We normally spend our vacations on the Hawaiian Islands; however, after visiting the islands for the last 9 years in a row, we needed a change, so we opted to take an eastern Caribbean on the NCL Dawn in 2009. When we returned, we could not wait to book our next cruise for 2010 with NCL and selected the Jewel's western Caribbean itinerary.Just prior to our departure date, we were offered an upgrade to the owners suite, which we accepted. Experiencing the owners suite provided a total unique and wonderful cruising experience that cannot be captured in this review or the 900 photos (many of them taken just of the features in this awesome suite). To begin, when we arrived at the port early, the ship was not yet ready for embarkation, so we were escorted through the back way bypassing hundreds of people to walk on the ship first and were led to Cagney's where we enjoyed our first lunch of colossal shrimp cocktail and fettuccine. As we ate, we watched the other passengers begin to arrive on the ship. We then made our way to our cabin and our jaws dropped when we opened the door. With a balcony out the front and 2 off to the side, we were in awe. To describe this room would take this entire review, just believe that it was everything in a 5 star resort suite. We went out onto the front balcony and met our neighbors to the right. As we were talking with the neighbors, enjoying our complimentary bottle of campaign, we heard bells and wondered where it was coming from. then we heard it again and a few moments later, our Butler, Nelson, was standing in the doorway to our balcony. He rang our "doorbell" but we didn't answer. We laughed, realizing that the methodical tune we heard earlier was our "doorbell". Nelson was gracious and immediately made us feel welcome and special as he walked us around the room to show us the special features of the owners suite. Soon after, our concierge, Adrian also appeared. Between Nelson and Adrian, we were made to feel as if we owned the ship - though they had to know we were in the room as part of an up-sell, they did not treat us as such. Adrian greeted us every morning to see how he could arrange our day and Nelson was there in a heartbeat whenever we needed him. As occupants of the owners suite, we had access to the private courtyard area, where we spent most of the week. Very rarely did anyone else occupy that area, so we had the entire courtyard and sundeck to ourselves most of the time. One day, Nelson even went down to Cagney's and brought us a couple french dip sandwiches/fries and a bottle of chardonnay and served it poolside in the courtyard.

Although you don't need to make reservations for dinner, we let Adrian do that for us and we were glad that we did. We were treated special wherever we went. The best table in the house in all the specialty restaurants and table #1 at Tsars. The service was top rated. The lobster/grouper night, we both enjoyed the lobster. "Hold the grouper", we said, and they filled our plate with lobster instead.

We ate at specialty restaurants, Cagney's and enjoyed top quality service/food. We also ate at Chin Chin, which was our favorite, and La Bistro for our last dinner. The other nights we either ate at Tsars or Blue Lagoon for our late nights. No matter which restaurant we were at, the food was top quality and the service was 5+ stars. Not hungry, one day we even experienced the buffet because the food all looked so good. So we filled our plates and tried a little of everything and though they could have rolled us out of there, we did not regret the experience. We enjoyed our breakfasts at Cagney's every morning and experienced the entire menu, even having lobster brioche for breakfast one morning. The food was fresh, enjoyable, and the service was top rated. Read more