LIVE from Jewel May 15, 2024 - 27 nights

[Sunshine3601]

I am loving your review of all the places I hope to get to someday.     Thank you for sharing and thank you for your wonderful photos.    😊

[twangster]

Balloon drop to celebrate our arrival to Cork, Ireland.  For some reason they timed this after our departure from the port.  🤔

 

 

  

[FionaMG]

3 minutes ago, twangster said:

Balloon drop to celebrate our arrival to Cork, Ireland.  For some reason they timed this after our departure from the port.  🤔

 

 

  

That does seem a bit daft. 😂

[island lady]

OMG...what another fantastic day!!   Thanks so much for sharing!!  🥰

[twangster]

11 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

The museum sounds fascinating and is right up my alley.  I'll have to find a reason to get there some day.  I saw a video a few months ago trying to prove that it was in fact Olympic that sank rather than Titanic.  I don't remember the details but for some reason, the White Star Line secretly swapped the ships.  Seems like a pretty far-fetched conspiracy theory.  Was there any discussion of this?

It never came up.   Olympic was on her way back from New York heading to England when Titanic hit the iceberg.  It seems pretty far fetched to swap the passenger manifests and somehow silence the passengers who would have completed the trip successfully in this outlandish scenario.   
 

Titanic’s completion was delayed when Olympic had an incident in 1912 after entering service.  Titanic was moved out of the Thompson dry dock mid fitment so Olympic could have a propellor blade replaced.  Shipyard crew did the work.  At the time, Titanic was not finished internally.  They couldn’t have swapped name plates at that point, to have an unfinished ship assume Olympics sailings.  
 

After the Titanic sinking Olympic was retrofitted to improve her safety.  
 

It seems like all of this, including the crew and shipyard workers performing the work to retrofit Olympic, would be all but impossible to occur and keep silent through some secret swapping of the hulls. 
 

123 passengers boarded Titanic in Cobh for example.  44 survived.  To silence the survivors and have them be tricked into boarding a different ship seems crazy.  
 

 

Edited May 27 by twangster

[twangster]

As an update, many bars have been replenished, Belvedere and Greygoose are back for example.  Jameson is flowing once more.  
 

Guinness on the other hand remains unavailable.  None on board.  

[twangster]

Day Fourteen - Sea Day

 

Progress report:

 

 

Conditions:

 

 

Rain.

 

Cruise compass hasn't been published online yet.

[twangster]

As far as the internet or Voom experience has been on board, Starlink is an important change that is largely responsible for the improved user experience but a Starlink upgrade alone won't always create the best outcome.

 

The other important factor driving the user experience is the WiFi platform or technology in use.  In order to fully utilize the Starlink upgrade to its maximum potential the WiFi platform has to be upgraded as well.  It also has to be properly configured.   The best WiFi hardware configured improperly would cause a terrible user experience.

 

Fortunately Jewel has had her WiFi tech upgraded on board and it appears to be properly configured unlike what I discovered on another Radiance class ship a few years ago.

 

This starts with allocating various access points to different non-competing frequencies.

 

 

Jewel is using 20 MHz channels.

 

2.4 GHz band:

 

 

 

5GHz band:

 

 

 

The use of 20MHz channel width isn't going to provide the most throughput theoretically possible however it is the proper method to configure a WiFi platform for this type of environment.

 

Given the inherent bandwidth available through Starlink there would be no benefit to using 40MHz or 80MHz channel width like one might at home.  More importantly given the number of access points in close proximity, higher channel widths would create more overlap and interference yielding lower performance. 

 

Since for the most part WiFi clients will be accessing Starlink as opposed to local network resources, it would make little sense using higher channel width.

 

For example there are a number of high performance outdoor access points on deck 12.  By configuring them as they have, those access points can coexist with reduced overlap and interference in an environment where they will at times have hundreds of devices connected such as during sail away or other pool deck events for the masses.

 

On some ships they speed restrict WiFi for each user to around 10Mbps throughput.  This remains to be a misguided attempt to share bandwidth.  The problem with this approach is that it creates congestion in the WiFi spectrum by prolonging the amount of time a WiFi client is consuming spectrum.  With each client taking longer to complete its data exchange the spectrum is busy longer.  This appears to be the approach they are taking with the mega ships, Oasis and Icon class and it drive me crazy.

 

Fortunately they are not (yet) implementing per user speed restrictions on the smaller ships, at least in my experience.  

 

In summary Jewel has nailed the WiFi upgrade and they are not speed restricting users beyond the use of 20MHz channel width which is the proper approach for this type of environment.  

 

 

Edited May 28 by twangster

[Jimbo]

10 hours ago, twangster said:

It never came up.   Olympic was on her way back from New York heading to England when Titanic hit the iceberg.  It seems pretty far fetched to swap the passenger manifests and somehow silence the passengers who would have completed the trip successfully in this outlandish scenario.   
 

Titanic’s completion was delayed when Olympic had an incident in 1912 after entering service.  Titanic was moved out of the Thompson dry dock mid fitment so Olympic could have a propellor blade replaced.  Shipyard crew did the work.  At the time, Titanic was not finished internally.  They couldn’t have swapped name plates at that point, to have an unfinished ship assume Olympics sailings.  
 

After the Titanic sinking Olympic was retrofitted to improve her safety.  
 

It seems like all of this, including the crew and shipyard workers performing the work to retrofit Olympic, would be all but impossible to occur and keep silent through some secret swapping of the hulls. 
 

123 passengers boarded Titanic in Cobh for example.  44 survived.  To silence the survivors and have them be tricked into boarding a different ship seems crazy.  
 

 

Not many knew of the name plate switch that was done on the weekend when not many were working. They were paid well to keep it quiet.

 

They have said even the ships were taken out of their positions and switched around at the dock that same weekend the plate was switched.

 

The lettering found on the prop after it sinked were that of the Olympic not Titanic's.

 

A lot of this was done for insurance purposes.

 

So really to this day it's still very much in question.

Edited May 28 by Jimbo

[twangster]

5 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Not many knew of the name plate switch that was done on the weekend when not many were working. They were paid well to keep it quiet.

 

They have said even the ships were taken out of their positions and switched around at the dock that same weekend the plate was switched.

 

The lettering found on the prop after it sinked were that of the Olympic not Titanic's.

 

A lot of this was done for insurance purposes.

 

So really to this day it's still very much in question.

 

When Olympic damaged a blade in 1912 they took one that was supposed to be on Titanic.

 

Titanic wasn't finished yet and hadn't completed her sea trials at that point so borrowing one her propellor blades allowed Olympic to quickly return to service.

 

That was well before the sinking of Titanic.  

 

So the claim is that they proactively swapped hulls before they knew of the impending tragedy in preparation for an insurance claim? 

 

Not buying it.  

 

[twangster]

Day 14 cruise compass

 

JW May 15 day 14 cruisecompass.pdf

[twangster]

Meet the Officers

 

JW May 15 Meet The Officers.pdf

[twangster]

Time change tonight at 2am.

[twangster]

Passport collection from 10am to 12 noon.

 

Having left Ireland we get our passports back today.  

[Sinders99]

12 hours ago, twangster said:

As an update, many bars have been replenished, Belvedere and Greygoose are back for example.  Jameson is flowing once more.  
 

Guinness on the other hand remains unavailable.  None on board.  

All is right in the world again!!

 

Thank you for sharing your walk around of Cobh. What a beautiful city!!

[twangster]

1pm update.   Middle of the English Channel.  
 

We’ve been approaching the E in the English Channel for hours now.  They keep moving the goal posts.  
 

 

[ScottishRobbie]

Have to say, I'm rather angry with myself that it's taken me 2 weeks to find a Twangster live review. Breathtaking photos as always, can't wait for the second cruise.

[ScottishRobbie]

On 5/26/2024 at 10:32 PM, island lady said:

We are pretty fond of the VCL for happy hour with that great sweeping 180 plus view.  Love sitting at the circle bar, though the bar stools are a bit "stiff".  😉  

 

Wonder which (if any) of the Radiance ladies still have the bar revolving?  Was dead on Serenade, but I think Jewel still worked?  

Was revolving on Brilliance in November last year

[LAKaye]

On 5/16/2024 at 5:18 AM, twangster said:

 

 

Cabin tour, 4D balcony on deck 7 forward, port side.

 

On deck 7 some of the balconies are extended and have an open upward view to the sky.

 

 

While there is little privacy when standing at the railing I enjoy these extended balconies.  I'm not one to use my balcony without attire.   Given the potential of the Northern Lights and views as we sail into the fjords of Norway on the next cruise I was glad to be able to secure these forward deck 7 cabins for both cruises.  

 

I do have to move cabins for the next cruise heading aft a few cabins but after 15 nights a change will do me good.

 

 

I've stayed in these forward deck 7 cabins before and i really like the open views to the sky yet a covered balcony like every other balcony when it's desired.  Plus these are some of the only balcony cabins with a view straight down to the water.

 

 

Hello to Twangster !

Thank you so very much for taking us along with you on this wonderful journey.

 

I too am a lover of the Deck 7 forward rooms on the Radiance class ships.

Looking at your photos, I am curious to see that your balcony and the balconies aft of you have a solid- or plain-colored Bolidt brand deck surface, but the balconies forward of yours appear to have a teak or teak-look surface.

Is that what I'm seeing?

 

Being a cruise nerd, I find this interesting.  

 

Thank you 🙏🏻

Leslie

[twangster]

It should be clear by now I am a tech geek.

 

I've used many different forms of internet on different cruise lines going back almost two decades now.  From the old bucket of minutes when it took several minutes just to connect, check for new emails and disconnect as quickly as possible to avoid burning through slower than dial-up minutes costing hundreds of dollars to where we are today with Starlink is pretty amazing.

 

Today I was watching a live stream of SpaceX launching more Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral while in a fog bank in the middle of the English Channel on a moving ship using Starlink in crystal clear video.  This is pretty phenomenal.   Then uploading this 4K video of the experience in under 60 seconds.  

 

We've come so far...

 

 

 

 

[StrikeEagle]

@twangster  Thank you for the great review. Would you please post more pictures around the ship and any information you see regarding improvements, repairs, or replacements made after dry dock? I'm curious to see the pictures around the ship after dry dock. Thank you.

Edited May 28 by StrikeEagle

[twangster]

6 minutes ago, StrikeEagle said:

@twangster  Thank you for the great review. Would you please post more pictures around the ship and any information you see regarding improvements, repairs, or replacements made after dry dock? I'm curious to see the pictures around the ship after dry dock. Thank you.

I took some photos of various chairs after seeing reports of threadbare furniture before.  I recall Radiance looking pretty worn last year.  So while it may seem odd to go around taking pictures of chairs, there was a reason.   
 

In no particular order…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These Vintages chair feel really low, like a grown up stuck at the kids table during holiday dinner.  
 

Hockey playoffs on board!

 

In summary I haven’t yet found a chair that looks worn.  

[twangster]

Within the Safari Lounge there is the Zanzibar Lounge.  Here is its story:

 

[twangster]

Wave Benders in the Centrum.  
 

 

 

Edited May 28 by twangster

[Laurie JJ]

Really enjoying your report Twangster. We are looking forward to our upcoming trip on Jewel in July to Norway. This will be our first time on a Radiance class ship and are excited to try out a smaller ship. Do you know if there are hot water kettles in the balcony cabins?  Tea on the balcony in Norway sounds nice!