**Photo Review: Norwegian Jewel to Alaska 5/27/18 - 6/4/18

We were on the same cruise. We ate breakfast, after getting i in either the buffet or the a Great Northern and then would sit in La Cocina. We never, ever had a problem getting a seat in there and most of the time, along the windows. There is a sign to show it was open for sitting for breakfast and lunch. Same as the main dining room on embarkation day in Seattle. Staff tried to steer us to the buffet but we went to the dining room and had a great lunch with a window table overlooking the harbor. Nice way to start the cruise.

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We were on the same cruise. We ate breakfast, after getting i in either the buffet or the a Great Northern and then would sit in La Cocina. We never, ever had a problem getting a seat in there and most of the time, along the windows. There is a sign to show it was open for sitting for breakfast and lunch. Same as the main dining room on embarkation day in Seattle. Staff tried to steer us to the buffet but we went to the dining room and had a great lunch with a window table overlooking the harbor. Nice way to start the cruise.

 

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I found out AFTER the cruise that you could sit in La Cucina. We would have happily done this if someone said anything.

On embarkation, we weren’t starving for a big meal, so we thought O’Sheehans would do the trick (snacks). I definitely know to do MDR next time!

What a great review Alaina, thanks for putting in the time to do such a great one. You have a talent for writing. Thanks again!

Thank YOU for taking your time to read it! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

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No pictures of the Tim Hortons you picked up on the way home?

Loved your review. I will introduce myself if I see you around town and will review our Alaska trip (and Jeep tour) later this summer.

Thank you so much for being such a faithful follower! I would LOVE to visit Talkeetna - I have so much land to cover in Alaska! My husband is flying to Yakutat in September to fish, I’m a little jealous! (Not of the fishing)

My next port to cover is Sitka and I must say, I fell in love! If you ever do travel to ISP, be sure to include something else as there isn’t too much to see/do. Very small, beautiful town.

 

Do you work in tourism?

 

 

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Alaina --

Thanks for the fantastic review & pictures!!! You took us right along with you.

We have never written a review... You may have inspired us to write one in the future...

Talkeetna is a fantastic place to visit & live. Let us know if you ever make it up here. A spur of the moment Alaskan vacation in 2000 - motivated my permanent move. Johnny & I managed Denali Lodges once upon a time -- currently work for an Alaskan Native Corporation.

Congratulations & Best Wishes to you & Paul!! Wishing you a long & happy life together filled w/ travel...

Cheers -- Von & John

No pictures of the Tim Hortons you picked up on the way home?

 

 

 

Loved your review. I will introduce myself if I see you around town and will review our Alaska trip (and Jeep tour) later this summer.

I’ve never been to Tim Horton’s, I’m sad I missed out!

Thanks for reading, holler if you find yourself in Issaquah. If you live on lake Sammamish I’ll be your new BFF. [emoji12]

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Alaina --

 

Thanks for the fantastic review & pictures!!! You took us right along with you.

 

We have never written a review... You may have inspired us to write one in the future...

 

 

 

Talkeetna is a fantastic place to visit & live. Let us know if you ever make it up here. A spur of the moment Alaskan vacation in 2000 - motivated my permanent move. Johnny & I managed Denali Lodges once upon a time -- currently work for an Alaskan Native Corporation.

 

 

 

Congratulations & Best Wishes to you & Paul!! Wishing you a long & happy life together filled w/ travel...

 

Cheers -- Von & John

Thank you for all of your kind comments and encouragement during this review. I would LOVE to follow along if you decide to write one. I use the notes app on my iPhone to make notes throughout the cruise because I never remember the details.

I love that a vacation inspired a move to Alaska - how awesome!! I would love to visit one day.

Until then, take care and have an amazing cruise!! Keep in touch with me - alainamarie2003 at hotmail dot com.

Alaina

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I’m just realizing that I did not post day 8 & 9 dailies... I will post those tomorrow!

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I’ve never been to Tim Horton’s, I’m sad I missed out!

Thanks for reading, holler if you find yourself in Issaquah. If you live on lake Sammamish I’ll be your new BFF. [emoji12]

 

 

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You've never been to Tim Horton's? Now that's just sad. We generally stop at one, two or three... when we drive through Canada, between Alaska & the Lower 48. You'll have to check them out, next chance you get. We were very surprised to see Tim Horton's has moved to the Lower 48 - we saw a number of them a week ago in Michigan...

You've never been to Tim Horton's? Now that's just sad. We generally stop at one, two or three... when we drive through Canada, between Alaska & the Lower 48. You'll have to check them out, next chance you get. We were very surprised to see Tim Horton's has moved to the Lower 48 - we saw a number of them a week ago in Michigan...

I’m from south Louisiana, so I’ve never heard of it. But now I’m wildly curious about it! I don’t even know what type of food they serve!

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Coffee, Donuts, Pastries, Soup, Sandwiches... A nice place to take a break on a road trip.

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Which part of LA? Spent 3 years in Shreveport, w/ many trips South

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Coffee, Donuts, Pastries, Soup, Sandwiches... A nice place to take a break on a road trip.

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Oh, now I'm interested!!

Which part of LA? Spent 3 years in Shreveport, w/ many trips South

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I was in the New Orleans area - only drove through Shreveport when going to Houston! I surely am not missing the heat right now!

Day 8 dailies

Day 9 Dailies

First sea day -

We slept in a little bit, but I wanted to get to the meet and greet about 30 minutes early. I wanted to mark name tags for those participating in the gift exchange, so I wanted to beat everywhere to Le Bistro. I organized our meet & greet, originally for 55 people, but many more signed up after.

We decided to give O'Sheehans another try. Guess what? Service was terrible. As soon as someone came to the table, we ordered quickly.

 

 

 

I arrived at Le Bistro around 1030a for our scheduled m&g for 11a.

 

 

Jelica was my event coordinator and she arrived around 1045a and was very sweet. She signed people in and made name tags for them. She sent a letter to my cabin on embarkation day that included her card in case I needed to reach her.

We had an EXCELLENT turn out! Shout out to our awesome roll call!!!

Steven Jacobsen introduced himself to me when he arrived with the crew he asked if he could say some words to the group once seated. We had some people trickle in late because we had a lot of movement on the ship, so a lot of people were suffering with sea sickness. He thanked me during his welcome talk and also mentioned that NCL does monitor CC to see what people are saying, etc.

We also received a card at check in that introduced all of the staff that came to introduce themselves.

 

 

We had a great turn out for our gift exchange. Planma'am did a great job taking care of this!

 

So how exactly does a gift exchange work. I think my roll call is going to do one, but the details haven't been discussed. I'm shopping this weekend and would like to know what to buy. I don't know if everyone brings one gift and there is some way to allocate who gets whose? Or does everyone bring a bunch of small gifts to hand out to everyone?

So how exactly does a gift exchange work. I think my roll call is going to do one, but the details haven't been discussed. I'm shopping this weekend and would like to know what to buy. I don't know if everyone brings one gift and there is some way to allocate who gets whose? Or does everyone bring a bunch of small gifts to hand out to everyone?

Hello! The way ours worked was whoever wanted to participate brought a WRAPPED gift from their hometown valued around $15. Be sure everyone wraps it. We had one table designated for gifts and I placed a sticker on nametags as so we knew who was participating. One would hope people wouldn’t grab a gift if they didn’t bring one, but we put a sticker on name tags just to verify.

Once the m&g was over, the person running our gift exchange made an announcement and the gift group walked up to the table and grabbed a gift. The person running it was sure to look at name tags to verify everyone grabbing a gift was legit.

Does this help? Ours was pretty simple but I know some people pull numbers, etc. It was smooth and took a few minutes. I gave a New Orleans glass cutting board - had a New Orleans scene on it. I received a calendar, towel, and oven mitt from Ireland and LOVE it!

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VERY helpful. Thank you

VERY helpful. Thank you

Happy to help! Let me know if you have any other questions.

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Day 6: Icy Strait Point 5/31/18

 

I planned a short excursion for our day in this very small port. Someone from Cruise Critic (Tatibus0913!) did an arctic cat tour and loved it, so I decided we should try it. It came out to around $260 for the two of us and it was well worth it.

Thanks for the shout out!! :D:D:D Seriously one of the best excursions that I've ever done!!

Thanks for the shout out!! :D:D:D Seriously one of the best excursions that I've ever done!!

Thank YOU for the recommendation! We had so much fun! I have some residual dust in my camera lens that I need to figure out... oops!

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Thank YOU for the recommendation! We had so much fun! I have some residual dust in my camera lens that I need to figure out... oops!

 

 

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Ugh, we did too! We were able to use lens wipes to get it off without scratching or damaging the lens. Currently checking out your Celebrity reviews - we've only sailed NCL but are looking at some other options for a Southern Caribbean cruise.

Ugh, we did too! We were able to use lens wipes to get it off without scratching or damaging the lens. Currently checking out your Celebrity reviews - we've only sailed NCL but are looking at some other options for a Southern Caribbean cruise.

I protected my lens, it’s the zoom I’m concerned about. When you twist it to zoom, you can hear the grit in there. We tried canned air, but I think we need to take it in to the camera store. :(

I LOVE Celebrity. My experience with NCL was not great - our cruise had a lot of service and food complaints. Needless to say, not a good way to get your feet wet. Celebrity is my favorite line thus far and I hope you love it as well! Check out the 12/13/14 review to the Caribbean for my 30th birthday. It wasn’t the best intro to celebrity, but my experiences got much better (as I’m sure they will with NCL).

Let me know if you have any questions!

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Day 4 - Tuesday May 29 - Juneau

We woke up around 7 and had the express breakfast at O'Sheehans. We were off the bus by 8 and took the shuttle downtown.

 

On my previous cruise, we booked a river rafting excursion through Celebrity - this took place on the Mendenhall River. We didn't even get a glimpse at the Mendenhall glacier, so I knew this would be a priority for us. I booked two tickets on the Glacier Express ("blue bus"). It was $90 total for the two of us.

It was a little chaotic to figure out if we were in the right place, the signage needs to be updated because there are sooo many buses (and several blue buses!) .

 

 

 

We did both walks and we are glad we did both - Nugget Falls took about 20 minutes each way. The weather was beautiful and we are so glad we did this without any time constraints.

 

 

This Glacier Express bus, it just takes you directly to the Visitor's Center at Mendenhall Glacier and you can spend however much time you want there? Is there an extra fee to enter the Glacier park area?

How long did it take to get there? And how much time did you spend? If you had to choose only 1 of the trails which would you choose? The website says it take an hour RT to visit the Nugget Falls.

This Glacier Express bus, it just takes you directly to the Visitor's Center at Mendenhall Glacier and you can spend however much time you want there? Is there an extra fee to enter the Glacier park area?

 

 

 

How long did it take to get there? And how much time did you spend? If you had to choose only 1 of the trails which would you choose? The website says it take an hour RT to visit the Nugget Falls.

Where NCL was docked was pretty far so transportation was available to take you to the main area. The Glacier Express picked you up from the main area and takes you to Mendenhall. It was around a 20 minute ride each way.

We spent around 1.5 hours, we did the photo point and the nugget falls walk... took us around an hour or so to do both because we took our time taking photos. You could do the walk each way in about 20 minutes. Nugget falls trail would be my choice, but you could easily do both.

The bus back to town ran every 30 minutes - that was on the way to and from Mendenhall. We were given an option to be dropped off at the ship or downtown. We chose downtown so we could eat at Tracy’s.

Hope this helps!!

- Alaina

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I just wanted to say thank you so much for the time and effort you put into your review! We are doing Northbound Alaska on the Jewel from Vancouver on Aug 6 and your review has been so helpful!