My family chose this year to take a cruise .... and ended up with the Norwegian Jewel. We traveled with my 2 daughters ... age 11 and 14. And we had a BLAST!!!! We loved every minute of our time on the Jewel and at each of the ports. Starting with the embarkation process ... it was super easy and well organized. We decided to do 2 rooms that were connected, and this was perfect for our family. In one room, the 4 of us would have been bumping into each other. With the 2 rooms, we just kept the door between the rooms open and were very grateful for the 2 bathrooms :) The food on board was fantastic. We chose to do only a handful of reservations at the nicer restaurants ... and just supplemented with the Garden Cafe' (buffet) on nights that we had other things we wanted to do (ie. the show or kids club activities). Speaking of the shows, the comedian and the magician were fantastic!! I think we caught some form of the show each night, but those 2 stood out. I wanted to address the kids clubs (Splash Academy). Not many reviews talk about them and I know that as a mother of teens / pre-teens ... that activities for them matter!!! I loved the way that they broke the age groups up. One daughter was in the Dolphin group (10-12 year olds). She had a blast!!! She loved the games, the crafts, the activites ... all very age friendly. She was worried that they would be "too baby" ... but they were great!! My 14-year old is hard to please ... but loved having the freedom to check herself in / out of the teen club. The activities for the older kids were very fun and "teen approved". After getting over the initial "I don't know anyone" ... we hardly saw her!! She was constantly going to / from the teen club and enjoying herself. Can't thank Norwegian enough for that!!!