I just returned from our 7 day New York- the Bahamas Cruise on the Norwegian Jewel. Our dates of travel were April 3rd- April 10th. All in all we had a great time and enjoyed the cruise, food and activities. There were some areas that I though could have been better or things I wish I would have known about, but for traveling with a 1 year old and a 2 year old, I think we got around and did a lot! :) First off, let me say that after reading review after review on how sailing out of NY is not rough, we decided to sail out of NY to skip a flight to FL. I don't think we will do that ever again. I know everyone's idea of "Rough" is different but if you are worried about it, then this "Rough" is prob too rough for you. The ride down to FL was categorized as ROUGH or VERY ROUGH the whole time according to the "Report from the Bridge" on our TV. The category never dropped below "Slight" and even that was rough at times. The movement on the ship was noticeable at all times and a lot of people were sick and getting sick all over the ship. Every crew person I asked said that this was bad but the week before was worse. They said that this is the norm pretty much sailing out of NY. If you are not into movement on the ship, I'd reconsider sailing out of NY. I did not like 3 whole days of cool weather and rough water. When I sailed out of Miami on my first cruise, we barely felt anything and the "Report from the Bridge" never got above "Calm" and I liked the warm weather the whole trip. That's what I was expecting this time. I know time of year (my first cruise was in December and this was in April) and weather play a huge part in the cruise experience, but SHEESH that was rough!! The store was one inch away from loosing everything on its shelves and closet doors kept flying open and my poor little one year old could barely walk (made for a few good laughs though watching her try to walk and figure out what the heck was happening!) The kids seemed ok for the most part. I think my 2 year old might have been a little seasick as he didn't eat a lot and did get sick once. He is also asthmatic and had to take a breathing treatment so it could have been that. The kids wanted to sleep a lot so that was good. I was surprised at how well they slept and will be forever grateful to them for it! :) This cruise went from NY to Port Canaveral to NCL's Great Stirrup Cay to Nassau, Bahamas then back to NY. We did the excursion to Disney World on the stop at Port Canaveral. I'll write more about the port days below. Ok, so back to the review. When we arrived at the NY terminal, we were greeted by a few loud and obnoxious women who did not care what room number you were in or what you had to say. They were just funneling EVERYONE to the same line. This was to go through security. We were suite guests and I know that we shouldn't have waited in that line but it was not that long at the time and we got right in. Had the line been long, I would have insisted on her checking her stuff and getting us through. After security we were taken right over to check in and then over to a side room to wait for our Concierge, Adrian. He introduced himself and was SUPER nice to our children. He handed us over to an assistant and off we went to our room. We walked right onto the ship and were taken to our room to put our things down. They were still cleaning the rooms but we were able to get in and drop some things off and then it was off to lunch. We were able to eat lunch at Cagney's and it was a great way to start the cruise! We had a delicious lunch of shrimp cocktail, steak, spinach and the kids ate great too. We then walked around the ship and met up with our family who we were cruising with (there were 17 in our group- we were the only suite guests so the rest of them had to go through the boarding process and wait to board) We then went back to our room. We stayed in room 11506 which is a Category AB Family Suite. I believe it was the "Ruby Penthouse". We thought the room was GREAT. It was very clean and a great size. We had a separate bedroom for the kids and a crib in there already. It had its own closet with drawers and that made it easy to keep the room organized. There was AMPLE storage. That room also had its own full size bathroom with shower. The living area, dining area and balcony was altogether and was great. The kids had plenty of room to play and stretch out and we even had a high chair brought in so that my 1 year old could sit at the table too. It was great. The Butler kept the fridge stocked with Milk like we requested and life was good. :) The master bath and bedroom was fabulous. There was a tv in every room and even over the bathtub! My only complaint about the room was it's location. it was too forward for us. We felt A LOT of movement and the night that the level rose to "Very Rough" was intense. We were right behind the bridge which was neat but I'd prefer to be somewhere where I didn't feel like I was hitting every wave head one. :) When we got back to our room we met our Butler, Antonio and our Steward, Leslie who were extremely nice and helpful the whole trip. It was a totally different experience from our first cruise where we NEVER met our Concierge but our Butler was awesome. This trip they were all awesome and the Concierge was always present and always there when you needed him and even times when you didn't need him for anything, he just chatted with you and made you feel welcomed. The staff of the Jewel is just phenomenal. They not only are so nice to all the children but they remember names and things about them. They truly are a great group of people working on the ship. Our Concierge and Butler even helped us find binoculars for my son and left them in the room! We looked everywhere for them with no luck, they found them! Everyone is always so happy and willing to help with anything- even a crying baby! My one year old daughter was an angel on this trip but a few times she lost it and it was like I had 14 nannies! Everyone wanted to hold her and help out. I saw all the other kids being treated the same way. It was great. Speaking of kids, this cruise had a Nickelodeon Theme to it and many activities for kids with the Nick characters so the boat was FULL of kids. If you are a couple or adults that might not want that, I suggest you do your research and pick a non-Nick cruise. I can see how it might have tainted some honeymoons having kids ALL OVER THE SHIP. It even got to me a few times and we were traveling with kids!! At night, the Fyzz bar was full of kids running around, dancing, or sleeping while the parents had some (much needed I'm sure) drinks. :) The pool was kid overload and my only complaint was with the parents who didn't watch their kids. NCL takes no responsibility for your children and they shouldn't. Some of the older kids/pre-teens were just crazy and I had to tell a few what was up. :) Hey, if you aren't going to parent your kid in a public place, I will gladly do it for you. :) We didn't utilize the kids club because mine are too young, but other members in our group did and the kids seemed to love it. It was a zoo over there though and very crowded. Again, this was due to the influx of children as I remember our first cruise just checking out the kids area and it was always nice and calm- this time it looked hectic and crazy at all times. Again, I blame the parents- the NCL workers seemed calm and professional the whole time. The buffet was also hurt by all the kids. It was a ZOO at times. The food quality has seemed to have improved on the Jewel but I didn't get the buffet too much because it was just toooooo crowded. We ate at Cagney's for breakfast and lunch a few times, being suite guests and for dinner we tried to try everything. The Mexican - Tango's was GREAT. We loved it there. You get a free tasty, margarita with your meals and the staff was excellent. The ribs and lobster tacos were FAB! Def worth the $10 upcharge. Blue Lagoon, the 24 hour restaurant was great as well. Their mozzarella sticks and wings are a must have on this cruise!! :) We found room service to be great as well. The chicken tenders from room service were different from everywhere else and much better. The burger was great too. For dinner we ate at Tango's & Azure mainly and one night we had the Italian brought into our room. We weren't impressed with the Italian food at all. It was disappointing. But we were pleasantly surprised with Azure. The menu was great and they had some different things each night along with the usual and the Ceasar Salad was GREAT. (Same one from the buffet, room service, etc) It was a nice room and we were very comfortable with the stroller and the kids. One evening we all went to Cagney's as a group and the food was great. My steak was great, although my husband said his was not that great. I had the filet and he had a strip I think. I had the surf and turf- great. Dessert was a bit lacking overall but my apple crisp was great and a nice size. Again the wait staff did not dissapoint. We had three 7 year olds and three toddlers and they still treated us great. Some of the staff recognized us from breakfast and lunch and came over to see the kids. The staff really made an impression on us! Part of our group ate at Teppanyaki and loved it. We didn't only because we didn't think it was worth it with the babies. Kids are not free here. It said that they are full price but our group was only charged half per child. The Nickelodeon events were nice but again PACKED. My kids were too little anyway but if I had older kids, I would have had to have gotten to them early to get a good seat or even a decent seat. The events seemed very organize but again, the parents were crazy on this ship. They were in such a rush, it was strange. Relax people! You're on vacation! :) The only thing I really didn't enjoy was the Nickelodeon character breakfast. It was mayhem and the food was not that great and everyone got the wrong thing. If you ordered a ham and cheese omlet, you got mushroom and spinach. It was crazy. I ordered eggs/bacon/toast plate and got kids pancakes. I had to eat star shaped choc banana pancakes with green syrup. :) Fine if it was free but it was $15 for adults and $10 per child, not fine. Taking a picture with a character was also impossible. They supposedly "come over to every table" but they kept skipping our whole section. I had to actually get up and pretty much yell at one of the workers because I was tired of hearing our kids be told to sit and wait your turn when they kept forgetting to come back there. It was very disorganized. If you want to meet the characters, check the Nick schedule and just go to the character meet and greets. Save the money on the breakfast. TRUST ME. Most of the meet and greets were in the Spinnaker Lounge and FYI this room ROCKS and ROLLS if the water is rough! The disco ball just swung back and forth like crazy! But it didn't stop the party. :) The store on the ship was nice. It had a nice variety of items. I didn't buy much but you def could do some damage in there. They had candy and snacks and a nice kids section. The Java cafe had great Iced Coffees and if you are used to having iced coffee, it hit the spot. You can also get free poundcake or other pastries when you buy from there, they are in a case, just ask for one. You really need to check the paperwork they leave for you to check on sales in the stores and what's happening on the ship. I took a picture of the papers I thought were important with my iPhone and then I would have that with me the whole day instead of carrying the papers around. I didn't get to go to the spa this trip :( but the staff was always friendly walking by there and a few members of my group got massages and loved them. :) I really like that they take pictures all over the ship and I tried to look out for them where ever we were. There is also a picture studio on board where you can take your family or kids or yourself and have a full blown photo session with no sitting fee and no obligation to buy any of the photos. They just print the photos and put them out in the photo hall and you can view and buy what you want. I though that was neat. :) The entertainment on the ship was good I thought. Most was family friendly and if it wasn't it stated so on the daily. I usually stood all the way in the back with my stroller and one sleeping child. The magician/comedian was great and the circ bijou show was great too. The other shows were ok, for being free entertainment, they were what they were. I still clapped along! :) The staff show is always a favorite of mine and it was funny too. Don't miss it, even if you just go to cheer them on, they deserve it, this staff rocks! Disembarking was super easy. Adrian, our fabulous concierge got our whole group we were traveling with, priority disembarking and luggage tags. This was great as we could all disembark together which was great because we rented a bus to take us all home. This way we were all together at all times. We put our bags out the night before and that morning we met at Chin Chin where they had a light breakfast and coffee, tea, juice set up for us. When it was time, we were escorted off the ship and into the terminal. We got our luggage, loaded it onto a cart where someone was there to walk us all the way out to where our bus was coming. It was great. He unloaded to luggage onto the sidewalk for us. We were off the ship, through customs and waiting for our ride in 15 minutes. NCL also has "Easy Walkoff" if you can get your own bags off, you just literally take your stuff and walk off. Great and well organized. Make sure you check your bill the night before as it is very common for charges to appear on your bill that are not yours. Keep track!! I'll enter my port reviews below, but all in all it was a GREAT cruise. Even with the ROUGH waters, a rough day on a cruise ship is better than a good day at home, right? :) Now onto the Port Reviews below...First Port...We docked at Port Canaveral on Tuesday morning. When we pulled into port it was POURING raining. :( We booked the excursion to The Magic Kingdom for the day and were going rain or shine. When we left the ship, it was raining a lot. We were told to meet in the stardust theater and would go as a group. We were in there for a looooong time. If you have kids, bring a snack for them or something to occupy them while waiting for the local officials to clear the disembarking. The process was pretty smooth, although the long wait in the theatre. They then began calling groups at a time and you made your way to the gangway. When we got off the boat, we had to go through some sort of customs thing and we had to wait in line in the rain for a few minutes. They did have ponchos on the ship that they were selling for $3 a piece, if you are a suite guest, they are free. Adrian was there to give us ours. When we got into the building they checked for fruit, meats, and other foods or leaves. We of course, didn't have any of those items so off we went to the buses out back. By the time we got to Disney, the rain had stopped and it was still cloudy and cool. The weather improved as the day went on and it turned out to be perfect weather for disney. I though Disney was a nice excursion. With two toddlers, there was just enough time to check out the park go on a few rides and get a bite to eat. If you had older children who might want to do real rides, the 5-6 hours in the park might not be enough. The lines were not too bad but if you have to waste 20-30 minutes per ride, it adds up. We enjoyed shopping a bit and taking some pictures. We also wanted to be on the first bus back so we really cut our time short. The bus staff were very helpful and friendly. Both going and coming to and from Disney. We had a stroller and a 1 year old and a 2 year old and they were very helpful with the stroller. They put your stroller underneath in storage and take it out for you when you arrive. The one guy even opened ours and when we got off the bus was fixing the straps for the kids! What a nice guy! :) We bought three seats on the bus and I held my 1 year old and my 2 year old sat next to me. My husband sat right behind us. The kids slept most of the ride there and back. It was nice! :) If you have small children and are planning an excursion that will use a large bus, leave your carseat home. There are no seat belts so the seat can not be secured and you will have to stow it away anyway. Everyone was holding their babies on the bus. If you are not comfortable doing this, don't go or rent a car and drive yourself. You will definitely not have enough time doing anything if you do that. You dock at this port at 12 and have to be back by 9, and it seems like a lot of time, but trust me, its not. :) We had already talked to our Butler about bringing us dinner to our room @ 9:15 so that we can just eat when we got back and it was great. We left him a list of what we wanted. We unloaded cleaned up a bit and dinner was there in our suite. It was a tiring day so that helped a lot. I know that Port Canaveral has a shuttle to a mall as well that also stops at a Walmart, so keep that in mind if you need any thing from there. :) Second Port- Great Stirrup CayOur second stop was NCL's Great Stirrup Cay. We had priority disembarking again and Adrian, our concierge also got it for the entire group traveling with us. That was really great. We were told to meet at Le Bistro in the morning and we just waited there for a bit to go to the gangway. When we anchored, the weather was nice but the sea was choppy! We watched the tender boats come up to the ship and just slam all around out there. We were then taken down a stairwell where we waited a while and then we had to go back down to another gangway because the water was too rough there and they couldn't get anymore people on the boat. Scary!!! I almost turned around and left at that point. My family talked me into staying though. When we got to our exit, our boat was also ROCKING AND ROLLING, it was crazy. We finally got sailing over to the island and I was so relieved to be on land! When we got to the island the staff were setting up and we picked out our chairs. They do not have umbrellas for rent but NCL rents these "clamshell" covers which get rented in advance, which I didn't know! They were already rented up the day before we even got there! That made me mad, I would have rented it when I got on the ship, who would have thought to do that! (Other than the people who did think of it. :)) There is a store on the island that is run by locals of the island and they rented us an umbrella, but they really didn't rent them out, they just rented us one that they were using. LOL! But I'm thankful they did that for us. NCL tells you that you don't need cash, but that store is not NCL and they only take cash, visa or mastercard, just FYI. They sell souvineirs and such. The slide that they show you online actually looks really neat in person but if its too windy, they shut it down. They deflated it and never let anyone on it when we were there. :( I have to say the island was very nice. It was VERY clean, they had music, you could rent floats they had lots of beach chairs. The lunch that they provided was EXCELLENT. I was so expecting a crappy bunch of hot dogs and cole slaw but they had a whole spread! They had BBQ ribs and they were EXCELLENT. Seriously, I wish I had some now. :) They had hamburgers, hotdogs, ribs, corn, fruit, rice, all kinds of toppings for your burgers, Cookies, cakes, and more. It was really good. The drinks were flowing on the the island too of course. They had bars set up as well as waiters walking around taking orders. Your drink was brought to you in an isolated cup, I guess so it would stay cold??? I really wanted a pretty drink with an umbrella on the beach but oh well! :) The water was so beautiful to swim in here too. Very clean. To get back you simply got on the tender and they took groups back and forth. The water again was VERY ROUGH! We were crashing down hard and the boat was taking on water with every bump. It was intense. I asked how much more rough does it have to be to skip the island, as I heard they did that often and was told over and over again, "not much more, this was close" Adrian, said that he was told coming back would be calmer than going over which would have been ok, but that was not what happened. Coming back was way rougher and scarier! I loved the island though but I don't know if I could do those tender boats again! Third Port- Nassau, BahamasNassua was disappointing. Having been to Grand Cayman, I thought it was going to be more like that. When we docked, we got off to go out and go shopping a little and maybe grab some lunch. When were went out, we were greeting by hundreds of hecklers trying to take you on a tour or sell you something. I haaaate that. We had planned on going over to Atlantis to check it out but it was raining a bit and we didn't want to make the trek in the rain with the babies. Some in our group went though and I suggest that if you go to Nassau, you go to Atlantis. If you don't book an NCL Atlantis excursion, when you get there, tell them you are checking in or just checked in and they let you in. If not, you can't get in. Just a little tip. :) There were nice stores in Nassau like Gucci, Coach, etc but the streets were dirty and confusing and I just wanted to go back to the room. We had fun watching the happenings from our deck while the kids napped. We enjoyed the day. :) Two in our group did the swim with the dolphins excursion and LOVED it. They said everyone should do that once. It was amazing, they said. There is also a Senor Frogs close by and it looked like a few of the non children bearing guests hit that up as they zig zagged back to the gangway. :) Fun times! I would visit Atlantis though, it looked really nice. Hope this review was helpful!! All in all I'd cruise again and I'd cruise NCL again. :) HAPPY CRUISING! :)