If You Sailed On the Jewel With Your Kids: ?s

[mlbcruiser]

If you have sailed on NCL’s Jewel within the last few years and took kids along, how did your kids like it?  
 

Our DD is thinking of booking this ship in Alaska for her family. Her children will be newly eight, almost 10, and almost 17 at the time of sailing. They were all on a Disney cruise about two years ago and Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas about a year ago. I’m just trying to make sure there are things the kids will enjoy doing on this ship, because if they are happy, the parents will be happy.
 

if you have cruised with your children on the Jewel,  did it iseem like NCL’s facilities and activities for kids in these age group were very good? Were there good hosts & fun things scheduled for these age groups?

 

I would really appreciate getting some good first-hand reports - asap! 
 

[cruisinmeme]

It has been a few years but we sailed with 3 grandkids. Jewel is fairly simple compare to some of the other ships. Perfect for Alaska as they dont do the kid friendly high energy ships in Alaska. It has a basketball court and golf and of coarse a pool but that about does it. 

Two of our grandkids was happy just watching the world go by from an awesome view. The older one wanted to be getting into trouble.

[www3traveler]

I would choose either The Bliss or The Encore for an Alaskan cruise for a couple of reasons:

  (1) Many more activites for all ages including adults.

  (2) For me, most importantly both The Bliss and The Encore sail round trip from Seattle, Washington versus one way on The Jewel.  Making travel logistics (airlines, hotels) much easier.  Do not have the worry about converting US dollars into Canadian dollars either.

 

No matter what enjoy your time together as a family and enjoy your cruise.

[mlbcruiser]

Those ships are about twice as much, which adds up for a family of five.

[kitkat343]

We sailed on RC last August and on NCL's getaway in January.  The reason we went on a second cruise was that my kids loved the kids club on RC so much they wanted to go again (ages 4 and 8).  On NCL, they were much less happy with the kids club, since they said they spent a lot more time playing nintendo switch than participating in arts and crafts and sports games like on RC.  My 4 year old mostly refused to go (and on RC she'd spend every moment there), but most of the other kids on the ship seemed fairly happy with the kids clubs on the Getaway.

 

However, please note that NCL has been recently cancelling port stops after final payment for environmental reasons, including  cancelling the inside passage on the Spirit's Alaskan voyages.  If the prices are close, I'd recommend RC.  I'd really only sail NCL if the price is so low it won't be disappointing if they cancel the ports that are the highlight of that cruise.  Traditionally, Princess and HAL had the strongest Alaskan cruises, but with kids RC might be a better choice (I've only sailed the coral princess, which is a great ship for adults and small kids because their kids clubs are excellent, but there's not much on the coral for teenagers or tweens).

 

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[mjkacmom]

We have sailed on the gem, jewel and breakaway with our kids. They had fun on all, they like to meet others. The 8 and 9 year olds would be in the same group, the 17 year old will meet others to hang with in the teen club.