Jewel of the Seas Review
Rating by category
Additional details
We had originally booked an NCL cruise out of Venice to the Greek Islands but the itinerary changed, so we rebooked to Royal Caribbean. Funnily enough, it was a whole lot cheaper!
We'd already been on Radiance of the Seas, so pretty much knew what to expect. For me, this is the perfect size ship and it may not have all the bells and whistles of the newer, bigger ships, but it suits us just fine.
We had family come from England, so there were four cabins in our party. Unfortunately one of them didn't select the any-time dining so we went to the buffet every other night to dine with them (they didnt want to eat at their assigned 8.30 slot).
Cabin Review
Large Ocean View Stateroom
Cabin was big enough, plenty of storage and nice and close to the stairs. There were times it was a bit noisy with equipment on the outside of the ship but wasn't too bad. Had the big round porthole window - I like to see if its daylight. I found the bed to be saggy and uncomfortable and wonder if the lower you are in the ship, the older the mattresses. I can imagine the new ones come into the expensive upstairs cabins and they shift the older ones down - just a theory.
Port Reviews
Rome (Civitavecchia)
Not a whole lot to do here but it was a quaint town. We stayed overnight in the Mediterraneo Suisse which was a nice hotel with breakfast. We thought we might walk to the port but ended up hailing a cab.
Mykonos
We took the water taxi for EUR4 and walked through the little cobbled alleyways until we found the windmills, posed with a donkey for a picture and played with the stray cats before doing a little shopping. Loved this cute little town.
Rhodes
This port was also good for shopping and you can walk right off the ship and to town within a few minutes. We got off early before it got too busy and once everything was open we headed back to the ship - it was incredibly crowded.