Reflections on our Jewel of the Seas cruise

[Julescroose]

So after being helped in no small measure before cruising by the folks on here, I've taken a break from unpacking to post a short account of how we found our first RCCL trip.

 

Positives:

 

Beautiful ship, stunning Centrum, staff could often be seen cleaning/polishing public areas, 7 year old loved the Kids Club, overall staff vibe good, nightly towel animals (no longer on all P&O ships so we hadn't had them before), choice of food in Windjammer buffet.

 

Negatives:

 

Given conflicting advice at Medical Centre (will be making a complaint, for all the good it will do), kids club staff only pick up kids 10 mins after dinner starts, ie before they've even ordered, not the 40 mins as advertised pre-cruise, so that service is basically non-existent as no-one can use it (we assume they are using the same printed kids compass as on other ships, where dinner may indeed start at 6pm so 6.40pm fits for those ships....lack of brain applied here methinks), MDR menu and quality a bit hit and miss (where were the promised lobsters?!), no towel stand at kids pool, kids pool runs on restricted hours (nothing is said about this before booking), annoyance for Select package as each bar charges different prices ie we could have a sauvignon blanc in the package at one bar but at a sedond bar it would be priced over the $8 cut-off.

 

Yes, the negatives list looks longer but that's due to my lengthy explanations!Overall we had a great holiday. I found the Windjammer buffet better than the P&O buffet but the MDR food not nearly as good as the P&O MDR. These are the two lines we've now cruised with, hence my comparisons.

 

Oh yes, another thing was the entertainment at night didn't seems as varied as P&O, ie no comedians or much else other than song & dance shows. During sea days I was disappointed not to see any crafts or talks on offer (but Husband points out the average cruiser age was much lower on Jewel and at 44 I am clearly now an old fogey). There were of course lots of talks aimed at selling you something...

 

But the staff of both boats were polite and helpful, I couldn't split them.

 

The crazy golf must have been smartened up in the refurb as I had read on here that it was looking tired but we didn't think so.

 

For parents, be aware that they only have one area for age 6-11 at the club, so both the 6-8 and 9-11 groups are together the whole time. Our 7 year old was fine with this but I did wonder how she'd find it. There was a separate, much smaller area for the age 3-5 group.

 

That will do for now, got to go put more washing on! Any questions please ask.

[Clarea]

...where were the promised lobsters?!...

Curious who promised lobster?

 

The "free" lobster is offered only on US based cruises.

[Julescroose]

I had picked it up so mnay times on here, didn't know it was US-based only. Hey-ho;)