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Norwegian Cruise Line

MS Norwegian Jewel

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Stephen Sandler
# previous cruises: 3
Date of Trip: December 25, 2005
Itinerary: Caribbean - Western

A very professional operation that is very highly reccommended. The crew and ship staff were always polite, informative and approachable .The restaurant selection was excellent, just right for the freestyle dining formula. One point I made to the reception staff was that the company should not advertise "embark at your leisure". This is not true at all. You have to leave the ship when told and in our case this meant being up at 7:30 to meet the immigration officials prior to leaving the ship around 11am, after getting to bed very late indeed after New Years Eve. My point is that it was unavoidable and so why advertise leave the ship at your leisure? Any cruise ship has to dock, disembark, clean, and them embark fresh passengers. It is simply misleading and disappointing when claims such as this are made. All in all though a great cruise.

There were two pools, one was supposed to be for adults only but it never worked out like that which was a pity. They needed a crew member on hand to ask parents to keep their children to their own facilities. Also I did not like couples smoking in the jacuzzi but again there was no crew member to ask them not to.

Otherwise all other areas rated excellent.

We loved Tsars Palace and did not like Azuro so we just didn't use it again, how easy. Cagney's was great as was Le Bistrot, Mama s was good and the Blue Lagoon ideal for a sit down snack type lunch if you did not want the grill on deck. Some passengers found the lack of a Midnight Buffet disappointing but personally it did not bother us. It was great being able to choose a different dining experience every night more like a land based experience than a cruise.

Excellent no problems at all. We were two adults and a large teenage son and we found it quite OK. The cabin steward was excellent folding the towels into animal shapes to greet us as we came back to the cabin late at night.

Very good. The Cruise Director Paul Byat was first class and helped make the shows go with a buzz. The last night show in particular was 5 star rated.

Good as far as we used them Jamaica was excellent Roatan was not really value for money.

We tended not to form special friendships with any one group but remained on nodding terms with many. This for us was why we chose a freestyle experience .