We sailed the Jewel the week after our first Carnival cruise on the Elation. Our only other Norwegian experience was an Alaskan cruise at least 10 years ago. We've also been on Royal Caribbean several times in between. We really enjoyed the Elation cruise, but since the Jewel is a larger ship in a different class we expected more, and in some areas, we got it. The Jewel has a more contemporary look and feel and we noticed things like the glass was much clearer and the elevators were faster.

We had cabin 4554 with a porthole. The room was much smaller than our cabin on the Elation, but quite functional. The bathroom was also much smaller, but again, everything worked well. You needed to slide a credit card to lock the safe. I prefer entering a number and locking my credit cards in the safe. Our cabin steward never introduced himself. He gave us a thinner blanket and beach towels when we requested them. He did a good job of cleaning the room, but not always at the most opportune times for us. He might knock and we'd tell him we were leaving the room in 10 min., then come back a couple of hours later and the room hadn't been cleaned yet. No big deal, but on the Elation, our room was always done when we came back from breakfast and dinner.

We thought the food on the ship was good. When we boarded we headed to Tzars for lunch. The salad and sandwich were average, but it was a nice quiet alternative to the buffet. The lobster on the first night was excellent and our waitress brought more when we asked for it. The steak served with it was OK. The lamb shank was very good. The only really disappointing meal was the New Orleans shrimp and steak, which I ordered mostly for the shrimp. There were 3 tiny fried shrimp on top of a mediocre steak. Desserts could've been better. One night we saw a waiter serve what looked like flourless chocolate cake, which was not on the menu, to another table. The next night we asked about it and our waiter said that if we asked for it he had to bring it to us and he did. It was good, but still not the best flourless chocolate cake I've ever had. We also ate in Azure a couple of nights and overall the service was fine in both restaurants. There was a good variety of food in the buffet at breakfast and lunch. The fruit was good - melon, pineapple, grapes, oranges, bananas, apples. The cooked to order omelets were good, but slow. Muffins were OK. Little chocolate croissants were good, but often gone. They had a couple of coffee machines that brewed individual cups, so you had to push the button and wait. They had the best coffee. Read more