Jewel (Aug 8-15th) review

[keg01512]

Hello all,

 

First off I want to say this is my first review but not my first cruise. I've gathered tons and tons of great info from all of you over the past two years for my past 2 cruises. I thought I would share some info from my cruise last week.

 

About me: Well on this cruise it was my DH and I, both mid-late 20's. This was on the NCL Jewel out of Seattle, Alaska bound. Our last cruise was on the NCL Spirit in the Med last October. We were in a suite for that cruise because it was our honeymoon. This cruise we choose an oceanview. We only chose an oceanview because well Alaska cruises are expensive and we would have done just an inside but at the time we booked (in March) they were offering the UBP for FREE, so we took it. We are both active young adults who work hard so when we go on vacation we liked to enjoy ourselves. Work hard, play hard :).

 

About our trip

 

We chose to fly Delta because that's who we flew with for our last cruise and we had no issues whatsoever. We flew out of New Orleans on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Seattle around 7pm. I booked transportation with Shuttle Express from the airport to our hotel. This was $39 for 2 of us and they were there in the parking garage waiting for us when we got there. We were at our hotel within 20 minutes. The driver was fantastic and gave us lots of information on the way there. We chose to stay at the Renaissance- Marriott on Madison. Let me mention, if you have ANY trouble walking, DO NOT STAY AT THIS HOTEL. It is located on the steepest hill in Seattle. You will have to take a taxi to get there and back from Pikes Place Market and anything that is located by the water front. Since we are young this was not a problem. We actually walked 9 miles the one day we were in Seattle to save money. The hotel itself is VERY nice. We had no complaints at all. The bed was comfy and room was very clean and big. The day we spent in Seattle, we got a lot accomplished. The weather was fantastic! Sunny and around 70 degrees. We are from Louisiana so take note that we are use to 110 degrees and 90% humidity so 70 felt like heaven to us. I wore jeans and a cardigan most of the day but in the morning it was chilly in the shade. During the day we went to Pikes Place Market, rode on the big wheel, took the ferry to Bainbridge Island which was very cute, and took the underground tour. We also spent some of the afternoon apartment shopping since we are planning on moving there in the future.

 

About the Cruise

 

On Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at a nearby cafe and checked out around noon. I ordered an UBER car to pick us up. It was free since this was my first UBER and my friend gave me his code. I believe it would have been around $6-8. This was a super easy process. Got on the UBER app on my phone, clicked pick up, the app showed me it was a 5 min approximate wait and showed me the picture of my driver and his car. 1 min later my driver called me to make sure that we were at the hotel. In 3 minutes he was in the front picking us up! The driver was very nice and the service was great and simple! I will definitely use UBER in the future.

 

Our boarding passes showed 1pm arrival and we arrived around 12:40. They still let us through and we dropped off our luggage then walked through security. There were super long lines but we didn't realize since we were silver status we could board in the priority line which was VERY short. So we practically walked right on board. Awesome!

 

The Jewel is a lot like the Spirit in size but decor was very different. It took a while for us to get use to the layout of the ship because we are so used to the Spirit (we have been on her twice!). Our room was on the 4th floor. At first when we got the assignment I was upset and didn't think it would be a good room since it was so low. Honestly, the room was perfectly fine. It was just the two of us so there was plenty of enough room. I have to say though that the toilet space was VERY cramped. My DH is 6'3" and it was tough for him to fit in there. Our porthole was nice because we did get to see some scenery in the mornings when we woke up and I was able to see what the weather looked like. The room was forward and for the majority VERY quiet. You did hear when the anchor was dropped when we arrived in port but it was kind of like my alarm clock! I have to say I was a bit disappointed in our room steward. She did not do a terrific job at cleaning, towel animals and communicating with us. She did say she was new at the room steward job though so we forgave her. Not a huge deal to us.

 

The food- this trip we chose to not spend any money at the restaurants and just ate in the complimentary ones. All mornings we ate in the buffet if we were up in time. Please note the buffet closes around 11am and does not reopen till 12 for lunch. The breakfast was always very good but lunch and dinner not so much. DID NOT enjoy their "lobster and shrimp pasta". The serving they provided me came with one small piece of lobster meat and no shrimp...just noodle and some nasty sauce. I did enjoy the asian station though, they always had something good there. We ate plenty of times at O'Sheehans. The menu consisted of wings, chicken tenders, chicken pot pie, burgers, chicken burgers, pulled pork sandwich, hot dogs, spinach dip and a few sweets. Each night they had a special item listed. The only time we got it was on the last night they had steak with potatoes. I asked for medium well done, and they gave me very very rare so I did not eat it but DH seemed to enjoy it. Everything else from there was very good. I love the wings and the brownie cheesecake! We didn't eat at Tsars but we did eat at Azura about 4 nights. If you plan on eating at the main dining room, make sure you plan for about an hour and 30 minutes because they are slower than any other place. Especially if you plan on drinking anything besides water! Food there was all great! No complaints! I love the tomato soup they had one night!

 

I did ask in Azura the first night if we could take our dessert to go because my stomach was not happy that night and I couldn't eat it. The waiter told us that he would have to ask his manager because they stopped letting people take food to their rooms because some lady brought soup to her room and burnt herself. I totally did not understand this since dessert was cold not hot...and he obviously never asked for us because our food was brought to us at the table. I ate one bite then left. What made me mad about this was 2 nights later while sitting in Azura, I see a man and a woman walking out of the restaurant with their food in a plate with a plastic container on top....! Oh well! I did however go to O'Sheehans around midnight one night and order wings to go, no problem! They put saran wrap on top and gave me the plate! O'sheehans has a limited menu late at night!

 

The entertainment- Honestly, I found compared to the Spirit, the entertainment on this cruise was lacking!! We did enjoy the comedian and the acrobatics but the magician was horrible!! The singers were not all that fantastic either. The Spirit had an AMAZING magician!! To be honest, the activities all together were lacking on this ship. I noticed they had a ton of activities for children but all of the activities for adults you either had to pay for at an extra cost (deal/no deal, bingo) or they were physical activities such as Zumba and exercise classes or the spa seminars which are all to get you to buy things. Even the nightly activities were lacking. NCL really needs to find some new ideas. They are still doing the same things and asking the same questions on the game shows that they were doing in 2011 when we went on our first NCL cruise. I do wish we would have known about karaoke before the last night. We went to the show on the last night and it was amazing and so much fun!

 

 

 

The ports- The ports were all interesting. We chose to do tours through NCL for Juneau. We usually do tours through NCL but sometimes we do them on our own. I research the prices and honestly they were about the same so I just went with NCL.

 

Ketchikan- We walked around the small town. The boat docks right in the town and the town is very small so you have no problem getting around. DH fell for one of the salesmen who tried to get us to rent this electronic car for $40 an hour. I agreed to do it because he made it seem like the town was so big and this car would be helpful. Right after we agreed to purchase, I saw a sign for the FREE shuttle...! Let me tell you I was mad. We rode the tiny little car around, went to the totem poll park which was nice and only $6 i believe. Brought the car back. Then we started walking and realized we had walked the entire distance that we drove the car...well that was a waste of money! We took the tram up the mountain for $2 each then walked down the married man's trail. The trail was very easy to walk and was very pretty.

 

Juneau- We were booked on the dog sledding/helicopter tour and were to meet in the theater at 6:45 in the morning. We woke up VERY early and went to the theater. 10 mins later they tell us the tour was canceled because of the fog. We were very upset but we were able to re-book for the next day in Skagway. Even though it was $50 more per person, we did it since this is what we were looking forward to for the entire cruise! Since our tour was canceled and we had all morning in Juneau before our other excursion at 12:30. We walked around the town but not much was opened since it was early. The weather was just horrible that day! Rainy and cold!! We went to the town museum which opened at 9am and was $5 or so to get in. Interesting place! We stopped in a few shops but we don't buy junk so it did not interest us much. I convinced DH to eat at Tracy's Crab. Let me tell you, it didn't take more than one bite of that crab meat to convince him that it was the right choice. We order the first combo which was one crab leg, crab bisque and 4 crab cakes. When we opened the leg, one of the workers came by and gave us another crab leg for free because ours was "small". I did not consider it small at all but I wasn't going to argue with a free crab leg. The meal was $34.95 i believe and an extra leg is $20 so we got that for free! SCORE! Went back to the ship for our excursion at 12:30. It was the Tracy Arm and Glacier Expedition I believe. About 50 of us boarded a smaller catamaran boat where there was plenty of inside seating, heated, bathrooms and even had a bar where they provided free coffee, hot chocolate and tea and also had other drinks and food for purchase available. There was an outside viewing deck on the top level. The boat ride was about 2.5 hours to the glacier. The Jewel followed at a very slow pace behind us but did not get as close up to the glacier as we did. It was very foggy that day so many of the passengers where disappointed because they didn't get to see anything at all! The glacier was amazing, just the sounds of the cracking and the cold on your skin. It was a one of a kind experience. As a BONUS- on the way to the glacier the captain noticed a whale. As we got closer to the whale we noticed there were actually 3 female humpback whales. They all started breaching out of the water! It was fantastic!! Everyone was so shocked including the tour guides who said they haven't seen whales that size breach much less more than one. We stayed there around 30 minutes just watching the whales!! Around 5pm the catamaran met up with the Jewel and we boarded to Jewel. If you choose to only do one tour, choose this one. It was an awesome experience and one I nor my DH will ever forget!

 

Skagway- Originally we planned to rent a car in Skagway and drive to Canada. I red on these boards that there was not much to see in Skagway. We didn't want to take the train. It just did not seem fun to us. I called Avis car rentals about 3 months before and reserved a car. Since our dog sledding tour wasn't until 2:30 we still rented the car. We got the Avis around 9 and there was a line but we were out of there with our 2015 kia forte in 20 minutes. If you want to rent a car make sure you book ahead of time! Our car was very nice and the total for rental plus insurance was about $182 for the day. We drove the gold miners cemetery and walked to the waterfall. The hike was short and fairly easy. The waterfall was beautiful and if you look down in the ground you can see tons of gold sparkling! We drove from the cemetery to emerald lake with no stops and it took an hour and 45 minutes! Bring your passport because you will need it to get into Canada. There are not many places to stop along the way so make sure to use the restroom before you leave! On our way back we stopped at the Carcross desert and a few photo opts they have on the sides of the roads. Overall it was a gorgeous drive there and back! Make sure you bring an ipod or CDs because there were no radio stations the whole way there. We enjoyed the quiet though. Made it back to Skagway around 1pm, filled up the tank (only used $14.00 worth of gas, gas was $4.06 a gallon), brought the car back and went back to the ship to grab lunch before 2:30. Met our tour guide at the end of the pier at 2:30. The helicopter pad was literally across from the boat so it was very convenient. They showed us a quick video and suited us up with vests and ice boots. Please note that you cannot take anything with you, no purses, no bags, no ipads, no selfie sticks. I even had a scarf on and they told me I had to put it in my jacket or I couldn't bring it. They did have a storage area that was locked for our belongings though! Make sure you bring a hat and gloves! I did not and was very sorry I did not! It was misting and cold! We then got in the helicopter and started our trip to the camp ground. The ride in the helicopter was so smooth and the views were AMAZING!! It took about 15 minutes to get there. When we arrived we were introduced to our dogs and our sled. The ride on the dog sled took about 20 minutes with a few stops for pictures and to change sits. You got the choice of 3 different seats or to be the driver of the back sled. The second run, I chose to be the driver. About 1 minute into the ride, our sled hit a HUGE crack in the ice and we both flew off the sled and face planted in the snow! It was quite funny and we got right back on the sled and kept going! Once we were done sledding, we got to meet the 13 week old puppies! They were precious but HUGE!! After that it was unfortunately time to get back on the helicopter to go back to the boat. The ride back was very short, about 5 minutes but just as smooth. This tour was fantastic and well worth the money! It was a once in a lifetime thing and I am so glad we chose to spend the money on it.

 

Victoria- We did not get into Victoria until 5pm and did not get off the boat until 6pm because there was a line that was very long. I did not plan anything nor did I really research anything for this port. We got off the boat with no clue where to go or what to do. There just so happen to be an antique car show in the lot right off the boat. We both love old cars so we went look around there for a while. We attempted to walk to downtown but made it half way there and decided to turn back. The wind was incredibly strong and honestly we were just tired.

 

We carried our own bags off the ship around 8:45am with no issues at all. Met up with Shuttle Express again for our transfer to the airport. The transfer I booked with the airport to hotel transfer, this one was $44 for both of us. The driver picked us up around 9am, gave us a brief tour of Seattle because we asked. Dropped us off at the airport around 10am. There was a HUGE line at both delta check in and in the security line. It literally took us an hour to get through to our gate. Our flight was at 12:30am and we made it with no issues at all! Our flight was originally over booked and we volunteered to switch but in the end a few people didn't show up so we ended up on the plane.

 

UBP- the UBP was great. The only thing we had to pay on any drink was the tax from the first day while we were in Seattle. The bartenders did let us know this when we ordered a drink! My favorite drinks were the painkiller, the mango meltdown, the strawberry daiquiri, Bahama mama, pinot noir, red blends, moscato and the mojitios! DH loved the honey lemonade! The only issue we had was when DH went to the bar in the buffet and ordered a pinot noir, they gave us the expensive one that was over $11 so we had to pay the difference. Most of the bars always gave you the cheapest one. Please note that if you are ordering 2 drinks at a time you will need 2 cards that have the UBP sticker on them.

 

Weather/clothing- Before the cruise I searched all over for clothing to pack. Everyone said how warm it had been in Alaska. I packed 2 pairs of shorts along with sandals. I can tell you that I never once wore either pair of shorts! It was chilly the entire cruise. The only day that it was warm was in Seattle. I wore a light sweater with a light jacket most days and in both Juneau and Skagway I wore a rain jacket over those layers and also leggings with black stretchy pants over them and boots. The weather that we experienced was our winter weather in LA so if you are use to the cold it might be a different experience for you than it was for us.

 

Overall, we had a great time and it was an amazing trip. I love NCL and will keep sailing with them even though this trip lacked a lot on their part! There were quite a few couples we met that were very disappointed in the cruise overall. We understand not everything can be perfect and we still enjoyed ourselves so that is all that matters to us!

 

Feel free to ask me any questions!

[theloo]

Quick question: where and when was the karaoke? On the Sun, it was in Las Ramblas (tapas bar), but never advertised.

[keg01512]

Quick question: where and when was the karaoke? On the Sun, it was in Las Ramblas (tapas bar), but never advertised.

 

The last night it was in the Spinnaker but all of the other nights they said it was in the Fyzz Lounge!

[theloo]

Thanks for the quick response.

[newmexicoNita]

Hello all,

 

First off I want to say this is my first review but not my first cruise. I've gathered tons and tons of great info from all of you over the past two years for my past 2 cruises. I thought I would share some info from my cruise last week.

 

About me: Well on this cruise it was my DH and I, both mid-late 20's. This was on the NCL Jewel out of Seattle, Alaska bound. Our last cruise was on the NCL Spirit in the Med last October. We were in a suite for that cruise because it was our honeymoon. This cruise we choose an oceanview. We only chose an oceanview because well Alaska cruises are expensive and we would have done just an inside but at the time we booked (in March) they were offering the UBP for FREE, so we took it. We are both active young adults who work hard so when we go on vacation we liked to enjoy ourselves. Work hard, play hard :).

 

About our trip

 

We chose to fly Delta because that's who we flew with for our last cruise and we had no issues whatsoever. We flew out of New Orleans on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Seattle around 7pm. I booked transportation with Shuttle Express from the airport to our hotel. This was $39 for 2 of us and they were there in the parking garage waiting for us when we got there. We were at our hotel within 20 minutes. The driver was fantastic and gave us lots of information on the way there. We chose to stay at the Renaissance- Marriott on Madison. Let me mention, if you have ANY trouble walking, DO NOT STAY AT THIS HOTEL. It is located on the steepest hill in Seattle. You will have to take a taxi to get there and back from Pikes Place Market and anything that is located by the water front. Since we are young this was not a problem. We actually walked 9 miles the one day we were in Seattle to save money. The hotel itself is VERY nice. We had no complaints at all. The bed was comfy and room was very clean and big. The day we spent in Seattle, we got a lot accomplished. The weather was fantastic! Sunny and around 70 degrees. We are from Louisiana so take note that we are use to 110 degrees and 90% humidity so 70 felt like heaven to us. I wore jeans and a cardigan most of the day but in the morning it was chilly in the shade. During the day we went to Pikes Place Market, rode on the big wheel, took the ferry to Bainbridge Island which was very cute, and took the underground tour. We also spent some of the afternoon apartment shopping since we are planning on moving there in the future.

 

About the Cruise

 

On Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at a nearby cafe and checked out around noon. I ordered an UBER car to pick us up. It was free since this was my first UBER and my friend gave me his code. I believe it would have been around $6-8. This was a super easy process. Got on the UBER app on my phone, clicked pick up, the app showed me it was a 5 min approximate wait and showed me the picture of my driver and his car. 1 min later my driver called me to make sure that we were at the hotel. In 3 minutes he was in the front picking us up! The driver was very nice and the service was great and simple! I will definitely use UBER in the future.

 

Our boarding passes showed 1pm arrival and we arrived around 12:40. They still let us through and we dropped off our luggage then walked through security. There were super long lines but we didn't realize since we were silver status we could board in the priority line which was VERY short. So we practically walked right on board. Awesome!

 

The Jewel is a lot like the Spirit in size but decor was very different. It took a while for us to get use to the layout of the ship because we are so used to the Spirit (we have been on her twice!). Our room was on the 4th floor. At first when we got the assignment I was upset and didn't think it would be a good room since it was so low. Honestly, the room was perfectly fine. It was just the two of us so there was plenty of enough room. I have to say though that the toilet space was VERY cramped. My DH is 6'3" and it was tough for him to fit in there. Our porthole was nice because we did get to see some scenery in the mornings when we woke up and I was able to see what the weather looked like. The room was forward and for the majority VERY quiet. You did hear when the anchor was dropped when we arrived in port but it was kind of like my alarm clock! I have to say I was a bit disappointed in our room steward. She did not do a terrific job at cleaning, towel animals and communicating with us. She did say she was new at the room steward job though so we forgave her. Not a huge deal to us.

 

The food- this trip we chose to not spend any money at the restaurants and just ate in the complimentary ones. All mornings we ate in the buffet if we were up in time. Please note the buffet closes around 11am and does not reopen till 12 for lunch. The breakfast was always very good but lunch and dinner not so much. DID NOT enjoy their "lobster and shrimp pasta". The serving they provided me came with one small piece of lobster meat and no shrimp...just noodle and some nasty sauce. I did enjoy the asian station though, they always had something good there. We ate plenty of times at O'Sheehans. The menu consisted of wings, chicken tenders, chicken pot pie, burgers, chicken burgers, pulled pork sandwich, hot dogs, spinach dip and a few sweets. Each night they had a special item listed. The only time we got it was on the last night they had steak with potatoes. I asked for medium well done, and they gave me very very rare so I did not eat it but DH seemed to enjoy it. Everything else from there was very good. I love the wings and the brownie cheesecake! We didn't eat at Tsars but we did eat at Azura about 4 nights. If you plan on eating at the main dining room, make sure you plan for about an hour and 30 minutes because they are slower than any other place. Especially if you plan on drinking anything besides water! Food there was all great! No complaints! I love the tomato soup they had one night!

 

I did ask in Azura the first night if we could take our dessert to go because my stomach was not happy that night and I couldn't eat it. The waiter told us that he would have to ask his manager because they stopped letting people take food to their rooms because some lady brought soup to her room and burnt herself. I totally did not understand this since dessert was cold not hot...and he obviously never asked for us because our food was brought to us at the table. I ate one bite then left. What made me mad about this was 2 nights later while sitting in Azura, I see a man and a woman walking out of the restaurant with their food in a plate with a plastic container on top....! Oh well! I did however go to O'Sheehans around midnight one night and order wings to go, no problem! They put saran wrap on top and gave me the plate! O'sheehans has a limited menu late at night!

 

The entertainment- Honestly, I found compared to the Spirit, the entertainment on this cruise was lacking!! We did enjoy the comedian and the acrobatics but the magician was horrible!! The singers were not all that fantastic either. The Spirit had an AMAZING magician!! To be honest, the activities all together were lacking on this ship. I noticed they had a ton of activities for children but all of the activities for adults you either had to pay for at an extra cost (deal/no deal, bingo) or they were physical activities such as Zumba and exercise classes or the spa seminars which are all to get you to buy things. Even the nightly activities were lacking. NCL really needs to find some new ideas. They are still doing the same things and asking the same questions on the game shows that they were doing in 2011 when we went on our first NCL cruise. I do wish we would have known about karaoke before the last night. We went to the show on the last night and it was amazing and so much fun!

 

 

 

The ports- The ports were all interesting. We chose to do tours through NCL for Juneau. We usually do tours through NCL but sometimes we do them on our own. I research the prices and honestly they were about the same so I just went with NCL.

 

Ketchikan- We walked around the small town. The boat docks right in the town and the town is very small so you have no problem getting around. DH fell for one of the salesmen who tried to get us to rent this electronic car for $40 an hour. I agreed to do it because he made it seem like the town was so big and this car would be helpful. Right after we agreed to purchase, I saw a sign for the FREE shuttle...! Let me tell you I was mad. We rode the tiny little car around, went to the totem poll park which was nice and only $6 i believe. Brought the car back. Then we started walking and realized we had walked the entire distance that we drove the car...well that was a waste of money! We took the tram up the mountain for $2 each then walked down the married man's trail. The trail was very easy to walk and was very pretty.

 

Juneau- We were booked on the dog sledding/helicopter tour and were to meet in the theater at 6:45 in the morning. We woke up VERY early and went to the theater. 10 mins later they tell us the tour was canceled because of the fog. We were very upset but we were able to re-book for the next day in Skagway. Even though it was $50 more per person, we did it since this is what we were looking forward to for the entire cruise! Since our tour was canceled and we had all morning in Juneau before our other excursion at 12:30. We walked around the town but not much was opened since it was early. The weather was just horrible that day! Rainy and cold!! We went to the town museum which opened at 9am and was $5 or so to get in. Interesting place! We stopped in a few shops but we don't buy junk so it did not interest us much. I convinced DH to eat at Tracy's Crab. Let me tell you, it didn't take more than one bite of that crab meat to convince him that it was the right choice. We order the first combo which was one crab leg, crab bisque and 4 crab cakes. When we opened the leg, one of the workers came by and gave us another crab leg for free because ours was "small". I did not consider it small at all but I wasn't going to argue with a free crab leg. The meal was $34.95 i believe and an extra leg is $20 so we got that for free! SCORE! Went back to the ship for our excursion at 12:30. It was the Tracy Arm and Glacier Expedition I believe. About 50 of us boarded a smaller catamaran boat where there was plenty of inside seating, heated, bathrooms and even had a bar where they provided free coffee, hot chocolate and tea and also had other drinks and food for purchase available. There was an outside viewing deck on the top level. The boat ride was about 2.5 hours to the glacier. The Jewel followed at a very slow pace behind us but did not get as close up to the glacier as we did. It was very foggy that day so many of the passengers where disappointed because they didn't get to see anything at all! The glacier was amazing, just the sounds of the cracking and the cold on your skin. It was a one of a kind experience. As a BONUS- on the way to the glacier the captain noticed a whale. As we got closer to the whale we noticed there were actually 3 female humpback whales. They all started breaching out of the water! It was fantastic!! Everyone was so shocked including the tour guides who said they haven't seen whales that size breach much less more than one. We stayed there around 30 minutes just watching the whales!! Around 5pm the catamaran met up with the Jewel and we boarded to Jewel. If you choose to only do one tour, choose this one. It was an awesome experience and one I nor my DH will ever forget!

 

Skagway- Originally we planned to rent a car in Skagway and drive to Canada. I red on these boards that there was not much to see in Skagway. We didn't want to take the train. It just did not seem fun to us. I called Avis car rentals about 3 months before and reserved a car. Since our dog sledding tour wasn't until 2:30 we still rented the car. We got the Avis around 9 and there was a line but we were out of there with our 2015 kia forte in 20 minutes. If you want to rent a car make sure you book ahead of time! Our car was very nice and the total for rental plus insurance was about $182 for the day. We drove the gold miners cemetery and walked to the waterfall. The hike was short and fairly easy. The waterfall was beautiful and if you look down in the ground you can see tons of gold sparkling! We drove from the cemetery to emerald lake with no stops and it took an hour and 45 minutes! Bring your passport because you will need it to get into Canada. There are not many places to stop along the way so make sure to use the restroom before you leave! On our way back we stopped at the Carcross desert and a few photo opts they have on the sides of the roads. Overall it was a gorgeous drive there and back! Make sure you bring an ipod or CDs because there were no radio stations the whole way there. We enjoyed the quiet though. Made it back to Skagway around 1pm, filled up the tank (only used $14.00 worth of gas, gas was $4.06 a gallon), brought the car back and went back to the ship to grab lunch before 2:30. Met our tour guide at the end of the pier at 2:30. The helicopter pad was literally across from the boat so it was very convenient. They showed us a quick video and suited us up with vests and ice boots. Please note that you cannot take anything with you, no purses, no bags, no ipads, no selfie sticks. I even had a scarf on and they told me I had to put it in my jacket or I couldn't bring it. They did have a storage area that was locked for our belongings though! Make sure you bring a hat and gloves! I did not and was very sorry I did not! It was misting and cold! We then got in the helicopter and started our trip to the camp ground. The ride in the helicopter was so smooth and the views were AMAZING!! It took about 15 minutes to get there. When we arrived we were introduced to our dogs and our sled. The ride on the dog sled took about 20 minutes with a few stops for pictures and to change sits. You got the choice of 3 different seats or to be the driver of the back sled. The second run, I chose to be the driver. About 1 minute into the ride, our sled hit a HUGE crack in the ice and we both flew off the sled and face planted in the snow! It was quite funny and we got right back on the sled and kept going! Once we were done sledding, we got to meet the 13 week old puppies! They were precious but HUGE!! After that it was unfortunately time to get back on the helicopter to go back to the boat. The ride back was very short, about 5 minutes but just as smooth. This tour was fantastic and well worth the money! It was a once in a lifetime thing and I am so glad we chose to spend the money on it.

 

Victoria- We did not get into Victoria until 5pm and did not get off the boat until 6pm because there was a line that was very long. I did not plan anything nor did I really research anything for this port. We got off the boat with no clue where to go or what to do. There just so happen to be an antique car show in the lot right off the boat. We both love old cars so we went look around there for a while. We attempted to walk to downtown but made it half way there and decided to turn back. The wind was incredibly strong and honestly we were just tired.

 

We carried our own bags off the ship around 8:45am with no issues at all. Met up with Shuttle Express again for our transfer to the airport. The transfer I booked with the airport to hotel transfer, this one was $44 for both of us. The driver picked us up around 9am, gave us a brief tour of Seattle because we asked. Dropped us off at the airport around 10am. There was a HUGE line at both delta check in and in the security line. It literally took us an hour to get through to our gate. Our flight was at 12:30am and we made it with no issues at all! Our flight was originally over booked and we volunteered to switch but in the end a few people didn't show up so we ended up on the plane.

 

UBP- the UBP was great. The only thing we had to pay on any drink was the tax from the first day while we were in Seattle. The bartenders did let us know this when we ordered a drink! My favorite drinks were the painkiller, the mango meltdown, the strawberry daiquiri, Bahama mama, pinot noir, red blends, moscato and the mojitios! DH loved the honey lemonade! The only issue we had was when DH went to the bar in the buffet and ordered a pinot noir, they gave us the expensive one that was over $11 so we had to pay the difference. Most of the bars always gave you the cheapest one. Please note that if you are ordering 2 drinks at a time you will need 2 cards that have the UBP sticker on them.

 

Weather/clothing- Before the cruise I searched all over for clothing to pack. Everyone said how warm it had been in Alaska. I packed 2 pairs of shorts along with sandals. I can tell you that I never once wore either pair of shorts! It was chilly the entire cruise. The only day that it was warm was in Seattle. I wore a light sweater with a light jacket most days and in both Juneau and Skagway I wore a rain jacket over those layers and also leggings with black stretchy pants over them and boots. The weather that we experienced was our winter weather in LA so if you are use to the cold it might be a different experience for you than it was for us.

 

Overall, we had a great time and it was an amazing trip. I love NCL and will keep sailing with them even though this trip lacked a lot on their part! There were quite a few couples we met that were very disappointed in the cruise overall. We understand not everything can be perfect and we still enjoyed ourselves so that is all that matters to us!

 

Feel free to ask me any questions!

 

Thanks for a very well written and objective review. I am surprised to hear many were disappointed in the Jewel or the cruise overall. Did they give you reasons?

 

Sometimes people do not quite know what to expect from an Alaskan cruise, as they are so port intensive, just like sailing Hawaii.

[willowvacay]

Thanks for the review! We are leaving on jewel on Saturday!

[OceanDreaming2]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your review!

 

We leave on the Jewel in 10 days. 3rd time on the Jewel and 4th cruise to Alaska. Can't wait!

 

:D

[southerngirloutwest]

Thanks for your review! I'm looking at NCL Jewel for Alaska next summer. Can you tell me if the shower has a handheld portion or if the showerhead is fixed in the wall? Weird question, I know.

[jchris1230]

Please do not quite the long review, scrolling through it gets annoying ☺

[jchris1230]

Quote, I meant

[NLH Arizona]

I did ask in Azura the first night if we could take our dessert to go because my stomach was not happy that night and I couldn't eat it. The waiter told us that he would have to ask his manager because they stopped letting people take food to their rooms because some lady brought soup to her room and burnt herself. I totally did not understand this since dessert was cold not hot...and he obviously never asked for us because our food was brought to us at the table. I ate one bite then left.

You had a really bad server that doesn't pay attention to NCL's policies. That rule was rescinded a few weeks after it was put in place. You should have been able to bring your food back to your cabin with no questions asked.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/cruiselog/2015/05/26/norwegian-cruise-food-ban/27970863/

[newmexicoNita]

Hello all,

 

First off I want to say this is my first review but not my first cruise. I've gathered tons and tons of great info from all of you over the past two years for my past 2 cruises. I thought I would share some info from my cruise last week.

 

About me: Well on this cruise it was my DH and I, both mid-late 20's. This was on the NCL Jewel out of Seattle, Alaska bound. Our last cruise was on the NCL Spirit in the Med last October. We were in a suite for that cruise because it was our honeymoon. This cruise we choose an oceanview. We only chose an oceanview because well Alaska cruises are expensive and we would have done just an inside but at the time we booked (in March) they were offering the UBP for FREE, so we took it. We are both active young adults who work hard so when we go on vacation we liked to enjoy ourselves. Work hard, play hard :).

 

About our trip

 

We chose to fly Delta because that's who we flew with for our last cruise and we had no issues whatsoever. We flew out of New Orleans on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Seattle around 7pm. I booked transportation with Shuttle Express from the airport to our hotel. This was $39 for 2 of us and they were there in the parking garage waiting for us when we got there. We were at our hotel within 20 minutes. The driver was fantastic and gave us lots of information on the way there. We chose to stay at the Renaissance- Marriott on Madison. Let me mention, if you have ANY trouble walking, DO NOT STAY AT THIS HOTEL. It is located on the steepest hill in Seattle. You will have to take a taxi to get there and back from Pikes Place Market and anything that is located by the water front. Since we are young this was not a problem. We actually walked 9 miles the one day we were in Seattle to save money. The hotel itself is VERY nice. We had no complaints at all. The bed was comfy and room was very clean and big. The day we spent in Seattle, we got a lot accomplished. The weather was fantastic! Sunny and around 70 degrees. We are from Louisiana so take note that we are use to 110 degrees and 90% humidity so 70 felt like heaven to us. I wore jeans and a cardigan most of the day but in the morning it was chilly in the shade. During the day we went to Pikes Place Market, rode on the big wheel, took the ferry to Bainbridge Island which was very cute, and took the underground tour. We also spent some of the afternoon apartment shopping since we are planning on moving there in the future.

 

About the Cruise

 

On Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at a nearby cafe and checked out around noon. I ordered an UBER car to pick us up. It was free since this was my first UBER and my friend gave me his code. I believe it would have been around $6-8. This was a super easy process. Got on the UBER app on my phone, clicked pick up, the app showed me it was a 5 min approximate wait and showed me the picture of my driver and his car. 1 min later my driver called me to make sure that we were at the hotel. In 3 minutes he was in the front picking us up! The driver was very nice and the service was great and simple! I will definitely use UBER in the future.

 

Our boarding passes showed 1pm arrival and we arrived around 12:40. They still let us through and we dropped off our luggage then walked through security. There were super long lines but we didn't realize since we were silver status we could board in the priority line which was VERY short. So we practically walked right on board. Awesome!

 

The Jewel is a lot like the Spirit in size but decor was very different. It took a while for us to get use to the layout of the ship because we are so used to the Spirit (we have been on her twice!). Our room was on the 4th floor. At first when we got the assignment I was upset and didn't think it would be a good room since it was so low. Honestly, the room was perfectly fine. It was just the two of us so there was plenty of enough room. I have to say though that the toilet space was VERY cramped. My DH is 6'3" and it was tough for him to fit in there. Our porthole was nice because we did get to see some scenery in the mornings when we woke up and I was able to see what the weather looked like. The room was forward and for the majority VERY quiet. You did hear when the anchor was dropped when we arrived in port but it was kind of like my alarm clock! I have to say I was a bit disappointed in our room steward. She did not do a terrific job at cleaning, towel animals and communicating with us. She did say she was new at the room steward job though so we forgave her. Not a huge deal to us.

 

The food- this trip we chose to not spend any money at the restaurants and just ate in the complimentary ones. All mornings we ate in the buffet if we were up in time. Please note the buffet closes around 11am and does not reopen till 12 for lunch. The breakfast was always very good but lunch and dinner not so much. DID NOT enjoy their "lobster and shrimp pasta". The serving they provided me came with one small piece of lobster meat and no shrimp...just noodle and some nasty sauce. I did enjoy the asian station though, they always had something good there. We ate plenty of times at O'Sheehans. The menu consisted of wings, chicken tenders, chicken pot pie, burgers, chicken burgers, pulled pork sandwich, hot dogs, spinach dip and a few sweets. Each night they had a special item listed. The only time we got it was on the last night they had steak with potatoes. I asked for medium well done, and they gave me very very rare so I did not eat it but DH seemed to enjoy it. Everything else from there was very good. I love the wings and the brownie cheesecake! We didn't eat at Tsars but we did eat at Azura about 4 nights. If you plan on eating at the main dining room, make sure you plan for about an hour and 30 minutes because they are slower than any other place. Especially if you plan on drinking anything besides water! Food there was all great! No complaints! I love the tomato soup they had one night!

 

I did ask in Azura the first night if we could take our dessert to go because my stomach was not happy that night and I couldn't eat it. The waiter told us that he would have to ask his manager because they stopped letting people take food to their rooms because some lady brought soup to her room and burnt herself. I totally did not understand this since dessert was cold not hot...and he obviously never asked for us because our food was brought to us at the table. I ate one bite then left. What made me mad about this was 2 nights later while sitting in Azura, I see a man and a woman walking out of the restaurant with their food in a plate with a plastic container on top....! Oh well! I did however go to O'Sheehans around midnight one night and order wings to go, no problem! They put saran wrap on top and gave me the plate! O'sheehans has a limited menu late at night!

 

The entertainment- Honestly, I found compared to the Spirit, the entertainment on this cruise was lacking!! We did enjoy the comedian and the acrobatics but the magician was horrible!! The singers were not all that fantastic either. The Spirit had an AMAZING magician!! To be honest, the activities all together were lacking on this ship. I noticed they had a ton of activities for children but all of the activities for adults you either had to pay for at an extra cost (deal/no deal, bingo) or they were physical activities such as Zumba and exercise classes or the spa seminars which are all to get you to buy things. Even the nightly activities were lacking. NCL really needs to find some new ideas. They are still doing the same things and asking the same questions on the game shows that they were doing in 2011 when we went on our first NCL cruise. I do wish we would have known about karaoke before the last night. We went to the show on the last night and it was amazing and so much fun!

 

 

 

The ports- The ports were all interesting. We chose to do tours through NCL for Juneau. We usually do tours through NCL but sometimes we do them on our own. I research the prices and honestly they were about the same so I just went with NCL.

 

Ketchikan- We walked around the small town. The boat docks right in the town and the town is very small so you have no problem getting around. DH fell for one of the salesmen who tried to get us to rent this electronic car for $40 an hour. I agreed to do it because he made it seem like the town was so big and this car would be helpful. Right after we agreed to purchase, I saw a sign for the FREE shuttle...! Let me tell you I was mad. We rode the tiny little car around, went to the totem poll park which was nice and only $6 i believe. Brought the car back. Then we started walking and realized we had walked the entire distance that we drove the car...well that was a waste of money! We took the tram up the mountain for $2 each then walked down the married man's trail. The trail was very easy to walk and was very pretty.

 

Juneau- We were booked on the dog sledding/helicopter tour and were to meet in the theater at 6:45 in the morning. We woke up VERY early and went to the theater. 10 mins later they tell us the tour was canceled because of the fog. We were very upset but we were able to re-book for the next day in Skagway. Even though it was $50 more per person, we did it since this is what we were looking forward to for the entire cruise! Since our tour was canceled and we had all morning in Juneau before our other excursion at 12:30. We walked around the town but not much was opened since it was early. The weather was just horrible that day! Rainy and cold!! We went to the town museum which opened at 9am and was $5 or so to get in. Interesting place! We stopped in a few shops but we don't buy junk so it did not interest us much. I convinced DH to eat at Tracy's Crab. Let me tell you, it didn't take more than one bite of that crab meat to convince him that it was the right choice. We order the first combo which was one crab leg, crab bisque and 4 crab cakes. When we opened the leg, one of the workers came by and gave us another crab leg for free because ours was "small". I did not consider it small at all but I wasn't going to argue with a free crab leg. The meal was $34.95 i believe and an extra leg is $20 so we got that for free! SCORE! Went back to the ship for our excursion at 12:30. It was the Tracy Arm and Glacier Expedition I believe. About 50 of us boarded a smaller catamaran boat where there was plenty of inside seating, heated, bathrooms and even had a bar where they provided free coffee, hot chocolate and tea and also had other drinks and food for purchase available. There was an outside viewing deck on the top level. The boat ride was about 2.5 hours to the glacier. The Jewel followed at a very slow pace behind us but did not get as close up to the glacier as we did. It was very foggy that day so many of the passengers where disappointed because they didn't get to see anything at all! The glacier was amazing, just the sounds of the cracking and the cold on your skin. It was a one of a kind experience. As a BONUS- on the way to the glacier the captain noticed a whale. As we got closer to the whale we noticed there were actually 3 female humpback whales. They all started breaching out of the water! It was fantastic!! Everyone was so shocked including the tour guides who said they haven't seen whales that size breach much less more than one. We stayed there around 30 minutes just watching the whales!! Around 5pm the catamaran met up with the Jewel and we boarded to Jewel. If you choose to only do one tour, choose this one. It was an awesome experience and one I nor my DH will ever forget!

 

Skagway- Originally we planned to rent a car in Skagway and drive to Canada. I red on these boards that there was not much to see in Skagway. We didn't want to take the train. It just did not seem fun to us. I called Avis car rentals about 3 months before and reserved a car. Since our dog sledding tour wasn't until 2:30 we still rented the car. We got the Avis around 9 and there was a line but we were out of there with our 2015 kia forte in 20 minutes. If you want to rent a car make sure you book ahead of time! Our car was very nice and the total for rental plus insurance was about $182 for the day. We drove the gold miners cemetery and walked to the waterfall. The hike was short and fairly easy. The waterfall was beautiful and if you look down in the ground you can see tons of gold sparkling! We drove from the cemetery to emerald lake with no stops and it took an hour and 45 minutes! Bring your passport because you will need it to get into Canada. There are not many places to stop along the way so make sure to use the restroom before you leave! On our way back we stopped at the Carcross desert and a few photo opts they have on the sides of the roads. Overall it was a gorgeous drive there and back! Make sure you bring an ipod or CDs because there were no radio stations the whole way there. We enjoyed the quiet though. Made it back to Skagway around 1pm, filled up the tank (only used $14.00 worth of gas, gas was $4.06 a gallon), brought the car back and went back to the ship to grab lunch before 2:30. Met our tour guide at the end of the pier at 2:30. The helicopter pad was literally across from the boat so it was very convenient. They showed us a quick video and suited us up with vests and ice boots. Please note that you cannot take anything with you, no purses, no bags, no ipads, no selfie sticks. I even had a scarf on and they told me I had to put it in my jacket or I couldn't bring it. They did have a storage area that was locked for our belongings though! Make sure you bring a hat and gloves! I did not and was very sorry I did not! It was misting and cold! We then got in the helicopter and started our trip to the camp ground. The ride in the helicopter was so smooth and the views were AMAZING!! It took about 15 minutes to get there. When we arrived we were introduced to our dogs and our sled. The ride on the dog sled took about 20 minutes with a few stops for pictures and to change sits. You got the choice of 3 different seats or to be the driver of the back sled. The second run, I chose to be the driver. About 1 minute into the ride, our sled hit a HUGE crack in the ice and we both flew off the sled and face planted in the snow! It was quite funny and we got right back on the sled and kept going! Once we were done sledding, we got to meet the 13 week old puppies! They were precious but HUGE!! After that it was unfortunately time to get back on the helicopter to go back to the boat. The ride back was very short, about 5 minutes but just as smooth. This tour was fantastic and well worth the money! It was a once in a lifetime thing and I am so glad we chose to spend the money on it.

 

Victoria- We did not get into Victoria until 5pm and did not get off the boat until 6pm because there was a line that was very long. I did not plan anything nor did I really research anything for this port. We got off the boat with no clue where to go or what to do. There just so happen to be an antique car show in the lot right off the boat. We both love old cars so we went look around there for a while. We attempted to walk to downtown but made it half way there and decided to turn back. The wind was incredibly strong and honestly we were just tired.

 

We carried our own bags off the ship around 8:45am with no issues at all. Met up with Shuttle Express again for our transfer to the airport. The transfer I booked with the airport to hotel transfer, this one was $44 for both of us. The driver picked us up around 9am, gave us a brief tour of Seattle because we asked. Dropped us off at the airport around 10am. There was a HUGE line at both delta check in and in the security line. It literally took us an hour to get through to our gate. Our flight was at 12:30am and we made it with no issues at all! Our flight was originally over booked and we volunteered to switch but in the end a few people didn't show up so we ended up on the plane.

 

UBP- the UBP was great. The only thing we had to pay on any drink was the tax from the first day while we were in Seattle. The bartenders did let us know this when we ordered a drink! My favorite drinks were the painkiller, the mango meltdown, the strawberry daiquiri, Bahama mama, pinot noir, red blends, moscato and the mojitios! DH loved the honey lemonade! The only issue we had was when DH went to the bar in the buffet and ordered a pinot noir, they gave us the expensive one that was over $11 so we had to pay the difference. Most of the bars always gave you the cheapest one. Please note that if you are ordering 2 drinks at a time you will need 2 cards that have the UBP sticker on them.

 

Weather/clothing- Before the cruise I searched all over for clothing to pack. Everyone said how warm it had been in Alaska. I packed 2 pairs of shorts along with sandals. I can tell you that I never once wore either pair of shorts! It was chilly the entire cruise. The only day that it was warm was in Seattle. I wore a light sweater with a light jacket most days and in both Juneau and Skagway I wore a rain jacket over those layers and also leggings with black stretchy pants over them and boots. The weather that we experienced was our winter weather in LA so if you are use to the cold it might be a different experience for you than it was for us.

 

Overall, we had a great time and it was an amazing trip. I love NCL and will keep sailing with them even though this trip lacked a lot on their part! There were quite a few couples we met that were very disappointed in the cruise overall. We understand not everything can be perfect and we still enjoyed ourselves so that is all that matters to us!

 

Feel free to ask me any questions!

 

You have the attitude that makes for a good vacation and good life period. We did the Jewel on herfirst crossing from Dover to America. We too had those who decided it was more fun to pick everything apart: we happen to love the ship and the criuse, but hit some bad weather. It was one reason many people did not enjoy the cruise overall. It was the reason hubby fell in love with NCL> Until then he had been just so so about the line. Now, he doesn't want to cruise any other line. We have tried them all.

 

When you mention some not enjoying the cruise or being disappointed I think this comes more from expectations and not understanding an Alaskan cruise. I had suggested we try Alaska again next year. We have not been there for about 15 years: Hubby said, NOPE. Like Hawaii, you do the cruise almost strictly for the ports.

[Just Retired TN Teacher]

Our inside cabin had a hand held shower head you could take off the wall. I love those because I hate getting hit with a shot of cold water before the water warms up.