Like you I relied on many of these reviews before booking on the Jewel but after spending a week on that ship, I feel like many of these reviews must have been written people that have never sailed with anyone other than RCC. We sailed on the Carnival Dream the past two years - and this year we decided to sail with Royal Caribbean because we had sailed two previous times with that cruise line and had been impressed. Wow, were we disappointed with how the quality of the cruise had taken a nose dive with the Jewel of the Seas. We felt like we were the Fools of the Seas by booking with Royal Caribbean after experiencing the quality of cruising that Carnival offered.
These are all services that we experienced on Carnival that were lacking on RCC:
1. Chocolates on our turned down bed at night