My husband and I enjoy cruising, this is our 6th and first with RC. We choose this cruise because of the departure port, itinerary: visiting a different port each day, and to celebrate my husband’s milestone birthday. Embarkations was a breeze, arrived @ 12:30 and were on board within ½ hour. Cabin was ready, dropped off carry on and off to explore the ship. As others mentioned, I did notice an awful sewer smell in different areas of the ship.

In this digital age, and after sailing twice on NCL’s Breakaway, I find it interesting RC Jewel is still in the the dark age. They track muster drill attendance and restaurant head count manually, instead of swiping guests’ sea pass cards. The worst, photographer’s pictures are still displayed on wall by date/time where you have to search on end till you find your pictures. Whereas, on NCL’s Breakaway, when they take your picture the photographer enters in your stateroom # and all your pictures are placed in a binder. For selection purpose you can easily view actual photos or digitally. What I dislike most about RCL is they do not allow travel irons. Is it really a safety reason or do they just want to ding you for more $ to press your formal clothes? Haven’t had this issue with NCL. Luckily we don’t suffer from motion sickness, the ships rocking was quite significant. There were no major storms, yet, the ship rocked frequently, we were surprised you could feel it on any deck.

DINING: Windjammer, breakfast a selection of many items, same every day. Only one station where you can serve your own coffee, otherwise you have to request it at the station where you can pick up glasses of water, juice, etc. or servers will bring it to your table. There are no toasters so you can’t toast your own bread, instead it’s pre-toasted and cold. We had breakfast one morning in Tides and the food was lukewarm. Christmas day they hosted brunch in the MDR, we waited on a long line and overall the experience was dreadful. Servers were frazzled, request for milk took over 30 minutes, and food was cold and undercooked. The saving grace was the table with assorted sweets which we needed since breakfast was inedible. Seems like management didn’t plan well for this event. 1st night we were hungry, after the Windjammer had closed, they serve snacks in the Solarium area. However, not self-service, you wait on line while only 1 server dishes out salad, pizza & cookies. We ate our meals in the Main Dining Room because that is what my mother-in-law & her sister like. Food was surprisingly good. A few misses like the French Onion Soup and the steak. Favorite dessert warm chocolate cake with ice cream. Certain portions were small, you can order multiple starters or entrees if very hungry. For his birthday my husband splurged for the premium dinner filet mignon and lobster and was very satisfied. Our servers Mohammed, Wen Wen & bartender Sridevi were wonderful. Enjoyed pre & post dinner cocktails at the Schooner’s Bar. Our favorite bartenders Jovanny (Schooner) and Victor (poolside). Read more