Traveled with spouse, son, and daughter over spring break. We came into Houston the night before and stayed at the Marriot South(?) near Hobby. We took a taxi the next morning to Houston Terminal. It cost us $65 for the ride. Embarkation was not too bad. This was our second NCL cruise(3 of us) and we were in 2 average cabins. Therefore, no perks that gave us priority boarding. Nevertheless, the line moved fast enough to not be frustrating.

The Jewel is a beautiful ship. I was excited to board her and I was looking forward to a good time and wanted my 28 year old daughter to be impressed enough to not be sold out to a competitor cruiseline that has a reputation of being a "fun" ship. I wanted to win her over to NCL because that is the direction that I was going, and since we cruise together most of the time, I didn't want to always be on that "fun" ship. ;). Well, it is what it is. She was not impressed and I was disappointed. Here is why:

THE FOOD- We all felt that the Garden Cafe was not good. At all! We figured that it was because it was buffet. So, we went to both MDRs. The Tsar was better than Azura. However, neither was anything to get excited about. Me and spouse tried Chin Chin. It was so so. No need to go back twice. We ate at Le Bistro, Moderno, and Cagney's. We liked Le Bistro the best. Cagney's and Moderno was just okay. We did not get the UDP. So we paid the surcharges. Le Bistro's bill was around $150 for the four of us. It was just my husband and I that went to Cagney's and we spent around $100. Forgot what we spent at Moderno. I think the surcharge was twenty dollars each.I heard a couple other passengers complaining about the food. We told them that Le Bistro was delicious. However, they felt that you shouldn't have to pay extra for food. We did it because we wanted good food and that appeared to be the only way to get it. Read more