shame on the Norwegian cruise line

Norwegian Jewel Cruise Review to Mexico

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 40

Overall rating:

3 out of 5
Norwegian Jewel

7 Night Mexican Riviera (Los Angeles Roundtrip)

Sail date: October 09, 2016

Ship: Norwegian Jewel

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 4587

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

We were very excited about this cruise and the stops it was making. That ended quickly when 3 days before we sail we get informed that 1 one of ports is not going to happen by choice of the cruise line. We set sail out of LA for Mexico and only a few hours into the trip the ship turns around to head back to port due to mechanical issues but then turns around again to continue on to our first port. We arrive at our first port where we are told that we will be there for 30 hours so that repairs can be done to the ship. after being there for 22 hours we are informed that we wont be leaving at 3 pm but hopefully at 5 or 6 pm. We are then informed at 6 pm that we are experiencing mechanical difficulties still and hope to leave at 10 pm. For the time we are in port the AC wasn't working with the temp being in the 90's and having 77% humidity made our 40 plus hours there miserable.So finally at 12:40 am our ship gets to leave our first port. At 8 am we are informed that we will not be stopping at our other port and will be heading back to LA. Norwegian offers 50 DOLLARS of on board ship credit per STATEROOM, NOT PER GUEST. Later in the return trip after a lot of complaining at guest services they sent out a letter saying they were going to give a 25% refund on your trip cost and a 25% credit towards your next cruise with them. We pre-bought a picture package for this trip and had to have all our pictures done of us at dinner or find a fake background to have our picture taken in front to fill our package. Im sorry but if we wanted those kind of pictures we could have taken them ourselves. We MISS out on 66% OF OUR TRIP and they feel that 25% is okay. This billion dollar cruise line has the idea for their ship to be in port and have service work done at the cost of their guests. DUE TO THE CONDITION OF THE SHIP AND THE WEATHER CONDITIONS WE DEALT WITH AND ONLY GETTING 1 OF THE 3 STOPS THIS CRUISE LINE SHOULD GIVE FULL REFUNDS TO THEIR GUESTS AND OFFER A DISCOUNT FOR THEIR NEXT CRUISE and hope guests will want to sail with them again. One good point to the trip was that the majority of the staff was very nice and willing to try to make you as comfortable as possible.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
Not a lot of late night food options to get something to eat. Formal dinners had good food and choices.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
Great comedy show. You better like playing game shows or trivia or karaoke. Or you will spend a lot of time to entertain yourselves. No late night adult night club events( music and dancing) Everything is over by midnight

Entertainment

5 out of 5
Great comedian. The staff did well putting on shows.

Children's Programs

Had no kids with us

Service and Staff

3 out of 5
Dinner staff was great. Way to go Katut. Room porters were great as well. Guest services left you feeling like just deal with it ( common saying was sorry I cant help you)

Ship Quality

1 out of 5
There was no smooth flow thru the ship. You were having to go front to back and top to bottom to see anything. There are lots of elevators but they are very slow moving and caused long lines at them.

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
The cabin was clean and average size for being an inside cabin but the bathroom needs work as I was unable to use the toilet as it sat facing the wall with about 6 inches from the front of it. No way to sit down so I had to use the public bathroom on 1 of the main decks. BATHROOMS need to be addressed.

Ship tip

Pick a different ship if you want to sail Norwegian. Mechanical issues that will cost you on your trip. You will get your walking in to see the events because they are front to back and top to bottom.

Ports of call

San Pedro (Los Angeles), California

3 out of 5
Easy parking but terrible way of boarding the ship.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

5 out of 5
Beautiful city. We used a local cab driver to give us a tour of the town and explain the history. Due to our length of being in this port was bad since the casino is closed and so are the ship shops.

At Sea

1 out of 5
Was ready to get off the ship after our trip was ruined with only getting 1 port and sitting there for 40 hours. Was looking into getting a flight out of the port instead of sailing back on this ship. Miserable
Was this review helpful? 40

5 Comments

wendylore61    8 years ago

You expect the cruise line to be responsible for the weather? And you'd rather they take a risk with a mechanical issue that might leave you stranded at sea? The entitlement some cruisers have just astonishes me. I hope you don't act ,Ike this at every restaurant, hotel, flight, movie, etc. you must lead a miserable life. Sorry for your loss.

ardeluca    8 years ago

Hello Scoop, I was also on this cruise last week same as you, It was crappy to miss two of the three ports. Spending extra time in PV was nice. I hope they refund us more after I call to complain. The food and crew was amazing. Weather was fantastic. We made the best of it and still had a great week. I am going to use my next NCL 25% off on a 14 day cruise. good value to me.

tzntay0208    8 years ago

Wow that sucks and I think they knew about this before it happened. I was just on the jewel on Oct.2-9th and while we had no problems that we knew about. We noticed that while we were in the port of Cabo the jewel had black smoke coming out of the too for 2 hours straight and the pearl was docked right next to us and had no smoke at all coming out so we knew it wasn't normal.. we must've got lucky and just missed it breaking completely. Although I did hear that 1 time in the middle of the night the AC broke for a couple hours. I noticed I got hot that night bit just thought I felt that way from all the sun I got that day. Anyways, I feel like they knew and pushed the ceuise out anyways. Thats not good and I would be pissed if they only gave me $50 too and only 25% back :-( hopefully you can get more back.

azdad3    8 years ago

Sorry for your bad experience, I agree with you it was awful having no a/c on top of it. l hope you get a better settlement and a better cruise next time. :-(

kdlovescruising    8 years ago

That's too bad your cruise wasn't what you expected. 

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