We are not first time cruisers, having cruised on the Norway in 1987 and 1988 and the Carnival Miracle about 10 years ago. This was our first cruise with free style cruising and we loved it. Getting on and off the Jewel for embarkation and debarkation was a breeze. It was very busy getting on but everything went smoothly and it really did not take too long. Once aboard we enjoyed lunch in the buffet and then about 1:30 dropped off our carry on bag in our statement and began exploring. We had stateroom 9082 with a balcony which was listed as aft but seemed much more like mid ship. The stateroom was small but functional with plenty of room to store our luggage under the bed, hang up clothes and put some in the open cubies. The bathroom was also functional and small but certainly adequate. The bed was pushed together to make king size and was comfortable with nice pillows--nicer than many hotels we have stayed in.

Dining: Our favorite restaurant on the ship was Tsar's Palace. It's beautifully decorated with windows all around. We found the service at dinner to be excellent. It's the same food as the Asura dining room in the evenings but seemed a bit more elegant and they do stick to a no shorts dress code. We ate at two specialty restaurants during the week, one at La Cucina which was wonderful with excellent service. We felt it was worth the additional cost. We also ate at Cagney's Steak House and were disappointed with the service and did not feel the additional cost was worth it. The cuts of meat were larger as were the desserts but for the extra price we expected to be pampered and we were not. In fact we found that the service in Tsar's was much better than Cagney's. We ate breakfast either in the buffet or in O'Sheehan's Bar and Grill which we found very good. While the buffet seating area is very noisy and busy, we discovered that during breakfast and lunch you could take your buffet meal and eat in La Cucina which was very very nice. We loved the free style approach to dining in that we could eat when we wanted and where and also that we did not have to get dressy for dinner. We did dress a bit in the evenings but nothing fancy. Also, we did not have to wait for a table for two at any of the dining locations.

Entertainment: We enjoyed the comedian Noodles Levenstein very much. Also enjoyed the magician Nick Lewin and the Luminescense acrobatic show. The two acrobats were just terrific and also appeared in the Le Cirque Bijou show. There was plenty of other entertainment on board including various singers and bands. Our favorite band was Next Stage. Their Beatles tribute show was terrific. We enjoyed sampling different beverages at bars throughout the ship, our favorite spot being the Spinnaker Lounge, which had fabulous views. We checked out the Casino but as expected the slots were very tight. Read more