I chose this cruise because a holiday cruise has been on my bucket list for year. I can honestly say this cruise was terrible from start to finish, I counted the days to get the heck off the boat. Our 9:30am check in was fast but then proceeded to wait for over 1.5 hours to board the ship. Communication and direction from the staff was non-existent not to mention a terrible language barrier. Once finally on board the buffet food looked and tasted like it had been sitting there for hours, everything was dry and luke warm. Moving on to beverage service, the types of "specialty drinks" are very limited and heaven forbid you ask a bartender to make you something specific. Not to mention every bars drinks taste watered down. During our cruise many deck board events were canceled due to the fact that we were moving way to fast to be on deck. According to a staff member we were running behind the whole cruise getting out of ports so the ship had to go faster to make up time. Communication onboard the ship is terribly lacking if you make any dining reservations make sure to take notes of your times as they do not provide any reminders or courtesy calls. But they have no problem keeping your money for the upgraded dining. In my opinion the upgraded dining is not work it, nothing more then just fancy cruise buffet food served on a fancy plate. Would i cruise on the Jewel and with Norwegian again NEVER.