A Jewel of a Spring Break 9 day

[bfos]

This is a review of our Spring Break cruise aboard the Norwegian Jewel. This is our 7th "Caribbean" cruise and we have sailed on Disney, Royal, Holland, Carnival. We are a family of 3 with a 9yr old son. We also travel as often as possible and know to expect both good and bad, so here goes.

We took a flight to Fort Lauderdale over Miami and saved almost a $1000 doing so. We used Star Limo to transport to pier. They met us promptly, but sent a small lady as driver, so I had to see to all our luggage and the cost was $209. Therefore, I can not recommend them to others. The trip was extrememly fast and we were to the pier by 12noon.

Check in was very easy and we were on board and eating lunch in Azara by 12:45. Our waiter was excellent and made several dinner reservations for us as we ate. I thought this was above and beyond in the area of service! After lunch we got the go ahead to go to our rooms. The room was fine but the carpet was unvacuumed and well used. There was a good deal of hair and chip crumbs all around the perimeter of the room. We informed the attendant and it was taken care of by the time we returned. There was always fresh ice in our bar and it was always restocked quickly. The pillows are beyond flat and should be replaced. The linens are nice and are "boutique hotel" in looks but the pillows have been completely overlooked in this category. We had to have 6 additional to sleep. The room was always refreshed in a timely manner.

This was our first experience with NCL and their dining. It was extremely frustrating trying to make dining reservations. We ended up in the additional charge restaurants almost everynight. We were never able to dine in Mama's. We ate in Azura once, Tsar's once, Cagney's 3X, Chin Chin once, Tepanynaki sp? once, Tango once. The food in Cagney's was great and well prepared, Chin and Tepan were very good, Tango was not at all good to us being from S. Texas, Azura and Tsars were OK at best. The lunch buffet was good to very good. We always were able to find something we liked. The burgers and hot dogs by the pool were not very good. For the life of me, I do not understand why they only have one ice cream machine, always a crazy line. They are really really really good at sanitizing everyones hands. This did not bother me one bit although others were complaining. I did not hear of anyone being sick!!!! The lounges were very good around the ship. We chose to have cocktails in Shakers everynight. We met several really nice groups of people there and enjoyed drinks with the same ones almost everynight. The staff - Nimfa, Pia and Nelson were AWESOME!!! They always went above and beyond in service, tell them Ben says HI. We will miss speaking to them and our other friends there.

The ship overall was well taken care of, beautiful colors used throughout. We went to Second City, Cirque Bijou and the Juggling act. The production shows were standard fare, Second City was really good. This is just not our cup of tea so that is all I will say.

You will be happy to know that the "chair hogs" were abundant and on high alert. I got up at about 7:30ish on sea days to find a few. I stayed with mine all day with my wife and we take turns eating and so forth. The towels were flying at times, but I saw no real throwdowns over the chairs! The only time they were really full were the 3 sea days. They are very serious about keeping up with your towels so don't lose yours or they will show up on your account.

Now the ports, in DR we di the Cayo Lenantado beach day and really enjoyed ourselves. The beach was beautiful, the water crystal clear, overall perfect! Some guys came by with various animals to take pics with, our son chose the tiny monkey and we bought a great pic of this. Antigua we went to Tony's on Dickenson Beach on our own and had a great beach day. The cab was $12 both ways, the beach chairs were $20 for 2 and an umbrella. I think you can barter, buthese prices seemed reasonable. Tony's has food and drinks, so we were well taken care of. In Barbados we went to Lobster Alive on Carlisle beach. This Beach was sooooo nice. It cost $8 each way by taxi about a 5-10 minute ride. The chairs cost $15 and included 3 drinks! Very few vendors bothered us and we had a great time! Tortola we went to Virgin Gorda on our own through Speedy's ferry which includes a taxi transfer to the Bath's. We have always enjoyed this port!! Spent the whole day there. St Lucia was a rain day and our excursions were cancelled. Got off the boat for 5 minutes and got right back on. The next sea day was rough seas, the pools was splashing so violently that they drained about 2 feet out and closed it the rest of the day. No big deal because the sun was out and beautiful, the next sea day was much calmer.

Debarkation is not as smooth as embarkation. It only took about 45 minutes to an hour though. The plane ride back mixed with storms and delays was the pits.

Overall this was a great vacation!!

[slotaddict]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. I just saw a great itinerary on the Jewel out of Boston. I would like to give her a try.

[bfos]

If you are a fan of NCL the Jewel will not disappoint!!

[chrisbd1]

The Jewel made me a fan of NCL ;)

[Pasty]

Can you tell me anything about "Room Service"? Is it free, what food can you order etc? We're cruising the Baltics on Jewel (our first cruise) in July. Thanks:) :confused:

[bfos]

Can you tell me anything about "Room Service"? Is it free, what food can you order etc? We're cruising the Baltics on Jewel (our first cruise) in July. Thanks:) :confused:

 

The room service menu is very very very small. It is free. We never used it, sorry.