Jewel of the Seas Review 3-10 May So. Caribbean

[surfnsun]

That's it for tonight, folks. In keeping with this review tradition, next up will be ship photos when I post tomorrow morning and tomorrow evening will be a complete review of our excursion in Barbados where I throw caution to the wind and sort rebook yet another water excursion. :p:D

 

Have a good evening!

[vinotinto]

We'll be in the Jewel in 3 weeks, so I really appreciate your posts. I've only booked one excursion. The one in St Martin looks nice. How long were you at Orient Beach?

 

 

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[bup1224]

I am loving your review! We were on the Jewel last year and headed back this year for some of the same ports that you had. I can't wait to read/see Barbados as that will be new port for us.

[surfnsun]

We'll be in the Jewel in 3 weeks, so I really appreciate your posts. I've only booked one excursion. The one in St Martin looks nice. How long were you at Orient Beach?

 

 

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I appreciate your post and question. I just checked my notes and thought I'd logged the exact amount of time but I didn't. If memory serves me right, it was at least an hour and more like 90 minutes. Bernards Tours is top notch and I think others will agree you won't be disappointed.

 

Dancer19...you out there still? Do you recall how much time we had at Orient beach. I'm sure it was at least an hour and a half.

[surfnsun]

I am loving your review! We were on the Jewel last year and headed back this year for some of the same ports that you had. I can't wait to read/see Barbados as that will be new port for us.

 

Awwww...thank you and so glad your enjoying it so much! I won't disappoint on the Barbardos review and look forward to hearing from you again tomorrow night! :)

[dancer19]

I appreciate your post and question. I just checked my notes and thought I'd logged the exact amount of time but I didn't. If memory serves me right, it was at least an hour and more like 90 minutes. Bernards Tours is top notch and I think others will agree you won't be disappointed.

 

Dancer19...you out there still? Do you recall how much time we had at Orient beach. I'm sure it was at least an hour and a half.

 

Yeah it was an hour and a half ! Maybe a little more with the nude beach stop :p

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

I forgot to chime in on the bed comment. Our bed was also rock hard in our aft balcony. After 2 nights of waking up miserably sore, I finally asked our steward for a topper and he brought the egg crate foam topper and made the rest of the nights tolerable. I have a hard bed at home and usually sleep well. That bed in the cabin was beyond hard and my hips were killing me.

[surfnsun]

Yeah it was an hour and a half ! Maybe a little more with the nude beach stop :p

 

Many thanks again dancer19, for your assist! You funny girl! Hahaha :D

[surfnsun]

I forgot to chime in on the bed comment. Our bed was also rock hard in our aft balcony. After 2 nights of waking up miserably sore, I finally asked our steward for a topper and he brought the egg crate foam topper and made the rest of the nights tolerable. I have a hard bed at home and usually sleep well. That bed in the cabin was beyond hard and my hips were killing me.

 

Thanks for chiming in, Lisa. I hope you and dancer19 and BillOh and docdriller (if he ever wakes up :p) sticks with me as I think I'll need some help with Day 6 Sea Day. You'll understand why as I continue with the review.

[surfnsun]

Another of one of our favorite hangouts, the Champagne Bar:

 

 

Internet area with Lattitudes (coffee and pastries) in the background:

 

 

Exterior elevators with nice views of the sea:

 

 

Area right outside windjammer to get coffee and juice and hangout. Very nice relaxing area if your an early riser and needed something before windjammer opened:

 

 

Some wall art on one of the stairways:

 

[surfnsun]

Children's pool area with water slide (BTW, this ship does not have nearly the amount of areas for children as the larger ships. But it was certainly sufficient and the kids seemed to have a good time. After all, it doesn't usually take much to make kids happy and they don't know the difference anyway. Remember, only you do, so maybe you don't want to avoid this ship just because you want a bigger wow factor for the kids. Just my opinion: :) The smaller ships typically go to more ports that the bigger ships can't handle.

 

 

Staircase from deck 12 going down into the outside Windjammer seating area. Just to my immediate right is the Seaview café. Sorry, no pics of the Seaview café but we ate there once and thought the food very good:

 

 

Outside Windjammer seating area:

 

[surfnsun]

That's all the time I have this morning. Next up when I continue the review this evening, our last port stop, Barbados. Lots of pics and five more videos.

 

Have a nice day today!

[BillOh]

We met very nice people on this cruise including many from our roll call. Its unusual for us to socialize so much on a cruise as I'm far from being social...so much better on-line...while DH can be the life of the party. :D

 

Something else we have in common. Our first cruise two cruises were great, but it was all about the two of us. I think I knew about 12 people on this cruise and met a few more. Very enjoyable and still alone time.

[BillOh]

I do love Bernards Tours, you see so much.

 

I did Bernards in 2011 loved it. Friends on our 2013 Allure cruise did a private tour with him and today that is the way I would go. I don't like the changes they made to the public tour that anyone can get on. They took a lot of time away from Orient beach and added too much time at an Iguana farm, which to me is another made up tourist spot.

[surfnsun]

I did Bernards in 2011 loved it. Friends on our 2013 Allure cruise did a private tour with him and today that is the way I would go. I don't like the changes they made to the public tour that anyone can get on. They took a lot of time away from Orient beach and added too much time at an Iguana farm, which to me is another made up tourist spot.

 

I think they must have realized that as we skipped the iguana farm and just stopped for a moment to take a pic of one by the roadside.

[BillOh]

Ohhhhh yeaaaaa!!!! I would take another 7 day cruise just to go back to that one single island again! :):):) Thanks!

 

That looked like a nice tour of St Lucia and a much easier way to get to the Piton area.

[BillOh]

I think they must have realized that as we skipped the iguana farm and just stopped for a moment to take a pic of one by the roadside.

 

That's good to hear. I know Bernard's has a great reputation online and is very responsive to email messages. I wouldn't speak bad of them, the changes they made might have made other's happy.

 

In 2013 when the AZ cruisers were doing their private tour we took a taxi directly to Orient for about 3 hours then to Maho.

 

I should put on Barbados on my review tonight. I'm glad you had more ship pics, I didn't bother with too many since I had a lot in my 2012 review. Your review is so much more positive than mine, but I swear I had a great time! I guess I'm getting to be that cranky old bastard everyone has in their neighborhood.

[docsdrillers]

We had a wonderful day and everything went as planned.

We were a bit concerned about the mixed reviews with Spencer but since we were the only ship in port everything went smoothly....he got everything organized at the pier and all the tours left without a hitch...and as Peggy mentioned he was very accommodating for those that were getting car sick on the ride up and allowed them to join us in the water taxi for our return trip..

 

It takes roughly 1.5 hours on windy roads to get to Jalousie by vehicles but only 30 minutes by a Speedboat water taxi...

I would 100% recommend the water taxi which gets you to the beach before all the other big groups arrive and no concerns of getting sick with nausea on windy roads.

 

We also read that Jalousie beach gets more and more crowded as the day progresses and chairs especially in the shade become a scarce commodity.

 

Our original plan called for the Tet trail to be completed first followed by our day at Jalousie beach.We contemplated doing the day in reverse to make sure we got chairs in the shade but Spencer did an incredible thing just for us.

He sent his daughter ahead to the beach to secure 5 chairs for our group under one of the thatched roofs...that way when we got to the beach after our wonderful hike we had "Reserved" seating...that's what I call being pampered.

Kudos to spencer and his gang.

 

I actually really enjoyed the snorkelling in a roped off area which is actually a Marine Reserve...make sure you go all the way to the end around the corner for a cave like area teeming with fish.

I had my own fins but decided to use his open style fins with water shoes which is strongly recommended as it is a bit rocky to get into the water if you are barefoot.

 

All in all we had a super day with great views of the Pitons from above and from below at the beach.

The lunch served was delicious and there were unlimited drinks of pop,bottled water and alcoholic drinks too....and free snorkelling equipment.

 

Rumour has it that Peggy will need surgery to straighten her arm as it was almost at a 90 degree tilt the whole cruise:)....no wonder her neck didn't hurt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ran into Bob and his family who had elected to do one of Spencer's regularly scheduled tours. They had a quick stop at this beach following an island tour in the van. As many have mentioned, the roads in St. Lucia are very windy and long and can cause motion sickness. Bob's wife had an issue and asked Spencer if they could stay there at the beach and just ride back in the boat and he happily accommodated. So...here is a video of the "water taxi" ride leaving the beach. It was even more exhilarating than the ride to the beach. I think he had it on full throttle:

 

http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=fNkd6hpTbcPWxFpJb0KQmIh4l5k2TGxc#.U3QCMGdOVMs

[surfnsun]

That's good to hear. I know Bernard's has a great reputation online and is very responsive to email messages. I wouldn't speak bad of them, the changes they made might have made other's happy.

 

In 2013 when the AZ cruisers were doing their private tour we took a taxi directly to Orient for about 3 hours then to Maho.

 

I should put on Barbados on my review tonight. I'm glad you had more ship pics, I didn't bother with too many since I had a lot in my 2012 review. Your review is so much more positive than mine, but I swear I had a great time! I guess I'm getting to be that cranky old bastard everyone has in their neighborhood.

 

I don't think ur cranky and old at all and I like ur revew. In fact, some might argue my review isn't balanced enough with comments about the cons as well as the pros. But not to worry as I will cover some of that later and include comments on why I tend to focus on the positive.

[surfnsun]

Thanks doc for finally managing to get out of ur straight jacket and help. But, ya know, I may have to leave work early so I can better monitor ur posts as I knew there was no way you would behave yourself! :p:):D

 

Oh...and I was not drinking rum punch when I made those snorkeling videos! :-)

Edited May 15, 2014 by surfnsun

[docsdrillers]

Peg wanted to try Snuba diving because she thought that the line going into her mask was for alcohol:)

 

 

 

Thanks doc for finally managing to get out of ur straight jacket and help. But, ya know, I may have to leave work early so I can better monitor ur posts as I knew there was no way you would behave yourself! :p:):D

 

Oh...and I was not drinking rum punch when I made those snorkeling videos! :-)

[maxs mom]

Thoroughly enjoying your review. I love doing these as well.....getting ready to start on three of them as we just got home from two weeks on Indy and one on Freedom. I know how tedious this is.....so thanks for taking the time! As a matter of fact.....I think your picture of the Indy in San Juan was the day we were there!

 

We have Jewel booked for two weeks in Nov./Dec. We've done this many times. Did you have Captain Gustavo on your sailing? We became buddies with him when he was Staff Captain on Freedom. Hoping that he will be on in December.

 

Well.....keep up the good work. This is very enjoyable!

[SeaTeach]

Really, really enjoyed your review. A lot of valuable info gleaned which will indeed be used on our next cruise to the Southern Caribbean. Thanks!!

[luvtravel88]

Loving your review! Thanks for taking the time to do it.

 

We will be on the Jewel in August with a similar itinerary except we don't go to St. Kitt's but go to St. Croix instead.

 

We had Spencer's booked in St. Lucia but I had read so many mixed reviews on CC and many negative reviews on Tripadvisor, so we cancelled with him and booked a private excursion with a company called More Than A Cab. They had good reviews on TA.

Hope we made the right decision!

[surfnsun]

Peg wanted to try Snuba diving because she thought that the line going into her mask was for alcohol:)

 

If u don't behave I'm going to tell everyone the cruiselines give u a padded stateroom.:D

Edited May 15, 2014 by surfnsun