Norwegian Jewel Review
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To begin, I should say that of all the cruise lines currently operating on the seven seas, NCL was probably at the bottom of my preferences. It seemed to be too gaudy, too nickel and diming, too 'inyourface' for my 'casual elegance' preferred style of cruising.
I am here to tell you that I was so wrong!!!
My 22 yr old son and I have cruised together off and on through the years, lately almost exclusively on Christmas vacation cruises. He attends college plus plays hockey both of which force me to be on a rather limited budget for cruises. That said, although I won't ever choose an inside cabin again, I still try to get as much bang for my buck as possible. As I was trying to find a cruise that went somewhere sunny, I was limited in the port of departure options so I - reluctantly - "settled" for NCL's Jewel. I chose the Jewel over the Gem simply because the Jewel allowed us to have Christmas Day on board, whereas the Gem returned to home port on Christmas Day. I will always be thankful that I made that decision.
Cabin Review
Penthouse with Large Balcony
I thought we were shown to the wrong cabin as there was no 'corner' view.... I had purposely picked an Aft cabin because I had read that one got the best view with a side and aft view. Unfortunately the Jewel is not configured for that. The aft cabins face aft... Period. I think they missed the boat (no pun intended) in their design of the aft corner cabins because at the very least they could have put a window on the side portion, instead of a blank wall.
I grew to appreciate the fact that there was a considerable walk from almost anywhere on the ship to our cabin as I didn't feel so guilty when I had those scrumptious desserts knowing I was going to walk them off!
Superb bed!! Super bedding. Big fluffy towels, take home slippers and soft fluffy robes.
Wall safes (two), ample closet and drawer space. Our suitcases were too deep/high to put under the bed so we had to stow them under the bureau.
The decor of the cabin... like the ship, is very modern, meaning quite spartan with bright vivid colors throughout.
Did I say how amazingly comfortable the bed was?