u/Character_Access7094

We just got off Jewel yesterday on a repositioning cruise from San Juan to Fort Lauderdale. This was our second cruise on a radiance class ship. Here are our thoughts:

PROS:

• This ship is beautiful, if a little worn. She's no spring chicken, but she's a lovely one!
• Schooner bar -- we love the layout on this class of ship more than any other.
• Our room -- we had booked very early and snagged a suite guarantee at just a little more than a balcony on the day I booked. Our room steward Pol was amazing. Bed was comfortable, and we both slept so well on most nights. Yes, the room could use a spruce up, but it was clean and well laid out with plenty of storage. Our special requests for a blanket and regular ice bucket fill were no problem for Pol. :)
• We enjoyed most of the shows in the Coral Theater actually. The Tango show, which we'd seen on Brilliance, was incredible! And one night, the two featured singers did a special performance of songs that they each picked -- very impressive! The juggler was great, and there was also a ventriloquist show that was good.
• The Jewel of the Seas Orchestra was amazing!
• The food! We had heard that main dining on Jewel was not good, so we ate our first dinner in the Windjammer. We found that disappointing and went to main for the rest of the cruise. So delicious! Our servers were perfection too.
• Itinerary -- we visited St Kitts & Nevis, St John's Antigua, St Maarten, and Turks & Caicos. Hubby and I booked excursions through Viator. All were good, but the boat tour in St M was the best! And for us, that is the one island we want to return to for a longer time.
• We ate lunches at Chops (always our embarkation choice) and Giovanni's which were both yummy. Any steak we had over the course of the cruise was cooked perfectly!
• Cruise director and activities director were really good!
• If you have sailed Royal before, you know that all crew are going to be friendly, and this is definitely the case here.
• Kronos band -- as most featured bands on RCC -- was great! They are older (except their drummer) but can play and sing like nobody's business. One of them joked before a set: "We're going to play some songs from the 70's. We weren't born then. That's because we were born in the 50's." haha
• We worked out every day and found the gym, which is small compared to other ships, was adequate. I guess we chose times where there were not a lot of people because it was not crowded at all, and we had access to the weights or machines we needed.
• Windjammer layout is our favorite of any ship we've sailed on so far. Breakfast is always good and consistent in our opinion. The custom-made crepes -- yum!

CONS:

• Two of the shows left us scratching our heads. These featured all the singers and dancers. They both felt like a fever dream nightmare. At one point, everyone was some kind of chess piece plunking around the stage from side to side. There were about 20 costume changes during the shows, but none of the costumes made any sense. And there was no cohesive storyline to either show.
• While the centrum is incredibly beautiful, when there is a show or activity in there, you pretty much are standing since seats are scarce. Even then, the view is hindered.
• Main dining for breakfast. We only did this one time because it was not good. Service was very slow then as they were overwhelmed. Our over-easy eggs came fully cooked. We know we could have totally sent them back, but then it would have taken longer.
• Windjammer for dinner. Not for us. We found the food lacked flavor and was overcooked.
• Through RCC, we booked the transfer to MIA upon departure. The bus was supposed to leave at 9:15. But at 10 AM, we still had not departed. The bus driver was found sitting on the bench. He told us we were supposed to leave at 10. There had been zero communication to the full bus of people. Not a good ending to our experience.

The pros definitely outweighed the cons. Wonderful cruise!