I sailed on the NCL Jewel in August 2015 and the NCL Pearl in September 2014 and wanted to share my observations about our voyage on the Jewel and differences between the ships. My wife and I are experienced cruises (completed 9) including 4 sailings to Alaska – 2 on NCL, 1 on Disney and 1 on Holland.

Embarkation is on the Seattle waterfront, just west of downtown and the Pike Place Market. Few, if any ports, are so centrally located with two hotels (expensive) surrounding the terminal and easy access to a parking garage, public transportation, and shopping. In addition to the many shops residing in the Pike Place Market, a City Target is convenient for securing inexpensive provisions such as water and soda before boarding. While lugging suitcases around the crowded and hilly area wouldn’t be easy, you could check in your bags at the terminal and then do a last minute shopping trip. You need to show your passport and departure ticket before checking bags which are X-rayed and then brought to the ship. Passengers then enter the ticketing area to get their room keys and board the ship.

The Pearl, being a “Jewel” class ship, shares most of the same venues and features. Both have the exclusive Havens on the 14th floor, sports decks with running tracks on the 13th, Buffet and Spinnaker lounge on 12, and the main restaurant complexes, casino and theatre on 6-7th floors. Many cruisers have commented on the buffets and restaurants, and opinions vary with personal tastes. For the Jewel sailing my wife and I mostly skipped breakfast, had lunches at the buffet and used our Ultimate Dining Packages for dinner. I found the buffet to have a nice selection of good food which should appeal to a wide variety of tastes from vegetarian to ethnic. My favorite main dining room dinner on both the Jewel and the Pearl was the turkey dinner special (Thursday during our Jewel sailing). The meal I enjoyed the most on the ship was Cagney’s bone in rib eye with mushrooms. The Jewel seemed to have more barbecues than the Pearl for lunchtime enjoyment. My wife and I ate at Cagney’s twice, La Cucina twice, Le Bistro once and the main dining room twice (Tsar/Azura). As you would expect, the service in the pay restaurants were quicker and more attentive, it seemed forever to get drinks in Azura. When we sailed on the Pearl we didn’t not have the UDP, so we mainly frequented the main dining room and enjoyed most of the entrees we selected. Read more