Norwegian Jewel Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,355 reviews

Mediocre Food, Hit and Miss Service, Smallest Bathrooms at sea.

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Jewel
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rsavage7
6-10 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Jan 2014

This was our sixth cruise but our first on Norwegian. We were excited to try out this cruise line as all of our other experiences had been on Carnival.

Boarding the ship was relatively smooth and much like Carnival. My first impression of the boat was that the decor was more modern than what I had experienced on previous cruises. We went to the buffet to have lunch and wait for our rooms to be ready. The food at the buffet was okay - nothing to write home about. I sampled two or three deserts but found them to be very disappointing and after a bite of each, I threm them out. There were no bar servers wandering around to purchase a drink from - I am used to them wandering through the dining areas with a tray of the drink of the day. I am not a huge drinker but I do like to start my cruise off with a fruity cocktail. As promised our rooms were ready at about 1:30pm. The oceanview room had a nice large window with a window sill large enough for me to sit in the window and look out. I knew from information online that the room was going to be about 20 sq.ft. smaller than the rooms we usually have on Carnival. I was pleased with the storage in the room-in fact this is one area where Norwegian has outdone the competition. It was also extremely nice to have the mini fridge in the room. We did not purchase any of the drinks from the fridge but we had carried on a case of water and we were able to place a few bottles in the fridge to keep them cold. Then I went to the bathroom and boy was that a surprise! It was soooo small! I am a plus sized lady but this was ridiculous. I had to squeeze through the opening to get to the toilet and then squeeze back out to the areas where the sink was - same story with the shower. I will say the shower size was fine once you were actually in there and it was nice to not have a curtain clinging to you while trying to wash. The toilet area was ridiculous - you could lean your head on the wall in front of you (where your knees basicallay touch the wall) while sitting on the toilet. We ate dinner with some others we were cruising with (42 in our group) in the Azura dining room. We were impressed to see Steak and Lobster on the menu the first night but it was short lived the steak was a thin tough piece of meat that was not appealing. I later found out that they do not grill their steaks instead they pan sear them and finish them in the oven. We did not eat at any of the restaurants that you have to pay for but some of our friends did. Their opinion is that the cruise line skimps on the included food and serves better food in the specialty restaurants so you will spend more money. My husband and father ordered fish in Tsars Palace and were served half cooked fish that smelled spoiled. When we complained they apologized took our cabin number and later sent chocolate covered strawberries to our room. The only thing I can say was consistently excellent on the boat was the Salmon at dinner in Azura dining room and the omelets in Tsars Palace. Carnivals included food is by far better quality than what we were served on Norwegian. We received excellent service from a few people on board but mostly it was hit and miss. The first night at dinner our server raised her voice to me when I moved my tea glass closer to the edge of the table in an effort to make it easier for her to reach to refill. She insisted I move it back before she would fill it. She had little to no personality and was rude. This was not a good way to start a trip. The next morning we received excellent service from Charmaine in the Tsars Palace and she restored our confidence that we would be treated right.

Our ship stopped in Cozumel, Belize, Honduras and Costa Maya. Honduras was my favorite stop - we booked a private island tour through island marketing prior to leaving home. This was not through Norwegian but was a wonderful experience - we will definitely do it again. In Belize we did the Calypso train tour and it was interesting but it was a bit disappointing that the tour did not include touristy areas. Next time I would try to book an excursion to a beach area because the tour presented Belize as a very poor and shabby area. In Costa Maya my husband scuba dived and enjoyed it . I looked around the overpriced shops at the end of the pier. They have a beautiful pool right there in the middle but after seeing that a rum and coke at the pool/senor frogs was $16.50, I decided to head back to the ship and enjoy the pool/hot tub there which we had practically to ourselves.

Cabin Review

As promised our rooms were ready at about 1:30pm. The oceanview room had a nice large window with a window sill large enough for me to sit in the window and look out. I knew from information online that the room was going to be about 20 sq.ft. smaller than the rooms we usually have on Carnival. I was pleased with the storage in the room-in fact this is one area where Norwegian has outdone the competition. It was also extremely nice to have the mini fridge in the room. We did not purchase any of the drinks from the fridge but we had carried on a case of water and we were able to place a few bottles in the fridge to keep them cold. Then I went to the bathroom and boy was that a surprise! It was soooo small! I am a plus sized lady but this was ridiculous. I had to squeeze through the opening to get to the toilet and then squeeze back out to the areas where the sink was - same story with the shower. I will say the shower size was fine once you were actually in there and it was nice to not have a curtain clinging to you while trying to wash. The toilet area was ridiculous - you could lean your head on the wall in front of you (where your knees basicallay touch the wall) while sitting on the toilet. This room was midway between the front eleveators and the mid elevators.

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