Just back from the Jewel

[ChaCha54]

I just got off the Jewel on Friday. Whilte making reservations for Cagney's and Tango, our card was never swiped. We never had much of a problem getting a reservation when we wanted except for New Year's Eve, which was expected. We also walked up to hostess at Mama's one night and was accommondated one hour later. I thought the service at all restaurants was above board and at times a little fast. I do think if one had a large party they might find service slower, but we couldn't have been happier with the service. All servers went out of their way to make us happy. Chair hogs at the pool is a very kind phrase for the more than rude passengers. And...yes, this happens at the finest resorts too. Too many people in a too small of venue.

[starfamily]

The concierge made all our reservations for us, we showed up at the appointed time, our name was on a list and we were brought to a table, they never scanned our cards, the only time they took the card was to pay the cover charge and bar bill

[atlasali]

On the Pearl for Christmas 2007 going to be on the Jewel for 2008. I am assuming that they should be similar. On the Pearl:

1--Photo with the Captain was at the Latitudes party.

2--More chairs could be placed on Deck 12 IF they would MOVE the Ping Pong table and move the Casino tables OFF of the Pool deck. Most aggravating to have ping pong balls strike you or worse yet some inept player crash into you and your lounger while trying to retrieve their ball. In the space that "entertained 2 or 4 people" you could have fit in many lounge chairs. At least on the day-at-sea days. I forgot to say that on my comment card --so NCL if you read these please take notice.

 

So I have been reading many references about Freestyle 2.0. Where is the information about this?

[electricron]

I have been reading many references about Freestyle 2.0. Where is the information about this?

 

Try Cruise Critic's News page:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=2325

 

Cruise Critics is more than just a message board.

[atlasali]

Thanks for the article, I did miss it. At that time, we were busy packing for our cruise on the Pearl. I was single-mindedly just checking Cruise Critic for messages from our fellow shipmates and info about our upcoming cruise.

[Jetswdo]

I'm going to write a review-- but for now:

 

I thought the food was actually pretty good all over, including Tzar's (didn't make it to Azura or Tango)

 

We ate at Tzar's New Years and lunch on debarkation day. Service was fine as was the food.

 

Teppanyaki was ok. Not worth fighting to get into (IMHO)

Cagneys and Chin Chin were quite good. I thought the buffet had really a nice variety of food choices. Mamas was good as well.

 

We have cruised on Princess, Royal Carribean, Disney (when it was Big Red Boat) and the now defunct America Hawaii Cruises. All the cruises were pleasant in their own way. Things we liked and things we didn't.

 

As far as the food is concerned, I thought NCL food was really among the best... Anita

[sjbdtz]

I certainly hope that they are not scanning cards and allowing mini suite people shorter waits. That is just plain wrong! It simply brings the class system onto a cruise ship and that goes against my entire belief in cruising.

 

 

LOL. So the whole world should enjoy cruising which is in accordance with YOUR belief-system?

 

LOL.

 

And "I've" been called arrogant & self-centered..... LOL.

[loverboy]

I will be on the Jewel on 2/29/08, I have had the same problem on other cruises, with people hogging the chairs. They leave their towels and stuff on them. Well I am about to change all of that on my cruise. When I see a set of chairs empty, I will empty their stuff myself! It is time these people start living by the rules! The ship doesn't owe you a seat for the whole day, just when you want to sit. Bring all of these people on, I'm ready for them!:cool: Most of these people are rude anyway's! Time to return the favor!

I was on the Jewel 12/7-12/16 and there were indeed chair hogs. There was a group of over 55 (in age) who were reserving 3-4 chairs with towels and stuff. Sometime early in the morning (900 or so). I noticed this and then noticed that one came up to the chairs to take something out of her bag and leave again. I followed her to where she was (right behind the chairs at the tables playing cards where she had been for 3 hours and NOT in the deck chairs). I may be brazen and save my soulif I am, but I went right up to her and said, "I think it is extremely rude of you all to hog x number of deck chairs preventing others from using them while you sit here and play cards." I didn't wait for an answer as there was none that would have satisfied me. I did note, however, that one of the ladies immediately got up and removed the towels.

[ddakrt]

Our main grip was that the last two days of our cruise were days at sea. The last day we were ondeck at 8:30am trying to find two deck chairs. There were none to be found on the pool deck (12) and decks 13 or 14. We ended up sitting up reading at the Great Outdoors Cafe taking up space that people needed to use to eat breakfast.

 

At 10am we tried again to no avail. We ended up finding the last two seats available on deck 7 -the promenade deck. These chairs are not fully reclining, so everyone uses a second chair to put their feet up on.

 

We tried all the decks again at 12:30. No seats- finally we stopped someone from the bar service dressed all in white and told him why are there not enough seats for people? We had discovered on deck 14 aft the chair "graveyard". Stacks of damaged chairs (at least 200) - obviously they had not been replaced.

 

On all our walks around the decks we found people just laying out on their towels on the floors in every little nook and cranny. Also heard stories from people witnessing fights because someone had removed someone else's towel from their reserved chair. Also heard from someone who circled the decks at 7:30 am and the chairs were all gone by then. This is absolutely ridiculous to have to lay on the floor or fight to get a chair or wake up with the sun to get a reserved chair.

 

What has happened to NCL in the past five years?

 

Did you mean that there werent enough loungers on the ship? Or that there's not enough space for the said loungers?

 

There are certainly many loungers on deck (these were taken last month):

 

Even if you can get more chairs, there's simply no room to put them. I suppose they can put a couple where the ping pong/full size chess are, but what makes your piority (loungers) more important than others who might perfer the ping pong and chess?

 

I never had problems finding a chair on deck 14 forward or on deck 14 above the Sky High Bar, regardless of the time of day.

 

My husband and I both filled out the comment cards. Under "comment" there was barely enough room for everything we had to say, so instead I wrote "Please call me to discuss our cruise". How long do you think I will have to wait to get that phone call returned??????????

I dunno where the cards go, but I think the comments are read and some type aspect of records are kept on ship (employee logbook) as oppose to going to NCL's HR department in Miami.

I also dunno how NCL conduct their satallite phone service, but it might be unreasonable to have an officer call every passenger that request calls to their home from the ship as it might not be cost efficient.

 

That's strictly a guess, I could be very off base here.

[marhun2430]

Chill....you are on vacation; its all what you make of it!! (This is not to be taken in with a rude context). Have a boat drink, watch the sunset and enjoy Gods wonders!