Background Information

I am an experienced traveler despite my decidedly less than "advanced" age. I have been on many cruises mostly with RCI and a few with Celebrity.

My wife and I needed a break this winter, so as a break we purchased a cruise on the NCL Jewel, leaving from NYC just a couple of months in advance tapping into the vast reserves of AMEX rewards points I have from work. Due to scheduling constraints, we were pretty much limited to cruises leaving from NYC/NJ which is only about 4 hours from our home in eastern New England. This quickly narrowed our choices down for us and after a quick check with some trusted friends about the quality of NCL, I booked away. This was a pretty big departure for me as I am very loyal to what I consider to be the best in large-scale tourist cruising. Read more