Another Jewel Southern route review, more like a trip report with pictures!

My wife and I (54 and 53) have been holding off doing a Southern Caribbean Cruise out of San Juan till I had 3 weeks of vacation. She has been at her place of employment 34 years so vacation is no problem for her. If I had waited a few weeks I would be 55 and saved some money, but we like to cruise around our anniversary when we can. This is our 2nd time on Jewel so this review will be more about the itinerary than the ship.

To me this trip started when we boarded Allure back on April 28th of 2013. I had picked out the May 3rd 2014 Jewel sailing before boarding and planned on seeing the Loyalty Ambassador on the first sea day. I had already picked the aft cabin to be my first Aft cabin ever. Overall the Loyalty Ambassador did nothing to impress me. I had booked the Allure cruise with the Loyalty Ambassador on Jewel and that was a nicer experience. The sought after cabin was already unavailable, which didn’t surprise me. The LA did suggest a cabin on the hump deck 9 with a very deep balcony. More on that once we get on the ship. Having booked this one a year in advance I was making note to call once a month and check on that cabin. Going back to Allure my roll call there had been “invaded” by the Arizona cruisers. We had a great time and made a dozen or so new friends. One among them decided to take the same cruise as us, so already we knew two people. On the day of the Grandeur fire, it was the day I put on my calendar to call crown and anchor and check on that corner aft. The phone was busy and I knew the operators were busy so I put it off till the next day. Wouldn’t you know it, another of the AZ cruisers decided to join us, and that cabin was now available and they got it that very day! I wish I had known you could be on a waiting list for a particular cabin. Something new I learned. We also have a couple here in Ohio we are friends with and after going on Enchantment they decided to join us as well. This cruise will be the most people on a cruise that I have known before hand.

There ended up being quite a few more from the Arizona cruisers going and they picked out the Tre-Palmas hotel for their pre-cruise stay. I just decided to tag along with them and also take the private shuttle to the port that they reserved. That made my pre-planning a bit easier, something that would help this time. Two events that would change my life happened between the time I booked this cruise and the day of sailing. I became a Grandfather for the first time in August and I have back surgery Jan 10th of this year. Both of these events took time away from my normal obsessive cruise planning. The sailing would be 4 months after my spinal fusion surgery so I didn’t know what I would be able to do or not do. As a result, while many of my cruise friends were researching private tours I was doing nothing. I wouldn’t book any excursions till April. This made me nervous as I’ve long gone over to mainly private excursions because Royal has a 30% cancelation rate on excursions for me. More on that once we reach St Kitts!

We flew to San Juan from Columbus, Ohio via Southwest Airlines on Friday May 2nd. Again this was the cruise I felt the least prepared for because of our life events. We got up to fly out on a Friday morning, one of the busiest travel days of the week. I didn’t allow enough time to get to the airport and through security. We finished packing midnight the night before and went to bed getting up at 4:15am. As we should have been heading out the door, my wife weighed the suitcases and one was 54 pounds. Last minute adjustments put us out the door 10 minutes late. The line at Southwest check in was long, but we got through it. I had paid for early bird check in so we should be among the first on the plane. However, that was in danger as the security line was very long. I knew we would get through it before the plane left, but there was a danger we wouldn’t get on the plane early enough to sit together and that would have made for a disastrous 33rd wedding anniversary. Fortunately for us, the TSA’s were checking the paperwork of people in the long line. They noted I was pre-approved and could by pass the line. This meant no shoe and belt removal and speeding through, but it meant leaving my wife behind. I decided to do so to guarantee our sitting together for the long flight. The TSA took pitty on my my wife and sent her along with me. Ok, how many reviews have praised the TSA? We got to San Juan around 2pm, paid $19 for a cab to Tre-Palmas which is an ocean front bed and breakfast that SunnyAZgirl (cc name) found on trip advisor. Her group stayed here and arrived a day ahead. We just planned on the one day and joining them on their shuttle to the pier.

We arrived at Tre Palmas while the Arizona group was out sight seeing. We had reserved unit #9 but we were told the AC was under repair and were given “an upgrade” to Ocean view” unit 1. Turns out this wasn’t exactly an upgrade. Here is why they call it Tre-Pamas.

Below is a pic of room one. It was clean and affordable, but a bit tiny. At least the AC worked. Overall the place was good enough. If I was going myself, I would stay at a more major hotel chain or other place in a downtown or old town area.

The upgrade to the oceanview room turned out to be a slight mistake. The room was along the main road next to the ocean and all night we heard idiots with loud stereos driving back and forth! We made it through though. We had a continental breakfast in the common area below before heading to the ship. This place was a nice place for a group as we dominated the place, but alone I would stay elsewhere.

PS, yea, I'm with that! (or more politely, my wife of 33 years)

SunnyAZgirl had pre-arranged a shuttle van from San Juan tours for a very affordable $10 each. I think there was about 12 of us in the van with our luggage. The tour had told Ginny they would pick us up around 1pm. Ginny had told them no way, we want to be at the ship by 11am! They showed up right on time at 10:30 and we were quickly on our way on a beautiful San Juan morning. We arrived right on time to the port. It seemed to me that we were among the very first just as they were letting people check in. Within 15 minutes we were on the ship and headed to the windjammer by 11:15! Well. The WJ wasn’t open yet! We waited in one of the spacious seating areas just outside the windjammer.

The Windjammer did open at 11:30. I didn’t get any pictures, but I still think the Jewel Windjammer is the nicest looking on in the fleet. Love all that shiny wood! We had lunch, not too soon as I forgot to mention there is NOTHING around the Tre-Palmas. Lunch by the way was my first without Honey stung chicken! Its no more. There was regular fried chicken, which was good.

Next as per our tradition we changed into our swimsuits from our carry ons. Here, my first experience with the new towel policy wasn’t a good one. I looked over at the towel station which was unmanned, but had a single stack of about 10 towels on it. Another man was walking towards it as well, and being the polite man I am (on a cruise anyway) I let him go first. He picked up every towel available. I’m not sure if the look on my face said , “ I’m going to kill you” or, “ I can’t believe you are that stupid!” Which ever look it was, it got through as he sheepishly offered me two towels. Situation defused!

At one pm we went to our cabin which was 9290, a D1 on the hump on the port side next to the elevators. The balcony is at least twice as deep (see below) and has nobody on one side. As you can see two loungers, one table and two chairs. We loved it. I spent some reading time here. I recommend this cabin!

Given my back surgery of January, we also got the thermal suite again. I spent some time here everyday, especially after excursions.

I’ll close off day 1 with my next two mistakes. We killed time till muster. This in 10 cruises was our first muster where we didn’t have to go outside! Our station was in the Safari lounge. We had plenty of warning, but my wife just started putting in her contacts when the alarm sounded. I swear it took her only 3 minutes! I think we were at our station 4 minutes after the alarm, which I thought was just about perfect. Turns out we were the last ones and they had been calling our name! How embarrassing and so not me! I’ve have people in my section show up 20 minutes later! From there sailway. I’ve read many reviews that sailway was 8:15am and the 2nd seating was delayed till 8:45. I swear I’ve read this. Below is my wife at sailway:

From there we arrive promptly at dinner at 8:45 and the rest of our table mates had ordered!. Opps, sorry, that’s so not me. That’s day 1.

great start

Oh, an addition to day 1, I already had my next cruise picked out and figured with 5 port days and a Sea Day at the end. I figured that Sea day would be very busy for the last day. We walked by the LA desk in the Crown and Anchor Lounges above the Centrum on deck 12. The sign said their first day hours were 2-7pm and to call Guest Services for an appointment. I went back to our room and called guest services and after several minutes on hold was told to just show up. This seems to happen on a lot of ship, a total communications breakdown with the Loyalty Ambassador and Gu We went up right at 2pm and the LA was already involved with another passenger and we sat down nearby. Our presence must have really bothered her as she sent us away. I asked her if we could get on an appointment because I didn’t want to come back and have to wait behind the next person. She just gave me a blank stare and went back to work. Frustrated we walked to the WJ and ate a softserve cone. When we got back I was happy that she was still working with the same person, but another person was there waiting as well. Fortunately after 30 minutes she was done with the first person she turned to us. I told the other guy who had shown up while I was gone, and was obviously thinking I was cutting into his turn, “don’t worry I know exactly what we want”. I told the LA exactly that, I wanted Freedom April 26th 2015 and I wanted room 9342 (center hump). After pulling up our current info she said, “Let’s see what I can get you a deal on. The offered a few different D and E class balconies and I kept saying what I wanted. When I got frustrated with her I finally thought maybe I was the one doing a poor job of communication. I flat out asked her, “Is 9342 not available? “ Turns out it was, and I did get the BOGOHO price and it was $500 cheaper than the cruise I was on. This whole process took me 20 minutes longer than it had to.

Day 2 – St Martin

This was our 3rd time to St Martin in 4 years. Each previous year we had gone to Orient Beach and then Maho for the planes. That was a Thursday on Allure both trips. Given I couldn’t dive or anything as active as that this time I wasn’t certain what to do this time until we learned that Sunday is KLM 747 day at Princess Juliana airport. The ship arrives about 9am and the plane averages an 11:30 arrival. Plenty of time to get there. On my previous 2 trips I caught the Air France A340 Airbus.

\

Sometimes at St Martin it’s hard to get a cab to go in the morning with just 2 people so we got a group of 14 that wanted to go there right away. As we got to the taxi stand they put 4 people in a big van and then crammed 14 of us into a regular passenger van. When we got there, the 4 Ohioans got beach chairs and an umbrella and camped out.

We did see a nice A320 arrive.

His was Jon and Penny’s first time there and it was a beautiful day. The water was warm, the sun was hot and the drinks cold. We had a good time waiting for the anticipated big moment at 11:30am. Someone with younger eyes than me spotted it several minutes out.

Then after 3 years of waiting the big moment arrived.

Oh here is the youtube link. The GOpro is very wide angle, so you don’t see much the first 2 minutes.

Love the KLM video, the last 30 second were worth the wait. :D

Hi fellow buckeye! Can't wait to read the rest. We will be on the Jewel in 12 days!!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Love the KLM video, the last 30 second were worth the wait. :D

Great, I was so tired last night I didn't even check the Youtube link!

Hi fellow buckeye! Can't wait to read the rest. We will be on the Jewel in 12 days!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I hope what looks like your first RC cruise is a good one!

Hi folks, back to work today :(. Tonight I'll post some pics from St Kitts. After St Martin this was all new islands for us. My first Royal Caribbean excursion was a very good one, but with some controversy that I will have to try to be uncharacteristically politically correct to try and explain. This was a catamaran/beach lunch tour at St Kitts. It was a great day for us, but not so much for another cruiser on the excursion. Today I'll think about how to explain this without offending someone.

Since I'm at work without my pictures, I'll just throw down some generic points about this trip. I think of all the trips we have taken this one had the fewest kids of any we have taken. I doubt I saw more than 40 different kids the entire trip. That is pure speculation from observation, I didn't have any numbers. It seemed like there were less Europeans on this trip than many of my Florida cruises. I do people watch and listen somewhat. Call it ease dropping if you want. I did make interesting note of a Japanese/American Couple one morning that had two young kids and it would appear they were raising them bi-lingual with their parents language and English. I noted that as they spoke to them one sentence would be in one language and the next sentence would be in English. Just one of many observations I would make this week. It was interesting.

I already mentioned the towel hog, how about one more hog? I did reserve the Thermal suite to relax my back. There are 6 thermal chairs in that room along with 2 team rooms, two showers and 2 aroma rooms. I was in one of those thermal chairs when 4 ladies came in, put their stuff on the thermal chairs and went into the steam room for 15 minutes! I'm glad I already have my chair! I did see just a few examples of rude behavior, but it far outweighed the good points. In the Windjammer, I did witness a lady pick up 4 hot dog buns with her hands, put them back and then take the 5th! I don't know what was different that fifth one. I also saw, and this is no exaggaration, a person take all 25 (estimate) pieces of watermellon on a tray at once.

I also watch for politeness and acknowledgement of polite practices. I was on deck 9 so I walked up to deck 11 many times. Once as I was going up the stairs I saw someone coming down the stairs from the windjammer with one tray wiht 2 full dishes of food. They were being very careful walking and trying not to spill. I stopped short, stayed still and let them pass without fear of running into me. He said, "Thank you", which I appreciated. While not exactly rude behavior, I did see many examples of people walking without looking more than 1 foot ahead of themselves. Also I noticed when people get confused and not sure where to go, its always at a choke point. :)

St kitts tonight. Anyone who was on this cruise, feel free to chime in.

I hope what looks like your first RC cruise is a good one!

Yes it will be and we sure hope so!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Looking over my notes at lunch today, I thought I'd bring up a couple of points til I get to the St Kitt's excursion pics tonight.

By this time I was a little disappointed with the dining this cruise. I was 15 minutes late the first night, my fault, but we were on time every night after that. I actually like the 2nd seating and prefer it. However, consistently on this trip we were the last table served and it was nearly 11pm when we finished. The main waiter seemed to be hustling, but we rarely saw the assistant most times. Tables near us were getting bread and drinks for the 2nd and 3rd time before our first. In all my years of cruising RC and late dining, I've never seen them strip table cloths and reconfigure them for breakfast. This cruise every night we saw that and we were the last people served dessert every night. On nights were the waiters sing and dance it was very long for us. They actually did close the doors as soon as we left.

While minor the assistant waiter was very slow. He also didn't know which button dispensed coke or diet coke as he would set mine down and say COKE and set my wife's down and say Diet Coke. He was wrong every time, we just started swapping them without tasting. I was happy with the food quality. Bread was scare till someone at our table complained at Guest Services on day 3. The rest of the cruise they brought out 3 baskets full right away :D. We were at a table for 10 with 8 people there most every night. I know crews change from ship to ship, but in 2012 on Jewel I think we had the best dining room service ever and this time I would say it was among the worst.

One other little oddity that was no problem, but I've only seen this on Jewel. In the Windjammer in 2012 I noted that they make their bacon in big sheets and just dump it in the trays. It can be very hard to get just one or two pieces. Day 1 no problem. Day 2 the sheets were back! I came up with a technique of shaking it to get just the one or two pieces. I've never seen this anywhere else.

That first night was the battle of the sexes held by Elvis the Activities Manager and another lady, I still hadn't met the CD yet, but from the sound of announcements, I think she had voice issues the first two days. Nothing new in that game. It was in the Safari lounge and we played pool on the billiard tables after that. That is fun and takes getting used to.

Following, I was on the Jewel the week before you.

Following, I was on the Jewel the week before you.

Thanks for getting off the ship so quickly. We were on by 11:15. My flight wasn't until 2pm so we stayed on the ship till they kicked us off at 10:15.

We're on this ship in a couple of weeks! Although we're not going to St. Kitts, I'm dying to hear your thoughts. It was one of my favorite stops a couple of years ago.

Keep going!

ann

By this time I was a little disappointed with the dining this cruise. I was 15 minutes late the first night, my fault, but we were on time every night after that. I actually like the 2nd seating and prefer it. However, consistently on this trip we were the last table served and it was nearly 11pm when we finished. The main waiter seemed to be hustling, but we rarely saw the assistant most times. Tables near us were getting bread and drinks for the 2nd and 3rd time before our first. In all my years of cruising RC and late dining, I've never seen them strip table cloths and reconfigure them for breakfast. This cruise every night we saw that and we were the last people served dessert every night. On nights were the waiters sing and dance it was very long for us. They actually did close the doors as soon as we left.

 

While minor the assistant waiter was very slow. He also didn't know which button dispensed coke or diet coke as he would set mine down and say COKE and set my wife's down and say Diet Coke. He was wrong every time, we just started swapping them without tasting. I was happy with the food quality. Bread was scare till someone at our table complained at Guest Services on day 3.

We were on the Jewel last year out of Tampa so not sure if it is the same crew but we were disappointed with our service. We had a table for 2, and always were waiting, as it seemed like the waiters pandered more to the larger tables. There were some times, we never saw the assistant waiter, and were lucky to get offered bread at all.

We are going to try MyTime and see if that is any better. At least, if we do not like the waiters, we can ask for a different table there.

I know crews change from ship to ship, but in 2012 on Jewel I think we had the best dining room service ever and this time I would say it was among the worst.

Agreed. I had no problems in 2012, but this past January, the service was slow to awful. The assistant waiter took forever to bring us bread and drink refills, and the waiter got orders wrong for a couple people at the table, a few different times. It was so bad that one of our tablemates spoke with our head waiter, who ended up giving us two bottles of wine. The service didn't improve though :confused: Maybe she figured with all that wine, we wouldn't care as much :D

Day 3 St Kitts

Just a reminder, my back surgery has me really limited my types of excursions. This was an exciting day a new port! My first time here! 9 cruises and I’ve never been on a catamaran! I chose one on RC’s site that featured an open bar, beach, and BBQ lunch.

My first view of the port from my balcony

Here is the view once you get on shore.

The port area was nice and full of the usual port stores. The theme for this cruise was Pandora! At first I didn’t want my wife to get a Pandora bracelet, but now I never am at a loss on what to get her! She did get a bead in every port. Barbados was the only port they had to take a cab to get one!

The Catamaran was a short 5 minute walk. Below is a view of my first cataraman!

It was Monday at 10am when we left the port area and the weather was perfect at around 80F and low humidity with a light breeze. As i relaxed for the hour long sail to Nevis, I was so happy not to be at work. At that point we beached at a secluded beach on Nevis where we enjoyed the nice water till the BBQ was ready. Lots of coke, rum and coke and rum punch was available!

Here is me with the first beer of the day and me thinking of my coworkers back in Ohio. I put that thought out of my head quickly!

I was really having a great time in a beautiful place with drink and good food. I honestly was thinking of telling RC how much I enjoyed their excursion when the controversy started. I actually was relaxing in the sun figuring out how to explain this without offending someone. In the early afternoon one man was already drunk. He was loud and having a good time, but not really bothering anyone as far as I could see. Now let me say this man was very effeminate and very out gay. I was having my own good time and not really paying him that much attention till I heard some woman screaming at one of the excursion workers. Turns out one of the excursion workers said something to offend the gay man who was crying at one of the picnic tables. I was clueless till I heard the man’s sister telling the excursion owner she was going to let RC know that their excursion was not gay friendly and that they would lose RC as a customer. I’m not passing any judgment as I really don’t know all that happened. I did see the owner apologizing to the man. It did put a damper on the event for all, but the party went on.

After a very good lunch and 90 minutes we sailed back. My first catamaran excursion was a big success. However It exhausted me as I am still recovering from surgery even though I am a Marathoner. I let the girls shop in the port area and it was back to the thermal spa for me.

Dinner was again very slow!

Coming up next my first visit to Antigua and Royal Caribbean’s worst excursion ever!

Very fun to read your review. My water shoe snuck its way into one of the corners of your maho pictures. We did My Time dining this cruise and had the best dining service I've ever had at a cruise or all inclusive. We were very surprised in a good way! :)

Hi Bill- I've been waiting for all of you to return to read your reviews! Hope the AZ crew weighs in soon too! Sorry you had such trouble with dining...maybe I can finally encourage you to the dark side- MTD, if you get a clunker wait staff team, you just switch!

Looking forward to more of your photos!

Hi Bill- I've been waiting for all of you to return to read your reviews! Hope the AZ crew weighs in soon too! Sorry you had such trouble with dining...maybe I can finally encourage you to the dark side- MTD, if you get a clunker wait staff team, you just switch!

 

Looking forward to more of your photos!

Ginny is doing a B2B, so her review will be coming up.

Love the KLM video, the last 30 second were worth the wait. :D

I posted an edited version of the 747 video. Just the last part!

Very fun to read your review. My water shoe snuck its way into one of the corners of your maho pictures. We did My Time dining this cruise and had the best dining service I've ever had at a cruise or all inclusive. We were very surprised in a good way! :)

Is this your pink shoe?

It was a pleasure meeting both of you at the meet and miingle and in the roll call the 400 days leading up to the cruise.

Is this your pink shoe?

 

 

It was a pleasure meeting both of you at the meet and miingle and in the roll call the 400 days leading up to the cruise.

Yes it is! :) We really enjoyed meeting everyone!

Thanks for getting off the ship so quickly. We were on by 11:15. My flight wasn't until 2pm so we stayed on the ship till they kicked us off at 10:15.

And I thought they didn't let us off quickly. We didn't get off until almost 9:30 and we had a 12:30 flight. We did speak to guest relations earlier in the week to get off earlier and they said we would have no issues getting of by 9 at the latest.

What is the new RCCL towel policy?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk