This was my 6th Royal Caribbean cruise and my 11th cruise overall. For this cruise I went with my wife, daughter and father-in-law. This was my first Radiance Class ship experience. Embarkation overall went extremely smoothly. We were dropped off by our Uber driver and essentially didn’t stop moving from curb to ship.
Since we were four people, we had two standard neighboring balcony cabins on Deck 8. The rooms had the standard two twins, or when combined, one king size bed and the room had what I would describe as a 1/2 couch, bigger than a regular seat but smaller than a standard couch. The rooms to me felt much more cramped than the standard balconies on some of the newer ships. I’m not sure if the newer ships have a little more square footage or if the room layout was adjusted on the newer ships over the course of time. Still, the rooms were big enough for two people per room and there was plenty of storage space with multiple well designed shelves that were so well designed I didn’t realize certain places in the room opened up to shelving until later in the cruise. The balcony had two chairs and a little table. Also included are the safe, phone and tv which were all functionally easy to navigate. The bathroom was a standard small bathroom with the normal circular shower had the plastic/glass closing enclosure. The bathroom may also be a little smaller as compared to the newer ships but it wasn’t as noticeable if it was. There was just enough storage space in the bathroom for two people. In the shower there was a combination soap/shampoo dispenser and they provided a small bar of soap at the sink. I would advise bringing your own soaps and shampoo products.
We brought with us onto the ship three bottles of wine since they now only permit one bottle per adult instead of two bottles per room. We didn’t have a drink package but we did pre purchase a coffee card and a 24 pack of bottled water. If you want bottled water I highly recommend you do it before the cruise and to keep an eye open on the planner for deals. On this ship there are not nearly as many dining options. They do have three specialty dining venues, Chops, Giovanni’s and Izumi. Although I love specialty dining, we stuck with the complimentary dining options. My reviews of those are as follows:
Windjammer Buffet - Windjammer was a great place to eat. For us we used it for breakfast and lunch. There was adequate selections and in general good (not great) food quality. Except for the first day there was always seating available (the ship was about 95% capacity based on double occupancy, see below for my first day story). Some highlights I enjoyed at this buffet were the fried egg station at the buffet for breakfast so there is less of a line at the omelette station, and their donuts on this ship tasted extremely good. Normally I enjoy the desserts and bakery items at the buffet but nothing stands out. The donuts at breakfast for whatever reason did stand out and tasted phenomenal. Another highlight is this buffet had multiple island stations instead of one long line which spread out the foot traffic and limited the lines at any individual station which helped significantly with wait times. I’ve been on ships with more options in the buffet but this buffet was large enough that it had ample selections to choose from every day. The one large negative of the buffet on this cruise was Day 1 (boarding day). Unlike some of the newer ships which have so many venues to hang out and multiple complimentary dining venues open, this ship really only had the Windjammer opened on boarding day as complimentary. Since the ship didn’t open up the rooms to the guests until 2:00 PM, that meant from 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM, everyone on the cruise that didn’t pay for a specialty dining option (assuming one or two were open) and you wanted to eat, you had to go to the buffet and since no one could go to their rooms, everyone was just sitting at the buffet hanging out after they ate instead of turning over the tables. It took us about 45 minutes to find a table on the first day due to this issue. My advice, if there is a specialty dining option and you are more than 2 people, pay for the specialty dining on embarkation day for lunch. Enjoy the upscale quality of food, don’t worry about the crowds and searching for a seat, and enjoy a much better start to the cruise than we experienced.
Solarium Bistro - Unlike some of the newer and bigger ships where the solarium bistro acts as a mini windjammer, on this ship it was set up with a small amount of grab and go options. I partook in a caprese sandwich with some of the complimentary non-alcoholic drinks they had available one afternoon. It was good, but nothing to write home about. However, when relaxing in the Solarium, it is definitely a very nice and convenient option so you do not have to leave the area when you are in the middle of relaxing.
Main Dining Room - We did early dining and ate here every night and we had breakfast here on disembarkation day. The majority of the food we had here was mediocre to good but we did have the occasional “miss” and the occasional spectacular item. I found the indian dishes I had on multiple nights always above average in flavor and if you like Indian food I would recommend them as an item you won’t be disappointed ordering. As always with the MDR if you do not like one item, do not be afraid to ask for something else. The service we had at the MDR was amazing. I was extremely happy with our dining experience.
Entertainment and Activities:
Production Shows - Unlike most of Royal’s ships from the Voyager Class ships to the Oasis Class ships and everything in between which have broadway style production shows, aqua theater shows, ice shows, 270 shows, etc., this ship being so small didn’t have any of those and was more of a “traditional” cruise experience. One of the major production shows on this ship was called “City of Dreams” which was a medley of hit songs done to a story which I couldn’t really follow. It was entertaining but not anything near the quality most people expect when going on a Royal Caribbean cruise nowadays. This was more of what I used to expect 10+ years ago when you went cruising. The entertainment quality of the shows were good but not jaw dropping like they are now.
Other Entertainment - Deck 6 has the schooner bar and the lounge in the back of the ship which were both great places to be. The schooner bar had a good piano player/singer and the back lounge either had karaoke or some sort of entertainment going on at night. Also, the centrum always had some good music playing and people dancing and/or singing. Again, this is more of a traditional cruise experience, but if you wanted to enjoy yourself, you had a place on the ship to go instead of the main theater. There was also movies under the stars and the ship had its own movie theater. That said, depending on the movie playing in the theater, the movie theater could fill to capacity.
Activities - Again, unlike most of Royal’s fleet which is bigger, the number of activities on this ship are limited. There is a rock wall but not much else. As for pools and slides, there is only one water slide and it is a children’s slide. There is no splash away bay but there is a children’s splash pool which is separated from the main pool and is near the slide. In addition to the children’s pool, there is a main pool and the solarium pool. Adventure Ocean is a complimentary venue for children and for my 4 year old it was fantastic. They divide the children by age group. Just sign your child up on the first day when you first get on the ship. Afterwards you can drop your child off whenever they are open. My advice is to make sure you drop your child off the first day after dinner (opens at 7 PM) so they can make friends when everyone is new to the area. They do some sort of craft every day and one night the staff informed us they were taking the kids out of the room to the deck to look for aliens. I can’t say enough good things about Adventure Ocean.
Easter Activities for Kids - We went on our cruise over Easter so they had some family easter activities. From 10:00-10:30 it was family easter arts and crafts at Adventure Ocean where you could do an easter crown (color it in and staple it together) with your child. From 10:30-11:00 was a scavenger hunt where you went with your child around the ship to collect easter eggs from staff after you figured out where you needed to go. From 11:00-12:00 was a children’s dance party at the Viking Crown lounge with the Easter Bunny. The kids got to get pictures with the easter bunny and they had a DJ playing music to get the kids dancing. Kudos to Royal for doing this. It wasn’t over the top but it was just enough for the kids to know it was easter and enjoy it.
Ports:
Aruba - Aruba is a beautiful island that I wish we had one more day to visit. We opted at Aruba to do the Atlantis Submarine adventure. It was definitely worth doing once with my four year old. The sub takes you down almost 200 feet. On the way down way down you see all sorts of fish along the reef and two or three sunken ships. I wish we had the time/energy to have also experienced the beach, but I do not regret doing this excursion.
Curacao - We took a cap to Mambo beach for the day. AMAZING beach day. You pick chairs or a cabana to sit in (whichever you want that is unoccupied) which a server will then come to you to collect payment. We took a cabana at the establishment with a pool which also granted us access to the pool. The cabana cost us $40 and we had servers who brought us food and drinks. The pool area was maybe 50 feet from the beach area so you could go from one to the other very easily. The beach was crystal clear water and since they had a barrier jeti blocking the majority of the waves, the water was extremely calm like a cove. Extremely picturesque and what you would imagine going to a beach on the ABC islands. I would highly recommend Mambo beach to anyone visiting this island.
Labadee - This is Royal’s private destination in Haiti. It’s a narrow strip with calm waters on one side of the island and waves on the other, depending on which beach side you want to sit at. We chose Nellie’s beach which is on the calm side. The water was beautiful, almost like pool water. The food, however, unlike Coco Cay is nothing to write home about. Labadee does have a children’s splash pad my daughter enjoyed, but it is nothing like Spashaway Bay and it doesn’t have a pool. There is a tram to take you across the narrow strip from one side to the other which was extremely helpful when you have a four year old. You will need to walk the pier by yourself unless you have mobility problems which then Royal will provide assistance. In all honesty, this place is much more picturesque than Coco Cay and I prefer the beaches here as compared to Coco Cay. That said, there are better food options and the pool at Coco Cay. One final note, there are additional activities to do at Labadee that we didn’t partake that you should preview before you go (a roller coaster, a slide, zip lines, hiking path, sip and paint, etc.) so just remember you do not only have to do a beach day.
Overall a great cruise on a more “traditional” cruise ship. You won’t get all the bells and whistles on this ship but as long as you know you are getting a more traditional cruise experience when you book this ship, you are not going to be disappointed with what the Jewel has to offer. If you have a chance to go to the ABC islands (Southern Caribbean) I highly recommend them.
