Jewel review - Hurricane Sandy and our repo cruise

As many know, Hurricane Sandy affected our recent Jewel repositioning cruise, Oct. 28 Boston to Tampa, so here is my review - no pics, no port info, just the details and my personal observations mostly about the ship, the staff, and the food.

We flew into Boston two days prior to the cruise and enjoyed exploring the city. Had fabulous weather, took the Hop On Hop Off trolley all around, and had the best lobst-ah roll ev-ah. :D We knew Hurricane Sandy was coming up the coast and figured it would affect us somehow, we just weren't sure how and when. The 10 am updates on the RCI site did little to calm us, but we chose to have faith and hoped our cruise would go on as planned. We saw Jewel got back into the port of Boston safely, so we headed to the pier around 10:15 am. We checked in quickly and efficiently, and were still not given any updates, per sé. It wasn't until just before we actually boarded that we received the "revised itinerary" - 3 days in the port of Boston, trying to head out as soon as possible, and two of our Caribbean ports were dropped. I received this printout only moments before the Welcome Aboard photo was taken, and I'm afraid my expression showed it. :( Oh well. Didn't buy that photo! LOL

Captain James MacDonald was our Master and he was fabulous. He kept us updated as much as possible and said that it was a difficult decision for him and Head Office to come to, but that we would not sail out until the weather was better. The wind was definitely picking up and by the second night, we had a tug boat on our side pushing against us, keeping us more secure and stable. There were three ships in total taking refuge in port and each of us had our own tug boat.

Passenger morale was, I'd say, "split".... there were definitely the "complainers", the "drinkers", and the "resoved". We put ourselves in the latter group, knowing that this decision was best for everyone. Not to mention, the demographic on this 14 night cruise was an older clientele; I can honestly say that most of the passengers were over 65 years of age. I can't begin to imagine what might have happened had we gone out to sea as scheduled. I think we would have been looking at a lot of injuries to many people. We applaud Captain James for keeping us warm, dry, and safe.

On Day 3 we headed out on a revised itinerary. The sea was choppy and the swells were large; I am usually a "good" cruiser, but that night I was absolutely green. It was really bad - people were wobbling all over the place and we know a lot of passengers just stayed in their cabins. We did too, except for a brief trip up to Windjammer - I had a piece of chicken, a dinner roll, and a glass of milk just to put something in my stomach. I was in bed at 7:20 pm.

The next few days were sea days, very relaxing and nice. The air temperature warmed each day and the sun shone. People began to use the pool and to sunbathe. Chair hogging was rampant on this cruise. The earliest "chogging" I saw was one man, one cup of coffee, 4 towels, 4 chairs. The time? 6:04 am (I was on my way to the gym). Insane. :rolleyes:

The rest of the cruise went well with sunny weather and full days of activities. As mentioned we missed two ports (St. Kitts and Barbados) and sadly had excursions planned in both ports. We were refunded our excursion money in the form of an onboard credit, as well as port charges later in the cruise. I won't discuss the ports because as this was a one-time repo cruise, the point is moot now. But we did hit St. Thomas, St. Lucia, Curacao, and Aruba. Loved them all.

The service on this cruise was outstanding. Seriously phenominal. Hotel Director Adriana runs a first-class hotel here - every crew member we passed said Hello. There are housekeeping staff constantly roaming and cleaning. This ship sparkles. There is a heightened presence of security personnel on the ship; we saw them every day inside and outside, just keeping an eye on things. There was an altercation/issue one evening between two passengers and seemingly in seconds, there were five security personnel to help out. I don't know what went on and it was none of my business but it was handled quickly and efficiently.

The food - I know - subjective! This cruise we took most of our meals in Windjammer. We had My Time Dining but only went on 3 of the nights. It just wasn't our "thing". The tables for two are so close together down one side of the room, you might as well be sitting at a table for 52, seriously. There is barely enough room for the assistant waiter to put sauce on your shrimp cocktail. ;)

Windjammer - quite simply, the best ever on any of our cruises. We were absolutely blown away by the quality and presentation of the items each meal. Beautiful fruit carvings adorned the service areas, friendly and attentive servers cleared away dishes quickly and with a smile, and it was simply a delight to go there. We were so impressed that we made a point to tell the supervisor, Shamila, our thoughts. She gratefully received our compliments and asked us to please write this down on the comment cards. Obviously, this is important and if I didn't believe it before, I certainly do now that Head Office does read the cards and this is the most effective way to convey your feelings, good or bad.

Omelet Station - Prasad Pawar - omelet maker extraordinaire! After 3 days he remembered my husband's preferences and with a simple nod in his direction, would start his omelet before DH even got up to the front of the line. It was the first time we ever presented a WOW card, and we also tipped him at the end of our cruise. He made our WJ experience extra special.

The Fitness Center is wonderful. They have 16 treadmills, many elipticals, stair masters, and stationary bikes, and all kinds of machines and free weights to use. I think my only complaint on the entire cruise would be that there are no signs indicating it is courteous to wipe down the machine after use. I saw many "offenders" each day just walk away from the machine after finishing their workout. I'm sorry - that's disgusting. I don't know if people truly don't realize they should do this, or are just too lazy.... but I did write this on my comment card. Jewel must institute a policy with signage directing people to use the antiseptic wipes after use. We had to use sanitizing gel before entering each restaurant and when re-boarding the ship at ports; it's no different, IMO, to use a wipe after a sweaty workout. Yuk. OK, I'm done. ;)

I'll wrap it up - we stayed on as a B2B taking the first cruise out of Tampa to Cozumel (4 nights). Loved it - loved the whole B2B experience and it was secretly quite wonderful knowing we didn't have to disembark quite yet. Same cabin, neat and sweet. So all in all, we had 18 nights on the beautiful Jewel.

As a personal milestone, we turned Diamond on the B2B cruise are excited to experience the benefits of this next C&A level. :)

.

.

Thanks for the review!

Thank you for the review. I was on the Jewel a couple of years ago and I think that she is my favorite ship.

We sailed on Jewel in 2009 and Capt. MacDonald was there then. He is the only captain whose name I remember. I feel the fantastic crew reflects his leadership and hope one day to sail on the Jewel again.

Thanks you for a positive and fair review.

What a nice review, thank you! Were you allowed off the ship for the three days you were docked in Boston (And how was the weather in the city)?

And congrats on reaching Diamond!:D

Love the Jewel - good review - thanks!

Thanks for the great review and sorry your voyage was Boston centric. We are excited to board Jewel in 38 days!!

Great Review !! I agree after watching the troubles some folks had walking once we set sail it was a good thing we stayed in port... one thing this cruise proved to me is I don't think I will ever get seasick..even in a deck ten aft where I felt more motion than ever before all was good...:)

One thing I would like to add is I think Dennis Charles ( the cruise director )and his staff did a great job... with the change in itinerary and the added sea days they didnt skip a beat...

A poster asked if we could get off the ship in Boston .. we could but the weather was pretty lousy so no real reason to.. I know RI and CT had states of emergency Monday not sure if the same was true in Mass....we sailed at 9am Tuesday( as opposed to 5pm Sunday) so it was an extra 40 or so hours in port... not a bad trade for staying safe in my opinion.

Oh yeah next year I am diamond too...hit 80 nites day three in Boston !!

Great review! Love your positive attitude!!

Congrats on becoming Diamond!! ;)

***

We sailed on Jewel in 2009 and Capt. MacDonald was there then. He is the only captain whose name I remember.

Captain James told us that he has been onboard the Jewel since her inaugural voyage, and had a hand in planning and building. He is incredibly "hands on" and went to every Crown and Anchor party and shook hands with all who wanted to, just to chat or to take pictures. We saw him freely walking the halls with Adriana several times, and he is a very personable and friendly guy.

One thing I would like to add is I think Dennis Charles ( the cruise director )and his staff did a great job... with the change in itinerary and the added sea days they didnt skip a beat...

 

A poster asked if we could get off the ship in Boston .. we could but the weather was pretty lousy so no real reason to...

Agreed. Dennis was amazing. We were chatting with him on the Cozumel run and he told us that they had one heckuva time revising the entire cruise, what with the itinerary changes and extra sea days. But as you said, they didn't miss a beat. My husband called it "seemless", and it really was.

I believe Capt. said no one went ashore in Boston, although we absolutely were permitted to do so. It was windy and raining sideways... I know I wasn't going anywhere. :D The days we were docked in Boston, although unexpected, were days we had paid for and we had food, electricity, good friends, and a certain level of excitment and anticipation to get us all through it. Oh and bacon. Lots of bacon...... *sigh*....

:D:p:D

.

Captain James told us that he has been onboard the Jewel since her inaugural voyage, and had a hand in planning and building. He is incredibly "hands on" and went to every Crown and Anchor party and shook hands with all who wanted to, just to chat or to take pictures. We saw him freely walking the halls with Adriana several times, and he is a very personable and friendly guy.

 

Nice review. :) Put us as a cross between "resolved" and "drinkers", lol. I know we were in shock when we desert dwellers learned we were stuck in Boston for two extra days (You know what I'm talking about, LINDA, hee hee), but we quickly got over it...we had an amazing trip. :D

 

 

 

Agreed. Dennis was amazing. We were chatting with him on the Cozumel run and he told us that they had one heckuva time revising the entire cruise, what with the itinerary changes and extra sea days. But as you said, they didn't miss a beat. My husband called it "seemless", and it really was.

 

I believe Capt. said no one went ashore in Boston, although we absolutely were permitted to do so. It was windy and raining sideways... I know I wasn't going anywhere. :D The days we were docked in Boston, although unexpected, were days we had paid for and we had food, electricity, good friends, and a certain level of excitment and anticipation to get us all through it. Oh and bacon. Lots of bacon...... *sigh*....

 

:D:p:D

.

LOL, Jeff really enjoyed the bacon at the burger station in the Windjammer. Said it tasted more like bacon than the bacon we get at home...I didn't try it.

Chair hogging was rampant on this cruise. The earliest "chogging" I saw was one man, one cup of coffee, 4 towels, 4 chairs. The time? 6:04 am (I was on my way to the gym). Insane. :rolleyes:

No chance of just "accidentally" knocking the cup of coffee onto the towels?

;)

Thanks for the review!

We have Jewel coming up in six months so it's good to know she's good to go ;)

I was on this cruise and agree with the above report...........

What a great report---and a great attitude!! We will be on the Jewel in just over a week. Can't wait!!!

Thanks for the review, we will be on Jewel for the first time in May for a Repo cruise from Tampa to San Juan and then are staying for a B2B out of San Juan. We love the Radiance class, have been on Radiance and many times on Serenade so really looking forward to being on Jewel for the first time.

This is really a good and fair review. We were on the same cruise and found that for the most part every crew member was topnotch. We had some problems with flooding in the cabin and it did take them 3 days to respond. Crew members were very friendly, but seemed not to be able to make decisions on things that were out of the ordinary.

Safety is a very important issue and we were glad the captain and Royal took this into account. It was unfortunate that we were not told about the changes to the itinerary until we had been on the ship for about 2 hours.

The comments about the two-tops in the dining room are fair. Might as well sit with more people because whatever conversation you have is for everybody. The food, though, was surprisingly good.

I think my only complaint on the entire cruise would be that there are no signs indicating it is courteous to wipe down the machine after use. I saw many "offenders" each day just walk away from the machine after finishing their workout. I'm sorry - that's disgusting. I don't know if people truly don't realize they should do this, or are just too lazy..

.

I read a lot of review and I think I get something out of 99.9% of them. You make a great point here and you said it well. I'm betting, not based on any facts, that many people's only trip to a fitness center or gym are on cruise ships and they have no idea. Sure a few probably are lazy. A sign or a few signs are a good idea. On the other hand, I'll sometimes sit down on a machine where no skin touches the machine and just go through a few range of motion movements and not work up a sweat. But I'll wipe it down just to avoid the glares some would give (not saying you, clearly you are a thoughtful person mentioning it out of genuine concern) But you are the first person I've ever seen mention this valid point.

Oh, on the Windjammer, I don't know how often management and crew rotates through this area, but I did feel my visits to the Windjammer on Jewel were some of the best of the fleet when I was on her last April.

If you don't mind, I'd love to hear about your ports! Especially if you visited any beaches. We're going to be visiting 3/4 you visited and still haven't decided where to hit the beach and where to stay closer to the ship.

Thanks.

I am enjoying your review. As you know several ships were affected by Sandy. It seems that RCL made the correct call for your cruise.

Thanks so much for the review. Jewel is our favorite ship, and we leave Saturday for our fourth cruise aboard her. I'm not surprised that they went all out to "salvage" what could have been a boring time given your delay in Boston, because we feel Jewel has an incomparable staff. If you have to chance to have Catalina or Suzette take care of you in the MDR or My Time Dining, you're in for a treat. We've been on 18 cruises and never found wait staff more professional, efficient, friendly, and caring. We've come to think of them as friends.

Can't wait for Saturday!

...I'm betting, not based on any facts, that many people's only trip to a fitness center or gym are on cruise ships and they have no idea. Sure a few probably are lazy. A sign or a few signs are a good idea....

Thanks, Bill. I really hope they will consider signage in the gym about wiping down the machines, and it can be politely worded so as to get the point across. There were containers of the Purell wipes everywhere - the supplies are there for the taking, it would just nudge passengers to be courteous and wipe down afterward. Having seen what I saw, I wiped down before and after. :D hehe

To everyone, thanks for the kind words about my review. We really did have a fabulous time aboard Jewel and she is a great ship with a wonderful crew. :)