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SCANDINAVIA AND THE BALTICS - JEWEL OF THE SEAS |
| Reviewed By: Hart, Chertsey on 19th Jun 2008 |
| Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean Cruises |
Times cruised before: 1-2 |
| Cruise Ship: Jewel of the Seas |
Sailed:
June,
2008 |
| Destination: Scandinavia |
Age: 56-65 |
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We have just returned from a cruise with Royal Carribean on the Jewel of the Seas - to Scandinavia and the Baltics. We sailed from Harwich. The whole process of parking and boarding was very speedy and excellent. We arrived early and were allowed to board immediately. We were pleasantly surprised to be told that we had been given a free upgrade. We had booked a cabin with a balcony but the cabin we were given was much more spacious and we had a larger balcony. The food on the ship was great and we dined in the main restaurant every night and ate in the Windjammer (self service) at breakfast and lunch (when we were on board). A jewel we found was the Seafood shack which is up on deck 12. The clam chowder (which is served in a very large bread roll with the inside scooped out) was delicious as was the other seafood on the menu. The best time to go is after 2pm as it is quite a small place and gets packed. The service throughout the ship was excellent. Our waiters at dinner were great, they taught us how to fold napkins in various styles and the assistant waiter was very good at magic tricks. Nothing was too much trouble - you only had to ask and you got. One of the party on our table (there were 11 of us) asked if we could have a baked souffle for our sweet. The next evening we were served with souffles made just for our table and had clearly come straight from the oven. There is a very good feel on the ship - it is a happy ship, mainly because the staff all seem to be happy in their work. The entertainment was very good and we had a different kind of show every night. We only went on the excursions in St Petersburg as we like to do our own thing but you cannot get off the ship in Russia unless you go on a tour or get your own visa before leaving UK. The St Petersburg excursions were fine although it was very difficult to decide which ones to go on as there are so many to choose from. We did two full days and were pretty tired at the end of it as we had lost 3 hours in time difference by then and on both days the departure for the excursions were before 8 am. A stateroom attendant was from Bulgaria and was delightful. The staff are all different nationalities, East Europeans, Phillipines, Goa. The nice thing is that on their name badges they had their country of origin so we all new where they came from. Our waiters were from the Phillipines. The only downside was that there were not many activities on board - there were 2015 passengers and things got a bit crowded if there was something on that was very popular. One thing that was missing was Afternoon English Tea. The cruiseline is American but the English outnumbered the Americans and I think it would have been nice to cater for the English passengers as well. There were plenty of American dishes to choose eg hotdogs, burgers etc if you felt inclined (as well as normal food) but a nice Afternoon tea would have been popular. We met a Canadian in Helsinki who told us that he was cruising with Oceana and the highlight of their day was the English Afternoon tea! When we arrived back in Harwich the whole process of disembarkation was excellent - we previously cruised with P&O and that had taken much longer.
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| Quality of Food |  |
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| | Staff | |
| our waiters and also our stateroom attendant. We also had some photographs taken by a lady photographer and they were much the best. She took a lot of care in making sure you were relaxed and checked that you were standing in the best way etc. | | Children's Facilities | n/a |
| | Onboard Activities |  |
| Not enough activities | | Cabins | |
| we were given a free upgrade and so were very pleased! | | Overall Rating | |
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