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Jewel of the Seas - 11/9 Cruise Review

kmkristianson

By kmkristianson,
in Royal Caribbean International

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kmkristianson

kmkristianson

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Good Morning All!

 

Here goes, first time ever cruise review......bear with me, I am sure this will be clumsy but I hope you all enjoy!

 

Welcome to the Jewel of the Seas!

 

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Little bit of background.....We are from outside Chicago and have been on 6 or 7 cruises. Most have been with Royal. The Radiance Class is one of our favorites especially when cruising without the kids. We had sailed Jewel out of Tampa so were familar wth the ship. I love the cruising atmosphere, there is something very refreshing about the smell and sounds aboard the ship (the good ones that is) and I think the best part is you "unplug" from the email and phone.....puts a smile on my face as I type...now where is the bar server......

 

My husband turned 40 this spring and I suprized him with a trip to Vegas for the weekend....yes, I know Wife of the Year right??? Hard to keep that a secret with booking everything, dog boarding, shuffling kids to grandparents, etc. Well my big day is next year and he said, you know that I am not planning a suprize trip for you. We can go where you want, but you can plan it. Well, that got me thinking and I said, I want to go on the Allure with the kids. So I quickly snagged a balcony with a Wow sale and whatched the count down clock sit at well over 400 days. What, this was a Jewel review right? Yes, it is.....so being from Chicago, it is not like we can just jump on over to the pier for a quick get away. So with a long count down clock ahead of me, I starting scheming a way to get on a ship sooner. October was our 15 year wedding anniversary. For our honeymoon we went on a cruise aboard the Enchantment so I thought...what better way to celebrate 15 years than aboard another ship? So, a little selling and pleading and I got the "fine.....book it!" :)

 

So we were headed to the Jewel out of San Juan! This would be a total relaxation cruise, not a lot planned. Just get away for some peace, sun, a good book and a fruity adult beverages! Yes! This woudl be an adult only cruise (thanks Grandmas!). Tough sell since they got their taste of cruising, but at least they had the Allure to look forward to.

 

We flew to San Juan the day before (uneventful flight -the best kind- on United from O'hare) and stayed at the Marriott Stellaros. Very nice, no complaints. We headed into Old San Juan for dinner, had a great meal at Toro Salado off the Plaza Colon. Tapas and Sangria that were fabulous!

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Plaza Colon

 

 

 

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View from the balcony

 

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After several weeks of crazy days at the office (and perhaps a little too much Sangria) we called it an early night! Looking forward to boarding Jewel the next day!!!!!

 

Hope this first section went well......more to follow.

 

Karen

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kmkristianson

kmkristianson

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It worked!

 

Couple more shots from boarding and then back to work.....:(

 

This was the fastest boarding I have ever experienced. We left the Marriott around 10:30. Got to the port, this is were platinum status paided off. They took our bags (only platinum and above) and put us in a short shady, thank goodness) line. We entered the building shortly after 11. Straight to the counter, sea pass issued, up the stairs onto the gangway. They take your photo for the sea pass card on the ship on deck 5 promonade. I was so taken aback at the speed, I did not have my camera ready, my papers and passport were still in my hand! I was expecting to sit and wait for a while. Nope.

 

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(sorry this is the only boarding shot I got. Meet Bat Stanley (sister to Flat Stanley) - our second grader had us take her with us for class with instructions to not drop her in the ocean. So this was for her and her class - Flat Stanely is a book that a paper doll travels all over - With the craziness of check in this was all I got!

 

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Last one - Out door seating at the Windjammer - I don't think we ever ate inside!

 

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Room photos and compasses to follow....Hope I have not board everyone to death!

 

Karen

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kmkristianson

kmkristianson

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Guess I should have stated in the first post, we visited St. Thomas, St. Croix, Antigua, Martinique, and St. Lucia. We have only been to St. Thomas previously, but this trip was all about relaxation and down time. Why go on such a port intensive cruise then... just happened to work the best. We chose this trip based on the ship, timing (we were able to use airline miles for both legs:p), grandparent availability / kid schedules, etc. To us this trip was about being on a ship and the sights were what they were. We had some excursions planned, but it was not a jammed packed week.

Also, I have the cruise compasses for each day I can post, but I did not take pictures of the menus, and sorry no food porn……Just not into that kind of thing…..I prefer to just eat it:rolleyes:

Also, one final item on boarding...we packed some diet coke cans in a suitcase (purchased at Walgreens next to the Marriott), stuck a luggage tag on a pack of water and carried on a bottle of wine. No issue with any of them. All of our suitcases arrived in our room by 4...no trips to the naughty room for us!

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Looking UP......

 

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Looking DOWN.......

 

Once on board we purchased the premium drink package (this is prior to the switch or new options now available). We decided to do it to avoid the shock of the bill at the end of the cruise. Yes this was a port intensive cruise, but we were not intensive on this trip. We purchased the package on board and then paid cash to our sea pass account at Guest Services – nice to have a low onboard account at the end of the week. Some comments on the drink package…..

Did we have problems using the package? No, not at all.

Did we have problems with servers not helping us? Nope. We typically would tip cash, but the amount varied and not every time we got a drink.

Did we have to sign the slips? Yes, this is the part I did not like.

Did we get our money’s worth? Some days yes and some days no. But we were able to try different things and not worry about it.

Were the drinks weak or watered down? NO! They were strong, no problems there. I had a lemon drop that I could not even drink it was so strong….I know lightweight!

Was the house wine drinkable? We did not have a problem, but we are not wine connoisseurs for sure.

I will add that Vanessa at the pool bar was awesome! She got my WOW card for the week. With our laid back schedule we typically hung by the empty pool in the morning and then went off the ship in the afternoon when the sun was stronger. I would venture down to the pool bar several times in the morning and my spicy absolute Bloody Mary with olives was ready by the time I got down the stairs throughout the morning….don’t judge, I am on vacation.

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kmkristianson

kmkristianson

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We had our first ever aft balcony…Typically we are hump balcony folk, but on this ship I think the balconies looked awesome….Cabin 9660…..boy that is a long walk! But 170 steps gives you quite a view!

 

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I have to say I was suprised how much motion this ship had on the cruise. Not sure if it was due to the slower speeds (one night the captian said we would be drifting 6 miles off the next port for several hours) and I know the aft has more motion, but we did feel it often during travel, througout the ship. We did try a herbal oil Motion Eaze that you placed behind your ear. It seemed to work, we never felt sick to our stomachs and unlike a pill, it does not affect your eating and more importantly your drinking!:eek:

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kmkristianson

kmkristianson

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The room was in good shape. There are several areas of the ship that are showing her age, some rust on the balcony walls, the floor a little sparse on the balcony and couch, but nothing that I would complain about or put a negative spin on our trip. She is beautiful! Our cabin steward Marlon was good, he kept the room clean, fresh towels and ice and was in and out without us noticing…what more can you ask for. We gave him $30 and a big bag of candy when we met him on Day 1.

 

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Celebrity Summit was behind us in San Juan....have to say they have some impressive aft balconies.....

 

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I have to say we really enjoyed sitting out on our balcony watching the ports get smaller and smaller. However, there were several ports were we faced west while docked, and boy it was hot! Not much of a breeze...Just something to think about, I had not.

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kmkristianson

kmkristianson

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Thanks for reading along and the possitive comments!

 

DSC07231_zps36a17c9a.jpgI I have to say that we were disappointed with the entertainment this trip. While I have not done a review before and commented a couple times over the years, I will state this is my opinion. There could have been people that thought the entertainment and staff was killer! So there, my disclaimer…through your flames elsewhere please.

I was not a huge fan of Carly B, but more so, I disliked her staff. Elvis the assistant was OK – funny at times, but the staff that ran the music trivia in the Schooner Bar was poor. And speaking of Schooner Bar, I was bummed about the nightly entertainment. On past Radiance Class trips, we really enjoyed going to the Schooner Bar after dinner, love the atmosphere, the piped in gun powder smell when you enter and the large group that would gather for sing-a-long piano songs and trivia. Not so on this trip. We went to a couple trivia’s and the host was screeching into the mic, you could not understand a word she said and just gave me the wrong vibe. There were two piano players that we happened to see. The first did not sing, just played more back ground piano music – this caused whatever people were here leave. A large group of ship’s officers were having a meeting there, that is how dead it was. The singing piano player was not very good, again my opinion. She just did not have the “stuff” that other have. I did not experience a full house singing the classic “sweet caroline” or piano man. This was a thumbs down for us. The band that played in the centrum were pretty good, they also played occasionally in the Safari Lounge.

The main theater entertainment was hit or miss…..There was a pair of jugglers that were great! They had a great sense of humor and were talented….especially when the ship is pitching….the other headliners were so so. We could have been a little young for one of them.....We did not attend the production shows, not up for it this time.

I am sorry to say I missed out on Quest, it was at 11:30 and we were just going to back to the room for a couple minutes…..well, the rocking of the ship and lots of sun and adult beverages meant lights out! Oh well, next time.

In summary, this was the biggest down fall of the trip…..again, nothing that ruined my vacation, it just meant we went to bed a little earlier. So as to not come off totally negative - here are some more photos of the beautiful Jewel!

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Dining and St. Thomas Next!!!

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LarryL

LarryL

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Thanks for writing your review. We are sailing the Jewel in April and have the aft balcony one deck above yours (1104). Hopefully, we will have the motion you described. I sleep like a rock with a ship's movement.:)

 

I get what you say about the CD. We had a pretty unremarkable CD on a Princess cruise a few years ago. Maybe they're related.:eek: In spite of that, we had a great cruise, too.

 

I can't wait to see the rest of your review. Did you spend any time at the Champaigne Bar? The Liberty OTS had a regular clientel there on our TA a couple years ago. That's where our WOW card went.

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scomar

scomar

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Great review so far! We will be on the Jewel in 2 1/2 weeks, not that I am keeping track or anything:) We are RCI virgins, so I thank you for the preview of the fun we are going to have. Great pics too!!

 

Woo Hoo! I started page two!

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