[ 08-08-2005: Message edited by: Matts ]

Like you, I was pleasantly surprised with my short cruise on PRIDE OF AMERICA. It was a "new" NCL and I liked what I saw and experienced. I was so impressed I booked the ship for a full cruise departing in October. I also hope to try JEWEL in the not so distant future.

First, the positive points: well, the ship is finished and is good. I would say that in terms of fixtures & fittings it felt a tad better than Sinfonia, but only to a small degree. Everything worked (physically) and it all looked great.

The food was very good quality. The evenings meals were superb, and I would say that the buffet breakfasts & afternoon snack we had (in the Garden Restaurant, deck 12) were also good - hot food was indeed hot, which was something that the equivalent restaurant on Sinfonia rarely managed. And there was a good range of choices, both at dinner and in the buffet.

The downsides are mainly to do with the dining arrangements, and the price of drinks. This was our first experience of Freestyle Dining, and it didn't really work for us. We were unable to get a seat at a suitable time in the restaurant of our choice on Saturday night, and instead ended up queueing for 20 minutes to get into one of the standard restaurants - from about 8:45 to a bit after 9pm.

On Sunday we dined in the french restaurant (Le Bistro) which was superb but also cost us $30 extra. In fact. with the bottle of wine we bought, which at $42 was one of the cheaper bottles, plus the 15% added to the drinks bill, Sunday night cost us almost $80. Sure, it was good, but for that much it damn well should have been. Note also that we had booked the Sunday meal on Saturday, and they had some difficulty fitting us in even 24 hours in advance.

Finally, drinks prices were very high. It was hard to find a glass of wine at dinner for less than $6.50; most were $7.50 and upwards. And the price you actually paid had 15% added to it. On Saturday we had a couple of glasses of Californian Merlot - perfectly pleasant, though not great - which were $7.50 each, plus 15% = $17.75. And the size of the 'glass' wasn't quoted, so we don't know how much was in those glasses.

On top of all that, there was a $10 per night per person 'service charge' added to the cabin account. So for two of us, that was an extra $40. This replaces the conventional 'tip in the envelope' for the waiter & cabin steward. I overheard some grumbles about this charge at the cashier's desk this morning.

So our view on Freestyle Dining is not positive. For us, knowing that at the end of the day we would have to start worrying about dinner - will we get in?, how long will we have to wait? who will we end up sitting with? - is enough to put us right off the concept. We prefer to know what the arrangements are - we'll quite happily plan our day to fit in with them. And you lose the personal touch, however minimal & transitory it is - even on a 1 week's cruise, our waiter on Sinfonia had got to know us & what we liked & routinely had. With Freestyle you might have a different waiter every night.

I gather that the problem was that there were numerous visitors on board that day, and they were supposed to be off by 2pm, thus freeing up the car park spaces. Well, they weren't, so the car park was still occupied with visitors' cars. Many arriving passengers found that there was no space for them, so they were told they had to park at an off-site car park somewhere in Dover and use a shuttle bus to get back to the terminal. There was a lot of unhappy expressions on people's faces as they drove back along the access road having queued for an hour or so already.

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around midnight Sunday on the way across the North Sea to Dover one felt the ship moving a fair bit for the first time in the cruise, turned on the TV channel to find we were in a force 10 - very rough sea

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Tom, fell free to submit a review of your experience as well.

I have also added a photo of the N. Jewel:

Larger Version

Thanks for sharing.

[ 08-08-2005: Message edited by: BigUFan ]

We were sat with another couple on Satrday night who had cruised with NCL in the Caribbean n a Freestyle ship. They said that it seemd to work well there - there were never any queues.

So perhaps the type of cruise might makes a difference? Perhaps a caribean cruise will be less structured anyway, thus supporting a model where passengers dine at any time between 5:30 and 10.

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Originally posted by FranKes2000:
I am going on the Trail of the Vikings Sept 4 and was interested in all the comments. I was on Norwegian Dream last year in the Baltic and am not keen on the Freestyle dining as we queued most nights, if the hostess did not like you she would forget you.

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Keep in mind that NORWEGIAN DREAM was not built for Freestyle cruising and this is painfully apparent. My experience on her was not good, and like you the waits were excessive and annoying for dinner.

JEWEL is custom built for Freestyle, with more restaurants and more options. There are also the flat screens information panels which at the very least will tell you where the lowest wait time is. I'm still not certain Freestyle is for me, but I'm putting it to the test on PRIDE OF AMERICA in October. I have high hopes.

She visited Helsinki yesterday, and I took some photos of her. I was really impressed by her exterior looks, especially the paint job. The photos can be seen here.

FOOD: There are an amazing choice of places to dine aboard Jewel and the menus are quite extensive, that is unless you are a vegetarian. Vegetarian options on the menus in most restaurants were restricted to just two options (eat the one choice on the menu or go without). In this day and age one choice of dish on a menu is just not good enough & for the first three days of the cruise my wife had difficulty finding anything hot which suited her taste. Following my complaint (in writing) to reception I was contacted by Mirsad Bucuk the ships Restuarant Manager to discuss the problem. I was informed that as he had no idea how many vegetarians were aboard only one choice was provided to avoid unwanted food being wasted. Judging by the amount of "normal food" being wasted at each meal I don't think two or three vegetarian options would make a great deal of difference. The following day I was again contacted by Misad and told that there would now be a separate vegetarian menu available from which a choice could be made and ordered on the day prior to dining (freestyle dining?).
This was hastily changed to there being a seperate vegetarian menu available in all restaurants on request, but this would involve something of a wait as the dish must be prepared when ordered. As we had met several other vegetarians onboard I asked Misad how they were going to know about this 'secret menu'
and suggested that this information was printed at the bottom of the main daily menu for each restaurant. He agreed that this was an excellent idea but would only agree to place the information in the daily ship's newspaper. Well at least we made some progress & hopefully NCL will take this into consideration for future cruises.
One other thing to add here is that with Freestyle Dining you chose what you want to do, and contrary to what others have said about not getting to know waiters and other passengers due to being seated at different tables at different times, it is perfectly O.K. to request the same table in the same restaurant with the same waiter throughout your cruise, FREESTYLE DINING!

ENTERTAINMENT: The Theatre entertainment had its ups and downs but generally the standard dropped as the cruise progressed. This being said, the Cruise Director, Paul Baya, and all of his staff, particularly the assistant Cruise Director Mike, were all excellent and the various organised game shows etc throughout the ship were quite remarkable and well received by all of the passengers. A particular mention must go to the ship's two main musical ensembles; The Norwegian Jewel Showband & The resident group, The Ironics, both of whom were extremely professional and unbelieveably versatile.

CABINS: The cabins were very well appointed, we were on deck 8 outside with window, and on a par with anything an equivalent star rated Hotel could supplyashore. My only gripe here would be the thickness of the walls, we had to request a cabin move due to the rowdiness of two teenagers in the next cabin. However I suppose that this is one of the areas in which compromises must be made in order to squeeze in as many passengers as possible, resulting in ever higher profits.

CHILDREN: Now, I don't know whether it was because of this being one of only a very few times that the Jewel will be sailing from England, or the fact that it was the school holidays, or a mixture of both, but the amount of children on board during this particular cruise was phenominal. They were using the whole ship as a playground, including the stairways and not exactly showing this beautiful new ship the respect that she deserved. It was virtually impossible to gain access to either of the swimming pools or the six hot tubs as they were always filled with children, even late into the evening. In fact it became so bad that during the second week an anouncement was made that one of the hot tubs was to become for adult use only. I think that one of the pools and probably two of the hot tubs should be permanently designated as being for adult use only. If you prefer a quiet relaxing environment when you cruise then perhaps this is not the ship for you. Maybe this will change when the Jewel relocates to America, who knows.

DRINKS: As previously mentioned by others drinks on board are particularly expensive, a fact that was actually mentioned by various members of the crew. Even the Cruise Director mentioned it when joking that "The passengers will not get drunk on board because they won't be able to afford it at these prices."
Add to this the 15% service charge (mentioned on the bar bill as being "for your convenience" ) and you have the beginnings of an extremely large hole in your pocket.

EXCURSIONS: Don't do them! Very expensive & not worth the money, so I was reliably informed. I didn't actually take any of them and did all ports alone. If you want to go to Rome or Florence/Pisa use public transport or pre-book a car online. I did this through Avis Car Rental and had no problems at all getting to Florence for a total of £56 or $94 for four of us (we took along two American friends). Compared to the 'Florence on your own' excursion at $97 per person I think we did particlarly well.

GRATUITIES: $10 a day per head, what's all this about? I always thought that a gratuity or tip was given to the person providing the service, by the person receiving the service, if that person felt that the service which they received was over and above that which should be reasonably expected. Not as a compulsory charge intended wholly as a subsidy to the staff wage bill. NCL even have the audacity to state in their explanation of gratuities and tips that if you feel that you have received services that are over and above what you would reasonably expect "Please feel free to show your recognition of this by individually tipping the person providing that service".
I would suggest that this $10 Dollars per head be added to the ticket prices up-front, giving the passenger the option to tip on board as and when they feel the necessity.

DIS-EMBARKATION: What a farce!!! The process was carried out by luggage label colour and took an age. When you were eventually called you were herded off the ship like cattle arriving at a slaughterhouse. Having docked at around 0800hrs our ticket colour was called at 1055hrs. When we got ashore and through Customs (another farce in itself, I never actually saw one passport checked) there were a number of coaches with drivers who had no idea who they were taking where and a shuttle bus which must have been a better kept secret than the elusive vegetarian menu. There was not a single crew member in sight to advise or help and you were left with a feeling of "Well we have taken all of their money now it's every man for himself". It eventually cost me £5 for a taxi to the off-port overflow car park, and we eventually left Dover at 1245hrs. by the time we actually got home the Americans on the 1500hrs flight back to the USA were well into their flight.

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The photos are great.. except for that dead on stern! Eeek, that really makes her look like a brick and completely square.

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I agre, square-on from astern is her worst profile. She looks much better from a 45-degree astern angle - the slope of the rear of her stern into the sea is more apparent.

Interestingly, standing on the stern section of her promenade deck while she's running at speed gives an impressive view - there's a very considerable impression of power and speed. And the slope of that lower part of the stern leads the eye very easily into the wake and then further astern.

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Originally posted by Tom Burke:
I agree, square-on from astern is her worst profile.

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Newbuilds are like many women, they can have nice faces but do not always look so good from the stern!

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Originally posted by Tom Burke:
My reservation are principally about the human systems on board her; Norwegian Jewel herself is fabulous.

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Cruise lines would replace the human-systems, if it was not for the fact that they are so cheap to buy and run!

[ 08-28-2005: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

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Originally posted by Tezza:
CHILDREN: Now, I don't know whether it was because of this being one of only a very few times that the Jewel will be sailing from England, or the fact that it was the school holidays, or a mixture of both, but the amount of children on board during this particular cruise was phenominal.

I have read other reports on this trip which say the same as you. There were apparently over 500 children aboard. Unfortunately it was prime holiday season and I would have expected a lot, but no excuse for the behaviour.

This is when the pool design on N Jewel fails. If the kids area was well away, that would take some of the parents too at times. It would alleviate everyone being in the same area at once. It would also be so simple to make the forward pool and hot tubs 'Adult Only' during kid full sailings, as most only want the waterslide pool anyway. One hot tub for adults is not enough.

Kids seem to be becoming a problem as I have recently read of over 1100 on one Carnival sailing totally wrecking the ship, intimidating & bullying and so on I think they will have to take a leaf out of Princess', P&O's & Olsen's books and limit the number of under 18's aboard at any one time.

EXCURSIONS:
<snip bit>
Compared to the 'Florence on your own' excursion at $97 per person I think we did particlarly well.

It never fails to amaze me how US lines get away with charging double the price for identical excursions to European lines. That is utterly ridiculous. On Pullmantur that excursion was Euro 38.. = £26, $94 = £52.. double! & you can bet they use the same local tour companies. When in St Petersburg at the ballet one evening, the couple next to us were on a US ship, doing the same excursion and had paid exactly double what we had for it. Perhaps they are clawing back for the cheaper initial fares.

GRATUITIES: $10 a day per head, what's all this about?

This is now standard on US lines, and has crept across to Europe. P&O will have the same system next season as well. I used to prefer it when we [from the UK] had it included up front, even with NCL a few years back, but that also led to other pax sneering at you for not leaving a tip.. little did they know unless you put them right. One bonus is that it is the same across the board. I don't like the intimidation for extra tips, especially the box on drink receipts to fill in! As you say, the prices of drinks on Jewel are over the top, especially when they overcharge too, it happened to me, and to others I read.

DIS-EMBARKATION: to the off-port overflow car park

How did you get put out there? Did you have the 'free parking' option? I saw the shuttles on our trip, but were of the small type & wouldn't have taken many people.

FINALLY: Although this report may appear to be nothing but complaints this is not actually true. All in all the cruise was great, the ship was fantastic and I would probably give NCL another try. I will be monitoring future reports to see if NCL actually listen to their passengers comments.

Thanks for all the comments and glad you enjoyed it overall. I am sure NCL will take note of the comment cards. I wrote a lot... so I hope the food in the Garden Cafe was at least warm on your cruise? She's a lovely ship overall, a few quirks, but well worth sailing

Pam

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[ 08-28-2005: Message edited by: PamM ]

It does not seem fair, but it's not a level playing field. The American's may have paid lower fares for the cruise, than us European's do. American's earn more on average than Brits, for example. As for Ballet; Tickets for broadway show tend to cost more that west end shows.

There may be other differeances: Americans may book more excursions, Europeans might 'go it alone' more? They probably spend more in the Casino? I bet they tip better. Maybe they drink and generally spend more onboard?

[ 08-28-2005: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

Generally I expect Americans in Europe do far more ship tours than Europeans do. They have no language problems then and like to be 'together', whereas it doesn't make any difference to Europeans.. if someone from say Spain gets left behind from a 'DIY' in France, it's no problem for them, compared to someone from the US.

But I still do not think charging double is right. The European lines are still making a profit from the excursions.

Pam

[ 08-28-2005: Message edited by: PamM ]