Jewel of the Seas - Coming from Disney

My wife and I (both mid 30s), are contemplating going on the Jewel of the Seas for a Southern Caribbean itinerary this fall.

What should our expectations be? We have previously cruised on the Disney Fantasy last year, and will be embarking on the Magic in a month.

I'm wondering the same thing too, we want to do back to back with Disney

I feel like I should answer this question since this was us last October. The problem is, I'm not sure how to answer it...

We're in our late 30's (well, I am; my husband is 41) and have a 7 year old son. Our first cruise was the Magic in May 2012, then we did the Wonder in September 2012, and then the Fantasy in September 2013. We had the Magic booked for the Southern in October of last year, but moved to the Jewel when RCI did the kids sail free. We were sailing with my parents and were able to get a 2-bedroom suite on the Jewel for $2500 less than the 2 rooms on the Magic. Plus we were concierge and had the perks that went with it.

Overall, we had a great cruise but it wasn't the same as Disney. That being said, I'm ok with that. Disney got us hooked on cruising and now we cruise to see places we'd never be able to see otherwise. My mom at one point actually said "there's no wow factor on this cruise". I thought that was amusing since RCI's whole selling point is WOW. The adults had fun in the casino (both my mom and I left with an extra $500 in our pockets!) and the kiddo had a blast in the kids pool and on the kids slide. It's NOTHING like the Aquaduck though! We also found family activities lacking. I think because the Jewel is a smaller ship. But we did enjoy some trivia in the atrium and even went to a talk on Kincaid. We didn't go to any shows, but my folks went to one and said it was great. I later read someone's trip report that said that was the only show worth seeing. Most of the food was good, but nothing was spectacular (in our opinion). We did love having the buffet available for dinner. The pastas at the buffet were always really good.

Our room steward (is that the right word?) was better on Jewel than any we had on DCL. We did have the same servers in the dining room every night we went. There's no "rotational dining" and we sat at the same table every time we were in the dining room. The servers were not as "in your face" as the DCL ones. We like that, but others like to form lasting relationships with their servers. The room, being the 2-bedroom suite, was awesome. Having a separate living room was so nice especially since there were 5 of us in the room.

I think the main thing that clouded our trip was a hurricane caused us to miss St Maarten and we were really looking forward to our excursion there. We also were able to dock at St. Croix but power was out on the island so all excursions were cancelled. We wandered around the port area for a little bit (they had power for some reason) and then got back on the boat. So I think we went on a "port intensive" cruise and ended up with too many sea days. (side note - the captain took us way out of the way of the hurricane and we had the smoothest cruise we've ever been on)

I don't know that my rambling is helping you any. I suppose what you think will depend on what's most important to you. We wanted to be away as a family and to see new ports. Our kiddo still calls it his favorite vacation and I think that's because we spared a room with my parents. I still really want to cruise Disney, but I don't think I can justify the expense any longer. We looked at the Magic to Norway on opening day and it was just over $7000 for 3 of us in a balcony room. We decided to try NCL and have a slightly bigger room, the Ultimate Beverage Package, and the Ultimate Dining Package all for $3300. We're using the difference to go to Disney World in the fall.

If you have any questions, I can try to answer them...

Thank you sooooo much @jenf22 for your reply and @browerjs for your OP. We are HUGE DCL lovers and because of cost and time frame we decided to go on RCI's Southern Caribbean cruise this Dec. too. Right now my family is NOT happy with me but I'm hoping we all still have a good time. They are somewhat excited about being on the boat over NYE but 'it's not Disney' is a comment I hear at least 2x during our planning discussions.

Question @jenf22 Did you all have to show your passports to get off the boat at the ports? We have passport cards and will prob get a book for me and DH but not sure if we want to spend that money on the kids yet since theirs expire so fast. From what I'm reading a full passport is not required to visit the ports but thought I'd ask someone who's actually been

Thanks!

This past summer, the family and I did a B2B on the Jewel down to the Southern Caribbean. Loved the ship and both itineraries. I have not been on a Disney Cruise for years, but I believe you will enjoy it. It is an older ship that is scheduled for dry dock in April of 2016 for "Oasis style updates." So if you are going this fall, you will be able to enjoy the Sea View Café for a late night snack and the self leveling pool tables. It is a smaller, older ship, but kept up very well. The crew is fantastic and with the smaller size, very easy to get to know. The cruise director and Assistant knew us by first name after 3 days. One of the routes is more port intensive than the other, but we enjoyed them both. We were in a superior balcony state room that was just fine for the 3 of us, but please remember that we have been cruising since the early 80s, so we are use to cruising in small cabins. What questions can I answe

Eeyores#1Fan said:

Question @jenf22 Did you all have to show your passports to get off the boat at the ports? We have passport cards and will prob get a book for me and DH but not sure if we want to spend that money on the kids yet since theirs expire so fast. From what I'm reading a full passport is not required to visit the ports but thought I'd ask someone who's actually been

Thanks!

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We only needed our Sea Pass Card and picture ID

True, the Jewel is an older ship with less "built in" activities than ships like those of DCL. However, Fun and "WOW" comes in many different forms. Thanks to the cruise staff, we had a blast taking part in the pool side activities during the day as well as the activities in the various venues at night. We had a hard time getting from one event to another on time. Late night in the Schooner Piano bar was fantastic, and we are not big alcoholic drinkers. Sometimes it is a blast just watching (The Quest and Love and Marriage game shows come to mind). Also remember that this cruise is very port intensive. One route has only one day at sea, while the other has two.

Thanks for the info. We are still trying to decide what we want to do, but are finding that it's very difficult to pull the trigger. If we were taking the kids I'd have no problem trying out one of the bigger ships with the Dreamworks theme, but because this is a smaller/older ship I'm hesitant.

Eeyores#1Fan said:

Question @jenf22 Did you all have to show your passports to get off the boat at the ports? We have passport cards and will prob get a book for me and DH but not sure if we want to spend that money on the kids yet since theirs expire so fast. From what I'm reading a full passport is not required to visit the ports but thought I'd ask someone who's actually been

Thanks!

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We did have passports, but only showed them when we checked in. To get on and off the ship we just needed our Sea Pass card and ID. The only time we needed to show passports on a cruise was in Alaska. We were on an excursion that went into the Yukon Territory of Canada. On the way back to Alaska, someone boarded the bus and checked all our passports.

browerjs said:

Thanks for the info. We are still trying to decide what we want to do, but are finding that it's very difficult to pull the trigger. If we were taking the kids I'd have no problem trying out one of the bigger ships with the Dreamworks theme, but because this is a smaller/older ship I'm hesitant.

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For me that would make the decision easier. If you're not taking the kids, I think you should definitely try the Jewel. It seemed like there was enough adult activities, just not as many family oriented ones. Best of luck in your decision.

We were on the Jewel last year with our 2 year old son. Although it is a smaller ship and older still plenty to keep him busy. There seemed to be plenty of activities for older kids as well. We have sailed on an RCCL ship every year for the past 6 or 7 years and they have all been great. We have never been on a Disney cruise so I do not know how to compare them. Keep in mind from what I usually here from other Disney cruisers is that by losing some of the "WoW" factor on Disney allows for a little slower pace on the RCCL ships. The "Big" RCCL ships are full of games, activities and shows that would rival the Disney cruise ships and still at a huge discount from what we see the Disney prices at. If you are looking for a little more relaxed time and if you are bringing kids, they will still have a great time, then the RCCL ships are a great choice. I think the Jewel will be a little bit of a let down to a kid who has been on a Disney cruise but they will still find plenty of activities.

browerjs said:

. . . contemplating going on the Jewel of the Seas

What should our expectations be? We have previously cruised on the Disney Fantasy

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We've sailed on the Jewel of the Seas and on the Disney Fantasy, and enjoyed both.

I would just be careful when comparing DCL's newest ship to one of RCI's older ships.

Woody

Eeyores#1Fan said:

Question @jenf22 Did you all have to show your passports to get off the boat at the ports? We have passport cards and will prob get a book for me and DH but not sure if we want to spend that money on the kids yet since theirs expire so fast. From what I'm reading a full passport is not required to visit the ports but thought I'd ask someone who's actually been

Thanks!

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If it's a closed-loop cruise in the Caribbean, you won't need the passports. (there is one island that has an excursion to ANOTHER island and for that you need a passport, but I think you would know if you were doing that one) To get *back* on the ship adults need gov't issued photo ID and their seapass card. Kids need the seapass.

That said, IF there's a very unlikely event and you have to fly home, you will have to get the passport books. That will mean expense and time in a bureaucrat's office instead of just getting on a plane. Very unlikely.

browerjs said:

If we were taking the kids I'd have no problem trying out one of the bigger ships with the Dreamworks theme

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Why not hit a bigger ship anyway? I have nothing against the Radiance class; we currently have a cruise booked ON Radiance. But if you're interested in something like Freedom, why not go for that? I promise the Dreamworks thing, except for (I think) the LAST night isn't overstated at all. Half hour meet&greets, a character breakfast you have to pay for...that's about it. But then you get the big ship, and it sounds like you want the big ship?

woody73 said:

I would just be careful when comparing DCL's newest ship to one of RCI's older ships.

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Great point.

We went Vision then Dream concierge back to back, and it was just too different. At the time we thought "drat, we like Dream better", but after some time and sleep we honed in on what exactly was making us feel that way. Because almost everything about Vision (smaller and older than Radiance class) was terrific, and Dream was Dream was Dream.

We sailed the Magic last fall on the SC itinerary. Honestly, if I had to do it over again (and I would go back to the SC in a heartbeat), I would choose a different line. Disney was wonderful, don't get me wrong. But the price of the cruise, combined with our airfare to Puerto Rico, combined with a 1 night stay in PR before, etc. . . was very expensive.

The itinerary was so port-intensive, I felt we didn't really enjoy the Disney aspect of the cruise as much. If we would have had less than 5 islands, it would have made more sense to book Disney. We did an independent excursion on every island so were gone most of the days. We didn't get to do as much on the ship as we wanted to.

I think it really depends on how port-intensive your cruise would be. YMMV