My husband Steve and I picked Norwegian Cruise Line<\/a>‘s New Zealand<\/a> itinerary for our honeymoon to avoid driving on the left<\/a> side of the road through mountainous terrain (after a stressful situation in South Africa<\/a>), and because cruises are great.\u00a0 We have cruised several times on Disney Cruise Line, but this was only our second Norwegian Cruise, but the first one was 4 day open bar cruise, so this is the first one I remember all of.\u00a0 This is also the longest cruise I’ve ever been on (10 days!), though I still have my eye on a transatlantic (if I can stock up enough Dramamine).\u00a0 So how does Norwegian stack up?<\/p>\n We sailed on the Norwegian Jewel, a smaller ship with tons of amenities for it’s size; 15 bars, 14 restaurants, a spa, 4 hot tubs, and an outdoor sports complex (which I avoided because sports are dumb, but other people might like it).\u00a0 The Jewel is over 10 years old\u00a0 now, but shes still looks great.\u00a0 Everything was clean and up to date.<\/p>\n The Norwegian boasts some of the largest suites at sea.\u00a0 I didn’t get a suite, but the balcony rooms were very impressive as well.\u00a0 There was plenty of room for the two of us and even a sofa and “sitting area”.\u00a0 Best of all, the view.<\/p>\n A balcony is definitely worth the extra cost on such a scenic cruise.\u00a0 Seeing the Milford Sound in a bathrobe without getting weird looks from other passengers is totally worth it, and the oh so British domestic squabbles I got to over hear between Imagene and her husband next door were the icing on the cake.\u00a0 Hearing an elderly British woman scream “what do you mean the money’s gone?!” seriously ticked some boxes I didn’t even know I had.\u00a0 Long story short, if you have the option, go for the balcony.<\/p>\n Why wait any longer, this is what everyone cares about on a cruise right?\u00a0 The best part about the Norwegian Jewel is the amount of options.\u00a0 We were on this cruise for 10 days and didn’t eat dinner in the same place twice.\u00a0\u00a0 We did buy the 5 meal specialty dining plan, which was totally worth it.\u00a0 There are 8 different restaurants included with your cruise fare; Azura and Tsars Palace (the two main dining rooms), Chin Chin (Asian fusion), Garden Cafe (the buffet), O’Sheehans (24 hour pub), Sky High Bar & Grill, The Great Outdoors, and Topsider (for outside\/poolside eats).\u00a0 So there’s plenty of variety even if you don’t spring for the specialty restaurants, but I highly recommend that you do.\u00a0 If you choose to dine at the specialty restaurants, this can be done a la cart or with a dining package.\u00a0 Specialty dining opens up at least 5 more options; Teppanyaki\/Sushi (Japanese hibachi and sushi), Moderno (Brazilian steakhouse), Cagneys (American steakhouse), Le Bistro (French restaurant), and La Cucina (Italian).<\/p>\n The dining scene on Norwegian is very different than my experience with other cruise lines.\u00a0 They have what they call “freestyle dining”, meaning there are no assigned tables or times to eat.\u00a0 You eat when you get hungry and it’s only as formal as you want it, which is great for someone packing for a long trip with out heels!<\/p>\n Having eaten at all of the restaurants, I can say that the food is pretty good.\u00a0 The only disappointment was Chin Chin.\u00a0 Steve and I both love Asian food, so we were very excited to try Chin Chin, but after our food came, we left and went to the buffet (which had way better Asian food).\u00a0 That’s the beauty of a cruise though, if you don’t like it you can get second dinner!\u00a0 On the flip side, Teppanyaki was great and a lot of fun, all of the specialty dining was.<\/p>\n I have been on several Caribbean cruises and one Alaskan cruise, but I’ve never experienced this much “open ocean”.\u00a0 We also sailed through a tropical storm which didn’t help, but the result was missing a lot of the night time entertainment while trying not to puke.\u00a0 Not Norwegian’s fault of course, but I can’t speak to all of there many entertainment offerings, only the ones I participated in.\u00a0 I hear Burn the Floor is great, but that was a room service in bed night for us.\u00a0 Pretty impressive that those dancers could still dance in those seas!<\/p>\n The activities guides were full of fun things to do all day, for every crowd (and I mean EVERY crowd, there were some obscure trivias).\u00a0 Not to blow my own horn, but I dominated ABBA trivia, which was extra impressive since we were the youngest people there by a good 30 years, and they were mostly from countries that appreciate ABBA more than mine. Just saying.<\/p>\n While I’m not blowing my own horn, I also dominated the martini tasting, which was the best $20 I ever spent.<\/p>\n Overall the experience was fantastic.\u00a0 We will certainly cruise Norwegian again (I’ve got my eye on the Cuba cruise out of Miami!), but after the rough seas, I may stick to the Caribbean for a while.\u00a0 Rough seas are still preferable to rolling off the side of a hill in New Zealand into the ocean, so I’ll call it a win all around.\u00a0 Stay tuned for a more in depth look at this itinerary and some of the incredible ports we visited.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/magsonthemove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/8A033B36-40A0-46CF-9DF9-5EBE602AC70F.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h1>\n
The Ship<\/strong><\/h1>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h1>\n
The Staterooms<\/strong><\/h1>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nThe Food<\/strong><\/h1>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/h1>\nThe Entertainment<\/span>
<\/strong><\/h1>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nThe Experience<\/strong><\/h1>\n