Jewel of the Seas Review
Rating by category
Additional details
We chose the Jewel of the Seas ship/cruise because our timing was right after attending the Spanish F1 Grand Prix in Barcelona. We'd lived in Europe for several years but never made it to the Greek Islands and the Jewel was going to stop at Mykonos, Rhodes, and Santorini, plus Athens/Piraeus.
The 1st stop was the port of Messina on the island of Sicily. Most of the tours which were outside the city were booked up before the cruise started. We hadn't seen a tour we particularly wanted to spend money on so we decided to hoof it around Messina and take in a good Sicilian lunch. Messina is a nice town but beware of the vendors as you exit the cruise port. One item we wish we'd had was a decent map of Messina to find a restaurant we wanted to go to. The map the ship and port gave us was inadequate to locate the street we were looking for. Even Google maps wasn't a big help as there were streets in between the streets on each of the maps and street signs are sometimes hard to find.
Day two was a sea day and a relaxing treasure. As we get older we find we enjoy sea days more and more because you can truly relax and are not hurried or worried about your tour time or getting back on to the ship before it sails.
Cabin Review
Family Ocean View Stateroom
Be careful of the cabin you select. We chose a deck seven cabin in the front of the ship to see if would be any different than the port or starboard cabins we've been in previously. What we didn't realize was that on the Jewel on Deck 6 is a crewmember smoking area. Although, we could smell the cigarette smoke (thank heavens) the large steel door that opens and closes to their smoking area made like sonic boom noises every time a crewmember went out to the area or came back into the ship. It wasn't too bad at night but forget trying to take an afternoon nap in these forward cabins.
Port Reviews
Athens (Piraeus)
We arrived on a Sunday but had been to Athens/Piraeus previously. We elected not to tour again and find a nice restaurant. However, since it was a Sunday not much was open prior to noon so beware if you do the same. The harbor pilot couldn't get onto the ship so we docked about 2 and 1/2 hours late. It didn't make a difference to us since we were'nt on a tour and the stop was not extended.
Taormina (Messina)
Need more detailed maps of Messina and information for those not taking a tour.