BACKGROUND This was our second cruise, both on NCL. Our first was on the Gem out of NY to Florida and the Bahamas. PRE CRUISE We flew into FLL on Friday and took the "Go Airport Shuttle" to the Marriot Biscayne Bay. This was a slow process. We shared a van with several other people and the driver did not know how to get to every-one's location. It took about two hours from the time we claimed our bags to arrive at our hotel (and we were the first stop). The hotel was lovely. We were given a room on the 28th floor with a stunning view of the bay. We did a tourist type tour of Miami. It was interesting but a bit pricey I thought. Transport to the pier was included in the hotel package and was a nice perk. The bellman picked up our bags at our room and they went directly to our stateroom on the ship. Embarkation We arrived at the pier at about noon and flew through the checkpoints. I'm not sure if going through the Lattitudes line helped, all of the lines seemed to be moving quickly. Lunch at the buffet and we were in our cabin shortly after 1:00. We were pleasantly surprised that we did not have to wear the life vests to the muster drill, it was completed airline style with a demonstration by the staff. We attended the Cruise Critic meet and Greet on Monday in the Tsar's Palace main dining room. Thanks to Joteacher for arranging. We met the Cruise Director, Paul Baya, the Hotel Manager, John O'Hara and several other members of the crew. John O'Hara seemed sincerely concerned that passengers have "the vacation of a lifetime" and constantly gave out his phone number (8888) for us to call if we had any issues. The Jewel is a sister ship to the Gem and they are very similar. The Jewel is not quite as flashy but is nonetheless beautiful in her own right. I like the layout of the Jewel class ships with the bar area at midship and the theater, restaurants and other common areas easily accessible. From our cabin on deck 8 the Garden Cafe (buffet) four decks up, was a little too easily accessible. The pool deck has two pools and four hot tubs split between adults and children. Unfortunately due to cloudy, cool weather on sea days we did not spend much time here. We had an ocean view cabin. It was well laid out. I especially like the glass dividers between the shower, sink and toilet. We did not use all of the storage space available. There was virtually no noise from outside the room and it was kept immaculate by our steward. A quick point here, I was able to receive several hundred dollars in on board credit and cabin upgrades from using a NCL credit card for the previous two years. If you pay off your balance each month it can benefit you greatly BUT be sure to read the fine print, the bank puts on several unusual restrictions. FOOD We ate breakfast at the buffet each day. In my opinion this is the way to go. There is a tremendous variety of food and we felt it was good quality. For dinner we ate in the main dining venues four times and found the food to be very good. My wife raved about the Beef Wellington. The service was excellent each night. One night we dined at Tango's, the Tex-Mex restaurant. There was a $10.00 surcharge. We thought the meal was very good here as well. Actually, we felt the food in the specialty restaurants was a cut above the main dining rooms. We also dined at Mama's Italian Kitchen. Here, too, there was a $10.00 surcharge. The food was delicious and there was great depth of variety (bread, bruschetta, appetizers, entrees and great desserts). Our best dining experience of the week was at Teppinyaki, the Japanese Benihana style restaurant. This restaurant has a $25.00 per person surcharge that we felt was well worth it. We both ordered "Land and Sea". This meal consisted of Miso, Fried Rice, a huge Filet Mignon and four Jumbo Shrimp. One word of caution, we ordered Saki with our meal without checking the price and were surprised to see a $12.75 charge per glass. I will admit we are not hard to please when it comes to food but we felt the food on board the Jewel was exceptional. EXCURSIONS We booked three excursions through NCL. We are still newbies to cruising and were nervous about getting back to the ship by the 4:30 mandatory on board time. In Roatan we did a combo excursion to a wildlife refuge and a snorkeling trip. The snorkeling was good and the wildlife refuge was interesting and included some history of Roatan. It struck me several time on excursions that were not in the good old US of A. In the wildlife refuge they were letting visitors take pictures with a monkey on them, but one monkey was on "time out" for getting aggressive when the trainer tried to get him off the tourist and another one went spastic when some idiot pulled out a banana when the monkey was on his wife. I strongly recommend you use prudence when deciding to partake in these activities. Belize was my favorite port. We did a combo land and river tour which was highlighted by a visit to the Mayn ruins at Altun-Ha. This was interesting but anyone unsure on their feet should avoid climbing up the ruins. We did a beach party excursion at Costa Maya. It was one of only two sunny days. The excursion included open bar which in the native language apparently means "wave the liquor bottle by the drink". The beach was beautiful but about the only thing to do in Costa Maya was swim and shop. The last stop was Great Stirrup Cay, NCL's private island. This was the best weather day of the cruise, sunny and in the 80's. For $34.99 we rented snorkeling equipment for the day and got a t-shirt. The snorkeling was pretty good. The beach is very nice and they provide a barbecue so you don't have to go back to the ship for lunch. They also had a band playing. Get there early as there are a limited amount of loungers. Also, if you want to use loungers with clamshells (sun canopies) they are $29.99 for the day. ENTERTAINMENT This was the best part of the cruise. The Cruise Director, Paul Baya, was amazing. He is a talented singer, very funny and has chosen outstanding acts for the cruise. The production company on the ship is, in my opinion, Las Vegas caliber. They performed three shows during the week. The first was a 70's music tribute which we liked a lot. There was a country tribute which was a stretch, they are not country singers. But the show "Cirque Bojoux" was amazing. Singing, dancing, aerial acrobatics, etc. The comedian, Bud Andersen, was uproariously funny. He performed two shows, one in the main theater and an adult show in the lounge. The adult show was mostly innuendo, NCL does not allow vulgar language at any of their shows. They also had ventriloquist, Kenny Byrd who was very amusing and a country duo, Rushlow Harris. Add to this several audience participation game shows, a knockout house band and a Cruise Director and staff that are kind of insane and the fun was pretty constant. DEBARKATION We had arranged for transport to FLL from the pier so we had purple luggage tags (9:15). We were off the ship and at the airport by 10:30. A couple of last comments. Many people complain about the "nickel and diming" aboard NCL. There are a lot of activities on board which cost extra. I look at these as options that I can choose to participate in or not. We did purchase some photos which I thought were reasonably priced considering the quality and paid $89.99 for side by side beach massages at the private island. As for the Jewelry sales, art auctions, bingo, casino, spa treatments, etc. we simply opted to not partake. I apologize for a long review but believe me I could have gone on for a couple of hundred more pages. We have approached each cruise with the attitude that we will have a great time. NCL has provided us with the service, food and entertainment to do so. Our experience on the Jewel was one we will never forget.