Just off Jewel of the Seas 3/5 - 3/11

[Max Circus]

Sorry for the double post.

 

Something else you may want to consider is the Murder Mystery dinner. I don't think they always have this on every cruise. Our was at Portofino's on Wednesday night. Very enjoyable - a little cheesy at times but was amusing - especially when one of the performers forgot their lines.

 

It included champagne and hor deuvres at the Safari Club followed by dinner at Portofinos with unlimited white or red wine. You had a choice of tiger shrimp (scampi I think) or filet with a wine sauce.

[macnbc]

Max was right about the crepes. They were no cost and available from about 12 PM to midnight.

 

On the murder mystery dinner, I believe it was about $50 a person, although I didn't participate on our cruise.

[johnbob7]

Thanks again Max. I had already targeted for the Mystery Dinner based on your prior comments and others. Now I'm sure it would be of interest.

 

And crepes too..........:o

 

Thanks,

 

bobj

[bettylou5]

We sailed on the Jewel with Macnbc and his travel companion. (It was so good to meet you guys after talking here beforehand.)

 

Our trip on the Jewel was wonderful! The service was excellent, the room was beautiful and comfortable. We asked our stateroom attendant for the egg crate mattress pads as soon as we got on the ship and we both slept like babies every night. After we sat on our balcony with hot chocolate watching the moonlight on the water and the shooting stars.

 

I highly recommend Chops Grille. Make your reservation right away when you board because they will fill up very quickly. We had made a reservation for Friday night and they called and asked if we would mind changing to Thursday as they had a very large party to accomodate Friday night and needed to serve a restricted menu. We agreed and they gave us a great window table where we watched the sun set while we ate filets the really did melt like butter on the tongue.

 

The hardest thing for me about the cruise was eating...there was so much food!! I'm not used to that and felt like I fairly rolled to my room after the shows that we watched each night. And the shows were great too! We particularly enjoyed Las Pampas Gauchos...4 people from Argentina who drummed and danced and also made us laugh.

 

Our shipmates were delightful! I really enjoyed meeting Macnbc and his travelling companion...(nice singing!!) Karaoke was a blast! Our dining room staff were so attentive and pleasant as well.

 

The only thing I have to say that it isn't glowing is that the bar staff and those serving drinks in the Coral Theater were kind of rude when they found that we weren't drinkers. I didn't appreciate rolling eyes and snorts when I asked for a soft drink. (Don't buy the soda package...it's not worth it! Two people really don't drink $89 dollars worth of soda or juice in 6 days...at least we didn't.)

We can't wait to cruise again and definitely would pick the Jewel of the Seas.

[bettylou5]

I'll second what he said. Try the crepes in the Solarium, you won't regret it. Well.. you might after you look at a scale.

 

Oh, yes! The crepes are too good...I had one filled with strawberry stuff and topped with whipped cream every day. Now...why did I gain 3 lbs on this trip again? Hmmm.....;)

[Magicat]

Only 3 lbs?!?!? Sorry we didn't meet,glad you had a great cruise! One thing that we should warn everyone about is on the 7th deck forward on the port side there is a ramp in the floor. My DW tripped on it almost everytime she walked up the hall way. Keep your eyes open for that!!

[RevSmith]

When is your review coming out.

[mjready2go]

We will also be on this cruise on the 19th. I am so excited and I don't know how to finish out the rest of the work week.

 

Thank you so much for the information. My friends keep laughing at me because every time I read a good review about something I write it down and tell them we have to try it. Like the crepes!!! I can't wait.

 

This is my first cruise and I'm very nervous. The worst part is I am leaving my 2 1/2 year old son with my mother-in-law and I know I will go crazy missing him.

 

We have scheduled many excursions but the one I am looking forward to the most is Ivan and David in Costa Maya. I have heard only good things about that tour. We are also big Parrotheads so we are going on the Trails of Margaritaville tour.

 

JWMom - See you there!!!!!:D

[JudyOh]

Ivan and Davids tour was great! They are both very nice. They grew up on the ruins site and Ivan's family was the last family to leave. Their first hand knowledge is wonderful. You will enjoy the tour.:)

[macnbc]

When is your review coming out.

 

That's up to the site at this point. I submitted it two days ago.

[bettylou5]

We will also be on this cruise on the 19th. I am so excited and I don't know how to finish out the rest of the work week.

 

Thank you so much for the information. My friends keep laughing at me because every time I read a good review about something I write it down and tell them we have to try it. Like the crepes!!! I can't wait.

 

This is my first cruise and I'm very nervous. The worst part is I am leaving my 2 1/2 year old son with my mother-in-law and I know I will go crazy missing him.

 

We have scheduled many excursions but the one I am looking forward to the most is Ivan and David in Costa Maya. I have heard only good things about that tour. We are also big Parrotheads so we are going on the Trails of Margaritaville tour.

 

JWMom - See you there!!!!!:D

 

You will have such a great time! Try not to worry, I do the same thing, especially when I encounter a new experience. Our trip was so wonderful. If you have printed out your Set Sail Pass and have all of your travel documents right at hand then you won't have any trouble with boarding. RCL has it down pretty well. After that just wander around and enjoy everything. Do try the crepes in the Solarium and if you can have a massage in the spa. I hope that the weather is as good for you as it was for us.

Wow, I'm almost as excited for you to go as I was for myself. ;)

[mjready2go]

Thanks Bettylou5!!! I think the people at work just want me to go so that they can stop hearing about it. I will stop obsessing over it.......for now.

 

Even though I haven't really posted much on here, this site has helped me out so much. When I get back, I will make sure to post our experience.

[JWMom]

 

JWMom - See you there!!!!!:D

 

Hey! Thanks for the shout out! We are SO excited-what deck are you on? Also, did you book your own excursions or are you using the ship's? What are you doing in cozie? I've enjoyed reading this thread and getting more info!!! We're almost there!!!! Thanks!

[mjready2go]

We are on Deck 9. There are 7 of us split between 3 rooms.

Since this is our first cruise, we booked most of our excursions through the RCCI with the exception of Ivan and David in Costa Maya. We booked the Buffett tour in Key West, Ivan and David in Costa Maya and the Grand Caymen highlights tour. I didn't want to book tours that were long because I also wanted to do my own thing. In Cozumel, we are going to wing it. I wanted to possibly get to a beach or do some shopping. Also, since our return flight isn't until 7pm we booked the Seminole Hard Rock tour on the last day. We figured it will kill a few hours.

 

What are your plans? I am just so anxious, I can't contain myself. One more day of work!!!!

[McDebbie]

We'll be sailing in October out of Boston and since this is the first time we have had to fly to a port I am trying to refine the packing. Normally I take one of those bathroom shelf stick on things to hold my shampoo, conditioner, etc - can you tell me if there is a place already in the shower to hold these items? Also, does the shower have doors or the dreaded attacking curtains? We've booked a balcony cabin, are the doors sliders or in/out types? Are there bed side drawers/nightstands or just tables? And if drawers, do they lock? Thanks for all you input, we are so excited!

[bettylou5]

We'll be sailing in October out of Boston and since this is the first time we have had to fly to a port I am trying to refine the packing. Normally I take one of those bathroom shelf stick on things to hold my shampoo, conditioner, etc - can you tell me if there is a place already in the shower to hold these items? Also, does the shower have doors or the dreaded attacking curtains? We've booked a balcony cabin, are the doors sliders or in/out types? Are there bed side drawers/nightstands or just tables? And if drawers, do they lock? Thanks for all you input, we are so excited!

 

We had a balcony stateroom on deck 8, starboard toward the bow. It was a wonderful location and a great room.

 

The shower has sliding doors that curve, so you're in a little circle. The doors pull from each side and meet in the middle. There is space provided in the shower for shampoo and stuff and there is also a shampoo dispenser on the wall in the shower. It says conditioner/shampoo...I kept trying to figure out if both of those products were in the dispenser as it seems to have 2 little sides but I think since there's just one button to push they mean conditioning shampoo. The side mirrors in the bath room open (or at least one does, can't remember if both do because we only needed the one side) and there are shelves with little rails for your stuff.

 

The vanity area has a center drawer, like a desk, and 3 drawers on either side. We discovered, the last day of the cruise, that what look like just beveled side mirrors open also for more storage.

 

There are nightstands with a couple of drawers. None of the drawers lock that I can recall but it wasn't necessary. You'd have to hit some pretty rough seas for these things to open up. There are shelves above the TV and that's also where your safe is located.

 

In the closet there are cubbies in the center, hangers on each side and a shelf above. We had plenty of places to stash stuff.

 

You all have a great time! And don't forget those crepes in the Solarium...you can get them midday as well.

[bettylou5]

I would suggest to all that you take some kind of motion sickness medicine along for the tender rides - at least if you plan to tender to the mainland when you make port at Cozumel. Cozumel has sustained so much damage from Hurricane Wilma that you must tender either to the island or the mainland if that's where your excursion is. We did the dolphin swim at Puerto Aventuras which is a private marina on the mainland. The tender ride was about 45 minutes and that boat was rockin' and rollin'. The bow of the tender is flat so you hit every wave and kind of do a bobbing up, sinking down, sideways thing. Mecclazine was a great asset. My husband and I both took some before we mustered in the theater for our excursion...we were really glad we had.

My doctor wasn't keen on the patch since it delivers medicine into your system constantly and, unless you're bothered badly by motion sickness normally, you don't really need it. The motion of the ship is so slight, even at full speed, that it never bothered either of us. But the tender is another ball of wax.

[macnbc]

To expound a little on what Bettylou said and to answer your questions, the balcony door is a slider. The nightstand table drawers are pretty tiny so I would put your larger things in the desk drawers.

 

Only the left-hand side mirror in our stateroom opened as a medicine cabinet, the right-hand one is just a regular mirror. I kept joking that the shower looked like a transporter from Star Trek with the cylindrical doors. That is a shampoo/conditioner combo dispenser in there, so unless you have some sort of special shampoo you use, you shouldn't need to bring it. Bar soap is also provided for the sink. And yes there are 2 small little racks in the transporter/shower to put stuff on.

 

The safes in the rooms are numerical code, not credit card. One annoying thing I figured out with ours is you have to hold the door shut while its locking or it might pop back open.

 

Don't sweat the small stuff too much, you're going to have a great time!

 

One thing I learned about having a balcony cabin though.. don't open the cabin door if the balcony door is open. It turns into a scene from The Wizard of Oz pretty quickly.

 

Auntie Em! Auntie Em! It's a twister!

[McDebbie]

Thank you both so much! I love Star Trek so will have to get DH to take my picture in the transporter. ;) The reason I was asking about a locking drawer was to lock up the cameras when we don't want to haul them around. I guess we could always lock them in our luggage.

Thanks again and I won't forget those crepes!

[macnbc]

The cameras will probably fit in the safe. However I left mine out without a problem.

 

(If someone steals it, its pretty easy to figure out who did, and its not like they're going anywhere..)

[McDebbie]

One other question, does RCL provide robes for passengers in the balcony cabins? It would be nice if we didn't have to pack those.

[macnbc]

I believe only if you're high up on the Crown & Anchor chain of command do you get robes outside of suites. We sure didn't.

[bjd3563]

>As far as Norwalk goes, I don't know of any incidents that occured on-board the JOS. However, we sailed out of Ft Lauderdale the same day as the Splendor of the Seas and we heard that they did have an outbreak on-board. We were in port with them at Costa Maya and all of the sanitation stuff on the JOS was stepped up that day as a precautionary measure.<

 

I was on same cruise and loved her as well but the ship that had norwalk like virus in Costa Maya was Grandeur of the Seas, not Splendor. Fortunately it did not seem to "come aboard" the Jewel.

[JWMom]

Can you recent cruisers tell me which nights are formal nights? (on 6 night cruise)-we leave on Sunday-YEAH!

[JWMom]

We are on Deck 9. There are 7 of us split between 3 rooms.

Since this is our first cruise, we booked most of our excursions through the RCCI with the exception of Ivan and David in Costa Maya. We booked the Buffett tour in Key West, Ivan and David in Costa Maya and the Grand Caymen highlights tour. I didn't want to book tours that were long because I also wanted to do my own thing. In Cozumel, we are going to wing it. I wanted to possibly get to a beach or do some shopping. Also, since our return flight isn't until 7pm we booked the Seminole Hard Rock tour on the last day. We figured it will kill a few hours.

 

What are your plans? I am just so anxious, I can't contain myself. One more day of work!!!!

 

Hi-sorry forgot to reply! We're down on 3-booked pretty late but it will be fine. We're doing Moby Dick Tours in GC-nothing booked yet in Coz-probably will go to Paradise Beach-DH wants to SNUBA-anyone done that? I'm just not real keen on it and not sure I want the kids to do it. No plans for Costa Maya-they're not real keen on the ruins (although I wouldn't mind)-probably just wander around Key West. I'm excited too!!