Review of NCL Jewel to Alaska May 25-June 1, 2013

[LV Sheeba]

Thank you for the great review. Was the Haven area crowded at any time? We will be on the Jewel in September and we are looking forward to the Haven!

[Alvarado]

You are writing a great review. Brings it all back to me we had such a wonderful time. Next year you should do the misty fiords tour you get really close to the glacier and it is a whole different experience from being on the ship. Was fun cruising with you and seeing your happy family having such a good time, thanks for the cabin crawl. JoAnna

[clelbonv]

Thank you for the review. We are leaving on the jewel to Alaska next weekend and doing the crab feast, era helicopter with sled dogs and white pass bus/train with gold camp. You are so funny for risking your life just to eat shellfish. I would do the same lol. Your pictures are amazing. Did you utilize the spa at all? And would you say the best specialty restaurant was cagneys then?

[sjn911]

Truly enjoying your review and look froward to seeing Alaska on a cruise......

[Keith1010]

Enjoyed your posts.

 

Keith

[BaileyandBella]

Great review!

 

What is the Haven?

 

How is the back outdoor buffet area? We went on the Pearl and loved that part of it, never crowded!

[Aurora2143]

Thank you for the great review. Was the Haven area crowded at any time? We will be on the Jewel in September and we are looking forward to the Haven!

 

Thank you. When we were there, the Haven was almost empty all the time.

 

 

You are writing a great review. Brings it all back to me we had such a wonderful time. Next year you should do the misty fiords tour you get really close to the glacier and it is a whole different experience from being on the ship. Was fun cruising with you and seeing your happy family having such a good time, thanks for the cabin crawl. JoAnna

 

Thanks JoAnna! It was an awesome cruise and so nice to meet you all. :)

 

 

Thank you for the review. We are leaving on the jewel to Alaska next weekend and doing the crab feast, era helicopter with sled dogs and white pass bus/train with gold camp. You are so funny for risking your life just to eat shellfish. I would do the same lol. Your pictures are amazing. Did you utilize the spa at all? And would you say the best specialty restaurant was cagneys then?

 

You're going to have so much fun! The only time we used the spa was for our massages. DH and DS had a great "Father and Son Chill Out Massage" while my masseuse fell asleep. :)

The best specialty restaurant in my opinion was Le Bistro.

 

 

Great review!

 

What is the Haven?

 

How is the back outdoor buffet area? We went on the Pearl and loved that part of it, never crowded!

 

Thanks! We did the Garden Cafe once, and that's coming up in the review later today. :)

 

The Haven is a private area on deck 14 for guests who book the Haven suites. Really nice and quiet area.

[camz]

Aurora: Welcome Back! Thank you for the very nice detailed review and nice pictures. Alaska sparks my interest. :cool: The only part I dread is the long flight to get to port. :(

[Aurora2143]

Aurora: Welcome Back! Thank you for the very nice detailed review and nice pictures. Alaska sparks my interest. :cool: The only part I dread is the long flight to get to port. :(

 

Thanks! It was totally awesome!!

 

I'm not done with the review yet, more to come today. :)

 

Yeah, coming from PA the flight would be long, but would be sooooo worth it.

[Aurora2143]

Edit Day 5.

 

I must have gotten my evenings mixed up. Our dinner was in Le Bistro for day 5 and Teppanyaki was on the evening of Day 6. Sorry folks. Hard to keep track when your brain is still in vacation scrambled mode. ☺

 

So dinner in LeBistro was once again wonderful. I had the duck which DH wished he ordered after he got a bite of mine (of course we share our food so he gave me half his steak and I gave him half of my duck). DS had the lobster dish again and also the steak. We all had the escargot for appetizer. Best food that we had on the ship(aside from the Portuguese Bean Soup in Moderno).

 

[Aurora2143]

Day 6 – Sea Day

 

We set no alarm for this day because we were all so exhausted from the last few days and wanted to sleep in.

DH and I rolled out of bed about 10am, got DS out of bed about 30 minutes later and got ready for lunch. I suggested that we try Garden Café today and headed downstairs to one of the funniest moments for DH and I.

 

So I send the guys to get their food while I snag a good table in the madhouse. Once they returned I went and got my food. I thought the food was pretty good.

There was a couple sitting at the table next to us and we noticed that he was just dousing his food with salt and pepper until he ran out. As the waitress walked by she took the salt & pepper shakers from their table (I’m thinking to refill it), but was taking a really long time to return with them. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see them both staring at the shakers on our table, and wondered if we should offer it to them. Just then, the husband reached over my husband’s plate and took the pepper from our table. I thought oh well, they speak a different language and probably was too shy to ask. He put a little more pepper on his food and slid the pepper shaker across our table to get it back to where it was. About 10 seconds later, he did the same with the salt. The three of us sat there with our faces in our plates wanting to bust out laughing! When he did it AGAIN!!! DH finally handed the salt over to him (since he already had the pepper again) and said, “please keep it”. Ah, I guess you had to be there. ☺

 

The rest of the day is kind of a blur. The guys spend most of the day in the Haven while I went shopping.

 

From my edit of day 5, we then headed down to Teppanyaki for dinner and went to Le Cirque Bijou. Awesome show!! Highly recommend it!

 

Tomorrow we’re in beautiful Victora!

[amarvel]

this has been a fantastic review! do you by chance have any of the dailies from the ship?

[Aurora2143]

this has been a fantastic review! do you by chance have any of the dailies from the ship?

 

I have all of them. Just haven't scanned them into my computer yet. :)

[Aurora2143]

Day 7 – Victoria, B.C.

 

Oh the last day of our cruise.

 

 

 

We got into port about 2:30pm and decided to go and look for somewhere that would serve oysters.

Leah (our concierge) did some research for us and found a restaurant called “Blue Crab” at the Coast Victoria Harbourside Hotel.

When we got there only their lounge was open but they were kind enough to open their restaurant side up for us since DS was underage.

 

DH and I put away 2 dozen oysters on the half shell and we all split the fish and chips. It was so good! My reaction to the oysters were not as bad as with shrimp, crab and lobster, YAY!!!

 

 

After lunch, we headed back to the ship to get ready for our final dinner aboard the wonderful Jewel.

 

Knowing that I’ve been talking about the Portuguese Bean Soup all week, DH suggested we go back to Moderno for dinner. I was totally up for that!!!

So we made reservations, got ready and headed down to the restaurant.

As soon as we walked up, the manager said, “Are you here for dinner or just the soup?” HA!!!

We enjoyed a wonderful final dinner and I had 3 bowls of the soup.

 

 

When we returned to the room, there sitting on our dining table…2 bowls of Portuguese Bean Soup. Teodore was not aware that we went to Moderno for dinner and wanted to bring me something special for our last evening. Such a sweetheart!

[dustyroad]

i love your great review and pictures. im so glad you had a great time, but I have to ask if you wore all the clothes you took :eek:. your tours sound awesome. and im glad you made it back to the ship on time for your hubbies sanity :D thanks again for the review.

[Aurora2143]

Day 8 – Disembarkment

 

We set our luggage outside of our room at 10pm last night so that Cecilio (our room steward whom was also awesome!) could take it for us.

Leah had also suggested the night before that if we didn’t have a flight to catch or wasn’t in any kind of rush, to take our time in the morning, enjoy breakfast in Cagney’s and meet her down at ChinChin around 9-9:30am to avoid the crowd in customs. We took her advice and did just that. And guess what? We all had the same thing for breakfast, sausage and eggs for DH, French Toast for DS and one last Frittata for me.

 

We headed over to ChinChin to meet up with Leah and she escorted us to the gangway and we said our goodbyes. *tear*

From ChinChin to the curb would have taken all of about 5 minutes but we had to get a porter to help with our luggage so it took about 8 minutes tops to get to the curb where our driver was waiting for us. It took us longer to try and puzzle our luggage into the town car than it did to get off the ship. LOL!

 

Once back at the Double Tree, because it was still too early for check in, we left our luggage with them and headed out to Pikes Market and the Space Needle.

 

Photo from the Space Needle…bye Jewel, until we meet again.

 

[Aurora2143]

i love your great review and pictures. im so glad you had a great time, but I have to ask if you wore all the clothes you took :eek:. your tours sound awesome. and im glad you made it back to the ship on time for your hubbies sanity :D thanks again for the review.

 

I actually did wear almost all my clothes. Laundry service was also offered twice during the cruise and we took advantage of the first one on Monday which returned on Tuesday afternoon and then another one on Thursday that would have come back on Friday.

[Aurora2143]

Above all, this was the best vacation any of us have ever been on. DH still gets a little teary eyed when we talk about how amazing this cruise was. Everything from the ship, the staff, excursions, food, and even the folks next to us in the Garden Café all made this trip into the most amazing vacation EVER!!

We’re looking forward to our future cruises and all the wonderful people we’ll meet and all the amazing things we will experience and see.

 

This amazing vacation could not have been possible without the countless help from all of you here on Cruise Critics. Definitely would not have known about some of the excursions and all the wonderful secrets on the beautiful Jewel.

 

Thanks Everyone for an AMAZING vacation!!!

[Hikini]

Thanks for sharing! I loved all of your pictures!! I'm so glad you had a great time.

[Aurora2143]

Thanks for sharing! I loved all of your pictures!! I'm so glad you had a great time.

 

Thanks. Hikini's a very Hawaiian name. Are you from the islands?

[sue402001]

After seeing all of your questions on the Alaska boards I wondered how your cruise was Aurora. I'm so glad to hear that you had an amazing time! Looks like you had the best of weather while you were their too. Thanks for the great review! :)

[Aurora2143]

After seeing all of your questions on the Alaska boards I wondered how your cruise was Aurora. I'm so glad to hear that you had an amazing time! Looks like you had the best of weather while you were their too. Thanks for the great review! :)

 

We had a totally awesome cruise!

 

We newbies just have to learn to brush off the snarky folks on here and just follow the nice ones that are willing to help.

 

Waldospepper is one that never made any of us new cruisers feel like losers for asking questions. She was a total GEM!!!

[WaldosPepper]

I am SO HAPPY to read this review and know that you had such a wonderful time! :D

 

It looks like you made full use of all those amazing perks, and enjoyed the wonderful space in your suite. The 2-Bedrooms are definitely among my favorites - especially that bathroom! SO nice!

 

I laughed out loud at your shower dilemma! We had that same issue in the 2-Bedroom, and in the OS. I quickly figured out that hanging a towel over the shade took care of the transparency issue. ;)

 

I have to say I agree with you 100% about the soup at Moderno. I've been addicted to it since our first visit last October, and it is definitely one of the things I look forward to most on every cruise now. Simply PERFECTION!

 

Glad you have found my posts to be helpful, and thank you for the very sweet words. :)

[Highboy90]

On my "bucket" list. Thank you for sharing!

[dustyroad]

I actually did wear almost all my clothes. Laundry service was also offered twice during the cruise and we took advantage of the first one on Monday which returned on Tuesday afternoon and then another one on Thursday that would have come back on Friday.

 

Aurora, im so glad you wore all the clothes you took. I don't dress up fancy when I am on ncl so my packing is less than most :D. I cant wait to read your reviews from future cruises. and I hope you WILL be going back to Alaska in the future. ;)