Just returned from Jewel Cruise in Courtyard Suite

[Glenn925]

We just returned from our cruise to the Eastern Carribbean on the Jewel in a Courtyard Suite. I figured since I obtained many great tidbits of advice on hear, I would take the time to write about our cruise.

 

CABIN: We stayed in cabin 14012, 14th floor Courtyard Villa (2bdrm/2bath). We are a family of 5 (kids are 11/9/7). I heard over & over again that the room would be too small for the 5 of us on here & it was the furthest from the truth. My 3 kids LOVED being in the 2nd bedroom together. My oldest got the top bunk & the other 2 shared the double size pull out sofa! It was their home away from home & they loved it! The room was georgous!!!!! The master bath was to die for. Taking a shower or bath overlooking the ocean was fantastic. My kids even got in on it since there was a TV over the bath. They took a bath & watched cartoons. Overall, the suite was well worth the upgrade over getting 2 connecting balcony cabins! WELL WORTH IT! I am still "up in the air" whether it was worth the $1,800 upgrade from the 11th to the 14th flr. The courtyard pool was tiny, but the kids did use it. Many said how busy it usually is, well I was on a sold out cruise & there was never anyone @ the courtyard pool! So we got some nice private time up there, but again, for $1,800 more, think I will go 11th floor next time. Although they kids loved sliding that card in the slot on the elevator & having people ask what is on the 14th floor. They felt like real "BIG SHOTS". I found it pretty funny! :D

 

BUTLER & CONCIERGE: Our butler was Laine & our concierge was Gary. I have to admit that I wasn't very comfortable using their services. I know that they are there for our requests & that is how they get their tips, but it just isn't my style. I may have $$$, but I am a short & t-shirt type of guy & don't ask much of people! So, we used their services, but it was limited. We had breakfast in our room once & dinner in our room once. Regarding the concierge, I called him once to book all our dinner reservations for the entire week & once to cancel a hair braiding appointment. Oh yeah, I also called to see if my daughter can be in the kid's camp with my older son since she would turn 7 in a month, both the kid's camp supervisor & the conceirge said the rules were the rules & she couldn't go with him. That was my one attempt of asking for something & I got shot down. Oh welt! Since I didn't use them much, I didn't feel it necessary to tip them much. On the last day, Laine didn't even come around (guess she didn't expect a tip), so I had her called & gave her a $60 tip & $40 went to Gary. From what I have read on here, that was probably a small tip, but again, couldn't substantiate a higher tip for the little I asked of them. Please comment if you think this was OK or I "wronged them".

 

FOOD: Chin Chin was EXCELLENT. I heard mixed reviews on here, but overall it was VG Chinese food.

 

Teppanyaki was EXCELLENT but a bit pricey (my opinion). My wife was sick so it was me & 3 kids. $20 each for the kids!!!! That is more then I pay when we go to a local "cook in front of you" place!! So $80 for the 4 of us with no drinks. Although my kids are tall & skinny, they can eat you out of house & home, so sharing was out of the ?. Again, $80 for 4 of us on a cruise,,just a bit high. Food was outstanding though!

 

Mama's was GOOD. Not great, but good. Free restaurant with nice atmosphere & good food.

 

Cagney's was a dissappointment. Coming from NYC & outstanding steaks, maybe my expectations were too high. Best thing on the menu is the 14oz Prime Rib. If you go there, get that! The steaks were simply OK & usually dry! Even medium rare was a bit dry!!! Go figure. The sides were tiny portions & the appetizers were fair. Crab cakes were the frozen type! To me, this was not worth the $20 upgrade per person!!!! Again, same charge for the kids.

 

Sushi was the best deal in the house. $15 for UNLIMITED sushi. Me & 7 year old went for lunch & muched out for $30. Well worth it. Full size, great quality sushi! Only downside is they won't let you get it in the room due to raw food! GREAT PLACE!!!

 

Azur Restaurant was horrible. Went on lobster night, only ordered main course as boat was rocking all over the place & we didn't feel 100%, so went for lobster only & there was only 3 of us. IT TOOK 1 HOUR!!!!! And believe it or not, food was cold!!! This place was the regular joke for us. We tried it again for breakfast & again it was horrible. Took forever for food & it was typically cold. Ask for a lemon for your tea? 10 minutes for a wedge of lemon. This was not a good place.

 

Garden Cafe Buffet was the buffet place. Eat until you throwup seemed to be the norm there! We ate breakfast there every morning but 1. It was outstanding for breakfast. We ate lunch there often due to convenience to the pool, it was horrible. Everything seemed room temperature. Cold or hot settled @ a room temperature. This amazzed me as they turned the stuff over quickly, yet hot was never hot & cold was never cold. Go there for breakfast, go for lunch out of convenience, but don't expect much.

 

Room Service was also a dissappointment. Ordered breakfast 1 morning & everything was lukewarm @ best. Ordered dinner for 2 different restaurants 1 night, and same thing. Why can't hot be hot & cold be cold? I don't understand it. Nothing like a lukewarm shrimp cocktail followed by a lukewarm primerib and a soggy dessert! Probably why we didn't eat in the room much.

 

ISLANDS: In my opinion, you should never book your excursions through the boat! Always book on the island. Much cheaper & easier. Through the ship you pay more & you get to go with a load of other people doing the exursion. Book on the island & you pay less & get treated individually. Since we have 3 kids, all we wound up doing was going to the beachs, but by simply taking a taxi, we saved about $200 between the 3 islands! They call it a "beach exursion", I call it hopping a taxi!!!! All the islands were fun & the beaches were great!

 

Overall, we had a great cruise! Lots of fun on board! Lots of fun on the islands! Food was a "bit" dissappointing, but nothing to lose sleep over. Still gained about 6 pounds!!!!!

 

If you have any ?'s or comments, I would love to read them!

 

Glenn :cool:

[gregandamy]

Nice review, we have friends doing the Jewel on 4/1, so I thought I'd read this. I agree with you about the buffet, we rarely go there. Ditto for room service, we usually just get coffee delivered in the AM.

[sneakerstud]

Be happt that you got it as cheap as for USD 1800 more! They defenitely should not upgrade to the Courtyard and leave that place for full fare guests!

The tip was a bit cheap!

[BeachBumMama]

Be happt that you got it as cheap as for USD 1800 more! They defenitely should not upgrade to the Courtyard and leave that place for full fare guests!

The tip was a bit cheap!

 

Why would that be? I suppose unless you are going to secure every villa for yourself and pay full fare, NCL is going to try to fill them any way they can, as well they should. Probably by the time the OP paid for his 2 balcony's + $1800.00 more, it was a good chunk of change and probably not far from paying full fare had he booked it in the beginning.

 

As for the tip, I feel it was appropriate seeing as how you hadn't really used their services.

 

It sounds like you had a grand time, welcome home!:) It's a great review!

[lgfromdg]

I just returned from the same cruise. I wish I had met you onboard; I would have loved to have seen that suite!

 

Laura

[gregandamy]

Be happt that you got it as cheap as for USD 1800 more! They defenitely should not upgrade to the Courtyard and leave that place for full fare guests!

The tip was a bit cheap!

 

I disagree, I thought the tip was maybe a little high for services used, definitely not too low.

[Glenn925]

Just a quick explanation of the fair for the Courtyard Villa. It was NOT an offered upgrade. I priced the 2 balcony rooms which was around $5,000. Then the Penthouse Suite on 11th costs around $6,200 and the Courtyard Villa was $8,000. So, I basically paid the fare @ time of booking, but it cost $1,800 more then the Penthouse Suite on the 11th.

 

Laura, I took many people who happened to be on the elevator with me to the 14th if they asked what was up there. They popped their heads out, checked out the courtyard, then went back on elevator.

 

To say again, the room was OUTSTANDING. The master bath simply made the room!!!!

 

Glenn

[BeachBumMama]

Laura, I took many people who happened to be on the elevator with me to the 14th if they asked what was up there. They popped their heads out, checked out the courtyard, then went back on elevator.

Makes me wonder how people research their cruises to not know of the Courtyard villas. Not that everyone is on cruisecritic, but when I'm looking at a ship, I want to know all that's available and where.:p

[CruisinCrow]

Thanks for the review, Glenn. I'll be on the Jewel in a few weeks so I love reading about everyone's recent experiences.

 

I have a question for you. Did they have photographers out every night or only on the "optional formal" night? Where was the best location for pictures?

[brunolvr]

We just returned from our cruise to the Eastern Carribbean on the Jewel in a Courtyard Suite. I figured since I obtained many great tidbits of advice on hear, I would take the time to write about our cruise.

BUTLER & CONCIERGE: Our butler was Laine & our concierge was Gary. I have to admit that I wasn't very comfortable using their services. I know that they are there for our requests & that is how they get their tips, but it just isn't my style. I may have $$$, but I am a short & t-shirt type of guy & don't ask much of people! So, we used their services, but it was limited. We had breakfast in our room once & dinner in our room once. Regarding the concierge, I called him once to book all our dinner reservations for the entire week & once to cancel a hair braiding appointment. Oh yeah, I also called to see if my daughter can be in the kid's camp with my older son since she would turn 7 in a month, both the kid's camp supervisor & the conceirge said the rules were the rules & she couldn't go with him. That was my one attempt of asking for something & I got shot down. Oh welt! Since I didn't use them much, I didn't feel it necessary to tip them much. On the last day, Laine didn't even come around (guess she didn't expect a tip), so I had her called & gave her a $60 tip & $40 went to Gary. From what I have read on here, that was probably a small tip, but again, couldn't substantiate a higher tip for the little I asked of them. Please comment if you think this was OK or I "wronged them".

 

If you have any ?'s or comments, I would love to read them!

 

Glenn :cool:

 

Glenn, I think your tips may have been a little low since there were 5 of you. On the Star my husband and I were in an AE and used the concierge for dinner reservations once and that's the only thing we asked of him. We tipped him $60.

 

Twice we requested breakfast to be served in our room at 7 AM, but once when it wasn't there by 7:30, we went ahead and went down to the dining room. That's really all we used the butler except for the twice daily treats he brought us (but those are part of the penthouse perks). We still tipped him $100, even though I thought it was too much. Now our room stewards, who did an excellent job, we tipped an extra $60.

 

Maybe we "over-tipped", I don't know. It's hard to know what's the "right thing" to do.:confused:

[212cruiser]

Glenn, you're tipping was fine. Your only mistake was in asking others for their opinion of it.

[Glenn925]

The photographers were all over the place. I avoided them like the plague because I know my wife would buy each & every picture, regardless of quality. But they are everywhere. Everytime you get off the ship, they are there! If you are looking for photos, you won't need to look far!!!!!

[CruisinCrow]

Thanks, Glenn. I like having pictures taken - except for when the photographers dress up like pirates and attack you at dinner time. I hope they don't do that on the Jewel. :)

[happy tigress]

Hello Glenn,

 

Just got off the jewel last night (March 18 -25th).

 

I agree with you on the food - it was disappointing. We had lunch at Tsar's on the day we boarded and at that time, it wasn't very busy so they were quick. After that, every time we ate at one of the main dining rooms - the selection wasn't great, the food was lukewarm and the taste was bland. We never had problems with the service though.

 

We also ate at the Garden Cafe, Mama's, Tango's, Cagney's and Teppanyaki. Teppanyaki was by far the best of them all. Ordered room service for breakfast a couple of times - the toast was dry.

 

We were in stateroom 8574 - obstructed ocean view. Don't let that fool you, you can still see partially through the lifeboats. Enough storage room. Each stateroom is individually temperate controlled. I needed an extra duvet and pillows and our room steward complied with a smile.

 

The sea was extremelly rough the first couple of days and the last couple of days. Make sure you bring the patches to put behind the ears - they work best. A lot of people were sick.

 

Ports of Call - San Juan - We took the city tour which we got as soon as you get off the ship for $20 p.p. for two hours. They show you old and new San Juan, El Morro and drop you back in the old San Juan shopping area. The ship's version of this is $49 p.p. This is definitely worth it.

 

St. John's, Antigua - Got a day pass at the Grand Pineapple Beach Resort for $45 p.p. - all inclusive - drink/eat. You have to pay for cab ride to Long Bay at $8 p.p. Nice resort to spend the day at. We were there from 11 to 4. Small beach but beatiful.

 

St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. - Took a taxi to Charlotte Amalie for $4 p.p. and spent a couple of hours browsing the jewellery shops and then took a city tour for $20 p.p. Next time I would take the Sunny Liston tour for $25 p.p. - which is much more fun and informative from what I have heard and read on these boards.

 

Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas - Total waste of time because the weather was windy and a bit on the cool side when the sun was behind the clouds. Water was extremely cold. They bring all the food from the ship except for the burgers which are cooked there. Burgers, pizza, chicken and salads. Did not each much until I got back on the ship. Island is small and the vendors in the straw market are extremely expensive. Lots of beach chairs for everyone. If you want to the hammocks, make sure you are on the first tender.

 

Overall, had a great time on the cruise except for the food which was mediocre.

 

Naaz

[sneakerstud]

Tipping was not ok...! You have no idea, what kind of backoffice work they do behind the scenes to provide you with a hassle free vacation!

 

If you stay in Penthouses or Villas you have to calculate the Tip's in before you go! The personel like Concierge or Butler's only work on a Tip base selary!

[happy tigress]

Hello Glenn,

 

Just got off the jewel last night (March 18 -25th).

 

I agree with you on the food - it was disappointing. We had lunch at Tsar's on the day we boarded and at that time, it wasn't very busy so they were quick. After that, every time we ate at one of the main dining rooms - the selection wasn't great, the food was lukewarm and the taste was bland. We never had problems with the service though.

 

We also ate at the Garden Cafe, Mama's, Tango's, Cagney's and Teppanyaki. Teppanyaki was by far the best of them all.

 

Overall, the ship was great and service was excellent.

 

We were in stateroom 8574 - obstructed ocean view. Don't let that fool you, you can still see partially through the lifeboats. Enough storage room. Each stateroom is individually temperate controlled. I needed an extra duvet and pillows and our room steward complied with a smile.

 

The sea was extremelly rough the first couple of days and the last couple of days. Make sure you bring the patches to put behind the ears - they work best. A lot of people were sick.

 

Ports of Call - San Juan - We took the city tour which we got as soon as you get off the ship for $20 p.p. for two hours. They show you old and new San Juan, El Morro and drop you back in the old San Juan shopping area. The ship's version of this is $49 p.p. This is definitely worth it.

 

St. John's, Antigua - Got a day pass at the Grand Pineapple Beach Resort for $45 p.p. - all inclusive - drink/eat. You have to pay for cab ride to Long Bay at $8 p.p. Nice resort to spend the day at. We were there from 11 to 4. Small beach but beatiful.

 

St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. - Took a taxi to Charlotte Amalie for $4 p.p. and spent a couple of hours browsing the jewellery shops and then took a city tour for $20 p.p. Next time I would take the Sunny Liston tour for $25 p.p. - which is much more fun and informative from what I have heard and read on these boards.

 

Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas - Total waste of time because the weather was windy and a bit on the cool side when the sun was behind the clouds. Water was extremely cold. They bring all the food from the ship except for the burgers which are cooked there. Burgers, pizza, chicken and salads. Did not each much until I got back on the ship. Island is small and the vendors in the straw market are extremely expensive. Lots of beach chairs for everyone. If you want to the hammocks, make sure you are on the first tender.

 

Overall, had a great time on the cruise except for the food which was mediocre.

 

Naaz

[BeachBumMama]

Glenn, you're tipping was fine. Your only mistake was in asking others for their opinion of it.

So true.:)

[CruisinCrow]

Another question for Glenn or Happy Tigress - did they give out beach towels for the shore excursions?

 

Happy Tigress, we are planning to go to the Grand Pineapple too. Can't wait!

[momofmab]

Aren't the layouts (inc. the master baths) in the AB penthouses exactly the same as the Courtyard Villas? My understanding was that the only difference was use of the pool & sundeck (not worth the $1800 to us, which is why we're in the AB ;) on 4/8)

 

Also to the OP, did you take advantage of being able to eat breakfast & lunch in Cagney's? How was that?

 

Thanks for the review!

[Piton1]

Dear Glenn,

 

Wow. That sounds like one heck of a bathroom. Was it bigger than the bedroom? Or, for that matter, the rest of the suite? Did you find yourself spending an inordinate amount of time in there?

 

And the tip was on the cheap side, btw.

[happy tigress]

Hi CruisinCrow,

 

Beach towels are readily available by the pool and you just pick them up - we didn't sign them out. The only time we had to sign them out was when we went to Great Stirrup Cay. They give you a receipt and remember to return both the towels and the receipt.

 

Another piece of advice, when going ashore, do not buy the evian bottles that they are selling for $4.50. Water is readily available at the shops for $1 - they are bit smaller but still cheaper. You can also bring your own insulated thermos and fill it. Water on the ship is filtered and I didn't have any problems drinking it.

 

They also have water for sale n the mini fridge in your cabin. We just brought our own, refilled it and kept it cool in the fridge. I am not a pop person but people also brought their own and kept it in the fridge. I got my son a soda/pop card for $40.25 and believe me, he made full use of it.

 

You are going to have a wonderful time at the Grand Pineapple. Make sure you get there early - we wish we had arrived there around 9:30 instead of 11 a.m. Also, the washrooms are big enough to change in. We, however, got a day room for $50 so we could store our valuables in the safe and change/shower - which in hindsight was not really worth the money. If you do get the day room then ask for a beach front - which we got and it was beautiful.

 

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

 

Have a wonderful cruise,

 

Naaz

[CruisinCrow]

Thanks, Naaz.

 

I'm looking at the Day Pass B, which is from 10:30 to 6. I think for $5 more, you can go earlier and get breakfast too. I figured we'd have plenty of breakfast on the ship. :)

 

How did you get to the resort? Did you pre-arrange transportation or just grab a taxi? What time did you have to leave to get back to the ship in time? I was thinking about pre-arranging transportation and asking for a stop at Devil's Bridge on the way. That way we can see a little more of the island.

 

We were actually looking into staying at Grand Pineapple this year but then we booked the cruise instead. If we like it alot, there's always next year.

[happy tigress]

Hi CruisinCrow,

 

We did not pre-arrange for a taxi to the Grand Pineapple. You can get them just as you get off the ship for $8 p.p each way and the price is pre-set.

 

We got our taxi driver to pick us up at the resort at 4:15 so that we could be back for 5 p.m. (you have to be on the ship by 5:30 but we didn't want to risk it). On the way back it took about 45 minutes because of the traffic. On the way there it took about 30 minutes.

 

The resort needs to be updated/renovated but they will be doing that soon. Still worth it though.

 

Also, they will ask you to bring your own towels but no need to do that. When you register, just tell the person there that you will be needing towels and they will give you a card to give at the activities desk. The card has to be returned when leaving.

 

I loved St. John's because it was a smaller island - very quaint.

 

Naaz