Norwegian Jewel Cruises Reviews

Thursday 9th Feb 2012

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Norwegian Jewel

Baltic Cruise Summer 2009 From Dover With Babies!

Baltic cruise summer 2009 from Dover with babies!

Reviewed By: Richmond, Newcastle Upon Tyne on 3rd Mar 2010
Cruise Line: NCL Cruises	Times cruised before: 1-2
Cruise Ship: Norwegian Jewel	Sailed: July, 2009
Destination: Baltic	Age: 26-35
Cabin: Balcony	Occasion: Family holiday

I meant to write this review on our return last summer but never found the time. Now that we are looking to book up for this years cruise i thought i would share our experiences with you all. Firstly we flew from Newcastle to London Heathrow the day before sailing and found that the NCL coach transfer service was not running that day due to lack of demand. This left us 2 real options. Firstly take the train via central London. With one year old twins in tow that was not a great option as it involved a cross london taxi trip to change stations for the connection to Dover. Our prefered option was to book a chauffer transfer service. This was fantastic (if not cheap) as we were picked up from LHR in a large mercedes people carrier and taken straight to our Dover hotel (The Ramada - the best Hotel in the area by all accounts). No stress and happy kids. Job done. Next day we got a local taxi to the terminal (10 mins drive) and had a speedy boarding process with minimal wait. The rooms were not quite ready but the buffet opened promptly and this seemed to make everyone happy! Our first impressions of the ship were very positive and the ship as a whole is spotlessly clean and well maintained. Our room was nice and pretty much as we expected. We booked a mini suite which was really nothing more than a balcony cabin with an added curtain seperating our bed from the seating/baby sleeping area. We managed to squeeze in two travel cots (NCL provided) end to end infront of the sofa (once we asked our steward to remove the chair and small coffee table). We still had room to walk past the cots to access the balcony. NCL would not have allowed us to put two travel cots in a standard balcony cabin - too small - I would have to agree that our cabin was 'cosy' with the extra cots and i think we would have struggled in anything smaller. All baby supplies (nappies, jars of food, milk etc) had to brought on board by us as NCL do not offer anything other than a few emergeny supplies in the shop. We stocked up at Tesco in Dover to save bringing them all the way from home. Regualar (long life) cows milk was freely available in the buffet to take to the room and we did use it as the little people at 13 months were ok with that. We found that feeding the babies at the buffet worked a treat with plenty of choices (grilled chicken, vegetables, pasta etc) on offer and they enjoyed finding new foods to try! We then ate later (with them in tow) at various restaurants onboard. The choice of restaurants onboard is excellent and we really didnt mind paying the surcharges ($15-25) to eat in the speciality venues and actually did so most nights. We found the main restaurants acceptable but nothing special. Our favourites were the Chinese and the steak house. The kids were welcome in ALL of the restaurants and we were never made to feel like we were out of place. On the contrary the staff went out of their way to interact with the children and one evening in the steak house a chef took a special trip to obtain and modify a tall chefs hat for our son as he had pointed at it in the dining room. Exceptional service and that was typical of the level of service we received from EVERY member of staff onboard. We largely did our own thing in port and found it easy everywhere other than St. Petersburg where we booked a two day custom excursion in a mini van as none of the standard trips (NCL or independant) could cater for the children. Expensive but worth it as we saw ALL of the major sites over two days at our own pace with a private guide and driver. One note of caution was that our firm (Denrus tours) provided infant seats but did not know how to fit them properly. I eventually managed to do it myself but it would be worth having the firm email you pictures of the seats in advance to ensure you are happy with them as the ones we had were a bit old. The firms representative did acknowledge this and said that they realised that upgrades were required. The baltic and its cities are fantastic places to visit and very very pretty. More so than many of the Mediterranean cities in my opinion. Stockholm was a particular highlight and probably the most atractive city we have ever visited. The sail out from this port is particualrly good, especially from your own balcony with a beer in hand. Magic! In summary this was our first cruise but will certainly not be our last. It was fantastic in every way and suited us perfectly. Many people may say that the extra cost for the speciality restaurants in unreasonable but you are not forced to eat there and if you only used them once or twice on a cruise I am sure you would consider it good value. Likewise the Ncl policy of adding set price tips to your account is unpopular with some but as we have travelled extensivley throughout north America we accept the tipping culture which is not the same in the U.K. and again we thought that the level of service we received merited the service charge and saved me having to worry about tipping every waiter at every meal. NCL surpassed our expectations of cruising as first timers and we would not hesitate to book with them again. Other cruise lines may offer a more high end product (michelin star dining is not a priority with one year old twins) but with two babies in tow we really did not want to have set meal times or formal dress codes forced upon us, and as a young family NCL and the Baltic suited us perfectly. Right can I have my free book now?
Quality of Food
The speciality restaurants were a welcome addition - the chinese and steak house were best. The main restaurants were acceptable but underwhelming.
Entertainment	n/a
We didnt see any shows due to our sleeping babies.
Shore Excursions	n/a
No ships excursions taken. All ports of call were excellent though.
Staff
Every member of staff we encountered was helpfull and friendly, especially to the children.
Children's Facilities
Although our children were too young to use the main kids clubs, a baby 'zoo' was set up in a function room with some toys for use by under two's. Better than nothing but not fantastic. Most cruise lines seem to ignore kids under two or three years. Shame. Also there are no baby change faculities in any of the public toilets on board meaning a tip to the cabin if an 'event' occurs. Quite poor for a 'family friendly' ship!
Onboard Activities	n/a
We had our own enteratainment with us!
Cabins
Good cabins, clean and fairly well appointed but then I have nothing to compare with as it was our first cruise!
Overall Rating