Norwegian Jewel Review
c2helen
10+ Cruises • Age 60s
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Sail Date: Nov 2017
Cabin: Balcony
Going to Australia and New Zealand was always on our wish list. The NCL Jewel itinerary made it easy to see several cities in one trip. We booked a balcony cabin on level 10. Pre-cruise and post cruise we spent 2 days each at the Sydney Hilton. This hotel is centrally located in the Sydney CBD and is easy access to sights such as the Opera House, Harbor Bridge and Dahling Harbor. Also, great shopping and restaurant venues are nearby.
We normally book few excursions, preferring to explore the ports on our own. We did this at all the ports on this trip too, except for Tauranga and Wellington where we booked Lord of the Rings (LOR) tours through the Costco shore excursion company. (BTW we highly suggest using Costco to do all your bookings because you get the best price, gift card rebates and more-for-your-money shore excursions.)
The Wellington tour tuned out to be a private tour for just the 2 of us, since the other couple cancelled. We not only saw most of the LOR film sights we had a private tour of most of Wellington's most picturesque locations. The Tauranga tour went to the thermal hot springs and Hobbiton. The cost of this tour was well below what the ship was offering.
Cabin Review
Balcony
Cabin BB
Cabin layout was generally good and the space was as expected. One design flaw was the closet doors hit the bathroom door when they were all open. Also, the safe was extremely difficult to program and open since the buttons were getting worn out. They did not want to change it out and we were basically told to live with it. This became tiresome when we got to the point of the cruise were we had to open and lock the safe each day to get our photo IDs. The cabin steward was attentive when needed and invisible when not, just how we like them. She remembered each of our names, even when we ran across her somewhere down the hall. I always admire that skill in a person.
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