NCL Exceeded my Expectations Last Week on the Jewel.

[jdeville71]

I'll be on the Jewel the last week of February. I'm glad to read a good review of her, after all the complaining reviews I have read on here.

I'm sure we'll have a great time and I just can not wait to board her.

[terrydtx]

Welcome home! I am so glad you had a great time! I remember reading some of the poor reviews and your comments on them so it is extra special that you had a great time!

 

Too bad about Chin Chins. We haven't been on the Jewel in a number of years but we really enjoyed our meals there, it was my husbands favourite.

 

The bad reviews are worrisome - we are booked on the Epic in a couple of weeks and there are so many negatives so we keep looking for the positives :)

 

We'll go with optimism and definitely hoping to see the outstanding NCL experience we have always had.

 

Thanks for taking the time to share once you came home!

Jai

 

After meeting and getting to know Richard the Hotel Manager and all that he does throughout the cruise to make passengers happy it is hard to believe that any major problems do not get fixed during the cruise. We talked about the one passenger's review (the one I commented on) who said not having any hair conditioner ruined her cruise. He said if that person had really complained to guest services about the lack of conditioner they would have provided her with a free bottle of conditioner that they have for suites. He said they do this all the time. BTW I saw that hair conditioner was available to purchase in the ship's gift shop too. He also told me about a reviewer who said his AC did not work the entire cruise and he said if that had been true he would have had an engineer there in 10 minutes to fix the problem. I think and Richard agreed some CC reviewers may be plants from rival cruise lines or cheerleaders from them who just want to make NCL look bad. I would not hesitate to book on the Epic, Breakaway or Getaway after my positive experience on the Jewel.

 

Richard told me that they take CC reviews very seriously and read almost all of them to see if they can improve the cruising experience for future passengers.

Edited December 10, 2013 by terrydtx

[DMH15]

With so many SEC folks on the cruise there was a lot of grumbling about not having the SEC championship game on any TV. We were told by guest services that NCL contracts only with ESPN Caribbean and can only show their programming. Seems odd that they can not have more variety with all that is on satellites now. Non stop soccer on Saturday was useless for probably 90% of the passengers.

 

That would be a drag. When we were on the Sun in March we saw a lot of NCAA basketball games. It was nice.

 

I am scheduled on the Sun for PC Oct 11, 2014. Would hate to miss the World Series.

[cod]

To Bluejai regarding the Epic. I would not worry (easy for me to say, right?) because, yes, there have been some not-so-good reviews but then the reviews that have been good seem to be VERY good. I think she sounds very interesting, from the cabin configurations to the different sounding entertainment. I'm betting you'll have a great time.

 

Terry, you did not mention your ports. How were any tours you all took?

It's unlikely we'll see two of your ports any time soon but you never know?!..we might just suffer a moment of madness and jump to RC for the right price as that is our second favorite line of the cruises we've taken. Just curious.

[terrydtx]

 

Terry, you did not mention your ports. How were any tours you all took?

It's unlikely we'll see two of your ports any time soon but you never know?!..we might just suffer a moment of madness and jump to RC for the right price as that is our second favorite line of the cruises we've taken. Just curious.

 

Our first Port was Montego Bay and we did the City Highlights and Rose Hall Great house tour. If was a very good tour and not expensive. For a first time to Montego Bay I would recommend this.

 

Second stop was Grand Cayman and we did the SeaWorld Observatory Shipwreck tour. This is a one hour tour in a semi submersible boat run by the Atlantis Submarine people for only $39 pp. It was fun and left us time to go to 7 mile beach by taxi for $4pp each way. A friend recommended the Royal Palms beach club and admission is $2 plus $7 for a lounger and tent. The food was very good and the bar was very reasonable. The beach was worth going to see. I would not recommend buying a tour there from NCL as it is expensive. Try the Conch fritters as they were delicious. They have a local dark amber beer on tap that I loved. You can rent plenty of water craft there too.

 

Third stop was Cozumel and we have been there numerous times so a big group of us too a taxi to Paradise Beach for $4 pp each way and had a great time. Like Cayman the food was good and a great bar. I had a blackened snapper sandwich that was big enough that my wife and I shored it. From this beach you can do things like parasailing and jet ski's for an extra fee.

[terrydtx]

Thank you for your great review. I will be embarking this coming Sunday' date=' and am ever so excited!

 

Was your itinerary the 3-port one, too? Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel?

Did you have to tender in Cozumel?

 

Do you by chance have the dailies you can scan? I know it's asking a lot, but just want the pages with the "goings on" for that day.

 

I, too, would like to know what night the Chef's Table was offered, if you have that knowledge.

 

Let us know what you thought about the ports.

 

Thanks again.

 

I just posted the dailies from our cruise on another thread for more to view. Have a great cruise next week.

[Mokescaps]

Thanks for the great review of the Jewel. We board her this coming Sunday.

Looking forward to it. We have sailed alot of NCL ships. Never had a problem with service and food has always been good.

 

One question Terry. How did you get the upgrade? Did you ask for it?

We have an outside cabin and I called about a month ago asking for a free upgrade to balcony. Was told it would cost $200pp to do this. Didn't want to pay the extra fees. Do you think we can talk to Richard and get a free upgrade? Do you by chance have Richard's email?

 

Thanks

[loopy]

We were on the Jewel the week before Terry and loved it too. We were also very impressed with Richard, the hotel director. We met him at the CC M&G and saw him through out the whole cruise. He always said hello to us.

 

We did make one comment to him about our disappointment with Moderno. We were not impressed and shared with him the reasons we were not impressed. He ended up sending us a letter for a comp meal and a free bottle of wine. We did not expect anything when we told him our opinion. We ate in Cagney's and enjoyed it.

 

We started to do Chin Chin's but now I am glad we didn't. We did go to the sushi bar several times and it was good. The hibachi grill was our favorite for atmosphere and food. We had a lot of fun that night.

 

We had a great time on the Jewel. Richard did a great job making sure the guest were happy! We also had a great time with Kumar in the Star Bar each night!

 

Glad you had a great cruise too!

[terrydtx]

Thanks for the great review of the Jewel. We board her this coming Sunday.

Looking forward to it. We have sailed alot of NCL ships. Never had a problem with service and food has always been good.

 

One question Terry. How did you get the upgrade? Did you ask for it?

We have an outside cabin and I called about a month ago asking for a free upgrade to balcony. Was told it would cost $200pp to do this. Didn't want to pay the extra fees. Do you think we can talk to Richard and get a free upgrade? Do you by chance have Richard's email?

 

Thanks

 

Our TA got us the upgrades. Four of us got upgraded to Mini suites and 3 got upgraded to balconies from OV by her 10 days or less before we departed all at no extra cost. Our cruise was not full and prices dropped about 10 days before we left and the TA took advantage of this to get the upgrades. I have a great TA who spent many hours on the phone with NCL customer service to get the up grades. She even got one inside cabin upgraded to a balcony for $250 more in total cost.

[terrydtx]

We were on the Jewel the week before Terry and loved it too. We were also very impressed with Richard, the hotel director. We met him at the CC M&G and saw him through out the whole cruise. He always said hello to us.

 

We did make one comment to him about our disappointment with Moderno. We were not impressed and shared with him the reasons we were not impressed. He ended up sending us a letter for a comp meal and a free bottle of wine. We did not expect anything when we told him our opinion. We ate in Cagney's and enjoyed it.

 

We started to do Chin Chin's but now I am glad we didn't. We did go to the sushi bar several times and it was good. The hibachi grill was our favorite for atmosphere and food. We had a lot of fun that night.

 

We had a great time on the Jewel. Richard did a great job making sure the guest were happy! We also had a great time with Kumar in the Star Bar each night!

 

Glad you had a great cruise too!

 

I did mention to Richard about Chin Chin and our dissatisfaction with the food, but I also told him about the comp sushi and that that was all we needed, and I was kind of getting tired of the chocolate covered strawberries. It was the last night of the cruise so a free dinner certificate would have done us no good anyway. Richard did say that Chi Chin was the least favorite specialty restaurant by most surveys from passengers. So I assume that NCL knows it has a problem with that venue.

[terrydtx]

Hi and welcome back!

 

I'm so glad that you and your group enjoyed your cruise but then I am not surprised either. We are huge NCL fans and now that we're platinum I doubt very much that we'll ever stray again.

 

Enjoyed your review and we are hoping we are able to sail the Jewel later next month. DH is disappointed that we will once again be doing the same old-same old Costa Maya, Roatan, Belize and Cozumel itinerary again....we were looking forward to Cayman, Jamaica and Cozumel since it's been a while since we went to the first two. But then by the same token, just the cruise itself is important to us. (As far as I can tell, NCL isn't planning to do your itinerary with the Dawn from NO next year either..it must have been a trial itinerary for NCL that for some reason didn't work).

 

I was glad to read your entertainment review. The Spirit and then the Star, when both were sailing out of NO, kept the same shows and I was hoping they'd change things up a bit.

 

Once again, welcome back. Stay well!!!

 

Cod, I am so sorry you didn't make the cruise, as I know you and your DH would have loved it. Our group had the time of our lives. I posted the dailies today if you want to read more about the entertainment.

[CruisinMaterial]

OP: Thanks for your wonderful cruise review!

 

I had sailed on the Jewel at the end of October over Halloween week and saw so many familiar Norwegian faces. It's one of the few ships in the Norwegian fleet to not have any manager management changes or management pulled for their newer ships. Glad all service was to your expectations. I received an email from the group I went with stating service wasn't up to their expectations. I was confused because I was on the same sailing with them and had no problems at all. :cool:

 

I guess it's how everyone perceives things. I prefer to go on vacation and be happy and have a great time much like you did. Thanks for the post!

[Alvarado]

A word of warning if you ever take a suite on NCL you will be stuck for life, as suite life on NCL is truly amazing. We like the Jewel, great people , just the right size and great for Alaska cruises.

[xenagurl]

I'm glad that you had a great time! I love the Jewel, she was the first NCL ship that DH and I even cruised on and what made us continue with Norwegian. :)

[mitsugirly]

Thanks for your honest review. We will be on the Jewel next week and can't wait. I have to say I haven't read any of the negative reviews of the Jewel (and I guess I'm glad I didn't). However, we have been on a lot of NCL ships and have never had nothing but excellent service and very friendly staff everywhere. It's good to hear this will continue on our next cruise as well.

 

Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Chin Chin. When we eat at a specialty restaurant, it's usually the Asian restaurant. So this is disappointing. :(

[Tiggertastic]

What a great review

 

I am so pleased you enjoyed the trip, the Jewel was the first ever NCL ship we did too and we were completely won over by it

 

Hoping you will travel NCL again after the great experience

[terrydtx]

Thanks for your honest review. We will be on the Jewel next week and can't wait. I have to say I haven't read any of the negative reviews of the Jewel (and I guess I'm glad I didn't). However, we have been on a lot of NCL ships and have never had nothing but excellent service and very friendly staff everywhere. It's good to hear this will continue on our next cruise as well.

 

Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Chin Chin. When we eat at a specialty restaurant, it's usually the Asian restaurant. So this is disappointing. :(

 

If you go to the Members review section of CC you will see the negative reviews I am talking about, in fact a couple more appeared this week. After our experience last week these reviews are so hard to believe.

[terrydtx]

One thing I forgot to mention in my review that was impressive. Two of our group members had birthdays during the cruise so we did a group dinner in Azura both nights and we had at least 26 at each dinner to celebrate the birthdays. The servers brought out enough birthday cake for everyone to enjoy and all the servers sang happy birthday. It was overwhelmingly successful and the cake was delicious and fresh much better than the average bakery does on land. With all the nickel and dimeing talk about NCL this was all done at no additional cost.

 

Speaking about nickel and dimeing, I didn't notice any more of this than on any other cruise line we have been on. Pretty much everything that cost extra would have cost extra on HAL and Celebrity. :p

[Planmaam]

Thank you for answering my questions and posting the dailies; I've looked them over already, but until now forgot to get back on here and thank you!

 

Excited to be on a "new" ship to me, and your review was very encouraging.

[marpratt]

My girlfriend and I will be on the Jewel at the end of January. Loved your comments. I was on the Epic last month and had a good time. I have decided that I like the somewhat smaller ships. Fewer people=better time. Just my opinion. Was on the Spirit last year and two other NCL ships (don't remember names) prior to that. I have been on all the major lines except Disney and have decided I prefer NCL and Carnival. I am 70 years old and yes I prefer the more active ships. Would love to try the Haven but that would severely limit my ability to cruise frequently. I loved the Spirit and I think, according to your comments, I will love the Jewel! Thank you!

[cod]

Hi (again) Terry,

 

One more question. Did you - or anyone in your group - participate in the slot pull or gift exchange? If so, how did it go? We did both last time but I'm not sure we'd do either again. We also participated in the cabin crawl. In fact, we offered up our inside for a good laugh as one of those on the list! (I decided that was probably the only way I'd ever get my foot in the door of a suite!lol) And, as it turned out, that particular event WAS fun!

 

Ciao!

[terrydtx]

Hi (again) Terry,

 

One more question. Did you - or anyone in your group - participate in the slot pull or gift exchange? If so, how did it go? We did both last time but I'm not sure we'd do either again. We also participated in the cabin crawl. In fact, we offered up our inside for a good laugh as one of those on the list! (I decided that was probably the only way I'd ever get my foot in the door of a suite!lol) And, as it turned out, that particular event WAS fun!

 

Ciao!

 

I was the only one from our group in CC and the M&G, but did not participate in the slot pull, gift exchange or the cabin crawl.

[GORDONCHICK]

OP - I'm glad you enjoyed your first NCL cruise on the Jewel. I'm not surprised you had a great time - that's been our experience, too. After a number of years here on CC, I simply stopped reading reviews unless I recognized the reviewer's name and knew it was someone whose opinions and tastes I seem to agree with most of the time. It took me a while to get there and be familiar with the posters enough to do that though.

 

We will be sailing the Jewel over Christmas and I'm looking forward to it! I've not met Richard before, but if he's like the other HD's we've met, he's nothing short of spectacular.

 

A week and a half to go!!!!