Review: Royal Caribbean - Jewel of the Seas - [October 12 , 2005]

[Net Reviews]

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Reviewer Comments:

Royal Carribean¹s Jewel of the Seas - October 12-22, 2005

This was the 7th cruise for my husband and I (both in our late
40¹s). IT was our second RCCL cruise, both on the JOTS.

Embarkation: We arrived at the Black Falcon Terminal in Boston at
12:45. There were not enough porters at the curb area, for all the
people so my husband dropped me off with the luggage. I was still there
waiting for a porter when he returned, so we brought our luggage into
the terminal ourselves and quickly found a porter to take it. We got
into line at 1PM. We had done all our check-in on line so was able to
get into the ³express² line. It seems everyone had the same idea as
that line was longer than the traditional check-in line. However the
line moved very fast and we were at the check-in desk in 10 minutes. A
quick check of the passports and credit card and to the ship we went!!!

Cabin: Okay, here¹s where the fun begins!!! We had booked our cruise
last year while on the Jewel of the Seas repositioning cruise. We chose
to cruise the JOTS again because of the itinerary (we wanted to go to
Bermuda) and the fact that it was a round trip cruise from Boston. We
were able to book an aft cabin and were able to pick which cabin we
wanted.

I asked at the time of booking if RCCL would ask us ahead of time
should they want to upgrade us. We were told that since we had booked
an aft cabin that we would not be upgraded or have our cabin changed
without first being asked.

So, our cruise documents list the cabin we booked as well as our
luggage tags, and nothing was said to us at time of check in so off we
traipsed to the back of the ship to check out our balcony cabin. We
arrive, but our keys will not open the door. We try both keys every
which way, but no go. No room stewards in sight, so we schlep down to
guest relations and tell them our keys won¹t work. They look us up in
the computer, and low and behold we have been upgraded... to a junior
suite at the corner back of the ship. Wowee!! we are thrilled. So we
take our new keys go back up to deck 10, drag our carry-ons to the back
of the ship (again) and get to our new room....1100. This time our key
opens the door in one swipe. My husband swings open the door and
exclaims: ³Wow, look at the size of this room². I look inside and
immediately my eye goes to a pair of men¹s black trousers hung over the
back of a chair, my eye scans the room and sees feet on the bottom of
³our bed² ( only the end of the bed is visible from the door). ³There¹s
someone in our bed² I tell my husband. We say, sorry and close the door
and hike it back to the guest relations desk.

Hi, yes us again. The new room you gave us is lovely, but there
is someone in our bed. Well they are as flabbergasted as we are and can
not figure out how this has possibly happened. We have to wait to talk
to the supervisor of guest relations. We finally have our turn and he
can not figure out what happened. He checks the computer and checks
again and says, yes that is your room. Well there is someone in our
room we tell him. He keeps checking and then goes out back to make some
phone calls. In the meantime a couple comes to the desk, goes to the
window next to ours and start complaining that some one just came into
their room while they were napping and when they went out and checked
their keys, they didn¹t work. I tap them on the shoulder and
say...²That couple would be us².

So it turns out when they arrived at their room the room steward
was just finishing and let them in without checking their keys, (which
said their names and 1100 on them, just as our keys had our original
room # and names on them). So the people who are in our room are
informed they are in the wrong room and they have been upgraded to a
grand suite. The Guest relations manager tells them they should get
their things and move to their new room so we can settle into ours.
Whoa wait a minute says the man, what if we don¹t want to move? He
starts getting upset. They too had booked their cabin over a year ago.
They wanted the corner cabin/balcony and they do not want to move.
Well, the manager tells them, you have no choice, you are in these
people¹s room (pointing to us) and you have to move. At this point we
speak up and say, listen, we don¹t want to make these people move if
they don¹t want to. We¹ll take their cabin and they can stay in the one
they booked. Well, after some more discussion the couple decides they
will look at the new room and then decide. The manager does not want
them to do this, but they finally agree that that is what will happen.
So we wait off to the side of the desk for what seemed like forever (it
was probably only 15 minutes!!), while they went to the room and checked
it out. While they are gone the manager says, I apologize for those
people¹s attitude, he can¹t understand why they are complaining about
the upgrade, this should not be happening etc. We tell him we agree,
this should not be happening, but we agree with the couple, what was
RCCL thinking when they rearranged everyone and forgot to tell us??? We
too had booked a specific cabin. They took our deposit 1 year ago and
promised us our original room, now we don¹t have it. Well, he does¹t
know what to say about that.

So the other couple finally returns and no, they do not want the
new room. they want their original booking. The couple is apologizing
to us, ³Are you sure it¹s ok if we keep our room² Yes, we assure them,
it will be fine. At this point we just want a room. We are tired and
we want to get settled. So, new keys are made all around and off we
go. The other couple follows us down to our room to make sure we are
happy with it. We assure them it is fine. They go off, and we take in
the grandness of our new room. It is fantastic, spacious and
luxurious...and it comes with a concierge...we don¹t even know what that
is, but we¹ll find out!!! Our bathroom has 2 sinks, and a tub!!! and
is large!!! Three or four people could be in there at the same time!!!
The room has a DVD player, CD player, TV, couch, 2 chairs, 3 closets, a
marble bar, small fridge, marble foyer area, and large vanity/desk area.
The balcony is oversized and has two chairs and a table, as well as a
3/4 lounge chair.

We have a letter in our room explaining that we are ³Concierge Club
Guests². This is because we are in a grand suite (see part 1 for the
story!!!). This entitles us to use of the concierge lounge, continental
breakfast from 8- 10AM, hors d¹oreuvres from 4:30-7:45PM, assistance
with reservations for the spa and specialty restaurants, assistance with
shore excursion reservations, priority tender tickets, DVD¹s and CD¹s
available for use, and a complimentary bar set-up from 4:30-7:45 PM.

We have always booked an inside cabin. We have been upgraded twice
to outside cabins. Because we were celebrating our anniversary, we
decided to book a balcony cabin. For all those people who say they book
an inside cabin because they are never in their cabin...I used to agree.
Now that we have had a large spacious cabin, I have a different opinion.
We spent so much more time in our room this trip. It was a fabulous
place to spend time relaxing and reading. We thoroughly enjoyed having
a balcony. We spent a lot of relaxing time there. We had evening
drinks each night out there (which we got in the concierge lounge and
brought back to our room!!!) and enjoyed watching the ship arrive and
leave ports from the balcony. We watched a few DVD¹s in our room. The
ship did not have a huge selection, but a few that we had wanted to see.
We rarely watch movies at home, so that was a treat. So, now we are
spoiled!!! We will have a hard time booking an inside cabin now that
we¹ve had a balcony. We booked a cruise for January 2007, an aft
corner balcony cabin. We did price the grand suite for our next
cruise, but we will have to hope for an upgrade, because we just can¹t
justify the difference in price!!!

The ship: I love the decor of the Jewel. There are great spaces all
over the ship. The pool area was crowded on sea days, but there were
always chairs available if you didn¹t mind being on the next deck up.
The art work throughout the ship is very interesting and fun.
I found the staff to be friendly and helpful, always with a smile and
hello.

We had very rough seas the first 2 days. Many people were sea-sick.
My husband and I took our Bonine before we sailed and again 24 hours
later and had no problems. The dining room was noticeably empty the
first two nights.

Food on this trip was good. I did notice a decrease in the amount of
items on the menu in comparison to our last years trip, but I also
noticed that the alternative menu items changed each evening and there
seemed to be more choices there. Dinner was good every evening, and I
never had a problem finding something I liked or wanted to try. Our
dinner service in the dining room was the outstanding service I have
come to expect on RCCL. Our waiter and assistant waiter were very
personable and did a great job.

We had breakfast the first day in the dining room. Food was good,
but service a bit slow and drawn out, so we didn¹t eat there for
breakfast again. We ate breakfast in the Windjammer most other
mornings. Selection there was great. They have an egg station where
they will make omelets or regular eggs. The line was often long, but
they changed the way they do things from last year and it went very
fast. We did opt for room service one morning. We hung out menu out on
our door the evening prior and requested a delivery time of 7:30-8:00AM.
We were arriving in Puerto Rico that morning so had a wake-up call
scheduled for 7:15. The phone rang at 6:40Am. When I answered a voice
said ³This is room service. Your food is on it¹s way². I asked what
time it was and was told 6:40. I reminded the caller what time we had
circled and he replied that they had 80 orders for that time frame so
was trying to deliver the food early. I asked that they not bring our
food until 7:30. We received another call at 7:25 and our food was
delivered at 7:30.

We usually ate lunch in the Windjammer buffet and found the
selection fine. We did eat lunch twice in the Seaview cafe¹ and found
that very good.

We had dinner one night in Portifino¹s. We found the service,
food, atmosphere and experience well worth the 20 dollar per person
charge. I would highly recommend eating there.