Check in was good as usual. This is our 19th and 20th cruise with RCI, 7 different ships, 5 cruises in 2014. I was excited to be back on the Jewel after 5 year of absents.

At the dock we had a run in with a dock worker that insisted we check out bags. I finally prevailed. We got on the ship at about 1 PM. and had to wait 10 minutes to get to our room, and disposed of your bags. We went to the wind jammer for lunch. The food was not exciting, a bologna sandwich was the norm, good bologna though. The bread was cut funny for a sandwich, the other dishes on the buffet did not have an appeal to us. I thought it was just the day??

Overall I found food on this cruise not to RCI standards. The food service crew seemed tired? This was the impression I got. The MDR for the 12 nights we were there was ok. I had a caesar salad one night. The thing comes with 2 full heads of romaine and a hunk of chicken??? I asked the head waiter about this presentation. He said this was the classic salad, then showed me the menu. Fact remains the thing looked like some food put on a plate, and they said here eat it. The RCI pride was lost some where. The best dish BCI did in the MDR was the Lamb shank, with roasted squash. Read more