Jewel review 2/29 to 3/9

[muffinlover]

Hello all, This review is just personal opinion on things. My hubby, myself and our 2 kids went on this cruise. We had a balcony (BB) state room with a pull down bunk and fold out couch. The room was nice but in the evening after the bunk and couch were set up for sleeping you could not access the balcony unless you crawled over and in between the two. Bathroom was set up well with sink in the middle and toilet and shower on either side with their own sliding doors-i just wish it was deeper, there's not alot of room in there.

 

The food was better than I expected in the buffett and Tsar's. But the specialty restaurants are great. We ate in Tango' s(had no problem making reservations for this one). Teppanyaki was fun. Chin Chin was good. And Cagneys was the best, we had the prime rib. And in all these restaurants you can order as many apps, soups and salads and sides as you want.

I tried to make reservations at Mama's several times but could not get in at a decent time the earliest they had offered was 10:00pm and with our kids thats way too late.

 

In Samana we rented a taxi and went to what was sopposed to be nice beach. It was'nt. I highly recommend the NCL Cayo Levantado excursion- we wish we had done that instead.

 

Tortola- we took Speedys to the Bath's and had a great time there. The kids loved playing in the surf and seeing all the rock formations.

 

Antigua- we rented a van taxi from La Perla company-they are the approved island drivers. Any others that are offering you service are gypsies. We paid 20 for the adults and 10 for kids. We had about 5 other people from the ship with us also. You get about a 2 1/2 hour tour with a stop at the national park (45 min).

 

Barbados- We had to dock at the sugar mill pier because the QM2 was taking up 2 spots at the cruise dock. We took a shuttle to the shops at the cruise terminal. It was very crowded. But had the best prices on Tortuga cakes. There were 5 ships in port that day. We also went to the beach that was right by the sugar mill road.. The local taxi drivers will try to tell you it's not a safe beach but I had talked to others who had went there that morning and was a great beach-nice and clean with lots of space. Many people from the ship walked there that day and had a great time.

 

St. Lucia was our favorite port. Very scenic. We hired a van taxi again with some of the same passangers that we went with on Antigua. It was 30 dollars for adults and 20 for the kids. It was a 3 1/2 hour tour and it was well worth it. We saw the volcano, waterfalls, fishing villages, local bakery(the driver bought us all fresh bread) and the banana plantation. We really got our moneys worth on this tour. Our drivers name was Ignacicous.

 

All in all it was a great cruise. We would definately do it again. The kids really liked the water slide and pool area.

 

One note on the NCL kids program-our DD(10) loved her area and counselors, they did scavenger and spy hunts throughout the ship, bingo with actual prizes and also they gave out gifts of FM radios with ear phones to the kids on the first day. My DS(9) his program was different. The counselors did not do hunts and things they just played board games. And more than once when we picked our son up the counselors were laying on a bench watching them play the board games. They got no gifts and no bingo. My son was really wishing he could have joined my daughters group. All the age groups had a PJ party on the last night which they put 6-9 and 10-12 age groups together. they also supplied t-shirts for them to color and sign with fabric markers.

We did buy the kids crew backpacks. They are blue and come with the pop package and cup, another ncl cup, t-shirt, sunglasses, luggage tag and ncl hat. They are $44.00 for a 9 day cruise.

 

Thats about all I can think of right now. Still trying to catch up on laundry(I found the self serve machines but did not use them).

 

Any questions please feel free to ask.

[nlt46]

Nice review. It makes me want to get on a ship somewhere. Nancy

[LakelandCat]

Great review. Will be on the Jewel in a few weeks. Wondering if NCL has started giving guests a "welcome aboard" glass of champagne yet on the Jewel (part of the 2.0 coming up but I have read not all ships have implemented yet). Just wondering about this nice touch. RCL and Celebrity always did this and I am taking the parent-in-laws on their very first cruise. Thank you folr your review!

[muffinlover]

No glass of champagne yet. I heard that the Jewel will start to roll 2.0 out in mid April.

[muffinlover]

I forgot to mention the staff aboard the ship was wonderful. We never encountered any rude or nasty staff members. They all said hello, good morning or good evening. I was addressed respectfully everytime.