Norwegian Jewel Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This was our first cruise on Norwegian and our first trip to Alaska. We were

celebrating our 30th anniversary and were looking for something different than

a cruise in the warmer waters.! Everything from beginning to end was a wonderful -and tasty- and fun experience.

I had read some of the negative reviews prior to our trip and beg to differ. The ship may be older,  but everything was always kept up clean, top to bottom. The staff couldn't have been nicer to all of us. The entertainment was great, especially the Cirque Illumination. Go see the shows!  We took the Skagway bus excursion that went up through the Yukon. The driver shared lots of interesting stories and pointed out the wildlife; our pictures look like postcards! Even in mid September, it was jacket weather. One of the mornings that we were eating breakfast on the top deck, we watched the humpback whales and a couple of seals out in the still waters around Victoria, B.C.!

Plan to spend an extra day or two in Seattle to visit Pike Market (the Chowder House is fabulous AND definitely worth the wait for varieties of seafood chowders served in a fresh sourdough bread bowl!)  and make a dinner reservation ( they fill up fast) on the Space Needle online (rotates 360 degree view of the city!) to round out a wonderful vacation. 

Our flight back home didn't leave until much later on the day we finished the cruise and learned that you can leave your luggage at the concierge for $3/suitcase until 3:30 PM, which freed us up to get around town for a few more hours. You can then have your transportation pick you up from there to the airport.

Contact SpeediShuttle on line for very reasonable- and mostly on time transfers to and from the airport. It costs around $63 round trip for two persons (I say this because they ran a little late picking us up for the airport), so allow at least 3 hours before boarding time.

Hope this information encourages you to take this cruise. It was truly a wonderful time. PS book at least a cabin with a picture window, midship if you can.

We enjoyed this cruise very much. Amount of time in the several ports was generous. The staff of the Jewel was excellent - friendly, helpful, pleasant. We had 2 issues in our stateroom that were addressed quickly. One was an odor, which was quickly investigated and resolved. The other was a noise issue, which was a result of the ship bouncing down off waves, that could not be resolved. We found it disappointing that the ship could not be engineered to avoid this issue, especially as the water motion, though a bit rough, was nowhere near extreme. It was VERY helpful to talk with friends who cruise regularly beforehand.

Excellent trip, would recommend this trip to everyone. Best cruise line and staff. Being in the Haven you get priority everything, on and off the boat quickly to snacks every day in your room. You have your own special restaurant to eat breakfast and lunch. Private pool and hot tub area. Get special invitation to various functions.

Yes, I would highly recommend this cruise to others.  It is my first cruise but I am very impressed on the quality, size of ship, and overall experience.  The staff is very professional, courteous, friendly and helpful.  I do not use salt in my food as we get plenty naturally in the foods.  I only use seasonings, herbs and spices.  I know that I am the extreme but your food is way too salty.  There should be a happy medium and use far less salt and let people add salt if they need to do so.  I had a lot of fluid retention which was a direct result from the sodium in the foods served.  The sodium actually masks the flavor of the foods.  Great variety with food selection.  My other complaint is lukewarm coffee.  Coffee should always be hot.  overall, it was a great experience and I think NCL does a great job.

Amazing cruise, can not begin to describe how breath taking the Glaciers and port cities, excursions were in Alaska..MUST Take trip and the Jewel never seemed over whelming as far as size or amount of people on board!

Alaska is the best place to visit. I've been in so many places in my life but Alaska is a very special. I was very happy with the Norwegian Jewel. A lot of tourists  from Europe, Australia and Asia.

I liked the entertainment. The drinks are so expensive , Bingo is very pricey too. Had fun in the Casino. The wait staff was great, never had one negative encounter with any of the staff on the Jewel. I felt like it was a complete rip off playing bingo....very pricey and only played 3 games, definatley a money maker for the cruise. 

The Glaciers & Waterfalls are amazing. Just imagine very large murals in front of you, only they are very real. You have to see this beauty to believe it. Sawyer Glacier is very pretty & all kind ice breaking off from the Glacier. All the ports we stopped at had so many things to do & see. We took tours in every port, saw whales, eagles, bears, etc. The tour that stands out with us was the all day tour in Skagway. Rode a tour bus across the Yukon, had lunch in Canada. Overall, our Cruise & trip to Alaska & Canada was one we will never forget. We have many pics & memories that will last a lifetime.  --  Would for sure recommend this Cruise.  

I am not sure if this is typical weather in September but the fog horn would blow and as we pulled into port. Clear! We were told this was typical and the water was smooth and the scenery was great. Unfortunately no bear or moose seen, but eagles and whales, wow! Get ready for deluge of jewelry shops.

 I have travelled NCL several times in past and the ship and cruise were great, clean, but it just seamed off. The food did not impress me this time even thou presentation was always top notch. I feel that an Ultimate Beverage package should mean just that...ALL inclusive (price/premium limits ok) but sitting in a bar and just wanting a latte or regular coffee...pay pay pay - unless you add alcohol to it, even after dinner with dessert.

Pet peeve.... time zone change - ship time should have been announced before de-boarding or a clock above security check out. At tour excursion gatherings -No mention of ship time. I know we have cell phones but you have to KNOW ship time to verify - or + what phone shows. Elevator shows time IF you wait for feature rotation. At ALL ports several couples were late coming back.

My family and I went on this cruise early sept , the weather was great. Smooth sailing. And the food was excellent,  loved the cirque show, piano bar with Barry was a lot of fun,  bartenders was great. All very nice people   The drink pkge was excellent

The train ride up the White Pass to Frazier Canada and the bus ride back to Skaway!! Also the entire cruise from our balcony was spectacular. We had 8 Whales pass while we were out on the balcony and we spent less than 6 hrs total out side. There were so many things to do on the ship that we need another vacation to rest!!!!

Excellent cruise! Everything was great except the smoking! People smoked on the balconies making ours non-usable! Couldn't go to the casino because of the smoke as well as several lounges near the casino. This made most of the 6th floor unusable.

no recommendation.the food was so so and the service was fair to good.The room attendant was kind and helpful.The activities on the ship were mediocre with poor shows.

We were disappointed with the food and onboard activities. Not enough to do and the food is not as good as we last cruise with Norwegian. I think it was Norwegian Spirit. They have much more activities onboard. 

I guess we have to cruise on a newer ship from now on.

Alaska has just about the best of everything...Beautiful scenery, Friendly People and Spectacular glaciers to experience....And....We greatly appreciated the 24 hour special treatment we got as a family suite guest (concierge, butler and room steward)!!!  I definitely was one of the highlights of our trip!  

Alaska is breathtaking in its beauty. The helicopter ride to view Juneau Ice Field and walking around the Mendenhall Glacier was the highlight of the trip. The Jewel is well maintained but the entertainment was inferior to other cruises we have taken. The Norwegian Epic, for example, had considerably better shows and overall entertainment.  Another constructive criticism is the lack of seating in the Garden Cafe, the Jewels buffet dining. I have never seen so many people have to request to sit at tables already occupied. Also, beware of booking seaplanes, we had two seaplane tours cancel and the main reason we cruise is for the tours, not the ship experience. We did enjoy Alaska and will probably take another different Alaskan cruise.

NCL did a great job on the celebration of our 40th wedding anniversary!

A lot of very nice little touches to make the overall experience memorable:

- Celebration cake and song after our anniversary dinner in one of the specialty restaurants;

- Very attentive room steward took care of all of our needs. Constantly made sure our room was made up and always a ready source of information about all things related to the cruise and the ship;

- So many dining options we ate dinner at a different themed restaurant every night of the cruise but one;

- Always plenty of options for "freestyle" breakfast and lunch;

- Loved the after dinner/evening entertainment: Karaoke, dancing, lounge singers, stage performances... all very professional...stayed up to midnight practically every night as we wanted to take it all in;

- Shore excursions were very well coordinated and 100% worth the trip. When one of our excursions was cancelled (due to weather) our shore excursion director got us on another one asap which turned out better than the one we had picked!

- Alaska is, of course, is magnificent for its vast wilderness and memorable in itself. But our greatest memories will be for the things we did that we never did before: Helicopter ride over mountains, glaciers and fiords; landing & walking on a glacier; dog sledding; and, a train ride into Yukon wilderness...all unique life experiences which could only be experienced in Alaska!

- There was a chapel on the ship but no priest on board which would have been an appropriate accommodation as the cruise was during a Catholic holy day. We did find out that other cruise lines had made this accommodation.

Over all we had a great time and would recommend it to everyone!

So this cruise is billed as using the inland passage which you would think means going between Vancouver Island and the BC mainland.  The route map on Norwegian Cruise Lines website actual shows this as the route.  We specifically booked our baloney suite on the starboard side to see the coast line. We left Seattle 3 hours late for some unknown reason.  The ship sailed straight out to sea and fog until our first port of call.  

We went to the passenger services desk for an explanation and the fellow there acted like to were wrong to even question their route. He further pulled out a map showing the route as out at sea which is totally opposite of the NCL website, basically they lied.  

The food on board was sub-par at best.  Our cruise price included three "specialty" restaurant night dinners.  Japanese steakhouse was ok, the other two were terrible.  If you do book on this cruise don't waste your money on their specialty dinning.  Main restaurants were ok, the buffet was also not good.

On the positive side our room was well cared for and in a timely fashion.  We had three shore excursions and all were very good to excellent.  We snorkeled at the first port of call and got to see much sea life.  This excursion would not be for people with small children or people not in reasonable shape.  Our 2nd excursion from Juneau was to see the Mendenhall Glacier and then by boat to whale watch.  The whale part was great and we got many great pics.

Our last excursion was on a narrow Gage train ride up a mountain trail used by the gold rush pioneers to the Yukon.  We chose the deluxe car and it was worth every penny.  Good food, drinks and great scenery on a four hour ride.  The final stop in Victoria was great too, but we chose to just walk or take taxi to anything we wanted to see. Cheaper and you can manage your own time. 

Summary we would not use Norwegian again but the trip itself was very worth while.   

Really enjoyed the cruise as a whole. The itinerary was fantastic and our excursions were wonderful. The food was good and the open dining was good for breakfast and lunch, but preferred a more quiet setting for dinner in the included specialty restaurants.  Thought the prices in the specialty dining areas and drinks were higher than on other cruise lines. The Jewel did not have some of the more modern in-room features for checking onboard account or making reservations.  The staff were fairly new in the dining areas.  We encountered daily challenges with the toilet in our rooms not functioning because someone kept depositing things not intended for use in them.  Getting onboard and off went very well. 

This was my first and last time I will travel on Norwegian Cruise line.  They do not compare to Royal Caribbean or Carnival.  First, they shortened our cruise and did away with the Skagway port (which was my reason for cruise, great white train excursion) and give us a big one day reimbursement back.  Big deal.  Many people saved a long time for the this cruise and $170.00 is certainly not going to get them back to Skagway.  Luckily, I am a frequent cruiser and will go back on a different line.  It was very sad to hear how some people saved for years for this trip and we were given 3 days notice of no Skagway. 

Next there is not enough seating in buffet area for breakfast and lunch.  Also, dinner was overall horrible.  The service could not be worse.  It took forever to be waited on and have a drink refilled.  I could have run down to the buffet faster than waiting for staff service.  Food arrived luke warm and never hot.  First night I got the chicken breast and it was barely big enough to get two forks of meat.  Norwegian cruise lines should take a trip on Royal Caribbean or Carnival to see how dinner is prepared and served well.

The one excursion besides Skagway I had booked we were told to meet in the theater at a certain time.  My traveling friends got there early and we got there on time.  However, they took the early group out to a bus to leave before the appointed time and I missed spending the day with the people I traveled with.  Not acceptable!

In closing, the Bingo game is a joke,  You charge $49.00 and $69.00 to play only 3 games and with a chance at a jackpot only to find out that on the final jackpot game, The pot does not pay out regardless of numbers.  I fully respect other cruise lines letting their jackpots go for each cruise.  I can only imagine the money Norwegian made off the bingo games.  There were at least 50 people each day at $69.00 per person and only paid out games at $120.00 each.  Gee where did all that money go.

Worst cruiseline ever and will never use again.