We've sailed before on RCL and also on Costa and had high hopes for this cruise as wed read so many good things about Jewel of the Seas. Embarkation was great. We arrived at the car park at 11.15 and were onboard by 11.45 We loved the ship. It had a real feeling of light and space and we adored the art. We suspected that the pictures were being changed in the corridor on the way to our cabin and proved it by day 5 by memorizing the order of the scenes. We were very impressed with the attention to detail that saw them move pictures in the middle of the night. We'd booked for second sitting and, despite the fact that a number of americans complained about the lack of variety at dinner, we ate something different every night and the quality of the food was very good. We had one night in Chops which was the best steak wed ever tasted - the service was exceptional. We had a night at Portofino for dinner, which was every bit as good as we remember it from Voyager, and we did the Murder Mystery there too which was lots of fun. Our balcony room was great and we were well looked after by Gregory. We had a bigger than normal balcony with our first ever sunlounger. We didn't go to many of the shows but enjoyed the ones we saw which were predominantly the musical based ones. We loved this itinerary and thought the ports were pretty, clean and friendly. Biggest surprise of the cruise was Tallinn which we'd expected to be a bit grim but which was pretty and interesting. I took a lot of photos of the architecture including one of a drain pipe in the shape of a dragon! We took a couple of ship tours for St Petersburg because we were concerned about visas. Normally we sort ourselves out and enjoy wandering. The whole day tour included the Hermitage, lunch and St Isaacs as well as the Church of Spilled Blood. Unfortunately, some of these sites were repeated on our next days walking tour so we could have chosen better. The Hermitage was fascinating, though huge and it was a real treat to see so many wonderful pictures at such close quarters. We enjoyed the tours but really felt that we hadn't seen the heart of the country. The sail into Stockholm was well worth getting up at 6am to see the sights and we loved Stockholm and spent lots! We had a great walk around the market and were really impressed with the selection of hot food available there as well as how lovely the fresh fruit and veg was displayed. Oslo our favorite port as we moored right next to the smaller boats and we could walk off the ship and right round town. We didn't do much in Copenhagen and it was probably the only port that we wouldn't choose to go back to. The weather was kind to us and we only had rain on one day. Despite horror stories about potential high waves in the North Sea, the seas were really calm. We met some great people who really added to our cruise experience. If they're reading this, hello to Wendy & Kev, the newly married Ray George & Tara and the inimitable Denise, a lively lady from Australia. All in all, we loved this cruise. The ports were more interesting than most Mediterranean ports, the ship was beautiful, airy and never felt crowded, there weren't many children and the service was superb. Top marks!