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

[piggiepuff]

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!

 

The solarium roof was never open, not even during our sea day. I think the windjammer was open every day when we got back, but I want to say that the solarium cafe opened at 3, too. I think the food was comparable on carnival, but I liked the lido buffet better than the windjammer. Lido changed it up and windjammer didn't. The food in the dining room was wonderful. The prime rib the first night was delicious! My friend had turkey one night and said it was the best she's ever had.

[vegas7df]

Very nice review and the pictures are great. Jewel is our favorite ship.

 

Donna

[dani negreanu]

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

 

Thanks, piggiepuff, for your detailed reply. Very helpful indeed and much appreciated. Enjoy the rest of your cruise:)

[piggiepuff]

Day 6 – Barbados

 

In Barbados, we went to The Boatyard. I picked this place because of another review I read on here. We took our time in the morning, getting off the ship around 9 or so. This port was a little different than the rest because it’s also a shipyard. There were several ships there (4 or 5) and we ended up having to park in the shipyard area. There were shuttles running back and forth from the ship to the port building, though, so it wasn’t a huge deal.

 

We were able to grab a taxi right away outside the port building. The cost was $5 each for the ride to The Boatyard. We chatted with the taxi driver, who told us that gas was around $12 a gallon and milk was something like $8 (I thought she said per liter, but my husband thought she said per gallon - either way, it is expensive).

 

 

We were lucky and got there before most of the crowd, so we were able to pick some good chairs with umbrellas. There is wifi at The Boatyard, but it didn’t really reach our chairs very well and we didn’t feel like going in to the bar area to play on our phones. We signed up for the turtle snorkel right away and went into the water while we waited to be called. Definitely sign up right away, as the wait can get a bit long.

 

This was the best beach we went to, hands down. The sand was smooth and silky and soft in our toes and the water was clear and beautiful. There is a large dock in the middle of The Boatyard’s beach area and we went in the side without the water toys at first.

 

 

Snorkeling with turtles was so cool. We took a very short and slow boat ride down the beach (we could have walked, it was so close!) There were two of them in the area and they came CLOSE to you when they swam up to the top. The guides tell you right away not to chase them or try to touch them because you will scare them off and it will take them a while to be comfortable enough to return. So of course some idiot with a GoPro dives down and tries to touch one of them. Luckily, the turtle stuck around for the rest of us to watch. I was surprised that they were so close to shore where people were swimming.

 

 

With the $20 entrance fee to The Boatyard, we each got a free cocktail. We all chose the Shark Bite. Not exactly sure what was in there, but they were good. And potent. Because of happy hour in the morning, Crystal and I ended up drinking three of them each and we definitely felt it. The guys got buckets of beer to share – six beers for $15. The Shark Bites were $5 each, or 2 for $5 during happy hour. The food there was pretty expensive, though. We ordered some nachos (chips, cheese, and spicy chili) and I may or may not have eaten them all.

 

 

Matt and I attempted to climb the “iceberg” – a giant blow up climbing pyramid. It didn’t work very well. Matt climbed up easily, of course. Because of other people trying to climb at the same time I was and on the same side as me, the whole thing tipped and Matt came toppling down on top of me. I nearly lost my sunglasses, but even worse, I got a huge mouthful of salt water. Ick.

 

Crystal and I did a little snorkeling right on the beach there. There were lots of little fish around, but the bottom was so sandy and clear there wasn’t much more to see. Some guy did find a starfish and he let us hold it, though. She didn’t want to swim out to the trampoline, so Jeff, Matt, and I went out. Crystal and I went off the rope swing, which was pretty cool. I wish we’d gotten video of it, though! We asked some guys in the water why they had a blue wristband instead of the orange one we got. Turns out they were crew on the Queen Elizabeth, which was partway through a 120-day world tour. I assume the yellow wristbands were either residents or visitors staying on the island.

 

We headed back to the ship around 3 or 3:30. The Boatyard fee includes transportation back to the port, so we hopped on a shuttle and off we went. All the other riders were crew members, as they have to be back on board a half hour before the guests do. It started raining pretty good when we got back to the port and we had to wait a minute for the next shuttle back to the ship.

 

Dinner was very good – steak and lobster tails, along with the usual assortment of starters and desserts. We all left there stuffed.

 

We had planned to be at the Safari Club to watch or participate in the Family Friendly Feud game, but we took longer than we thought at dinner and we only made it for the last 5 or 10 minutes of the show. After that, we headed back down to the Centrum for the Battle of the Sexes game show. Following that, we walked up to the Safari Club once again for the adults only Quest game show, hosted by cruise director Dennis. It was very funny to watch. We played, but we were not close enough to the front to get many points.

The ship offered a package punch-card on this day to be used that day and the last day. It was $80 (came to something like $94 after their fees and whatnot) for 10 drinks. The drinks could be shared, though, so we decided to do it because the slushy and fruity drinks were around $10-12 each

[piggiepuff]

Day 7 – At Sea

 

We all slept in until around 8 or 8:30. It felt so nice! After breakfast in the Windjammer, we headed out to try to find chairs. Yeah… try being the key word. People clearly got up early to snag chairs, leaving items behind on them, and then went off to eat or do something else. It was frustrating. Eventually, we moved a couple chairs up to the second row from the pool. The shower blocked our view of the screen and the activities, but oh well, what can you do? The pool was nice but the hot tub could have been a little warmer. They had a belly flop contest in the pool, followed by a volleyball competition between guests and officers, then later they had a sexiest man competition. We spent the whole day out by the pool and ended up pretty red, even with sunscreen on.

 

 

Dinner was, once again, wonderful. Crystal really wanted to take our waiter home because he was so good at what he does! We tried one last time to get Crystal to try escargot, but she refused. She did try tiger shrimp, though (I did not).

 

 

 

We went to the Farewell Show, which included some songs by the orchestra, Dennis singing, and some of the cast singing and dancing. This was followed by a comedian, Carl Banks, for about a half hour. He was funny and interacted well with the audience. After that, Dennis and the crew thanked us and many crew members went on stage.

 

 

Our luggage had to be out by 11 p.m., so we went back to the room and packed up, keeping out what we needed for morning.

[piggiepuff]

Day 8 – San Juan

 

We got up at 7, got ready, and headed up to the Windjammer for breakfast. A lot of the food was out by the time we made it up there and they weren’t really replacing it, which was disappointing. We made our way to the Coral Theater, where our group number was meeting, and sat for about 10-15 minutes until we were called to leave. The process was pretty quick, though. We walked off the ship, found our luggage, and went through a pretty short Customs line.

 

We grabbed a taxi and headed to Old San Juan.

Today was the last day of the San Sebastian festival. The traffic was pretty bad on the way over, but there weren’t a ton of people out walking at that time. We dropped our luggage at the Aloha bar across from the piers. It cost us $24 to leave eight pieces of luggage, which we didn’t think was terrible.

 

We made our way up to Castillo San Cristobal. It was a neat fort with massive walls and lots of history. It was very hot there, so we tried to keep to the shade as much as possible. The tunnels were pretty cool and the dungeon was very interesting, with old drawings on part of the walls.

 

 

 

We decided to skip the other fort and head into the festival area. It got more and more crowded as the day went on. We grabbed a drink of pineapple juice and rum before heading to the food trucks. The boys had burritos and us girls got some super nachos. After that, we walked the aisles of the market area, where people had just about everything you could want to buy.

 

 

 

On our walk back to collect our luggage, we came across a Cold Stone and stopped for a nice cool treat since we were all sweaty and hot. After grabbing our luggage, we walked across the street and hopped in a waiting taxi for the ride to the airport.

 

 

Our driver didn’t know a ton of English, so we didn’t chat much with him. He also dropped us off a little further down than necessary at the airport, but whatever. We went up to the ticket counter and were told that we had to bring our luggage and pass it through the USDA x-ray machines before they would take it. So back we went to do that. There aren’t really places to charge your electronics in the San Juan Airport, which was a shame. Hopefully they will update that soon.

 

Our flight to Ft. Meyers was uneventful. We had an approximately 2 ½ hour layover and the options for dinner were very limited. There were two flights heading to Minneapolis, a full one leaving around 7:30 and then our flight, leaving at 9. We were told that our flight was delayed because of weather (the plane we were taking had not yet arrived because of it). We finally boarded at about 9:45 p.m. Once we got to Minneapolis, we found out that the earlier flight had also been delayed because of the weather – they ended up sitting on the runway for over an hour and a half – and they only arrived in Minneapolis about six minutes before us.

 

Because of the delay with the flights, Matt had to wait over a half hour for the tram to take him to where our car was parked. By the time we got on the road, it was 2 a.m. Matt did a great job driving home. I fell asleep for a while – I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer – but I heard Jeff talking to him, which was good, helping to keep him awake. We got home around 4:40 a.m. Thank goodness we all took Monday off!

[MOcruiserman]

Wonderful review! We were on the same cruise and had a great time too.

[easyboy]

Because of the delay with the flights, Matt had to wait over a half hour for the tram to take him to where our car was parked. By the time we got on the road, it was 2 a.m. Matt did a great job driving home. I fell asleep for a while – I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer – but I heard Jeff talking to him, which was good, helping to keep him awake. We got home around 4:40 a.m. Thank goodness we all took Monday off!

Nice to know you got home safely. Thanks again for the great review.

[davekathy]

piggiepuff...you did an excellent job with your review and pictures. Thanks for taking us along on your Cruise. Looking forward to our April Cruise on the Jewel.

[jbmrobison]

Thanks so much for the review! We are on the Jewel in April. We will be taking our kids with us. Were there many kids on the boat?

 

 

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[jenkinscb85]

Hey! Do you have an pictures of your stateroom? Thanks!!

 

 

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[piggiepuff]

I'll add some pics of the ship, too.

 

Our room (of course, this was the last morning b/c I forgot to take pics of the room when we first got there)

 

 

 

 

 

Around the pool area on sea day:

[piggiepuff]

Safari club

 

 

 

Solarium chairs

 

Solarium at night

 

interior hallway

 

wine bar

[piggiepuff]

wine bar

 

looking down from deck 6 over the centrum

 

sports court

 

artwork

 

diamond lounge

[piggiepuff]

entrance to fuel (teen club)

 

arcade:

 

 

 

hot tub at night

 

bar schedule

[piggiepuff]

casino

 

 

artwork

 

 

centrum bar from above

[piggiepuff]

centrum from above

 

guest services/shore excursion desk

 

artwork

[piggiepuff]

Thanks so much for the review! We are on the Jewel in April. We will be taking our kids with us. Were there many kids on the boat?

 

 

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There weren't a ton of kids on this cruise. I think they said something like 130-ish. One of the employees said that a couple weeks prior to this (which would have been over Christmas break), there were around 100. How old are your kids? We did see the kid areas - one night, the kids did a pirate parade around the ship. It was adorable and they looked like they were having a blast!

[easyboy]

Nice photos of ship's interior.

[Max Density]

Thank you for this well-written review! My DW and I are on this same itinerary in only 37 more days, and we can hardly wait to get out of the snow and cold. Your pictures also really helped bring this review to life. :)

Edited February 4, 2017 by Max Density
wrong# of days

[QuattroRomeo]

Thank you for sharing your cruise with us, it sounds like you had a great vacation!

 

Did anyone try any of the specialty coffees from the coffee bar? Latte-tudes I think it's called? Your food and tour descriptions were great.

[bobmacliberty]

Nice review! We did many of the same islands last summer and you definitely brought back some great memories. Thanks. We loved St. Lucia and Cosol Tours.

 

To Dani...we paid a little extra to get a private Cosol tour on St. Lucia. While we also went to the volcano/mud bath, I'm sure you can adjust a private tour any way that you want and skip that part. Really nice to come and go as you please and not need to wait for the rest of the bus. I don't recall how much extra it cost...maybe $20pp?? There were 4 of us in a mini-van.

[dani negreanu]

To Dani...we paid a little extra to get a private Cosol tour on St. Lucia. While we also went to the volcano/mud bath, I'm sure you can adjust a private tour any way that you want and skip that part. Really nice to come and go as you please and not need to wait for the rest of the bus. I don't recall how much extra it cost...maybe $20pp?? There were 4 of us in a mini-van.

 

Thanks, appreciate it. We r usually DIY people, because nice beaches we have at home too, but during this cruise DH doesn't fancy driving :)

 

I've also read your detailed review, which is very useful. And, of course, your daughters are simply beautiful.

[Obsession6457]

Thanks for this great review! There have been many complaints about the food in the MDR so I'm really happy to see your pictures and hear that you were happy! We are doing the St. Croix, St Maarten, Barbados and Grenada itinerary starting this Sunday. Weirdly it's going to be 60 degree here in Chicago when we leave.

[dogsdogs]

Thank you for the detailed review. We were on this same cruise. Next time, try breakfast in the dining room. It is so much nicer to be served. Unfortunately, the coffee isn't any better. We didn't really have a decent cup of coffee the entire cruise. The eggs benedict in the dining room was delicious.