On April 22 my wife and I embarked on a 15 day trans-atlantic cruise on the Norwegian Jewel. It was awesome. The ship is beautiful; the crew was fantastic. We had sailed on NCL in Hawaii last summer and it was terrible. The service was horrible. But on the Jewel (because it's not an American registered ship and primarily has an international crew) was superb. The check-in was slow and hot. But once on the ship we couldn't ask for better. The food was excellent. The specialty restaurants were great. We chose to visit a specialty restaurant 3 times and made reservations between 5:30-6:00 in order to get the 2-for-1 deal ($20 for Cagney's Steakhouse and $15 for the Le Bistro). Food in those 2 places was fantastic.

The sea was extremely calm - almost like glass the entire trip. The were a few small whitecaps in the Mediterranean but very smooth. The temperatures was about 65-75 but breezy. It wasn't like Caribbean cruise temperatures. But they kept the pool temperatures at 82 and 88 degrees. Being at sea for a week before the first port-of-call was one of the best parts of the trip.

The nightly entertainment was awesome. The big NCl shows were incredible. Entertainment in the lounges was very good, too. Read more