Review of Jewel to Alaska 7/28-8/4 - with pictures

[sdmike]

There were some neat shops and buildings in Skagway, and we actually got about 30 seconds of sun while in town. My wife and I squinted tightly and simultaneously said “what is that bright thing?” lol. We took pictures of the visitor’s center (the most photographed building in AK), which is covered in drift wood, and got a couple of gifts for friends taking care of pets. The Red Onion Saloon was fun to visit, with waitresses dressed as turn of the century “ladies of questionable integrity” just for fun.

 

 

 

Down around 2nd street they have a retired snow plow train that they used to clear snow off the pass railroad. Wicked looking thing, actually. Looks like it could drill a tunnel and not just throw snow.[/font]

 

 

At 1pm we went on our last tour, a “float tour” down a local river. This was the only thing we did that wasn’t worth the money. A 45 minute drive up, 45 minutes on a slow (boring) river, and a 45 minute drive back. It was pretty, but not worth the $75 per person that we paid…especially after the other trips we had done. No wildlife at all either, which surprised us. I would not recommend it other than a couple of the views along the road looking down on the channel.

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2012 by sdmike

[sdmike]

Like I said before, there were some places with nice views as we headed north out of Skagway. I also went out of my way to shake the boredom by trying to compose some nice shots of the mountains. Here's what I came up with..

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deb63]

Really enjoying your pics. I'm glad you stuck with your excursion at Tracy Arm, considering those of us that were on the ship really missed out on pics due to the HAL ship.

 

We were not only down the hall in the Marriott, but also only two doors down from you on the Jewel, in 11030. :)

 

Those eagle shots are amazing!

 

My DH will be green when I show him the pics of your fishing excursion!!

Edited August 7, 2012 by deb63

[sdmike]

We got back on the Jewel around 4:30, and left port shortly after that. What I saw over the next 3 hours stunned and amazed me.

 

We were on the starboard side of the Jewel. For the next 3 hours we had the most unbelievable view of the mountains and glaciers of Sullivan Island as we were heading south. For that reason alone I will recommend a balcony on the starboard side of the Jewel for an AK trip. It was amazing. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Again, pictures don’t do it justice.

 

 

 

How's this for a view from the balcony?

 

 

 

 

[/font]

Edited August 7, 2012 by sdmike

[sdmike]

Of course, I need to post more of these. All of them were shot from my balcony on the way out of Skagway

 

 

 

 

 

[sdmike]

This night I ate at the Blue Lagoon (chicken wings and burger, which were very good) because it was getting late.

 

Tonight it was my wife’s turn to take my daughter to a show, and they had a good time at magician JP’s 9:15 show. I didn’t go. I was sitting on my balcony. After the show my wife grabbed me and my camera to go see the full moon from the upper deck. It was cold, windy as all get out (probably 40mph easy), but I got some neat pictures at night on the ship. By the way, on the Epic I took a lot of night shots, but in Alaska I just didn’t spent much time out on the upper decks. Brrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2012 by sdmike

[bahrain_not_dubai!]

Absolutely LOVING your review! Keep it up, its wonderful and compelling... makes me want to book a cruise to Alaska!

[sdmike]

Day 6-Second Sea Day

 

The second sea day was similar to the first. The fog had rolled in again, and there wasn't much to look at off the balcony.

 

]

 

 

 

 

We slept in because we were so tired, had a nice breakfast, then spent time in the gym, spa or somewhere watching some Olympics. My daughter and couple others saw the crew show at 2 in the afternoon and said it was “meh”

 

That night we went to see Le Cirque Bijou, which featured the acrobats and others in a very nice show. It was similar to Cirque Dreams on the Epic, but a couple of notches below in quality. It was still quite better than most cruise entertainment that I’ve seen, and I would highly recommend seeing it. We scattered for dinner this night, with some eating in Azure, some at Blue Lagoon (me), and a few others at Tsars

 

Nobody at the buffet because (drumroll), they were preparing the chocolate buffet! The presentation was good and there was plenty of chocolate, but to be honest I just wasn’t into it. I really like the chocolate dipped apples, but other than that I think I was on sugar overload. Of course my daughter loved it, and afterward even went and got her 100th ice cream cone (I wish I was kidding…ok..maybe just a little).

 

 

Edited August 7, 2012 by sdmike

[sdmike]

Here are a couple more of the chocolate buffet

 

 

 

Oh, one thing I forgot. A couple of times on the ship I ran across a young asian gentleman playing the guitar and playing Neil Diamond songs. Well. And he sounded like Neil Diamond too, but only when singing. He played to a crowd in the atrium this afternoon, but I'm not sure if folks were there for him or the olympics...or both!

 

 

 

 

Tonight we got monkeyed

 

Edited August 7, 2012 by sdmike

[sdmike]

Day 7-Victoria

 

We awoke to the periodic droning of the ship’s fog horn as we headed down to Victoria. We were socked in so bad I couldn’t even see the water below us. Thick as cotton balls, yet we were still doing over 15kts. Thank heaven for advanced navigation electronics! We had a lazy morning with our first breakfast that wasn’t buffet style, and then sat with coffee and Danish in the atrium watching the Olympics. My MIL and daughter went up to Deal or no Deal and Bingo, while my wife and I grabbed some lunch and a couple of adult beverages.

 

 

By mid morning it started to clear a bit

 

 

After lunch we came out of the weather soup and pulled into Victoria, watching the lighthouse at the end of the breakwater pass to our starboard side. The folks that had walked out to the end waved enthusiastically to us. We also finally had sun again! Yay!

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2012 by sdmike

[sdmike]

Quite a few people could be found sitting out by the pool instead of going ashore, I guess trying to warm their chilled bones. They made a mistake though, since Victoria is a beautiful place to visit. We took a short bus ride downtown (not part of an excursion) for a few dollars and walked around for quite sometime. We walked back past fisherman’s wharf and got back to the ship in plenty of time for departure after 9pm.

 

Here are some pictures of Victoria

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2012 by sdmike

[sdmike]

Some more of Victoria...

 

 

 

 

 

I stood on the balcony taking pictures as we sailed away towards Seattle, trying to figure out how it was going to take us over 8 hours to travel the remaining 70 miles of our trip. Guess we were going to take our good old time of it. Haha

 

 

 

 

My daughter and some of the others went to see the goodbye show, and the always funny “fountains”, but I spent the time sitting quietly looking out over the water. Yes, you understand don’t you…

 

Before bed we packed and put our luggage out in the hall. We decided to use the BAGS program since our flight wasn’t until later in the day. Since you’re only allowed 3 bags each, both my wife and I registered for the program. I registered our 3 bags, and my wife registered her mom’s 2 bags. Since I’m a United Gold member I didn’t expect to pay for my bags, but I thought we would pay for the ones my wife registered. We didn’t! Thank you United. All we paid were the $19.95 program fees for my wife and I (paperwork had to be submitted 2 days before, by noon in Skagway). We received boarding passes and luggage tags during the day, and we set out our bags knowing we would see them the next day in San Diego

Edited August 7, 2012 by sdmike

[sdmike]

Day 8-Seattle and Home

 

We got into Seattle early in the morning (before the sun), and got the slow start you might expect from a bunch of people that didn’t want their vacation to end. We got the kids up around 8 and got them dressed and fed (they were vacation zombies at that point). We got our remaining things packed up, potty breaks completed, and goodbyes said to our party of 14 that was scattering to different destinations. I thanked our buddy Riccardo for all that he did for our group, and he really seemed to appreciate the $50 tip and the “vacation hero” card I filled out for him. I told him that I expect to see him again on the Breakaway in a couple of years. Lol

 

As with other NCL ships, you pick your own departure time and luggage tag colors. Since we used the BAGS program we didn’t pick any colors and left when we wanted. Actually, we didn’t want to leave so we vacated our rooms around 9 and then sat down in the atrium drinking coffee and watching Olympics until they gave the “get off the ship, already” announcement.

 

We unfortunately went from the calm of the ship to the hustle and bustle of a port area that was exchanging passengers and entertaining a couple of navy ships that were giving tours. We decided to head back up to Pikes Market and catch them open this time, but HOLY COW was it crowded. It was all we could do to get through there in one piece. We eventually made our way out and planned on heading up to the Space Needle, but a combination of the heat, crowds and heavy back packs forced us back to the Marriott, a place we knew well, for a rest. After sitting for a while we decided to forgo the rest of our Seattle plans and got a van to the airport. The rest of the trip was uneventful (no lost daughter on any airport trains), and we got home around 10:30 on Saturday night.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, it was an amazing trip with only a few glitches. The ship and crew were top notch. The shows, crew and food were above average, and Alaska itself is simply stunning. There were only a few “cons” as noted earlier. While the buffet never had any lines, it was difficult finding tables. We often went further back towards Great Outdoors to find something. Not a big deal, but should be noted. Also, our room had quite a bit of noise from up on the pool deck, mostly people running. Why were they running? I have no idea, but they were. Lol. Finally, the excursion we did in Skagway was underwhelming, but I’m glad I paid only $75 per person (booked on our own) and not the $100+ for the “hike and float” offered by NCL. The positives, however, more than made up for these slight negatives.

 

If you haven’t seen Alaska. Go. You don’t like cold? Go anyway. It’s stunning.

Edited August 7, 2012 by sdmike

[sdmike]

Here are a couple of items of interest that I posted in another thread:

 

• With the Olympics on, a lot of folks sought out places to watch. The main atrium was popular, as were tv’s in “Bar City” and other places around the ship. Good job Jewel crew making this available.
   
  
• The seas were very calm most of the time, even when the winds were heavy. We could have gone water skiing heading down near Victoria the water was so smooth.
   
  
• We ate at 5:30 one night in Moderno and got a free bottle of wine for each couple. That kept us busy for a few days since 3 of the couples didn't drink wine. This offer was good for ANY night at any specialty restaurant, according to the daily
   
  
• The mini-suites have flat screen TV's. The inside rooms do not. Not sure about standard balcony rooms
   
  
• The safes are big. I could fit an ipad, laptop and DSLR in it
   
  
• The mini-suites have coffee makers. The inside rooms do not. We never used it.
   
  
• The mini-suites have bathtubs. The inside rooms do not. Both bathrooms were a good size though.
   
  
• We had two loungers on our balcony, while my parents next door had a chair and a lounger. My brother had two chairs. We all had a small table. Not sure of why the difference, but the balconies were really too shallow for the loungers to lay down anyway. Besides, it was cold and windy.
   
  
• The mini-suites had robes. The inside rooms did not.
   
  
• We were able to move my sons (15 and 17) to their own inside room once on the ship. We actually did quite a room shuffle, with my brother and family moving to the room booked with my wife because they needed to connect to my parents. Again, none of this was a problem at the guest services desk, nor was it a problem getting extra keys to each room so we could go back and forth.
   
  
• Teen curfew is 1am. I found out that it's not strongly enforced when my 15 year old "came in" at 2:30 one night....and had a bunch of friends with him.I nipped that in the bud real quickly
   
  
• You can't put a spending limit on a kid's card, unless you maybe put cash down on the account. My brother tried. Seems you either enable charging or don't.
   
  
• There are only two 110v plugs in the room. Bring a power strip if you need more
   
  
• In AK you don't get pool towels. You "check them out" next to the pool. A $25 charge hits you if you don't bring it back
   
  
• They have espresso machines in the buffet area. It's the ones with the bean containers on top. They are free
   
  

Edited August 7, 2012 by sdmike

[OceanDreaming2]

Many, many thanks for your outstanding review! I can hardly wait for our turn on the Jewel. 5 days and counting... :D

[sdmike]

I hope you guys enjoyed the review. Feel free to ask any questions. I have posted about 1/3 of my pictures here:

 

http://public.fotki.com/ritchiefamily/san_diego_family/2012-pictures/alaska-cruise-2012/

 

Enjoy!

[sdmike]

Many, many thanks for your outstanding review! I can hardly wait for our turn on the Jewel. 5 days and counting... :D

 

You are very welcome! I hope I didn't spoil any surprises for you :) Have a great trip!

[BayouGirlUSA]

sdmike, thanks so much for your review, I enjoyed it thoroughly! The only thing I have to say about your review is...if I hadn't already been to Alaska, I would be calling my TA right now to book one! Someday I plan on going back.

 

We sailed the Golden Princess in July of 2010 and absolutely loved it. When I saw your pictures of the Golden Princess, it made my heart yearn...because that's what I looked lik to some photographer just a couple of years ago! You are so right when you said you just can't describe the majestic beauty which is Alaska!

 

Now that we cruise like Norwegians, we will definitely have to see Alaska from an NCL ship!!

 

Thanks for the great pictures and wonderful review! I always look forward to your reviews!

[ute_fan]

I'm so jealous of your pictures headed out of Skagway. I have similar ones from our first trip on the Sun, but it was fairly late at night and the quality isn't as good. I was planning on hanging out on our balcony and getting them in May, but we ended up eating dinner with one of the officers that night, and I missed them.

 

I assume you know the glacier is Davidson Glacier and the beautiful lighthouse is Eldred Rock? I spent quite a bit of time after our first cruise trying to identify them.

[kerrytens]

All I can say is WOW!!!!!

 

I've always wanted to do an Alaska cruise but now I think I need to make it happen.

 

Great photos Mike. Thanks!

[sdmike]

I wouldn't say I'm masochistic....but I am excited about boarding the Jewel in 46 days! I hope they have some left-over Alaskan Amber for me!! Keep the review coming!!!!!

 

They had Amber Ale and a couple others in addition to the stout. You should be good to go! :)

[Tapi]

Thank you SO much for your detailed, and pic-filled review!

 

I've had this cruise booked since January 2012 (and ours is not until June 2013!)

 

I've been going back and forth between sticking with this cruise or going on a different ship/cruise line, but I think that your review finally tipped the scale in favor of taking the Jewel!

 

Now, if only I could make the next 9 months go by a bit quicker!

 

Thanks again....

[sdmike]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. My cruise to Alaska on the jewel this weekend and hope that the weather in AK doesn't stink!!

 

It might, or might not! Be prepared for either one :D

[sdmike]

Also, I've been reading your posts for a long time now and it is very nice to see a picture of you since, up until now, I've just seen your feet on the rail!

 

Really? I had no idea. lol. I thought for sure I must have posted pics of myself at some point. Too funny. :)

[WaldosPepper]

Wow, Mike! Thanks for an incredible review, and spectacular photos. DH and I have often talked about "eventually" booking an Alaskan sailing, but after reading this, and viewing the photos, I know that we need to make this happen sooner rather than later.

 

Thanks so much for taking us all along with you! :D