This was our 4th Caribbean cruise, our third on NCL. We looked forward to this one as our first was on the Dawn shortly after it went into service. The Jewel was touted as a sister to the Dawn...identical in many ways. We had loved the Dawn.
We, and the other couple we travel with, book our cruises directly with NCL by telephone. Usually no problems but this time it took much longer to change or add items like insurance and ground transfers after the initial booking. There seemed to be a language barrier that the NCL staff had in not understanding our requests or being able to converse fluently in our country's language. We were disappointed that points earned from our new NCL MasterCard were not allowed as onboard credits on this trip.
Embarkation was a breeze as we arrived at the Port of Miami before noon, having spent several days in FL prior to the cruise. The lines were long, but we accidentally discovered the line for Latitudes members and found it to be much shorter and faster. If you have cruised with NCL in the past, always look for the Lats lines. No help from the staff directing the lines as they pointed everyone to the main pile-up.