JMHDisney

I have the ultimate dining package for an upcoming European cruise and it includes 40% off bottles of wine. I was thinking I would buy a bottle of wine at dinner and then take anything that’s left back to my room to save for daytime drinks the next day - is that allowed? Or, if I decide not to bring it back, can I have them store it for me for the next night (we will be dining in specialty dining every night)? 

I’ve done it both ways on Disney but can’t remember how Royal does it (must be that we drank all the wine on our last few cruises!). 

I’ve had my waiter at specialty dining adjust the kid pricing for me (I didn’t ask him to, he offered). When he offered, I declined because I assumed he meant an adjustment for that night only and I explained that I would need to go to guest services for the other nights (we had made nightly specialty dining reservations rather than buying a package). He said no he could do it for all the nights we had made reservations and he did. And his tip increased because he saved me the hassle of going to guest services, which is of course why he offered. 

6 hours ago, wytygr8 said:

 

No, Carnival actually provides good food and is cheaper than Royal.

I guess I should have said “Royal is cheaper than upscale cruise lines that provide better food in their MDRs.” Carnival isn’t my choice for other reasons, so when I’m comparing prices to lines I am considering (Celebrity, Disney, etc.), Royal is significantly cheaper. The upscale lines obviously provide other amenities that are also better, but aren’t as important to me. It’s certainly not perfect, but for me it’s a reasonable compromise to take a cruise with a cheaper but decent line and just factor in the price of specialty dining.

Last summer, our Western Med on the Jewel was less than 1/3 of the price Disney was quoting for a nearly identical itinerary on the Magic. We ate in specialty every night and still came out way ahead. Food quality in specialty on Royal is comparable to MDR on Disney. I wish Royal had an option that was comparable to specialty on Disney, but since I’m not paying those prices, that’s ok. I’ve learned through experience not to go on Royal expecting the quality or service I would get on Disney.

Some people are happy with MDR on Royal and that’s great it works for them. After a couple Royal cruises, I concluded that I’m just never eating in MDR. I hate the food, the chaos, and the slow service. Everyone makes adjustments on what matters to them to make their vacation enjoyable. For me, especially on a port intensive itinerary, I’m happy taking a cheaper cruise with Royal and factoring in the cost of a dining package. 

I had the worst meal of my life on a Royal cruise (on Explorer), and MDR is generally abysmal. But Royal is also cheaper than other cruise lines that provide better food in their MDRs. I just factor the cost of a dining package into my cruise and I still come out ahead. My first few cruises were on Disney and I was stunned when experiencing the Royal MDR, in terms of food quality, service, and overall atmosphere. Now that I know what to expect, I just avoid it and plan for the cost of Specialty, which is comparable to MDR on more expensive lines. Problem solved. 

Thinking about booking 1154 for an upcoming cruise! Anyone have any interior pictures or any other comments about it? Do you feel like you are on display from the track above since there is no cover? Any help is appreciated!!

We had 1148 and 1150. Did not feel on display at all. The only time we noticed people above us was when we heard the early morning runners. I would absolutely book these cabins again. I loved the privacy of the short hallway and the proximity to the pools - it made the vacation seem so much more relaxed to not always be hopping in crowded elevators! I think the location and the less crowded feel of these cabins outweighs any annoyance from the running deck above.

Thank you all so much for all this information. We may be on the same cruise. July 8th 2018 on the Jewel. We have two 13 year old grand-daughters, one 11 year old grandson and a 14 year old grandson. Plus two daughters and son- in-laws and my husband and I. I have worried about this cruise as I'm hoping there will be entertainment for the kids without all the bells and whistles of the megaships. Because it is port intensive I guess there will be lots to do. I'm trying to find information on this so anything anyone can share would be most appreciated. There seems to be some bad reviews on the Jewel but there are on all ships. We've never been on a bad cruise yet!

I don't think you have anything to worry about. We just did this cruise a couple of weeks ago. Being so port intensive, we didn't find time for many of the things Jewel has -- we never managed to do the mini golf or rock climbing wall. Other things too. When I dropped my son off at Adventure Ocean, there were always older kids going in and out of the teen club. They did not seem bored. :)

We board JOS on Sunday and are in 'your' stateroom. Thanks for breaking it in! Hope our cruise is as fun as your cruise seems to have been!

I'm so jealous! Wish I was leaving again on Sunday! Have a fantastic time!

Thank you very much for your review. I'm on this sailing in Sept and will also do a review.:D

Just a note on your cabins... very rare to see information here on CC on those new deck 11 cabins. If you have any photos (inside, hallways, views from cabin, etc) you should post them for other CC'ers. There have been a couple of threads in the past asking about them with very little info other than an assumption of noise from the running track which you have confirmed! :o

I did not take pictures unfortunately. The noise from above was a minor annoyance, but I would stay in these cabins again. The couple times I walked down hallways on other floors with tons of cabins, carts everywhere, people talking, etc, I felt grateful for the serenity of our little quiet (other than the track) hallway!

I'm off on this cruise next weekend so really appreciate your detailed review. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

On thing I was wondering about is I think they have a screen on deck to show films in the evening? If so are they recent releases or older films?

Sorry just realised if you are from the US you call them movies!

They do have a screen in the pool area and show movies. A lot of the time when we were in that area it was a lot of what looked like YouTube videos (I'm sure they weren't actually that, but things like compilations of funny animals, or people doing stunts either successfully or not, that kind of junk). They also showed fairly recent releases - Lego Batman and La La Land for example.

Long review, no pictures. Sorry!

This cruise was out of Rome and visited Corsica (Ajaccio), Cannes, Barcelona, Majorca, and Sardinia (Cagliari). We were two adult friends with our kids (both 8).

Overall, this was a great cruise. For the most part, staff was great and the ship and ports were terrific.

We used Rome Cabs to get to/from the pier (we also used them for airport to our AirBNB in Rome). They were on time all 3 times, clean vehicles, safe drivers, highly recommended. Per my request, they brought booster seats for the kids. I also liked that I could prepay via PayPal so I didn't have to carry as much cash.

Boarding in Civitavecchia was easy. We arrived around 12:15 and lines were minimal. We got on board and went to Windjammer for lunch. They had said rooms would be ready at 1:30 but they announced they were open shortly after 1pm.

We had cabins 1148 and 1150. These are the new deck 11 cabins. The cabins looked great, really nice. My one complaint on design was that they didn't put any power outlets near the bed, which would have seemed like an obvious thing to add when building new cabins. Like many people, I use my phone as an alarm and like to surf the web at night so this was a minor inconvenience. We were happy that we were able to have the balcony divider open between cabins. It appears they all open on the 11th floor.

I will say if you are a light sleeper, these rooms may not be for you. The guests' ages on this cruise skewed younger and there was a lot of late evening and early morning running on the track on floor 12. Bam bam bam overhead! I was able to sleep through most of it but it woke my friend up early almost every morning. I loved the location near the pool, Windjammer, and the kids club, and having the quiet of a short hallway with only a handful of cabins, but for those light sleepers who like to sleep in, maybe not. For me, rarely taking crowded elevators and having the calm of our isolated hallway outweighed the runners.

Our room attendant was Iskandar Muin and he did a terrific job. Everything was always clean and he made towel animals for the kids most nights. He was in and out whenever we left and got things done for us so fast. A+.

We never went to MDR as I hate the crowds and have never liked the MDR food. We did Windjammer twice for dinner when we just wanted a light snack and it was fine. We ate at Chops twice, Giovanni's twice, and Izumi's twice (once for dinner and once for lunch). At Chops, Ionel from Romania was our waiter. He was really terrific. He also fixed my bill saving me a visit to guest services (I had paid full price for the kids online to get the reservation and was planning to visit GS to get the difference in price reimbursed, but he took care of it for both Chops and Giovanni's), which was greatly appreciated. He remembered the kids when he saw them around the boat and just generally really went out of his way to be helpful. Basically the kind of service I'm used to on Disney but have often felt was lacking on RCI.

In terms of food, the specialty restaurants were fine, but not amazing. My favorite was Giovanni's, my friend preferred Chops, and my 8 year old loved stuffing his face with raw salmon in Izumi, so no clear consensus on preference. Admittedly, we had just spent 4 nights in Rome so nothing was really going to impress us after all the amazing food we had there! Generally, the specialty restaurants were less crowded on this cruise than on past ones. We had booked in advance but we would have had no problem getting in anywhere on this cruise.

We did Windjammer for breakfast each day. It was a zoo. Food was often cold. Go with the omelette station here if you want a hot breakfast.

Since everyone asks, yes they had the beef sandwiches in the Solarium. My son said they were the best food on the boat. Also had pizza, cookies and other sandwiches.

The ship did seem to run out of things as the week went on. Fruit selection got worse in Windjammer. They ran out of strawberry daiquiri mix (the kids were drinking the virgin ones). On our last day we were told at lunch at Izumi that the ship was out of sparkling water (but we got some that night in Giovanni's so maybe our Izumi server just didn't want to get it).

Different glasses of wine were served in different places. It was inconsistent as to whether we were charged the difference between the package and the price shown when we selected wine over $12. Since the wines by the glass are grossly overpriced, I find it incredibly irritating to have them add the difference.

Internet was slow but better than it was on Explorer last year (when it was supposedly Voom). I had the Surf and Stream package and still had apps time out and give me a "slow internet connection" message. I could not view any videos online (so no "stream") but it was mostly ok for email (sometimes it took a while to send if I attached a picture - once I attached 3 pics and selected smallest size possible for the photos and it took nearly 2 hours to send that). It was fine for basic email and Facebook.

As for dress, some people dressed up, some people did not. I don't care what other people wear but since people often ask, I mention it. We're mostly lazy sundress people on vacation. The kids wore shorts to the specialty restaurants. No issues. We did try to pair them with polo shirts but may not have managed that every night. Sorry if we offended anyone!

Overall, the ship looked great. There was plenty for the kids to do without all the bells and whistles, particularly because this was port intensive. They liked the slide a lot, but weren't big fans of the crowded saltwater pool. The ship was well maintained and we saw staff working on upkeep during the week. The only other ships of comparable passenger load that I have been on are the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder. It felt more crowded than those but less crowded than, for example, the Explorer which we did last year and felt super cramped.

I went to the spa on our sea day for a massage. I arrived 10 mins early expecting to do robes like a regular spa. They don't do that. They just take you to the "relaxation room" which has bright orange carpet with hot pink swirls. My eyes!!!! Probably the least relaxing room on the boat. The spa staff were a little dismissive but the massage was great. They did try to sell me products at the end but it wasn't a hard sell.

As for ports:

Cannes was our first stop. We had planned to go into Nice but after a busy vacation in London and Rome for the week or so prior, the kids were tired so we decided to stay in Cannes. We wandered down Rue Meyandier, took photos on the red carpet and pretended we were movie stars, let the kids ride the cool double decker carousel, and then went to Croisette beach. This was where we discovered the (new to us) magic of the overpriced beach clubs. We rented some sunbeds with umbrellas and were soon happily watching the kids splash in the waves while we relaxed in comfort and were served wine and snacks. Lots of waves on the beach, big enough to knock the sunglasses off my face when I was standing knee deep, which was fun for the kids to play in (and amazingly I stepped on my sunglasses in the water an hour later so they weren't lost!). Cannes was definitely expensive for this but we felt it was worth it.

Ajaccio, Corsica - we had originally planned to walk around town and then head to the public beach, but decided to do a little Internet research for a beach club after our fun in Cannes. We found Neptune Beach which was not far from port. We had read a review that said show up early if you want a sunbed and don't have a reservation so after wandering around town a little we caught a taxi out there (€20) around 10:30am. It's a smaller place, only a couple rows of sunbeds. No fluent English speakers when we arrived but between what they knew and my minimal French we were able to work it out and got sunbeds. We had lunch in the restaurant, which was fantastic - one of the best meals I had all week. At lunch they also had English speaking staff. The staff here were wonderful. When it was time to go, no taxis would come and they arranged for someone there to take us back to the port (we paid him the same price we paid the taxi). Really a great day. Beautiful calm, clear beach. A little area offshore that had some fish for snorkeling (nothing super exciting but still fun to find some bigger fish). My favorite stop. Wish the cruise hadn't left so early.

Barcelona - my friend booked a private tour of Barcelona highlights. Not sure of the company. The guide was very good with the adults, less so with the kids. She was nice to them but didn't have anything specifically for them (in contrast we visited Pompeii before the cruise with See Amalfi Coast and they set us up with a Pompeii guide who showed up fully prepared with kids activities and "treasure" for them to hunt). Nice day for the adults, less so for the kids.

Mallorca - after Barcelona, the kids elected to stay in the kids club. So we took the cruise shuttle (€8 round trip, cash only) into town. It dropped us near the cathedral. We spent a lovely day shopping and drinking wine in the old town area. Very walkable, lots of pedestrian only areas. Was nicest in late morning while many areas were still in the shade, very hot later.

Sardinia - we took a taxi (€20) to Emerson Beach Club on Poetto Beach. We reserved sunbeds in the first row (be sure to specifically request umbrellas and which "line" of sunbeds you want) the day before via email. We were very glad we booked in advance as we were able to get the first line of loungers closest to the water and people who arrived later without a reservation were back in row 6. Clear water and great for kids as it was shallow quite a ways out. It was very windy though. We were able to order food and wine to our sunbeds. Nice relaxing day.

One additional thing to keep in mind, especially for those doing private tours, if it says the ship docks at 12, that means they won't clear until closer to 12:30. If it says it leaves at 8, the all aboard time will be 7:30, and if you need to get a shuttle, the last one will leave as early as 90 mins before the departure time. It really cuts into your day. On Disney, 12-8 typically means you are off the ship at 12 and don't have to be back on until 8, but on this cruise it really felt like RCI was shortening the port times over what was advertised. For example, we were supposed to leave Majorca at 4pm but the last shuttle left town at 2:30pm. Maybe common for RCI but I had never noticed it before. Something to keep in mind.

Disembarkation was easy. WE had to be out of rooms by 8am. We were originally assigned a 7:15 departure but were able to easily move this to 8:45 by visiting guest services. One thing is they claimed we had to go to meeting area first due to local authority requirements but this wasn't enforced. We went straight from breakfast to walking off and so did many others.

Hope this has been helpful. Feel free to ask any questions. I did not save cruise compasses or other literature as my suitcase was already too heavy!

Meant to add, this could be arranged onboard with guest services.

Just off Jewel on Sunday and can confirm they were offering this.

I've eaten at Giovanni's with my son. He had a cheese pizza that he said was the best he had ever had (he refused to eat the MDR cheese pizza - he said that was the worst pizza he had ever had). Kids menu as I remember it was all the stuff you would typically expect on a kids menu at an Italian place.

That's first time I've seen that reason for lower prices in January.

 

Out of curiosity I looked up the temps for this past January on the Eastern ports.

 

Labadee, 6 days on which temp was below 80, St Thomas had one and San Juan had none.

 

P.S. Being from Australia where seasons are reversed along with the school year, kids are out of school in January and a great time for a vacation in the Carribean.

Yes, the air is usually fairly warm, but the water is cold especially the further north you are. But I get that going when the kids are out of school makes sense, especially for a long vacation.

I see that some people who cruise without kids are recommending January. As someone who cruises with kids, that would not be my top choice and I definitely would not fly all the way from Australia for a January cruise unless that was my only option. Yes, the prices are better, but that's because it's often cold and kids want to go in the ocean! I think April or May is ideal. The seas are usually calm as you don't have the risk of hurricane season and it is warm enough to swim. While the time around Easter/ early April can be pricy with US spring break, there are often good deals to be had the last week of April or early May before the US schools let out for the summer.

Drink package allowance on Jewel is $12 and Kim Crawford was running around $17. So you'd had to pay $5 plus 18% gratuity... $5.90

That feels crazy to me for a wine I can buy at home for $14 a bottle! Thanks for letting me know so I can adjust my expectations of the drink package! Looks like I will be having cocktails instead!

Thanks for posting these. What were they counting as the drink package amount? I understand it may be different on the EU cruises. Need to know how much I'm going to have to pay for my Kim Crawford. :)

I'm definitely conflicted on the animal encounters but gave in. We went to Dolphinaris. We booked directly through them and it seemed a little disorganized when we arrived (we waited a while and then had to remind them we were still waiting), but once it got going it was good. I chose it over Chakanaab because the kids were 6 at the time and I'd heard the Dolphinaris pools were easier for kids. They stood on a platform and got kisses and stuff like that. By buying direct online with them we got a package that included pictures, which made a huge difference because they charge a fortune. We got the activity plus all our pics for less than the ship excursion.

Your same cruise is being offered this summer so there will likely be a number of new reviews of these ports out soon. We're going and will be sure to post a review when we get back.

We're planning to get to Rome the Wednesday before our Sunday cruise (we're going to London first so will hopefully be over jetlag by the time we get to Italy). I'm excited to have a few days for Rome and we're also going to use one of those days to take the fast train down to Naples (1 hour) and then have a tour of Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast.

While there is a train to Civitavecchia, after researching it, we decided the hassle with luggage and kids wasn't worth it so we are going to get a private transfer. We're using Rome Cabs for airport and cruise transfers. I haven't used them before but appreciated that when I booked I accidentally put in the wrong date for one of my transfers (!!) and they caught it and contacted me so I feel like they are on top of things.

We're staying near Campo de Fiori and Piazza Navona.

Enjoy the planning!

Do you have an open notoriety letter ie one that says that the can travel with you anytime or is it for a specific trip. We're having trouble getting my step daughters dad to help us renew her passport so an open letter would be ideal,

This doesn't always work, unfortunately. We live in Washington state so we go to Canada frequently. I asked during my Nexus interview if I could get a blanket "International travel is ok" letter from my ex. Canada border patrol told me the maximum length of authorization they will accept is 1 year and it has to specifically say ok for entering Canada. Other countries may be different. But generally, if you want to be certain you won't be denied entry when you travel internationally, you need the passport (unless on a closed loop cruise), a specific letter authorizing that trip and, if the last names of parent and kid are different, a legal way to link them (i.e. Birth certificate). As others have said, a court order will serve the same purpose as a letter if an ex is MIA. That's my plan if my ex ever doesn't sign. While I'm not always asked for it, I don't want my vacation screwed up so I make sure I have it.

I always get a notarized letter from my ex and, if he ever doesn't sign, I'd get a court order that I can go. If your parenting plan gives you 100% sole custody, you can take that instead but if you guys have joint custody, you need his consent to take the kid out of the country. No way would I risk being denied boarding.

That said, on a closed loop cruise, I think the chances of being asked are low. I get asked for it EVERY time I go to Canada and I've been asked for it entering other countries too. Canada border control is all over divorced parents. I have not been asked for it on a closed loop cruise yet. People will tell you you don't need it, which is all well and good until someone asks for it and then it's too late.

Edited to add: my son has a passport. That isn't enough (according to Canada anyway!). I'm actually glad about that. I don't want my ex taking my kid out of the country without my authorization just because my kid has a passport.

We've disembarked twice in Civitavecchia (most recently last week from the Jewel). Because there are no customs/emigration to go through, the process is very similar to what you would see at a regular port of call. Lines were minimal. And no one was checking numbers - and I think the numbers are really just to get you back together with your luggage.

 

You should be just fine.

 

We left just after the initial group of "self-disembarkers" and it took less than ten minutes to get from the Schooner Bar to our transportation.

 

Enjoy your cruise - it is a fantastic ship and itinerary!

Cheers,

This is great to hear! We really excited! Thank you!!

Great, thank you!

We are on Jewel out of Rome in a few weeks and would like to do self disembark. We have a car service picking us up at the pier at 9am and we can easily carry our luggage ourselves.

We've only done self disembark once before, on Explorer. Although it gave a time for self disembark that was crazy early, our stateroom attendant told us we could just walk off whenever we wanted. We walked off around 7:45, no issues and no lines to get off.

But I've also been on cruises on other lines where there were crazy long lines to disembark. Can we also walk off when we're ready on Jewel, and should we expect lines? I've heard we are supposed to be out of our cabins by 8:30 (correct me if that's wrong) so I was thinking the simplest way to ensure we meet our driver on time is to just walk down and self disembark after leaving our rooms. Should I expect any problems with this plan?

Thanks!

We are doing this cruise this summer (with kids a little younger than yours) and I've spent a fair amount of time researching it. We are taking a private car service to and from the port. I booked the same one to take us from the airport to our AirBNB apartment near Campo Fiori, then to the port, and then back to the airport.

In Cannes, we will visit Nice and, if we have time, hit the beach in Cannes, which is sandy. In Nice we will go to the Promenade du Paillon, Promenade des Anglais, and the Old Town area of Nice. I've been to this area before and there are many lovely towns all along the coast that are easily accessible by local trains.

In Barcelona, we have booked a private tour. We'll see Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, the Gothic Quarter, and a few other stops. The boat docks right in town.

In Majorca, we will visit the cathedral or the castle and then hit the beach. There's also the Drach Caves which we may do if it's rainy.

In both Corsica and Sardinia, we plan to have beach days after briefly checking out the town (both ports are in town). With teens, you may find they prefer to go kayaking or snorkeling, which are both available.

Several of the ports have large water parks nearby if your kids are into that.

We aren't doing any RC tours, but I did look at their excursions for each port to get an idea of what was available before planning our own. That may help you too.

One of the things I liked about this itinerary is that it leaves out of Rome so instead of having Rome as a port stop and wasting half the day getting there and back when you have limited time, you can spend time before and after the cruise. Most of the port stops are near things to do, but that of course depends on what you want to see. We are also using our pre-cruise time to visit Pompeii and Positano.

The Jewel is not one of the huge ships with tons of entertainment options. Since the cruise is very port intensive, that doesn't bother us.