Very reduced fees on Jewel out of San Juan!

[kevlangton]

Thanks for posting. I sail in a couple weeks but was able to upgrade from balcony to junior suite for similar price, but Royal gets to choose the room. Now it's a fun little mystery to see where we end up (what room).

[lauraodonnell86]

Thanks for posting. I sail in a couple weeks but was able to upgrade from balcony to junior suite for similar price, but Royal gets to choose the room. Now it's a fun little mystery to see where we end up (what room).

 

I did the same thing for Jan 14th. It only took a day to get assigned our room. You should be able to go to "My Cruises" and click on the reservation and it should be updated on there! (y)

[Denise Ann]

It was just perfect for us. Smaller in person than what pictures/videos I've seen of identical cabins on the Jewel, but workable. Very quiet location, not even any door noise from the crew quarters door outside the room. Yes, it is some distance to the back of the ship, but walking isn't an issue with us, plus a lot of the activities we partook of; fitness center Solarium, Coral Theater, Cinema, etc. are all in the front of the ship. Liked the round shower with solid doors; roomy. The angled mirror on the left side of the sink hinges open & there is 3 shelves for toiletries. Perfect for travel size items, which I strongly recommend taking. Why? Because we bought a regular sized bottle of suntan lotion in San Juan (forget to bring it from home) & had to throw it away at the TSA check upon arrival. Save yourself the hassle & get as much trial sizes as possible. I had the metal retaining bar come loose and fall to the floor when I reached for something on that shelf. Aerted the room steward & she had it fixed. The top shelf bar is loose, but it didn't come out. Check it if you are in that cabin & have them fix it if need be. It could strike a bare foot and cause an injury. Bed not so comfortable, but they may have a mattress topper if you ask. We didn't. Room air temperature control gave us plenty of range to heat up or cool down the room. The controller is located to the left of the bathroom door. I've read in other threads of the foul toilet smell, but we didn't experience any of that. Maybe because we are at the beginning of the waste line run, so no upstream issues to contend with. On a related note, I noticed the return air plenum was right behind where the passageway door opens up. Forced air comes into the room on the exterior bathroom wall over the couch. That helps keep foul odors circulating away from the rest of the room. There was so much storage space in the room, we didn't utilize all of it. As others have stated, plenty of room under the bead to store luggage. There is a volume controller for announcements on the wall to the right of the bathroom door. We heard announcements in our room prior to sailing but once under way, we could no longer hear them fro our room speaker. This phenomenon occured in the rooms of other passengers we talked to, so ther must be some master control for that. Really liked the room decor, several notches above that of other lines that I would describe as 'Wal Mart' blandness. There was just a rich ambiance quality to the room decor that struck a right chord with me. The 2 wall lamps on either side of the bed contain a movable reading lamp. The switches on the left side of the fixture turn the wall lamp on/off, and the right side switches operate the reading lamp. That was a nice feature. It wasn't noticable at first as the sign is mounted up higher on the wall above the toilet, behind where wash towels are hung, but the sign says what towels you want changed out, leave them on the floor. I remember reading a complaint in another earlier thread that there towels weren't being changed out. If they weren't leaving them on the floor, that's probably why. The couch in cabin 9000 has a wear spot on the top front corner of its left arm. All in all, loved the room and its location. Would recommed it to anybody.

Thank you.

How was the balcony, any issues with the bridge so close?

We ‘upgraded’ too, with the nice price drop, we went from an inside to gty balcony. We were assigned 9000.

We are now waiting for them to assign our first week of a B2B.

[OntarioTraveller]

You know that you can call in once your cabin is assigned and change to any available cabin in the same category. We were assigned cabin 1000 at the very front of the ship and changed to 8578, midship.

[lauraodonnell86]

You know that you can call in once your cabin is assigned and change to any available cabin in the same category. We were assigned cabin 1000 at the very front of the ship and changed to 8578, midship.

 

You can switch cabins even when you are on a GTY?

[OntarioTraveller]

You bet!!!

Once the cabin is assigned you can switch with a phone call! Go to the UK version of RC, go through the motions of booking and all the available cabins will come up in each category. Choose one and call into the RC 800 number on your confirmation and you will be switched. Must be same category. I don’t really mention it is a guarantee, just that I would like to switch cabins.

Cabin availability does change so check back later if you wish. I changed a few times before I settled on one. A best kept secret for sure....

[lauraodonnell86]

You bet!!!

Once the cabin is assigned you can switch with a phone call! Go to the UK version of RC, go through the motions of booking and all the available cabins will come up in each category. Choose one and call into the RC 800 number on your confirmation and you will be switched. Must be same category. I don’t really mention it is a guarantee, just that I would like to switch cabins.

Cabin availability does change so check back later if you wish. I changed a few times before I settled on one. A best kept secret for sure....

 

WOW that's awesome! This is the first time we've done a GTY so I'm not really familiar with all of the ins and outs! I will try that tonight because the one we got is a connecting stateroom and I wasn't too fond of that. Thanks!

[OntarioTraveller]

Go for it, let us know how it works out.

This is my first guarantee as well, I just switched to guarantee due to the low price. I read lots on cruise critic before switching and found this out.

Again, go to the UK site to get the list of available cabins and then call in with your choice.

Booking.royalcaribbean.co.uk

[lauraodonnell86]

Go for it, let us know how it works out.

This is my first guarantee as well, I just switched to guarantee due to the low price. I read lots on cruise critic before switching and found this out.

Again, go to the UK site to get the list of available cabins and then call in with your choice.

Booking.royalcaribbean.co.uk

 

I was actually able to see the available cabins on the US site as well. There are only showing to be 4 cabins available but I may still call and see what they say. Hoping the 2nd week of our B2B comes down in price so we can get a Junior Suite for that too! (y)

[OntarioTraveller]

I would suggest you call the UK site before you call, I found the US site showed some, UK site showed all!

[Clarea]

I was actually able to see the available cabins on the US site as well. There are only showing to be 4 cabins available but I may still call and see what they say. Hoping the 2nd week of our B2B comes down in price so we can get a Junior Suite for that too! (y)

When you call, don't say the word "guarantee", just tell them you want to change to stateroom xxxx.

[Denise Ann]

WOW that's awesome! This is the first time we've done a GTY so I'm not really familiar with all of the ins and outs! I will try that tonight because the one we got is a connecting stateroom and I wasn't too fond of that. Thanks!

We also got a connecting room for our February 4th cruise. Maybe we are neighbors (7018)

oops I see you are going in January.

Edited December 6, 2017 by Denise Ann
wrong info

[Denise Ann]

You know that you can call in once your cabin is assigned and change to any available cabin in the same category. We were assigned cabin 1000 at the very front of the ship and changed to 8578, midship.

Yes I did. I called none available. I will keep watching the uk site.

[Virtopia]

We had booked flights last summer via Westjet from Toronto. This spring Westjet has gone from Sat and Sun flights to just Sat flights. We are staying a week after the cruise in a condo so will fly home Sat instead of Sunday (Westjet gave us a $300 credit due to the change). I believe Air Canada has reduced flights as well.

Definitely this is the most inexpensive cruise we have booked (in a balcony no less!) but I get that while cruise prices have dropped, flights are expensive.

On our April 1sailing there seems to be many cabins available. Wondering if they will offer cheap rates to PR residents to fill the ship?

 

They did that for my recent sailing on Adventure.

 

It was, by far, the busiest cruise I've taken. It seemed really overcrowded and I ended up spending a lot of time in the Diamond Lounge and my cabin to avoid it.

 

Usually the VCL is quiet during the day so a few of us were there - all of a sudden, about a family of 20 came up and started playing some card game at maximum volume. I escaped into the DL shortly afterwards. Nothing against the locals at all, but out of my 3 SJU cruises, this one was definitely last on my list in terms of fellow passenger behaviour.

[DaughterInGrenada]

Ahh, you read my mind Denise Ann! I was in a rush to get out the door to work this morning and thought later that I didn't say some things about the balcony. We were both fine with it. There were some comments a few months ago on another thread about the bridge making it an obstructed view and a lack of privacy where a person on the bridge could see you. Regarding the obstruction issue, I didn't feel it obstructed anything I needed/wanted to view from the balcony. Something that irritated me however, and I can't recall anyone else ever raising a fuss over this issue is; when I sit down in the balcony chair, that darn railing is right at eye level!!! This is a standard height for every balcony, so I guess people are just resigned to it. The forward side wall is curved which does block out some view onto the balcony from the bridge. Since the sliding portion of the balcony door is to the right, you can step out of it buck naked & not be seen; trust ol' fuddy-dud here, I know, I did it. There is a bracing piece of steel behind the curved portion of the hull which you could stash something on if you want to utilize it in that manner, but I'd get a pool towel wet & wipe it down; the top surface had collected dirt/sand/dust & needed cleaning; something that's gone unnoticed until me. Something else I noticed that I haven't seen mentioned before. On levels 7-8-9, the ut stairs are 16 steps to the next floor up. But, on Deck 10, there are 20 steps to Deck 11. However, the cabin ceiling height on Deck 10 is the same as the lower 3 decks. That means there's a whole lot of overhead space above the ceilings on Deck 10, I'm guessing around 2 feet. I speculate the reason for the higher space is to allow for the pool depths on Deck 11, but I'm thinking Royal Carib missed the boat (pun intended) by not offering increased cabin ceiling height, which they could charge a premium for, for taller guests. I know someone will want to respond back that economies of scale are such that the standard cookie cutter pattern for all cabins is the most cost efficient way to go when building the ship. But still...an interesting concept.

[lauraodonnell86]

I would suggest you call the UK site before you call, I found the US site showed some, UK site showed all!

 

It worked! WOOT! Thanks guys! Got to switch to a non connecting Junior Suite! He even mentioned the GTY that I got and didn't seem to have an issue with it! :D

[Clarea]

It worked! WOOT! Thanks guys! Got to switch to a non connecting Junior Suite! He even mentioned the GTY that I got and didn't seem to have an issue with it! :D

Glad it worked out. Some people are not so lucky when they mention the GTY.

[Denise Ann]

Ahh, you read my mind Denise Ann! I was in a rush to get out the door to work this morning and thought later that I didn't say some things about the balcony. We were both fine with it. There were some comments a few months ago on another thread about the bridge making it an obstructed view and a lack of privacy where a person on the bridge could see you. Regarding the obstruction issue, I didn't feel it obstructed anything I needed/wanted to view from the balcony. Something that irritated me however, and I can't recall anyone else ever raising a fuss over this issue is; when I sit down in the balcony chair, that darn railing is right at eye level!!! This is a standard height for every balcony, so I guess people are just resigned to it. The forward side wall is curved which does block out some view onto the balcony from the bridge. Since the sliding portion of the balcony door is to the right, you can step out of it buck naked & not be seen; trust ol' fuddy-dud here, I know, I did it. There is a bracing piece of steel behind the curved portion of the hull which you could stash something on if you want to utilize it in that manner, but I'd get a pool towel wet & wipe it down; the top surface had collected dirt/sand/dust & needed cleaning; something that's gone unnoticed until me. Something else I noticed that I haven't seen mentioned before. On levels 7-8-9, the ut stairs are 16 steps to the next floor up. But, on Deck 10, there are 20 steps to Deck 11. However, the cabin ceiling height on Deck 10 is the same as the lower 3 decks. That means there's a whole lot of overhead space above the ceilings on Deck 10, I'm guessing around 2 feet. I speculate the reason for the higher space is to allow for the pool depths on Deck 11, but I'm thinking Royal Carib missed the boat (pun intended) by not offering increased cabin ceiling height, which they could charge a premium for, for taller guests. I know someone will want to respond back that economies of scale are such that the standard cookie cutter pattern for all cabins is the most cost efficient way to go when building the ship. But still...an interesting concept.

Thank you, very helpful.

[lauraodonnell86]

Glad it worked out. Some people are not so lucky when they mention the GTY.

 

I didn't mention it, but he did. So I wonder why anyone would ever book non GTY with this new info that I have?!?! I can understand if someone wants a specific room but we really aren't that picky as long as we are somewhere mid ship or aft! Guess we'll be booking Balcony GTY from here on out if it saves us any money!

 

I'm shocked at the number of rooms still available for our upcoming Jewel B2B. I called and switched our room to a higher deck and large balcony for our 2nd week and there were MANY rooms available still. I've got to think it has something to do with the hurricanes. We were originally on Adventure of the Seas until it got placed in dry dock and we were booted. :loudcry: So I thought Jewel would be full from all of the people coming from Adventure. Guess things have a way of changing!

 

Thanks again for the info everyone!

[Clarea]

I ... So I wonder why anyone would ever book non GTY with this new info that I have?!?! ....

GTY options are not always offered on every sailing or on every category.

[lauraodonnell86]

GTY options are not always offered on every sailing or on every category.

 

Good to know!! Thanks Bob! You are a wealth of info!!

[OntarioTraveller]

Glad that it worked out too!

I agree, if you aren’t picky and guarantees are offered it is a good way to go. There is some risk of getting assigned an inferior cabin very close to sailing (with few choices left to switch too) or not even having a guarantee offered.

I am suspecting many PR residents on board. Our first cruise out of PR a few years ago on a carnival ship had about half Puerto Rican’s. The challenge for us with that was that they tend to travel as larger family groups meaning many, many children particularly babies, preschoolers, toddlers. They are a fun loving group, but yes, it was loud at times in the public areas.

Our April 1st Jewel cruise has many cabins available too in all categories.

[Clarea]

Also bear in mind that the guarantee assignment can come very late, beyond the point where you can make any changes.

[OntarioTraveller]

Bob, you are a wealth of information!

While you are on this thread, do you have opinions on best E2 balcony cabins on Radiance class ships? We are currently booked in 8578 (just forward of the hump) but there are lots available we could possibly switch to. Don’t want noise at night from the centre area....

Thanks!

[Clarea]

Bob, you are a wealth of information!

While you are on this thread, do you have opinions on best E2 balcony cabins on Radiance class ships? We are currently booked in 8578 (just forward of the hump) but there are lots available we could possibly switch to. Don’t want noise at night from the centre area....

Thanks!

I'd be happy anywhere near the forward elevators, or at least 8 staterooms away from the centrum.