My wife and I had an enjoyable cruise on the Jewel. A week or so before the cruise we were notified that due to a bearing problem the ship would have to travel more slowly and could not make the Corner Brook stop. We were offered the opportunity to cancel but did not. We did, however, complain and managed to get a somewhat better cabin out of it.

There was a long line at embarkation in New York, but it moved fairly quickly and we were onboard in an hour or so. We made a reservation for Mama's Kitchen that evening. We had a beautiful day sailing out of New York. Mama's Kitchen was quite disappointing. They don't seem to have much of a clue about Italian food!. After that we stuck to the cafe for breakfast and lunch, and the main dining rooms for dinner. On the whole these were surprisingly good. One big plus is that Norwegian seems to have the best coffee of any cruise line we've been on. Some of the coffee machines in the Cafe even brew it in a minute or so from beans. On our previous experience with Norwegian in Hawaii they even had freshly brewed cappucino in the cafe, but, alas, now you have to pay for cappucino.

Free style dining is a mixed bag. We like the flexibility but missed the chance to dine with fellow passengers. We always had a late dinner, after the early show, and never had to wait significantly at either of the main dining rooms. Read more