This was a first cruise for my husband and I. We are in our late 40's, early 50's both retired from the military after 20 plus years of active duty service. We have traveled extensively for business and pleasure and tend to spoil ourselves when we are on vacation. We are not overly critical however if something is not right we will not hesitate to speak up. We enjoyed this vacation with another couple who are of the same age and we have known them for some time. They have previously cruised on various different cruise lines however was the first time on Norwegian for all of us.
We arrived in Miami from St. Louis the day before our scheduled departure date. We had booked on priceline two separate rooms at the Miami Biscayne Bay Hotel (aka Radisson). Assistance from the staff was above average however the hotel is in dire need of updating, which they are in the process of doing, floor by floor. While it was a stop over prior to our cruise we would not stay there again.
The next morning after a 10 minute taxi ride to the port we were dropped off at the terminal for the Jewel. Porters placed room location tags on our luggage and we were off to enter the terminal. Once inside check in was smooth and painless. As we were a bit early our wait to enter the Jewel was not more than 30 minutes. During that time we were given seats in the terminal and water and juice was available.