Jewel of the Seas Reviews

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Some friends finally persuaded my husband and me to go on a cruise with them. They take a cruise every year so we trusted them to pick the ship and destination. I figured a 5 day was good for a first time in case my husband was bored out of his mind. There were 8 of us in all so we sat together in the main dining room and had rooms in the same corridor. We chose inside rooms to save money and figured we wouldn't be in the room that much anyway. We drove from Ohio and spent the week before the cruise visiting friends and family in Florida. The morning of the cruise, we pulled up to the ship and were met by a couple of men who asked if we wanted to use valet parking. My husband was thrilled he could just hand over our luggage and car at once. It cost $95 for the week (Monday to Saturday) which I thought was a little pricey, but my husband thought it was worth it. I have nothing to compare this to, but getting on the ship was relatively quick and easy. Apparently, there was a problem with our dinner seating, but our friends had dealt with it before we got on board, so we didn't worry about it. Our paperwork said boarding time was 1:30, I believe, but we listened to our friends who said we could get on much earlier and they were right. We were on board well before noon and made our way to the Windjammer for lunch. The room-much more spacious than I expected. Lots of closet/drawer space, the bed was very comfortable, the bathroom adequate and the shower bigger than expected. Our room was toward the front of the ship on deck 9 and we felt it was very convenient without being too close to the elevators. The food-we ate in the main dining room every night for dinner and the food couldn't possibly have been better. I was amazed at how they could cook that much food and it be so delicious. . Every single employee we encountered was friendly. Our waiter and his assistant were very nice and somehow learned our names after the first night. We ate breakfast in the dining room a couple of times and it was excellent, too. The rest of our meals were in the Windjammer and we loved it. There were so many yummy foods it's impossible to mention them all. If I had any complaints, it was the buns were hard if you wanted a hot dog or hamburger, but so what? I loved the iced tea and the lemon wedges that were always available. In the morning, the coffee was delicious. There was some food I wasn't ecstatic about, but guess what? You don't have to eat it! The pineapple was too sour for me, oh well, I ate more watermelon. I'm a very picky eater, but I found plenty of food I liked. My husband tried the Seaview Cafe for the fish and chips. He said it was really good. I read a review where someone complained about the hand sanitizer being squirted in their hands upon entering the dining rooms. Being a germaphobe, I appreciated that, but if you didn't want it, you just shook your head no. How is that a negative? We didn't try room service so I can't comment about that. I didn't go on a cruise to sit in my room and there was so much food to eat other places, I was pretty full the entire time. The entertainment-the first night where the cruise director talks about the cruise and the comedian does a short routine-kind of boring and we never went back for any of the shows! Our friends did, though, and enjoyed the singing and dancing. My husband and I found plenty of other things to entertain us. We enjoyed all the music that was played and thought the seats in all the lounges were very comfortable. Oh! I thought of one complaint. On formal night, the photographer was annoying at dinner. We were in the middle of eating and he insisted we all get up and gather round for a group picture. There was some grumbling about that, but who's going to be the one that says no? That definitely should be requested by us, not forced. We did an excursion to Tulum even though we were a little concerned about the heat. Well, we were right. That was the hottest I've ever been in my life! We took a smaller boat from Cozumel to the main land and then had to walk several blocks on uneven sidewalks crossing a couple of streets with cars flying by to get on a bus. I'm still glad we did it since we didn't want to pass up the opportunity to see Mayan ruins. On our second stop at Costa Maya, we just walked around the shops and then rode a nice tram back to the ship. Our last day, getting off the ship was even easier than getting on. Everything went very quickly and we were soon in our car heading home. Overall, a great experience and we'd do it again on the same ship!

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Drove to Tampa. Valet parking at the port is well worth the money. We got out of the car,walked to the Platinum line and we're in the Lido restaurant in no time. The restaurant decor is very nice and there is open deck seating on the aft. There is a Bistro on the aft above on deck 12 which offers a different menu for short orders. I always found plenty of lido buffet food but the selection was limited. Anytime dining has been great on previous ships but this time our reservations were wrong and seating was not timely nor was a small table size available even though we had to prepay gratuities when we booked. We had a great room steward. The cabin was small and the balcony had an obstructed view. There was no privacy on the balcony because the dividers only go waist high. The deck below had a club which was loud at night and could be heard in the room. The spa has thermal tile beds which look out to sea and an aromatherapy room along with sauna. There was a lot of the ship which smelled smoky. The most frequently offered a activity was dancing. Not being a dancer or a smoker this was not for me. Disembarkation was easy except that Platinum members waited in a smoky lounge to be called. We used the porters to whisk us and our luggage thru the lines to immigration with no waiting and the valet brought our car.

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I will walk you through the Jewel of the Seas and try to be as upfront as I can so hopefully you wont run into the issues I thought made our cruise a 1st & last time on RC. We have cruised before with our girls ages 11 & 13 on several Disney cruises & this was our 1st RC cruise. We live in Tampa & decided to do a last minute cruise for Easter as the price was right. I had an open mind knowing this was a much cheaper cruise then Disneys but the old saying of " You get what you pay for " didnt even hold true. You got even less. Pros first - Getting on the ship in Tampa was very easy and I will give them an A+ for that. Getting off was fast to. Cons - When we got on the ship we went through a small door. No "Welcome Aboard " Nothing. The only one there was one small lady that was assigning wrist bands for the kids club. You were pretty much on your own. The ship in general was ok for the $ but has its issues. Before we pulled out I washed my hands in the bathroom sink. Noting but brown water came out. This was what you were suppose to use to brush your teeth! It cleared up later but that stayed in my mind every time I used the sink. The Ships kids clubs are one deck below the adult night clubs & cigar lounge. Constant smell of smoke in the kids clubs! Oh yes smokers have free run of the ship. They smoke in the night clubs , casinos , sports bar which are all inside and filter through out the ship. On deck they smoke anywhere they want. No one enforces it. Now for the kids entertainment. Most adults come on these cruises to relax. RC advertise their awesome kids clubs. NOT ! Kids club opens in sessions or 2 hrs at a time. open at 10am close at noon , open at 2pm close at 4 , open at 6:45 - close at 10pm. You spend the day & night running back n forth to pick up you children. What rest do you get! Oh and in between sessions they will watch you kids for $6 per hr each , but everyone pulls there kids out so even if you left your child , chances are they are alone watching a TV. Games , played the same ones everyday. Also misleading is on their tv channel they show all these wonderful things to do for kids on the ship. Problem is the show is filmed on oasis of the seas & the ship your on has absolutely none of what their pitching. Then theres the Easter bunny. My kids are older & get the easter bunny / santa thing but the faces on parents of little ones showed their shock at the easter surprise RC planned. Families were told to meet in the lobby area easter morning at 10 am because peter cottontail would be there to meet the kids with candy & pictures. Everyones waiting and a guy comes out in an open faced rabbit suit. The kind you get at a Halloween store with the bunny face on top of his head and his face sticking out. Even little kids knew , this was a bogus bunny. I mean really? at least try to get a real costume! Then each kid went up for their treat.They gave them ONE dumm dumm lolipop. You know the kind you get when you go to the bank. WOW! the kids got out of bed for this? Not only did every kid that believed in the bunny no longer did thanks to RC but they got stiffed too! Ok enough of that. So we thought hey the kids clubs were no good so the kids could hang with us & go to the kids pool. WRONG , kids pool & slide were open from noon till 3pm / 3 hrs a day , THATS IT! Ok so that the kids club deal. Food was ok , buffet was the same everyday , a step above golden corral food , never changed. Dinning rooms were nice but some of the food on the fancy menu was the same as the food on the buffet. Reservations were never right. They had us 2 adults to be seated at the 1st seating & our 2 children at the 2nd. It took the whole trip for them to figure it out.When I called to the guest relations they would say " Walk down to the dinning room to handle it" guest relations didnt want to do anything. Ordered room service once & the never came , probably because it was free, LOL! For drinks you get water , tea or lemonade. thats it. They dont make it easy to get them either thus having you buy eveything. Also I didnt feel safe. security guards always walking the decks. You dont see that on a Disney cruise. So heres the bottom line. If you like to smoke ,loud drunk people , dont care what your kids do , dont care what you eat, and like zero service then youd love this cruise. If you care about smoking , your kids , the food you eat & the service you get then forget it. You will pay more on Disney but its worth it. No nickel & diming you , and service. I feel bad for 1st time cruises if they think "This is cruising" NOT !

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My husband and I just finished our second cruise. We again went with Royal Caribbean. We could not have been happier with our choice. All staff on both legs of our cruise were amazing. Our stewards were available all of the time and were delightful. It's so nice to find out cabin totally cleaned and organized every time we come back. We love the towel animals even! We traveled with dear friends who we seldom see due to living across country from each other. We spent a day in Cozumel which was very enjoyable.This was a back to back cruise which was wonderful as well. It's nice to know one doesn't have to get off the ship when those who are their for the first cruise must disembark. Now that our family has grown and moved on, we will definitely be cruising on a more regular basis. Just an FYI..I thoroughly enjoy reading every one's posts. Thanks for sharing. ;0) We basically stayed in the downtown areas. The "boys" were interested in some Cuban cigars which they purchased and smoked in a nice bar at the Forum. Since they were drinking and smoking my friend and I went downstairs "shopping" at Diamond's International and my husband got me a gorgeous diamond ring! We also spent a day in Costa Maya and saw the Chacchoben Ruins with an amazing guide. The tour we took also gave us the pleasure of having lunch with a wonderful local Mayan family. The people and the food were amazing. Thank You Joel for a wonderful experience. We'll even take the same tour again.

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This was my second cruise, first with this line and I was expecting so much more. I hate to say that I am disappointed because of the expense but I cannot say overall it was the best experience of my life. Embarkation was not terrible. We opted to carry on our one suitcase and one bag each. I'm not a luggage checker even when I fly. That process went smoothly and we encountered no hassles. Got to our balcony stateroom fairly quickly once on-board. I did enjoy our stateroom for the most part. Plenty of space to unpack and though it was only my husband and I, I did not feel cramped in our stateroom. The balcony was wonderful! Slightly larger than other balconies as we were the last room on our deck. Drawbacks...the bed was terribly hard and not super comfy. Granted, we have a Tempur Pedic at home and may have become a bit spoiled for all other mattresses. The bathroom emitted a 'sewage' type smell for the entire cruise. Not overwhelming but enough to wrinkle your nose and want to keep the door shut at all times. Not the cruise lines fault but our neighbors were incredibly loud each morning. I believe they ordered room service every morning and ate on their balcony. The clanging of dishes and silverware was unbearable each morning. I didn't realize someone could make that much noise just by eating breakfast. And yes, our balcony door was shut and it was still that loud. I was not overly impressed with the food. We did dine at the Chops Grille one night and that experience was wonderful! My fillet was cooked to perfection, service was fantastic and we enjoyed that evening. We dined in the main dining room for two dinners. There was confusion with our dining time. Our sea passes said 8:30pm seating but upon arrival we were told we were booked for My Time Dining. My husband requesting this when making the reservation but it came back as booked. I guess they had cancellations but failed to inform us or print it properly on our sea passes. Dinner the first evening was good. Not rave review but good. The second dinner in the main dining wad not so great. Long wait times for drinks and service, food was so so....hardly enjoyable. We did most breakfasts and lunches at the Windjammer Cafe mostly because of the hours...definitely not because the food was so wonderful. It was acceptable at best. My biggest complaint on this ship was that every activity we did turned into a sales pitch. Super annoying and detracted from our vacation. We went to the comedy show the first night and ended up leaving even before it started because the "sales pitch" about sailing again with RC and all the perks of booking now was running well over 20 minutes. When that was finally done, the activities director got on and talked for I don't even know how much longer because we ended up leaving. Incredibly annoying to me. We already spent money to be on the cruise...quit pitching it already. Or at the very least, shorten it to a reasonable amount of time. I believe it was a good 40 to 60 minutes of stuff I was not interested in before the show actually started. My husband kindly booked a facial for me at the spa. That too turned into the spa lady trying to sell me $865.00 worth of facial cleansers and creams that "I really needed to have" according to her. She was really trying the hard sell approach but seemed unpracticed at it so it was rather easy to make a clean break but after my relaxing facial this is not the conversation I wanted to have with her. My other chief complaint was just how loud it was on almost every part of the ship. Always someone in a microphone pitching this or that. The pool was never quiet because there was a band or some other loud activity going on. The solarium was quiet but because it is enclosed, it was very warm in there and the chlorine odor was overwhelming to me. I really was looking for a nice quiet place, out of doors to relax with a book, take a nap, talk to each other...preferably poolside.....none of that was possible. I was certain there was another pool or hot tub where we could have some peace but none to be found. We almost relented to hanging out at the kiddie pool because believe it or not, it was the most relaxing place outdoors, poolside. Thus, we spent a lot of time on our balcony but it wasn't really what we wanted. All in all, we enjoyed ourselves but I guess I expected more from this cruise line. I previously cruised on Carnival and expected that to be a young crowd and not terribly refined. So I suppose I was under the impression that RC was an older crowd and much more refined. I'm sorry to say I didn't see much difference between the two. I'm fairly certain we will cruise again but not with Royal Caribbean.

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