Mini Jewel Review

Just returned off the Jewel yesterday. What a fantastic trip. I'll just give a brief rundown of thoughts, and if you have any questions, I'll try to answer.

Getting on & getting off: Arrived at pier approx. 12:00 on Saturday, and was on board within 20 minutes. Departure...our Aunt was with us, and she uses a walker. We were put in the handicapped departure and this was a breeze. Got off ship around 8:30-8:45. Luggage was there waiting on us, grabbed a cab to airport & waited for our 12:45 flight. Wish I would have booked the 10:20 departure as we could have made it, no problem.

Food: To me, the food was not as good as past cruises. The past 2 years we were on the Adventurer and the food was better. The Seaview Cafe on Deck 12 was good...similar to Johnny Rockets. The Windjammer had the usual buffet fair. Mostly all good. The dining room, however, wasn't as good in my opinion. There were a couple of nights there was nothing that appealed to me. One night I opted for the Cod and seemed rather tastless.

Waitstaff: The dining room waiters we had, Alexander & Danny, were absolutely superb. I have never had such fun, attentive waiters. Kudos to them. Bar service around the pool and solarium was poor. 95% of the time we had to go to bar to get our own drinks.

Casino: What can I say? I lost, but had fun loosing :} . The casino was rather small, but then it was a smaller ship. It was very nice, though. They DID have a Texas Holdem table and all the other card games.

Ship. The ship is absolutely georgous. It has some beautiful artwork and overall just very very nice.

We only saw a couple of shows, and they were good.

Elevators were a nightmare. I believe there were 8 elevators mid-ship. They could easily hold 10 people, but there were TONS of rude people who wouldn't move back, or to the side, to enable other guests to get on the elevators. Sad. With 5 people on the elevator they wouldn't move and insist it was full.

This ship appeared to have a lot of "older" passengers. Average ages seemed to me to be in their 60's. Very very few children, but those that were on board were excellently behaved!

The solarium is beautiful, and we enjoyed it. The crepes ... delicious.

The cabins were well decorated and roomy. We always have a balcony cabin and thoroughly enjoyed it. Cabin # 9208.

The seas were somewhat rough on Sunday (sea day) as well as returning to Ft. Lauderdale. Other than that, weather and seas were perfect.

One port complaint...in Nassau we were only there from 12:00-6:00. I would love to have had more time in Nassau. My MIL booked all of us for the Atlantis tour and it just wasn't long enough.

BEWARE: If anyone goes on the Discover Atlantis tour it requires a tremendous amount of walking, not just 10 minutes like the book says. It's ALL walking except the 10 minute ferry ride to Atlantis.

All the ports, St. Marten, St. Thomas, Antigua & Nassau had great weather. We had excellent snorkeling at Coki in St. Thomas, excellent snorkeling at Longbay in Antigua. In St. Marten we met a friend and spent the day with him.

Summary: I loved the Jewel. I did miss the younger folks that have been on the Adventurer in past years (oh yeah, I'm 50). We did miss the areas on the Promenade that are on the larger ships. One thing we really missed was the little coffee shop with cookies & snacks that is on the Adventurer. The only place to get coffee on th Jewel was the Windjammer, and only in the early mornings in the solarium, unless you wanted to purchase coffee in a very small place (forget the name...Seattle's best or something).

Overal it was a wonderful cruise and would recommend to anyone.

Palla

ad we fly to board her in Harwich, having friends who let Ft Lauderdale on Sunday to Harwich. Scandanavia/Baltic 2 weeks cruise & I am ready to be spoiled with the Concierge Lounge, Diamond express embarkation & disembarkation, and we are wearing our pins that were sent with the luggage tags.

All the glass, we hear is just a beautiful cruise thru the seas. Very relaxing if you want o full of stuff to do if you need it.

Come On Days....... FLY!

I was also on this cruise - in fact right down the hall from you (9218)!

Your mini-review is right on target and well done. I'm going to post a longer review in the next few days for anyone who's interested.

I agree about the elevators - I think the number and location were sufficient overall, but you're right - people were not especially courteous about accommodating others when the elevators were busy, as they obviously are at certain times during a cruise. Most of the time, though, an empty elevator arrived within moments.

I do disagree with a couple of your comments, particularly about the food. I'm a bit of a "gourmet" foodie myself, and I found the food in the dining room to be quite a bit better than I'd anticipated. Yes, there weren't always enough enticing selections, but if you chose carefully, most everything was on a 4-star level or nearly so. Not at all what I expeced based on comments I read around here before the cruise. Even much of the buffet food was surprisingly tasty, though not at the same level of quality as the dining room. And one of the specialty restaurants - Portofino - was so spectacular I couldn't believe I was on a cruise ship.

Jewel is indeed beautiful, as I imagine all the Radiance class ships are. Just about the right size for me, I think.