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My husband and I spent 9 days on the Norwegian Jewel march 6th - the 15th. This is my 10th cruise. I have cruised with, in order of my favorite to least favorite, Holland America, Royal Caribbean, Princess, Carnival, and Cunard.
The ship's decor is nice, the room was beautiful -although there was a weird noise which shook the bed at around 5:30 a.m. every morning. We do not know what it was but it lasted around 1-2 hours. The room steward was excellent.
Food in the buffet and regular dining rooms was sub-par. It was as if they knew you would go the the pay for restaurants to eat quality food, which is what we had to do 3 times. The other times were spent at the garden cafe and buffet. The buffet got better the last 3 days. Maybe because the trip was winding down and they wanted to give a good impression for the reviews people were going to turn in.
Shore excursions were very good with the exception of St Lucia. We were supposed to dock at the port but we ending up tendering in. Our catamaran to the pitons was cancelled, and we were only notified after we tendered ashore and were in our tour groups. They could only offer a bus tour 3 hours later. So we organized a group of 10 people and took a taxi ($12.00 per couple) to go to the Oriental Hotel, where we used the beach (chairs are $5.00 each with umbrella) and restaurant which was spectacular. When we first boarded the ship I had tried to change this shore tour to the piton/mineral hot springs, which was previously unavailable on the internet. I was told that I should keep the catamaran tour as it was the best one of the excursions in St lucia so I did not change it. I really missed not seeing the pitons as I had heard they were spectacular.
Shows were excellent, especially on the last night. It was like Circus de solei. Dancers are excellent and put on great shows. The hypnotist is also really good.
We took the behind the ship tour which was really good. On the first day go the the reception desk and ask for the tour. We were with 20 people and saw the kitchens, behind the theatre, housekeeping, the food storage lockers, how they dispose of waste, and spent around twenty minutes with the captain on the bridge where he explained everything about the ship. Really great for the $55.00 each cost. About 3 hours long.
The biggest problem was the rocking and pitching of the ship. I have been on rough seas and have never felt a ship rock consistently so much. It was as if the stabilizers were not on. This was for most of the trip. The seas did not look rough at all.
We took a Miami tour with transfer to the airport so disembarkment was very easy.
I would rate this ship just after before Carnival as my second least favorite of the Cruise lines that I listed above.
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