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It’s not quite officially summer yet, but we just got back from vacation, a 7-day Alaskan cruise on the Norwegian Jewel with my family. What an amazing way to kick off the summer!

Day 1 (Saturday, Seattle)

We all flew into SeaTac last night (my parents from Ohio and the three of us from Florida) and stayed in my sister’s apartment overnight. The six of us would be spending the next 7 days together in a stateroom on board the Jewel, so why not get used to it right off the bat? 😉

We’d been planning this trip for months and could not wait to get going on Saturday. Our two-bedroom stateroom was in The Haven, which came with all sorts of perks like being able to board whenever we wanted to. Late Saturday morning we drove my parents and the luggage down to the Bell Street Terminal at Pier 66 in a few back-and-forth trips before leaving the car in my sister’s garage and then walking back to the terminal (nice that she lived so close). The check-in process was a breeze and before we knew it we were through security and in a special private lounge getting our Freestyle cards and having a few snacks before being personally escorted onto the ship and up to our room on deck 14. Our stateroom (Lotus Suite) in The Haven was incredible. We were a little concerned that it would be a little crowded with the 6 of us but it turned out to not be a problem at all. We had our first meal on-board at Moderno (which was reserved for Haven guests for breakfast and lunch, a place we would be at often over the upcoming week) and then spent some time wandering about the Jewel learning the layout of our new home for the next seven days. This also included meeting our concierge (Bruno), butler (Ronald), and stateroom attendant (Joeffrey) who all contribute greatly to our enjoyment of the cruise. Soon after the mandatory safety drill, we were off! We left Seattle and Mt. Ranier behind and started our voyage north to the inside passage.

Day 2 (Sunday, at sea)

Our first at-sea was a foggy, rainy, and chilly one. Quite the difference from our prior cruises to the Carribbean! But the weather was expected and it was a perfect day to learn more about the Jewel’s offerings, attend activities and shows, and even catch the Cavaliers in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on the big TV in the Crystal Atrium (the Cavs got blown out 110-77, going down 2-0 in the series, ugh!). The Haven courtyard had a retractable glass roof (which stayed closed the entire time) which kept it warm and dry and we attended a cocktail reception where we got to meet Captain Pelle Fredriksson and some of the other senior staff of the Jewel including Evangelos (assistant hotel director), Gio (cruise director) and Eddie Spaghetti (assistant cruise director).

Before going to bed we set our clocks back an hour as we sailed into AKDT, four hours behind home.

Day 3 (Monday, Ketchikan)

We woke up this morning (sunrise at 4:10am!) docked in Ketchikan, our first port-of-call. Our planned excursion was the Duck Tour, so after a family breakfast at Moderno, Bruno (our amazing concierge) walked us down to the dock to meet up with our tour. We noticed a few cruise ships docked out in the harbor which was because, our duck boat captain explained, just yesterday the Celebrity Infinity had crashed into the dock, rendering it unusable and causing millions of dollars in damage (right at the start of the cruise/tourist season too!). So those ships were tendering their passengers to shore in the life boats. Luckily, we were docked at a pier down the street.

The views in Alaska are incredible. We knew it was going to beautiful but really had no idea until we actually got there. The duck tour was a nice way to see town and the surrounding areas without having to do a lot of walking. Eagles (and sea-planes) everywhere! After the tour we had time to walk around town near the piers and grab a salmon lunch at the Alaska Fish House before all-aboard time at 2:30pm (a quick stop!)

As we continued to cruise north, leaving Ketchikan behind, we started spotting whales from our balcony!

Day 4 (Tuesday, Juneau)

Another new day, another new port-of call. This morning (sunrise 3:58am!) we awoke in Juneau. Today our excursions were split: my wife, daughter, and parents were going whale watching and to the Mendenhall glacier. My sister and I were also going to the Mendenhall, but really going on it via a helicopter ride and hike:

The glaciers are incredible, just, wow …

It was another short time in port, with all-aboard time being 1:00pm (earlier than Ketchikan!), but that was because the captain took the ship up to the Endicott glacier. Our itinerary was supposed to take us past the Sawyer glacier, but that part of the Tracy Arm was too icy so we went to the other one instead. Seeing actual ice floes in the water was amazing and once we reached the glacier, Captain Pelle spun the ship slowly around so everyone had an incredible view (although by this time we were at dinner in Le Bistro but had seen the glacier during the captain’s reception up in the Haven).

Day 5 (Wednesday, Skagway)

Sunrise, 3:50am. Our furthest port north turned out to be the warmest, which was nice since our in-port time was also the longest (all-aboard by 5:00pm). Wednesday found us in Skagway and it was another family excursion day to the Klondike Gold Fields. Here we got to pan for gold, experience 40-degrees below zero, tour a gold dredge, taste home-brewed root beer, eat a salmon buffet feast, and what else? Oh yeah, sled dogs and puppies!

Like Ketchikan, after our excursion we had plenty of time to walk around “downtown” Skagway, take in the sites, and do some souvenir shopping before heading back to the Jewel. The weather was beautiful, in the mid-70s and sunny, which made for a very pleasurable day in our last Alaskan port.

Time to set our clocks forward again as we sail back towards Canada.

Day 6 (Thursday, at sea)

Sunrise, a more respectable 5:12am. Thursday was our last at-sea day as we started winding our way back south. It was very relaxing and including hanging out in the Haven courtyard, watching for wildlife from our stateroom balcony, going to a few on-board activities and events, doing some shopping, and generally being on vacation. We also had our last “formal” family dinner at Cagney’s and had some family portraits taken while we were all dressed up.

Day 7 (Friday, Victoria, B.C.)

We weren’t scheduled to dock in Victoria, British Columbia, until 2:30pm so we still had plenty of time this morning to enjoy the Jewel’s amenities. We played 80’s music trivia in the Spinnaker Lounge and I pushed our team over the edge to victory by getting up in front of everyone and doing the Thriller zombie dance for bonus points. Anything for a trivia victory (and luckily my dad couldn’t get the video camera going quick enough so there’s no damning evidence of my dance skills)! 😀 We had lunch in the Haven courtyard (served by JonJon, another amazing staff member) as the Jewel docked in Victoria and waited for clearing by the port authority.

Like Juneau, our excursion plans had us split again. My parents, wife, and daughter, took a bus tour of Victoria which included a picnic at the scenic and historic Butchart Gardens while my sister and I went whale watching (since we had missed it in Juneau) with Orca Spirit Adventures. More amazing, incredible sights as a humpback whale came right up to the side of our catamaran:

We got back to the pier before the rest of the family, so my sister and I walked over to Fisherman’s Wharf to check out the float homes and local seals. Back on the ship, still waiting for the rest of the family, we watched some of Game 4 of the NBA Finals (another loss for the Cavs, 108-97 making it a 3-1 series … not looking good for my team!). Today was my mom’s birthday so we had the stateroom decorated while we were all of the ship and surprised her on her return with a cake.

It was a late departure this evening (9:00pm) since it won’t take us long to get back to Seattle overnight. We had dinner delivered to our stateroom and spent part of the evening packing so we could put out our suitcases for collection. Hard to believe the week is already over! Tomorrow it’s back to port, but the vacation isn’t quite over yet.

Day 8 (Saturday, Seattle)

We didn’t want to leave the Jewel, but we had to eventually. The family had one last breakfast at Moderno and then finished packing our things. Bruno personally escorted us (for the last time) off the ship and we could see the Jewel was already preparing for the next group of cruisers who would sail out on her later in the afternoon. Customs was a breeze (glance at passport, “welcome home”) and then my sister and I walked back to her apartment to get her car. It only took us one trip back with my mom and the luggage as the rest of us just walked.

Back at my sister’s apartment, we were already missing our Haven staff, adjusting to having to do stuff for ourselves again, shifting out of cruise mode. In the rainy, gray Seattle mid-afternoon, we went down to Pioneer Square and went on Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour (pretending we were on an excursion, heh). It was really neat, being underneath the Seattle sidewalks and seeing the old, original first floors of the buildings in that area, which are now underground. For dinner, we had reservations at Ray’s Cafe where we got to watch the sunset as we ate.

We had to get to bed early since we all had early flights home in the morning … vacation is over. 🙁

Day 9 (flying home)

No breakfast at Moderno today. My sister ferried us in two groups from her apartment to SeaTac and we all flew our separate ways. I was flying back to Florida alone as my wife and daughter were going on to the National History Day finals in Washington D.C. for a few days (which made the packing for this trip fun!).

Post-Cruise Thoughts

Our reservation included extras like the beverage and dining packages for the first two people on the reservation. This meant I had to list my sister and myself first since we were the drinkers. It was nice not having to worry about paying for alcohol but I’m not sure I would have done that if it was just me and my family (I don’t need to drink that much on a cruise). Although the fact that sodas are not free (like they are on Disney) might have an impact on that choice in the future. We also had 250 minutes of internet access which we shared on a few devices but ended up not needing it all. It was a little strange to be billed by time and not actual usage, but it it wasn’t too bad.

Like with the Disney cruises, I was dissatisfied with the on-board photography studio. The photographers were fine (we had one favorite, Richard) and since we had a 50-photo package we had a lot of family photos taken by them. I have the same complaint on NCL like with Disney: no re-prints of size selection. Whatever photos they decide to print and put in your folder is what you get. For a family of six, this meant we couldn’t have two people get the same photograph when we were picking out our 50. We ended up getting the digital versions on a thumb drive for $20, but even then that only gave us the JPG files of the ones we specifically chose, not all of them (but at least this allowed me to print my own copies and share with the rest of the family members). Even worse was the Perspectives “professional” studio. On the first night of the cruise, we had our photos taken at dinner and were entered into a contest for $100 at Perspectives, which we won. Great! we thought, so we scheduled a sitting for later in the week. After the session (which ended early because one of the lights exploded (almost in my face!) and caught on fire for a little bit, yikes!) we had to come back to review the photos. We had to sit through a slide show with the photographers telling us “oh, this one is great!” and then objecting when we said we didn’t like it for whatever reason. They really put on the hard sell and when we saw the pricing we just about fainted. $249 for a single digital image! I got 50 JPG files downstairs for $20 and they wanted me to pay twelve times that amount for one photo? And the physical framed stuff was even more outrageous (but hey, free shipping home). Had we known we probably wouldn’t have put the entire family through that photo shoot.

A few other areas of improvement: less in-your-face selling and up-selling (spa, photography, port shopping seminar, etc.). Wow, everywhere you turned someone was trying to hard-sell you on something. Lay off, I’m on vacation and already spent a lot of money to be here in the first place. Texting on mobile app should be free (like Disney) or at least charged once per family instead of per-device. It would also be nice to be able to “favorite” events to get reminders when they are about to start. But being able to review my on-board account was very convenient. The elevators seemed very slow and were always full (we could never take the first one) which meant that my mom, who was walking with a cane and could not do a lot of stairs (especially to deck 14 where the Haven was) was always waiting a long time for an elevator.

Overall though, our first non-Disney cruise experience was an incredibly favorable one. Being in The Haven definitely helped with that … the accommodations, staff, amenities, and perks were well worth the extra cost to stay there. It’ll be hard to cruise on NCL again and not get a room there. Bruno, Ronald, Joeffrey, and JonJon were just amazing and always made us feel like we were the only ones on the ship that mattered to them. Gio and Eddy (the cruise directors) and their staff were hilarious and very friendly and the events and shows were great. Kudos to them and all of the Jewel’s crew.