Long review with lots of photos! Jewel Dec 6/14 and Adventure Dec 14/14!

[donovan52]

The cruises:

Week 1 (Jewel): St. Thomas (originally Tortola but it was changed), St. Kitts, St. Maarten, Dominica, and Barbados. Dominica ended up being our only new port after the itinerary was changed.

Week 2 (Adventure): Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten, St. Croix.

This was our first time on a Radiance class ship (Jewel) but our fourth week on the Adventure!

 

We are a group of 6 – My boyfriend, Me! (Meg), both mid 20s and Diamond Crown and Anchor members, my parents, also Diamond, and his parents who are first time cruisers!

 

 

Drink Package:

We contemplated getting drink packages for both of us as a splurge for our second week (no new islands and only one real excursion planned so lots of ship time). For Ry we were deciding between the Premium and Ultimate plans, since he is a big coffee drinker, but we decided since he is ok with the regular free coffee onboard it wasn’t really necessary. I rarely drink coffee, but love tea. I bring my own loose leaf tea with me though so the Premium plan definitely made the most sense.

 

I will say, neither of us are really big drinkers. I spent time looking through the drink menus before deciding and there are so many drinks I *wanted* to try, but I knew that without a plan I would just stick to the ones I already know I like. I hate the idea of wasting them. In the end I actually upgraded to the Ultimate package because of the holiday promotion: unlimited glasses of Moet (17$) and a bottle of Domaine Chandon delivered to your cabin. Was it worth it? Absolutely. I bought the package thinking of it as an expensive shore excursion. I actually spent more than $55 each day (pre gratuity) but if it wasn’t for the glasses of Moet I don’t think I would have. I have lots of drink pictures to post when I get to week 2!

 

I had freshly squeezed orange juice a few times, but usually had a mimosa or bellini for breakfast. The Windjammer setup wasn’t as good as on the Jewel, in my opinion. On the Jewel they had a table set up with the orange juice and wine as soon as you walked in. On the Adventure I needed to sit down and ask a waiter for the orange juice and I never did see the machine. I did get a coffee almost every morning at the Café Promenade bar and they were very good – I usually got a vanilla latte, sometimes with a shot of coconut syrup (included in the package), and I tried an iced coffee one day. I tried a lot of new drinks – maybe not as many as I would have if they hadn’t gotten rid of the good drink menus though!! The new menus are much more limited and don’t even have prices. Not once did I feel drunk or sick (not even in the morning). I spread my drinks out and had lots of water. When we went to the Diamond Lounge for snacks and Ryan’s drinks before supper I usually got a ginger ale. I found I felt worse on week 1 the few times I tried to have all 3 of my Diamond drinks within the 5-8:30 timespan (I’m a lightweight).

 

New Drink Menus (seemed to be in every bar on the Adventure except the Duck and Dog and Champagne Bar. They still had old menus on the Jewel in the Schooner Bar but the pool bar definitely had the new menus:

 

 

 

Nonalcoholic:

 

Wines:

 

 

[donovan52]

Beer:

 

 

Pre Cruise - Flights:

We LOVE San Juan and, especially with the weather being so unpredictable in the winter, decided to fly in two days early so we could do some sightseeing before boarding the Jewel of the Seas. My boyfriend and I (mid 20s) and my parents have visited San Juan in the past, but his parents had never been (and this was their first cruise!).

We booked great flights through United in the summertime and we were due in around 1pm on December 4th. Unfortunately, in September we found out that due to a flight change that would have us arriving for our connection in Newark 15 minutes after our flight to Puerto Rico was due to leave, we had to start all over again looking for flights. I will say, United was great to quickly refund our fares after coming up with only one other option for us – flights with a 25 hour travel time from Halifax – San Juan that wouldn’t get us in until Friday the 5th. It didn’t take me 25 hours to fly home from China in June – no way was that an acceptable option!

 

I always check flights first on Expedia to see which carrier is offering the best rates, then I book direct. That backfired on me this time – Expedia’s prices were off by over $700! (Even when you booked through Expedia – you’d get a “Oops, looks like the prices have changed for this flight!” message.) With some more searching we found flights on American Airlines for $300 more per person than we’d originally paid. OUCH! We also weren’t going to arrive at lunch time anymore; our new arrival time was 9pm, so we wouldn’t have any time to see San Juan on Thursday. Looking on the bright side: we had longer connections so we wouldn’t need to rush from gate to gate.

 

We headed out earlyish on Wednesday – we are about 4 hours from the nearest international airport. This gave us a chance to drop off some Christmas presents along the way and some homemade cookies for my brother who spent the week studying and writing exams instead of coming with us :(

 

My parents were on a different flight from Halifax to Toronto which ended up being cancelled! So they ended up overnighting in Miami and arriving in San Juan around lunchtime Friday. Travel insurance is covering their hotel in Miami/taxi/food from the delay. Our flights were uneventful and we arrived on time in San Juan. The taxi to our hotel was $26 ($19 + $2 (fuel surcharge) + $5 (bags))

 

Pre Cruise – Hotel:

We booked two rooms at the La Terraza Hotel in Old San Juan for Thursday and Friday night before the cruise. I am so in love with Old San Juan and I was thrilled to have the chance to stay there and explore the city without needing to take taxis. Our booking experience was wonderful – very very friendly! In the past we’ve stayed at the Sheraton Convention Centre (Near the Pan-Am Pier) and the Marriott Stellaris. We actually love the Sheraton – the rooms are great, awesome balconies (can’t beat the view of your ship in the morning!) and an infinity pool overlooking the port. They also have a Texas de Brazil which we found to be excellent – but they are lacking in other options and there isn’t much around. We didn’t enjoy the Marriott Stellaris – the beach water was too rough to swim in, the pool was freezing, service wasn’t particularly friendly and we felt like we could hear everything from the surrounding rooms. I will say that it was at the end of our trip last time and we were all a little grumpy; I haven’t written the hotel off by any means. We didn’t particularly want to give it another try just yet though, so we avoided Priceline this trip.

 

The hotel:

 

Seating in the lobby (breakfast is served here):

 

La Terraza was wonderful! When we checked in we were told a bit about Old San Juan and the most popular things to do, and we were each given a nice cold Medalla beer! Very much appreciated after a long day of flying. Our room was on the small side but was fine for four of us for a couple of nights. The beds were very comfortable and the rooms were nice and clean. Beautiful wooden beams on the ceiling! We were in the newer section of the hotel and Ryan’s parents were in the older section. Their room had a full kitchen, which would be perfect for a longer stay (all updated appliances too). Wifi was included and it worked well. Drink prices were very reasonable and their mini bar prices were probably the most normal I’ve ever seen.

 

Mini bar menu:

 

Our room:

[Clarea]

I can tell the drink menus are the new ones because they don't have prices. Supposedly that's just a "mistake", and will be fixed soon.

 

Thanks for the photos.:)

[donovan52]

 

 

The kitchen from the other room:

 

The rooftop terrace is great. They have breakfast either up on the terrace or downstairs near the check in desk. Breakfast was perfect for us: fresh fruit, biscuits, cold cuts, cheese, tea, coffee, water, and juice. Nothing too heavy. There is a pool (open 24/7 which made my day! I feel like many hotel pools close too early at night and I don’t get my swim in before I go to sleep) on the terrace overlooking the cold city – we could even see our ship Saturday morning. The pool is small but not so small you can’t move. There are also plenty of chairs up on the terrace (but we rarely saw anyone else up there except at breakfast!).

 

 

 

They also had an elevator:

 

The location of the hotel is actually better than I expected. It is on Calle Sol (which felt very safe – it is also a secure building and you will be given the code for the door upon check in) and we were able to walk all over Old San Juan easily. I’d say it took us around 10 minutes to walk to the Museo De Las Americas which is right across the street from El Morro.

[donovan52]

San Juan:

 

So we arrived Thursday around 9pm and were probably at the hotel before 10:30. A quick swim and we were ready for bed!

 

Friday the 5th we woke up and had breakfast around 9:00 up on the rooftop terrace. It was HOT! I really should have put on sunscreen before I went up. After breakfast we went for a walk to the Museo de las Americas. It was a very nice museum, well curated, very professional. It was only $3 to get in so we figured it wouldn’t be much of a loss if it was terrible! We all enjoyed it. It is on the second floor of what used to be an old military hospital and you buy your tickets in the museum gift shop before continuing to the second floor where the exhibits are. Our favourite was a huge room with all kinds of interesting art.

 

 

 

 

 

After the museum we went to the Don Ruiz coffee shop which is in the same building as the museum. It was excellent. Friendly service, delicious lattes. We also got an amaretto macaron to share (it was very good). I wish I could have a cup right now. Prices were reasonable – it was less than $10 for two café lattes and a macaron.

 

Inside the coffee shop:

 

[donovan52]

Around noon we walked back to La Terraza to see if my parents had arrived from Miami. We found them enjoying their welcome drinks and having a swim up on the rooftop. While my mother caught up on some much needed sleep, the rest of us went for a walk down near the cruise pier, along the Paseo de la Princesa, and to the Old San Juan Gate. It is a very pleasant walk and I am so glad we went.

 

 

 

 

 

On the way back we grabbed a snack (crepes that weren’t very traditional crepe-like but tasted good; I had guava cheese). We didn’t have a real lunch because we had plans to go for supper later.

 

 

[donovan52]

We stopped at CVS (near the piers) and bought wine, coquito (think of it as Puerto Rican coconut eggnog? I love it), and some candy (dulce de coco – so good!). We also made our way to Walgreens (Calle San Fransisco near the Plaza de Armas) and we were happy that we bought our wine at CVS because the prices were better than Walgreens.

 

 

After a swim and a shower we took a taxi to Texas de Brazil (in the same building as the Sheraton Convention Center). It was very good (yes, a chain, but we don’t have anything similar where we live). By the time we got back to La Terraza we were exhausted. One more swim then bed – we wanted to be rested for the Jewel!

 

I had a passion fruit & rum drink up by the pool:

 

Beautiful espresso machine in the La Terraza lobby:

[donovan52]

I can tell the drink menus are the new ones because they don't have prices. Supposedly that's just a "mistake", and will be fixed soon.

 

Thanks for the photos.:)

 

Yes, I saw that too! I'm not sure I believe it though...the Duck and Dog Pub has different menus that look like newspapers but they don't have prices either. I think the lack of cocktails on the menu is worse than the lack of prices though. They still made anything I asked for but sometimes it was hard to remember what was in the old menus!

[donovan52]

Day 1: Embarkation in San Juan:

We got up early and had breakfast shortly after 8 down in the hotel lobby, went for a little walk, then headed to the ship shortly before 11am. The taxi was $26 for 6 people and 8 bags. We got luggage tags from a desk at the end of the lineup (I think it was for Diamond and above but Emerald may have been included too – this desk wasn’t even there on the 14th when we went on the Adventure) and quickly made our way in through security. There was no one ahead of us in line so we quickly received our sea pass cards and walked right on to the ship! This was by far the quickest and easiest embarkation we’ve experienced.

 

Centrum:

 

We went to the windjammer first – great setup with the different islands, no long lineups. The fried chicken and the paella were both very good. The first time cruisers with us were very impressed.

 

Pretty empty Windjammer:

 

 

 

Rooms were opened at 1:00. We were in room 8088, a room we selected for the extra large balcony! We had two loungers, two chairs, a big table, and a little table. Fabulous for eating breakfast or taking naps! The room was great, plenty of closet space and the bed was very comfortable. The room was close to the stairs and elevators (actually right next to the elevator bank). I will say that the music from the centrum could be heard very clearly at night, but not once did it bother us.

 

 

[donovan52]

 

 

At 4:00 they did a presentation in the Schooner bar with samples from the different specialty restaurants (Portofino and Chops). We were able to try the crab cakes, bruschetta with duck (I think they also had ones with tomato or salmon), mushroom pasta, warm chocolate cake, and tiramisu. There was no charge to attend and it was nice to try some of the different items that we haven’t ordered.

 

We had our diamond drinks in the Schooner bar every night (3 drinks are preloaded onto your sea pass). Tonight we had a few different drinks: a whiskey sour, margarita, beer, vodka and cranberry, vodka and pineapple.

 

Schooner bar (it looks darker in my photos than it actually was):

 

There was a Wii set up with this tv:

 

Whiskey Sour:

 

Muster was at 8:00 and our station was in the Schooner bar! This was our first time having an inside station where we could sit down and it was so much more pleasant than week 2 on the Adventure where we were crammed outside in the heat.

 

We booked Portofino for dinner at 6 but when we got onboard they had to change it to 8:45 because of the muster drill. Our first number of cruises we just couldn’t understand why anyone would pay extra for a restaurant when they could eat in the main dining room or windjammer for free. I think we must have had an included dinner from our travel agent and after that we knew what all the fuss was about!

 

One of the reasons we decided on the Jewel instead of just doing the Adventure back to back again was so we’d get to go to Portofino again before they are all switched to Giovannis Table. This time, I have to say, we weren’t wowed at all by Portofino. The bread is now served plain or plain with olives – the bread basket used to be really good with 4 or 5 different kinds. They still had the roasted garlic, olive tapenade, and red pepper pesto so that was good. By the time we got olive oil and balsamic the bread basket was empty and we had to request another one (no, we didn’t inhale the first basketful). It took even longer before our server came around with parmesan (I assumed that they did away with it). We had a variety of appetizers at our table, risotto, carpaccio, and Caesar salad, and all were very much enjoyed. We did notice that the Caesar salad isn’t prepared tableside anymore, but it wasn’t a big deal by any means. For our entrees most had the filet (very good, but honestly the filet of beef in the dining room was just as good and the filet from Giovanni’s table week 2 was even better than that) and one person had the mushroom pasta. By this time it was about 10:00 so we told our server that we were hoping to make it to the welcome aboard show at 10:30. Half an hour should be plenty of time for dessert, but it wasn’t. After finally getting our desserts and our bills (and the speech to give 10s on our cruise survey!) we ended up being almost ten minutes late for the show. I don’t think we missed very much, but it seemed unnecessary considering the restaurant didn’t seem very busy. I did enjoy my tiramisu (which was served with a shot of … baileys, Kahlua, and cream, I believe) and everyone else seemed to enjoy their desserts as well. Our meal was very good, and if we hadn’t eaten at Portofino so many times before, we probably wouldn’t have left slightly disappointed. In the end, it just saved us $40 that we could put towards other things, because we didn’t go back a second time.

 

Tiramisu:

 

The welcome aboard show was good, but not very memorable. The comedian had some good jokes, though I thought it might have been a little early for a joke about police in Ferguson (but I suppose a comedian’s job is to get reactions!).

 

When we arrived back to the room I discovered that we didn’t have a working toilet! There was no water in it and I could hear a windy noise from the suction (This was as soon as we entered the room, not something that happened after flushing). I immediately worried that we’d have problems all week. We called stateroom maintenance (there’s a button on the phone). I was very impressed with how quickly someone arrived – I’d say 5 minutes at the most. He took off the panel in the highway and fixed everything from there. We didn’t have any other problems for the rest of the week, thank goodness.

[donovan52]

Day 2: St. Thomas:

 

We woke up around 7:15 and grabbed some fruit and yogurt from the Windjammer to eat on our balcony for breakfast. We did great both weeks to eat fairly light breakfasts.

 

 

Since we had two members of our group who had never been to St. Thomas, we decided to head to Magens Bay first thing. The taxi dispatcher tried to convince us to go to Coki beach instead so we could snorkel and rent jetskis, but we weren’t really looking for that today. We’ve been to Magens, Coki, and Sapphire before and like all of them. We paid $8pp for the taxi to the beach. There were hardly any people there when we arrived – maybe half a dozen. We set up at a picnic table near the entrance and washrooms.

 

We were disappointed, however, to find out that due to a breach of the mangrove pond, swimming was not recommended for another day or two. Had we known this, we definitely would have picked another beach, but we weren’t prepared to spend another $50 to get to a different beach. We were later told that although the pond had breached, it was a few days prior and swimming was fine now. This didn’t really make us feel much better (and we spoke to a local who said they would not be getting in the water that day – that was all we needed to hear) so we enjoyed a nice walk and some lounging before just taking a taxi back to the ship. Very disappointing. When I arrived home I found an article on the St. Thomas Source website (http://stthomassource.com/content/news/local-news/2014/12/07/magens-bay-runoff-forces-raising-yellow-flag). Basically, excessive rains caused runoff to go into the bay and the beach ended up closed to swimmers Friday (we were there Sunday). The article says that they weren’t charging admission Sunday but we definitely paid when we went in.

 

 

 

 

 

[donovan52]

 

This is why swimming wasn’t recommended:

 

 

When we arrived back at the Cruise pier, we roamed through the shops. I bought two little bottles of Cruzan rum – passionfruit and key lime. I love finding new kinds that we can’t get at home. We always keep our eyes open for a chocolate and coconut liqueur called Chococo (from St. Croix but we bought it in St. Thomas about a dozen years ago). Sadly, I don’t think it’s made anymore.

 

Back onboard, we grabbed some lunch at the Windjammer (they had very good fish and chips for lunch today – not proper chips, if that’s what you’re looking for, but the fish was much better than I expected). We sat in the covered outdoor area at the back – what a great spot! Very comfy chairs and not too hot despite being outside, since it is all covered and it was shady.

 

 

 

After lunch we had a nap then headed to the solarium to read for a bit. We had a swim in the main pool before getting ready for dinner (tonight was the first formal night). We went back to the Schooner bar before supper for some drinks.

 

[donovan52]

 

 

You can see the bar in the background of this pic – the Solarium café was on the other side:

 

 

Earlier in the morning, we made a 6:00pm reservation for My Time Dining by calling from our room. We had a great time – much better service than Portofino! Nickie was our waiter and Franky was our assistant waiter and they were personable, funny, and efficient.

 

Bread baskets were brought to the table each night with hot sourdough rolls, cheese rolls, cheese and pumpkin seed rolls, and savory bites. For appetizers we had the banana and rum soup (good but make sure you like banana!), bay scallop gratin (this is little scallops prepared similarly to the escargot), and shrimp cocktail (at least one person had this every night and it was always good). For entrees, the filet of beef (med-rare) was better than the filet from Portofino (it is served sliced). One member of the group had the shrimp ravioli which she said was very good, a small portion, but perfect with an appetizer and dessert. Another had the Corvina filet which was a hit as well, and finally, one person ordered the duck. No complaints about any of the meals. Desserts tonight were the Bailey’s Banana Brulee – which I was happy actually tasted pretty plain and not too banana-y, chocolate sensation, strawberry cheesecake, and pistachio ice cream.

 

Our service was so good that we made a standing reservation for 6:00 at the same table for the rest of the cruise – and we actually went every night!

 

 

We skipped the show tonight – West End Broadway – in favour of a swim. The solarium pool was closed for cleaning so we went to the main pool. It was a little wavy!

 

 

We had a late snack (which we really didn’t need) at the Seaview Café. We were hoping to take it back to our room to eat on the balcony while we read a bit, but we weren’t sure if that was allowed. We asked about it when we went in and were told that we were welcome to take our order with us, but they didn’t have any takeout containers. That wasn’t a problem for us so we sat down and checked out the menu. A man in an officer uniform came to take our order and when we mentioned that we were going to take it with us he replied saying that he just delivers the food, what we do after that is up to us. It wasn’t really what he said, but he said it with such a bad attitude we felt a bit awkward. We grabbed some apple juice while we were there (it was in a dispenser) and took everything to the room anyway. It was worth it to eat in peace (it was a little loud inside). The food was good. We didn’t end up having a chance to go back again due to the strange hours – they opened mid-afternoon and we usually had lunch earlier. We read for a bit on the balcony then called it a night.

 

[donovan52]

Seaview Menu:

 

Outdoor seating at the Seaview:

[davekathy]

donovan52...keep the review and pictures coming. Excellent. We'll be back on the Adventure Of The Seas for our March/April 2015 B2B Cruise and we will also be Sailing the Jewel Of The Seas September 2015 (US and Canada Pacific Coastal Cruise).

Edited January 2, 2015 by davekathy

[donovan52]

donovan52...keep the review and pictures coming. Excellent. We'll be back on the Adventure Of The Seas for our March/April 2015 B2B Cruise and we will also be Sailing the Jewel Of The Seas September 2015 (US and Canada Pacific Coastal Cruise).

 

Thanks! Lots more to come!

The Pacific Coastal Cruise looks great! We love both ships and if we based our decision only on the ship itself, the Adventure would be our favourite, but overall I think the Jewel has taken her place in the top spot! Can't go wrong either way :)

[racerxspeedy]

Great review - following along!!

[Lisa&Neb]

Following your review as we are going on the Adventure in March. As I'm reading your review thus far, I'm assuming that you are talking about the Jewel (as far as ship information), I can't wait for the Adventure info to come.

[Agutaya]

I'm really enjoying your review. We're doing a B2B on Jewel this fall so are especially interested. Love the photos.

[gms5002]

Subscribing...thanks for the review!

[JamesEM]

Thanks for the review and photos, looking forward to more reports, thinking about going on the Adventure if we can get some decent air fares.

[donovan52]

Following your review as we are going on the Adventure in March. As I'm reading your review thus far, I'm assuming that you are talking about the Jewel (as far as ship information), I can't wait for the Adventure info to come.

 

Yes, the Jewel was week 1 and the Adventure week 2!

 

JamesEM - airfare will probably be what stops us from doing another cruise out of San Juan. Love the ships, love the itineraries...but I could have flown to Europe for what we paid to get there. It usually costs us around or just under 600$ return but this time it was nearly 900$ (and we had no choice but to pay it because United changed our flights after final payment so we had to take what was available with American...)

[usckatieh]

Great review and I love your detail! Thanks for taking the time!

[LuckiStac13*Majesty*]

Awesome review so far. That was super rude what that crew member/officer said to you in the Solarium!

Edited January 3, 2015 by LuckiStac13*Majesty*

[Wilson]

Thank you for taking the time to post review with pics. We are on Jewel 2 weeks from today. Have been trying for 3 months to get a JS or GS with no luck, but will enjoy the balcony we are in.

 

We have been back and forth on the drink package for this cruise. It's so port intensive that we don't know if it will be worth the cost and will most likely not do it.