Jewel of the Sea Southern Caribbean Photo Review- March 28, 2015

Howdy friends! What’s the best way to combat those post-cruise withdrawals after you’re stuck on land again? I know! Write a cruise review so you can live it all over again! It’ll be sort of be like a group therapy thing- we can read through together and smell the salt air mixed with Banana Boat one more time!

So, coming up is a photo-heavy review of our March 28th Southern Caribbean sailing on the Jewel of the Sea! We covered 5 ports in 7 days (6 if you include San Juan) so a healthy portion of this review will focus on our experiences in these ports and things to expect and maybe even make your life easier if you get the pleasure to visit those gorgeous islands. Since we have young kids, most of our excursions are family friendly- no jet skis or dune buggying this time. I will also be posting cruise compasses with each day in case you’re interested. Oh, and I’ll do my best not to bore you to tears by adding lots of fun photos along the way!

I always try to get one good photo of the ship on our trip so here’s the Jewel docked in Dominica!

Cast of Characters

My crew calls Columbia, SC home but we have quickly become cruise addicts. This will be my husband and my third cruise since July 2013, all with Royal Caribbean. My husband, Nathan, is an electrician/controls guy and I am a wedding photographer that also works full time at a hospital working with eLearning. We have two sweet children, Kasiah (sounds like Mariah), my 8 year old is an outgoing sweetheart who loves playing on the beach and Patrick, my 5 yr old little boy that likes trucks and his Nintendo. The kids have joined us for the last cruise on the Freedom and loved it!

The kids on the Freedom last year

We were also joined by Nathan’s parents, Pat and Helen, from California and this was their first cruise ever!

Picking our ship- or did the Jewel pick us?

We started looking for cruise options in December 2014 after almost a year of no-vacations-allowed due to DH’s new job. I quickly realized that the only options for us to cruise between my wedding photography schedule and my 8 year old daughter’s school testing schedule, was a one week window which happened to coincide with her spring break. Jackpot! Honestly, we’ve missed school for a cruise last time, but DD is in a Mandarin Immersion program and the older she gets, the more difficult it is to take her school work with us, so it’s nice that we could time this trip well with her school schedule and we didn’t have to wait too long before getting on the ship! I was going into cruise withdrawals! Even better, the timing worked out so that my husband’s parents from California would be able to join us too!

Since we’ve done the Eastern Caribbean and the Western Caribbean, the Southern Caribbean was calling our name. I thought this would be the perfect cruise for my father in law who was afraid he might get bored on the boat. With five days on shore and only one sea day, I’d like to see him TRY to get bored! Plus, as you see, I really enjoy researching the ports and seeing new places, so the port-intensive Southern Caribbean was an easy favorite.

Unfortunately, when I researched the Adventure of the Sea (since it’s a little larger and has more on-board amenities), I realized there were NO 4 person balcony rooms available 120 days before sailing. Whoops! I’ve heard great things about the Jewel too so we looked and found 2- connecting balcony rooms, albeit 11% obstructed- I figured the fact that the kids could run between our and the grandparents rooms outweighed the better balcony- so we were all set! We weren’t really picky about the exact itinerary since we only have one good week to choose from in 2015. I just wanted to see new islands, didn’t really matter to me which ones. So, our Jewel cruise was going to take us from San Juan to St Thomas to St Kitts to St Maarten , then Dominica and finally Barbados with one sea day before we return to San Juan.

Spreadsheet Wars

Half of my fun is in planning the cruise, so by scouring reviews like these for details, ideas, compasses, etc. I put together a schedule of things we may want to do each day. Here’s an example and I can send you the word document template if you want it. I just change it over every cruise.

And yes, you might want to diagnose me with OPD (Obsessive packing disorder) but after I make the schedule, I like taking pictures of outfit options and putting them into a timeline so I know what I want to wear each day.

Then, to keep uber-organized I place all the kid’s daily outfits in gallon sized plastic bags and label them with the day, so when we’re on the ship, I can stack the outfits in the drawers to pull out at needed. Easy peasy. Here’s a screenshot illustrate my beautiful madness.

Now that’s sort of become a running joke that I’m a bit of an organizational overachiever, DH dubbed his counter to my clothing chart as “Spreadsheet wars” and made his own spreadsheet of clothing color- color coded by suitcase, mind you- and used that to get the perfect balance of outfit variety without overpacking. Yeah, I think we have the first two proud of our local OCD cruiser chapter.

We did manage to get all our clothing and gear into two checked bags, one garment bag for suits and a carry-on sized bag. Ok, so I didn’t include my two camera bags and the small backpacks that the kids carried on the plane with a handful of snacks and games, but who’s counting?

My toys

Speaking of camera bags, being a photographer I have lots of toys I wanted to take but I also need to keep the load light, so I narrowed my big camera down to a Nikon d700 SLR with a 24-120mm 3.5-5.6, since it is a versatile zoom lens, and a 14-24mm 2.8 wide angle for some available light photos around the ship. For on the beach and underwater, we had the Pansonic Lumix DMC-TS2 (similar to this camera on amazon) which is a great durable, point and shoot style camera that I put a red floating leash on so I could keep it around my wrist as we snorkeled. Last but not least, I brought a Nikon d200 converted to an infrared camera with a 15mm Sigma fisheye. If you’re not familiar with infrared photography, basically you use dark colored filters or a special calibrated camera to record infrared light waves. This has a very unique look, which turns foliage and greenery a white tone and can give landscapes a few surreal look. Here’s an example of one of the infrared images from San Juan.

If you’re interested in the technical details, the camera was converted by lifepixel with a SuperIR filter. Sometimes I kept the color images and sometimes I converted to black and white. I was giddy to get to try my brand new converted camera in the Caribbean and I’ll scatter those images throughout the review! I also had my trusty iphone so I threw in some panoramic images, two photospheres (I’ll talk more about those later) and a few quick hyperlapse videos.

I’m hoping to post a day or two at a time, but if you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to throw them in!

Cruise Day 0- Hyatt House Hotel

From our little town of Columbia South Carolina, it looks like the most efficient route to San Juan was to drive an hour and a half to Charlotte International airport and grab a US Airways non-stop flight. I wanted to get into San Juan the day before the cruise just in case anything tried to slow us down, so our adventure began on the Friday before the cruise. Nathan’s parents had taken a red eye from California with a layover in Arizona so that they could join us on the 9:40am non-stop to San Juan.

This plane was awesome. There were TVs on the back of every seat with free movies, all you needed to do was have headphones to plug in or you could buy some for $5. DH had also purchased Nintendo DS’s for the kids last Christmas, so those came in handy as well for keeping them entertained for the 3 ½ hour flight.

Once in San Juan, we had an easy time catching a cab to our hotel, the Hyatt House, San Juan near the Pan American pier. Just a note- it is challenging to find cabs with working seatbelts in San Juan and on many of the islands. We usually we able to get at least two of them to work and gave those seats to the kids. The taxi trip for the 6 of us from the airport to the hotel including bags was around $35. Here’s a few photos of the hotel and the beautiful lounging area to the left of the check in desk.

Our room with the Bay View upgrade- you can view where the ships are coming in!

My kids improving the fung shui. The bed is on the other side of the television.

Bay View

If you’re also sailing on the Jewel/Adventure, be aware that the Pan American pier is NOT the same pier in old San Juan that the day-stop cruises dock at. I was confused about that until someone’s review clued me in. There really isn’t much aside from our hotel, the Sheraton and the Convention Center near the Pan American pier. I did see one person dragging suitcases walking from our area to the pier but it’s a long walk so I’d recommend a taxi to the pier instead. Anyone feel free to chime in if you know of one, but I couldn’t find any hotels in San Juan that offered shuttles to the pier. Maybe that’s just not a service offered in Puerto Rico.

Great photos. Enjoy the detailed review.

Gorgeous photos! Looking forward to seeing and reading more about your cruise adventure! Thanks for posting. :)

Need a Jewel fix

Looking fwd to seeing more

Happy Days!

Beautiful photos and great recap so far. Thank you for sharing!

Amateur photographer here, use a Nikon D7K, which I love. I love your pics, looking forward to more. (And I work in IT in a hospital system.)

We cruise out of SJU every year, with cruises 5 and 6 on Jewel coming up next January. Love the Southern itineraries and Radiance-class ships. The new Hyatt Place is very nice looking, but for us, I would rather stay in OSJ or on the Condado, for the variety of places to walk to, and the variety of restaurants in close proximity.

Hotels in SJU don't offer shuttle service, transportation is all taxi - it's a taxi union thing.

Subscribing love the pics

Waiting for the rest of your review and great photos. Thanks for doing this for us

please send spreadsheet...looks wonderful debjoisme@hotmail.com

What an amazing start. We sail Jewel for the first time in November so I am excited to see any pics of the ship and the ports.

Beautiful photos and great recap so far. Thank you for sharing!

I agree Great Photos!

Loved the Jewel of the Sea

Great review, did your kiddos enjoy the water slide?

Oh my - so looking forward to seeing and reading all about your trip. We sail on the Jewel at the end of the year, and I can't learn enough about the ship. Your photos are stunning, and your detailed information is invaluable! Many thanks!

Great review, did your kiddos enjoy the water slide?

Hey! Yes, if I ask my 5 year old his favorite part of the cruise, he says it's the waterslide. And he was actually too short to ride by himself (i think the cut-off is 42 inches or somewhere in that neighborhood) so he had to ride it with Daddy or me. I actually took a video with the waterproof camera going down the slide that I'll post later. It would be a bit boring for 12 and up, but my kids loved it.

Amateur photographer here, use a Nikon D7K, which I love. I love your pics, looking forward to more. (And I work in IT in a hospital system.)

 

We cruise out of SJU every year, with cruises 5 and 6 on Jewel coming up next January. Love the Southern itineraries and Radiance-class ships. The new Hyatt Place is very nice looking, but for us, I would rather stay in OSJ or on the Condado, for the variety of places to walk to, and the variety of restaurants in close proximity.

 

Hotels in SJU don't offer shuttle service, transportation is all taxi - it's a taxi union thing.

Thanks Vickie! I was thinking that might have been the case. I would have loved to stay in OSJ too but I realized that the Sheraton there books up fast. I'd like to try Condado area next trip!

please send spreadsheet...looks wonderful debjoisme@hotmail.com

Hi Ohiocruiser! I'll email that to you soon!

Eating like a King

By the time we got settled in our hotel rooms, it was almost 3:00 and stomachs were growling. We asked the front desk if there were any restaurants close and they recommended the Texas de Brazil steakhouse at the Sheraton which was a short walk down the road.

This is the first Brazilian steakhouse I’ve been to so I was a little shocked at the price- $40/adult and $20/older child for dinner pricing which started at 3:00- but at that point we were starved and, hey, why not splurge when you’re on vacation? I wish I had some photos of that meal because it was delicious but I was too busy stuffing my face to pick up the camera. At least for the cost, we received a truly delicious meal.

If you haven’t been to a Brazilian steakhouse before, here’s the process at the one we visited. First they directed us to the salad bar, which had a great variety of vegetables, meats, fresh cheese, etc. The salad bar offerings were actually amazing by themselves, but then they start bringing around the freshly cooked meats on a skewer. If you’d like the offering, you flip over a card next to your plate that looks like a coaster to the green side. If you don’t want any, you flip it over to the red side. They brought out some perfect steak, parmesan encrusted chicken, bacon wrapped scallops, ribs, tenderloin, more and more meats one after another until you just can’t take it anymore! My father in law said it was one of the best meals he’s ever had.

After waddling back to the hotel, we decided to take a dip in the pool.

I loved the focus that they put on the greenery around the hotel. So pretty.

The hotel also has a foosball and pool table which the kids and adults alike enjoyed.

The in-laws were wiped out from 24 hours of travel so they headed to bed and we pulled out our sofa bed, which comfortable fit both kids and everyone settled down for the night.

One last thought that made my husband and I giggle a little. Do you see anything wrong with this photo? This reminded me of a series of photos called “Not my job”. Hehe.

Conquering the Forts

It’s cruise day! A few days ago, I got the email from Royal Caribbean asking us to check in later and our floor was designated to check in at the terminal at 5:00! I didn’t really want to check in that late, but we did decide to take advantage of the relaxed timing and do a little exploring of Old San Juan before we checked in. Breakfast at the hotel was a pretty standard hotel breakfast- pancakes, yogurt, muffins, etc. The hotel desk said they would hold our bags for us while we explored, so we tucked those away and grabbed a taxi to San Christobal. The fee to get into both forts was a reasonable $5/person. Here’s a few photos from our exploration at San Christobal.

View of San Juan toward the OSJ pier (same view as the infrared rooftops in my first post)

My little explorer

Color Infrared

Panoramic view showing the Atlantic and OSJ side

A selfie of me, DS and Mother in law

Stone spiral staircase

El Morro

We wanted to catch the other fort, El Morro, because the last time we were in San Juan the kids tired out before we made it over there, so we decided to try to catch the park transfer from San Christobal to El Morro. The distance is walkable if you wanted to try, but we knew those little legs were getting tired.

Here’s a view of El Morro from San Christobal

There’s an exit from San Christobal on the El Morro side, so we waited for the shuttle at the trolley pickup sign. Here’s some interesting graffiti we had the pleasure of staring at while we waited.

If you turn 180 degrees the other direction, your view changes.

The urban/historic combination together is old of the things I love about San Juan.

We waited about 10 minutes before a very full shuttle pulled up and we weren’t able to get seats. Not to worry, another shuttle came about 2 minutes later, but be aware that OSJ can get pretty busy Saturday afternoons. Traffic along the little road between San Christobal and El Morro was very heavy.

We rode the shutter to the next stop which dropped us off at the bottom of the field in front of El Morro. If you just want to see the fort itself, save yourself some walking and ride to the next shutter stop to the top of the El Morro hill to the front gate of the fort. I’m glad we got off a little early though because we were able to check out this incredible cemetery to the right of the fort. Here’s an infrared view of where we got off the shuttle. If you see that long driveway/tunnel that goes down on the right side of the photo, that’s where the cemetery is located.

Infrared B&W

Here’s the entrance to the cemetery

Lots of photos of the cemetery. My mom has always love genealogy so we toured cemeteries all over and I’ve always found them to be very photogenic.

Black and white infrared

Soldier Angel

Back to El Morro. This is a sight to see! There were kites everywhere!

Look forward to many more photo's and stories of your adventure. My wife and I are going on the Jewel in January '17 and although a while away yet, your review certainly getting us in the mood for our return to the Caribbean, Thanks!:D

Once inside El Morro (just show your receipt if you’ve paid for your pass at San Cristobal) there’s a long row of stairs to go down to get to the outlook on the corner of the peninsula. You can see the staircase in this shot of the family.

The view was worth the walk

Everyone was getting hot and hungry so we hiked it back up the big staircase and down the long walkway to where the taxis pick you up. We took a delightfully air conditioned taxi to the Old San Juan Sheraton. Having been there before, we knew there was a little burger restaurant called Chicago Burger Co. in the bottom of the hotel that would please everyone. I know, who goes to Puerto Rico to eat burgers, right? But some of us were concerned about the digestive repercussions of authentic food on the first day of a long trip.

Anywho, if you’re interested in eating there, I took a picture of the menu so you’d know what to expect.

Check out the giant hot dog!

If you need anything from a drugstore, there’s a CVS located one block from the Sheraton. We made the short walk there for some Dayquil for DH (he felt like he was starting to get a cold), bar soap and some hats. After that, we caught a cab to the hotel to pick up our bags and then to the pier to catch our bigger ride!

I thought I’d include a map of the San Juan area and the stops we made. San Christobal takes up a large portion of the blank space on Avenida Luis Munoz Rivera. The taxi drive dropped us off at the east entrance and we caught the shuttle at the west entrance. You can see what the walk to El Morro is do-able but it’s a little bit of a hike. The Sheraton and CVS are very close to the Old San Juan pier. Also note that the airport by the Pan American pier is not the large international airport where most flights arrive.

We were on this cruise too. Can't wait to live it again through your review.

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You are blowing me away with these photos! Just gorgeous!! Especially, this one of the ocean:

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/usckatieh/Jewel%202015%20Cruise/Jewel2015-1036.jpg

I also enjoyed the ones of the cemetery. You have quite the eye!

(Hoping you have interior photos of the ship as well.)

Norton will not allow me to view your pictures. I'm glad others are able to enjoy them.