My wife and I are in our late 40"s and have cruised 7 times before on RCCL and Princess, both lines we love, but this time we had an extra passenger with us, our 2 year old son! With him in consideration, I started looking at cruise ships that had programs, like day/evening care for 2 year olds, I started with my two favorites and found that Princess really offered nothing for that age, and RCL started child programs at 3 years and up, with that information I ruled them out, and jumped on the internet and found that NCL offered a cruise length( more than 7 days ) that I wanted and had a program for 2 year olds that was free, and covered days and nights should we wish to dine as a couple. I was apprehensive booking with NCL due to reviews, and I was a loyal RCL and Princess cruiser, but with this children's program for our 2 year old I booked a 9 day cruise on the JEWEL, for January 17th 2008. My wife, son and I stayed in Miami before the cruise, so that we would be fresh for embarkation expecting long lines and a wait, but once we arrived at Miami port terminal 2, at 11:30 am we were expedited through very efficiently with hardly a line up, and on board the Jewel in less than 30 minutes....we were impressed! Once on board we were told to enjoy the buffet lunch and to wait for our staterooms to be ready for 1pm....no problem....the food was hot and quite good, as again I was expecting the worst based on the some write ups, but I will get back to the food later. First impression as you board the ship, nice, clean, but not as grandiose as the RCL or Princess atriums, again no problem as we were happy to be on board. We had our buffet lunch and at 1 pm made our way to our stateroom, 10570 mid ship, on deck 10, balcony, on entering we were impressed with the cabin, and especially the bathroom ( or head ) finished in a pleasing wood with a large shower, separate with sliding door toilet area, and of course a sink with a generous amount of space for toiletries. The balcony in our stateroom had a sliding door and was a good size with two chairs and a small side table, the bed was comfortable and the couch was made into another bed for our son, the TV was "old school" tube and small, but we are not here to watch TV, we also had a bar fridge fully stocked and plenty of dresser drawers and closet space. Everyones favorite topic on cruise ships....FOOD
One of the other "perks" of this cruise line is the "free style" dining concept....eat when you want, dressed almost the way you want ( no tuxedos, but pants required! )This ship was lacking the grand atrium because its got 10 restaurants on board!!! in my book well worth the sacrifice. We dined at Le bistro twice, this is a french restaurant with a $15 per person cover charge, but it was well worth it, the food was excellent, the service was excellent, and the atmosphere was excellent. As a side bar, most of the serving staff were from the Philippines, and they were the most polite courteous people on board, they must love kids as well because all the men and women of this nationality addressed my 2 year old son by name and entertained him all through out the cruise, it was all very warm and genuine.....All the staff on board the Jewel were exceptionally nice, not a sour face seen! Sorry, I digress, back to the food.... went to CHIN CHIN, the chinese restaurant on board once, again great food and service, this one had a cover charge of $10. We dined at the "free" restaurants as well, the largest dining room being Czars at the stern of the ship, then at Azure, mid ship, and Tangos, another specialty restaurant serving Mexican type food with no cover charge, again all with excellent service, food and atmosphere. We did not have enough time, or the restaurants were too booked to make it to any of the other "specialty" restaurants on board like Mamas Italian, Cagney's steak house, Teppanyaki Japanese, or the Sushi bar, wish we had a few more days to rate the others, and as always you could go with the buffet, which was not lacking anything, one nice thing about the buffet area, is they had a children's dining area that had smaller tables and chairs, just to cater to kids comfort.
As for the main reason we booked with NCL, our son spent every evening in the children's program, up to 10pm free and later with a nominal $5 per hour charge, this allowed us to watch the great shows and dine in peace. We would feed him at the buffet children's dining area, then drop him off at 7pm and do our own thing with no fears, the staff were friendly and well qualified, if any parents want to ask us any questions please feel free to e-mail us.