The condition of the ship is embarrassing. If this had been my first cruise, I probably would never take another cruise. You hear how beautiful/clean/friendly the staff are on the ships from people, this one is not that way. We have 17 cruises down. I’ve never complained to a room steward. I did on our first day. Nothing happened. I’ve never written a list of issues until jewel of the sea. We don’t just pay for a room and do the included/free stuff. We ended this cruise with an additional $4700 in charges. We payed good money for a sub par ship and bad service.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Went smooth
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
Food as usual, service was way below normal. Servers did not care and would avoid eye contact and moral was down. With the exception of a few crew. Windjammer table workers, would clear plates but not get your drinks. Even avoiding eye contact. You had to physically go get water, tea, fresh squeezed oj, coffee yourself. This has never been our experience. Only 1 person insisted he do it for me when I was already half way there. Even tried sitting on the other side of the room. One morning when I was able to get a servers attention I ordered a San Pellegrino, he told me we don’t have those and walked away. I got up and got one.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
Entertainment
2 out of 5
All music seemed overly loud. Volume up more then normal. Hard to have any conversation in public seating areas or at coffee shop. If hellocleo is speaking over the intercom the volume is up and she is herd! If the captain is speaking, the music still plays and his volume is so quite you can barely hear him. Very disrespectful. The music in the center of the ship, usually is violin something gentle something soft. Every evening it was loud, so loud that to order a drink you had to yell. My Apple Watch went off for noise decibels being too high. The shore excursion desk could not hear us. Too loud to enjoy.
Children's Programs
No kids
Service and Staff
1 out of 5
Worst we have ever had.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
Clean at a bare minimum. We sat (working on laptops on sea days) at the coffee shop multiple times. Cups were cleaned up from tables only a couple times a day.
Cabin / Stateroom
1 out of 5
The drawers in the stateroom 7604 are broken and if you try to open them they move as one unit. The sheets all have pilling, The ones in our state room and the ones in the spa. I’m a spa owner this is unacceptable. Carpet in our state room 7604 is Grossly stained, I’ve been on enough cruises to see that they clean state room carpets. I mentioned it to our steward Elmer, and he just smiled and nodded his head said nothing. Carpet was never cleaned. Got to see them cleaning the casino carpet though.
The couch back, could not be straightened it’s so old and out of shape. No longer sits upright it’s squashed.
The chair top back, is dark, filthy, dingy. Looks dirty.
Ship tip
Don’t sail on the Jewel unless they change out the crew AND update/repair it. 8. The internet did not work a large part of the time. When it worked it was extremely slow and inefficient. It was advertised as the fastest on the sea. I need to work while I am vacationing. I depend on good internet for that . I wasted a lot of hours just trying to do a bare minimum.
Lava tubes, volcano crater, blue lagoon… exceptional! Colder than I have ever been, excursion was intense physically but WOW! Would do this again in a heart beat! Would love to come back for a week!
Giants causeway was amazing but was only given 45 min, the power walk there and back takes 20 min. The bus is 1 euro, we had no euro and no credit cards allowed. Had no idea the city was so historically ugly and still so. Countryside pretty. Guide was ok. Tour way to rushed. No lunch included and was not told this. Would not go back.
Hate tendering you port. Port was ok but then it’s a long bus ride where ever you want to go. Only 1 serviceable bus to Waterford, did not have time to go. Our tour guide took us to a pub for 1.5 hours and then on a 1.5 hour bus ride telling us he will find a toilet but never did. We had 1 brief stop to glimpse the copper cost mine, no toilet. Would not do again!
I agree 100%. We just got off the ship cruising the Arctic circle. This was my 6th cruise and sorry to say it was the worst. I don't know if the service is a repercussion of COVID. The only 2 persons who were very efficient and served us impeccably were our waiters Ganesh and Leroy.
I agree with you about the volume of the shows and musicians (too loud) and the old furniture. However, I found the service excellent. I do not expect service in the buffet restaurant (since is it self serve) and actually felt awkward when servers insisted they would get me something to drink. The room steward and the waiters in the MDR were always willing to fulfil my requests.
I wonder about the extra costs of $4700. Could you elaborate what this was for?
Cruise excursions usually give too little time at interesting places, which is why, after 2 attempts with a cruise line excursion in the past, I now only go for independent excursions or wandering around on our own. That way you have more control.
Glad you at least enjoyed Iceland, it was indeed beautiful (and cold).
Seems everyone has a different experience. Was just on Jewel in Feb on its first cruise back sailing again and the staff was amazing and the ship was spotless.
We had a great experience on the Jewel a few years ago. It’s not the latest / greatest with all of the new features, but it does have it’s purpose in being able to go to some ports where larger ships can’t go. WiFi is never good on any ship since it is satellite service and gets even slower when multiple passengers are using it at the same time.
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