Jewel of the Seas Review 12-11-16.. or.. ''A Cruise is what you make of it 2016''

[TAPNKEGS]

ok where was I...oh yea Windjammer. I loved the layout, really kept traffic flowing and broke up the lines I have been a part of on other ships where you just have one long buffet line mirrored on either side of the Lido deck.

 

 

SUBJECTIVE WARNING: I however, was not impressed with the food. I had heard grumblings of Windjammer quality declining and for me alone, I would have to say that it is not unwarranted. There was an ok selection, but the flavors of things were just ''meh''.

 

For example for the first couple days, the grilling stations had very good burgers (not Guy's quality) but quite good, then they switched to a flat sad pretty aweful tasting thing for the rest of the cruise. Not sure why, but to not at least be able to get a good burger was disappointing.

 

 

that grill station would shake things up a bit by offering taco type stuff and some attempts at asian cuisine with mixed results.

 

Breakfast was also hit and miss. the grill stations were turned into omelet stations that took your order, gave a number and called you when it was ready ( good system there) really alieviated the lines at other omelet stations I have seen.

 

 

there was no bacon police (hooray) but the eggs... I have never seen more watery eggs consistently over the week then here. twas a bit sad. Next to the omelet station, they had toast type stuff: bagels, english muffins, white and wheat toast, but it was all predone....meaning cold and very tough. They used a VERY thin white bread that after being toasted and sitting there a bit before taken was hard as rock. I understand the need to have things readily available but once again, I do miss the fresh toast and english muffins that were done as needed.

 

 

also on dinner service, the other side grill station would be firing up made to order steaks and grilled chicken breasts. These were actually very good and became a staple of mine. For dinner, they had fresh warm rolls (most of the time).

 

For the salad eaters, there was an entire station dedicated along with various soups. The selection was there for the most part, but again it was the quality I found lacking. Others mentioned it was delicious. only you can decide.

 

There was also an area dedicated to small sandwiches and these I saw fly off the displays with regularity

 

 

They also had one or two fresh carve stations going, but I didnt see alot utilize it. I did see turkey, ham, roast beef and pork, but what I did see seemed very fatty (apart from the turkey)

 

 

more on the way..

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Once you entered the buffet are proper, there was a table there always displaying something: drink packages, a beer vendor, a huge dessert or gigantic omelet or homemade donuts with various topping to apply ( dang those donuts were good though)

 

 

just off to either side of this table were 2 identical drink stations that would have trays of various free

drinks ready to go ( and at often times very watered down) such as: lemonde, unsweet tea and water. They also had fresh coffee brewing all the time, teabags and packets of hot chocolate was also available. there were never lines to get drinks that I witnessed. Although you can see fountain soda here, this was charge by glass when I asked.

 

 

also, there were 2 self serve drink stations on either side of the rear outdoor eating area of windjammer that had their own ice machines, so if you wanted a nice strong lemonade, I would advise getting them here

 

 

lastly, there were 2 dessert stations on either side of the rear indoor area of the windjammer. They had a decent variety of things here on offer but a favorite of myself and many others were fresh chocolate chip cookies a plenty that were delicious.

 

 

Apart from the odd closing of this entire area from 5:30-6:30pm, the windjammer had a fair amount to offer. And a huge plus for the comfortable and spacious seating outside for eating

 

 

 

On to the Tides main dining room

 

 

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lower entry to Tides

 

 

upper (main) entry to Tides

 

 

 

This venue was just stunning. Compared to what I have seen before, this just blew it away.

 

 

at the bottom of this stairwell, if you looked behind you, you saw this..

 

 

a bit hard to see, but there was a grand piano at the base as well. The room just had a real class to the decor

 

 

more..

[TAPNKEGS]

we only ate there twice, but the service was impeccable ( again, subjective) The people there work VERY hard and the pride with which they do so came across loud and clear. We did your time dining so we would show up ask for a table for 2 and never waited more then 5 minutes. They allow you to reserve a table like that up to 24 hrs ahead of time.

 

 

since we brought our own wine onboard, I had asked ahead of time at the reservation desk if there was a corkage fee and they said no, so no worries there.

 

The quality of food there was nothing special that we had but a bit above what the buffet offered naturally. If you ate at the priced resturaunts, you had the option of ordering something from those menus at an additional cost.

 

more from around the ship...

 

Deck 13 Vortex club

 

 

this was a sad place. from the refit, they needed to put the premium club somewhere and chose to cordon off an area of the deck here to do that. It looked really haphazard and shoehorned in you can see by the sickly blue partition wall

 

 

I know the premier class folks deserve to have their special spaces but this just made things look cheap

 

 

besides this....and maybe I am just getting old and don't stay up as much as I used to, but I took many a stroll through here at all hours and never saw a soul in this club area... day or night.

 

 

 

a couple random pics from around the ship to round out the night, next..

 

 

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some stairwell art

 

 

forward elevator bank area

 

 

more stairwell art

 

 

and a little fact plaque by guest services

 

 

Tuesday: St. Maartin coming up... thanks for hanging around and the kind words !

[leahlefler]

I absolutely love your review! We are on the Jewel in February and this makes me wish we were on the cruise now!

 

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[Pipo]

Nice pics! What a beautiful ship! I've seen a lot of people here praising Jewel, but this is the first time that I look inside a Radiance Class, and I think they have a good reason.

Seriously considering Jewel for my next sailing.

[mixplix]

Great review so far! We are on the Jewel in April 2017 - did you do any fitness classes? If so, do you know the charges for same? Do they have spin bikes? If so, do they have clip system? Can you use the spin bikes when class is not in session?

 

Thanks!

[Mr. Bungle]

Call me crazy... You're Crazy... But didn't the bar in Vortex rotate around??? Or am I thinking of another ship... Our first cruise ever was on Jewel and we are revisiting her in a few weeks.

[island lady]

Call me crazy... You're Crazy... But didn't the bar in Vortex rotate around??? Or am I thinking of another ship... Our first cruise ever was on Jewel and we are revisiting her in a few weeks.

 

It's been awhile, but the circular bar itself (not the whole lounge) did when we were aboard. I think EX had their bar

rotating too, but not sure if it still does.

Edited January 4, 2017 by island lady

[davekathy]

Call me crazy... You're Crazy... But didn't the bar in Vortex rotate around??? Or am I thinking of another ship... Our first cruise ever was on Jewel and we are revisiting her in a few weeks.

 

Or one too many...;o)

[island lady]

Or one too many...;o)

 

LOL!! Yeah, I always thought that was funny. Is it me going around in

circles after a few "adult beverages" or is it the bar??!! :eek: :p :p

Edited January 4, 2017 by island lady

[davekathy]

LOL!! Yeah, I always thought that was funny. Is it me going around in

circles after a few "adult beverages" or is it the bar??!! :eek: :p :p

 

All I can say is I'm just glad the Captain is the designator driver. ;o)

[Elvis1209]

Thanks for the review. Of all the RCI ships I think Jewel is my favorite. Did a cruise similar to yours a few years ago. There is one thing about your review that is like "nails on the blackboard" for me. You refer to her as "The" Jewel. She is a lady! Please refer to her by name, not title. Do you refer to your wife as "The" Mary? If your wife is anything like mine you would only do that once! Anyway, back to your review. I was sad to see the Seaview Café was removed. That was my favorite place to eat on the ship. And I've also found that food quality has gone downhill fleet-wide. I guess it's a sign of the times. I look forward to the rest of your review!

 

Elvis

[B_Mc]

Call me crazy... You're Crazy... But didn't the bar in Vortex rotate around??? Or am I thinking of another ship... Our first cruise ever was on Jewel and we are revisiting her in a few weeks.

 

 

I was thinking the same thing! It used to rotate, we took a spin in 2012!

Edited January 5, 2017 by B_Mc

[Denise Ann]

Call me crazy... You're Crazy... But didn't the bar in Vortex rotate around??? Or am I thinking of another ship... Our first cruise ever was on Jewel and we are revisiting her in a few weeks.[/quote

Yes it rotates. At least it did last January. We will find out in a couple weeks too.

[saharaga]

Thanks for your review and the beautiful pics. We have a cruise booked on Jewel for Spring break 2018. I was thinking of moving it to another week since I really want more than one day pre-cruise to explore San Juan. I am actually more excited about the ship now than I am about San Juan.

 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you'll post pictures of the kid's pool/splash area.

[anewmac]

Just found this review, cant wait to read it. Looking forward to it helping me pass the time before we cruise. Great pics to start!

[Agutaya]

Call me crazy... You're Crazy... But didn't the bar in Vortex rotate around??? Or am I thinking of another ship... Our first cruise ever was on Jewel and we are revisiting her in a few weeks.

 

We were in the Virtex for Happy Hour several times in Nov. and Dec. We saw the bar rotate once.

 

Also we saw the roof of the solarium open once on a port day.

 

We're enjoying your review.

[island lady]

All I can say is I'm just glad the Captain is the designator driver. ;o)

 

Me too!! ....hick up!! ;)

[sadie8]

Thanks for posting all of the photos - which are great by the way!

[Georgeven]

Amazing review and pictures... we'll be sailing on her in one month... and can not wait :-)

 

 

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[TAPNKEGS]

St. Maartin: as I am sure many can vouch for, its never a fun thing when you wake up at a new island and this weather greets you..

 

 

however, those who have experienced caribbean weather before can also say that it can chang in what amounts to minutes at times to this...

 

 

much better. Since the excursions from the ship seemed quite pricey for what was available, I decided to do my homework ahead of time and through a little digging on Trip Advisor, found Bernards Tours. Nothing outlandishly special but for about $40 per person, you will get a nice guided tour though both the Dutch and French side of the island. The tour lasted about 4ish hours and free soft drinks, water, and a special rum punch was available. There were about 6-7 people per bus and they were clean and the AC was cool.

 

In between clouds and sun, our first stop was a little coastal lookout point.

 

 

 

There was a local character who when we arrived was ''fishing'' around for sea urchins

 

 

you could tell right away he was really into his work

 

 

more..

 

 

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after his little dive, he showed and let us handle what he found before returning it to the water.

 

 

The day before, there was a huge rainstorm and our driver mentioned that normally iguanas were all over the place but to that point, we saw none. Then over a rise, we spotted a little pulloff where a local was feeding some greens to a bunch that decided to come and show off.

 

 

no one from our bus wanted to get out lol except me

 

 

We then toured around the island some more taking in the sights and enjoying the very informative commentary from our guide. Our next stop was a little shop area on a hill with a nice overlook to the nude beaches. I only had a 300mm lens with me so not much to see from this distance anyway. It was a nice view regardless

 

 

At the little shop are there was a small place that took care of abandoned pets. There was this cat there that just seemed too cool for pictures...note the crossed paws...such a princess

 

 

alas, she was not a fan of paparazzi

 

 

moving on...

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We headed around the french side of the island and saw some nice houses..

 

 

and a shipwreck from a hurricane

 

 

we next stopped in the french town of Marigot. Its right by the water and had lots of vendor tents and some high end shops to choose from. Watching over the town was an old fort that had 250 some steps to get to. We had an hour here to shop and eat. There was also public restrooms to use which were clean.

 

 

We then headed to Maho beach. This is the beach practically kissing the runway for the main airport where you can get some great pics of planes arriving and pics of the fools who try to hang on to a beer while holding on to the runway fence with the other hand as a 747 blasts them and their now sandy beverage into the water.

 

The beach was nice enough, but man was it CROWDED. There is a popular resturant/ bar that seems like it never gets slow and constant traffic.

 

 

we only saw one plane come in

 

 

 

cont..