Older ship but had a nice time

Item: Jewel of the Seas
Rating: 4.1
Author: bpmartucci

Jewel of the Seas Cruise Review to Transatlantic

bpmartucci

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 14

Overall rating:

4.1 out of 5

Verified Review

15 Night Transatlantic (Ft. Lauderdale To Southampton)

Sail date: April 05, 2024

Ship: Jewel of the Seas

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 9609

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 7 months ago

Review summary

Overall we enjoyed the cruise. We had a table with strangers which we haven’t done for years (usually do My Time) but for some reason I never got the choice—just was assigned to the 5:30 seating and a table. But luckily our tablemates were pleasant so that was nice. They did have a nice selection of activities but I think it’s ridiculous that they charge extra for exercise classes where there is basically no equipment (yoga and Pilates) or they already have the equipment (bikes). I know all cruise lines do this but it’s stupid. This was the first cruise where we had no issues getting a lounge chair in the shade by the pool every sea day, even later in the day, which was a first. It wasn’t warm the whole cruise though so that probably helped. The ports were nice and none were canceled. I thought I’d be bored with 7 straight days at sea but between all the activities and walking 2 miles a day, I wasn’t bored at all. A very small adult area, which is inside with a small pool, and is very humid. You didn’t get a chair there unless you snagged one very early morning.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

I did the flash mob, the language classes, church, craft class, line dancing, and pickleball.

Entertainment

4 out of 5

A dud or 2 but most were pretty good.

Children's Programs

No kids

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

About 3/4 of the staff were awesome and a few were just ok.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Very clean. Layout was ok. With the elevators on most of the floors: it was hard to see which one arrived for you.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Size was decent—we had an interior and it even had a sofa, which was nice. Wasn’t a fan of the toiletries in the shower—one container of shampoo and body wash together. That’s pretty cheap. There was room to have 2 containers so I thought that was a negative. Since we were going to England as our final destination we thought there would be British outlets so we didn’t bring our US ones (we were going to spend 2 months in the UK). But nope, they had an Europe and US. So we had to buy a charger. Our last 2 cruises on other cruise lines had an outlet for UK, Europe and US.

Ship tip

Their app was crap—didn’t work half the time. And the wifi is expensive. So if you’re not buying it and thinking you can communicate with your partner through the app, think again.

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