Other than a complete mess around COVID testing at embarkation, during online checkin it required that we arrange a time with Eurofins for testing and NCL covered the cost. We arrived and met blank stare about Eurofins, we had to into downtown Vancouver and pay $75 for tests. Prior to online checkin we had bought video supervised tests to use at our hotel in Vancouver. We had not heard a word from ...
NCL sent us an email before the cruise and offered us a chance to bid on an upgrade. I figured why not and bid on a Haven 2 bedroom villa, even though there was only 2 of us traveling. Any woman would love to have the master bathroom to herself! We got the upgrade! Haven was everything you thought it would be. If you have the opportunity, go for it.
Only 2 complaints. The Jewel’s Haven is ...
The crew should get an award from NCL they worked so hard. Some of them haven’t seen their families in months. Even though I didn’t go to many ports out of my 29 cruises on NCL I have never had a better experience. I almost didn’t want to leave but the circumstances on land made me want to go home. The food was Great I had the free at sea dining along with me being a Platinum member includes 7 ...
This cruise left Sydney at the end of February when the coronavirus was just getting started and had not really impacted most countries. There were less than 30 cases in Australia and less than 100 in the United States at that time. The day before we departed we received an email from Norwegian that stated our itinerary had been changed and we would be compensated with a 25% refund and 25% credit ...
We chose this cruise because a Royal Caribbean cruise we’d booked due to leave Singapore was cancelled three days before departure due to COVID-19. I had already travelled to Sydney ready to fly to Singapore and felt fortunate to find this cruise to Burnie, Tasmania, Melbourne and the South Island of New Zealand. Why anyone would include Burnie on any itinerary is beyond belief. We were ...
Incredible weather. Between riding buses and a rental car for six weeks from Cape Reinga to Wanaka in New Zealand, the only rain I had was for about an hour driving between Greymouth and Arthur's Pass. How lucky is that ?! I saw Queenstown on a previous visit, and highly recommend it and the bus tour to Milford Sound. The road into the Sound is great.
It has been a few years since I took ...
We did an Auckland to Sydney cruise on the Jewel from Feb 4th to 14th. We choose this cruise because of the number of stops in New Zealand. We favor Celebrity, but picked this for the itinerary. We had been on NCL a couple times years ago and were never impressed. However, we were quite pleased with the Jewel and this cruise. I believe it has been refurbished fairly recently, so that probably ...
Overall:
Average Cruise and the highlight was the day cruising the Sounds. The Sounds are spectacular and cruising was a great way to see a small portion of them.
Dining:
We never do up charge dining, we paid for an all inclusive why would you pay even more? The main dining rooms were average to below average. There was not one shrimp dish, appetizer or entree, on the menu for the entire ...
First time on Jewel, this was cruise 60 for me. Been to New Zealand many times. Embarkation and disembarkation was long and delayed due to port authorities and health checks for the Coronavirus. Not fault of Norwegian, There was an outbreak of gastro which made the bistro and main dining room difficult as everything was handled and served by staff. Everything was disinfected over and over.
The ...
We like cruising. We have been on several cruises, Costa, Holland America, Royal Caribean and Carnival and this was our first Norwegian experience. We are not the dress-up types and the fixed dinner seatings on most cruise lines are not our favourite, so the freestyle cruising from Norwegian sounded like a perfect match. Being from Sweden the Auckland to Sydney sailing was quite exotic for us so ...