Back from Jewel. Overall fantastic, except for Chops

[cruisin from florida]

We got back from our first post-pandemic cruise on Saturday. Overall it was a WONDERFUL trip. I called out several staff by name in the post-cruise survey for their excellence. Best stateroom steward we have had in almost 40 years of cruising, great bar and spa service, great trivia and shows....

We ate at Giovanni's, Chops, the Windjammer, and the Main Dining Room (my time), in addition to using room service a few times.

Again, all was really excellent, food, service, atmosphere... EXCEPT Chops.

I'm going to vent here, because the Royal Caribbean Survey didn't give any place to describe that situation (which is an issue in itself). Service at Chops was a bizarre mix of slow (waiter rarely stopped to see how we were doing, we waited a long time between courses, table clearing, and for the dessert menu), and rushed (plopping menus down without a word, and when coming back to take the dessert order, saying "what do you want?" in a very abrupt manner). Had to ask (when he finally passed by) for butter and sour cream for my baked potato, no fresh ground pepper was offered (they did in Giovanni's). The "shareable side" that we chose (asparagus) was plopped into a small metal cylindrical bowl with a spoon to fish out the limp, sad, asparagus. This isn't the first time we've had service issues at Chops on a ship, but we occasionally have a lovely meal and keep trying.

I have tried to mentally make excuses for this (newly back in the U.S., new waiter maybe??) but - again, EVERYTHING else on the ship was absolutely stellar, which made this mess stand out even more. 

Again, I had hoped to describe this (in addition to all the well-deserved kudos for excellence) in the post-cruise survey, but even though I gave Chops a low score (2 - the food was good) there was no follow-up question. I didn't bring it up to the maitre d' at the time, because frankly by the time we left I just wanted to get out of there and go on and enjoy the rest of our cruise (which I did!!!).

 

It was GREAT to be cruising again, and we're looking forward to our upcoming Royal Caribbean trips in 2022 and 2023. Thanks for letting me vent!

 

 

[SilkySal]

We will board the Jewel in January but don't plan on visiting a specialty restaurant this time. Last few cruises have just been for rest and relaxation! On our last 3 cruises, we only got off at a port stop one time and that was at CocoCay. Happy cruising! Cheers!

[RosieRoo]

Thanks for your report. We will be on the Jewel for a back to back in January. That’s my favorite class of ship, so I’m glad to hear that everything was great.

[cruisin from florida]

6 minutes ago, SilkySal said:

We will board the Jewel in January but don't plan on visiting a specialty restaurant this time. Last few cruises have just been for rest and relaxation! On our last 3 cruises, we only got off at a port stop one time and that was at CocoCay. Happy cruising! Cheers!

We didn't get off in Bimini, wandered a little at the port at Costa Maya and Cozumel, but mostly just relaxed on the ship! 

[Maitaivegas]

I’m sad to hear you got bad service in Chops. How was the quality of the steak?

I don’t get red meat much so I am looking forward to it.

I wish Chops served prime rib and maybe a nice pork chop.

I got the UDP for my Symphony cruise in January because anytime I watched blogs the MDR and WDJ food just wasn’t doing it for me.

 

Thanks for your review, I really enjoyed it.

 

[mawvkysc]

I have heard the social media team is very responsive for customer service. Message RC on Facebook or Twitter

[cruzer0007]

On 12/6/2021 at 10:56 AM, cruisin from florida said:

 

It was GREAT to be cruising again, and we're looking forward to our upcoming Royal Caribbean trips in 2022 and 2023. Thanks for letting me vent!

 

 

Thanks for sharing your experience, sorry to hear about the difficulty in chops.  Was hoping you might be able to share similar insight about entertainment options and quality, in particular the live music options ?   The live music experience (individuals and small groups) is our primary focus, even more so than food, would be grateful to know your thoughts on those aspects.  We are considering a transatlantic on the jewel, and as it is one of the older and smaller vessels, we wonder if the entertainment is a bit thinner as a result.   Thanks in advance.

Edited December 19, 2021 by cruzer0007

[leisuretraveler223]

This sounds unfortunately typtical for Chops and Royal specialty dining in general.

 

I used to be a "specialty restaurant only" cruiser.  But the quality of the product across the fleet has continued to diminish. I now find the very best specialty experience on board would be one that would love me highly disappointed on land. As such, I now embrace the surprisingly good value of main dining.

[cnice515]

13 minutes ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

This sounds unfortunately typtical for Chops and Royal specialty dining in general.

 

I used to be a "specialty restaurant only" cruiser.  But the quality of the product across the fleet has continued to diminish. I now find the very best specialty experience on board would be one that would love me highly disappointed on land. As such, I now embrace the surprisingly good value of main dining.

I completely agree, there isn't a significant enough difference between the MDR and specialties that make the money and experience (especially) worth it.  Plus I like the ability for variety of foods in the MDR, my kids have been able to try foods they otherwise would not.

[leisuretraveler223]

1 minute ago, cnice515 said:

I completely agree, there isn't a significant enough difference between the MDR and specialties that make the money and experience (especially) worth it.  Plus I like the ability for variety of foods in the MDR, my kids have been able to try foods they otherwise would not.

 

Another factor for me is that specialty dining now seems to take an unreasonably long time.  I get a drawn out leisurely meal at an amazing restaurant land side. But when it's basically a dolled up version of what's being served complimentary on the other side of the wall, I DEFINITELY don't need it to take three hours.

[cnice515]

1 minute ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

 

Another factor for me is that specialty dining now seems to take an unreasonably long time.  I get a drawn out leisurely meal at an amazing restaurant land side. But when it's basically a dolled up version of what's being served complimentary on the other side of the wall, I DEFINITELY don't need it to take three hours.

Well that is certainly true as well 🤣.  

[cnice515]

BUT I don't mind a long meal if the food and/or experience is amazing and worth the time but I have not felt this way for many years.  But as you so eloquently described it, the complimentary food on the other side of the wall is really good (IMHO) and served so much quicker than the marginally (if any) better costly food on the other side of the wall 😜

[leisuretraveler223]

10 minutes ago, cnice515 said:

BUT I don't mind a long meal if the food and/or experience is amazing and worth the time but I have not felt this way for many years.  But as you so eloquently described it, the complimentary food on the other side of the wall is really good (IMHO) and served so much quicker than the marginally (if any) better costly food on the other side of the wall 😜

 

We have nine of us sailing out next Sunday. We'll do main dining all week.  But I'm happily dropping a sizable bit of coin for a really nice Christmas dinner landslide the night before departure!

[pcur]

On 12/6/2021 at 8:56 AM, cruisin from florida said:

We got back from our first post-pandemic cruise on Saturday. Overall it was a WONDERFUL trip. I called out several staff by name in the post-cruise survey for their excellence. Best stateroom steward we have had in almost 40 years of cruising, great bar and spa service, great trivia and shows....

We ate at Giovanni's, Chops, the Windjammer, and the Main Dining Room (my time), in addition to using room service a few times.

Again, all was really excellent, food, service, atmosphere... EXCEPT Chops.

I'm going to vent here, because the Royal Caribbean Survey didn't give any place to describe that situation (which is an issue in itself). Service at Chops was a bizarre mix of slow (waiter rarely stopped to see how we were doing, we waited a long time between courses, table clearing, and for the dessert menu), and rushed (plopping menus down without a word, and when coming back to take the dessert order, saying "what do you want?" in a very abrupt manner). Had to ask (when he finally passed by) for butter and sour cream for my baked potato, no fresh ground pepper was offered (they did in Giovanni's). The "shareable side" that we chose (asparagus) was plopped into a small metal cylindrical bowl with a spoon to fish out the limp, sad, asparagus. This isn't the first time we've had service issues at Chops on a ship, but we occasionally have a lovely meal and keep trying.

I have tried to mentally make excuses for this (newly back in the U.S., new waiter maybe??) but - again, EVERYTHING else on the ship was absolutely stellar, which made this mess stand out even more. 

Again, I had hoped to describe this (in addition to all the well-deserved kudos for excellence) in the post-cruise survey, but even though I gave Chops a low score (2 - the food was good) there was no follow-up question. I didn't bring it up to the maitre d' at the time, because frankly by the time we left I just wanted to get out of there and go on and enjoy the rest of our cruise (which I did!!!).

 

It was GREAT to be cruising again, and we're looking forward to our upcoming Royal Caribbean trips in 2022 and 2023. Thanks for letting me vent!

 

 

Oh, what you described is an opportunity for a nice, polite chat with the restaurant manager while you were waiting for one of your courses, or dessert. 

 

Seriously, it's a privilege for the staff to work in a specialty restaurant:  they get better tips.  That waiter needs an attitude adjustment.  If I was in that situation, I would tell the manager, "PLEASE,  do NOT punish this person for the poor service and attitude I am experiencing, but do a little mentoring to help him/her be better at their job".

[dadatsea]

We were on the eight day Dec 4th sailing on the Jewel. Overall a good cruise. Room attendant was Super! Windjammer was wonderful . The serving lines had great team members serving you as you picked the items you point to. Food was hot and delicious. Best windjammer experience in years. Now the disappointment...Chops was really lousy. Server was very sub par. we were a table of 4. Our filets were dry and sub par. The waiters attitude was same as above reviewer detailed The true deal breaker was dessert. The molten lava cake was dry and the chocolate tasted burned. The deal breaker was of all things the slice of apple pie. The crust was badly burned. Not browned, Burned ! I pulled the crust back and the apples were burned also. A local diner would NEVER had served this  embarrassment. We questioned the waiter if he would eat a pie like this? He went to the head waiter and the reply was if we wanted a replacement piece to come back tomorrow. We were disappointed to say the least. This was on a Thursday night and we also had reserved the Saturday also. Needless to say we cancelled the Saturday reservation. Fool me once shame on you... fool me twice.. shame on me ! Chops is in trouble if it is a highlight of ones cruise.    The ship was in great shape. Very clean and hygiene protocols kept throughout the ship. Good sail all in all.

[cnice515]

46 minutes ago, dadatsea said:

We questioned the waiter if he would eat a pie like this? He went to the head waiter and the reply was if we wanted a replacement piece to come back tomorrow.

Out of all of the potential ways of making their mistake right, this is the recourse they chose LOL, WOW just WOW!!!

[dadatsea]

1 hour ago, cnice515 said:

Out of all of the potential ways of making their mistake right, this is the recourse they chose LOL, WOW just WOW!!!

We also were amazed how poorly this was handled. I spoke with the asst. head waiter the next morning and he was embarrassed for his crews actions. He offered to have us back for lunch to remedy the bad service / meal in general. I told him only so he would be aware of the night before experience but declined any further visit on this sailing. 

[njkruzer]

We're on the Jewel for 2 cruises beginning 12/30.  Glad to heR the ship was in good shape.   Don't like Chops so don't eat there.

 

Btw, what type of wrist bands...latex or ccloth?

[dadatsea]

On 12/19/2021 at 7:22 PM, njkruzer said:

We're on the Jewel for 2 cruises beginning 12/30.  Glad to heR the ship was in good shape.   Don't like Chops so don't eat there.

 

Btw, what type of wrist bands...latex or ccloth?

cloth  very easy to keep clean

[njkruzer]

1 minute ago, dadatsea said:

cloth  very easy to keep clean

Ok. Was hoping for latex so could remove them to shower, etc.

[radarcruiser]

6 minutes ago, njkruzer said:

Ok. Was hoping for latex so could remove them to shower, etc.

We had the cloth ones on Mariner last week.   If you don’t pull them tight the first time you put them on, it’s easy to slip them off and on for sleep, shower, etc.

[njkruzer]

6 minutes ago, radarcruiser said:

We had the cloth ones on Mariner last week.   If you don’t pull them tight the first time you put them on, it’s easy to slip them off and on for sleep, shower, etc.

Found a video online with instructions on how to loosen them.

[Biker19]

11 hours ago, njkruzer said:

Ok. Was hoping for latex so could remove them to shower, etc.

You should be able to exchange them at GS or in the DL.

[thomasale]

On 12/19/2021 at 6:04 AM, leisuretraveler223 said:

This sounds unfortunately typtical for Chops and Royal specialty dining in general.

 

I used to be a "specialty restaurant only" cruiser.  But the quality of the product across the fleet has continued to diminish. I now find the very best specialty experience on board would be one that would love me highly disappointed on land. As such, I now embrace the surprisingly good value of main dining.

Last cruise for us on Allure in October, we ate specialty only at Ikumi Hibachi. While the "show" was fantastic the food was "meh" at best. We added extra to the extra charge for the lobster and scallops. Won't waste that money again. Good time but not worth the extra charges.

 

[cruisin from florida]

On 12/7/2021 at 12:21 PM, Maitaivegas said:

I’m sad to hear you got bad service in Chops. How was the quality of the steak?

I don’t get red meat much so I am looking forward to it.

I wish Chops served prime rib and maybe a nice pork chop.

I got the UDP for my Symphony cruise in January because anytime I watched blogs the MDR and WDJ food just wasn’t doing it for me.

 

Thanks for your review, I really enjoyed it.

 

The steak was good. You can order the filet mignon in the MDR for 16.95 (I think). If I had wanted steak again that's what I would have done. MDR service and atmosphere was very superior to Chops.