Norwegian Jewel Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We had 10 people group I booked for 8 people through travel. associates were really helpful, tried to allocate the state rooms the way I wanted. Associate hold me several time to complete booking successfully. We don't have any complain overall it was very good. Never realize 7 days over. 

Overall experience was good, after all, we were on vacation and in Alaska!.  However, this ships staff was somewhat lacking on warmth and customer service. They seemed bored & preoccupied. Unlike my experience with other ships, I was quite disappointed with the customer service. I am an NCL cruiser and fan.  The food in the main dinning room was just ok, nothing special.  Drinks were a crap shoot [watered down drinks/ill prepared, etc]  Breakfast was a war zone; too many people at once, very few tables available for breakfast in the Garden Cafe.  If you want true vacation quality; The specialty dinning food, drink & service were exceptional.  The moral of the story, if you want quality, you gotta be wiling to pay for it.  Stick to the specialty restaurants and you'll be just fine. This cruise is for a much older crowd.

This was our very first cruise and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Everything went like clockwork from getting checked in and on-board to disembarking at the end of our cruise.  We especially enjoyed our waiter in Tsar's Palace, Raja, who was very personable and always trying to make dinner fun.  He remembered us from day one, and we began asking to be seated in his area. Mark was our steward, and he was always helpful and available.  He too remembered our names from day 1.  Our room was always clean, and we especially looked forward to the towel animals each evening.  The shows in the Stardust Theater were fabulous!  We enjoyed the Band on the Run performances, Tina Turner tribute, the Acrobatics, and the magician very much.  The Norwegian booking agents were extremely helpful in getting us a fantastic cabin.  We truly appreciated their help.  We will likely book our next cruise on Norwegian and will recommend them to friends. Thank you for a fantastic experience.

Reading the blogs in regards to the Norwegian Jewel were spot on.  Ranking:

1) Entertainment (the entertainment staff really does a great job on the Jewel) 2) Activities (there is something to do every hour of every day on the Jewel.  You will never get bored.)  3) Room (Penthouse room at the front of the boat had a huge deck with amazing views)  4) Service (everyone was very friendly and helpful. We had a Butler, Rex and a private Concierge, Bruno.  Both were very helpful and attentive.) 5) Food (This was the biggest disappointment.  The food was beyond horrible.  We were looking forward to our ports of call just to get decent food.  The Teppanyaki specialty restaurant had the best food.)         .       

We had a terrible experience with the food on the ship it was cold all the time and when asked to please bring food hot personnel were rude . They had the same exact food for 7 days  changed the menu but same food  especially mostly was Indian spicy food.  Also getting off the ship for Handicap wheelchair accessibility no one there to help my mother get off the ship so was not able to go for excursions.  There was a personnel Mr. Luis Ramos gust services that was rude towards me on the ship which I will report to Norwegian corporate offices.He almost made us loose our short excursions.  I will never recommend this ship to anyone. 

Sincerely, Ms. Aleman

Beautiful very scenic cruise. If you are expecting more a classier cruise its not there. But first time cruisers love it. Food was OK in restaurants. Better in Buffets. We were really looking forward to lots of Seafood to eat but it was not there. Alaska is known for Seafood. Lots of cruisers disappointed. Somewhat chaos taking tours. We bought tickets for Totem Poles tour. NCL did not have enough seating on bus , they should have known how many tickets they sold. They tried to get another bus then it got blocked by another ship that came in but we could walk way down past another ship to get bus. At this time we decided to get refund. We had local drive us to see sites in Ketchican.

The Alaska Cruise was wonderful, however I had a couple of mishaps. For one I was very disappointed with the bathroom.  My husband is 6'2 and he was very uncomfortable in the bathroom where his knee where against the wall.  Twice the bathroom stop working on the line we were on due to someone blocking the line.  I had to report it twice. Other than that the Alaska Cruise was wonderful.

Daily scenery of stunning beauty and atmosphere on this cruise. The ship was a bit worn but comfortable: a bit garish in color schemes, thankfully not egregiously large like the NCL's newer ships.

This was our first Alaskan cruise and the ports are amazing!  

The ships staff was friendly but several were new.  This was our stewards first cruise. 

In previous cruises, we have fortunately enough to be able to try and experience many different types of culinary dishes, however that was not the case with this cruise.  Being that this was an Alaskan cruise, I expected there to be a lot of seafood options, however there were not.  No lobster or crab.  The food was just ordinary.

The ship didn't offer much in the form of entertainment or things to do.  

I would definitely cuise Alaska again, however I doubt that I would choose Norwegian.

The scenery was amazing!! the food was delicious and the crew was wonderful! This is a restful cruise - not too much to do on the sea days but to enjoy being pampered.  In addition, the evening entertainment was outstanding and we attended it all! We feel renewed and awed by the scenery we were able to experience.

Norwegian Jewel is a beautiful ship. Even though it is older, it is kept super clean and everything is in good shape. Crew is fantastic from the Captain to hotel services. Entertainment was very enjoyable and food was good. They could use a little more seating in Garden Cafe but always found a seat, just took a few minutes. You have the option of eating in the other restaurants and no problem with seating there. A wonderful cruise, Thank You Norwegian!

Food was great, room was nice, and we all loved the staff. However we were there for a bachelorette party, and were disappointed in the nightlife. We also felt like we were being asked for money at every turn. $70 for bingo???? Also a 3 hour line for a taxi to the airport at disembarkation. We met several people who missed their flight! 

The food and service was great and the ports of call, San Francisco and Victoria BC, were really fun. I LOVED the spa package and found it very relaxing to get away whenever I needed a break from the festivities. Even though this was a "full" cruise, it didn't seem crowded and the staff was very pleasant and helpful. I really liked the Yoga class that was offered most mornings and the Cardio Dance Class. I didn't mind paying for the Yoga class and would have happily paid for the Cardio Dance class had it been a full hour - I wasn't that fond of having it at The Fyzz Lounge as it seemed a little awkward. Tsars was such a lovely place to dine I would have had every meal there, but we did try the specialty dining as well; Cagney's for steak one night (yum!) and LeBistro, which had a great menu and a really cozy vibe. The Jewel is one of the older ships and it seemed a bit dated at times, but I found the size quite charming and easy to navigate with plenty of variety for everyone in our group of 4.

We brought a couple that had never been on a cruise before and, although we were disappointed, we didn't let hem know.  Reasons:

1. Just not quite there.  Examples:  Food in Azura the first night wasn't up to your past standards.  Overcooked, dry flounder - no sauce - a couple of limp arugula leaves on top. Others at the table were not impressed.   Service was slow, even tho the restaurant was not full, preventing us from getting to the show on time. No coffee refills. Food in Moderno was barely OK. Latitudes "party" was one glass of wine and a couple of cheese squares.  Room was not dusted when we arrived, and we asked for extra coffee packets when we got in.  Coffee pot was GREAT and we thank you for that, but she never replaced packets for the rest of the trip or refilled the ice bucket at night. We had to go out looking for those items when we returned to the room at night.  All of these things, taken together, were disappointing.

2. Staff was very friendly wherever we went on the ship.

3.  There must be a way to coordinate so two ships aren't disgorging passengers at once.  We have cruised on Norwegian many times and have chosen it because it is smaller, but we ended up in Vancouver getting off with all the passengers on Ruby Princess.  A total mess.

4.  The shows aren't much fun anymore.  The comic/magician the last nite was fun, but what happened to the great shows you used to have?

5.  Then there is room service and the charge for that....Norwegian is just not fun anymore.

Mostly Elder folks. Cruise ship is for Elderly folks. we are the youngest cruiser in the group. Had a great time with my wife spending our honeymoon. Staff/crew were excellent. Food is good. Sumptuous meal every time. Enjoyed also the entertainment. Had no issues with Embarkation and Disembarkation.

The weather in the ports was great. The Haven is always nice but not quite Like it is on the bigger/newer NCL ships. They could offer a bit more. The crew were very nice and helpful. Victoria is a clean beautiful city. We took a pedicab tour that was informative and fun. Tea at the Empress is an experience not to be missed. Though pricy is was worth. Ask for Raymond he was an exceptional server. The weather at sea was cool/cold and the the ocean rough at times, but very doable.

The best part of the cruise was the entertainment, which was outstanding. Everything else was the worst I've ever experienced and I will never cruise with NCL again. The food was substandard, the ship was dirty and not maintained, and there was virtually no service. Their drink packages do not include bottled water or specialty coffee, which is the very first I've come across in 20+ cruises. I think k this is very pretty!! The staff is NOT very friendly with the exception of my cabin steward who was wonderful. I dined in a variety of strings and was disappointed. The only area that was decent dining was chin chin. Even carnival cruises surpassed NCL by a mile. The ship is in need of repair. Public bathrooms were discussing dirty. It took 2 hours to disembark and I missed my plane. I couldn't have been more disappointed!!

The cruise itself was great but my daugher and her husband couldn't make it at the last minute.  I had paid for the cruise and I had two granddaughters who were willing to go in their place.  Your representatives refused to allow that because it was not "company policy" to change the names on the room.  It was totally paid for and it was a cruise in celebration of our 50th wedding anniversary so having another family member there would have been nice.  How hard is it to change the name of a client on a computer?  But no, it is "company policy".  It makes no sense to me or anyone else I have discussed this with that since I had paid for the room and wasn't trying to do anything illegial or unethical to the cruise line that we could not invite someone else to take the place of the person on the listing.  It makes no sense whatsoever!  If I was trying to screw the cruise line that would be one thing, but all I wanted to do was to get another person from my own family to come on a cruise that was already paid for and looked forward to.

I will not be using Norwegian Cruise Line again and I am telling anyone who asks me not to use you as well.  Your motto on the phone was "Customer satisfaction is our top priority."  Well, in my case, there was no customer satisfaction at all.  

What a great way to see Mexico for the first time!  A great way to celebrate our anniversary, too. Warm and caring employees, good food and great excursions. Lots of activities to keep you busy on sea days.  Fun and exciting nightly shows.

Overall the customer service was deplorable, the basic response to any complaint was who cares.  The food was average at best and the specialty restaurants only serve a variation of the main dining.  The mini-suite was very small compared to previous cruises that I have taken.  Bottled water was another issue, I spent almost $80.00 for two for a week's worth of water, highway robbery.  The general staff were friendly, the wait staff in the restaurants were not.