RCCL Jewel of Seas cruise review Jan 15-22

Jan 26, 2005

We just returned from the eight day sailing on the RCCL Jewel of the
Seas which left Fort Lauderdale on Jan 15th and toured the Eastern
Carribean, so I thought I would share my opinions on the cruise. I'm
limiting my comments to the cruise line experience only and saving
discussion of the ports for another time.

This was only the second RCCL cruise we ( wife and I ) have been on
and the sixth cruise in all that we have taken, but it could be our
last cruise ever due to the experiences last week. I would like to
point out that we are not fussy passengers at all as we have taken
cruises on smaller older ships like the Norwegian Majesty and been
quite satisfied.


The Jewel is a beautiful ship and we were quite impressed with it.

Things we didn't like about this cruise were..

1) The norwalk virus broke out on the Jewel last week. There were 6
total in our group and 4 of us got sick with vomiting and diarrhea. It
was never officially announced that the virus was running onboard but
many other passengers I spoke with also had people in their groups
sick and the ships workers started wearing latex gloves as well as an
announcement on reporting to the ships doctor if you were ill appeared
mid-week.
The news channels did pick up stories of a norwalk virus outbreak on
one of the other RCCL cruise ships at the end of the week, but not the
one on the Jewel which leads me to believe that this is a lot more
common than reported.

2) The ship was fairly crowded last week and the waitstaff was too
slow on getting tables cleared and cleaned in the Windjammer ( buffet
area.) Almost every time we sat we ended up moving dirty plates and
eating on dirty tables.

3) The food in the main dining room was only so-so...not bad but not
great.

4) They advertised scuba excursions on 2 days ( I had hoped for more,)
then they cancelled one which left only one scuba excursion for the
whole week. That was very disappointing to me. The excursion desk
personell didn't seem to care a bit about disappointed customers. The
response we got from the ship cruise director was "People should go to
the Western Carribean cruises if they want scuba diving."


5) They closed the pool in the Solarium several nights even though it
was supposed to be open 24 hours.

6) Getting lounge chairs around the pool was next to impossible. Only
about half of the chairs were being used while the other half were
being reserved!! Even though several announcements were made that
people should not be reserving lounge chairs, they were doing it, and
no-one on the ships staff was trying to curtail it.
My wife was rather upset after meeting an elderly passenger ( stroke
victim) who could not get around in his cart because people were too
rude to allow him room to move about as they were blocking access with
the lounge chairs spread all about. Again, with no order being
maintained by the ships staff, sadly, this is the type of thing that
can be expected.


Things we liked about this cruise were.....

1) Beautiful ship
2) Excellent food in the bistros ( Portofino and Chops)
3) Very nice , good size staterooms


Other comments...
The entertainment ranged from excellent to terrible.
The show group including the singers and dancers were excellent with
some amazing sets that I never would have expected to see on a cruise
ship.
They had a few entertainers on board who were avaerage and a few who
were really so bad that they were difficult to watch, but perhaps some
of that is a matter of preference.

For our next vacation we plan on renting a place in Bermuda and
avoiding the cruise ships.

John Chaplain
Stoneham, MA

In article , JohnC
wrote:

For our next vacation we plan on renting a place in Bermuda and
avoiding the cruise ships.

Thank you for the review. I gather that the Norwalk viruses is the
reason you feel this way.

--
Charles

"JohnC" wrote in message
...
Jan 26, 2005

We just returned from the eight day sailing on the RCCL Jewel of the
Seas which left Fort Lauderdale on Jan 15th and toured the Eastern
Carribean, so I thought I would share my opinions on the cruise. I'm
limiting my comments to the cruise line experience only and saving
discussion of the ports for another time.

This was only the second RCCL cruise we ( wife and I ) have been on
and the sixth cruise in all that we have taken, but it could be our
last cruise ever due to the experiences last week. I would like to
point out that we are not fussy passengers at all as we have taken
cruises on smaller older ships like the Norwegian Majesty and been
quite satisfied.


The Jewel is a beautiful ship and we were quite impressed with it.

Things we didn't like about this cruise were..

1) The norwalk virus broke out on the Jewel last week. There were 6
total in our group and 4 of us got sick with vomiting and diarrhea. It
was never officially announced that the virus was running onboard but
many other passengers I spoke with also had people in their groups
sick and the ships workers started wearing latex gloves as well as an
announcement on reporting to the ships doctor if you were ill appeared
mid-week.
The news channels did pick up stories of a norwalk virus outbreak on
one of the other RCCL cruise ships at the end of the week, but not the
one on the Jewel which leads me to believe that this is a lot more
common than reported.


We had a group on the Jewel a few weeks ago. One thing I mentioned to the
receptionist in the buffet dining room was that on the "semi-sister" ship
Constellation (same hull design and same size) they had the hand sanitizers,
but there were none on Jewel. She commented that Constellation is a
different division. Sounds like they should have listened more carefully
when people make comments. Hand sanitizers might have helped.

Sometimes you learn the hard way.

--Tom

We were on grandeur of the seas 1/15/05 til 1/22/05.Had no problems with
the ship,they kept it in great condition. The dancers,and singers were
outstanding,beautiful costumes,and sets.
The entertainers were very good,one juggler comedian,was outstanding,he
was so funny everyone was laughing tears. We met him in the airport on
our way home,and he told us he was on a 2 week vacation,and he lived in
BALTIMORE MD.HE was stranded as were all of us heading for PHILLY.
Food-10 Cabin not overly
large,but very nice,and kept spotless,never had to look for our cabin
steward,he was almost always on hand.
Husband found out you could get 20oz.beers for 4.25+15%gratutity.
Will think about going again,when we get the bad taste out of our mouths
due to U.S.AIR.As an after thought,did not care for cruise
director(DWYANE)
surfer e 2468

Tom,
Interesting, because we just got off the Brilliance and they had the hand
sanitizers that we saw on Constellation.

Jerry
"Tom & Linda" wrote in message
...

"JohnC" wrote in message
...
Jan 26, 2005

We just returned from the eight day sailing on the RCCL Jewel of the
Seas which left Fort Lauderdale on Jan 15th and toured the Eastern
Carribean, so I thought I would share my opinions on the cruise. I'm
limiting my comments to the cruise line experience only and saving
discussion of the ports for another time.

This was only the second RCCL cruise we ( wife and I ) have been on
and the sixth cruise in all that we have taken, but it could be our
last cruise ever due to the experiences last week. I would like to
point out that we are not fussy passengers at all as we have taken
cruises on smaller older ships like the Norwegian Majesty and been
quite satisfied.


The Jewel is a beautiful ship and we were quite impressed with it.

Things we didn't like about this cruise were..

1) The norwalk virus broke out on the Jewel last week. There were 6
total in our group and 4 of us got sick with vomiting and diarrhea. It
was never officially announced that the virus was running onboard but
many other passengers I spoke with also had people in their groups
sick and the ships workers started wearing latex gloves as well as an
announcement on reporting to the ships doctor if you were ill appeared
mid-week.
The news channels did pick up stories of a norwalk virus outbreak on
one of the other RCCL cruise ships at the end of the week, but not the
one on the Jewel which leads me to believe that this is a lot more
common than reported.


We had a group on the Jewel a few weeks ago. One thing I mentioned to the
receptionist in the buffet dining room was that on the "semi-sister" ship
Constellation (same hull design and same size) they had the hand
sanitizers,
but there were none on Jewel. She commented that Constellation is a
different division. Sounds like they should have listened more carefully
when people make comments. Hand sanitizers might have helped.

Sometimes you learn the hard way.

--Tom

"Karen Segboer" wrote in message
...
JohnC wrote:


Things we didn't like about this cruise were..

1) The norwalk virus broke out on the Jewel last week.

Not really the ship's fault, now, was it?


Not having the sanitarly alcohol dispensers at the buffet stations IS the
ship's fault. They had them on Connie and a LOT of people used them.

--Tom

"Karen Segboer" wrote in message
...
"Tom & Linda" wrote:


"Karen Segboer" wrote in message
...
JohnC wrote:


Things we didn't like about this cruise were..

1) The norwalk virus broke out on the Jewel last week.

Not really the ship's fault, now, was it?


Not having the sanitarly alcohol dispensers at the buffet stations IS the
ship's fault. They had them on Connie and a LOT of people used them.

Sorry, Tom, I disagree about this being the ship's fault.

Let me ask you this: What if the ship had the alcohol dispensers out
at the food stations and nobody used them? Or what if the contagious
passengers didn't use them? The ship crew can't play Mom and Dad to
their passengers and make them do something like keep themselves
clean.

Conversely, there are people who always use good common sense and use
very specific health care practices all the time. Their risk of
catching something is less, and they have at least taken the personal
responsibility of trying to stay healthy.


When we were on Connie 2 years ago, Captain Ioannis was very concerned about
Norwalk Virus. He instructed his crew that they were NOT to eat in port.
He said the ship provides meals to them and the only way to bring the virus
on the ship was for someone to be the "carrier". And he didn't want anyone
in the crew to be the one. He can't control the passengers but he can
control the crew... according to him.

If you really pay attention to something you can reduce the chances.

If you ignore it, it can easily increase the chance.

True you can't make the passengers use the sanitizers. But they can't if
the sanitizers aren't there.

On Jewel, there were bathrooms outside the buffet. I would typically go
there the wash my hands before going into the buffet (after touching hand
rails on stairs, etc.). They usually didn't have any paper towels. It was
a high use area, and without towels... who knows what people did.

You can't control the people (can lead a horse to water but can't make him
drink)... but you can give them the tools to give yourself a better chance
of avoiding an outbreak.

To me, that is the ship's fault, not having the dispensers, and not having
enough paper towels in the bathrooms. It's simply a lack of attention to
detail.

--Tom

JohnC wrote:

1) The norwalk virus broke out on the Jewel last week. There were 6
total in our group and 4 of us got sick with vomiting and diarrhea.

That's a drag, but this kind of thing happens. Perhaps the ship could
have taken greater measures to limit passenger exposure, but with that
many people in such close quarters, it's really next to impossible to
prevent the spread of a virus like that. Same thing happens in nursing
homes, schools and daycares.

2) The ship was fairly crowded last week and the waitstaff was too
slow on getting tables cleared and cleaned in the Windjammer ( buffet
area.) Almost every time we sat we ended up moving dirty plates and
eating on dirty tables.

That's not right. I wonder if they were short-handed because many of
the crew were also sick with the Norwalk virus? I guess it's better to
deal with a little mess rather than have sick crew clearing plates and
being in close proximity to passengers?

3) The food in the main dining room was only so-so...not bad but not
great.

I wasn't on the Jewel, but my impression of RCI food is like yours. We
were not impressed. It wasn't bad, but I didn't hear a lot of oohs and
aahs at the dinner table either.

4) They advertised scuba excursions on 2 days ( I had hoped for
more,)
then they cancelled one which left only one scuba excursion for the
whole week. That was very disappointing to me. The excursion desk
personell didn't seem to care a bit about disappointed customers. The
response we got from the ship cruise director was "People should go
to
the Western Carribean cruises if they want scuba diving."

Next time you might want to consider booking your own excursions rather
than depending on the ship's offerings. You'll undoubtedly pay less,
get a more personalized dive and probably have a better time than if
you signed up for a sheeple tour with the ship. Tour operators in port
are very conscious of ship schedules and know their livelihoods depend
on giving cruise passengers a good experience AND getting them back to
the ship on time. Haven't booked any excursions through the cruise line
for my last couple of cruises and really don't think I will in the
future, either. Everything the cruise offers is available privately.

6) Getting lounge chairs around the pool was next to impossible. Only
about half of the chairs were being used while the other half were
being reserved!!

That sucks, doesn't it? Next time, wake up earlier, get out on deck and
claim your space. On sea days, I'm pretty much out there by 9:00am or
so. I'm not a chair saver, but I am a chair user. Only time I vacate is
for potty breaks.

Even on ships were you're, supposedly, responsible for the one and only
beach towel you're issued, people are so willing to leave their towels
unattended.

My wife was rather upset after meeting an elderly passenger ( stroke
victim) who could not get around in his cart because people were too
rude to allow him room to move about as they were blocking access
with
the lounge chairs spread all about.

Well, they cram those chairs in so tight that I really can't blame the
other passengers for wanting to try to spread out a bit, to make some
more room for themselves. I've been in that position myself. I don't
think people were intentionally being rude, were they?

For our next vacation we plan on renting a place in Bermuda and
avoiding the cruise ships.

Have a great time in Bermuda. It's beautiful.
Lee

John Chaplain
Stoneham, MA

Surfer E2468 wrote:

Will think about going again,when we get the bad taste out of our mouths
due to U.S.AIR

Annie,

I know that you had a horrible time getting back to Philly, I also had
a trip home from hell and I was flying on USA3000, not USAir. This
time I have to say that the problem was the blizzard and the fact that
the Philly airport was closed for awhile. When we touched down in
Philly at about 5am sunday, our plane was doing a controlled skid as
it was going towards the terminal. While we were standing still, you
could feel the plane shakinng from the wind. This was a very unusual
situation and I would not blame it on USAir or any other airline.

sue

My wife and I were on the Jan. 15th sailing of the Jewel, and they had
two hand sanitizers, where you enter the Windjammer, in place when we
boarded the ship at about noon on the 15th! They also had one on the
pier when you re-entered at one port. St. Thomas I think. The weather
from Ft. Lauderdale down to San Juan was somewhat rough, and was
complicated by the fact that a crew member had an appendicitis attack,
and an air evacuation was not possible, so it was full throttle to San
Juan. This was announced at dinner, by the captain, so the crew member
had to wait 18 hours to get medical care, and surgery in San Juan. This
is probably the cause of closing the pool in the Solarium. It had 3 to 4
foot waves in it!! The weather also was bad when we first got to St
Thomas, and they canceled our Coral Land and Coral Sea excursion because
of that. You can't hold RCI responsible for the bad weather.

My opinions!!!!
T.R.