We sailed on the Jewel of Seas on 9/27/08 heading for New England/Canada. We flew into Boston the day before and the weather was absolutely terrible. It was raining nonstop due to Hurricane Kyle. We stayed at the Hilton Logan Airport and ended up spending our day there due to the weather. This was a nice and comfortable hotel, but affordable. I had learned while booking our hotel stay that the weekend was parents' weekend for many of the universities, which why many were either sold out or had incredible price hikes.

Embarkation: We left our hotel sometime after 11 AM and took a taxi to the cruise terminal. The embarkation process was quite smooth, especially compared to embarkation on our Caribbean cruise a few years prior. We were on the ship by noon. We could not get to our cabin yet, so we were encouraged to go to the Windjammer for lunch. We had a late breakfast and avoided the crowded Windjammer and had a great opportunity to thoroughly explore the ships without many people around. We eventually had lunch at about 3 or 4 PM and by then our luggage had been delivered to our room.

The Ship: The Jewel of the Seas was very clean, easy to navigate, and it didn't seem as if the ship was full. Having sailed the Explorer of the Seas previously, I did notice this ship to be considerably smaller with less entertaining amenities, but it has more of a traditional and elegant feel. Due to the weather, it certainly felt more rocky than any Caribbean cruise I've been on. The Food: Overall, the food was good, but not spectacular. There were some dishes that were better than others. The lamb t-bone was delicious and probably my favorite entree on the cruise. For breakfast, we ordered room service or went to the Windjammer. There were some issues with room service. It was delivered late on one of the port day, another day the coffee was forgotten, and we consistently received pastries we never ordered. The breakfast in the Windjammer had a variety of items to choose from. I was pleasantly surprised to see turkey sausage, but that wasn't a consistent offering. Lunch in the Windjammer was pretty good. I tried the Seaview Cafe-Seafood Shack where I was one of 3 people there. This is a new concept from RCI where you can order appetizers, soups, and dessert with a seafood theme. I had the crab fritters which were quite tasty. There was no extra charge for this. By the last sea day, the rest of the ship seemed to have discovered this hidden spot and there was no seating available. We had dinner in the main dining room every night, with the exception of one, where we ate in the Windjammer. I was happy to see that the menu items from the Tides Dining Room were served buffet style in the Windjammer. In addition, sushi and shish kabobs with lamb, beef, or chicken were available. The service in the dining room was excellent. One disappointment was that the espresso machine in Cafe Lattetudes was broken all week, so typical espresso drinks were made with coffee. The complimentary pastries were pretty blah. Read more