Outside

Balcony

Suite

Norwegian Cruise Line

Family Cruises

Gay & Lesbian Cruises

Romantic Cruises

Cruises for the Disabled

Senior Cruises

Fitness Cruises

Gourmet Food Cruises

Miami

New York (Manhattan)

Houston

New Orleans

San Diego

Colon (Cristobal)

Los Angeles

Caribbean - All

Panama Canal & Central America

Costa Rica

Panama

U.S.A.

Caribbean - Eastern

Mexican Riviera

Middle East

Mexico - All

Nile River

Caribbean - Southern

Netherlands

Terrible

Average

Very Good

Excellent

Norwegian Jewel

Interesting experience

Dover

The Jewel was just refurbished in 2018 and is still very new looking. At 2350 capacity she is my size. The seating in the common areas was clean and comfortable. I had a ocean view with 2 persons and it was OK. Beds were new and we had enough space. Entertainment is always a mystery to me. They only play for 45 min and sometimes at really odd times. We ate mostly in the main dinning room and the food and service was very good. We also ate at Shanasees and the garden café, both were pretty good. The aft deck bar and eating area outside is really a plus as I like to be outside. This ship also has a bridge viewing area on deck 11 forward, something I haven't seen on other ships. There is a Thermal spa pass, at an extra charge but well worth it in my opinion. For coffee they have a Starbucks (not my favorite) with very small chocolates in the pastry case instead of pastry's (something about licensing). I had coffee twice a day and never saw anyone buy any. The shows' were great with a high energy level. The up sale of art, pictures, beverage packages and extra charge restaurants was not in your face as in some lines. We didn't use any of these as the food was great in the main dinning room. I always try to board the first day as late as possible to avoid the rooms not being ready and everyone dragging their luggage around. This worked well. Debarkation went as well as possible and we were on time to catch our train which canceled, but that's another story.

All in all I really like NCL with their younger vibe Freestyle cruising and smaller ships (under 2500)  More than that is just to cowered and not relaxing.

 Bucket list Panama Canal cruise. 

Cruise number 14 for us.  Panama Canal passage on the list of " must do ".  The price seemed very reasonable, although with Norweigan the extras add up like one of those $29 airfares that actually costs $229 when you pay for all the necessary extas.

We had put in a "bid" for an upgrade that works like an auction over about a week period.  Day before cruise received an email stating that our bid had been accepted, and to contact the Pursers office onboard and they would give us our new room assignment.  After embarking, went to the office and they seemed to have no knowledge of the upgrade.  We showed them all the emails and they agreed that it must be correct and that they had to speak with the "onshore office" who was in charge of the room assignments.  Long story shorter, after sitting in our original stateroom for 7 hours with the instructions to not unpack, the upgrade never happened.

This did put a damper on things to start, but not huge deal ,and we moved on and had our balcony stateroom that was our original choice.

The Panama Canal transit was our main goal, and we were not disappointed, a great day and a recommendation for most cruisers to see at least once.

The Norweigan Jewel experience was another matter.  As usual, like most cruises the room attendant was very good, rooms were clean, and cabin staff ready to please at all times.  However, beyond that, the cruise became the lowest rated cruise of our 25+ years of cruising.

Without overstating, the food was unbelievable bad.  Almost very meat item the entire 12 day cruise was simply not edible, either overcooked or just so poor in quality that it literally wasn't chewable.  Day 7 of the cruise they ran out of lettuce for the salad bar in the buffet dining area.  Laughable, they actually substituted the large lettuce bowl with a giant bowl of raw onion.  Day 10 more lettuce was put out, but lasted only a few hours and again was not available. Should be noted that we had 4 stops on the itinerary that could have restocked this item I'm sure.  Day 9 of the 12 day cruise they ran out of Diet Coke.   It should be noted that apparently in the pay extra for meals in the " specialty dining rooms" lettuce was still available.  The burger bar became our go to meal stop as they seemed the only consistently edible item.  I will say that breakfasts were good if one waited at the omelette station for a fresh breakfast.

Drink prices were sky high, as I'm sure most cruise lines are now, and if the all inclusive drink package was purchased one would need to drink from sunrise til midnight to make that a worthwhile proposition.

Daily disembarkations went well with only one exception, the tendering at one port of call was very disorganized and many just decided to stay on board for the day.

The Internet was on par with the food, simply atrocious.  We paid for the super duper good stuff ($400) and literally was worse than dial up of the 1990's.  We ended up using the hotspot on our phones to do any online research.  The lineups for complaints at the Internet Cafe were endless, and we managed to get a ... drumroll, $50 credit.

Can't speak for the Norweigan planned excursions as we made our own plans at each port.

Crew was good and ready to answer any questions, the Captain was more entertaining than any standup comedian on board.  The wait staff was very good, but with the abominal food situation we actually felt sorry for them.

Final disembarkation went realitively smooth as we choose to carry off our own suitcases.

All in all would not recommend this ship if our experiences were anything normal for the Norwegian Jewel.

A Jewel this was not!

We arrived early into Panama City airport, and the transport started with an impromptu tour of Panama City and a pit stop for breakfast as we couldn't arrive in Colon before 11.  The ride to Colon was purely functional, and we didn't view much that was photo worthy. Embarkation felt like sort of a mess in Colon, and it was a relief to finally get on the ship.  

My bucket list included full transit of the old locks in the Panama Canal.  This cruise did not disappoint.  Great viewing from several areas of the ship.  We spent much of leaving the last of the first set of locks, and the Gatun lake portion on our balcony, and aft on 12 sipping margaritas.  Like others suggested, it's good to view from different areas of the ship.

The Cirque show, and productions were good.  Others liked the Comedian/Magician.  Did not really enjoy the hypnotist.  We aren't really into ship activities, but enjoyed playing cards with people we met.  There were sudoku, crossword puzzle, and trivia sheets available to pick up in the library daily.  Tried watching a movie in Atrium, but noise and activity were not conductive to an enjoyable experience.  Many music performances we like started too late for us.  Not their fault.

In the interest of portion control we ate most meals in the Palace main dining room.  Service was friendly, atmosphere was nice, and food was good.  Our three specialty meals were at Cagney's (loved the ahi tuna tartare), Moderno (brazilian BBQ always fun, and had sushi on the salad bar), and Le Bistro.  We also ate at Chin Chin, which had good noodle dishes, and O'Shannihan's.  Food OK there, but served everything at once.  

Excursions:  Most had long bus rides to destinations

Arial Tram and River Cruise:  not worth it.  Nothing to see.  River cruise disappointing.  Good for bird wathcing.

Mayan Route: interesting if you like info re: older cultures

Tequila, tiles and shopping: enjoyable.  Lots of tiles purchased.

Five Bays Catamaran and Swim:  enjoyable.  We laughed so hard with the swim part

Ancient textiles from the Highlands of Guatemala:  Roommate a quilter, so a must do.  Lots of nice jewelry.

Mexican outback and camel ride:  Fun!

Insane-level service by bar waitresses; surprisingly good but limited entertainment (nothing going on in the day); average food, even in the pay restaurants, but no bad meals; some of the worst shore excursions I've ever been on; one of the easiest embarkations ever and the easiest debark in more than 10 cruises (I literally walked off the ship, no line, and was on the street in San Diego in minutes).  

Details: 

This was my first repositioning cruise, first Panama Canal Cruise and first with a balcony. I was told there was about 900 passengers on this cruise. That means there was more crew on the ship than passengers, and you felt it. You'd think that would be all good, but it lead to over-solicitous waiters and a dead feel in terms of atmosphere. The straight-out-of-the-training-manual chit-chat and saccharine affectations from waiters got annoying. I also believe the circumstances lead to a Nicaragua being scrubbed from the itinerary. No official reason was offered per the itinerary change, which added a sea day, but I'd have no hesitation betting it related purely to NCL's bottom line. Itinerary changes are always possible, part of cruising, but it doesn't make them any less disappointing, especially when there's no mention of why the port was scrubbed much less any compensation (what a cruise line can get away with based on their unconscionable contacts isn't necessarily fair or representative of good customer service). In my experience, NCL is the absolute worst cruise line when it comes to last-minute itinerary changes.

Also, weird little cheapo things I have never experienced before. I have seen them using old, open cans to pour a soda, but I have never seen them using an old, repurposed juice bottle full of flat soda before. If you asked for a new can, you were charged, even with the drink package. They had draft beer at two of the bars, and it was warm at one. They had only four bottled beers available, the rest cans. Many brands, such as Dos Equis, was unavailable throughout the cruise. It was hard to find a drink-package wine at some of the restaurants. 

The Jewel Show Band (a jazz/brass band) was awesome. They seemed to have a vast repertoire but chose to play the same songs over and over (perhaps because no one was in the audience and they were using the time to practice), but one of their first shows was one of the best things I've seen/heard on a cruise ship. They played to three people, including myself. There was also a guitar player, I think named Leo, who went from adequate to jaw-dropping, depending on the song.

The stage shows were the best I have seen at sea that were not full on productions of known musicals. Nothing will beat Epic many years ago, which featured Pricilla, Queen of the Desert; Burn the Floor; and an epic tap dance show that's name I cannot recall. But I am used to the in-house stage show performers being...well...awful, especially on Carnival. The four main cast members on the Jewel are Broadway-level performers (superbly good-looking people who can sing and dance amazingly and have a charismatic stage presence). They did three elaborately choreographed shows, with a disco/70's show being the best in my estimation. There was also a nice ballroom dancing couple and an aerialist couple who were enjoyable. It was one main show a night, 8:30. The only 8:30 performer that was bad was a juggler who insisted on singing three songs (I wanted desperately to leave, but it would have been too conspicuous) The cruise director, Tahani, was cute and charming, and to the extent she gathered the talent on the ship, she did a great job. 

This is one of the last cruise ships at sea with a special place to smoke cigars indoors. I often had it to myself, with frequent drink service. 

I've done enough bus and crummy guide shore excursions to not be surprised by their quality. So my expectations were low. But the HUATULCO HIGHLIGHTS & BEACH excursion is one of the worst I've ever been on. Even with the $50 off and 10% I get for being at the silver level, the tour cost me something like $40. For the $40 I got taken to a couple shops downtown and to what had to be the crappiest beach in town. The "guide" informed us we could have walked downtown faster than it took to drive, which means we could have avoided being hustled. it also took longer to walk to the tour van than to the nice beach right next to the cruise ship. It's one thing to pay money for something that's poor quality, and another to pay for something that's not nearly as good as what you could have gotten for free. 

Also of poor quality, but not nearly as bad, was Aerial Tram, River Cruise & Lunch in Costa Rica. What you're sold: a rainforest, jungle experience. What you get: a boring tram ride in what could easily be confused with a park stateside and a brief boat ride on a dirty river where the most exciting thing to see was the top of a crocodile's head. 

The best excursion was a relatively inexpensive RIB boat whale watching tour in Cabo. The guides were fun and informative and we saw a number of whales. 

Note: There's good reason you rarely see reviews on NCL's website for shore excursions. Right now their site is saying that submissions are not available. I bet that malfunction suits them just fine. 

I was kinda bored going through the canal. I think it's more about saying you did it. I'll definitely not do another crossing. 

I quite liked Panama City. Big and dirty without being overwhelming. Crowded, filthy, busy, dilapidated Colon didn't exactly feel safe, which was probably why it was interesting and demanded more time than I afforded it. EL Salvador was chaotic and probably the most interesting port of call. Puerto Vallarta's Malecon is dreamy. Antigua, Guatemala was pretty but boring. The ship stopped in Costa Rica but due to the crappy shore ex that dominated my time, I hardly feel I visited there. It's usually worth doing shore excursions independently if you plan them properly and use a popular company (there's really only two). 

So why NCL? Because they often give a true single rate. Why cruising? Because it's a low-energy way to take bite-size samples of various ports, which is ideal for people who get bored quickly and want very soft adventure.

Good quality, few guests, ever-shady practices from NCL

Filters

1-4 of 4