My husband and I just returned from the July 15 Scandinavian cruise on the Jewel of the Seas, and I vowed to myself that I would write a review as soon as possible after returning. This was our 6th cruise with Royal Caribbean, and I must say it was the best.

I would like to start by saying that almost all the little negative comments I had read prior to going on the cruise weren't true. By this I mean (1) although we didn't use room service, I'm pretty sure there was no charge (2) there were towels by the pool (3) we had turn-down service on the first night. It is true that the dining room menu remained the same for the whole cruise. As we were in port for 7 out of the 12 days and we ate in port on all those days, that didn't bother me. We only ate in the dining room for breakfast one day and lunch for two. I found the food to be excellent both times.

Pre-cruise We booked air and hotel through Royal Caribbean and stayed at the Hilton Metropole one night before the cruise. It was quite nice and conveniently located. We were in the East Wing, which I had read terrible things about on another website. We chose not to pay the 60 extra dollars for the one night we stayed there to get the West Wing, and we made the right decision. There was nothing whatsoever wrong with the East Wing. The Royal Caribbean representative was there to meet us at the airport and to get us to the hotel. Once at the hotel, there was another Royal Caribbean representative to answer any questions and to help us in making arrangements for what we wanted to do while in London. Read more