Norwegian Jewel – Day 6 Recap

Hello from the middle of the Gulf of Mexico as the Norwegian Jewel heads back to Houston. Here’s our daily update from our preview cruise of the latest ship to call Texas home.

Today was the first of two seas days as the ship heads back to Houston. The weather held out most of the day, which made the pool deck a very popular place to be. It got even more popular when the crew set up a BBQ on deck for lunch. They then kicked it up another notch with an Italian buffet dinner in the Garden Café plus a nice chocolate fountain dessert option that had the cruise ship equivalent of s’mores. There were, of course, tons of other activities around the ship throught the day and evening.

For today’s blog, we promised to answer the questions we’ve received from readers. So here we go:

YOUR QUESTIONS

Q: Does the ship have an arcade and if so, how are the games charged?

A: Yes, the ship has a nice-sized arcade located next door to the teen club. The games are charged to your room key so be sure to monitor your kids charges.
Q: How can you keep track of your spending while onboard a cruise ship?

A: On Norwegian Cruise Line ships, it’s a breeze. They have an app you can download called iConcierge. You simply connect to the ship’s WIFI and you can check your balance anytime. You can also see the schedule for that day (or any day of your cruise), make dining reservations, book shore excursions and much more. The app is free to use but you need to download it prior to arriving at the ship and it also only works once onboard.
Q: Are the lines so long at the free restaurants that you’re forced into the paying ones?

A: That hasn’t been our experience at all. At most, we’ve waited 2-3 minutes at the free dining rooms and that wait was simply them looking for an open table. Later on we did see some short waits (no longer than 15 minutes from what we saw) at peak times like 7-8pm. But even beyond the main dining rooms, there are still many other free options available including the Garden Café buffet, which we’ve found to be one of the best at sea as far as variety and daily specials goes.
Q: Does the ship have any quiet areas where you can escape from all the noise and activity?

A: Yes there are a few places that come to mind. This ship has a nicely appointed library that even has a ship’s staff member on duty throughout the day. It’s usually quite serene there. And there’s even a chapel on deck 13. It’s small but lovely and would be a nice place to go and reflect.

Q: What’s this I hear about limited beverage service in Texas waters and then having to pay liquor tax on anything I bring back? Can you elaborate?

When in Texas waters, cruise ships are under the liquor jurisdiction of the TABC. Most ships have a limited menu of alcoholic options until reaching international waters and some cruise lines will not sell you their beverage packages for the first day (Norwegian Cruise Line does offer the package on the first day).

Since January of this year, the TABC has been collecting taxes on liquor brought back into Texas (previously allowed duty-free). Here is a link to the new regulations for your review: BRINGING LIQUOR BACK INTO TEXAS VIA CRUISE SHIP

Thanks for all the great questions. We’ll have one more final update tomorrow evening.

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