NCL Jewel Review July 2007

[pandabear3]

This website helped me immensely in preparing for my trip to the Med. I would like to share my experiences, both positive and negative. Our embarkation was easy, the ship was clean, our cabin w/ balcony was spacious, everything was perfect...until we experienced "freestyle" dining. A lot of people like this form of cruising. My husband and I did not. Second day for a late lunch in the Blue Lagoon, which is supposed to be "fast type" food. We sat at a table for get this....45 minutes before it was cleaned off for our use. I asked my server for extra veggies, and he said he would have to check with the chef first. I have never encountered that on a cruise. Need less to say that dining experience did not go so well, but we kept an open mind. We, as it turned out had a lot to learn about freestyle. That night we decided to try the Italian Rest.(which is one that you need to make a reservation for) we did not have a reservation, but were seated right away. By the way, the rest. never filled up. So we were confused at that point about the reservation system. The next night, we went to Tango's Tex Mex w/o a reservation and as the very sweet hostess was getting ready to seat the 2 of us, the Maitre D' came up and in a loud voice said that we could not eat there because we did not have a reservation. Again, the rest. was empty. It was 8pm. Needless to say, we were quite upset and confused. It is quite difficult to make a reservation during the day, when we are out at port. After a meeting with the Head Maitre D', he made reservations for us for the rest of the week.

My husband later learned that he missed the Monday night Lobster Fest in the main dining room. There was no oral/written announcement made. He was not too happy about that!

This was my 5th NCL cruise, and my last NCL cruise.

The service was very inconsistent. We feel like it was much better in the past when servers were working for their tips. Now, there is a $10 daily charge per person which is divided up. This gives the staff less motivation.

Only 2 shows were excellent. The rest of the week, it was just okay.

We did one excursion on our own, 2 with private drivers and one thru the ship.

Since we experienced a little of each, I am happy to share my thoughts if anyone is interested.

All in all, cruising the Med. was by far one of my favorite vacations. I loved each port of call. The staterooms were very nice, even the showers were fine. The ship is very spacious and beautiful. In the future, when I cruise again, the chances of cruising NCL are slim. This is unfortunate, as my husband and I met on the NCL Dream and took our honeymoon on the NCL Wind.

We were not fans of the "freestyle" dining at all. We missed having the same waiter each night. That way, comes better service as they know your likes and dislikes by day 2.

[taxmantoo]

Sorry you seemed to have encountered problems on your recent cruise. We were also on the Jewel out of Barcelona on July 1st and found our cruise very enjoyable in all aspects.

 

We experienced "freestyle" dining differently. We used the Tsar's main dining room for most meals and never experienced a lineup or wait for a table. We even had breakfast and lunch there when time permitted. We would eat most nights between 8 or 9 o'clock. We had the same waiters and wine steward on most nights. We also went to the Bistro and Cagney's and got reservations without any problems on the same day we wanted to go. All you have to do is go to Tango's and reserve. I must say that the food in the Tsar's main dining room is of the same quality as the specialty restaurants, where one has to pay a surcharge.

 

As for the lobster fest, anyone who has sailed on NCL before should know that this dinner is always served on the 1st at sea day, which is also the informal formal night. This was also advertised in the Daily. Sorry you missed it.

 

As the OP states, the ports of call were great as wwas the weather.

 

Recommend this cruise highly to anyone.

[hotspur]

Interesting how some people seem unable to cope with freestyle. In nearly 60 nights on NCL ships, we've never had an issue getting reservations for those restaurants that require them, or being seated quickly in those restaurants that don't. We won't cruise ships that have so-called "traditional" dining, at least not until they adopt more flexible dining and dress policies.

 

 

In those rare situations where something takes longer than I'd like, I simply ask to get it done--as I would in any other restaurant. Makes a lot more sense to me than enduring it and then complaining about it later on the internet--which accomplishes nothing.

[NoPiratesPlease]

Funny how different things affect people differently. We HATE traditional early/late seating dining. The ONLY good thing about it is having the same waiter--for us. Otherwise, we MUCH prefer "Freestyle".

 

It sounds like the OP's biggest problem was with food and food service. Fair enough.

 

Blue Lagoon is slow on EVERY NCL ship--I agree with the OP on this and find it very disappointing. But the "hibachi grill" (with a different name on each ship) seems to be run by idiots. Two cooks "putting on a show" can't do half the job one guy does at our local benihana style restaurant. One guy does it in half the time, makes less mistakes, and the food tastes better. So we don't bother.

 

The screwups with "traditional" dining on CCL's "Victory" put us off just as much as the OP. Given that and other flaws, CCL will be a long time before we are on them again.

[travellady]

We'll be heading out on the Jewel from Barcelona on 8/26 and counting the days in anticipation.

 

We picked the Jewel because of Freestyle dining. When we cruise a port intensive itinerary, we love not stressing about a set dinner time. Also, we're pretty easy - as long as we can get something to eat, we're fine. Actually my husband is loves the buffet and the variety of choices so if we ate there everynight, it will work.

 

When we do a Caribbean cruise, with several sea days, we enjoy the more traditional dining since we consider it one of our activities.

 

From our perspective, it's all good. I suspect my parents, who used to cruise quite a bit from the late 70's on wouldn't care much for freetyle either. To them, cruising was about the dinner, and the dress, and the presentation. Since we all cruise for different reasons, one person's review may be glowing, another's not.

[Fishbait17]

I'm sorry that you did not like Freestyle dining. It is the main reason I prefer NCL over any other cruiseline. We are sailing on the Jewel 8/12/07.

 

Could you tell us which of the ship's tours you did and what you thought of it? I am curious about how well the tours were run and how crowded they are. At this point, we are planning only one NCL tour, but might do more (like just transportation to Rome) if they are very well run.

 

Robin

[electricron]

This website helped me immensely in preparing for my trip to the Med. I would like to share my experiences, both positive and negative. Our embarkation was easy, the ship was clean, our cabin w/ balcony was spacious, everything was perfect...until we experienced "freestyle" dining. A lot of people like this form of cruising. My husband and I did not. Second day for a late lunch in the Blue Lagoon, which is supposed to be "fast type" food. We sat at a table for get this....45 minutes before it was cleaned off for our use. I asked my server for extra veggies, and he said he would have to check with the chef first. I have never encountered that on a cruise. Need less to say that dining experience did not go so well, but we kept an open mind. We, as it turned out had a lot to learn about freestyle. That night we decided to try the Italian Rest.(which is one that you need to make a reservation for) we did not have a reservation, but were seated right away. By the way, the rest. never filled up. So we were confused at that point about the reservation system. The next night, we went to Tango's Tex Mex w/o a reservation and as the very sweet hostess was getting ready to seat the 2 of us, the Maitre D' came up and in a loud voice said that we could not eat there because we did not have a reservation. Again, the rest. was empty. It was 8pm. Needless to say, we were quite upset and confused. It is quite difficult to make a reservation during the day, when we are out at port. After a meeting with the Head Maitre D', he made reservations for us for the rest of the week.

My husband later learned that he missed the Monday night Lobster Fest in the main dining room. There was no oral/written announcement made. He was not too happy about that!

This was my 5th NCL cruise, and my last NCL cruise.

The service was very inconsistent. We feel like it was much better in the past when servers were working for their tips. Now, there is a $10 daily charge per person which is divided up. This gives the staff less motivation.

Only 2 shows were excellent. The rest of the week, it was just okay.

We did one excursion on our own, 2 with private drivers and one thru the ship.

Since we experienced a little of each, I am happy to share my thoughts if anyone is interested.

All in all, cruising the Med. was by far one of my favorite vacations. I loved each port of call. The staterooms were very nice, even the showers were fine. The ship is very spacious and beautiful. In the future, when I cruise again, the chances of cruising NCL are slim. This is unfortunate, as my husband and I met on the NCL Dream and took our honeymoon on the NCL Wind.

We were not fans of the "freestyle" dining at all. We missed having the same waiter each night. That way, comes better service as they know your likes and dislikes by day 2.

 

I'm sorry you didn't appreciate Freestyle Dining. But, as you found out, it isn't difficult to set up reservations in the restaurants that require them. Like many others have reported, once you got used to it, they prefer it. But there's aways a few who don't.

 

As for the apparently empty restaurant, did you go back to see how full it was an hour to three hours later? Since it takes two hours, or so, to dine at most of them, a table can't be used two hours prior to a reservation, or during the two hours a table is reserved.

 

Every restaurant aboard serves Lobster tails on Lobster night, including most of the Speciality restaurants, except the Blue Lagoon or Food Courts. I prefer to reserve a table at a Speciality restaurant on this night, because so many decide to dine at the Main Restaurants instead. Idea being going against the flow makes it easier to reserve a table at the restaurant and time I prefer.

 

I'm surprised to read you're still learning about Freestyle Cruising after having sailed with NCL five times in the past. :confused:

 

The Jewel was designed and built with Freestyle Cruising in mind. If you didn't enjoy your cruise on the Jewel, I recommend sailing with a different cruise line from now on.

 

I hope your next cruise is much better than your last. :)

[wack001]

Folks;

I posted this in both my reviews, all this Freestyle is another marketing Gimick, from my review;Freestyle:Choose from a variety of restaurants in addition to the normal dining rooms; you can eat at any time within the operating hours. However, some of the specialty restaurants do assess an extra charge. Formal clothing is optional. Freestyle is an interesting concept but needs to be studied more. In every restaurant I visited I found passengers waiting for a table. In addition, even though the service was excellent and regardless of the restaurants, I found the service to be extremely SLOW! As an example, there is no longer a wine steward; therefore in addition to their normal duties, the waiter is responsible for the wine and drinks; this was a slow process and added confusion to ordering dinner. I would suggest that passengers eat all but two meals at the no-cost main dining rooms and perhaps pick a specialty restaurant or two to try while cruising. The food at the other places is no better, just a different atmosphere. If you want to spend extra cash and think all this hoopla is worth it, then go ahead, personally, save the cash and eat in the dining room.

The wack

Carnival Valor 07,

Carnival Liberty 06,

Sapphire Princess 06,

NCL Star 05,

Carnival Pride 04,

HAL Zuiderdam 03,

NCL Sun 02,

Carnival Destiny 01,

HAL Zaandam 00,

NCL Sea 99,

Celebrity Century 98,

NCL Leeward 97,

Carnival Fantasy 96,

Big Red Boat 95,

Olympic 86,

[newmexicoNita]

This website helped me immensely in preparing for my trip to the Med. I would like to share my experiences, both positive and negative. Our embarkation was easy, the ship was clean, our cabin w/ balcony was spacious, everything was perfect...until we experienced "freestyle" dining. A lot of people like this form of cruising. My husband and I did not. Second day for a late lunch in the Blue Lagoon, which is supposed to be "fast type" food. We sat at a table for get this....45 minutes before it was cleaned off for our use. I asked my server for extra veggies, and he said he would have to check with the chef first. I have never encountered that on a cruise. Need less to say that dining experience did not go so well, but we kept an open mind. We, as it turned out had a lot to learn about freestyle. That night we decided to try the Italian Rest.(which is one that you need to make a reservation for) we did not have a reservation, but were seated right away. By the way, the rest. never filled up. So we were confused at that point about the reservation system. The next night, we went to Tango's Tex Mex w/o a reservation and as the very sweet hostess was getting ready to seat the 2 of us, the Maitre D' came up and in a loud voice said that we could not eat there because we did not have a reservation. Again, the rest. was empty. It was 8pm. Needless to say, we were quite upset and confused. It is quite difficult to make a reservation during the day, when we are out at port. After a meeting with the Head Maitre D', he made reservations for us for the rest of the week.

My husband later learned that he missed the Monday night Lobster Fest in the main dining room. There was no oral/written announcement made. He was not too happy about that!

This was my 5th NCL cruise, and my last NCL cruise.

The service was very inconsistent. We feel like it was much better in the past when servers were working for their tips. Now, there is a $10 daily charge per person which is divided up. This gives the staff less motivation.

Only 2 shows were excellent. The rest of the week, it was just okay.

We did one excursion on our own, 2 with private drivers and one thru the ship.

Since we experienced a little of each, I am happy to share my thoughts if anyone is interested.

All in all, cruising the Med. was by far one of my favorite vacations. I loved each port of call. The staterooms were very nice, even the showers were fine. The ship is very spacious and beautiful. In the future, when I cruise again, the chances of cruising NCL are slim. This is unfortunate, as my husband and I met on the NCL Dream and took our honeymoon on the NCL Wind.

We were not fans of the "freestyle" dining at all. We missed having the same waiter each night. That way, comes better service as they know your likes and dislikes by day 2.

Was this your first experience with the $10 auto tipping? It has been a part of NCL for many years and other lines are now doing the same. It truely surprises me about the service, but I guess this can happen. WE have been lucky, I don't think after 6 freestyle cruises we have ever had bad service. Sometimes it is better than others, but sometimes with traditional dining we have had better waiters than other times. I do think, one time we had to wait awhile for our food or for a wait person in Blue Lagoon, but all the other times service was fine. Maybe I don't let one time bother me as much as some do.

 

As for missing the Lobster night, I don't think it is ever actually announced anywhere. Most of us check the menu posted near the restaurants. Even without checking it seems to me Lobster night has always been on the first formal optional night like on most cruise lines.

 

I hope next time you sail you will find a cruise line that suits you better. Remember one thing, cruising has changed in the past few years and continues to change. Some of the changes are for the better, other changes maybe not.

Nita

[212cruiser]

As is stated many times on this board, some people you can't please no matter what. The audacity of blaming NCL when it was her own failure for not making a reservation indicates to me that the OP is one of those people who thinks the world revolves around her. I similarly doubt the OP's veracity with regard to the Blue Lagoon incident. I don't believe even for one second that she waited 45 minutes before the table was cleaned-off? Just ridiculous.

Legitimate complaints should be expressed, and every cruise line can be improved in a multitude of ways, including NCL. But keep to the facts, and consider the source.

[Markandrews]

A lot of people like this form of cruising. My husband and I did not. Second day for a late lunch in the Blue Lagoon, which is supposed to be "fast type" food. We sat at a table for get this....45 minutes before it was cleaned off for our use.

 

My husband later learned that he missed the Monday night Lobster Fest in the main dining room. There was no oral/written announcement made. He was not too happy about that!

 

The service was very inconsistent. We feel like it was much better in the past when servers were working for their tips. Now, there is a $10 daily charge per person which is divided up. This gives the staff less motivation.

 

We also recently returned from the Jewel, (12 day Istanbul to Barcelona). I enjoyed reading your views of NCL.

 

I did wonder why you would wait for 45 minutes for your table to be cleared. Did you mention the dirty table to anyone? Would you wait that long at a restaurant at home or would you have just left?

 

When we were on board "formal/lobster night" was mentioned in the freestyle daily as it has been on all of my NCL cruises. I am suprised it was not mentioned on your cruise. BTW..the Lobster is not all that great in the main dining rooms. Better Lobster is available every night in Cagney's.

 

As far as service goes I have sailed with NCL before and after auto-tipping. I honestly have not noticed a change in the service level. International ship crew members work harder for longer hours on more days per week then any job I can think of. I wonder how they keep those smiles and warm greetings day after day.

[pauline wales]

Hi Mark, we are sialing on thhe Jewel in September but from Barcelona to Istanbul. We sailed on her last August and found it to be excellent. Any tips onthis cruise would be appreciated.

[cruisingfromMN]

This website helped me immensely in preparing for my trip to the Med. I would like to share my experiences, both positive and negative. Our embarkation was easy, the ship was clean, our cabin w/ balcony was spacious, everything was perfect...until we experienced "freestyle" dining. A lot of people like this form of cruising. My husband and I did not. Second day for a late lunch in the Blue Lagoon, which is supposed to be "fast type" food. We sat at a table for get this....45 minutes before it was cleaned off for our use. I asked my server for extra veggies, and he said he would have to check with the chef first. I have never encountered that on a cruise. Need less to say that dining experience did not go so well, but we kept an open mind. We, as it turned out had a lot to learn about freestyle. That night we decided to try the Italian Rest.(which is one that you need to make a reservation for) we did not have a reservation, but were seated right away. By the way, the rest. never filled up. So we were confused at that point about the reservation system. The next night, we went to Tango's Tex Mex w/o a reservation and as the very sweet hostess was getting ready to seat the 2 of us, the Maitre D' came up and in a loud voice said that we could not eat there because we did not have a reservation. Again, the rest. was empty. It was 8pm. Needless to say, we were quite upset and confused. It is quite difficult to make a reservation during the day, when we are out at port. After a meeting with the Head Maitre D', he made reservations for us for the rest of the week.

My husband later learned that he missed the Monday night Lobster Fest in the main dining room. There was no oral/written announcement made. He was not too happy about that!

This was my 5th NCL cruise, and my last NCL cruise.

The service was very inconsistent. We feel like it was much better in the past when servers were working for their tips. Now, there is a $10 daily charge per person which is divided up. This gives the staff less motivation.

Only 2 shows were excellent. The rest of the week, it was just okay.

We did one excursion on our own, 2 with private drivers and one thru the ship.

Since we experienced a little of each, I am happy to share my thoughts if anyone is interested.

All in all, cruising the Med. was by far one of my favorite vacations. I loved each port of call. The staterooms were very nice, even the showers were fine. The ship is very spacious and beautiful. In the future, when I cruise again, the chances of cruising NCL are slim. This is unfortunate, as my husband and I met on the NCL Dream and took our honeymoon on the NCL Wind.

We were not fans of the "freestyle" dining at all. We missed having the same waiter each night. That way, comes better service as they know your likes and dislikes by day 2.

 

You can always request the same server each night.

 

For us, I hate being served an ice tea on my second night just because I ordered it on my first night. I may want something different.

 

We love the auto gratuity and have never felt that meant less motivation to the staff. On traditional cruising, we didn't like the last night of running around with envelopes.

 

The menues are posted outside each of the restaurants. I wouldn't want lobster announced anymore than I would want Chateaubriand announced. Seems a little silly to announce a menu. And then, why should only lobster be announced and not something else? Personally, I could care less about the lobster, but I know it's a big item for some.