My family and I are new to cruising and our maiden voyage was on Jewel of the Seas on the New England/Canada cruise, Oct 14th - 21st. The cruise was a birthday present for my mother. I joined her along with my husband, and 2 year old son.
Things started off a little rocky when our luggage was delayed at the airport (AirTran) but we were still fine with time and check-in was a breeze.
The ship is as beautiful as all of the (other) reviews describe. We were very impressed with the details of the workmanship. In addition to the public areas I was very to happy to find that our cabin was spacious (I had heard horror stories about tight quarters)and everything was very clean and presentable. We decided to go with the largest cabin we could afford which had a balcony (adjoining rooms 9098/9200)and this was a good strategy. The balcony was a wonderful feature even though the weather was a little chilly. It made the room seem more spacious, the sound of the water was incredible and (most importantly), it gave us a place to store stinky diapers until the cabin could be cleaned :-)