Norwegian Jewel Review
Rating by category
Additional details
We decided on this cruise because we had a cruise next credit that we needed to use and it had been many years since we had visited Alaska. We were excited about the cruise and also wanted to see Denali. We booked the Denali land tour as well as the 7 night cruise. Included in the cruise we a number of extras including an airfare special. We have cruised with NCL and Oceania numerous times. When traveling with Oceania, we could customize our air travel so long as we were willing to pay any additional costs. When we received our flight information from NCL, I call and requested a change and I was told by an NCL representative "we are not going to make any changes" (not conveyed in a pleasant manner). We flew the outbound portion of the flight but I made separate arrangement for the return. It was fortunate that I did because their scheduled return flight was cancelled and rebooked for 24 hours later. The alternative flight that I booked departed on time and we arrived home about the same time that their flight was scheduled to depart. We would have had to spend an extra night in Vancouver at our own expense.
The land tour was very good. We had excellent weather in Denali but we were told that it was unusual and we were very fortunate to get the views that we did. There were not many animal sighting but we did see (from a distance) bear, caribou, mountain goats but no moose. The hotels we stayed in were very good. The downside was communication through NCL. Even though they book the tour, it was impossible to get any information. I asked about included meals and never received an answer. The answer (upon arrival in Alaska) was "no meals are included" not even breakfast. I also inquired about additional tours offered on the land tour and was told we could only book them during the tour. Many of the tours were completely booked by the time we arrived in Alaska. So many people missed our on visits to the glaciers etc.
As for COVID, there were passengers that were sick and very few people wore masks. We tried to wear our masks in the public areas and on the airplanes but we ended up with COVID when we got home. Not sure who to blame.
Cabin Review
Mid-Ship Balcony
I was really surprised how small the cabins are now. I booked a balcony and usually those cabins are an OK size. These cabins are now so narrow that only one person at a time can walk between the bed and the cabin wall. There are no tables so if you order a meal (now has a $9.95 delivery charge) there is no place to sit your plate and/or coffee cup while you eat. There is a small desk area but that is where the meal tray is placed and even if you removed the tray, only one person would be able to eat there. We glanced into other cabins while walking down the hallways and saw that other cabins were also very narrow. Some cabins with double beds were only as wide as the bed (with small walking area on each side). Very disappointed with the cabin size.