When it came time to book our very first cruise, we researched everything we could...dining options, entertainment, onboard amenities, itineraries...and we decided that NCL offered what we wanted.
Freestyle dining? Yes please! Wide range of entertainment including Broadway shows? Heck yeah! Interesting itineraries? Yep, lots to choose from.
Sadly, much of what led us to NCL is no longer ...
The food is what we previously enjoyed the most, this time it was what we enjoyed the least. The specialty restaurants Cagney’s and Le Bistro had only a few tasty dishes but overall they weren’t anything to write home about either. The coffee everywhere on the ship was like twice recycled dish water. Guessing this is a push to buy the premium drink package. Most of the staff on the ship were ...
First of all I have to say, that there is nothing wrong with the cruise itself. The ship is nice, the staff is nice, the food was very good and the landscape of Alaska is definitely worth the whole trip.
But in my opinion there is a big „BUT“ when it comes to Norwegian and I would rather not choose to sail with them in the future:
They sent us dozens of E-Mails in advance of the cruise about ...
First of all never ever let the Cruise book your airline tickets it took us 30 hours to get home. Cruise embarkation was fine .Rooms were clean and very nice room attendant did a great job cleaning but she was so busy she really didn’t get much personal care and I don’t blame her I blame the Cruise for being understaffed. The food was mediocre. Varieties in the buffet minimal. Especially ...
I choice this cruise for the itinerary. Alaska was beautiful but it was obvious that people were walking around the ship with Covid symptoms. People were coughing and not attempting to stay away from others. Staff didn’t seem to care and I didn’t see a lot of cleaning in the stairwells or elevators and other highly touched areas like I have seen in past cruises probably due to staff shortages. I ...
This was a bucket list item in that I wanted to visit Alaska (the only state I hadn't been to) and to experience the coast of Alaska. We did the land portion of our trip first and the cruise on the way back so it would be restful and that it was. The only disappointment was that the route is such that you only see minimal amount of the coastline and a lot of water. An up close view of Hubbard ...
My wife and I cruised on the Jewel from Anchorage to Vancouver. We have now cruised 27 times, mostly on Carnival, Princess, and Norwegian (six times). I occasionally post cruise reviews here, but only when the experience is pretty good or pretty bad. Our recent Alaska cruise on the Jewel qualifies in both categories. So here goes, starting with the good..
Fairly good cruise fare pricing ...
The good: drinks, bar service, cabin service, food service (but not universally food quality) embarkation, disembarkation. Five for free.
The mediocre: food everywhere except Cagney's and La Cucina (and the one lunch we had in the main dining room). Especially the oily yellow lab that passes for low-rent velveeta, which is as close to cheese as you get in an omelette or on a burger. Also, ...
Alaska cruise was great. The ship was extremely clean, the staff goes out of their way to be friendly, The entertainment was good in quality of shows and variety. The cruise from start to finish was well organized. NCL made it easy to get on and off the ship. The two big disappointments on the ship were 1. The food served on board the Jewel was a huge disappointment. NCL does a lot of things ...
If you are not a meat eater, beware of this cruise line because the choices for you at dinner time are very sparse. I mean who wants to eat the same dish at dinner for 7 nights? Vegetable lasagna gets really boring after day 2.
Not sure why this cruise line does not step up like Celebrity has. It is certainly less expensive to serve well rounded vegetable or vegan dishes to your clients ...