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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
This was my 3rd cruise on the NCL Jewel and it did not disappoint. I am a solo traveler and NCL is the best for solos. I always get an oceanview cabin on deck 5 midship. So comfortable and close to mid and forward elevators always quiet. Our solo activity leader was awesome making dinners for the group getting group seat at the shows and making sure we all had a good time. The activities ...
We selected this ship and itinerary because we wanted to visit this part of the world for the first time. Cruising seemed an ideal way to see a lot of New Zealand including the sounds on the South Island. We planned our own air since we wanted to stay an extra few days in Auckland at the beginning and Sydney at the end. More on this later.
The Norwegian Jewel was just refurbished and it’s clean ...