They could go back to the old way. As a smoker I felt better about it. Starboard cabins were no smoking and port cabins smoking optional.

 

Makes booking a little more of a problem and the non smokers refused to take cabins on the smoking optional side thinking they were like stinky hotel rooms.

[Cosmopolitan]

They could go back to the old way. As a smoker I felt better about it. Starboard cabins were no smoking and port cabins smoking optional.

 

Makes booking a little more of a problem and the non smokers refused to take cabins on the smoking optional side thinking they were like stinky hotel rooms.

[/indent]

 

Isn't this comparable to "overweight" and/or "drinking/drunk" passengers?

 

When I used to fly...I would get stressed about too many overweight passengers being on one side of the plane...I also don't want them all on one side of the ship:eek:

We, obviously, do not get weighed before we board an airplane or ship!

 

And, I prefer a mattress where overweight passengers did not make "dents/caves", in the mattress.

 

I also prefer to know that a smoker will not get drunk and fall asleep with a cigarette in bed. (hotel or ship).

I also prefer to know that a drinker will not drink too much and open his forward balcony door to let a rogue wave in. (As in the rogue wave).

 

This could go on forever.

Many do not like drinking, smoking, overweight, underweight, etc.

 

Live and let live!

It's all a risk! Day to day!

 

If you have so many hang-ups...stay home!

 

You only live once!

Enjoy life:) and people and (above all) , enjoy your cruise!;)

[sweetpea-2]

glad you had a great cruise !!! I feel that NCL does spoil you and will sail with them again, hopefully early next year.....

My first cruise we had an inside room so this last one we got a balcony room....we also had some issues with the smoke coming from our neighbors....I am highly allergic to it and so at times I did have to shut our door ..... one morning I was out there standing looking around while I tyring to wake up enough to get dressed and all of a sudden (not from neighbors) some ashes landed on my face and arm :eek: was not happy but decided a shower was in order before I headed down to breakfast...but before I did I looked all around and saw that there was 3 different sets of hands hanging over the balcony's and they all had cigarettes going....are they not aware that the ashes are going somewhere :confused: ....I know smokers have their rights and are not shy about telling you so.......however at times it seems like some of them don't consider that we might not want to wear the ashes from their smokes....we were also told that the port side was the smoking side of the ship....not sure many smokers knew this and it might be a good idea to have signs, it may not cure the whole issue but I am sure it would help out us non-smokers..........

But all in all I still want a balcony room :o ....it was more but worth every penny....guess the times that we did have it open was worth it.....

[claudie]

sweetpea, the port side of the ship is the smoking side however as we found out it only applies to the public spaces not staterooms. Being asthmatic I always ask before I book whether cruise or hotel room. This particular cruise was full of wonderful friendly Europeans doing a back to back since their kids have a 2 week break from school. Also being a child of European parents who smoked all the time I know if NCL (or other cruiselines for that matter) had a non-smoking cruise they would lose their European market. I don't think it's something they would even consider. I have nothing against people who smoke however I, like you, don't enjoy having to be subjected to it first thing in the morning as I'm trying to wake up to fresh air on my balcony. But all this in mind we had a great time and I wish it could have lasted another week, smoke and all.

[SMILING IRISH EYES]

Hi claudie,

 

It was great meeting averyone from CC at our meeting. As we were also on the "Wave" cruise last year - we too were treated as VIP 's on this cruise. I loved all the little goodies at night. I think NCL did a great job in showing us that they appreciate our repeat business. although it will be hard to be back on a cruise without all the little perks. We'll have to work on that and start saving now!

[claudie]

Smilingeyes, we were thinking the same thing about upgrading on our next cruise for the special perks that come with it. I'm glad we all got to meet each other. It's nice running into people during the week and chatting. It seemed to me we were all having a great time.

[hersheycat]

Hi Claudie,

Remember me from the "wave" cruise? We did the 7 day Spirit this past week and we also recieved the VIP package. A lovely letter in our cabin telling us that they had been eagerly awaiting our arrival and wanted to show us a great cruise...treats everynight delivered to our balcony cabin....an invitation to the Captains VIP cocktail party (which was great), etc......

 

What a difference from the last experience. We had such a great time, NCL will definitely be our choice for the next cruise. Glad you had a wonderful experience too.

[electricron]

Isn't it amazing how your attitude affects the crew.

Praise them, and they go all out to please you.

Give them a really hard time, and they ignore you as much they can.

 

My Suggestion:

Go with a "I'm going to have fun on this cruise" attitiude, and you'll have fun.