Hi Pikeyh
We will be on the Jewel for the transatlantic trip 4th Sep.We were on the Dawn for the first sailing which was a transatlantic crossing as well, Had a great time.

The Jewel is new so nothing to comment on her, had a very enjoyable 15n Panama trip this year on the Sun. The freestyle worked for us on the trip. Have a look at the cruisecritic roll calls to see if there is any interest from across the pond you may be able to add some info for our American friends on the med destinations.

Freestyle means you have to plan your dinning times not to clash with evening events.

My wife & I are going on an Hawaiian cruise for first time on Feb. 10, 2007 on NCL Wind with http://www.norwegian-cruise-lines.net.
Since we did not want to take the 4-5 days to cruise from the west coast before getting to Hawaii, we were pretty much limited to NCL, which seems to "own" Hawaii.

My concern is this: Since NCL is the only cruise line that does just Hawaii, would that mean that they have less incentive to give good service? Having no competition from other cruise lines is a concern.

We have been on two cruises before, both in the Caribbean. There, many cruise lines "battle" for the market.

Not certain why the same is not true for Hawaii? Please let me know if the "lack" of competition for the Hawaii cruise is valid as a concern?

You may get more answers to what you want to know on

http://www.cruisecritic.com

We are cruising with NCL in December, but it will be our first time with them. I have used cruise critic for a lot of my questions.

Marn.

We were on the NCL Wind in June on an Alaskan cruise.

We had a great time although the Wind does look a bit tired, believe its one of the oldest ships in the NCL fleet.

Compared to Princess I thought the food choice and quality wasn't as good but the shows, entertainment, especially the dance troupe were far superior and there were a lot of places to sit down and have a quiet relaxing drink, no smoking is enforced at all bars down the starboard side.

The waiter service restaurants were very efficient and freestyle dining always worked for us. Never a problem getting a seat for two next to the window and the floor to celing windows provide spectacular views while you are dining.

The only other problem we found was trying to find a sunbed on the at sea days mainly because some other passengers were reserving six for two people claiming their friends were joining them later. One of the staff kindly "confiscated" two of the beds for us much to the annoyance of the guy who claimed he had some friends though we never saw any!

I travelled on the Norwegian Sun last year from Vancouver to Alaska.
Could not fault them, very good ship, food was excellent, staff were fantastic. Would def travel with them again no issues.

Has anyone ever cruised with NCL we are looking to stay/cruise orlando and the carribean

beatles fan- NCL doesn't cruise out of Port Canaveral. The closest would be out of Miami and they have the Pearl and the Jewel doing Caribbean cruises from there.
If you want a cruise that leaves from Port Canaveral (close to Orlando) then have a look at RCCL' s Mariner of the Seas, for a 7 night,or for shorter cruise look at Sovereign of the Seas.
Happy travels.

Thanks for that i will have a look.

We are going on the Norwegian Jewel Baltic Capitals and after reading some of the reports is it right that when you first arrive on the ship that they Scan you luggage for drink. We always get take a bottle of something on holiday so you can have a drink while getting ready in the evening. But we have never been on a cruise before so this is something we have never come across before.

Post above transferred from another topic.

luci

we put a couple of wine boxes in our luggage and they got through on the pearl last year.