Jewel OTS Christmas Cruise review

[sgmn]

18 hours ago, natefish95 said:

 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. 

 

 

Loving your writing style 😎  thanks for doing this report, sounds positive and upbeat so far.

I am so going to pinch your idea of getting my DH to put all the stuff in his pockets into a bag prior to security. I'm always waiting ages for him as he holds up the whole line 😄

Edited December 31, 2021 by sgmn

[natefish95]

Closing Thoughts

Regarding COVID onboard, obviously there were a good number of cases among crew and a few isolated cases among passengers. While we were docked in St. Maarten, we transferred some positive crew to Rhapsody of the Seas. I didn't even know about this until I read a news article about it. Two days later we made an unplanned stop and transferred more positive crew to Vision of the Seas. I had a great viewpoint on Deck 5 to watch it all go down. I saw about 30 crew members moved from Jewel to Vision. 

 

I don't quite know how to describe this experience. It was a bit emotional seeing these crew members being moved into quarantine onto another ship. They've been through so much to get the Jewel up and running first in Europe, and now they're battling COVID on a ship. I can't imagine what these crew members were going through. It was also emotional having crew members on Jewel watching their friends and colleagues moved to another ship for who knows how long! You also see crew on Vision and wonder what things are like for them? They're essentially a quarantine ship right now and they must be under a lot of stress to keep the ship running and handle all these new people being brought on board. 

 

During our last sea day is when I started getting a bit more anxious. Before noon they called about 10 people to go immediately back to their cabins. Did these people have COVID? Were they just close contacts and needed testing? Up until this point, they had done a really good job of hiding COVID onboard and made things look as normal as possible. Also on the last day the Sky Bar and Solarium Bar were closed. I had seen some bartenders earlier in the week that were now MIA. I was not worried for my own health, but I was worried for the crew. I get off the next day, but these people live here and can't just leave. It was a real mix of emotions that I wasn't used to feeling. I had a great week, but I was actually read to get off the ship and go back home (I was also really missing my comfy bed and pillows). 

 

Overall, I think Royal is allowing too many unvaccinated people onboard ships. Obviously, unvaccinated people can still catch COVID, but having so many unvaccinated people onboard also poses a greater risk. It seems that Royal is being especially hard hit with cases onboard. Carnival and NCL are also experiencing cases onboard, cancelled entertainment, but they're not nearly in as bad of shape where they have to transfer positive cases to another ship. 

 

I have only taken two Royal Caribbean cruises, and while I enjoyed both, they are still not my first choice. When you take COVID out of the equation, the onboard experience of Carnival and NCL suits me more. I would not hesitate to do Royal again in the future, but it would have to be a nice combination of price+ship+itinerary to edge out the other two. I used this cruise as I trial to see if I could do a transatlantic on Brilliance of the Seas later in 2022, and I'm leaning towards finding another option. 

 

This was a unique cruise, but it was not a bad cruise and I still enjoyed myself! I think anyone cruising now needs to be flexible and be prepared for plans to change. Royal seems to have a higher concentration of entitled passengers (looking at your Pinnacles and Diamond/Diamond+ people) who will complain at the slightest inconvenience. That ain't me. Crap happens and I roll with it. I don't expect to be compensated or bowed down to when something happens that is out of Royal's control. The audacity of people on these boards and onboard is incomprehensible to me. 

 

Hope y'all enjoyed this quick little review. If I missed anything you're curious about, please let me know! Hope everyone stays safe and has a happy New Year!

[wolfcathorse]

do you remember who the captain was? Was it Capt Claus?

[natefish95]

20 minutes ago, wolfcathorse said:

do you remember who the captain was? Was it Capt Claus?

I am not positive, but that sounds right? Who is the captain was even one of the questions at Crown and Anchor trivia, but I still couldn't hear it properly. I thought it might have been Capt Anders, but Claus also sounds right. haha

[melbur]

When you say Royal is allowing too many unvaccinated, you mean kids, right? Were there lots of kids on Jewel?  All adults have to be vaxxed .

[birdylady]

I was wondering.  What did it cost to Uber from the hotel to port and port to the airport?

Thanx

Erika

 

[natefish95]

28 minutes ago, melbur said:

When you say Royal is allowing too many unvaccinated, you mean kids, right? Were there lots of kids on Jewel?  All adults have to be vaxxed .

Yes, there were a lot of young kids onboard younger than 12 who were not required to be vaccinated. 

 

One thing I forgot to mention was that there was no enforcement of the Solarium being 16+ and for vaccinated guests only. Although not many, there were definitely families who would bring their young kids in, which was a bit annoying personally. 

[avw3]

Thank you for the great cruise review! We are still planning on boarding Jewel on 1/15/22 for an 8 night cruise and are going to have fun no matter what. We are people who enjoy cruising and can easily roll with the punches. 🙂

[natefish95]

15 minutes ago, birdylady said:

I was wondering.  What did it cost to Uber from the hotel to port and port to the airport?

Thanx

Erika

 

From the hotel to the airport is $17 for an Uber Comfort (a step above the normal Uber cars). I got an Uber comfort. From the port to the airport it was $24 for a Lyft Lux. I got nicer rides just because I wanted to ride in style and be bougie lol. 

[natefish95]

1 minute ago, avw3 said:

Thank you for the great cruise review! We are still planning on boarding Jewel on 1/15/22 for an 8 night cruise and are going to have fun no matter what. We are people who enjoy cruising and can easily roll with the punches. 🙂

You sound like the perfect people who should be cruising now! I'm sure you'll have an awesome time! 

[Margaretealexander]

14 hours ago, avw3 said:

Thank you for the great cruise review! We are still planning on boarding Jewel on 1/15/22 for an 8 night cruise and are going to have fun no matter what. We are people who enjoy cruising and can easily roll with the punches. 🙂

We are on that cruise as well. We have a thread started over in the Jewel meet and mingle. Come join us

[jerseyjjs]

On 12/30/2021 at 11:03 AM, natefish95 said:

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. 

 

 

 

 

Question about the Pit Stop sports bar.    How do you think it fell short?  Did they show any NFL or college football bowl games?   Were the hours shortened?  TIA.

[shelpt]

Thank you for the review!

I will be on Jewel (god willing) Jan 9th.  Did they have bingo? Did they show movies on the pool deck at night? 

[natefish95]

5 hours ago, jerseyjjs said:

 

 

Question about the Pit Stop sports bar.    How do you think it fell short?  Did they show any NFL or college football bowl games?   Were the hours shortened?  TIA.

It was vaguely racing themed, but seemed like a completely forgotten space. The bar wasn't open every night (could be do to bartenders being in quarantine). There were some football games shown, but I wasn't there enough to get a good feel for what they show. There aren't too many tables so for a popular game, I'm sure it would get very crowded very fast. 

[natefish95]

4 hours ago, shelpt said:

Thank you for the review!

I will be on Jewel (god willing) Jan 9th.  Did they have bingo? Did they show movies on the pool deck at night? 

Now that you mention it, I don't recall ever seeing bingo on the schedule. I'm not a bingo guy, so I wasn't looking for it and might have missed it. 

 

Omg the movies...the movies became a recurring joke to me over the week. They showed movies all the time, which is probably more often than normal due to activities needing to be cut because of staff issues. The showed Jungle Cruise literally 6 times one day. They showed it in the cinema, pool deck, and the main theater. They also showed Shang-Chi and Reminiscence a lot. (They did show some Christmas movies too!)

[coaster]

6 minutes ago, natefish95 said:

Now that you mention it, I don't recall ever seeing bingo on the schedule. I'm not a bingo guy, so I wasn't looking for it and might have missed it. 

 

Omg the movies...the movies became a recurring joke to me over the week. They showed movies all the time, which is probably more often than normal due to activities needing to be cut because of staff issues. The showed Jungle Cruise literally 6 times one day. They showed it in the cinema, pool deck, and the main theater. They also showed Shang-Chi and Reminiscence a lot. (They did show some Christmas movies too!)

I have been curious about this bar as it is an English Pub theme which we enjoyed on the sister Serenade. Surprised the cinema was open as it was closed all 13 nights when we were on Serenade on our 3 cruises in October to December. Great review and appreciate you answering questions from those of us with upcoming bookings.

[shelpt]

33 minutes ago, natefish95 said:

Now that you mention it, I don't recall ever seeing bingo on the schedule. I'm not a bingo guy, so I wasn't looking for it and might have missed it. 

 

Omg the movies...the movies became a recurring joke to me over the week. They showed movies all the time, which is probably more often than normal due to activities needing to be cut because of staff issues. The showed Jungle Cruise literally 6 times one day. They showed it in the cinema, pool deck, and the main theater. They also showed Shang-Chi and Reminiscence a lot. (They did show some Christmas movies too!)

Thank you! I always play bingo because I won the free cruise once! 
i like having the movie on the pool deck as an option if I dont want to see the main show. 

[TexCruise371]

Thanks for the review. We plan on being on Jewel for a B2B starting January 15th!

 

[BSocial]

Thanks for your review. 

[natefish95]

I'm getting back on workout regimen and I don't think I gained too much weight on the ship. If anyone is also a Peloton addict, feel free to follow me! My leaderboard name is the same as my name on here. Love riding with cruise friends! 

[scorpluvsdolphins]

On 12/31/2021 at 2:55 PM, natefish95 said:

Closing Thoughts

Regarding COVID onboard, obviously there were a good number of cases among crew and a few isolated cases among passengers. While we were docked in St. Maarten, we transferred some positive crew to Rhapsody of the Seas. I didn't even know about this until I read a news article about it. Two days later we made an unplanned stop and transferred more positive crew to Vision of the Seas. I had a great viewpoint on Deck 5 to watch it all go down. I saw about 30 crew members moved from Jewel to Vision. 

 

I don't quite know how to describe this experience. It was a bit emotional seeing these crew members being moved into quarantine onto another ship. They've been through so much to get the Jewel up and running first in Europe, and now they're battling COVID on a ship. I can't imagine what these crew members were going through. It was also emotional having crew members on Jewel watching their friends and colleagues moved to another ship for who knows how long! You also see crew on Vision and wonder what things are like for them? They're essentially a quarantine ship right now and they must be under a lot of stress to keep the ship running and handle all these new people being brought on board. 

 

During our last sea day is when I started getting a bit more anxious. Before noon they called about 10 people to go immediately back to their cabins. Did these people have COVID? Were they just close contacts and needed testing? Up until this point, they had done a really good job of hiding COVID onboard and made things look as normal as possible. Also on the last day the Sky Bar and Solarium Bar were closed. I had seen some bartenders earlier in the week that were now MIA. I was not worried for my own health, but I was worried for the crew. I get off the next day, but these people live here and can't just leave. It was a real mix of emotions that I wasn't used to feeling. I had a great week, but I was actually read to get off the ship and go back home (I was also really missing my comfy bed and pillows). 

 

Overall, I think Royal is allowing too many unvaccinated people onboard ships. Obviously, unvaccinated people can still catch COVID, but having so many unvaccinated people onboard also poses a greater risk. It seems that Royal is being especially hard hit with cases onboard. Carnival and NCL are also experiencing cases onboard, cancelled entertainment, but they're not nearly in as bad of shape where they have to transfer positive cases to another ship. 

 

I have only taken two Royal Caribbean cruises, and while I enjoyed both, they are still not my first choice. When you take COVID out of the equation, the onboard experience of Carnival and NCL suits me more. I would not hesitate to do Royal again in the future, but it would have to be a nice combination of price+ship+itinerary to edge out the other two. I used this cruise as I trial to see if I could do a transatlantic on Brilliance of the Seas later in 2022, and I'm leaning towards finding another option. 

 

This was a unique cruise, but it was not a bad cruise and I still enjoyed myself! I think anyone cruising now needs to be flexible and be prepared for plans to change. Royal seems to have a higher concentration of entitled passengers (looking at your Pinnacles and Diamond/Diamond+ people) who will complain at the slightest inconvenience. That ain't me. Crap happens and I roll with it. I don't expect to be compensated or bowed down to when something happens that is out of Royal's control. The audacity of people on these boards and onboard is incomprehensible to me. 

 

Hope y'all enjoyed this quick little review. If I missed anything you're curious about, please let me know! Hope everyone stays safe and has a happy New Year!

What other Royal cruise have you taken?  Was it an Oasis class?  There isn’t a ship on Carnival or NCL that compares to an Oasis class on Royal when comparing shows. 

[natefish95]

2 hours ago, scorpluvsdolphins said:

What other Royal cruise have you taken?  Was it an Oasis class?  There isn’t a ship on Carnival or NCL that compares to an Oasis class on Royal when comparing shows. 

I've done Adventure and Jewel, but don't have any desire to do a Quantum or Oasis class. I prefer the smaller/medium size ships. The NCL Escape is probably the biggest I will do. I love the Broadway shows on the larger NCL ships, which I think Royal also does. 

[cve]

On 1/1/2022 at 8:49 AM, shelpt said:

Thank you for the review!

I will be on Jewel (god willing) Jan 9th.  Did they have bingo? Did they show movies on the pool deck at night? 

At least 2 bingo sessions were cancelled.

There were definitely movies on the pool deck.

 

I heard 1,701 passengers.

[Smhp]

1 hour ago, natefish95 said:

I've done Adventure and Jewel, but don't have any desire to do a Quantum or Oasis class. I prefer the smaller/medium size ships. The NCL Escape is probably the biggest I will do. I love the Broadway shows on the larger NCL ships, which I think Royal also does. 

Being in NOVA you should consider going out of Baltimore, so convenient.

[natefish95]

20 hours ago, Smhp said:

Being in NOVA you should consider going out of Baltimore, so convenient.

I would love to, but I don't want to sail on Enchantment. I would love to sail out of Baltimore though because it is so convenient!