My husband and myself just got home from the NCL Jewel (7.30.06). What a GREAT cruise!! This would be the 6th cruise for me (3rd for husband) and we both agree that this was the best cruise ever!!! We used NCL air. Direct flight from JFK (Delta) and since we arrived very early Sunday am NCL treated us to a free tour of Barcelona. Nice informative tour.

Embarkation: We boarded the ship approx 12:00. No waiting and was on within 5mins of arriving. TIP: You can but soda and water at duty free shops in the terminal! We ended up leaving port about 2 hours late due to late arriving passengers because of the recent strike at the airport. Our cabin was a obstructed view on 8th deck. It was no problem and would get an obstructed view again. Esp. on this type of port intensive cruise!

Food: We both found all meals to be good to excellent. We only tried 2 specialty restaurants Tapas and Teppanyaki. Both were good with good service. A note on free style restaurants. We felt that having to make reservations defeats the purpose of free style and ate mostly out of Tsars and buffet. Read more