I booked a cruise and didn't care which ship it was on - here's why I won't do it again

When booking a cruise, typically one of the most important considerations is deciding which cruise ship you want to sail on.

Each cruise line has a wide range of ships to choose from, each with their own unique amenities and features. For example, newer ships tend to feel like floating resorts with tons to do while older ships are smaller and offer a more traditional approach to cruising. Sailing on a brand-new ship is entirely different than cruising on a 20-year-old cruise ship.

Because of this, we normally encourage all prospective cruisers to research thoroughly which cruise ship they want to sail on. Different cruise ships can certainly provide drastically different onboard experiences. This can lead to disappointment if you have certain cruise vacation expectations that aren’t met because of the ship you chose to sail on.

Unsurprisingly, your budget can also play a huge role in the booking process. Newer cruise ships with more luxury cruise lines will be inherently more expensive than an older ship sailing for a mainstream cruise line. Even if you want to sail on the latest and greatest ship, your budget might not allow this.

Well, I threw all of this logic out the window when booking my recent European cruise! I booked a cruise for $3,000 and didn’t care about which ship it was on.

Here’s what my experience was like - and why I will not be doing this again.

Back in October, I booked a 12-night sailing to Iceland for this summer on Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas, which is one of the the cruise line’s oldest ships.

Although Royal Caribbean is known as the most innovative cruise line in the world, the company still sails quite a few smaller, older vessels. Jewel of the Seas is one of these cruise ships, as it was built in 2004, making it almost 20-years-old.

As a stark contrast from their newest mega-ships, the Radiance class of cruise ships is the second oldest in Royal Caribbean’s fleet. The smaller cruise ship holds just 2,500 passengers at capacity, making it more intimate. There isn’t much room for bells and whistles onboard.

Jewel of the Seas is radically smaller than Royal Caribbean’s newest ships, which are among the biggest cruise ships in the world. Take for example the new Icon of the Seas (launching next year for Royal Caribbean), which can hold 7,600 passengers at maximum capacity.

You won’t find any major onboard thrills when cruising on a Radiance class ship. Instead, you’ll have a more traditional, relaxing cruise experience where you can truly connect with the sea.

We booked this cruise almost exclusively because of the itinerary to Iceland and sailing date.

My husband and I have been wanting to cruise to Iceland for a while. As someone who loves European cruises, this was at the very top of our bucket list! We needed to sail in June to fit our work schedules, which limited down the search.

When we started looking at itineraries for this summer, we found that multiple cruise lines sailed to Iceland in the summer. Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Norwegian each offered sailings to Iceland during the timeframe we were looking at.

My top choice was Norwegian Prima, the newest ship for the cruise line, which had an incredible sailing from Iceland to London with stops in Norway, Amsterdam and Belgium. This was a dream. But, the kicker was that this sailing cost nearly $7,000 for an inside cabin guarantee!

Similarly, Celebrity Cruises had a 12-night sailing from Amsterdam to Iceland onboard Celebrity Apex, which is one of the cruise line’s newest ships. This was approximately the same cost, around $6,500 for an inside cabin guarantee.

As much as I wanted to book one of these itineraries, we just couldn’t justify these prices for inside cabins, especially guarantee staterooms. While sailing on a newer and more luxurious ship would be incredible, these prices felt unjustified. Also, we would need to fly to Europe and budget for these expensive flights too.

More fitting to our budget was an Iceland cruise from Amsterdam onboard Jewel of the Seas, costing $2,700 for an inside cabin guarantee.

This price point fit our budget more appropriately and even included $200 onboard credit. Since we have loyalty status with Royal Caribbean (i.e. daily free drink vouchers - very lucrative), this was the best choice for our vacation.

The other options from Norwegian Cruise Line and Celebrity Cruises were double the cost! Essentially, we didn’t care about which ship we were sailing on, as visiting Iceland was our top priority. The sailing date was perfect for our schedule as well. On top of it all, the cruise left from Amsterdam, which is one of the cities we’ve been dying to visit.

As the date neared, we were actually able to upgrade our stateroom to a balcony guarantee for just $300. This small up charge felt worthwhile since our itinerary would have some beautiful scenery.

We knew Jewel of the Seas was nearly 20 years old, but figured that we would be spending most of our time exploring Iceland. However, our itinerary had four sea days, so we would still have ample time onboard.

Although we spent most of our cruise ashore in Iceland, we were pretty surprised by the ship’s overall condition.

Sailing on an old cruise ship does not necessarily mean that it will be rundown and outdated. In fact, some cruise lines do an excellent job of keeping their older ships feeling fresh and up-to-date. I thought my expectations were realistic set, as we knew the ship was almost 20 years old. I had sailed on other Radiance class ships, so I figured nothing would surprise me.

However, once onboard, the conditions were a bit worse than what I had envisioned. It was pretty evident that Royal Caribbean has not given Jewel of the Seas any TLC in recent years. 

My husband and I agreed that the ship needed a major facelift. It appears that Jewel of the Seas hasn’t been refurbished since 2016, which aligns with what we saw onboard.

For example, the first morning that I went to grab a latte at the coffee shop, I was shocked to see one of the windows overlooking the walking path was completely shattered! I’ve never seen this on a cruise ship before.

This feels like it would be a top priority for maintenance, although I assume it was not a safety hazard since it was left untouched and broken.

Our balcony stateroom also looked very worn, tired and outdated with lots of visible rust.

Again, I didn’t expect our balcony stateroom to be modern by any means. But, our cabin looked more worn and tired than I expected. The drawers and small table in our stateroom were very scuffed.

Our balcony itself looked especially worn down. The wooden ledge was so dry that I was worried I would get a splinter if I moved my hands the wrong way!

Because we booked a guarantee cabin, we also didn’t get to pick the location of our stateroom. This is always a gamble - and most of the time, you end up with the bottom-of-the-barrel staterooms. Our stateroom ended up being at the back of the ship with a somewhat partial obstruction with plenty of rust visible.

This wasn’t a big deal to us, as the cruise was still half the cost of anything else we had considered. If we had booked an alternative sailing on Celebrity or Norwegian, we would not have been able to afford a balcony stateroom.

Regardless, we absolutely loved having a balcony because the scenery in Iceland was unbelievable stunning. Being able to wake up and see the scenery right from our bed was unparalleled. We enjoyed room service on our balcony in the mornings as the ship sailed into port. Even with the rust and worn down stateroom, we totally enjoyed having our own private balcony.

Most importantly, Jewel of the Seas also lacked dining options, whereas newer ships tend to have a multitude of eateries.

One of our favorite parts of cruising is enjoying all of the delicious cuisine onboard, as we love the culinary cruising experience. Newer cruise ships have expanded the onboard food scene to include so many options for dining, from complimentary to specialty dining. Many cruise lines continue to reinvent dining options onboard with more places to eat than you can imagine.

When booking our Iceland cruise, we knew that Jewel of the Seas didn’t have many dining options. But, I didn’t expect this to be one of the most disappointing aspects of sailing on one of Royal Caribbean’s older ships.

For example, there was only one small cafe open for complimentary food between 3pm-6pm each day. A small selection of sandwiches were available here, including soggy salad and stale cookies. After a long day exploring in port, it would have been really nice to be able to have a decent meal upon returning to the ship.

Older ships rely heavily on a buffet and main dining room for complimentary dining, which was the case on our cruise.

During our cruise, the buffet was jam packed every single meal. While I do not mind the buffet food on Royal Caribbean by any means, it took us about 15 minutes each morning to find a table and grab our food. When trying to rush out the door to make an excursion, we simply didn’t have time for this. Additionally, there was only one spot onboard for specialty coffee, which led to long lines each morning as well.

In anticipation of the dining selection, we booked a few evenings in the specialty restaurants, including the steakhouse, Italian grill and sushi restaurant. We also booked Chef’s Table halfway between our sailing to have a special, unique experience.

During our cruise, the specialty restaurants were the highlights of our dining experiences. I was able to prebook a dining package for us to enjoy, and this was absolutely worth it. We also utilized our loyalty status perks to receive discounts in the specialty restaurants as well.

Had we booked a newer cruise ship, there certainly would have been more dining options onboard that we probably wouldn’t have felt the need to go to specialty restaurants. Since this is one of our favorite aspects of cruising, spending a bit more to sail on a ship with more dining options will be a priority in the future.

Entertainment on Jewel of the Seas was limited and we didn’t spend much of our evenings enjoying production shows.

After sailing on many newer cruise ships recently, I’ve seen some incredible production shows, such as full-length Broadway musicals and ice skating spectacles. Smaller and older cruise ships tend to have limited entertainment other than one main production show each night. On the other hand, newer cruise ships showcase the best of the best when it comes to entertainment.

For example, Celebrity Apex and Norwegian Prima each have world-class entertainment onboard because these are two of the newest vessels from the cruise line.

Although this itinerary was extremely port-intensive, I underestimated how much I would miss seeing dazzling entertainment each night. This is truly the perfect way to spend your evenings onboard. We only attended two of the shows on Jewel of the Seas - as the other shows didn’t appeal to us.

While I didn’t think I would care about the cruise ship we sailed on, I missed having newer amenities and options for the onboard experience.

Sometimes the reality of our vacation doesn’t always align with our expectations. Although I’ve sailed on plenty of older and smaller cruise ships, I was a bit disappointed that Royal Caribbean has not attempted to update Jewel of the Seas at all.

To start, the addition of a few more complimentary, quick dining options would greatly improve the dining experience onboard. Having such limited options creates congestion in the open venues and lacks some necessary variety. I’d love to see a pizza place, such as Royal Caribbean’s signature Sorrento’s Pizza, be added to this ship.

I also missed having those big, glitzy kind of entertainment shows. Even though our itinerary was very port-intensive, we still spent 12 nights onboard. A newer ship fits this bill better, as cruise lines tend to have the best of the best with entertainment on their newest vessels.

Both the ship and the cabins could get some major TLC, such as fixing the shattered windows and refinishing the balconies. However, these are cosmetics complains that certainly didn’t tarnish our cruising experience. But, it was a notable difference than other ships I’ve sailed on.

Regardless, we had a great cruise that was intently focused on our time in Iceland, which was fabulous. We viewed the cruise ship itself as a means to an end - a cozy place to return to each evening. Jewel of the Seas was the perfect spot to sleep and eat while being conveniently transported around the magical country of Iceland.

In the future, I won’t hesitate to spend a bit more to sail on an arguably better cruise ship, especially with Royal Caribbean. Even on a port-intensive itinerary, you are still spending quite a bit of time onboard the ship, which should not be forgotten.