I have cruised several times in the past with NCL, RCCL, Celebrity and Princess. However, I took a break from cruising for personal reasons and after 10 years, I cruised on NCL’s Jewel last week. I was very excited about this cruise because I have such fond memories and know how wonderful cruising can be. But, after much anticipation, I was very let down. My cruise wasn’t a complete waste, but there were some very serious negatives, which has changed my opinion about NCL and highly doubt I will cruise with them again.

We cruised the Jewel to Mexico out of the Port of Los Angeles. We flew into LAX the morning of departure and NCL’s transfer bus picked us up. Once we arrived at the cruise terminal, we were told we could leave our luggage with the porters at our own risk. Huh? Turns out, the porters are not employees of NCL, but rather a 3rd party company. With that ominous warning, we opted to take our bags with us and we got nearly through security when an employee said we need to give our bags to the porters out front. So, we back tracked through the line and we found a porter in the building to take our bags and we hoped to see them again. We had arrived at the cruise terminal around 12:30pm, so the big rush was over, but once we made our way back through security again, we discovered we could take our bags with us after all. Coming aboard was very unceremonious. We walked in and an employee said to us, the cabins are ready if we want to go to the cabin. Really? Normally, they take a picture as you come aboard and you are handed a Welcome Aboard Cocktail.

I’m not going to go through each day, but rather give you the good, the bad and the ugly as briefly as I can. Read more