Attempting a review of our Jewel cruise 1/15-1/22

[piggiepuff]

I've never done this before, so I guess I'll figure it out as I go and hopefully not bore you to death! I hope the pictures work! Between the four of us, we took nearly 2,000 pictures (don't worry, I won't post them all haha!)

 

This is my second cruise - the first was last year on a different line with my husband and two kids. This time around, hubby and I went with two of our friends.

 

We had a fantastic time!! I'm happy to answer any questions you have, too.

 

Day 1 – San Jan

Out flight got into San Juan airport a little ahead of the scheduled time of 6:20 a.m. We needed to kill some time before we could get on the ship, so we took a taxi to a local Denny’s. I have to say, it was the fanciest Denny’s I’ve ever been to. It was in a hotel in a nicer part of town just across from Old San Juan. Sunday mornings have BOGO mimosas, so we sipped some with breakfast. We ended up at the cruise port at about 8:30. We didn’t sleep well on the overnight flight, so nobody felt like sightseeing while dragging our luggage around. It’s a good thing we didn’t go sightseeing, too – there was some really hard rain that came through. We had toyed with the idea of renting a car for the day, but I’m glad we didn’t because most of the signs were in Spanish. We sat at the port people-watching until about 11 or 11:30, when they started taking luggage and letting people in.

 

The process was quick and easy, but we were among the very first into the building. Security was a breeze and we quickly got our sign and sail cards from the desk. There was no waiting around – the ship was ready to be boarded right away. Rooms weren’t ready until 1:30, so we ate lunch in the windjammer on deck 11 and we did some exploring around the ship. As soon as our rooms were ready, we took naps!

 

Dinner was at 6:15 for us (My Time Dining). We got a great table by the window and our waiter was very friendly. Matt got escargot and smoked fish rillettes for appetizers. I had a watermelon and raspberry soup. Crystal and Jeff had spinach salads. The rolls were very good, too. For dinner, three of us had prime rib. It was delicious. Very juicy and cooked just right. Matt had the mojo pork chops, which were good, but maybe a little bit tough. Dessert…. Oh, dessert. Crystal and I got the carrot cake and I paired mine with some pineapple sherbet. Matt and Jeff got some sort of extra extra chocolate cake with ice cream. The waiter also brought each couple a slice of the almond cake to try.

 

After dinner was muster drill, but it was pretty quick and actually right near where we were for dinner on Deck 5 anyway. We went right up to Deck 12 to watch as we sailed from San Juan. It was pretty breezy up there, but nice to watch the lights of Old San Juan as we took off. The pool screen was playing football playoffs, so the men watched that as Crystal and I took pictures.

 

After sail-away, we went to a game show in the Centrum. They seem to do a lot of activities there, but there’s not that much seating, so we realized we needed to get there early for anything else in the centrum that we wanted to go to. We ended up sitting up on Deck 5 and running up and down the stairs to play. The game was Majority Rules and it was pretty fun to play and watch.

 

After the game, we headed to the Coral Theater for the Welcome Aboard show. The cruise director (Dennis) came out and said a few words, as did the activities director (Alex). There was a little bit of band music, dancing, and then the headliner, comedian James Wing, came out. He was very funny! We laughed quite a bit. The show wasn’t very crowded at all because it didn’t start until 10:30. We got there early and had some time, so Crystal and I wandered up a few levels to the Solarium to check out their café while Matt and Jeff saved our seats. I think the Solarium Café food was basically Windjammer dinner leftovers, but we got some cookies that were pretty good. I think they could have done better with the late night snacks, honestly, but I after stuffing ourselves silly all day every day, we didn’t go up there much later at night anyway.

http://s94.photobucket.com/user/piggiepuff/media/Cruise/DSC08151.jpg.html?sort=3&o=4

[piggiepuff]

Ugh - clearly my photos aren't working. How do I get them to show up??

[JoyMouse]

I can see your photos of the the theater in the photobucket link, but like you said, not in your write-up. I post through Tapatalk, so I'm no help with hosting photos. I just wanted to say that this is a very nice start to a review and hopefully someone will be along in a bit who can help.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[wilmingtech]

In photobucket when looking at your image there is a gray circular icon that looks like a "chain" that you click on to get your links. Click in that icon and a box will pop up. In the right hand side of the box there is a list of links for the "Photo Links" Use the link that says IMG and paste it in your post.

 

-Sean

[davekathy]

piggiepuff...good job. Looking forward to reading more about your Cruise.

[cot427]

Thanks for reviewing...can't wait to read more! I sail in less than two weeks!

[easyboy]

Great start. Following.

[daze6399]

Good so far, looking forward to the rest!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[piggiepuff]

In photobucket when looking at your image there is a gray circular icon that looks like a "chain" that you click on to get your links. Click in that icon and a box will pop up. In the right hand side of the box there is a list of links for the "Photo Links" Use the link that says IMG and paste it in your post.

 

-Sean

 

thank you! i will try it right now!

[piggiepuff]

Here are the photos I messed up on first time around:

 

Coral Theater:

 

Us waiting to board

 

Dinner and dessert

 

San Juan during sail-away

Edited January 26, 2017 by piggiepuff

[piggiepuff]

Day 2 – St. Thomas

 

We had a tour booked for 10 a.m., so we had plenty of time in the morning to relax and eat. Matt went for an early run on the outdoor track and I went up to the fitness center for a Fab Abs warmup class. Breakfast in the Windjammer was okay. Not great. I wasn’t a fan of the eggs with cheese, but I usually don’t love them at buffets, so that’s nothing different. There is cereal (not boxes, but dispensers), various breads, eggs, waffles, sausage and bacon. They have an omelet station, too. They had potatoes and several different types of yogurt, fruit, and oatmeal. It was typical buffet food. It would have been nice if they had changed things up a little bit, but every breakfast was the same, and so were the lunches that I went to there. I think the thing I like least about the Windjammer was that the drinks were all poured by employees. I'd rather get my own. For breakfast, they had water, orange juice, and apple juice, along with the usual coffee and tea. The apple juice and orange juice were VERY sweet, even for me, and that’s saying a lot because I have a big sweet tooth.

 

We had pre-booked a tour with Godfrey Tours (combined with Sonny Liston Tours) for $30 each. We met at 10 a.m. at the windmill at Crown Bay port. A lady selling rum in the port gave us each a sample on our way over there. We took an open-air truck to downtown Charlotte Amalie for some shopping time. The company actually had three different departure times, giving you varying amounts of shopping time downtown. The boys bought a bottle of beer each and us girls got a bottle of some fruity drink. We got a sample of some sort of chocolate rum. I got a nice sun hat in one of the shops. In the open air market, I got a bottle koozie and a mug (note - NOTE microwave safe.... wish I'd realized before I washed mine). Crystal and Jeff got bottle koozies and a necklace. Negotiating is expected there and pretty much everywhere we went.

 

We met our tour company and took off on the sightseeing part of the tour. There were three open-air vehicles for this portion of the tour. We stopped at the Pilgrim something-or-other. It’s an old nightclub on the island. There was a nice view of the area from there.

 

We continued up the hill to Mountain Top, the highest point on the island. We got beautiful views of Magen’s Bay and the Atlantic side of the island. Supposedly, Michael Jordan has a vacation home down near Magen’s Bay. Mountain Top had a bar and a large gift shop. We spent about 20 minutes up there before heading down the other side of the mountain toward Magen’s Bay.

 

For the tour, we had three options of beaches: Coki, Sapphire, and Magen’s Bay. Our original plan was to go to Coki Beach and check out Coral World, but the tour guides said that the water was a bit rough at Sapphire and Coki. Magen’s Bay is a little more protected and they suggested that the group go there instead, also letting us know that it’s one of the top 10 beaches in the world. There is a $5/person charge to get in. We were hungry, so we ordered lunch at the restaurant there. The boys got cheeseburgers, I got a lamb gyro, and Crystal got a turkey sandwich. The cost was around $20 per couple to eat. It was very windy there, though, which made it hard to eat.

 

Matt and I did a little snorkeling at the beach, but the bottom was pretty stirred up from the wind and it was hard to see. There were three little fish that were around us for a while, but I didn’t have my underwater camera out at the time. We sat on the beach and had a drink while we waited for our tour bus to come back. The sand was brutal, hitting us from all sides when the wind whipped. The waitress said it was kind of unusual for Magen’s Bay to be so windy.

 

The trip back to the ship was fun, the driver, Sonny, played songs and sang with us. He tapped his brakes to the music on the way down the hill and sped along narrow streets, just like all the other tour and taxi drivers we encountered. The streets in St Thomas are narrow and we were all surprised at how these big trucks flew through. They also drive on the left side of the road.

 

Back on board, we attended an art talk in the Centrum at 5 for the free mimosas. The talk was actually kind of interesting, but it was a little long and we had formal night dinner to get ready for, so I snuck out a few minutes early. Jeff won a $100 toward art, but he never used it.

 

Dinner was good. For starters, I had banana and rum soup. Everyone else had the shrimp cocktail. Matt got escargot and Jeff tried it, saying it was pretty good. I had some sort of rosemary chicken and everyone else had seared sirloin. The waiter brought us a sample of the crepes and the shrimp ravioli. Dessert… again, dessert was amazing. There was a double strawberry cheesecake that we all had. Matt and Jeff also got the bittersweet chocolate cake. It seemed like every day, the waiter, Vincent, would bring extra meals for us to try. Matt and Jeff didn’t even have to order the escargot after this night – Vincent just brought it to them. Our assistant waiter, Gaudencio, was also wonderful. He would bring us our dessert coffee right away and he always brought mine half full with a kettle of hot water because it was stronger than I like.

 

After dinner, we went to the Coral Theater for the comedy show at 9. It was very crowded and we were happy that we got there early. Tip: the drink holders are meant for wineglasses and it you put a glass of water on them, you are likely to end up wearing it. Which I did after my husband knocked mine all over my formal dress. I had to run down to my room as the show started so I could throw on other clothes. The comedian, James Shelton III, was good…. I think the comedy itself was better the first night, but this guy was a showman. He was really good at impressions and he sang and played the piano for a lot of his impressions of singers.

 

After the show, we went to the Centrum for a “finish the lyrics” gameshow. It was fun to watch, but it was definitely more fun the night before when we played. This game had eight contestants from the crowd.

 

I was tired after a full day of sun and lots of food, so I headed to bed, but Crystal and Jeff went up to the higher decks to wander around a bit.

Edited January 26, 2017 by piggiepuff

[Clarea]

Very nice photos.:)

[jagsfan]

Photos came up perfectly.

No banana daiquiris at Mountain Top? They used to be really good and really potent.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[JoeRum]

Thanks for sharing. We will be on the Feb 5th sailing!!

 

JoeRum

[dng6325]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review!

[piggiepuff]

Day 3 – St. Kitts

 

This was the day we decided to “wing it.” We took our time in the morning getting up and moving. Except Matt. He went to the gym bright and early, of course. We had breakfast in the Windjammer and left the ship around 10. We walked around a little bit and then came back to the port to grab a taxi. We decided to head to Romney Manor/ Caribelle Batik. The taxi driver was very nice and pointed out several sights along the way. He said there are three medical schools on the island and a vet school. There are chickens all over the city, it was crazy.

 

 

 

We got up to the top of the hill at Romney Manor and checked out the area. There is a tree there that’s 400 years old. The estate was very pretty. The way they make the batik fabric is very interesting, too. It takes so much effort! They wax and dip the fabric something like six times (depending on the number of colors used, I think). The lady said it is the same on both sides of the fabric, it doesn’t bleed, and it doesn’t shrink. They had some beautiful examples hanging in the shop and lots of things for sale. There was a bar outside the shop and we had a wonderful drink of Ting and rum. Ting is some sort of grapefruit soda.

 

 

 

Our taxi driver had said 30 minutes, but we wanted to go see the Wingfield Estate at the bottom of the hill. We weren’t able to stop there on our way up because there was no parking available. He agreed to wait longer, but wasn’t able to drive us back down there. Apparently on cruise ship days, the road is one way in, which makes sense because the road is very narrow. There is a path down the hill, though, and we were able to walk down there and check it out. There is a smoothie shop at the bottom and we got smoothies with rum. Everything is about the rum on these islands. Crystal and Jeff got a mango one and I’m not exactly sure what Matt ordered because I was off taking pictures, but it was white and yummy (and definitely not coconut because I don’t like coconut).

 

 

On the way back to the port, we asked the taxi driver a few questions like the cost of gas (approximately $5/gallon), milk ($8-9/gallon), and an average house ($800-900,000). The cost of the taxi ride was $40 and we gave him a $10 tip for waiting extra for us.

 

We had decided to go back to the ship for lunch, so we headed up to the Windjammer and ate. We had planned on going back out to a beach, which was $4/person each way, but we decided to stay on the ship and hang out at the pool. It was pretty windy up there. Matt and Jeff joined into a bean bag toss competitions – and they were the only ones! Jeff won and he got a hat and gold medal; Matt got a hat and a silver medal.

 

We played some mini golf. Fun, but also very windy. Matt and I wanted to climb the rock wall, but it was too windy and they didn’t open it at that time. We never did make it to the rock wall during open hours, which were very limited, so that was kind of disappointing. We went down to Deck 11 and the boys played ping pong while Crystal and I relaxed with some coffee and French fries.

 

We decided to head to dinner a few minutes early and were seated right away. I had a very delicious wild berry and yogurt frappe and a BLT salad for starters. Matt had gourmet meatballs and chicken consommé. Crystal had the BLT salad and Jeff had gourmet meatballs. For dinner, Crystal and I chose the linguini and Pomodoro sauce. Jeff had sirloin. Matt chose the sea bass and shrimp. Dessert was a drunken Kaluha cake and ice cream.

 

 

After dinner, we went up to the Safari Club for the 60 Seconds or Less show, but there was a mix up with the schedule and they had a private event in there. We ended up going to the Centrum for the show. It was funny and eight different people got to play. Again, it was very crowded in the Centrum. We wanted to stay up for the 11:30 p.m. comedy show, but these long days of sunshine made us tired, so we decided to head back to our rooms after the show in the Centrum.

[piggiepuff]

No, no banana daiquiris for us there. I tried one last year over at Paradise Point and I didn't love it (I'm weird, I know LOL)

[piggiepuff]

Day 4 – Antigua

 

Our tour in Antigua (pronounced by locals as Ant-EE-Guh, not Ant-EE-Gwuh) started at 9, so we took our time and headed off the ship after breakfast. We walked a short distance along the boardwalk and found our tour company, Scenic Tours Antigua, right away. This tour was $38 per person, including the beach time (it was $33 without beach time). We were on an air-conditioned bus with free wifi for the day.

 

 

Our guide, Sean, was very knowledgeable about the island. I think he was the owner of the company. We drove through the city of St. John’s and headed out across the island. He stopped at a little roadside stand and bought pineapple for the group (they were so tiny - it was cute!). We got to see several different types of fruit, too, including a Sour Sop and a Sugar Apple. We made several stops overlooking various parts of the area, including Shirley Heights.

 

 

 

We headed down into Nelson’s Dockyard, which is a quaint shopping and dining area. We tried a very strong rum punch (courtesy of our tour guide) and bought some bakery items. We then headed to a beach for about an hour and a half of free time. The beach was very nice and there were shells everywhere. While snorkeling in the swimming area, Matt found an amazing conch shell, but we weren’t able to take it with us.

 

We asked Sean about the price of gas, and I believe he said it was around $5 or $5.50 a gallon. Sean told us that Antigua has 365 beaches, all of which are public. He said that even though there are resorts right on the beach, anyone can still go and sit on the beach, as long as they don’t use the resort’s chairs and umbrellas.

 

Back on the boat, we had a full evening planned. We got ready for dinner early and went up to country music trivia in the Schooner Bar with Emelio as host. It was fun and took about 20-25 minutes to play.

 

We headed to the Tides for an early dinner. It was really nice to get in there before the crowds arrived and we were able to chat with our waiter, Vincent, and his assistant, Gaudencio. They told us they were going home to India for two months on our debarkation day after seven months at sea. Gaudencio told us that he works seven days a week, a minimum of 10 hours a day, starting with lunch in the Windjammer, followed by dinner in the dining room. For seven months straight. We were again spoiled at dinner with the delicious choices. I had the fruit medley and chicken cordon bleu. Crystal also had the fruit medley and a large steak. Jeff tried the duck and the escargot for his starters and Matt had the crab cake with escargot. They both had the chicken cordon bleu, as well. Vincent also brought us a pasta with beef to try. For dessert, Crystal and I each had a delicious low fat strawberry trifle. The boys tried the jaffe cake.

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we played classic rock trivia in the Schooner Bar. Jeff nailed it, but we only got 17 out of 19 and there was someone with 18 so we lost. Following that, we went to the Centrum and played the Puttin’ on the Hits game, where they gave out of ton of prizes, including a Barbados tour, watches, and light-up glasses, and of course the usual hats and keychains. It was very loud in there with everyone yelling out the answers – and extremely crowded, with people on decks 5 and 6 playing along - but Dennis the cruise director was very fun to watch.

 

We played bingo in the Coral Theater next, but we were slightly disappointed in the game. It was literally one game for a prize of $500, but it cost $22 to play. Multiple people cried out bingo at different times because they weren’t paying attention to what the game was (the outside square) and thought they only had to get regular bingo.

 

Right after bingo, we watched the Love and Marriage game show, which was very funny! That took around an hour and it was worth staying up late for. They did replay the show on TV later, but it was very funny to be there and watch it. The oldest couple, together over 50 years, won. All the couples got a gift basket of prizes and the winners got a bottle of champagne and a free set of bamboo sheets (which are not cheap).

[piggiepuff]

A few more picture from Antigua

 

 

 

[piggiepuff]

Day 5 – St. Lucia

 

Our day on St. Lucia was amazing. I think the only bad thing we experienced was the winding roads going up and down the hills, which made us all feel a bit icky by the time we got back to port. We got up around 7 and got ready, ate breakfast, and headed off the ship as soon as the captain announced the okay. We found our group right away, Cosol Tours, and just waited for the rest of the group. We split up into multiple vans. In our van, there were 11 of us and our driver, Bumpy. He told us that 65-70% of St. Lucians go by nicknames and assured us that his was not because of his driving. He did tell us that the tour owner’s nickname as a child was Cosol (which is another name for the Sour Sop) and that’s where the name of the company came from. I guess he would pick the Cosol for this mother to sell when he was a boy.

 

We drove through the city of Castries and Bumpy gave us some historical information and pointed out sights along the way. While I found it interesting, I will admit that most of the information did not stick, as I was so busy watching the sights. St. Lucia is very mountainous and the roads are windy. We went along the west coast of the island, which Bumpy said is something like 27x14 miles. Gas is about $4.50/gallon. We also found out that bananas are $8-10 a bunch, which is a large amount of bananas. What we would call a bunch is probably about half of what they call a hand. The bananas here are smaller and they grow year-round.

 

 

We stopped a couple times throughout the tour for overlooks and photo ops. We also stopped at a local stand and tried a banana, which they call a sugar banana. We also got to sample banana ketchup and banana & honey BBQ sauce. Further along, we stopped at a building overlooking the area and had a large breakfast of finger foods. There was fruit, including the Sour Sop, pineapple, and mango. They had banana cake, Johnny Cakes, fried plantains, saltfish acra, sugar cane, and lots of other stuff.

 

 

We then went to the Toraille Waterfall. It was very pretty and we had the opportunity to walk under the falls in a very shallow pool. It was really cold and the water pounds down pretty hard, but it was worth it.

 

 

After that, we headed down to the beach. On the way there, Bumpy stopped off and bought some locally made cookies for us to eat there. We took a water taxi from Soufriere (which translates to “smell of sulphur”) around to a beach between the Pitons. There was a fancy resort there, Sugar Beach Resort, and you could rent chairs if you wanted, but the cost was $50. On one side of the dock, there was an area to swim or lounge on the beach. On the other side, there was a snorkeling area that was full of fish and coral. Crystal and Jeff lounged on the beach and Matt and I spent the entire time snorkeling. Bumpy had given us a banana to use to feed the fish and boy did it make them swarm! It actually kind of freaked Matt out how close they came to him. The snorkel area is very large and we saw a ton of fish there. After an hour, we took the water taxi back to our tour guide and van. The guys liked the boat ride because it was fast. One of the guys on the boat, clearly not used to boating, stood up and ended up falling over and hitting his head on the edge.

 

After this, we headed up to the volcano and mud bath at Sulphur Springs. The water is very hot and black/gray. After we got wet in the little pool, we stepped out and slathered on the light gray mud. We also put the black mud on once the light gray dried. Bumpy used our camera and took some awesome photos of us. Once we were all dry, we hopped back into the small pool and rinsed off. After we were done, we walked back up and across the road to check out the volcano.

 

Following the volcano, we went back to the building that we had breakfast at and got an afternoon snack of hot bread and cheese. Throughout the day, we were given many drinks. They offered us all we could drink of rum punch, beer, soda, and water. The cost of this tour was $75, the most expensive one we did, but it was worth it. The food and drinks were all complimentary and all of the entrance fees were included, as well.

 

Back on the ship, dinner was again wonderful. Some of the waiters came and sang Happy Birthday to me, which was nice. It seemed like there were at least 2 or 3 every night. Our table neighbors were sang to for their anniversary, too. Between us, we ordered French onion soup, a cold soup (pineapple maybe, I can’t remember), and some sort of Tapas. We had chicken, turkey (Crystal and Jeff raved about the turkey for days), fish, and Angus sliders. We had a sampling of desserts again, including a Williams Pear dessert, which we thought tasted like oreos.

 

We weren’t too impressed with the nighttime activities, so we didn’t really do much other than wander the ship. It felt like all the good activities were crammed into one night and then other nights were not as interesting to us. We did each get $5 in free play at the casino, but the machines that would allow promos were very limited. Matt and I did go to the Solarium and briefly went into the pool and hot tub, but Matt was still feeling a little motion sick from the tour and the water was sloshing around, so we didn’t stay long.

[piggiepuff]

More St. Lucia pictures:

 

volcano:

 

mud bath:

 

beach:

 

Soufriere and the Pitons:

 

view of the port:

[dani negreanu]

Thank you for taking the time to do such an entertaining and detailed review.

 

I keep reading reviews in order to decide how to spend the day in St. Lucia. I'd like to see the Pitons, but, since the Dead Sea is a mere 2 hours drive from my house, I'm not interested in the mud baths, and it seems that all the tours go there....

 

Anyway, my questions are --

 

Did Bumpy wait for you while you were snorkeling at the beach?

 

Was the water taxi included in the tour's price?

 

Thanks again, Dani

[easyboy]

Enjoying your review. Nice photos.

[OntarioTraveller]

Great review. We are on the same ship and itinerary in 4 weeks so very interested as this will be our first time on a RC ship.

Was the solarium roof ever open during the cruise?

What were the food options for snacks when coming back from port (I think the Windjammer would have been closed?)?

I notice you have previously been on a Carnival cruise. How generally did the food compare?

Thanks for posting all the pictures. The food looks great despite the sometimes not so great reviews!

Edited January 28, 2017 by OntarioTraveller

[piggiepuff]

Thank you for taking the time to do such an entertaining and detailed review.

 

I keep reading reviews in order to decide how to spend the day in St. Lucia. I'd like to see the Pitons, but, since the Dead Sea is a mere 2 hours drive from my house, I'm not interested in the mud baths, and it seems that all the tours go there....

 

Anyway, my questions are --

 

Did Bumpy wait for you while you were snorkeling at the beach?

 

Was the water taxi included in the tour's price?

 

Thanks again, Dani

 

Dani, we weren't at the mud baths for a long time, so you could probably just explore the area if you didn't want to go in. Yes, bumpy waited back in soufriere for us while we snorkeled (I think you have to bring your own snorkel, but I'm not positive. I didn't pay attention to whether or not you could rent them because I had my own). The water taxi was included in the tour price