Cruised on the NCL Jewel last week of September 2011. This was our first cruise to Canada/New England, and we had a great time. We love sailing with NCL and this was our first cruise on the Jewel for the Canada New England itinerary.
We flew in to NYC on September 24th, into JFK airport. Found out after booking that NCL does not offer transportation from JFK - should have booked into La Guardia instead. Our plane was one hour late, so we were a little rushed getting to the ship - should have listened to the advise of flying in the day before the cruise. Luckily traffic was very light and our cab made it into the city with plenty of time ($45 flat fare into Manhattan + tolls and tip = $65) Traffic into Cruise terminal was terrible, it took us about 1/2 hour to reach the ship after we got to terminal.
Embarkation was a breeze. We are latitude members having cruised on NCL many times before, so we were escorted to a special line with no waiting! We checked all our luggage at the entrance - should have kept our hand luggage with my husbands medications - so we proceeded to the buffet for a nice lunch while we waited for the staterooms to be ready, which happened at 2:00 pm promptly, EXCEPT of course for the hand luggage that had the meds, which was not delivered to our stateroom until after 5:30 PM!Leaving New York Harbor is a great experience. We went up to the sun deck on the deck 13 and had a great view of the Harbor, The DJ played patriotic songs, including God Bless America, and of course NEW YORK, NY as we passed by the Statue of Liberty. It was quite beautiful.