DH and I flew out of St. Louis to Miami for our week long cruise on the Norwegian Jewel. We are a couple in our 40's with no children and cruising is our favorite vacation. We decided to give NCL another try after a huge disappointment on the SUN the previous year. NCL did give us a credit toward another cruise after I contacted them upon our return. The trip on the SUN was by no means a total loss we met some wonderful new friends we are still in contact with today.

The trip from St. Louis to Miami was uneventful and we arrived mid-morning. Cabs were readily available and we were at the port in no time. Pulling into the port was like pulling into cruise ship row. It was wonderful comparing all the ships and it still amazes me their enormous size. Porters were right there to take our luggage and we went directly into the terminal to check in. Check in was quite painless and we were ushered into a large room to wait to board. NCL had coffee, cookies and juice which was nice. Our wait was extremely short and before we knew it we were able to board.

We had booked an inside guarantee and found out we were on the 11th deck midship. We had never had an inside cabin before, always booked a balcony, but were pleasantly surprised. The cabin was small, but was laid out extremely well. The bathroom shower was very large and we loved the sliding doors instead of the terrible shower curtain on some ships. There was ample closet and drawer space, but if you have a lot of clothes which need to be hung up you may want to bring a few hangers. A power strip would also be a good addition since there was only one outlet in the cabin and it was in the main cabin by the mirror. Read more