Fastfox

My husband asked for doubles on the Jewel last week and was denyed more than 50% of the time.

Just a heads up, I was just on the Jewel and many of the wines weren't available. In Vintages, the bartenders said there was no point in looking at the list because they didn't have many of the wines. Similarly in the MDR. By day 9 of 12 day trip, they had run out of my preferred options and replacements were very challenging to find.

Thank you. I figure there's no point to be bitter over the trip as many of my complaints were out of RC's control. They refunded the wifi cost so there's that. I will know not to booked that suite on that ship if I am ever on the Jewel again (though I heard a rumour that it's going to be retired soon, the accuracy of that rumour could be low)

Basically anything that required trained staff or additional products. The upcharge was understandable but the entertainment option list appeared to be much shorter than on previous cruises. Which meant sifting through all the wine tastings, spa events and similar. Once all those were removed, there wasn't much left - trivia was frequent, sometimes there were 3-4 of those per day. If one hated trivia games, the list became shorter still! I get that it's a smaller ship that wasn't totally full, just a bit more variety would have been nice. Especially on an itinerary with 4 sea days in a cooler temperature area. The pool and pool area pretty empty most days but the hot tubs full. Mixing up the movies in the cinema over the 12 days would have been good too. They would run the movie several times over the day as opposed to rotating a few titles per day. I wanted to see one title but it was only played the day I was on an 8 hour excursion. At least I got to see it on the plane home.

Long time reader, first time topic poster. Trip included a night in Amsterdam pre cruise and 3 nights afterwards. Got home last night. I don't normally comment on my trips and this is not my first cruise nor first pandemic cruise. Was on another cruise last November on a different line and pre Omicron variant. Notes - this was a replacement cruise using a FCC from 2020, stayed in a grand suite with an internet/deluxe beverage pkg added. Let's start with the good: the staff was great for the most part and trying their best to assist within the current limitations (some to be noted in the bad list) checkin and disembarkment was efficient the ship, while showing it's age, was clean and in fairly good repair the excursions well planned and run smoothly by the tour operators The bad: the internet was just awful for a paid service which made it challenging at times to keep in touch with our cruise companions the food, while fresh, was mediocre at best. We ate breakfast at Chops as the breakfast buffet was the most disappointing meal. But even the food in Chops or the MDR was just okay. Learned quickly to go with the waiter's suggestions but those were sometimes not that good. Sometimes other entrees were ordered, other times considered it to be 'calorie saving'. We did not go to any of the specialty restaurants as the upgrade charge didn't seem worth the extra cost. Steaks from Chops were ordered in the MDR one night, still not worth the extra. the drink package, my other half got his money's worth but I found it challenging especially as they started running out of the good wine by the glass options. And paying extra wasn't worth it. Twice I paid more to find out that the bottle had been opened several days previous and now was vinegar. I did splurge for a bottle one night but with so many wine by the glass options out of stock, the manager should have moved more bottle wines to the 'by the glass' options. The staff was helpful with choosing but they didn't have many ways to fix the issue. Oh, advice here meant we had a fridge full of water! lol the 'perks' of a suite were so not worth the extra money. The concierge lounge snacks also not great but the staff, as above, was wonderful. The grand suite layout has so much wasted space, a curtain that doesn't totally block off the bed area and boy is that tub wall high! the app didn't refresh information properly. Information and ship time was wrong frequently. With them following the time zones, the time kept changing so it was easy to be off by an hour without knowing until one checked with others. the entertainment was not that good nor were there many options. Many of the options required an extra fee. it seemed like everything was an extra and then not worth the additional cost. Or they tried to keep selling more things (like lotions after a spa treatment) Covid. Separate topic. This cruise was out of Amsterdam and we got tested at the Amsterdam airport just to make sure the timing was correct. I had been checking covid numbers in all destination countries. At the time, covid numbers were rather high in all places especially Iceland. My partner and I had already decided that we would wear masks anywhere that was enclosed especially if it was for a long time ie excursion buses. My US relatives seemed to think I was worrying too much. Well, day 9, one of them had a nasty cough so off to the clinic they went - positive result. Deck 3 quarantine for them. Their cabin mate was tested and was positive on day 11. The cabin mate managed to argue that with just one sea day left, both could be in original cabin until departure. Based on the timing, they likely caught the virus on the first day in Iceland. From the amount of coughing near the end of the cruise, there were many cases on board that weren't tested for and put in quarantine. My relatives said deck 3 was already quite full though! Covid issues aside, which is not within RCs control despite their attempts to keep it in check. I felt a lot of money was spent for the suite upgrade that wasn't worth it. And with the increased cost of the DBP and stocking issues, it would have been better to have not paid for it. Paying for each drink also may have been easier on other half's liver! lol Overall, it felt overpriced for the value and there was upcharge at every corner. I hope things get better as time goes on with more people travelling!