Norwegian Jewel revisited

Norwegian Cruise Line is in the spotlight this week. Its new ship, Norwegian Breakaway, is coming to New York to take up residence. This is an exciting prospect as Breakaway appears to combine the innovativeness of Norwegian Epic with the quality of a Meyer Werft ship.

Norwegian has had two ships based in New York for some time now. With Breakaway's arrival, one of those ships, Norwegian Jewel, will be re-deployed to other itineraries.

However, as Jewel takes up her new life cruising to Alaska this summer and to the Caribbean from New Orleans and Houston this coming winter, we wanted to update and expand our coverage of the ship. http://beyondships.com/NCLJewel.html

To that end, we spoke with Hotel Director Hugo Vanosmael about the various dining options on Jewel. Freestyle dining is all about giving the guests options. So to help you make these choices, we have put together a dining guide to Norwegian Jewel. It is posted at http://www.beyondships2.com/norwegian-jewel-dining-guide.html

Along the same lines, we have updated our Norwegian Jewel menus page. This includes the new menu for Cagney's steakhouse. http://www.beyondships2.com/norwegian-jewel-menus.html

Jewel is a photogenic modern ship. With better than average speed, she also manages to get around. As a result, we have accumulated a number of good pictures of her in various ports in the Caribbean and The Bahamas this winter. These have been put together into a new photo essay. It is at http://www.beyondships2.com/norwegian-jewel-photo-essay.html

A new profile of Norwegian Jewel and a conversation with her captain

Before sitting down to write this, I asked myself what is there to like about Norwegian Jewel? After thinking it over, I decided there are several things that I like about this ship.




The Jewel, as she is known to her friends, was the lead ship in Norwegian Cruise Line’s Jewel class of cruise ships. For the last few years, she has been based for all or a large part of the year in New York and since I am also based there, the ship has become a familiar sight.



Starting with the basics, Jewel was built by the Meyer Werft shipyard in Pappenberg, Germany. Over the years, I have developed a high regard for Meyer Werft, which has produced such impressive ships as Celebrity’s Solstice class and Royal Caribbean’s Radiance class ships. Like fine sports cars, their ships are often fast and very maneuverable. They always are good quality. Norwegian Jewel is no exception.



Stepping inside, I like the fact that the ship is run with an eye towards innovation. In the early years of this century, NCL inaugurated the Freestyle dining concept, which has now been adopted in various forms by most of the major cruise lines. They also were a leader in basing their ships outside of the traditional Florida cruise ports so that passengers did not have to travel so far to get to the cruise. On Jewel, this spirit of innovation continues with various new programs that combine dining and entertainment.



I also like the service on the Jewel. The crew seems happy and I found that they make a real effort to please.



In the final analysis, however, it does not really matter what I think of a ship. Rather, what is important in deciding whether a particular ship is right for your cruise vacation is whether the ship offers a cruise experience that is consistent with your tastes, needs and preferences. Accordingly, I have updated and expanded the Beyondships profile of Norwegian Jewel with more information. http://www.beyondships.com/NCLJewel.html



It includes more menus from the main dining rooms and from the major specialty restaurants http://www.beyondships2.com/norwegian-jewel-menus.html as well as more daily programs (Freestyle Daily) .

http://www.beyondships2.com/norwegian-jewel-daily-programs-and-information.html

There is also a new interview with Captain Lars Bergstrom and Hotel Director Hugo Vanosmael in which they share their views on why Norwegian Jewel has been successful sailing out of New York. http://www.beyondships.com/NCLJewel-captain.html



There is our first-ever cruise ship slideshow. http://www.beyondships2.com/norwegian-jewel-slideshow.html



Finally, the photo tour and commentary has numerous new photos. Indeed, so many that I had to expand it by a page. The tour begins at http://www.beyondships.com/NCLJewel-Tour.html

Norwegian Jewel Cruise Ship Profile

Norwegian Jewel is one of the most recent class of Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) ships and one of the largest. Since she was the first one of this class, she does not have quite all of the features that are on the most recent ship, Norwegian Gem, but she is pretty much state-of-the-art Freestyle cruising.

Freestyle cruising is all about giving the guests options to design their own vacation. There are two large dining rooms, seven specialty restaurants, a buffet and several places for a light snack. There are bars, nightclubs, a large casino and a theater for production shows. Similarly, there are pools, a spa, a fitness center and various other sports facilities for daytime entertainment. The accommodations range from lavish luxury to comfortable but utilitarian. The idea is that you decide what is best for you.

Of course, with freedom comes responsibility. For example, the guest must make his or her own dinner arrangements. If they fail to do so, they may end up dining in a venue that they did not really want while the production show that they did want to see in the theater is taking place.

Jewel is somewhat similar in décor to the slightly smaller Norwegian Dawn. Both make use of bold colors but not overwhelmingly so. For the most part, the style is upscale contemporary. I was somewhat disappointed that Jewel does not have the amazing art collection that is on Dawn, but then one can’t really expect NCL to have Monets and Reniors on every ship. There are some very good Asian paintings, however, if one keeps an eye out.

Outside, Jewel is painted white with a festive mural on her bow and sides. It is not like a traditional ocean liner but then NCL is all about breaking with tradition. Jewel is a big happy-looking ship.

It should be noted that this ship is no slouch technologically. She is capable of 25 knots, making her one of the fastest passenger ships in service. Also, with her two azipods and three bow thrusters, she is highly maneuverable.

This ship is based out of Britain during the summer months, doing cruises to Northern Europe. Although the style is distinctly American, she has developed a substantial European following. Freedom of choice has an appeal that transcends national boundaries.

My profile of Norwegian Jewel with information, copies of menus and daily programs, is at http://beyondships.com/NCLJewel.html and the photographic tour and commentary begins at http://beyondships.com/NCLJewel-Tour.html