Royal Caribbean is Great, but the locations were subpar

Item: Jewel of the Seas
Rating: 3
Author: zippyoboe

Jewel of the Seas Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean

zippyoboe

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 56

Overall rating:

3 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Greece & Turkey (Rome Roundtrip)

Sail date: July 10, 2016

Ship: Jewel of the Seas

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 3576

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

My husband and I have been on 5 cruises now with Royal Caribbean because they are truly very good at what they do, however this cruise was just ok. The food was bland, the service especially at dinner was slow, and there wasn't much to do on the ship in comparison to their larger more active oriented ships. Also, we learned that every destination always required the customer to spend more money and more time getting to the actual places to visit. If you want to be able to get off the boat and easily walk around to places of interest, then don't choose this cruise itinerary. We'll still go with Royal again and go on one of the larger ships, but the Jewel of the Seas was an ok experience.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Food was bland, and the first 3 nights at dinner we waited between 10 - 15 minutes before someone asked for our drinks & gave us bread. So the service was much slower than we remember from our previous cruises.

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Not enough diversity when on a 7 night cruise. We've been on the ship before where it even had a golf simulator, and it was gone when we were on this cruise.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Joel our attendant was excellent, and always had a great smile on his face. We love that he memorized our names right away, and always addressed us respectfully.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

The ship was very clean, and the design was descent.

Cabin / Stateroom

Cabin was excellent in size. The bed is ok in comfort. We could definitely feel that it was really 2 single mattresses pushed together, and the pillows were very flat.

Ship tip

So there is a beverage package on board for $75 for 12 drinks which is a pretty awesome deal. Too bad no one mentioned it until the 2nd to last day. But if you like to drink, but don't want to spend money on the expensive beverage package, the $75 deal is a nice alternative.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

3 out of 5

Santorini, Greece

5 out of 5

Just gorgeous and clean. No one hustles you to buy anything, and the greeks are friendly!

Thumbs Up 9

Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey

5 out of 5

What an incredible place to visit!

Thumbs Up 0

Piraeus (Athens), Greece

1 out of 5

Overcrowded, overpopulated, not worth the time and money. As I heard from others prior to the trip, it's nicknamed the "A-Crap-olis"

Thumbs Up 0

Souda (Chania), Crete

5 out of 5

1 Comment

canalview 8 years ago

I was on the Jewel in June the food was very good and we had an excellent cruise the waiting staff room attendant were as normal unfaultable .The Ports for all cruise lines face the same problems you cannot expect places like Santorini to drop itself to Sea Level or Athens to change its culture and Build a metro to the Port .What about Naples what a fantastic City you could not get any closer.Well done RCL for an unbeatable time.

Thumbs Up 7

Flag

Other reviews of this sailing

Good destination!