We left upstate NY by a Yankee Trails Bus around 7:00am (we use to take the train to Penn Station and then have to walk or grab a cab to the port). After making a couple of stops we arrived at the port at 10:15am. Great job Yankee we will definitely take a bus whenever possible. Highly recommend this way of going. Better than train and much cheaper than driving and parking, not to mention how little stress is involved. We then were seated around 10:30 and started talking to other cruisers. Actually met up with another couple we cruised with last year the same week. Boarded around 12 noon so a little wait but not bad. Went to the buffet for lunch which was very good. Do not understand where the bad reviews come from regarding the buffet. In our opinion the Jewell had the best buffet we have ever had over RC and Carnival. Great choices, different dishes each day, only disappointment were the desserts. After lunch we walked around the ship which was easy to get around. Nice layout. Got to our room right at 2pm. Nice size balcony, great bathroom, separate toilet, sink and shower area - room for 2 people in there at one time. Enough closet and drawer space. We were unhappy with a couple of things, stain on the sheet, windows dirty, but left a note for our cabin steward along with a couple of requests such as we wanted bar soap and ice morning and nighttime and by the time we came back from the lifeboat drill everything had been taken care of. I then gave our steward a nice little tip and he took very good care of us the whole trip. (Giving a tip at the beginning of our trips has always done us well). Went to dinner at Tsars...food in MDR is just ok. Not like it use to be but still good enough to keep cruising. Then on to the casino. Not impressed at all here. I'd say this is our least favorite thing about the ship and we both love casinos. FYI the casinos on NCL are not run by NCL they are run by Casinos at Sea so I take that into consideration here. By biggest disappointment was when a casino host lied to me. I HATE LIARS!!! We love craps and since I am a conservative player I really like a $5 table. So when we got there I saw it was a $10 table. I asked the lady sitting down at the table (I so wish I had her name) if they ever have a $5 table like all other casinos (at least during some part of the day) and she said "NO, NEVER" so ok I played the $10 table. It was ok but not good. Fortunately they did have $5 black jack and Texas Holdem which we played at and had some fun. As the week went on the casino never seemed to busy like other ships we had been on and by Thursday night, guess what??? The craps table was $5 and stayed that way the rest of the cruise. It just annoys me that I was lied to...all she had to say was "not usually" or "sometimes" and that would have been acceptable.

Now the next day we had our cruise critic Meet and Greet and this was great. We meet the captain along with senior crew members. They really do treat cruise critic members very well. John O'Hara is just great...he takes care of everything. So if you have a problem just call or see him and he will try to make you happy if at all possible. At this meeting they told us we would have a private tour of the bridge on another day and we also requested a galley tour which was also arranged. Make sure to ask for these as these were a highlight of our cruise. We were given a 2 1/2 hour tour for both of these combined. The Captain did a great job giving us a private tour of the bridge and explained everything thoroughly. He answered all of our questions and gave us plenty of time there. They said we were the first cruise critics to ask for a galley tour. This was given by Executive Chef Andreas Dymke and he was absolutely fantastic. He explained everything very well and what a spotless place the whole entire galley was. He took his time with us, answered all our questions and truly gave us the royal treatment. NCL you have a great guy here. Keep him around for a long time.

Now for Shore Excursions - In Port Canaveral we rented a car from Hertz as we had to attend to some business in Tampa. Thanks to NCL we were the first ones off the ship, Hertz was right there to pick us up and they took us immediately to their office so we could get our car (they did not wait for any other people which we were truly thankful for). Next in Great Stirrup Cay we rented a Clam Shell (which you need to do as soon as you get on the ship as they sell out fast - they are $29). Then you should try and get on the first tender over as it is first come first serve as to the location of your clam shell. Another tip is to bring your own floatation device. I brought 2 small blow ups which did not take much room to bring and they worked out great for us. Now if we had a family I would recommend renting when of the big round floats as they did look like a lot fun. Right now they are doing a major renovation of the island so there was alot of construction going on. It would have been nice to have signs up stating what was going to be there when everything was complete. The noise was a little annoying but not to bad. Can't wait to see what it will be when completed. On the island you get a nice picnic lunch - burgers, hotdogs, pizza, chicken. Nassau - we walked around the shopping area and straw market - can't wait until they get the new straw market built - hopefully by next year. Then went to the casino at Atlantis (most rides there are $4 per person one way). Did ok there. Ship Entertainment: We do agree with others who have said how great the entertainment is on this ship. We went to the 70's disco party with Modul Magic and it was great. Their music was fantastic...they can really sing (and without any kind of an accent). Of course you can't have a 70's disco party without the Village People showing up and they were awesome. If you are middle age (like us) you can't miss this party. Then there is JP, Cats Meow, Second City and Cirque Bejou...all things not to miss. Each one of these are a little different so we thought the variety was fantastic. Also thought that the cruise director Shrona did a great job along with her assistant Sinan. Bingo of course is still a big rip off but we played a couple of times. When we have played in the past the rooms were always filled up...now its not like that. Maybe NCL should consider lowering the prices a little and maybe they would get more people in. Or maybe do a bargain bingo day and lower the price one day to see what the turn out would be. I know I would play more than once or twice if it were a little cheaper. This was the first time I played in about 5 cruises. As far as the kids programs go we cannot comment much on this as we did not have kids involved but from what we heard from people who did they were disappointed. Not as much activity as they had expected. We did, however attend the Slim Time Live the last day and it was awesome. Thought it was done very well and it looked like everyone was having a great time. Other Activities: Did a spa treatment one day and it was very good....waited for a special and did the 20-20-20 for $89 (you get a choice of 20 minutes each of 3 out of 5 different massages). Did a slot pull with our cruise critic group. We all put in $15 and ended up getting $8 back. Not a great win but a lot of fun and we all got a free drink on the house. Food: Thought the main dining rooms were good. Buffet was excellent (check the MDR menus then check out the buffet before you decide where to eat - we did this the last night and ended up at the buffet because they had prime rib and bbq ribs). Did Cagneys one night and it was great. Blue Lagoon was very good..tried the wings like others had suggested and they were very good. Tried room service a little and it was good. As far as service goes it is lacking with Free Style cruising. NCL should find a way to evaluate at least dinner service in the dining rooms. Attitudes would be a lot different if they knew they were being evaluated. Then NCL should adjust their tips by the evaluations. Service is always better when they are working for a tip. I believe this would improve reviews here very much. Disembarkation - best we have ever had. Got up at 8:30 (ship had docked at 8) left room by 9...went to buffet just in time to get breakfast... sat outdoors overlooking the Hudson River... what a view for breakfast. Got in line at 10:15 was on the pier waiting for our bus by 11am. It was 9/11 so they said it was a little slower than normal getting off (due to more security than usual) but it didn't seem bad to us. Our bus showed up at 11:15 and we were on our way home. Overall it was a great cruise, great weather and we signed up for the cruise rewards to take another cruise within 4 years with NCL. Oh and by the way we met a couple on our bus ride home who had gone on a 9 night cruise with Royal Caribbean and said it was very disappointing. Not like it use to be. They have cut many corners he said. When we told him what we paid for NCL and what we got he said he was definitely going to give them a try.