Just off the Jewel

[sgmn]

15 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Did B5B Spring 2002 and Jewel Food was really good in WJ. Overs on here agreed. Had Carving stations multiple days and even Pizza was good, better then was couple yrs preCV. Too bad if it's changed. Have noticed selection is better on longer Sailings then shorter, this on all Radiance Class

2002?

[ONECRUISER]

9 minutes ago, sgmn said:

2002?

Thats what I get for typing on a cell, my Kids/Grands good at it. "2022, Spring" Me, prefer order an Uber on my Laptop

Edited February 4, 2023 by ONECRUISER

[cruisegus]

6 hours ago, Eastern flygirl said:

salad bar in Windjammer was good, and great mashed potatoes.

forgot to mention, a Nurovirus outbreak caused the servers to serve all the food.  

@Eastern flygirlwhich recent sailing had the Nuro?

[GTO-Girl]

6 hours ago, Eastern flygirl said:

salad bar in Windjammer was good, and great mashed potatoes.

forgot to mention, a Nurovirus outbreak caused the servers to serve all the food.  

Which sailing had Noro?  We were onboard 1/14-1/20 and it was not on our sailing…

 

 

[Retired LEO]

1 minute ago, GTO-Girl said:

Which sailing had Noro?  We were onboard 1/14-1/20 and it was not on our sailing…

 

 

Jan 28 - Feb 3

[Retired LEO]

13 minutes ago, cruisegus said:

@Eastern flygirlwhich recent sailing had the Nuro?

1/28 - 2/3 

[cruisegus]

13 minutes ago, GTO-Girl said:

Which sailing had Noro?  We were onboard 1/14-1/20 and it was not on our sailing…

 

 

was also were onboard 1/14-1/20, got sick with stomach cramps and runs afternoon of 1/19, on and off doses of Imodium for the next every other day and took till late 1/27 until I was normal again.  So based on the data points I am seeing i now understand that i must have caught it just as it was starting on that ship.

 

Based on my understanding 1/14 - 6 day; then 1/20 - 8 day; next cruise 6 day Noro in full effect.  So I would bet 1/20 cruise had a number of cases showing up early on also.

 

Explains what I suspected I may have had all along. Funny thing wife never was sick.

 

In 40 cruises only the 2nd time I was sick on a cruise.  Carnival Glory in 2019, but it was just for 2 days and then by 3rd day, disembarkation I was fine but wife was ill for that day and the next 2 days.  Good thing I could drive us home.

[OnTheJourney]

14 hours ago, Spurschick said:

We look at each cruise, look at itinerary, literally sat there the other night discussing the restaurants, and made a list for each day. You can look at menus in the app for specialty restaurants and some of the mdr menus are already showing for our sailing.

we do our list as day number, whether it is a port or sea day any excursions, then restaurants we want to eat at that day and the time we want to eat. It fun. Yes we might tweak it a little closer to the time, but it helps us decide if we want any specialty dining packages, especially on longer sailings.

 

love cruising, nice to get away every few weeks. I think if we stuck to same ship/same line might be a little more cruised out, but since restart doing a lot more variety of both ships and lines to keep it fresh.

Omigosh. You’re way more into it all than I ever would be! Often I don’t even look at the menus while onboard until I get to the dining room. I like to be surprised. All this dovetails with a recent thread about spontaneity (or lack thereof). Our favorite mode of travel is still car trips. We often have no clue where we’re going to eat each evening till we drive around. Sometimes we’ll look places up on the phone. Traveling every few weeks would be way too much for me. 3-4 times a year is more than enough. 

[Spurschick]

1 minute ago, OnTheJourney said:

Omigosh. You’re way more into it all than I ever would be! Often I don’t even look at the menus while onboard until I get to the dining room. I like to be surprised. All this dovetails with a recent thread about spontaneity (or lack thereof). Our favorite mode of travel is still car trips. We often have no clue where we’re going to eat each evening till we drive around. Sometimes we’ll look places up on the phone. Traveling every few weeks would be way too much for me. 3-4 times a year is more than enough. 

It’s just what works for us. That way if we see a good deal on dining packages etc we can jump on it. The spontaneity for us is waking up and going okay let’s book a cruise today what we booking lol

[OnTheJourney]

10 minutes ago, Spurschick said:

It’s just what works for us. That way if we see a good deal on dining packages etc we can jump on it. The spontaneity for us is waking up and going okay let’s book a cruise today what we booking lol

I’m traveled out after doing 5 trips last year. Looking forward to being home for an extended period after a spring trip. Hate traveling during summer so rarely book anything during that time. Hate traveling during winter too since I always worry about bad weather either before, during, or while coming home. After this coming fall I don’t anticipate doing anymore cruising for probably 2 years or so. I’ll have had my fill for awhile. I don’t ever do any sort of dining or drink packages. No interest in that. Hardly ever a specialty restaurant unless included like with Viking. I cruise primarily for the destination and itinerary. 

Edited February 5, 2023 by OnTheJourney

[Biker19]

15 hours ago, KathyPee said:

We sailed on Allure 2 weeks ago, and if not for Coastal Kitchen, we probably would've starved

Welcome to CC.

[lovesthebeach2]

16 hours ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

I cannot even remember the last time I was impressed by the food on a cruise ship.  We cruised fifteen times in 2022, on three different cruise lines, and the food was uniformly mediocre on the majority of them. The only memorable, truly excellent foods were some of the lunch spots on the Mardi Gras and a few specialty restaurants. We have accepted mediocre cruise food as “normal” and don’t get excited about it one way or the other.  Just another Covid casualty, similar to staffing and supply shortages. We hope it will improve in the future, but believe it will be like this for a while. 
 

@royal29. A few of the really horrible foods were memorable, and those pale, sickly sweet potatoes on the Christmas sailing of the Jewel are at the top of the list!

We definitely can remember. The absolute best food we’ve had on any cruise was on a Princess cruise way back when we first started cruising. Now I know food was better years ago on all ships, but we had cruised other lines back then too,  and nothing came close to the one cruise we took on Princess. Worst food was the one NCL cruise we took with a large group of friends years ago.

The quality of Royal’s food has definitely gone downhill, and we haven’t cruised any other line in many years other than Disney which was also very good, so I can’t compare. I’m disappointed with the new menus eliminating all but one vegan menu item, and not one vegetarian item on the menus each night.  we’re taking our first cruise since the menu changed soon, so although I’m sure we won’t starve, we may be eating some nights in the WJ which we have never done.☹️

[schlimazel_traveler]

3 hours ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

We definitely can remember. The absolute best food we’ve had on any cruise was on a Princess cruise way back when we first started cruising...

.☹️

I remember our second time on Grandeur, when we met some very frequent cruisers who tipped us off to the pleasant experience of WJ dinner. On that cruise, most of the MDR offerings were available in the WJ, including duck breast and lamb chops!!! It was fantastic. I never saw that again...but I remember it fondly.

 

Now there is no duck even on the MDR menus. It was "fancy" things like duck, rack of lamb, the various chilled fruit soups, baked Alaska, etc, that used to make the meals more interesting. 

[Spurschick]

17 hours ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

We definitely can remember. The absolute best food we’ve had on any cruise was on a Princess cruise way back when we first started cruising. Now I know food was better years ago on all ships, but we had cruised other lines back then too,  and nothing came close to the one cruise we took on Princess. Worst food was the one NCL cruise we took with a large group of friends years ago.

The quality of Royal’s food has definitely gone downhill, and we haven’t cruised any other line in many years other than Disney which was also very good, so I can’t compare. I’m disappointed with the new menus eliminating all but one vegan menu item, and not one vegetarian item on the menus each night.  we’re taking our first cruise since the menu changed soon, so although I’m sure we won’t starve, we may be eating some nights in the WJ which we have never done.☹️

I agree when I did Princess the food was excellent. Out of our more recent sailings Beyond and Prima really stood out overall with no bad meals for the duration of the cruise. Royal we have had hits and misses.

[Engineroom Snipe]

On 2/4/2023 at 1:07 PM, crzndeb said:

I will be on the Jewel for 14 days in Sept. I’m not to worried about chips, because I think at one point a chip was implanted in my brain, and when I step on a ship I crave Pringles. Now I just take a couple tins. 🤣 I never want them at home. 🤷🏼‍♀️

 

I eat most dinners in the WJ, and again not really worried. I know I will find something to eat, even if it’s just salad. Just don’t ruin the mashed potatoes. 

 

My wife makes the best mashed potatoes, an artform she learned from her mother.

 

I can see you now in front of the serving dish marked, "Mashed Potatoes", taking one look 🤔, are those mashed potatoes or baked potatoes?  "What, no gravy?" 😖 It will be a long walk to the dining table after that. 😭