Jewel of the Seas Review

Royal Caribbean - Have their standards slipped ?

Review for the Baltic Sea Cruise on Jewel of the Seas
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theloft
First Time Cruiser • Age 90s

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Sail Date: May 2009

We (that is my wife & I plus 2 friends), were first time cruisers with Royal Caribbean, having previously cruised with Holland America and Celebrity.   We chose Jewel of the Seas as we wanted to see the Baltic Ports & St. Petersburg in particular, and departing from Harwich meant no flying.  We have just returned from this trip and came away with a feeling of disappointment.  The "Jewel" is a fine looking ship but somehow it just didn't sparkle for us.  We had requested our cabins to be of the twin bed arrangement, but they were in double format.  It took 2 days to get this altered.  We had asked for a table for 4 upstairs in the main dining room and got a table for 6 downstairs.   On board, the Atrium is spectacular but it takes a big chunk of space in the middle of the ship, which means that several of the lounges and bars grouped around  are so small it was often difficult to find a seat.   As for the library, too small to mention.   Our biggest surprise was the really cheap and nasty toilet paper in the staterooms, plus no bathrobes in the miniscule bathroom, or should I say shower room.   I had to keep the shower doors open when drying otherwise I was continually banging my elbows on the doors.   Could not fault the towel changes or bedlinen, the stateroom attendant was excellent.  (so this is not all complaints!).    Be warned, there are no public laundry rooms or ironing facilities whatsoever, on this ship.  Plastic plates and cups in The Windjammer, wooden stirring sticks instead of teaspoons, more like a transport cafe than a cruise ship.   Food choice and quality was good however, but why was the bread toasted on one side only?.    I have noticed on other member's reviews that the choice of food in The Tides Restaurant (main dining room) was limited and would totally agree with that.   My wife is vegetarian and often found it difficult, as she cannot eat spicy or curried food.    One night the Head Waiter promised her he would organise a special meal for the following evening, nothing further was mentioned so she ordered from the menu.  When she was almost finished he arrived with a vegetarian lasagna !, special ?  I don't think so.  Our Waiter and Assistant Waiter were excellent and the service was always very good.   We felt that RCI would charge you for anything and everything they could, prices for Internet access was too high and drink prices were staggering, considering it is all duty free.  One complaint was the charge of $6 per head for the shuttle bus in Tallin.  Now this is not a large sum by any means and it is not organised by RCI, but by the town itself.   However you do pre-book on board so there is some involvement by RCI.   From the dock it is only a 3 minute ride and a flat 10 minute walk into town.   The taxis will take 4 of you into town for $15 but none of this information was given out by RCI.   Also at other ports where there were massive queues for shuttle buses whether you had pre-puchased your tickets or not, there were no RCI staff on the quay to organise or advise.   Very poor.   The shows in the Coral Theatre were excellent, but as we were on 2nd sitting dining, which was at 8.30 pm, the show did not commence until 10.00 pm. or later.   But they kept switching it so that some nights it was a 7 pm. start, just when we were getting ready for dinner and a drink beforehand.   Sorry this is so long but wanted to give an honest opinion.    Additionally my wife reminded me of a couple more things.I would like to say that although we had negative feelings about the ship, I am sure most  cruisers found it to be fine.  Maybe we are getting picky in our old age but you can only judge things on previous experience.   I agree that the ship is thoroughly cleaned every day but unfortunately we are non smokers and found the smell of cigarette smoke in several areas of the ship to be very unpleasant.  This was mainly in The Vortex Bar, The Safari Club and of course The Casino.   Some of the upholstery on the sofas was also showing signs of wear and discoloration.  

In St. Petersburg, presumably because some people had chosen to go on the 9-hour trip to Moscow and didn't arrive back until 9 or 10 pm. the sitting arrangements for Dining were cancelled and for that one night only it was Open Dining, it was really chaotic.  We were shown to one table and as we were sitting down the maitre'd came up and tried to move us to a larger table. The service that night was very slow and we had to wait ages for our courses.Like other cruise lines RCI have a loyalty programme and we spoke to one guy who was on his 19th cruise with them.   He was a Connosseur Club Diamond Plus Member (I think) and received the ultimate treatment including a free bar every night for 3 hours (anything he wanted !).   Regrettably we will not be enrolled.    But The Baltics is a great itinerary and it was great to have a no flying holiday.   Probably back to HAL next time, hope their standards have not slipped as well.

Cabin Review

Cabin 0/S

Our outside cabin was in a good position, midships, no noise at all.    Very small by any standards and the bathroom (sorry shower room) was miniscule.

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