Our May 31, 2014 cruise to Alaska on the Jewel

Oh yes! The Eggs Benedict - the item I order more than 50% of the time! For some reason it always seems to taste better on a cruise ship!

Setting up early for the BBQ at noon. And even some early birds enjoying the swimming pool at 10:30 in the morning.

Beautiful morning for enjoying the pool deck. I think this is the first Alaska cruise on which I actually saw towels (instead of blankets) on the chairs!

Swim, relax in hot tub, or dine with a view! on available on the pool deck even though it was only 50F, it felt much warmer.

Pick a chair, any chair!

On the front of the ship--lots of places to sit and enjoy the view!

Lots of chairs -- no people? Where are the almost 2,800 passengers doing at 10:30 in the morning? We felt like we were the only ones onboard walking around the pool & sun decks.

A great day to enjoy the "Great Outdoors" eating area.

A few people out enjoying the promenade deck! I'm taking my daughter's picture as she is taking mine.

The straight-on view from our bathtub looking onto our balcony.

The view from our shower (with the blind rolled up).

Look at all of the handles in the shower!

Pizza delivery for lunch today! It was good but not GREAT.

Mesmerized by the wake of the ship.

We had dinner in Azura for the 3rd time. Each time the restaurant was pretty full and we were seated in the back part of Le Bistro. I guess that is Azura's overflow area when Le Bistro isn't that busy. We always had good food and great service in Azura.

Artwork in Le Bistro-

Goodies delivered by our butler-

Another cute towel animal -- a pig? or a bear?

View from the balcony looking into the bathroom (with the blind open)

The end to a beautiful day at sea. The Crew Talent show was fun and Le Cirque de Bijou was outstanding.

It's dark at 10:30 tonight since we are so much further south.

Beautiful morning for enjoying the pool deck. I think this is the first Alaska cruise on which I actually saw towels (instead of blankets) on the chairs!

Does NCL provide blankets for deck use on cold days?

Does NCL provide blankets for deck use on cold days?

I didn't notice blankets on this cruise but I have on our past Alaska cruises, especially on Glacier Bay day.

You have completely whetted my appetite - for everything on our upcoming cruise. Less than 7 weeks now!

Good overview of the Jewel, thought I might check it out since she is coming to Houston this fall. We might have to check her out.

Thanks, Casey! My daughter is finally home and recovering nicely. We're so lucky this didn't happen 6 weeks earlier when we were on our cruise! :eek: Although it would have been a good test to see how our travel insurance worked.

 

1 - No bar or lounge area in the Courtyard area of the Haven on the Jewel (or Pearl). There is a buffet breakfast set-up every morning (coffee, tea, juice, ice water, assorted fresh fruits, Danish rolls and muffins) and afternoon snacks of cookies and other goodies. There are a few tables where you can have the courtyard butler serve you meals.

 

2 - Since we had lunch just before our Tracy Arm Fjord excursion, I didn't pay too much attention to what foods they had available for purchase. They did pass around a very small snack of smoked salmon & Ritz cracker to tempt you to buy some of their smoked salmon.

 

3 - I thought there were a lot of children on our cruise and was very surprised that there were as many children as there were especially since around here our schools were still in session until mid-June (or later). Since the Jewel is big on Nickelodeon there was always something going on related to that.

 

4 - All the ports are good for walking around but after a couple of hours, it may get pretty boring for your 7 year old. In Ketchikan you might think about the "Duck Tour" or the "Lumberjack Show". Both of those are pretty reasonable and don't last a long time and the kids seems to really enjoy them. In Skagway you can always go mining for gold or drive up into the Yukon to see the sled dog puppies. Some of the kids like the train up to White Pass but it's pretty long and it seemed like the kids in our car got pretty bored with the scenery.

 

Hope this helps you a little.

Thanks, Sandy (and "amarvel"). I was hoping with the changes (like adding O'Sheehan's, which made my day!) that they may have added a private area upstairs as well. Oh well. One of my favorite places to casually hang out during relax time is O'Sheehan's. The food there is always a favorite.

An aside: I had an emergency appendectomy on Christmas Eve... well, Christmas morning, technically. Pain on Christmas Eve, hospital (I have never had surgery before this, knock on wood), and they were awesome enough to do the surgery that night at Midnight. Then, I willed my way out of there by 6:00 a.m. so I could get home before my son (then 6) woke up to Christmas morning without me. I got home just before he woke up. It was awesome. Just an "appendectomy story" since it came up. I've been fine since then, so I'm sure she will be fine. Still, it hurts for a few weeks.

Thanks again! Great write-up!

Friday, June 6, 2014 - Victoria

Since we weren’t due to arrive in Victoria until 2:30PM, I spent most of the morning packing.

Pretty sunrise cruising west of Vancouver Island at 5AM

Time to enjoy my "pre-breakfast" on our balcony while my husband and daughter were still sleeping at 7AM

Beautiful morning but it looks like a fog bank ahead.

Now we're in the fog and listening to the Jewel's fog horn every few minutes

Enjoying lunch in O'Sheehan's with Dixieland Jazz music in the Crystal Atrium below us

Some decorations in O'Sheehan's Bar & Grill

I always get so sad while I'm packing up on that last full day.... :(

At 1:20PM, our last port of call, Victoria in the distance

Here comes the Victoria pilot

2:00 and welcome to sunny Victoria

Beautiful day in Victoria and we're the first ship to arrive at the Ogden Point Terminal

We booked the “Enchanting Butchart Gardens” excursion. It was about an hour and 15 minute bus ride to get there and since we were late in leaving from the Ogden Point Terminal we didn’t get to Butchart Gardens until around 4:30PM. We had a little over 2 hours to walk around the gardens.

Sunken Gardens

Beautiful Ross Fountain

One of the totem poles

Flowers even decorated the trash containers

Looking from the Rose Garden towards the Dining Room and Italian Garden area

Japanese Gardens

Butchart Cove

Japanese Gardens Pond

Star Pond with Frog Fountain in the middle

Italian Garden and pond

Pretty flowers in the Show Greenhouse

You have such great pictures! I appreciate all the time and effort you have put into this review.

You have such great pictures! I appreciate all the time and effort you have put into this review.

Thanks, Hikini! How many weeks/days until you cruise?

We're looking at the 9-day Jewel to Alaska for May 7, 2015. Can't quite decide, though. It's a little earlier in the season than we like to go but 9 days is so much better than 7!!! ;) But it is RT out of Seattle.

Thanks, Hikini! How many weeks/days until you cruise?

 

We're looking at the 9-day Jewel to Alaska for May 7, 2015. Can't quite decide, though. It's a little earlier in the season than we like to go but 9 days is so much better than 7!!! ;) But it is RT out of Seattle.

6 weeks from today! The 9-day sounds great, but as you said, it's a little early in the season. However, I could be persuaded just to take advantage of those 2 extra days! :)

6 weeks from today! The 9-day sounds great, but as you said, it's a little early in the season. However, I could be persuaded just to take advantage of those 2 extra days! :)

I'm envious! ;) I'm so ready to cruise again! I'd love 2 extra days cruising Alaska.

And have you seen the port times for the May 7, 1015 cruise?

9 hours in Ketchikan, 12 hours in Juneau, 13 hours in Skagway, a day cruising Glacier Bay, and 8 hours in Icy Strait Point. Oh, and 12 hours in Victoria! I do wish it had a stop in Sitka, though. We've never been there.

Our bus got back from Butchart Gardens about 7:30PM, about an hour behind schedule.

View of Ogden Dock area from our balcony

The Golden Princess docked next to us

Seagulls in the sunset at 9:20PM just as we were getting ready to leave Victoria.

Good-bye Victoria and the Westerdam and the Golden Princess. We'll see you in Seattle in the early morning.

Saturday, June 7, 2014 - Disembarkation Day

Our 10th cruise to Alaska was coming to an end. About 5AM the Jewel was entering Elliott Bay with a beautiful sunrise to greet us.

Sunrise over downtown Seattle

Cruising into Elliott Bay

5:20AM and arriving at Pier 66. Usually the ships dock with Starboard Side towards the pier, but the Captain had told us that because of some unloading that needed to be done via a large crane, we would be docking with Port Side towards the pier.

And there's the crane and dumpsters.

We had docked about 6:15AM and at 7AM the "Easy Walk Offs" getting off the ship.

We weren't really in any hurry to get off the Jewel. We went to Moderno's and had a nice breakfast about 8AM, then went back to our suite to gather up our stuff.

We got off about 9AM, being escorted by the Concierge, quick walk through customs, went and collected our luggage and caught the shuttle to the parking garage. We were home by 10:30AM.

We had another good cruise to Alaska. This one didn't stand out as one of our "great" or "wonderful" ones but it was good. And we had good food wherever we ate and we had a good time in every port. We had calm seas and good weather except for Juneau. We enjoyed most of the entertainment. Our butler and concierge were disappointing since we have been spoiled with excellent ones on previous cruises. However, we had a terrific room steward, Joefrey Pili.

The Pearl is still our favorite ship but we're going to give the Jewel another chance next year as we just booked the 9-day Alaska cruise on her for May 7, 2015. The port times are great and the stop in Icy Strait Point will be a new one for us.

Thanks so much for a great review! I've enjoyed your posts and pictures. It has me even more excited (although your last post gave me that sad feeling you get on disembarkment day) for our upcoming cruise in 3 weeks!

Thanks again for the wonderful review, pictures and information. Appreciate all the time and effort you put into it. We will be cruising on the Jewel December 6th and this will be our first cruise on the Jewel and our 1st Haven suite. Your review and pictures have given me so much to look forward to!!! Thanks again and I hope your daughter is feeling better after her surgery. :-)

Jan

Thanks again for the wonderful review, pictures and information. Appreciate all the time and effort you put into it. We will be cruising on the Jewel December 6th and this will be our first cruise on the Jewel and our 1st Haven suite. Your review and pictures have given me so much to look forward to!!! Thanks again and I hope your daughter is feeling better after her surgery. :-)

 

Jan

Thanks Jan for the kind words. Yes, Nicole is doing great after her emergency appendectomy. In fact yesterday was her first day back at work.

Enjoy your Haven Suite, the exclusive Courtyard and the 15th deck private viewing area. Let me know if you have any questions.

And we've booked another Alaska cruise -- May 7, 2015 on the Jewel!

9-days and great port times!!! :D

And we've booked another Alaska cruise -- May 7, 2015 on the Jewel!

9-days and great port times!!! :D

Very nice!! I wish I could go too :D