The best holiday we have ever had in our entire lives!It was on our first ever cruise on a 6 star floating hotel.We chose the baltic 12nt cruise onboard the amazing Jewel of the seas.I had the best ever time onboard the time you was never bored! Joff Eaton the cruise Director was so funny and made it fun for all ages onboard. At the end of the cruise onboard this outstanding ship nobody on the ship wanted to get off. Everbody had an Experience of a life time!

Our cruise was on the whole a good experience with a number of positive points.
The accommodation on deck 8 with a balcony was very good, with good use of space. The room was very clean and the staff were helpful and courteous. The air conditioning and heating was a good system and comfortable. The 24 hour room service was good and there was no charge for this service. The ship is very impressive and beautiful.
The Windjammer Café has a good selection of food. We used it mainly for breakfast and lunch, however it was very busy (a bit too crowded)and disorganised, we had to find our own table as the staff were mainly clearing tables, although the staff were pleasant.
The Library was barely existent, very small and catered mainly for American tastes; we would recommend you take your own books on Royal Caribbean Ships.
Of the main dining the Tide restaurant was of reasonable quality, although often the meals lacked flavour and some meals were not cooked properly. The coffee was also poor in taste; not fine dining We had two very good waiters who were very efficient and helpful.
The main show of the evening was very good most times, although we felt the overuse of strobe and pyrotechnic lighting made the pleasure of watching the acts uncomfortable.
There was too much emphasis on shopping and not enough information on the ports of call with places to see. As for the map provided for going off ship; we found them useless. We would recommend you take your own maps of ports of call.
We felt that the cruise lacked entertaining and informative lectures, although there were events going on during the day but were not to our taste.
One point to note, beware of the hidden charges, i.e. shuttle bus to the city centres.

This is my third time with Royal Caribbean, everything was excellent. Highly recommend the Panama Canal cruise. Entertainment on board was the best.

Royal Caribbean Block Bookings.
My husband and I boarded the Jewel of the seas for a 6 night W/Caribbean cruise on the 25th November 2007 and got a shock when we discovered there was a block booking on this cruise by the "Pied Piper" of approx 900 members. This is approx half of the ships passengers.

The "Pied Piper Group" are same sex couples predominantly male gentlemen aged between 45 to 75.

Such a large group of people do not blend-in well on board a ship. Public areas become over crowded because as you would expect the group members congregate on mass and and overwhelm the other passengers.

Since our return we have made enquires and been told by Royal Caribbean that the "Pied Piper" are regular customers on many of thier ships so our encounter was by no means unusual.

The most alarming point is that Royal Caribbean say that block bookings of this number and even larger numbers are not unusual, and that, thier Company Policy is not to inform thier customers of large block bookings in advance.

We would not have booked that week on that ship if we had been aware of a block booking of this number.

So beware if you choose to book with Royal Caribbean, it would be a good idea to ask about block bookings in advance or who knows what you may encounter.

Once your board it's too late, they have your money and if you encounter a large group travelling together as we did, you will be made to feel like a second-class citizen but you wull have paid a high price for the experience.

Cruised in February 2007 to Eastern Caribbean -Everything about this ship was fantastic from the staff to the design, lighting and general atmosphere. The staff were truly fantastic wanted to take a couple home with us ! Nothing was too much trouble and everyone seemed to be smiling all the time. Our waiter at dinner made meals a really pleasant experience and they work very hard the show put on by the waiters one night was really brilliant.It was my first cruise and wasnt too sure what to expect but it more than met my expectations and that of all our party. At times you hardly knew you were on a ship it was that smooth which apparently has something to do with engine design which is one of only 12 ships on the seas with that design which we learnt from the captain during his welcome speech. Went with Princess cruises last year on Emerald Princess and although a brand new ship it did not come close to RCI's Jewel of the Seas - just wish the Jewel did the Med as we would all happily book another if she did although we may be tempted to do the Caribbean again at some point in the future.

We have just got back from a 8 night Caribbean Cruise, visiting Puerto Rico, St Maarten, Antigua, St Thomas and Nassau - Bahamas.
Having cruised with Royal Caribbean before (7 night Med cruise on Brilliance of the Seas) we knew what to expect from the ship and we were not disappointed. The cleanliness of the ship is first class as is the food and crew.
Our stateroom was always kept spotless by Floydd our stateroom attendant, he made fantastic animals out of towels that sat on our bed each night when we returned to our stateroom. The only small problem we had is that our toilet would not flush a couple of times but Floydd was on the case in quick time.
Our meals in Tides each night were fantastic all meals were cooked to perfection exactly how you order them. Our waiter was Bruno from India and nothing was too much trouble for him he always had a smile on his face and provided us with information about our next port of call and times of arrival and departure.
The crew in the bars are very hard working and always ready for a chat, Odo from Uragauy was great fun as was Florin from Romania with his "Yummy Yummy" cocktails.
The entertaimant in the Coral Theatre was ok, as the ship had mostly American passengers on board their taste was catered for and the artists they had performing we had never heard of and were not that great, but the shows the ships performers put on were fantastic.
We were at sea for 2 days but found plenty to do with rock climbing,mini golf, cinema, mini golf, flumes,swimming,spa, to name just a few.
One tip I would give is if you are planning on buying items like cameras, IPODs, PSP, camcorders, do not buy in the Caribbean even though they are a lot cheaper than the UK they are cheaper in Miami.
A fantastic cruise from a great cruise line I would not hesitate to cruise with them again and I am in fact looking to cruise with them in 2008.
Make sure you join the Crown and Anchor society, this was our 2nd cruise with Royal Caribbean and we got some great gifts in our room.

Just returned from a Baltics cruise on the Jewel. I used to work on cruise ships so I know good from bad when I see it and I have to say this is the most sensational ship I have ever seen or sailed on. The vessel design and facilities were outstanding, the crew bent over backwards to be helpful and the 'animals made from towels' that adorned our bed most evenings and the 'mental puzzles' set by our waiter during coffee after dinner just added to the fun. My wife is generally a terrible sailor but the vessel was so stable, even in slightly choppy seas on the last day that she survived with no problems whatsoever!

We did the Baltic cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it. The ship is beautiful, decor, cleanliness, service etc, but a little too big for our liking! Deck space is more than adequate - tho' temperatures in the Baltic in June were not particularly conducive to lounging round the pool - in fact only 1 day out of the 12 was warm enough for this! The "covered" pool was always crowded because of this!
Being "Brits" we were definitely in the minority on this ship - it was a veritable "League of Nations" with a dominance of Americans, but also Canadian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, German,Spanish, South American, - and even a group of Gibraltarians! We reckon the Brits, much to our surprise with a Harwich departure, were only about 15% of the passenger list!
Also, as the principal currency on board was the US$ we always had to take a "double whamee" on rates of exchange for ports of call - English £ to US$ to whichever currency was required. We felt we lost out on this every time! Even the cash machine on board was in US$.
The organised trips were quite pricey and we did our own thing in Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki and Tallinn (very easy!) and only took tours in St Petersburg because of the Visa situation (they were, however, well worth the money.
Our criticism of the entertainment was that it was very "American" orientated and not our style.
From the point of view of "ambiance" of the ship, decor, facilities, ports of call etc we would have no problems with sailing on her again, or on any of her sister ships - but they just seem to be getting bigger!!! Is this a good thing?

The ship was absolutely fabulous, food excellent, entertainment excellent, staff great. The only thing that I could say I didn't like was the in your face with the gratuities, from day one to day twelve, on the TV, over the tannoy all the time.