Jewel OTS Christmas Cruise review

[natefish95]

Good Morning everyone!

As I sit here at Miami International with 7 hours until my flight, I figured I would start writing a brief review to sum up my experience on Jewel. 

 

A few things to get out of the way:

• These are my OPINIONS and OBSERVATIONS. If you disagree or saw something different onboard, please share! 
• We will not be debating the effectiveness of masks, vaccines, etc. this is cruise critic and y'all have already made 194 threads about this saying the same stuff over and over. 

 

I'm mostly writing this review because cruising right now is a really...unique experience. I've found CC to be a really good resource after you wade through all the crap of people debating what others wear, people obsessing over status, and all the other petty little arguments we know and love 🙂

 

This isn't going to be chronological because I suck at writing long reviews and will abandon it by day 3. I'll write about different buckets of information that are most pertinent. If I forget to touch on something you care about, let me know and I'll try and speak to it!

 

 

[natefish95]

Okay, now that we got the basics out of the way, who am I? I'm not the most active on here, but I lurk a lot. I'm Nate and I live in Northern Virginia. I'm a civil servant for the gub'ment with the emphasis usually on servant, rather than civil (I love my job and it funds my cruising addiction and gives me plenty of time off to do so, I'm just dramatic). 

 

I never really planned to cruise over Christmas. Most of my family lives in Georgia. If you have a pilot in your family, you know that you don't often celebrate holidays on the exact day. Several months ago we decided to celebrate Christmas the weekend before because that's when we could all be together. So what am I going to do on Christmas? I could stay in DC and probably plan something with my friends...or I could take a cruise. 

 

I've cruised in December before but never over the holidays because the prices are usually absurd. I travel solo, so paying double for an already inflated price is a no go for me. I had a great cruise on Adventure back in August, so I figured I'd see what Royal is offering. I was shocked to find an itinerary I liked, on a ship I wanted to try, over Christmas, and for a really great price! When I booked, it ended up being about $700 for an interior. There was almost no solo supplement, which really kept the price down. I put in a Royal Up offer and was upgraded a few days before to a balcony! So for less than $1000 I am sailing alone in a balcony, which is one of the better deals I've gotten a cruise and completely unexpected for a Christmas cruise. Very pleased! 

 

Regarding prebooked stuff, I got the Voom+Beverage package. I love that they bundle these because it works out to being a good deal. I also ordered 12 waters to be delivered to the room (they ended up delivered an entire case of 24, so I had no excuse to not be hydrated). I thought about doing the 3 night specialty dining, but decided not to and I'm glad I passed on it. 

 

About a month or so prior to sailing, the itinerary was changed dropping Labadee for Nassau. Fine by me, I don't want to get kidnapped. About a week prior to sailing, they announced that masks were required indoors at all times. I didn't like it, but I'm an adult and I'm not going to pitch a fit and cry over it. I always wear the blue surgical masks, which barely feel like anything at all. 

[natefish95]

Wow I had a whole post written about my pre-cruise hotel and embarkation, hit submit, and suddenly the connection was dropped. Maaaaan I was funny too! I need to finish my coffee and re-type this out again (in a word doc this time...)

[SummerBeee]

I look forward to reading your report. I have 7 booked on Jewel January-March all solo.

[natefish95]

Deep breaths…I retyping this out because either the Miami airport wifi glitched or Cruise Critic glitched. Could be either honestly…

 

Pre-cruise hotel
I flew down the night before and stayed at the Miami Airport Marriott. I highly recommend this hotel because it has a free shuttle from the airport that you can even track on the Marriott Bonvoy app. The lobby has a restaurant, bar, panty area, and maybe a coffee shop? Not positive because I wasn’t there long enough to investigate. There is not shuttle to the port, but I prefer to Uber anyways instead of being at the whim of someone else’s schedule. I cruise solo for a reason people! It’s your typical Marriott with clean, updated rooms and nice staff, so zero complains from me!

 

Embarkation
Embarkation was done from terminal G. After dropping off my bag with a porter, I walked to the front doors where they checked your COVID test to make sure it was negative (DUH) and taken two days prior to sail date. I’ve seen the threads of y’all not understanding what two days before means, so let me break this down Barney style. I sailed on Thursday 23 December. If you look at a calendar and count back…one…two…you land on Tuesday 21 December, so that is when I took my test. If this is still unclear, well honey bless your heart…

 

After that it was up the escalators to scan your bags and go through the metal detectors. Now this is not TSA, so y’all do not need to be stripping down in the terminal. Save that for your balcony, sir. You put your bags through the scanner and put any loose change, phone, wallet, etc in a little bucket. How do some people have so much loose change at 11am? The guy in front of me looked like he was going to be rolling quarters onboard. Lord… If you want to be a pro at security, put all your loose stuff in your bag, so you can walk right through even quicker without fumbling with all your crap. 

 

After TSA lite, you get to the real check-in area. They didn’t look at my vaccination card at all and just scanned my passport. I had to upload a copy of my card in the app, so not having to show it in the terminal probably saves some time. The lady checking me in gave me a purple fabric bracelet that must be worn at all times and signifies I’m vaxxed, waxed, and ready to party. Okay, it only signifies that I’m vaccinated, but two of those three are still true… Make sure you get it a little loose, so you can slip it off back in your cabin. I had some issues with the dangly strap while eating and don’t even want to think about having it on while trying to go to the bathroom. 

 

I think is pretty much it pre-cruise and embarkation wise…let’s hope this actually psots…
 

[natefish95]

Cabin
I was in balcony cabin 8528 and I really loved this location. It was really convenient to the forward elevators. 2 flights down to the casino. 3 flights up to the Solarium. The balcony was a really good size and plenty of room for two chairs and a small table. Much bigger than what I’ve had an NCL and Carnival previously. The balconies on Deck 7 hang out further. I like my shade and would feel too exposed on those balconies, but that’s just me. 

 

Now these cabins are DATED. I’m sure this was a great cabin in the early to mid 2000’s, but it just looks old now. There is so much wood in the cabin and most of it is chipped or peeling. The drawers would also get stuck and squealed loudly when the opened. Regarding plugs, there were two U.S. plugs. I wish there were USB chargers by the bed. There was a ton of storage though and plenty of hangers. This cabin can hold 3, maybe 4, and I think there is plenty of room for 3 people’s stuff. 4 people to a cabin just sounds awful, but some of y’all are masochists. 

 

The bathroom was fine. Again, more wood that is chipped and peeling. I’m just glad there was no shower curtain (looking at you Carnival…). Everything worked like it should, which is the most important thing really. 

 

Da ship
So Jewel is from 2004…and in some areas it really feels like it. I’m no stranger to gaudy and tacky decors since I’ve cruised Carnival a good bit over the years. The interior is just meh. I think the theater looks gaudy with the multicolored seats and the pit stop has potential to be a really good sports bar, but falls short. I really loved the layout and look of the Schooner Bar though. 

 

Not men who have been on Jewel, can we talk about the public bathrooms??? Who designed this madness?? In the Solarium bathroom and Schooner bar bathroom, the urinals are at 90 degree angles and so close that it’s almost impossible for two guys to use them at the same time. The Solarium bathroom even has some weird swinging doors to the urinals that are so unnecessary. They were just overall very weird bathroom designs that I felt need to be mentioned haha. Feel free to agree or disagree with me on this. Weird observation I know. 

 

I spent a lot of time in the Solarium and wish they would add more loungers by the windows. They have so many tables that aren’t used very often, but the loungers are always filled, even on our sailing that had less people. 

 

I actually spent some time in the gym (gotta keep that Peloton streak alive) and thought it was pretty solid with good equipment. As you can imagine, it was never crowded. The free sauna and steam room were sadly closed. 
 

[natefish95]

Food!!!
To sum it up, of the three cruises I’ve done this year, Jewel had the best food out of all of them! I was really impressed with the food on the ship overall! I went in with low expectations after my Adventure cruise, but was shocked at how good the food was. 

 

I only ate breakfast twice in the Windjammer and it was normal breakfast stuff. They had bacon every day (unlike Carnival…). They also had corn beef hash, which is one of my favorites that I literally only eat on cruises. 

 

I ate lunch in the Windjammer most days and thought it was the generic lunch items, but they were all good. The pizza was a nice thin crust and not overly greasy like how I remember Carnival’s being. 

 

Now dinner is where they really crushed it. I ate in the Windjammer for dinner 3 nights, 1 night in Giovanni’s, and 3 nights in the MDR.  In the Windjammer each night they have a different theme (Caribbean, French, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, and classic American foods). I ate there on the Chinese, Indian, and classic American nights. The Chinese and Indian nights were incredible. Cruise ships always seems to do Indian food right, since most of the kitchen staff are from India probably. Delicious butter chicken, chana masala, roti, etc. Highly recommend! The Chinese food was also better than some of the Chinese restaurants I’ve been to on land. The American classics night was average, but nothing was just straight up bad.

 

Funny story: on the Chinese night they had some bao type “dumplings”. I can’t say no to anything dumpling related, so I got one after they said the filling was chicken. Got back to my table and I cut it open and it was BRIGHT PINK. It literally looked like raw ground beef. Now I like my beef rare and had beef tartare in the MDR, but they told me this was chicken so I was confused. I walked back up and asked if this was right and they said it was. An officer was nearby and confirmed that was right and that the chef added in some spices and other things to make it that color. He also thought it was raw when he saw it for the first time. I told him it looked like pink playdoh. He laughed and said he agreed. It’s still a no from me dawg. 

 

Giovanni’s on Adventure was average, but I don’t think I ordered the right things, so I gave it another shot and I’m really glad I did! Loved everything I ordered! I started off with the octopus, which was cooked well and not rubber band-y at all. It comes out as whole tentacles, so if that might freak you out…I don’t know why you would order octopus in the first place… I got a half order of the daily pasta special which was spaghetti with pesto, and then the filet mignon for my main. Really nice and flavorful! For dessert I had the cannolis, which were actually pretty small, but it was perfect because I was stuffed by this point. 

 

Now the other people in Giovanni’s…one family was so loud and I heard all about the day in St. Maarten and also go to witness how dysfunctional they are. Me and a woman at another table  kept making eye contact and laughing at the situation. My favorite quote was “if you behave, I’ll buy you fireworks in Texas” Uhm, your child can barely behave in public, so he doesn’t need fireworks. The dad also stormed out and one point. The mom talked in depth about throwing up during their scuba excursion. I was annoyed at first, but it was so funny and couldn’t help but laugh and just enjoy my front row seats to the circus. To the loud family from Hawaii, please stay there. The mom leads yoga retreats, but she should start with her own family. 

 

Now in the MDR, there were no loud families, and it was a much more relaxing experience. I did My Time Dining, which is supposed to start at 6:45, but I went down around 6:30 and had no issues being seated. I was given the same dining team of Imade and Nila each night who were on point! I highly doubt they are doing shared tables, but I didn’t ask either. I wanted to eat alone and read my Kindle. On formal night, which was also Christmas Eve, they did a special menu. The fried brie was as good as it sounds. I was really surprised to see beef wellington on the menu, but it was delicious! Some other dishes that I really remember were the poblano soup and the chicken parmesan. Dinner took 45 minutes to an hour each night. 
 

[MiniChunks]

The layout in the public bathrooms is bizarre. Something about the decision to try and shuffle by someone who is peeing, or stand there awkwardly waiting for them to finish when you are pinned in the corner is unsettling. 

[Ptroxx]

Sorry too much to ready lol hope ya had fun. Lol. Happy holidays.  

[RosieRoo]

Enjoying your review. We are on the Jewel for a back to back in January. 

Edited December 30, 2021 by RosieRoo

[natefish95]

 I know y’all really only care about COVID onboard, but I’ll get to that at the end haha

 

Ports
As I mentioned, Labadee was swapped for Nassau. I’m pleased to report I was not kidnapped in Nassau! I did Adventure from here in August and really don’t care for it, so I only got off the ship to buy my friend a shot glass, and then got back on board to read by the pool.

 

Our second port was San Juan. We actually had a really long port day here, but I didn’t feel like doing anything, so I only got off to get lunch at Los Yeyos for some delicious garlic chicken mofongo. Highly recommend if you’re looking for lunch places in Old San Juan.

 

Our third and final port was St. Maarten, which is one of my favorite places in the Caribbean. I’m a big plane nerd and have done Maho beach before and highly recommend if you’ve never been! The past two times I’ve been to St. Maarten, I’ve gone over to Orient Beach on the French. Specifically, I’ve gone to the clothing optional section! I honestly love I here and will keep coming back. Chairs are $7 and an umbrella is $6. Beers are $3 and during happy hour it’s 2 for $5. Everyone who comes here is so nice! Like seriously, the nicest people I’ve ever met at a beach. Further down the beach are some structures that used to be Club Orient, but were damaged during the hurricane a few years ago. It’s really cool to walk around and explore them. It is also extremely safe. I left my bag at my chair to go on walks, and was not worried about leaving it. Best of all, I didn’t get sunburnt! If you’re gonna be nekkid on the beach, you better bathe in sunscreen!  
 

[natefish95]

Christmas vibes
I wasn’t sure what to expect Christmas wise on the ship, but I was not disappointed! On Christmas Eve the singers and dancers put together a show where they sang and danced to Christmas songs. They are some of the best singers and dancers I have ever seen and I’ll remember this show for awhile. One of the singers, Kiana I think her name was, had a voice that was simply incredible—better than anyone I just saw on The Voice haha. 

 

Inside the ship, it was decorated heavily with poinsettias, trees, garland, etc. It was really beautiful and even though you’re in the middle of the ocean, you can’t help but get in the Christmas spirit. They also played Christmas music over the speakers inside the ship instead of the normal pop mixes you hear (they still played normal music by the pool during the day). On Christmas Day they also had Santa in the theater who gave out gifts to the kids onboard. 

 

Additionally, they had midnight mass, Christmas Day mass, and an interdenominational service. My mom will call me a heathen, but I never went to these services haha. I’m sure those who went enjoyed them. Aside from Christmas services, there were a lot of mass services offered throughout the cruise, which I’ve never seen before. 

 

Even though I was traveling alone, I still felt the Christmas spirit and really enjoyed myself.

 

Oh, on the last night I discovered a tv channel that was just a flickering fireplace with Christmas carols playing. I think it was channel 30? Super cute
 

[sandycruzr]

Hi,

could you please let us

know how many passengers are onboard this week?  Thanks 

[natefish95]

Activities and Entertainment (and COVID)

So I can’t talk about the activities offered without mentioning the rona onboard because it definitely affected the onboard schedule. Even at the start of the week I thought the activities schedule was a little thin and…lame? I’m not sure if that’s the right word to use, but does anyone get excited about a 50’s/60’s dance party or 50’s trivia? Some of the activities would be better on Holland America honestly. I say that with only a little bit of shade. During the first theater show, the cruise director asked if anyone is excited for the 50’s/60’s dance party. It wasn’t a big response and she said “Well, that’s not the response I had hoped, but it will still be fun” Shrugs There were some good trivias offered towards the end of the week. I got second place on the flag trivia, just sayin’

 

In the Schooner Bar, the piano singer was Jamie Lees I think his name was? He was awesome! So funny and super talented. He wasn’t on the Compass until midweek but was there almost every night. Once they finally put him on the Compass, he had a much bigger audience. Really odd.

 

With regards to theater shows, we had the aforementioned Christmas Eve show and some other variety acts. I went to one and it was just okay, but I’ll admit these types of acts aren’t my favorite. The singers and dancers were supposed to have a second show called “Tango: Buenos Aires”, but I was cancelled due to “technical issues” I’m pretty sure their feet still work, and everyone knew it was actually cancelled due to some type of exposure or positive test result. 

 

My main gripe with Royal entertainment is that I wish that had more comedians. Carnival heavily leans on comedy shows, and I really enjoy going to them. Adult comedy shows are usually extremely popular and hilarious! 

 

Onto my second gripe, I don’t mind that there are reduced activities. With reduced staffing, they can’t do everything that want to. I get it, but the staff can still show up on time, give clear instructions, and have accurate trivia answers!! On more than one occasion, the cruise director staff members were late and ran extremely unorganized activities. Also, the geography trivia had a few answers that were just straight up wrong, which was annoying since I’m a big geography nerd. haha Maybe this is me being whiney, but things weren’t well-run. One of the cruise director staff members was HILARIOUS! Forget his name, but he was so fun!
 

[natefish95]

3 minutes ago, sandycruzr said:

Hi,

could you please let us

know how many passengers are onboard this week?  Thanks 

I don't know how many were onboard. Wikipedia says the Jewel carries about 2500 passengers. We were definitely above 50%, but it didn't feel full. I would say we had about 1500 (but that is total guestimate)

[vegas7df]

Enjoying your review, love the humor.  Will be boarding Jewel in January!

[killsport]

Also was on this sailing. @natefish95 is pretty spot on with comments. Gotta say I also really enjoyed Giovanni’s. Izumi also good. Chops was ok (great lamb).
Entertainment was weak. As stated, a comedian or two would really have helped.  
I believe it was 1700 pax on our sailing. 
on the COVID front, there were both pax and staff who tested positive. Not sure on the totals of either. Last day they started giving staff KN95 masks in addition to the cloth RCCL ones. Most pax were following masking / elevator rules, but a few were not. Although not a traditional carefree, social cruise….we did enjoy ourselves. 
 

[coaster]

Was the Windjammer open for dinner?  Planning to still go next month so far. I might of cancelled before now, but hate to lose the 4 points a night for each us due to a great price on solo cabins we got in the fall..

Edited December 31, 2021 by coaster

[birdylady]

Ty for your review.  We’re scheduled for Jewel in February and very much looking forward to it.  Enjoying following along.

thanx,

Erika

 

[patrioticgirl]

7 hours ago, natefish95 said:

The singers and dancers were supposed to have a second show called “Tango: Buenos Aires”, but I was cancelled due to “technical issues” I’m pretty sure their feet still work, and everyone knew it was actually cancelled due to some type of exposure or positive test result. 

 

 

 

 

The Tango: Buenos Aires show on the 12/12-12/18 sailing was cancelled due to technical issues, too; seems a little strange to have the issue ongoing for two weeks. BTW...I had a casual conversation with several of the orchestra members in the Windjammer one evening about the show held earlier in the week, "Oh, What a NIght!: A Musical Tribute to Frankie Valli". They assured me that the Tango show was going to be even more phenomenal … and as they were speaking, the lead dancers for Tango entered the Windjammer. Several of the orchestra members jumped up to greet them,  as they had apparently just joined the ship during our day in Cozumel. After hearing the positive comments about Tango, I was looking forward to the performance the next evening, so headed down to see the late show, only to be told it had been cancelled due to "technical issues". Either they can't get something fixed, or someone has a pretty severe case of Covid ....Yikes! 

Edited December 31, 2021 by patrioticgirl

[patrioticgirl]

Great review, Nate! 

 

[natefish95]

2 hours ago, coaster said:

Was the Windjammer open for dinner?  Planning to still go next month so far. I might of cancelled before now, but hate to lose the 4 points a night for each us due to a great price on solo cabins we got in the fall..

Yes, Windjammer was open for dinner (and really good too!)

[coaster]

1 minute ago, natefish95 said:

Yes, Windjammer was open for dinner (and really good too!)

Thank you for the update. Some good news for once!

[natefish95]

49 minutes ago, patrioticgirl said:

The Tango: Buenos Aires show on the 12/12-12/18 sailing was cancelled due to technical issues, too; seems a little strange to have the issue ongoing for two weeks. BTW...I had a casual conversation with several of the orchestra members in the Windjammer one evening about the show held earlier in the week, "Oh, What a NIght!: A Musical Tribute to Frankie Valli". They assured me that the Tango show was going to be even more phenomenal … and as they were speaking, the lead dancers for Tango entered the Windjammer. Several of the orchestra members jumped up to greet them,  as they had apparently just joined the ship during our day in Cozumel. After hearing the positive comments about Tango, I was looking forward to the performance the next evening, so headed down to see the late show, only to be told it had been cancelled due to "technical issues". Either they can't get something fixed, or someone has a pretty severe case of Covid ....Yikes! 

I don't think we had the Frankie Valli show on our sailing, but it sounds like it would have been great! 

 

Your comment reminded me that the orchestra was PHENOMENAL! I'm really not a big instrumental guy and prefer the singing/dancing, but I was blown away. The guy on the saxophone was amazing! 

 

The entire theater crew was outstanding and I wish we had seen them more!

[natefish95]

Alright y'all, been flying, but made it back to DC. I have a few closing thoughts to add tomorrow, but please drop any questions y'all might have!