Just back Jewel short n sweet review

[bigfig63]

Short and Sweet review of Jewel Valentines cruise.

Cruise itself was wonderful, perfect temps and weather other then last day Friday ((cold and rainy) hello Solarium). Seas calm, very little motion no Mal de Débarquement Syndrome, darn.

 

Room AFT cabin 1602 IMO best cabin on ship, balcony is 12x12, no wind, wonderful ocean noise at night (prop wash), 2 loungers, 2 chairs and table. No noises. No issues other then starting to look a bit dated.

 

Ship - best looking ship on the seas, out of 10 cruises including, EPIC, Allure, Grand Princess, the Jewel wins hands down. Loved the Centrum. Pools salt water and could always find a lounger.

 

Shows - Time to ditch the old fashioned broadway shows. Didn't really understand the themes. RCCL, save the $$ and just bring on good comedians or jugglers etal. 1st night was comedian name Kelly Monteith. Thought I knew the name and sure enough he was big in the 70's 80's. He did welcome aboard show and had a adult show the next night midnight. Also a female comedian from Wales, kinda reminded me of Paula Deen, she was very different but funny. Magician on last night was pretty good.

 

Entertainment highlight - the duo that played in the Centrum and the group called Suave were awesome. Lead singer for Suave could really belt out the tunes. She was amazing. That alone was worth the trip.

 

Disco night was a blast, the Centrum was packed and the crew did a great job.

 

Cruise Director - Dennis Charles did a great job, TV trivia, Quest and Disco. A good match for the Jewel.

 

MTD -1st time tried it at 6pm, table for 2. Liked the fact you could talk to neighbors at tables next to you or not. Tables were along the outside picture windows with excellant view of sea. Good for sunshine skyway view if seated for dinner. No wait. Liked better then the formal dining. Service quick and dinner took 1 hour.

 

Food - Dining very good ( I am not picky) Prime rib, not alot of flavor. Beef tenderloins, like butter, Chicken Marsala excellant but needed more Marsala, Lamb, ok, Lobster good. No Excargots

I liked the new menu, basically starters (soups, salads, apps) and Main Courses. Portions could still be smaller.

Windjammer - very nice variety, omelete staion the best. Cooked fresh.

For lunch, something new that I liked was the big skillet station. Basically a 3 foot diameter skilllet on a warmer. 1st day was nacho grande (picture big skillet with chips shredded beef, cheese jalapenos and help yourself. Condiments on the side. One day Chimicangas (sp) and final day ribs. Ribs were to die for and they had corn on the cob, slaw and fries to go with! yum.

 

Movies - I love watching movies and the Cinema on board was great. About 5 showtimes per day. I watched:

The Odd life of Timothy Green ***** (5 stars)

Total Recall 2012 ****

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World *****

Rock of Ages ***** 5 stars but hated it , was like watching a train wreck!

Spiderman - did not watch

 

Cruise critic M & M - informal and nice. Did a slot tourney with the group. Great fun. thanks Vicki for setting up.

 

Staff - all did a great job. being on a smaller ship there seemed less interaction prolly due to MTD. The only negative is during the Captain talk with Hotel Director and Chief Engineer, Engineer Italian and really could not understand his answers due to accent.

 

Ports - Been there done that. Ship is my destination. Mai Tai's were worth the $7.95.

 

Passenger makeup- younger then I expected. Seemed like 20-30 in the small kids group. They did a great pirate skit in the Centrum. Teens, not too many. I would say average age of passengers was 50. I think we sailed with 2174 pax.

 

Carried 2 bottles of wine on board, no problem.

 

Embarkation - Dropped bags with porter easy peasy and parked across the street in the garage $75 pre pay.

 

Debarkation - Did the walk off. Easy peasy, got to the parking garage and out, was at Tampa Airport at 8am. Could of made the 830 flight!

 

For me it was a nice get away vacation. The only negative is a 5 day is at least one day too short.

 

Only negative was the video poker. Man those machines were tight. Very poor odds. Normally a perfect video poker machine is a 9/6 machine. Onboard was 8/4 and worse machines, did not hit once to go over initial investment, But did win $40 on the quarter push machine on 4 quarters. 1st time I've seen loaded with 20's and 50's dollar bills. A real money maker for the Casino though. Mesmerizing!

 

 

Happy Travels Brad

[MIcruiser99]

We did the five day cruise in January and loved the cruise. It is funny that you mentioned the average passenger was younger as we had the opposite average age on our cruise. We felt like we were the young group and we are in our 50's.

 

On our cruise, we had a pianist and a juggler and we enjoyed their shows. I am not that thrilled with rcl dancing and singing shows as I miss all the plays and shows that they are alluding to!

 

I agree, five days goes by way too quickly!

[bigfig63]

We had a pianist on board as well. Last name Perry usually played in Schooner Bar. Very nice to listen to.

 

Prolly should have said median age was 50 rather then average. Half the group under and half the group over.

 

One other negative that came to mind was duty free liquor pickup. Dad purchased 2 bottles on board. Used to be it was delivered to stateroom the last night or pickup somewhere on ship the last night. On Jewel the pickup time was 7am the morning of debarkation. Kinda inconvenient as that is one unecessary thing to have to add to the departure list especailly if you are walking off. Maybe its for customs purposes.

[Langley Cruisers]

....the group called Suave were awesome. Lead singer for Suave could really belt out the tunes. She was amazing. That alone was worth the trip.

 

Agreed! Wasn't she fabulous?! And always smiling so sweetly.

 

Windjammer - very nice variety, omelete station the best. Cooked fresh.

 

Also agreed. WJ best on Jewel we have ever experienced, and Pawar at the omelet station was phenomenal. We gave him a WOW card and a tip. He was fantastic.

 

Glad you enjoyed Jewel. :)

 

.

[BuffaloBoy]

Jewel is my favorite as well. Royal should take a look at how they designed it and model it for years to come.

[NeuroQueen]

Glad to hear you liked 1602. We have it for the last cruise out of Tampa. Can't wait!!!