This is a review of the 2/3/08 Jewel of the Seas 6 Night Western Caribbean cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale visiting Key West, Cozumel, Belize and Playa del Carmen. This was our 3rd cruise, and first with Royal Caribbean. Previously we've sailed the Eastern Caribbean on the Carnival Legend and went to Canada/New England on the Carnival Victory. My husband and I left a day before cruise embarkation and stayed in Ft. Lauderdale at the Sheraton Yankee Clipper hotel which was right on the beach. Our travel agent had booked us a room at the Bahia Mar for $260 per night, but we were able to get the Sheraton on Priceline for $150. The Bahia Mar was right across the street and both hotels were within walking distance to nightlife, stores, restaurants, etc. We enjoyed our stay there and would recommend it to others planning to visit the area. However, there wasn't a complimentary shuttle to the port, and the cab fare was about $16 to the port.

Embarkation—We arrived at the terminal around 11:00. When we first got to the terminal, porters were there to take our luggage and luggage tags were available from the porters. We then moved inside the port terminal and received a number and were directed to a seating area. Each number represented a group and was called in order about 15 minutes apart. Once inside, there was another line for check-in. We had e documents and had our Set Sail pass completed, which saved time. We got our Sea Pass cards and then went through security, embarkation photos and then on board the ship. The whole process took about 45 minutes to an hour. Once on the ship we were directed to the Windjammer for lunch on deck 11. We were impressed by the dEcor, layout and design of the ship. The elevators have glass windows allowing you to see out into the ocean which was really beautiful and unique to any ship we've been on. When you step out of the elevators on each floor there is a deck map/cross section of the Jewel telling you where you are and the location of everything else in relation to where you are so it makes it very easy to find your way around the ship. We had lunch in the Windjammer which somewhat hectic due to everyone embarking at the same time, but all of the food stations were well laid out and lines were short. There was lots of fresh fruit, good salad bar and separate dessert area in addition to various hot food stations including Asian and pizza.

The muster drill was quick and painless. We gathered in the Schooner bar and listened to instructions over a loud speaker while cruise staff demonstrated in front of you. It wasn't a lengthy out door, crowded process the way we experienced on Carnival so this was much better. Stateroom—We had originally booked and ocean view stateroom without a balcony, figuring we'd be in port more often than on the ship so we put the savings toward shore excursions. However, the upgrade fairies intervened on our behalf. Three days before we looked at our reservation online and noticed we were upgraded to a deck 8 balcony stateroom! When we called RCCL to confirm, they said that the room we originally booked held 4 people and there was a passenger need that prompted the upgrade for us. Whatever the reason, we definitely lucked out. The room was smaller than the balcony staterooms we've had on Carnival, but we were able to unpack all of our things and store our luggage under the bed. The balcony itself seemed larger than what we've had in the past, and had two chairs and a table on it. The bathroom had some storage, and shower doors which were better than just the curtain. There was a shampoo dispenser in the shower, but no liquid soap. This was a birthday cruise for me and my husband—mine was during the cruise and his right after, and he had the room decorated with garland, a happy birthday sign on the door and 1 dozen red roses and a birthday cake made out of daisies. There was a refrigerator in the room filled with sodas and candy (at a charge of course), but we used it to store bottles of water. Unfortunately it was not very much colder than room temperature. Nothing ever got cold in there. Read more