My husband and I and two other couples flew together from Indianapolis to Fort Lauderdale and proceeded to The Port of Miami by private van transfer, booked through Ace Tours and Transportation, to board the beautiful NCL Jewel for our 5 night Western Caribbean cruise. We arrived at the port at about 11AM...breezed through the check in process...got our room keys and then had to wait about an hour and 15 minutes before we could board the ship. NCL provided water and orange juice for us, but they didn't provide cookies this time like they did previously when we sailed on the NCL Pearl in March. Small disappointment...but we were getting pretty hungry by then since we had been traveling since 4AM. Once aboard the ship...we immediately dropped our carry on bags in our rooms and went to lunch at the Garden Cafe. Great selection of food and I love the hand sanitizers at the entrance of every restaurant on the ship. We returned to our rooms to change into swimming suits and go soak up some of the wonderful Miami sunshine. Just a note...our travel agency contacted us 3 days before our scheduled departure to offer $100pp upgrades from inside cabins on deck 8 to balcony cabins on deck 10. We of course accepted the offer and are OH SO GLAD we did! Our room steward was able to unlock the doors between the balconies, so we had one great big balcony that stretched along our 3 staterooms. It was a great place to meet up in the morning and relax before bed in the evening! The rooms are arranged well and provide ample space for storage. Our stewards kept the room spotless and provided charming towel animals for us each evening when they turned down our rooms. We enjoyed sunning on the deck and "Tiger" provided us with drinks and great service with a smile. He even learned all of our names the first day and greeted us by name every time we saw him from then on. Thank you Tiger!! We went to all of the shows except for the last night. (We were packing) We loved Edge the Juggler, The 70's dance show and Cirque Bijou. The dancers are amazing! The Second City comedians were disappointing. We ate at Tsar's Palace, Azura and Tangos. We had eaten at Cagney's and the Teppanyaki grill on our cruise in March...but decided that the main "free" restaurants provided a good selection and atmosphere and we decided not to "waste" money on the restaurants with a surcharge this time. More money for fruity drinks! :) One of our group enjoyed some time in the Casino. One of us utilized the Fitness center. Two of our group enjoyed the Beer Tasting session at Maltings. Four of us attended the Latitudes party for returning guests and enjoyed several rum punch and yellow bird drinks and met the Captain and Crew. We booked the Fury Catamaran Snorkel and Beach Break through NCL for our day in Cozumel. We met the boat at the end of the pier and they took us to a "snorkeling" spot about halfway between our pier and the pier just to the south of ours. We were just barely a few yards from the sea wall that runs along the shore. There was NO reef and very few fish. About the only fish we saw were swimming around the Fury photographer because he was feeding them for his photos. We saw concrete pilings and metal poles in the sand on the bottom. It felt like snorkeling in a construction zone. It wasn't just a poor snorkeling location...it was PATHETIC! However, once we were done "snorkeling" we were offered unlimited margaritas, beer and pop and were taken to a very, pretty beach farther to the south. We spent about an hour there and then we got back on the Fury catamaran and danced and drank our way back to the pier. The Fury photographer looked just like Johnny Depp and I think the other girls and I took far more pictures of him than he could take of us!! What a cutie! I wish this excursion wouldn't advertise as a snorkeling excursion unless they plan to provide a better location for snorkeling. Cozumel is supposed to have great reef snorkeling and I expected to go to the reef on this excursion. As disappointing as the snorkeling was...we still had a great time on this excursion. If you really want to snorkel...look somewhere else. For our day on Grand Cayman, we booked the Island Tour and Stingray Sandbar excursion...once again through NCL. On our tour we stopped at the Tortuga Rum Cake factory (free samples) and the town of HELL. I mailed postcards home. ($1 includes the postcard and postage) By far the best part of this day was the Stingray Sandbar. WOW! What else can I say? We took a boat to a sandbar out in the beautiful turquoise Caribbean water and stood in about 3 1/2 to 4 feet of water where the stingrays swam and circled all around. We fed them squid and took tons of pictures! They are so beautiful! The females are really big. (4 1//2 to 5 feet across from wing to wing) My husband didn't think he would want to get in the water...but he did...and he loved it! It is a must do when in the Caymans.

As I've stated a couple of times, We cruised on the NCL Pearl in March of this year and had such a great time...we decided to book a cruise on the Jewel. We had a wonderful time...although I found the Pearl to be a nicer ship. The two ships are very similar, but I think the Pearl is a little classier in it's attitude and decor. I will definitely cruise with NCL again. All three couples are talking about making this an annual event! :)