Norwegian Jewel May 14-21 Barcelona

[Shappy]

Well I keep thinking I'd like to post a major review of the cruise but will probably never find the time so here goes. To put my comments in perspective, I have been on around 30 cruises and haven't cruise with NCL for around 20 years. Usually do Princess and Celebrity.

 

First the ship--It's beautiful but certainly not as elaborate as some. Last cruise we were on was the RC Mariner--now that's an impressive ship! Although the Jewel is beautiful frankly my first impression was they had really cut corners on the decor. Like the fyzz lounge has pictures of bubbles on the walls? Please!! Pool is nothing special, certainly can't compare to the Mariner. Water slide for the kids.

 

Food. My husband's first words when we went to Tsar's were "this reminds me of being in a fancy cafeteria." Truthfully we ate only one meal there, the Captain's night. Portions were so tiny it was ridiculous and I'm a small eater. Food was ok but I heard other people complain about the food so I just made reservations at the specialty restaurants as soon as I got on the ship--best advice I got from CC. I really missed live music at the dinners.

 

Cagney's- great, went there twice. The Bistro-steak was good, fish ok. Lovely atmosphere. Teppenyaki (sp?) great. My husband thought the free Mama's was the best. We had good service everywhere and my husband surprised me by stating over and over how much he enjoyed the specialty restaurants, he said he'll remember the cruise by how different the restaurants were.

We ate in the Garden Cafe buffet for breakfast and thought they were good. Lox everyday. They won me over with the waffle bar and I didn't look any further. I was very impressed they had it open disembarkation morning as some cruises practically throw you off the ship it seems!

Overall I would say we were very happy we made speciality reservations as soon as we got on the ship because we saw a lot of people wandering around at dinnertime looking for places to eat and complaining that although the fancy computer monitor showed availability they were told the restaurant was full.

 

Cabin-We had an inside cabin, 10th floor midship. Very smooth and loved the location. Cabins are nice and modern. Best shower I'd ever had on a ship with the sliding door. A little less drawer space than other ships. Lighting was poor though, you needed a flashlight to see inside safe and cabinet space.

 

Staff-Excellent, no complaints. Everyone tried really hard. We complained once about a charge for bus in LIvorno (charged $4 p/p per way to take us to the middle of town and ended up dropping us off at the end of the port and 25 min. walk) took off charges with no hassle . The bus was free the week before we found out from other passengers.

 

Ports-loved them all and have been to most before. We didn't take any tours. We ride the trains and buses, had a fabulous time. Funny because we met people who said "You can do that?" Had a pretty long time in each port. Frankly when I go to a foreign country I don't go to see the ancient sights as much as I do to experience the country and people. I love mingling with the natives. You begin to notice that their stuff isn't made in China, they dry their laundry on their balconies, and no one drives an SUV. And the Italians close for siesta so do your shopping before 1 pm.!!

 

Entertainment--so-so. Cirque Bique Outstanding!!! Frankly we were so exhausted from this port intensive cruise entertainment wasn't important anyway, we got up every morning around 6:30.

 

One thing I missed is there didn't seem to be a "wow" factor--kind of of like staying at a Marriot courtyard instead of the Four Seasons. Didn't even have a captain's cocktail party!! My opinion is a bit skewed though because on Princess we are "elite" and the benefits are fantastic--free internet, drycleaning, special parties, captain's lunch ,etc.

 

All in all though, I'd give this vacation a 9 plus out of 10. We had a fabulous time. I remember someone posting before what type of people to expect on this cruise since it was so cheap. We found the people very, very nice, very friendly, cordial, and for the most part well dressed, etc. We met lots of people as there didn't seem to be so many huge groups.

 

I'm being paged by a 2 year old so good luck to all of you lucky enough to go on this wonderful cruise to the Meditteranean this summer. If you have any questions about doing ports on your own or anything I'd be happy to reply.

[Tagoladad]

Would love to hear what time you were able to get off the ship in the different ports (we want to start early) and what you did in Naples. Also would like to know about "open disembarkation" what time were you able to leave the ship. We have a 10:40 AM flight leaving Barcelona on Sunday morning.

If you have any more thoughts, I'd love to hear them. Welcome home

Tagoladad@aol.com

[cruisingfromMN]

Thanks for the nice, balanced review. We're on the July 30th sailing and just cannot wait. Been to France before but never Spain or Italy.

[Shappy]

NCL did a fabulous job with disembarkation, the easiest we've ever had. We carried our bags ourselves, my husband told me people started disembarking at 6:15 so barring any unforseen complications you should make your early flight. They even helped with the taxi queue. BTW the Barcelona airport was a nightmare, we waited a full 1 1/2 hr to check our bags on Lufthansa! Then we still needed to go through security. This is because several cruise ships let out.

So try to get off the ship as soon as possible and carry your bags if possible. (We once had another passenger take our bags and he finally brought them back about 1 pm. If we had had an early flight I think our bags would have been lost forever.)

 

BTW, I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing that NCL has cut down on the food portion size. I've seen a lot of waste in the past. I kind of like the small portions because I could order like calamari and know I'd just get a taste and not feel so guilty.

 

Naples--I could go on forever. We've been there a few times and there's always something new. They do let you go off the ship quite early, soon after 7 am. However two of the ports (Livorno and Rome) you need to get a shuttle out of the port which is a bit of a hassle.

In Naples it's quite simple, you simply walk off the ship. Right at the dock you can get a ferry to Capri or Sorrento. You do need to be a tad careful of pickpocketers in Naples, it's Italy at its crazy best which we love. You can walk down the streets for the "spice of life." You can take the local bus straight to the National Archeological museum (if it's too hot for Pompei be assured they took the best stuff out of Pompei and put it there.) There are easy train connections to Pompei and Sorrento--I don't have my notes in front of me-the train is the local commuter train "Circumventia" (spelled wrong). Since we've been to Pompei and Capri we decided to go to Herculean. When we got off the train and went to a visitor center we decided to go to Mt. Vesuvius--they had a local van service that would take you up and back for 10 euros. (BTW the Italian trains are cheap and frequent) MUCH better than the large tour buses, our small van passed lots of of the big buses. Hiking Mt. Vesuvius was awesome, the views are gorgeous. The van took us back to the train station area and then it's about a 10 min. walk to Herculean. Both my husband and I enjoyed Herculean better than Pompei --it's small and better preserved IMHO. Then we took the train back to Naples and we love to eat in the outdoor cafes--fantastic pizza and wonderful wine. When we are going off for the day we usually do the "far" sights first and spend the last part of the day in the area closest to the ship. There is so much to do in Naples.

[newmexicoNita]

I am so glad you enjoyed this wonderful ship: you are right, it isn't as impressive as some, but very interesting. My hubby, who doesn't get turned on my ships to often walked on the ship and said "WOW" to him it was different from anything he had seen. We have been on other newere NCL ships as well as Celebrity M class. I think the overall colors really appealed to him. Missing, of course is the atruim. After I adjusted to not having one I realized they are not all that exciting anymore as most new ships have them. NMnita

[madison_ct_cruisers]

We were on this same cruise and are in agreement with your review. We definitely found the majority of the passengers were European. Also quite a few passengers had been on the repositioning cruise and took advantage of a free cruise to stay on board for this cruise. It was definitely not a restful cruise. While we enjoyed all the ports (although Ville Franche/Nice was much too short), we came back needing a vacation to recover!

The ship was run very smoothly. We always left close to on time and arrived promptly. In all ports we cleared local customs and were able to get off the ship early. Only Ville Franche required tendors and delayed our departure because they took passengers signed up for tours first. The express disembarkation at the end of the cruise was great - unfortunately we had a long wait for taxis once we got off.

We booked our flights home for after 12pm but in reality could have booked flights much earlier.

All in all no major problems or complaints.

I have all the menus for the main restaurants and will post them when I have some time.

Mel and Ronnie

[kosoffj]

we are booked on this 7/30-8/6 and we can't wait. i've been dying for a review of this itinerary/ship and yours was the first i found :)

 

this is our 7th ncl cruise but the first one with our 6 month old son (not counting the hawaii one while i was pregnant)

[Shappy]

Sometimes we get caught up in minutia on a cruise and don't look at what went

"right". We had PERFECT weather, I've done those ports when it's hot and it isn't pleasant. Also we didn't have our port time cut short in any port, although I agree the time in Nice was too short, like I wish I was still there.

[pj-atsea]

Shappy... Loved your post. I am going on the 28th May sailing. There seemed to be a bit of confusion over the ports. The brochure and website says that the port is Villefranche (for Nice) but my documentsay say the port is Nice. when I questioned this, they said it was Nice for Villefranche( which doesn't make sense to me) I have been to Villefranche before on cruises so I am not sure now where we will actually be. As it is a short day in port, it is something that I'd like to know beforehand. You were just on the same itinerary so I was wondering which port you stopped at. Thanks. Hopefully I can get an answer before I leave tomorrow..Can't wait. Will make reservations in those restaurants right away..

[7SeasLover]

Good review. We'll be sailing the Med on the Jewel in October. Last trip before she does her transatlantic.

 

We hired a private driver for Naples and Rome. We will do Croatia on our own. What about Athens? Did you stop in Athens and how were the NCL tours?

 

Did you stop in Izmir? How's the port - walking to things is easy?

 

Pictures! Let's see some pictures!

[bonnieg]

Thank you for the great review. Does anyone have a copy of the dailies for this cruise? I would love to see them. Please post them if you can or maybe fax them to me at 631-254-0486. Also, what time were you able to get off the ship in Villefranche if you didn't do one of their tours? Our flight back home from Barcelona is at 1pm. What time is the latest you can leave the ship?

Mel and Ronnie: I would love to see the menus!

Kosoffj: We are also on the 7/30 cruise. We have a nice roll call going.

~Bonnie

[Shappy]

PJ We wondered the same thing about that port. I couldn't remember if we had been there before. We had stopped in Monaco before and the last time in Monaco we did our own tour of some underground caverns and an exotic garden.

Anyway, back to the Jewel. We docked in Villefranche which is supposed to be expensive and beautiful. This is a short port day. We left the ship around 8:15. If you weren't on a tour you needed to go to deck 7 and pick up a ticket for the tender. However, we were off shortly after the tours left, not really a delay because we were so tired from the previous 3 days! Anyway we decided to tour Nice with friends we had met. There is a 10 min. train ride from Villefranche to Nice, however, if apparently runs only once an hour. So we decided to go by bus. True to our adventures we met a lovely lady from Wales who spoke English who directed us to the bus, it was a short walk up a small hill. The bus ride was a gorgeous 10 min. trip. There is a large bus station 1 min walk from the old town which was having a flower and vegetable farmer's market. It was one of the highlights of my trip, it was so beautiful and charming. My husband and friends walked to to the sea and said it was gorgeous, I meandered around the shops. It was absolute heaven.

The following is my opinion only but I had a much better time going to Nice than I have going to see the casino in Monaco. The caverns are interesting though. I Know some will disagree with me but we missed Etz the first trip and were bound and determined to see it the second. We finally went and I had to say I was disappointed in that it was just a big tourist trap IMHO. When I go to a town and see nothing to sell to the locals and expensive stuff to hype to tourists I run. We felt sorry for those who had to endure the hard sell at the perfume factory in Etz. Do yourself a favor and savor the open market and mingle with the locals in Nice, it's incredibly charming. I want to go back and stay!!!

[pj-atsea]

Hi Shappy, Thanks for your reply, We leave today so I have one more question for you. I have taken the train to Nice before and the bus back, but I didn't think we'd have time to do the bus there and back on this cruise because of the short day. I guess I was wrong. What time did you get the bus back to Villefranche? I might try and do this. I knew the train schedule wouldn't work but maybe we could do the bus. Approx. what time did you catch the bus to Nice also?, I seem to remember it as about 20 min - 30 min away by bus, and about a 10 min walk down from the bus stop in Villefranche. Am I remembering right? pj

[Shappy]

PJ

The bus trip from VF to Nice is only 10-15 min. at most. We didn't take the train so I don't know where it's located.

The bus station in Nice is very large and a 1 min. walk from the old market. Since the bus station is so big the buses leave quite frequently. We left Nice around 1 pm. I always like to be back near the ship early so we went to Nice as soon as we got off the ship. The last tender was supposed to be 2:30. I wish we had more time in that port as we didn't get to see Villefranche, maybe next time. The bus stop in VF is about a 10 min walk from the ship.

BTW I'm sure you know the internet cafes in Europe are cheap and plentiful compared to the astronomical rates on the ship. Have a wonderful trip!

[pj-atsea]

Shappy... thanks a lot for your prompt reply. Am just going to leave for the airport.. Looking forward to this trip.. pj