Jewel of the Seas 10 day Panama Cruise - Just back!!!

[jdg80]

We just got back yesterday from our cruise on the Jewel. It was a great ship with a great crew! This is the first time I've ever written a review so I'm giving it my best shot. Here is the first part, I'll post more as I go. Enjoy!

 

This cruise was to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We are both in our late 20’s and have cruised several times before with Royal Caribbean. My husband is a bit of a workaholic so this vacation was also a great way to snatch him away for 10 days, it worked and we both agree that this was the best vacation that we have ever had!

 

We drove to Miami the night before and stayed at the Biltmore Hotel which is in Coral Gables and about 30 minutes from the pier. We left our car with some friends and got a ride to the pier. We arrived around 11:00am and were on the ship by 11:30am at the latest. The port was extremely well organized. We tipped the porter $20.00 and he told us that money talks and put our bags in the crate that was to be the first one on the ship, I love America! It worked too; we had our bags by about 3:00pm that afternoon. We are platinum so we were able to walk right up to a desk get our Sea Pass cards and head right on to the ship, we never had to stand in line, it was great!

 

That morning we put our swimsuits in our carry on bag so we able to get changed and head straight for the pool and a fruity beverage. After a dip we headed to the Windjammer for some honey stung chicken and such. We were able to get in our room at 1:00pm and almost immediately met our stateroom attendant, Ali Mas from Indonesia. My husband had ordered, as a surprise, the Grand Romance package so we had champagne and strawberries upon arrival. Just a note many of the other things from the package we had to kind of hunt for and ask Ali Mas about, once asked for they were always delivered but had to be on top of it. The rest of the afternoon we spent doing the normal exploring, muster drill, and drinking champagne on our balcony for sail away!

 

When we arrived at the dining room that night we were in for a real experience! We were second seating at table 528, our waiter was Sergio from Romania and assistant waiter was Monica from Peru. I can not say enough wonderful things about these two! They were by far the best wait staff that we have ever had. Because the cruise was 10 days you really got to know the crew and it was a great experience. Our dinner mates were a bit of a surprise; we had a couple from Guadeloupe and a family of four from France. Needless to say there was a bit of a language barrier as they only spoke French with the two gentleman speaking only bits of English. Sergio wanted to move us to a different table but we assured him that we were fine and it turned out to be a great experience! Take a chance you never know, we definitely made some friends that we hope to stay in contact with.

 

Let me put a bit of a note in here about me and my husband. Being that we are both in our 20’s and on a ship with many retired people you would think we would be up late most evenings doing all of the great activities on the ship, right? WRONG!!! We were both in bed shortly following dinner almost every night. We never went to a single show or activity after dinner so unfortunately I can’t really answer any questions on those things.

[dancing dragon]

Panama Canal is one on my list of cruises to do..

 

one thing great about cruises is you can do as little or as much as you want... glad you had a good time.

 

P.S. Happy Anniversary!!

[snausman]

jdg80, sounds like you had a wonderful time. Loved reading about the Panama Canal as we are going the end of the month. Do you have a clues or tips on where to be on the ship during the transit thru the canal?

 

Laura

[Minybear]

Thanks for your review of the Jewel going to Panama. We are currently scheduled to do this 10 night cruise on the Jewel for 4/16/2010. How was the ports? What excursions would you recommend? Any tips? Photos?

 

Unknown at this time if we will keep this cruise due to we were originally scheduled to do a Pacific Northwest cruise on the Jewel for 3/2/2010 that was canceled last week by RCCL. So I need lots of info on this type of cruise so I can switch gears and get excited about what we should expect on this cruise.:)

 

So any information on this would be highly appreciated.:)

 

Thanks.

[jdg80]

Our first full day on the ship was a sea day. We pretty much just slept in and relaxed by the pool most of the day. This day was our actual anniversary so we had a couple’s massage at the spa. The spa was lovely it sits at the front of the ship looking out onto the bow. The water was a bit choppy that day so you could hear stuff moving around during your massage but not enough to disturb me! The only thing disturbing during the massage was that my husband fell asleep and started snoring! I finally yelled at him that while he was relaxed he was disturbing my massage, the girls giving the massage both giggled. After the massage they did the typical try to sell you stuff but we told them that we really weren’t interested, we didn’t feel pressured at all. That evening we had reservations at Chops Grille at 8:00pm. They sat us right next to a window where we had Raj from India as our server. The experience was great! We really enjoyed all of the food. Neither of us thought that the steak was great, but good, the rest of the food was excellent. If you go you have to have the mud pie for dessert, oh my God that stuff was heavenly!! We ended up going back to Chops another night because we the menu in the dining room was heavy on seafood which neither one of us are crazy about. We noticed that most of the cruise Chops seemed pretty slow, like I said we were able to call and get a reservation within the hour. We also found out that they really read the comment cards that you fill out at the end of the cruise. If the server got a good review they were given additional time off, we will never leave the ship again without filling out the survey.

 

We woke up early the next morning just as we were sailing into Labadee and all I can say is WOW! Okay, I have a lot more to say than just wow but you know what I mean. It was gorgeous and looked like it should be a movie set or something the way the mountains just come out of the water like that. We grabbed a quick breakfast in the windjammer and then off to deck two. A note about getting off the ship if you are getting off at the midship exit you can only use the midship elevators to get there. If you go down to deck two using the forward elevators there is no way to walk through the corridors as it is closed off for crew only. We were one of the first tenders to the island so we pretty much had our choice of chairs. We started out walking across to the far side of the island but we decided it was too choppy and came back to what I called the “cove” side. Something different from Coco Cay was that there were men there who moved your chairs to where you wanted them but they expected to be tipped. We spent the day at Barefoot Beach. We rented floating beach mats for $12.00 a piece and had a great day. As others have previously said Hideaway Beach is closed while they are working on the new pier that can accommodate two ships. I really hope that two ships is “just in case” because I couldn’t imagine more than one on the island, it seemed pretty crowded with just the Jewel in port. We did browse the craft market but didn’t buy anything. We also rode the tram around for a little tour which was neat, unfortunately our driver didn’t tell us anything like we saw on the other tram. The food was fine, nothing great nothing bad, but it hit the spot. Both of us thought that we would be just fine staying there the whole trip. We came back on probably the second to last tender and then we sailed away.

 

One other thing that was neat at Labadee was seeing a lot of the crew there also enjoying the day. In fact we felt that we saw more of the crew enjoying the ports on this cruise than ever before. I’m sure there are some people who would be turned off by this but I had no problem sharing the beach or anything else with them. It made them that much more endearing to us to see them being “normal people”.

[jdg80]

dancing dragon - Thanks for the well wishes!

 

Snausman - We stood at the very front of deck 12 as we were going through but it also looked like the helipad on deck 5 would be neat too. I'll post more about the Canal transit as I get through the laundry mounds!

 

Minybear - I would highly recommend this cruise, we really enjoyed all of the ports. Keep checking back as I plan to write a full review of each port we went to and I'll try to figure out how to post pictures!

 

Thanks for reading! It's so fun to have people respond to your posts, I'm such a nerd I know!

[Minybear]

dancing dragon -Minybear - I would highly recommend this cruise, we really enjoyed all of the ports. Keep checking back as I plan to write a full review of each port we went to and I'll try to figure out how to post pictures.

 

Thanks. :)

[Son of a Cruiser]

jdg80 - Thanks for your review - we are boarding the Jewel next week for the same cruise!! I will be following your review and may have a few questions after you finish. Thanks again for taking the time to do this review.

[snausman]

Snausman - We stood at the very front of deck 12 as we were going through but it also looked like the helipad on deck 5 would be neat too. I'll post more about the Canal transit as I get through the laundry mounds!

 

 

 

Thanks for the tip. Looking forward to more of the review.

 

Laura

[rosecitycruisers]

Waiting for the next installment...we are booked on the 4/24 PC cruise. Did you have a M&M get together and if so where did they hold it??

[Gracie115]

Our 10 night Jewel cruise in November was also wonderful, so glad you enjoyed your's. We can't wait to find another cruise on her. The crew is the best we have experienced.

[safirebebe]

happy anniversary :) great review so far..

 

looking forward to reading the rest!

[jdg80]

The next day was another sea day and I could definitely tell that we were at sea! The ship was really rocking and rolling all day even with the blue skies. Every time I went back to the room that day I would turn the TV to channel 40 to see where we were, it became my obsession to know where we were and then I would try and tell my husband in my best “Captain’s voice”. This day all day we were in the middle of the Caribbean Sea! It was the only time I used my Bonine.

 

Tuesday morning we sailed in to Cartagena, Colombia, we’re not really sure why but it seemed kind of smoky and smelled like after the Fourth of July. Once the sun came up however it cleared. You dock at a regular container ship area and have a bit of a walk to get out. You walk through a little gift shop before going back outside. Once outside there were several people there selling tours and taxis. We ended up going with a guy named Victor on his bus with about 8 or 10 other people. I believe it was $20.00 per person for the tour but I am going to double check with my husband. The bus was air conditioned and we felt very safe the entire time we were there.

 

Our first stop was at the San Felipe Fortress where we got out for about 15-20 mins to take pictures and look around. Next we headed to the Dungeons to do a little shopping. Here is where we made a big mistake, we LOVED the Dungeons and the type of things that they had there but didn’t want to buy too much since we were still at the beginning of our tour and we were going to have another shopping spot. Looking back we really wish that we would’ve bought what we liked as we were unable to find the stuff again the rest of the cruise. We did however take our picture with the fruit basket lady, for a couple of bucks.

 

After the Dungeons we went on to the Old City where Victor and his wife led us around. The old city is lovely with neat architecture and beautiful flowers. The vendors here are pretty aggressive but we found that a stern NO worked just fine. There was a lady in our group who was always telling them “maybe” and “not now” and would touch the stuff and they would not leave her alone. NO was definitely the way to go. It was very hot and you do walk quite a bit in the Old City so take that into consideration when planning your activities.

 

The last thing we did was go shopping in the newer area of town. Pretty much all they have here are emeralds and diamonds so if you are not in the market for that, as we weren’t, we were disappointed to spend so much time there. You live and you learn however and the tour was a great way to spend our first time in Cartagena. If you do go there however check out the store upstairs that sells fresh coffee. We had iced coffees and they were really delicious!

 

If anyone is going to Cartagena in the next few weeks I have a huge favor to ask of you. Please reply to this post so that I can ask you, thanks!

[LisaH]

Thanks for your review. The Jewel is our favorite ship...glad you had fun.

[LisaH]

Thanks for your review of the Jewel going to Panama. We are currently scheduled to do this 10 night cruise on the Jewel for 4/16/2010. How was the ports? What excursions would you recommend? Any tips? Photos?

 

Unknown at this time if we will keep this cruise due to we were originally scheduled to do a Pacific Northwest cruise on the Jewel for 3/2/2010 that was canceled last week by RCCL. So I need lots of info on this type of cruise so I can switch gears and get excited about what we should expect on this cruise.:)

 

So any information on this would be highly appreciated.:)

 

Thanks.

 

You should switch to the 3/26/10 JOS itin. :)

[jdg80]

While my husband was napping that afternoon I went to the Coral Theater to hear a destination lecture on the Panama Canal that was real interesting. They had these lectures for Colombia and Costa Rica also but I didn’t make it to any of the rest. I’ve never noticed these on other ships but I may have just overlooked them. I would recommend attending any of these!

 

That evening we attended the Welcome Back Reception for Crown and Anchor members in the Safari Club. It was a nice reception where we met the Captain and some of the crew. They also served free champagne that was pretty tasty. The Captain spoke about the ship and our entrance to the Panama Canal the next morning. He told us that we would be arriving around 5:00am to the headwaters of the canal so we planned an early evening.

 

We woke up at 4:45am the next morning to ensure we would have a good spot for entering the canal. We were one of the first ones up on deck 12 and had a great view. I have to have a moment here. If you didn’t wake up early to get a spot right at the railing don’t expect to be right at the railing you slept in we didn’t, don’t be mad that we have a better spot than you. Okay moment over. It was amazing watching the ship enter the canal. There was someone on board using the loud speaker to narrate what we were seeing as we went through which was very helpful. We went through on the right side of the canal and there was a large car hauler that was on the left side just ahead of us. I know people always say it but you are really close to the edge of the canal!!! I mostly felt like a kid on a REALLY COOL field trip. I learned so much that I never knew before this trip, including that it is more than $200,000.00 for our ship to go through the canal each time!

 

We anchored in Gatun Lake where we boarded tenders to the shore. You could only leave the ship if you were on a ship sponsored excursion. We booked the Grand Tour of Panama which had 3 parts. First we boarded a bus that took us back to the Gatun Locks but this time you were able to watch from the observation area. There were two sets of very high stairs to climb to get to the top to be aware of. We were at the tower for about 45 mins where we watched a gigantic container ship go through the second set of locks; I think they had less room on the sides than we did! I took a neat set of pictures standing in the same place as the ship rose. We then reboarded the bus where we got our “lunch” and head to stop two. Our lunch consisted of two pieces of bread with one slice of turkey in the middle and a muffin, I would suggest eating a big breakfast! One the way to the hotel where our boats were waiting, our guide, Zunilda, pointed out stuff all along the way. Mostly we drove through the old US military areas.

 

We arrived at the Melia Panama Canal hotel where we boarded boats to the Embera Indian Village. The boats are pretty small and you are required to wear a life vest. When we arrived at the village several of the men were playing music to greet us as we walked up to the main area. We were very surprised to find how scantily clothed they all were. The men wore loin cloth type bottoms and the women wore a wrap skirt, with no top. Zunilda translated their Spanish presentation which was neat but a little long. We then were able to tour the village, shop, and take pictures. I thought that it was a neat experience; my husband didn’t believe that it was real. He thinks they only come there for the tours and don’t actually live there. Either way it was a nice afternoon.

 

Finally we took a boat ride around Gatun Lake where again Zunilda explained what we were seeing. The bus took us back to Cristobal Pier where we discovered that the ship had not yet made it back through the locks. Luckily it was there within about 30 mins. My advice is if you plan on doing a tour in Panama make sure to do one of the long tours so that you are not stuck at the pier for too long as there is not much to do. There is a shopping area at the pier with lots of souvenir type items. One more note of interest the gangway to get back on the boat at Cristobal is VERY steep, it is basically a metal ramp that leads up to deck four. I’m not sure how you would get back on if you had mobility issues.

[sea]

Thanks for all the info so far. I am going on that cruise on 3rd April and was thinking of doing the Gatun Locks and Canal Zone tour for 2 hours 15 mins. Can you go back to the ship from where you came on or you have to wait in the other place until the ship gets to there??

[jdg80]

The next day we were in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica where it was very rainy and overcast. I had previously booked a tour with JJ online whom I had found on Cruise Critic. When we got off the ship and went out to the tour area we could not find him so we asked some of the other guides to direct us. One guy tried to tell is that JJ wasn’t there today but he could give us the same tour for the same price. Another guy offered to call JJ and they directed us to the area just outside the fence where we found JJ. We were a little concerned as JJ told us that he was going to send us off with another guy who worked for him as he had not filled up his bus. He sent us off with Steven which turned out to be a great experience.

 

It was just the two of us plus Steven so we were able to spend as much time as we wanted at the different places. We started out driving to an area that the cruise tours go later in the day where we had the option to go zip lining, horseback riding, jungle tours and some other options. We opted not to go on any which was fine, the scenery on the way up there was reason enough to go it was beautiful. From there we headed to the Del Monte banana plantation, it was an off production day which meant it was slow but there was still enough going on. Steven took us out into one of the farms to tell us about the trees and some of the other plants that grew in the area. We found out that Steven used to work on the banana boats so he knew lots about the process. After leaving we did stop on the side of the road where two boys were there with sloths. We took some pictures of them holding them but didn’t want to hold them ourselves as our guide the previous day had told us to never hold them because of all of the bugs that they carry.

 

Up next were the Tortuga Canals. We went down to a more local dock area where we boarded a small boat with a driver named Alex. He could spot the most amazing things that we would have never noticed. The canal tour lasted about an hour. We met back up with Steven and headed to lunch at the beach. We ate at a neat little local restaurant at the beach where the food was excellent and very cheap! JJ must have filled up his bus because we saw him there with a group. After lunch Steven took us a lookout point up on the top of a mountain to take some pictures. We were able to see clear out to the ships in port. Costa Rica appeared to be a very poor country with beautiful scenery. All of the people we encountered there were very friendly and we never felt unsafe. We really wanted to try some of the local fruit so Steven took us to a local market downtown where he shopped and bought us some bananas that were yummy!

 

After we left our tour we browsed through the shopping area outside the port. It was set up much like the straw market is in Nassau but the people are not at all pushy. It was fun negotiating price with them. Costa Rica had many beautiful wood items for sale. We ended up buying two cutting boards and two wooden crosses all for less than $50.00. I will post Steven’s tour information up on the Costa Rica board if you are interested.

[brmoqueen]

I know the feeling of having the front of deck 12 and people pushing and shoving cuz they want ur spot....the first time we went thru, we got up at 5am to be up top........

 

Both times we did the pc, we had an aft cabin and LOVED it......this time we spent the time on our balcony with our friends next to us and 2 other couples came and partied with us.....We'd all seen it going thru at the front before so we enjoyed the aft view.

[hoytarchery999]

The next day we were in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica where it was very rainy and overcast. I had previously booked a tour with JJ online whom I had found on Cruise Critic. When we got off the ship and went out to the tour area we could not find him so we asked some of the other guides to direct us. One guy tried to tell is that JJ wasn’t there today but he could give us the same tour for the same price. Another guy offered to call JJ and they directed us to the area just outside the fence where we found JJ. We were a little concerned as JJ told us that he was going to send us off with another guy who worked for him as he had not filled up his bus. He sent us off with Steven which turned out to be a great experience.

 

It was just the two of us plus Steven so we were able to spend as much time as we wanted at the different places. We started out driving to an area that the cruise tours go later in the day where we had the option to go zip lining, horseback riding, jungle tours and some other options. We opted not to go on any which was fine, the scenery on the way up there was reason enough to go it was beautiful. From there we headed to the Del Monte banana plantation, it was an off production day which meant it was slow but there was still enough going on. Steven took us out into one of the farms to tell us about the trees and some of the other plants that grew in the area. We found out that Steven used to work on the banana boats so he knew lots about the process. After leaving we did stop on the side of the road where two boys were there with sloths. We took some pictures of them holding them but didn’t want to hold them ourselves as our guide the previous day had told us to never hold them because of all of the bugs that they carry.

 

Up next were the Tortuga Canals. We went down to a more local dock area where we boarded a small boat with a driver named Alex. He could spot the most amazing things that we would have never noticed. The canal tour lasted about an hour. We met back up with Steven and headed to lunch at the beach. We ate at a neat little local restaurant at the beach where the food was excellent and very cheap! JJ must have filled up his bus because we saw him there with a group. After lunch Steven took us a lookout point up on the top of a mountain to take some pictures. We were able to see clear out to the ships in port. Costa Rica appeared to be a very poor country with beautiful scenery. All of the people we encountered there were very friendly and we never felt unsafe. We really wanted to try some of the local fruit so Steven took us to a local market downtown where he shopped and bought us some bananas that were yummy!

 

After we left our tour we browsed through the shopping area outside the port. It was set up much like the straw market is in Nassau but the people are not at all pushy. It was fun negotiating price with them. Costa Rica had many beautiful wood items for sale. We ended up buying two cutting boards and two wooden crosses all for less than $50.00. I will post Steven’s tour information up on the Costa Rica board if you are interested.

 

do you have any photos for us to see like in webshots or picasaweb or anywhere else?

[Minybear]

You should switch to the 3/26/10 JOS itin. :)

 

No, no, no my friend. You should switch to 4/16/2010 JOS itin. :)

[Minybear]

jdg80

 

Thanks again for the review. This is just what the dr ordered. :)

[wolfcathorse]

I can’t really answer any questions on those things.

 

Can you at least say who the captain was? :D Was it Capt James MacDonald?

[hoytarchery999]

I have a question for you, was there many kids on your cruise? I'm going on the same cruise in a couple weeks and I want to know if there is going to be many other kids on a long cruise

[jdg80]

In between Costa Rica and Grand Cayman we had another sea day where the crew had lots of activities planned. The pool area was pretty crowded but we were still able to find chairs. The belly flop contest was in the afternoon which my husband entered and won! He received a medal, hat, and a bottle of champagne! It was really funny!

 

Our last port was George Town, Grand Cayman. I have mixed feelings on this stop. One the one hand the island was beautiful with amazing beaches with crystal clear water on the other hand it was very expensive and we found the people at the port very unhelpful. We got off the boat kind of late, around 11:00am so I’m guessing most of the really good tour guides were already gone but it seemed that no one was very helpful nor wanted to give a tour to only two people. We did accidentally find a very nice lady named Lorna who was getting ready to leave on a tour. She only charged us $10.00 per person, we drove around the island with a stop in Hell, the Rum Cake factory, we peeked in the fence at the Turtle Farm and then she dropped us off at Seven Mile Beach. As I said before the beach was gorgeous. She dropped us off near the Marriott Hotel where there were chairs, showers, a bar, and restaurant. The beach chairs were $10.00 a piece, more if you wanted an umbrella. Once we were ready to leave we caught a cab back to town for $5.00 a person.

 

We explored a little once we got back near the port and discovered that we should have walked further to the right after we got off the ship as we found lots to do in that area, unfortunately by that time we were short on time but we will know for next time. Whenever we make it back to GC I will definitely plan to do the sting rays, our dinner mates did this and said it was very neat. We caught the last tender back and headed north to Miami.

 

The last day we were at sea again with plenty of activities to do. We mostly chose to sleep and relax for one last day. Dinner that night was especially fun as we exchanged information with our tablemates and our wait staff. Departure the next morning ran very smooth and we were off the ship by 8:00am. There were plenty of cabs if you needed to catch one as well as shuttles to the airport. It was also pretty cool that morning so we were glad when our car arrived. Overall we couldn’t have asked for a better vacation experience. The Jewel of the Seas is an amazing ship that we are already missing, you will not regret booking any sailing on her!

 

 

 

Here are a few of my random thoughts on the ship:

 

• Check out the Safari Club and Card Room on deck 6. It is at the back of the ship through the Schooner Bar.

• Stop by and watch the self leveling pool tables also on Deck 6.

• The Seaview Café is a great place for an afternoon snack or alternative lunch. It is up on deck 12.

• We did have a few times that our bathroom had a kind of foul smell to it. We found that we were mostly in port when this happened and just tried to leave the room as quickly as we could.

• The Windjammer needs a little more variety in their daily food. It was all good just always the same.

• Also, make sure to eat at the very rear of the Windjammer in the outside patio area.

• We found the Dining Room food to be very good throughout the cruise with a nice selection. The desserts do often leave something to be desired but the ice cream is always good.

• Try the cold soups in the Dining Room!

• Shirley Temples were free if you had a coke card!!!

• Ride the glass elevators to the 13th deck for a fun surprise!

• Visit the next cruise / C&A lounge up on deck 12 and look down…skin wiggles!

 

I will try to answer any questions you may have. Thanks again for taking the time to read my review!