Jewel of the Seas

with other ships we have sailed on, particularly the bathroom. The shower cubicle was tiny. We are quite small people and couldn\'t help wondering how the many VERY large people on the ship managed!

I have to say we were horrified to observe how often some people tried to avoid using the antiseptic hand gel. When sitting in the Windjammer restaurant on one occasion the staff member manning the gel dispensers was called away by a colleague for about five minutes and in that time not one person entering the restaurant used the gel. We also saw people entering on the edge of a group to avoid it. WHY???

We had a great holiday and would sail on this ship again, but would probably go for a suite next time.

too early for us, we found little to do in the evening if you did not want to listen to music. Very few activities during the day. The ship seemed crowded and you had to queue a lot. The Thirst Quencher areas for tea or coffees was slipshod and the staff in the Windjammer stood around talking while tables were left with dirty crockery on them. We watched on member of staff attempt to clean a table that had a dirty plate on it. Rather than remove the plate he cleaned round it and then walked off and left it there!! I could go on but enough said I feel. We have cruised many times before and have just returned from a P & O Round the World cruise on the Arcadia. After 95 days we could have turned the ship round and done it all again - after 12 days on the Jewel of the Seas we were glad to get off.
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went round the passengers and I felt the Captain put the blame on the passengers saying it was all down to hand washing! As if we were all a dirty unhygienic crowd. If you became ill and reported it, you had to stay confined in your cabin for 48 hours and live off meagre rations served in your cabin. Room service couldn\'t cope with the number of passengers being confined.So I don\'t know how to rate cleanliness, it all seemed clean but obviously something was wrong. I wouldn\'t say \"don\'t travel on this ship\" but we wouldn\'t as we don\'t do a repeat of our holidays.
The disembarkation was very well organised.

IT SAYS FINE, SHOWS WELL WORTH WATCHING, STAFF ABSOLUTELEY FIRST CLASS.
WE WERE GOING TO REFUSE TO GET OFF AT THE END, BUT SOMEONE MIGHT NOTICE , SO WITHIN ONE DAY OF RETURNING HOME WE HAVE DONE AWAY WITH CONVENTIONAL HOLIDAYS , AND HAVE BOOKED TWO MORE CRUISES , ONE IN 2010 , DUBAI ARABIAN ADVENTURE AND ONE IN 2011 YES 2011 EXOTIC CARIBBEAN WHO WITH , THE ROYAL CARIBBEAN WHO ELSE ?

the staff were mainly clearing tables, although the staff were pleasant.
The Library was barely existent, very small and catered mainly for American tastes; we would recommend you take your own books on Royal Caribbean Ships.
Of the main dining the Tide restaurant was of reasonable quality, although often the meals lacked flavour and some meals were not cooked properly. The coffee was also poor in taste; not fine dining We had two very good waiters who were very efficient and helpful.
The main show of the evening was very good most times, although we felt the overuse of strobe and pyrotechnic lighting made the pleasure of watching the acts uncomfortable.
There was too much emphasis on shopping and not enough information on the ports of call with places to see. As for the map provided for going off ship; we found them useless. We would recommend you take your own maps of ports of call.
We felt that the cruise lacked entertaining and informative lectures, although there were events going on during the day but were not to our taste.
One point to note, beware of the hidden charges, i.e. shuttle bus to the city centres.

made enquires and been told by Royal Caribbean that the \"Pied Piper\" are regular customers on many of thier ships so our encounter was by no means unusual.

The most alarming point is that Royal Caribbean say that block bookings of this number and even larger numbers are not unusual, and that, thier Company Policy is not to inform thier customers of large block bookings in advance.

We would not have booked that week on that ship if we had been aware of a block booking of this number.

So beware if you choose to book with Royal Caribbean, it would be a good idea to ask about block bookings in advance or who knows what you may encounter.

Once your board it\'s too late, they have your money and if you encounter a large group travelling together as we did, you will be made to feel like a second-class citizen but you wull have paid a high price for the experience.

flush a couple of times but Floydd was on the case in quick time.
Our meals in Tides each night were fantastic all meals were cooked to perfection exactly how you order them. Our waiter was Bruno from India and nothing was too much trouble for him he always had a smile on his face and provided us with information about our next port of call and times of arrival and departure.
The crew in the bars are very hard working and always ready for a chat, Odo from Uragauy was great fun as was Florin from Romania with his \"Yummy Yummy\" cocktails.
The entertaimant in the Coral Theatre was ok, as the ship had mostly American passengers on board their taste was catered for and the artists they had performing we had never heard of and were not that great, but the shows the ships performers put on were fantastic.
We were at sea for 2 days but found plenty to do with rock climbing,mini golf, cinema, mini golf, flumes,swimming,spa, to name just a few.
One tip I would give is if you are planning on buying items like cameras, IPODs, PSP, camcorders, do not buy in the Caribbean even though they are a lot cheaper than the UK they are cheaper in Miami.
A fantastic cruise from a great cruise line I would not hesitate to cruise with them again and I am in fact looking to cruise with them in 2008.
Make sure you join the Crown and Anchor society, this was our 2nd cruise with Royal Caribbean and we got some great gifts in our room.

- and even a group of Gibraltarians! We reckon the Brits, much to our surprise with a Harwich departure, were only about 15% of the passenger list!
Also, as the principal currency on board was the US$ we always had to take a \"double whamee\" on rates of exchange for ports of call - English £ to US$ to whichever currency was required. We felt we lost out on this every time! Even the cash machine on board was in US$.
The organised trips were quite pricey and we did our own thing in Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki and Tallinn (very easy!) and only took tours in St Petersburg because of the Visa situation (they were, however, well worth the money.
Our criticism of the entertainment was that it was very \"American\" orientated and not our style.
From the point of view of \"ambiance\" of the ship, decor, facilities, ports of call etc we would have no problems with sailing on her again, or on any of her sister ships - but they just seem to be getting bigger!!! Is this a good thing?