Introduction – Big Family Cruise in a HUGE Suite

Introduction

We are kicking off a new trip report with this Introduction – Big Family Cruise in a HUGE Suite.  We’ll share our experience aboard Norwegian Jewel, the absolutely HUGE Haven 3 Bedroom Garden Villa, our first cruise in Alaska, and so much more.  We hope you’ll join us on board for this once-in-a-lifetime family cruise!

Background

I have to start by thanking my amazing sister-in-law.  It was during a visit with her and her family that we started talking about cruises we wanted to take and high on our list was an Alaska cruise.  We’ve been holding off on this one for years as we thought that it would be an ideal family trip and well, scheduling those can get complicated.  She said that they would love to go if we could find a suite that had room for all of us.  All of us soon became the two of us, my sister-in-law’s family of three, and my mother-in-law and father-in-law.  We needed a suite that could accommodate three couples and a soon-to-be teen.

We’ll cover the largest suites at sea in an upcoming post.  There are quite a few out there offering lots of space and luxurious accommodations; however, many cater to just two or possibly four guests.

For example, the Owners Suites (pictured above) aboard Oceania Cruises’ newest ship, Vista, are an extremely generous 2,200-2,400 square feet, taking up the entire width of the aft of the ship.  And while the suite has anything and everything a couple could ever want, it only has on bedroom.  There is an option to connect a single Concierge Stateroom to the suite adding one additional bedroom and bathroom as well as 291 square feet of additional space, but that wouldn’t be ideal for our group.

The other challenge is that it’s a limited number of ships that go to Alaska every season.  A bit of research online and it was clear that our best option was going to be aboard a Norwegian Jewel Class ship as they had the only three-bedroom option.  The Jewel Class ships are the Norwegian Jewel, Norwegian Jade, Norwegian Pearl, and Norwegian Gem.  These medium-sized cruise ships are named after precious stones and sparkle in various degrees based on when they were last in dry dock.  The ships delivered between 2005 and 2007 and were, at the time, NCL’s largest ships.  With a capacity of 2,400 passengers (double occupancy) and just under 300 meters (approx. 980 feet) long they’re considered on the smaller side of mid-size ships by today’s standards. 

In the summer of 2024 Norwegian Jewel was going to be sailing Alaska so our choice became a simple one. René’s reviews of NCL dining had us convinced that we would be spoiled in the Haven (more about the Haven experience aboard the Jewel Class ships in a future post) and that we shouldn’t be disappointed by the food – a major concern for us as we love to eat!

The cover photo is of the private hot tub on the lower level of the two-level private outdoor space.  It’s one of the more unique features of the 3 Bedroom Garden Villa.

Final Approach

That’s it for our introduction. We’ll share how we booked, our thoughts on the suite, the ship, the Haven experience on a jewel-class ship, our first visit to Alaska, multi-generational cruising, and more.  We hope you’ll join us as we share our adventure! – Michael