After trying all the big Royal ships we decided to give the Jewel a spin. We loved the feel of the ship. It almost felt like the ship was empty at times, but it livened up at night and was full on the pool deck on the one sea day.
We used our travel tips from cruise critic and hopped on the local bus in both Antigua and Grenada - what a deal!!
In St Lucia we took the Herod Tour (Land and Sea) and had a blast as well. It was a big group (30) which was unexpected. I was hoping Herod would offer more time at the beach time as advertised, but it was still only an hour (same as the Cosol land tour)
8186 was in great shape and comes highly recommended on cruise critic (second only to 9256)
They were updating the plumbing during this cruise so we had some brown water one day and the typical sewer smell in the bathroom. Remember your air freshener
Otherwise no issues.