We had a wonderful vacation to Alaska aboard the Norwegian Jewel from 7/23/16-7/30/16. We sailed from and returned to Seattle. I wrote this because I read EVERYTHING there was before taking our cruise and there were somethings that I never found the answer to in my research and things that I wanted to pass on. Things that would have been helpful to me, or relieved some anxiety. I took notes during the trip so that I would have a thorough review to share. I read that the staff seemed tired and uninterested, this was ABSOLUTELY untrue in our case. We interacted with the staff and they truly made our trip amazing and a one of a kind adventure (read below for more information). It is amazing what calling someone by their name will do to the interactions, and asking them about their country. These people do this every week and always have a smile to share.. I have read that the ship is outdated, and old. I am not a high maintenance person, I do not need the newest and shiniest. Yes the carpet looked warn in places but not anything that shocked or upset me... there are thousands of people walking around daily. The decor was fun and differentiated by the activity or theme. We had a balcony room, # 9524

Spa- we got the unlimited thermal spa pass. I was worried about how many passes were sold, and how crowded it was-

There were no more than 10 people each time we went, they do not sell day passes, there were heated chairs always available but hurt my back, and I couldn't see out the windows in them. There are 100 total passes sold although I do not think they sold them all on our cruise. I had a concern about people slipping in and using the area, it did not seem very regulated. My husband reported that men were naked on the all men's side my husband was not comfortable with that and only got to use those facilities once when there was no one else there... On the woman's side everyone had on bathing suits. I was disappointed with the upkeep in this area. People are not supposed to reserve chairs (by leaving their towels in a chair while in another area) however this was happening, there were also drink cups left laying around. I picked them up once when there was no one left in the area. (you would think that people could clean up after themselves, but the staff did not seem to be doing it either) Read more