Norwegian Jewel Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The Norweigan Jewel left out of the Bayport Terminal near Houston.  The facilities there were good.  The ship was very nice, and the crew was exceptionally friendly.  I personally enjoy a smaller ship with fewer people, but the Jewel took care of the crowds well. The evening entertainment was good, but not as good as some I have experienced.  Overall the ship was lots of fun and the food good. Cozumel was a good port of call.  I did not get off the ship at Belize, as I had seen Mayan ruins and did not want to snorkle. Hondurus was okay, but nothing great.  Maybe it will improve with time. Overall I enjoyed my week on the Jewel.

What we liked?  Generally the service was good.  The steward for our cabin was actually one of two or three high points.  Food in the Italian specialty restaurant was excellent.  We paid $150 each (approximately) for the thermal pass, that give us access to the sauna, hot tubs, and a nice view from the front of the ship.  The excursions were good.  We especially liked visiting the Mayan ruins about an hour and a half from Belize City.  We're not much of party people, usually retiring by 10pm.  (We were really trying to recover from a very trying year.)  As a result, I can't speak much for a lot of the activities and parties on board.  The big shows were pretty good, but I actually fell asleep in a 90 minute rock and roll concert (that was pretty good).  

What we didn't like?  This was our first cruise so we fell victim to a few things that we wouldn't get caught on again.  The first day was really like a very long time share hard sell experience with lots of add ons being pushed.  We had planned on spending the money for my wife to do a couple of massages knowing they would be pricey.  But, sell, sell, sell got old.  They also conned my wife into saying yes to things she thought were included, then wound up with an extra $300 bill on one service above and beyond the $180 massage.  Cagneys was disappointing for a steakhouse on board.  The service was poor, the food..... good and bad.  The pools?  My wife's comment was one that might be unavoidable on a cruise..... "they sit in the pool and hot tub for hours drinking non-stop.  Where do they go to the bathroom?  I'm not getting in that pool."  We did all of our lying out and hot tubing in the thermal package.  One of the biggest disappointments was on the shore excursions.  We had been advised to use a third party service for excursions.  We did so for our Belize excursion, but actually bought our excursions for the other two ports from the onboard Shore Excursions team.  We might as well have been lepers with AIDs when we asked about getting ashore for our excursion we purchased from a third party.  Beyond non-helpful, the one attendant was quite rude.  We found the same true on reserving dining from the staff.  If we walked up and made an immediate decision all was well.  But we were debating on one night and the staff person grew very irate.  

We went on the cruise with one of our objectives being to decide if we liked cruising.  I'm still undecided.  We 'might' do another cruise if the destinations are of interest.  It will be determined by price, destinations, and a wiser approach to  hard sell efforts by onboard staff.

We were delighted with this cruise. It is the first time we have cruised on Norwegian. Staff is very helpful and friendly. Management acknowledges all staff publicly which I rarely see done. Senior staff was very available. The ingress and egress of the ship at the beginning of the cruise and at the end as well as during port excursions were very well handled.

Enjoyed the casual dining and the main dining rooms were delightful. Bountiful food, great entertainment and wonderful shore excursions. We've put money down for another cruise we liked it so much!

For starters, I will never again book a cruise out of Texas.  I thought that the cruise would depart near Houston; however, the terminal is in Pasadena, TX.  This meant an unexpected $200 just for my husband and I to travel to/from the airport to the cruise terminal.  Live and learn!  In addition, we thought that you would be allowed back into the United States with up to two liters of alcohol per person duty free, but Texas decides to tax you when you leave the cruise terminal.  We only had two bottles of leftover beer that we were taking off of the ship and the Texans were trying to charge us $2.50 in tax on those two bottles.  I threw them in the trash.  Forget it!

The customer service on the Norwegian Jewel was not as friendly as what I had experienced on Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruises, nor was the food quite as good. 

It was an incredible experience for the whole family. We had a wonderful time on the ship and on the ports. They do a great job making you feel special.

NOW THAT we’ve spent a few days on our ship, the Norwegian Jewel, let me say a little about our experience. By way of background: this is just my third cruise and Paul’s second. My first was of some of the Greek Islands, continuing to Venice. Since it was paid for by Lee Iacoca as a reward to Chrysler dealers (I'd been dating one for a few years at the time), and Mr. Iacoca’s daughter was along for the ride (she and I shared an evacuation drill), you can imagine that it was first-class with no expense spared.

My second cruise was with Paul to the Bahamas out of Miami. We wouldn’t have gone except that it was free, a perk paid for by one of our vendors for selling their products. 

The Keys, we liked; the cruise, not so much. In fact we pretty much hated it from start to finish. It was on Carnival, and I would categorically advise anyone to never take a Carnival cruise. It was loud (there was party music playing literally 24 hours a day everywhere on the ship — even in our room — that we could not shut off), it was adolescent, it was insufferable. And we had an interior room, meaning not even a window. It was a lot like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer: it feels so good when you stop.

Apparently it made an overwhelming negative impression because we’ve not cruised since. In the following years, however, we kept hearing what a lovely time various friends have had on cruises, so we decided to give it another try. When I say we, I mean me, because I was the one who hatched up this trip. 

Here’s my review (so far) of the ship, this cruise and Norwegian Cruise Line in general: We like it — which is a bit of a wonderment given that this ship, the Norwegian Jewel, is ginormous, something that normally would be an anathema (we avoid big hotels and densely populated everything), but strangely enough, we’ve been perfectly happy here.

Part of the secret is that we booked a balcony stateroom. I learned from our Bahama “cruise” — always, always get a room with a balcony. In fact I’d say, if you don’t get a balcony, don’t go. Even though there are theoretically plenty of places to hang out on board where you can sit and watch the sea and land go by unmolested, it’s just not as pleasant, at least by our reckoning, having others around while you do. 

Paul has practically lived on our balcony as I was certain he would. Some of you may know that we own a small sailboat, and I knew he would absolutely love watching as much of the maneuvering and goings on as he could.One extra cool thing for Paul: there’s a ship TV channel that broadcasts map details pinpointing exactly where we are en route and well as our headings, wind speed, relative wind speed, wave height, ship speed, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, latitude and longitude. He’s been geeking out the whole way.We booked a midship room because the helpful people at  said we’d experience less rocking and rolling if the seas got rough because we’d be the axis point, and it's proved to be good advice. The third night out we were in what the captain called a moderate gale, and we were fine. There is a swimming pool, four hot tubs, a library, a fitness center with a full retinue of weight machines, free weights and tred mills, a casino, various shops, nine restaurants, a theater, bunches of bars and lounges of course, a spa and salon where you can get facials, massage, acupuncture, manicures, pedicures, hair cuts, coloring and styling, Botox, Dysport, Restylane and Perlane injections and teeth whitening procedures (I know; it’s a wonder I haven’t taken up residece there), a child care center, ping pong, shuffle board, a basketball court, a large theater, a photography studio and an art gallery where prints by Picasso and Chagall for sale.There are six additional-fee restaurants (French, Italian and so on), but passengers can eat in the buffet and the two main dining restaurants at no cost because it's included in the price of the cruise. This might lead one to surmise that the part-of-the-package food and meals might be mediocre — Paul had in fact read some reviews of the food where passengers had rated the food as just “okay” — but we beg to differ. Every meal has been quite good from the morning breakfast buffet to the lunch and dinner buffets, and our from-the-menu dinners in the main dining room have been truly superb; honestly they would be $100 meals at home. Kudos to the chefs!!And if you’d like room service, a menu of salads, soups and sandwiches is available 24 hours a day at no charge except from midnight to 5:00 AM when there is a $3.95 service fee, or you can get a pizza for $5.00, and the pizza is surprisingly awesome. The twice-nightly shows, also at no additional cost, have been such a surprise because they're first-rate. Since Paul is a musician and I have logged by now thousands of hours of listening to small group and big band jazz, symphonic orchestra performances and Broadway shows, we were prepared to find the on-board productions lame. Not the case. The shows we’ve attended have all been as good as anything we’ve seen at the Des Moines Civic Center and better than some we've seen in Las Vegas. Last night for example, we were entertained by a Russian husband and wife acrobat duo and a troupe of singers and dancers who are every bit as professional as the ones we were just awed by at the Des Moines Symphony New Years Eve Pops concert. There are also two great house bands, but the lounge singers, I must say however, are universally bad.One last item of significance: the staff is phenomenal. We have been looked after attentively, cheerfully, respectfully, thoroughly and thoughtfully. They must have one heck of a screening and training program.So color us happy — very happy.

*** Edited 1/20/15 by Community Manager to remove links comply with our Community Guidelines ***

The staff was very attentive to our needs and helpful.  The food was excellent.  One of the staff members explained to me how the fitness center worked when I misunderstood and thought I had to pay an additional fee to go to the fitness center----which I did not have to do.  Also, I was thinking about not doing any shore excursions because my husband had knee surgery and I didn't know if he was able to walk that much and the excursion staff helped me to choose some outstanding excursions which were very good for us.  I have been on several cruises but this is the first time I have been on Norwegian.  I will definitely be returning and will tell all my friends this is where they need to cruise!!

Compared to 15 other cruises this was a nice medium sized ship, 10 years old and still in good shape.  One of the nicest (but small) interior cabins I've ever had.  I didn't realize it was so far from the Airport to the cruise port (about a 45 minute/mile drive on the $180 Norwegian shuttle, or about $200 by taxi) with not the best scenery I've ever seen, mostly oil refineries from the airport to the cruise dock and back.  The cruise itself went well, great weather and excursions in Cozumel and Belize, and some rain at the picturesque new port (Trujillo) in Honduras, looks like Bali.  The food was ok, not the greatest I've ever had (no lobster, the duck and escargot were off my taste) but certainly ok, especially the Australian rack of lamb, and the service was very good.  What was the best part was the killer price for the cruise, made up for any other shortcomings, and all-in-all, well worth it, one of the best cruise vacation values ever.  The Cozumel dune buggy/snorkel excursion booked through was probably the best excursion I've ever had on the now 16 cruises, 5 things to do in one package for a very low price, a terrific value.  I'm glad we went on this one.

Wi-Fi

Why was the cost of Wi-Fi so high? With people around the world today so connected to the Internet, the absolute best service you could provide for your guests would be access to the Internet at a minimal charge. 

For the very low price that we paid it was defiantly a great experience! However, it is called off-season for a reason. The weather was not nice which caused the boat to slightly saw back and forth throughout the entire voyage. Also, we did not get to see as much of Honduras due to poor weather. 

The staff on the ship was excellent and very accommodating. The performances were stunning. There were some shows that I went to twice because they were so good!

My friend and I did not get the Unlimited Dinning Package so we ate in the main dinning rooms for most of our dinners and lunches. The food in the dinning rooms was good but I was not of as high of a quality as the Carnival cruise I took several years ago. 

The ports are not so exciting but overall a great cruise to relax and spend time with family and friends. Ship personnel are friendly and efficient. Cabins were nice and clean. 

This was a great cruise and I would definitely recommend this to everyone. The room was extra nice and the Norwegian staff and service personnel were always friendly and accommodating. The food is the very best and the freestyle dining/entertainment is the only way to go. The entertainment for New Year's evening could have been better...it was a let down, since we paid premium price for this cruise. However, again, I will state a great cruise and I would do it again and I will. 

Disappointed they did not serve lobster. I have always had lobster at least one night. It seemed like the buffet had the same thing every day.  The captain wanted to beat the fog in and came in to the pier the night before, so they shut down the stores, casino and bars at 6 pm. 

This cruise was very nice, all the staff were wonderful, entertainment great, we loved the ports and of course we loved the food, no complaint here.Would recommend it to any family. Merry Christmas to all NCL

The additional charges will quickly add up on you so be prepared!  There wasn't an cruise shuttlebus from Hobby Airport so be prepared to pay at least $70 one-way.  Make sure you have money to tip the porters who load you luggage.  If you're bringing you personal wine/champagne be prepared to pay $15 per 750ml  or $30 per 1.75ml.  There's a $12.50 per person per day charge for grautuities that is charged which I'm sure isn't distributed equally amongst the crew who so well deserved it.  If your are physically challenged then you're going to have a tough time maneuvering on the tender boats that take you into 2 of the 3 ports.  The entertainment was definitely not packing a big punch.  The initial price for the cruise is great but when you start adding up all of the extra expenses than they far outweighed the cost of the cruise.  If you are a resident of the state of Texas and you're able to go at the last minute then you get the best deal available.  Otherwise, the rest of us are going to get nickeled and dimed to death!

Small rooms, unboard staff unfriendly and uncooperative. Charge to use the steam room and sauna? Outrageous! $149 for the week. With 600 children on cruise, only place to escape was this area. Had to ask three times for water to be filled and twice for hot water for tea. Staff looked as if I were the enemy. Gave up asking. Never again NCL. Only smiling staff I found was the bar stops who got tipped. Food wait was at least half an hour. Specialities restaurants were too expensive. And too many of them. Could it lay up on deck to watch the stars because the stacked all of the lounge chairs at sunset.

The Norwegian Jewel and it's staff provided above service in all areas.  My complaint is with Cheap Cruises.  It started with the inability to reach, or receive a return telephone call from Kim Weidler.  No one in my party was able to reach her with our various questions prior to the cruise, which resulted in some problems aboard ship.  Fortunately, the Norwegian staff did what they could to make us happy, and all went well from that point. I have cruised with Norwegian previously, as well as Carnival.  I liked the diversity of ages represented on Norwegian; Carnival seemed more focused on the 40 and under age group. I also liked the entertainment better on Norwegian; the Deja Vu (not sure of name) duo was spectacular, as well as the juggler.

I also enjoyed the food, especially in O'Shannon's and Azura.  Excellent service, fasicnating menu and attentive wait staff.  Oh, and the photographers - outstanding.  I have a large selection of pictures to chose from upon my departure, with lasting memories of my family and friends.

Only down side was the pull out bed.  It wasn't very comfortable initially, however once our room steward learned of this, he immediately took steps to ensure our comfort.  Way to go Barrington!.

I will not be using Cheap Cruises in the future.

12th cruise, first and last time on Norwegian. Staff is too busy to be attentive. Do not care for the "freestyle" cruising at all. Room was never as clean as on other cruises. My in room coffee pot had water left in it and a HAIR.  Will not cruise this cruise line again. 

First let me say that a friend of mine told me that we'd either love it or hate it being this was our very first cruise. I wouldn't say that I hated it, let's just say I wouldn't do another cruise and will stick with all-inclusive deals instead. There were just too many people in a restricted place to deal with. The crew was always nice and courteous but the passengers were very rude and discourteous. No one let people pass by or if they did you were knocked or shouldered as you passed. Unfortunately after this happened to me a couple of times I had to reciprocate just to make it through the crowd. There were some places on the ship that had some harmonic noise and was difficult to stay in those areas for any length of time. The restaurants were good but nothing to brag about. Since the cruise line has to satisfy differing tastes the food was more on the bland side than anything else. We had prime rib the first night. It was cooked to my liking and tender but didn't have any flavor. I also had a steak one evening in the main dining room with the same results. This was a major factor in not going to the on-board (extra cost) steak house. We did take in the Japanese hibachi one evening and enjoyed that (this is also an extra cost restaurant). Other than that we ate mainly at the buffet and a couple of meals at the pub. We also had lunch at the pool one day where they fired up charcoal grills on a daily basis. The ship was clean and well maintained and the prices for extras (pop, beer, wine, drinks) was reasonable. I did want to partake in a cigar and cognac but the night I wanted to do this the ship was in a bit of rough water and I wasn't quite up to doing it. Since this was our first cruise we decided to splurge a little on the room and got a mini-suite with balcony off the rear of the ship. Nice views. We really tried to enjoy ourselves but never really got into vacation mode again mainly because of the people and confinement. Usually after a couple of days at a beach resort we are in full vacation mode. Another reason we'll probably not go on another cruise is the costs. We spent as much money before the cruise for the trip as we would have for an all-inclusive and we still had to pay for our transportation to the embarkation port and anything on the boat (including mandatory tips called service charges on the bill). Going to various ports turned out not to be a big thing for us since most ports were pretty much the same and very commercial. You really don't get a real flavor for the areas. We did have some fun in Cozumel. My son and I went to swim with the dolphins. We've wanted to do this for a while now and finally did it. When we do all-inclusive vacations we usually hire a taxi for the day the have them take us around the area. We see more that way and get some local flavor. For us, all-inclusive resorts is the vacation choice.

This was out first cruise and had an amazing time.  It was do much fun with lots of variety in activities, shore excursions, etc... The food in the boat was amazing and didn't have to purchase any meals on board.  There were many options whether buffet of fine dining that were included in the cost.  Staff was great, cleaned stateroom often even multiple times in a day.  Ports were great (recommend Jeep tour in Cozummel, Cave tiding in Belize, and Zip Lining in Roatan).  I'd avoid the beach in Roatan unless you take a boat out - very busy with people consistently trying to sell you stuff or massages.  But highly recommend and will definitely take a cruise again.  Groups on board were mainly older but options for younger ages and families too.