NCL Jewel review- Feb 6-15th

[Marjar]

I have a few comments regarding our southern caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Jewel. This was our first time sailing on Norwegian.

 

Embarkation was smooth-we arrived about 2:00pm which was well past the initial rush and we were able to get through checkin with very little line. We went straight to our rooms when boarding which were ready.

 

Rooms- We had an inside cabin on Deck 9. The rooms seemed somewhat smaller that on RCI and quite a bit smaller than on Carnival. When the beds are put together there is no room to walk between the corner table and the bed. We also had an upper bunk and a rollaway under the bed. The beds were comfortable. The bathroom had the best shower I have seen on any ship. Very roomy with glass doors. There is plenty of closet storage, shelves and drawers in the cabin.

 

Ports of Call-

 

Samana- In samana we were planning on renting a taxi to El Limon Waterfall, and renting horses and guides. Based on information we got on these threads I figured it would cost about $40 pp. $140 for the taxi, $10 for horses and $10 for guides. We were approached by a young man selling his tour services who said he would take us to El Limon, to a beach and on a city tour for $50 pp. Since this was slightly more than we had planned, but included the beach and city tour so we said ok. He took us in a pretty nice van directly to Franklin Parada where the horses were. They offered us rubber boots since the trail was muddy. Some of our group took them, some didn't. I wore water shoes which were fine. I would not wear tennis shoes. They will never be the same again. The trail was extremely muddy, rocky and steep. Even the horses struggled with it. My horse stumbled and went down while crossing a river and almost put me and my video camera in the drink! My guide (which was a 10 or 11 year old girl was able to drag the horse up) but it was a close call. The waterfall was impressive, but it was running too hard and was too muddy that day to swim in it. After the waterfall our guide took us to a beach for an hour and then back to the ship. No body wanted to do the City tour at that point.

 

Tortola- We had planned to take the ferry to Virgin Gorda to see the "baths" but we were let off the ship at about 10:20 and could not make the 10:30 ferry. While walking over to the ferry we were approached by a man who offered to take us in his speedboat to Virgin Gorda for $46pp which was only about $5 more than we would have spent on the ferry. Since we had already missed the ferry we took this option. It turned out to be a good day. He had a very nice fast speedboat which took about 12 people. He brought us to Virgin Gorda, then a dinghy came up beside the boat and took us to shore. The Bath's were beautiful and we stayed there until about 4:00 when he came back to get us. We had a little more trouble loading into the Dinghy this time because the surf had gotten somewhat rougher. Our dinghy was completely swamped, but we were assured that "a dinghy never sinks" and we made it back to the boat. We were given free beer, soft drinks, and rum punch on the ride back. The man's name was Egbert and his boat is the Escape Plus.

 

Antigua- Here we just took a local bus to Darkwood Beach. The bus cost $1.50 each way. The beach was beautiful, and the swimming was wonderful. We tried a little snorkeling off to the left side of the beach but the visibility was not good and we didn't see much. We rented beach chairs $5 each and an umbrella $3 because there is no natural shade on this beach. We waited about 5 minutes for a bus back when we were ready to leave. The buses go by about every 15 minutes we were told.

 

Barbados- Here again we took a local bus to Folkstone Beach for snorkeling. The bus was 75 cents US. We bought tokens for both the trip out and the trip back at the bus station. These were the government buses, Blue with yellow stripes. On the way back we took a different type of bus-yellow with blue stripes I think. They accepted the tokens for the government bus. We rented snorkel fins at the beach for $6 US. Life jackets were $3. The snorkeling was great, lots of beautiful tropical fish!

There is not much beach but there are picnic tables where you can set your stuff. There was a small beach if you wanted to get some sun, but most of the area is pretty shaded.

 

Some of our group took a taxi tour with Andy's Taxi Service for $15pp for about 3 hours. They said that he was very knowledgable and courteous.

 

St Lucia- Here we took an island tour with COSOL tours for $65 pp. Our driver was Jean Baptiste (JB) who was great! We stopped at various scenic lookout points, stopped for a nice breakfast spread of local foods, went to a volcano, and stopped at Jalousie beach between the Pitons for about an hour. The snorkeling here was very good as well. Our ship was leaving early so we didn't have time to see the waterfall and botanical garden. There was a mobile bar that stopped with us and had free beer (piton beer), rum punch and soft drinks. JB also let us sample some of his homemade moonshine. It was another great day!

 

Overall, I loved the islands and the itinerary. I am not sure I am a big fan of the freestyle dining. We had a large group (12) and the restaurants had a difficult time accomodating us. We waited at Tsar's for 45 minutes for a table for 12 only to find that they set us up at two tables of 6. We were only able to get a table for 12 on one night and it was such a hassle to get them to push two tables together we just gave up after that. We tried two of the specialty restaurants, Chin Chin's and Le Bistro and the food was very good at both of them. My daughter and her fiance also ate at Tango's and they said it was the best meal they had on the ship.

 

The entertainment was pretty good. The production shows especially Cirque Bijou were very good. I thought the comedian was only so-so. There was an accapella singing group, the Cats Pajamas which was excellent. I believe they were on their last cruise for a while, however.

 

All in all, it was a great cruise..

If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them.

[hazeleyes]

I have a few comments regarding our southern caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Jewel. This was our first time sailing on Norwegian.

 

Embarkation was smooth-we arrived about 2:00pm which was well past the initial rush and we were able to get through checkin with very little line. We went straight to our rooms when boarding which were ready.

 

Rooms- We had an inside cabin on Deck 9. The rooms seemed somewhat smaller that on RCI and quite a bit smaller than on Carnival. When the beds are put together there is no room to walk between the corner table and the bed. We also had an upper bunk and a rollaway under the bed. The beds were comfortable. The bathroom had the best shower I have seen on any ship. Very roomy with glass doors. There is plenty of closet storage, shelves and drawers in the cabin.

 

Ports of Call-

 

Samana- In samana we were planning on renting a taxi to El Limon Waterfall, and renting horses and guides. Based on information we got on these threads I figured it would cost about $40 pp. $140 for the taxi, $10 for horses and $10 for guides. We were approached by a young man selling his tour services who said he would take us to El Limon, to a beach and on a city tour for $50 pp. Since this was slightly more than we had planned, but included the beach and city tour so we said ok. He took us in a pretty nice van directly to Franklin Parada where the horses were. They offered us rubber boots since the trail was muddy. Some of our group took them, some didn't. I wore water shoes which were fine. I would not wear tennis shoes. They will never be the same again. The trail was extremely muddy, rocky and steep. Even the horses struggled with it. My horse stumbled and went down while crossing a river and almost put me and my video camera in the drink! My guide (which was a 10 or 11 year old girl was able to drag the horse up) but it was a close call. The waterfall was impressive, but it was running too hard and was too muddy that day to swim in it. After the waterfall our guide took us to a beach for an hour and then back to the ship. No body wanted to do the City tour at that point.

 

Tortola- We had planned to take the ferry to Virgin Gorda to see the "baths" but we were let off the ship at about 10:20 and could not make the 10:30 ferry. While walking over to the ferry we were approached by a man who offered to take us in his speedboat to Virgin Gorda for $46pp which was only about $5 more than we would have spent on the ferry. Since we had already missed the ferry we took this option. It turned out to be a good day. He had a very nice fast speedboat which took about 12 people. He brought us to Virgin Gorda, then a dinghy came up beside the boat and took us to shore. The Bath's were beautiful and we stayed there until about 4:00 when he came back to get us. We had a little more trouble loading into the Dinghy this time because the surf had gotten somewhat rougher. Our dinghy was completely swamped, but we were assured that "a dinghy never sinks" and we made it back to the boat. We were given free beer, soft drinks, and rum punch on the ride back. The man's name was Egbert and his boat is the Escape Plus.

 

Antigua- Here we just took a local bus to Darkwood Beach. The bus cost $1.50 each way. The beach was beautiful, and the swimming was wonderful. We tried a little snorkeling off to the left side of the beach but the visibility was not good and we didn't see much. We rented beach chairs $5 each and an umbrella $3 because there is no natural shade on this beach. We waited about 5 minutes for a bus back when we were ready to leave. The buses go by about every 15 minutes we were told.

 

Barbados- Here again we took a local bus to Folkstone Beach for snorkeling. The bus was 75 cents US. We bought tokens for both the trip out and the trip back at the bus station. These were the government buses, Blue with yellow stripes. On the way back we took a different type of bus-yellow with blue stripes I think. They accepted the tokens for the government bus. We rented snorkel fins at the beach for $6 US. Life jackets were $3. The snorkeling was great, lots of beautiful tropical fish!

There is not much beach but there are picnic tables where you can set your stuff. There was a small beach if you wanted to get some sun, but most of the area is pretty shaded.

 

Some of our group took a taxi tour with Andy's Taxi Service for $15pp for about 3 hours. They said that he was very knowledgable and courteous.

 

St Lucia- Here we took an island tour with COSOL tours for $65 pp. Our driver was Jean Baptiste (JB) who was great! We stopped at various scenic lookout points, stopped for a nice breakfast spread of local foods, went to a volcano, and stopped at Jalousie beach between the Pitons for about an hour. The snorkeling here was very good as well. Our ship was leaving early so we didn't have time to see the waterfall and botanical garden. There was a mobile bar that stopped with us and had free beer (piton beer), rum punch and soft drinks. JB also let us sample some of his homemade moonshine. It was another great day!

 

Overall, I loved the islands and the itinerary. I am not sure I am a big fan of the freestyle dining. We had a large group (12) and the restaurants had a difficult time accomodating us. We waited at Tsar's for 45 minutes for a table for 12 only to find that they set us up at two tables of 6. We were only able to get a table for 12 on one night and it was such a hassle to get them to push two tables together we just gave up after that. We tried two of the specialty restaurants, Chin Chin's and Le Bistro and the food was very good at both of them. My daughter and her fiance also ate at Tango's and they said it was the best meal they had on the ship.

 

The entertainment was pretty good. The production shows especially Cirque Bijou were very good. I thought the comedian was only so-so. There was an accapella singing group, the Cats Pajamas which was excellent. I believe they were on their last cruise for a while, however.

 

All in all, it was a great cruise..

If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them.

 

Thank you so much for posting in a few weeks we will be on the Jewel and im trying to read as much as i can about the ship.

 

Did you take pictures? If so do you have a link to your album?

 

What were the cost of the specialty restaurants?

 

Was lobster night the 1st sea day?

 

How much was the spa day pass for the entire week?

 

Was the buffet crowded for meals?

[Marjar]

Hazeleyes,

 

I have taken lots of pictures but haven't posted them online yet. I will try to do this soon.

 

Specialty restaurant charges were:

 

Tangos (Tex Mex)- $10

Mama's Italian-$10

Le Bistro (French)-$15

Chin chin (Asian)-$15

Cagney's-$20

Teppanyaki-$25

 

I think the Sushi restaurant was also $15.

 

Lobster night was the first sea day. Order two-they are small.

 

The spa day pass for access to the thermal suites was $20 per day. I think there is also an unlimited cruise access pass, but I don't know how much that one is.

 

The buffet was usually very crowded at breakfast time. They do allow you to take your buffet into Mama's Italian kitchen during breakfast and that was never crowded and lots quieter than the garden buffet. Lunch was not quite as busy as breakfast. We always found a table, but sometimes it was outside in the Great Outdoors. On a warm day, this was also, a nice place to sit. They don't have salt and pepper on the tables out there, however.

 

Have a great cruise!

[wibeachbum]

We will be on the Jewel in a few weeks. We have Cosol's tour booked. I expect our ship to leave port at 4 p.m. Will we have to shorten our tour with Cosol like you did or did you leave even earlier? Also did you drive to Jalousie Beach or take a water taxi?

 

We are also doing The Bath's on our own. Did you have enough people in your party to fill Egbert's boat or did you wait for him to find a full group?

 

Thanks for the great review and all the helpful info.

[DaisyL]

Julie, thanks for your great review. We'll be on the Jewel in a few weeks so I was interested in some of the things you did at each port. I really give you a lot of credit for just 'winging' it with some of the locals. I would have been a wreck at Tortola with the trouble you had with the dinghy. ... :rolleyes:

 

I have to agree with a large group on an NCL cruise. The first time we were a group of 10 and they had difficulty accomodating us too. We ended up making dinner reservations, the day before, every day and we could only make them for an early dinner (before 6 PM) or late dinner (after 8:30 PM). Since then, up to 6 people is good for dinner without reservations and less (especially 2) is better.

 

Thanks again.

[Marjar]

Wibeachbum,

 

Our ship was scheduled to leave at 5:00pm so our onboard time was supposed to be 4:30pm. Instead it left at 4:00 and our onboard time was 3:30pm. We could still have done a quick stop at the waterfall, but our group did not want to cut it that close. So we "voted" to go back to the ship. JB was more than willing to take us if anyone wanted to go, but everyone was enjoying the rum punch stop :) so did not want to cut that short! We took the water taxi to Jalousie Beach. It was a nice ride from a beach on the other side of the Piton's. Jalousie Beach was beautiful and the snorkeling was really nice there. Very calm with good water clarity.

 

As far as the Baths goes, we already had 8 in our group and waited to get 4 more to fill the boat. This only took a few minutes as most people walking in that direction were going to the ferry dock. Egbert only takes cash, just as a heads up. He was a great guy and we had alot of fun with him.

[hazeleyes]

Hazeleyes,

 

I have taken lots of pictures but haven't posted them online yet. I will try to do this soon.

 

Specialty restaurant charges were:

 

Tangos (Tex Mex)- $10

Mama's Italian-$10

Le Bistro (French)-$15

Chin chin (Asian)-$15

Cagney's-$20

Teppanyaki-$25

 

I think the Sushi restaurant was also $15.

 

Lobster night was the first sea day. Order two-they are small.

 

The spa day pass for access to the thermal suites was $20 per day. I think there is also an unlimited cruise access pass, but I don't know how much that one is.

 

The buffet was usually very crowded at breakfast time. They do allow you to take your buffet into Mama's Italian kitchen during breakfast and that was never crowded and lots quieter than the garden buffet. Lunch was not quite as busy as breakfast. We always found a table, but sometimes it was outside in the Great Outdoors. On a warm day, this was also, a nice place to sit. They don't have salt and pepper on the tables out there, however.

 

Have a great cruise!

 

Question did they offer free Margarita in the Mexican Restaurant when you buy the food? We heard that you could get one drink free with purchase of food. Can you confirm this?

[Suebee42]

Question did they offer free Margarita in the Mexican Restaurant when you buy the food? We heard that you could get one drink free with purchase of food. Can you confirm this?

 

We ate in Tango's one evening (the previous week), and we did get a small, free margarita. It was just a mini one. :)

 

And to verify a previous post, yes, the Sushi place was $15pp. I thought it was only OK. We have a great local place here in Rochester that has spoiled me for life, and they have 3 rolls for $12 on Sundays... LOL! The miso soup was extremely salty, as well.

[newmexicoNita]

I have a few comments regarding our southern caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Jewel. This was our first time sailing on Norwegian.

 

Embarkation was smooth-we arrived about 2:00pm which was well past the initial rush and we were able to get through checkin with very little line. We went straight to our rooms when boarding which were ready.

 

Rooms- We had an inside cabin on Deck 9. The rooms seemed somewhat smaller that on RCI and quite a bit smaller than on Carnival. When the beds are put together there is no room to walk between the corner table and the bed. We also had an upper bunk and a rollaway under the bed. The beds were comfortable. The bathroom had the best shower I have seen on any ship. Very roomy with glass doors. There is plenty of closet storage, shelves and drawers in the cabin.

 

Ports of Call-

 

Samana- In samana we were planning on renting a taxi to El Limon Waterfall, and renting horses and guides. Based on information we got on these threads I figured it would cost about $40 pp. $140 for the taxi, $10 for horses and $10 for guides. We were approached by a young man selling his tour services who said he would take us to El Limon, to a beach and on a city tour for $50 pp. Since this was slightly more than we had planned, but included the beach and city tour so we said ok. He took us in a pretty nice van directly to Franklin Parada where the horses were. They offered us rubber boots since the trail was muddy. Some of our group took them, some didn't. I wore water shoes which were fine. I would not wear tennis shoes. They will never be the same again. The trail was extremely muddy, rocky and steep. Even the horses struggled with it. My horse stumbled and went down while crossing a river and almost put me and my video camera in the drink! My guide (which was a 10 or 11 year old girl was able to drag the horse up) but it was a close call. The waterfall was impressive, but it was running too hard and was too muddy that day to swim in it. After the waterfall our guide took us to a beach for an hour and then back to the ship. No body wanted to do the City tour at that point.

 

Tortola- We had planned to take the ferry to Virgin Gorda to see the "baths" but we were let off the ship at about 10:20 and could not make the 10:30 ferry. While walking over to the ferry we were approached by a man who offered to take us in his speedboat to Virgin Gorda for $46pp which was only about $5 more than we would have spent on the ferry. Since we had already missed the ferry we took this option. It turned out to be a good day. He had a very nice fast speedboat which took about 12 people. He brought us to Virgin Gorda, then a dinghy came up beside the boat and took us to shore. The Bath's were beautiful and we stayed there until about 4:00 when he came back to get us. We had a little more trouble loading into the Dinghy this time because the surf had gotten somewhat rougher. Our dinghy was completely swamped, but we were assured that "a dinghy never sinks" and we made it back to the boat. We were given free beer, soft drinks, and rum punch on the ride back. The man's name was Egbert and his boat is the Escape Plus.

 

Antigua- Here we just took a local bus to Darkwood Beach. The bus cost $1.50 each way. The beach was beautiful, and the swimming was wonderful. We tried a little snorkeling off to the left side of the beach but the visibility was not good and we didn't see much. We rented beach chairs $5 each and an umbrella $3 because there is no natural shade on this beach. We waited about 5 minutes for a bus back when we were ready to leave. The buses go by about every 15 minutes we were told.

 

Barbados- Here again we took a local bus to Folkstone Beach for snorkeling. The bus was 75 cents US. We bought tokens for both the trip out and the trip back at the bus station. These were the government buses, Blue with yellow stripes. On the way back we took a different type of bus-yellow with blue stripes I think. They accepted the tokens for the government bus. We rented snorkel fins at the beach for $6 US. Life jackets were $3. The snorkeling was great, lots of beautiful tropical fish!

There is not much beach but there are picnic tables where you can set your stuff. There was a small beach if you wanted to get some sun, but most of the area is pretty shaded.

 

Some of our group took a taxi tour with Andy's Taxi Service for $15pp for about 3 hours. They said that he was very knowledgable and courteous.

 

St Lucia- Here we took an island tour with COSOL tours for $65 pp. Our driver was Jean Baptiste (JB) who was great! We stopped at various scenic lookout points, stopped for a nice breakfast spread of local foods, went to a volcano, and stopped at Jalousie beach between the Pitons for about an hour. The snorkeling here was very good as well. Our ship was leaving early so we didn't have time to see the waterfall and botanical garden. There was a mobile bar that stopped with us and had free beer (piton beer), rum punch and soft drinks. JB also let us sample some of his homemade moonshine. It was another great day!

 

Overall, I loved the islands and the itinerary. I am not sure I am a big fan of the freestyle dining. We had a large group (12) and the restaurants had a difficult time accomodating us. We waited at Tsar's for 45 minutes for a table for 12 only to find that they set us up at two tables of 6. We were only able to get a table for 12 on one night and it was such a hassle to get them to push two tables together we just gave up after that. We tried two of the specialty restaurants, Chin Chin's and Le Bistro and the food was very good at both of them. My daughter and her fiance also ate at Tango's and they said it was the best meal they had on the ship.

 

The entertainment was pretty good. The production shows especially Cirque Bijou were very good. I thought the comedian was only so-so. There was an accapella singing group, the Cats Pajamas which was excellent. I believe they were on their last cruise for a while, however.

 

All in all, it was a great cruise..

If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them.

 

 

Now yours is what I would call a fair and balanced review. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I don't think Freestyle works quite as well with larger groups even though I still love the concept. As for the cabin sizes, yes, the Jewel does have small cabins, definately smaller than Princess, I am not sure about the size compared to RCI as the smallest cabins we have ever had were on 2 of RCIs older ships.

 

Again, thanks for a good review.

 

Nita