tidygirl

Were there lots of opportunities for photos, especially formal night? Still trying to decide if I want the all prints package. I'm a picture junkie and love pics of my family all dressed up :)

 

 

Yes plenty of photo opportunities- from getting off the ship ,in the MDR and I believe I saw them taking pictures most every night on deck 4 or 5. Hubby and I did get some pictures on formal night and the casual nights and I managed to limit myself to 2! Now when I have the family along it's a different story as I to love pictures of my family and since my kids are now young adults and I don't get the yearly Christmas photo I can justify my purchase!;)

We just got off the Jewell and was talking to a man that had a 13 year old son that had level 5 peanut allergies, the boy got frustrated with how little he could eat so they went to the windjammer and talked to the chef and he took the boy under his wing and made him special dishes all week. The dad said his boy had better meals than him! He was impressed and very happy for his son!

We just got off the Jewell and was talking to a man that had a 13 year old son that had level 5 peanut allergies, the boy got frustrated with how little he could eat so they went to the windjammer and talked to the chef and he took the boy under his wing and made him special dishes all week. The dad said his boy had better meals than him! He was impressed and very happy for his son!

No you can't! We just got off the Jewell and as we were leaving immigration saw a table of confiscated irons and steamers so I wouldn't even bother trying.

What was your favorite island and excursion?

We really liked Dominica did a tour with Levi at Bumping tours went to Trafalgar Falls, Titou Gorge and Champagne Reef

St Kitts- did a tour with Poinciana Tours a hike up to Mt Liaumiaga if you are an ambitious person and like to climb over roots and climb up big rocks

Also really liked going over to Virga Gorda to the Baths (did this through the ship as I was afraid we might not have any other options when we got off as we were there on Easter Sunday)

Barbados- Did 4x4 adventure tour and Harrison Cave the cave was boring to us but enjoyed the safari part (in the future probably book privately I have a couple brochures I picked up if interested)

DH already wants to go back and take our young adult kids on these tours as you can see we are very active people so not sure if any of these would interest you, but will give you any information I have.

The soda machines were in the Windjammer not sure if they had any in the kids area as we didn't go in there, I do know you can get sodas in glasses from the bars at different areas on the ship.

We enjoyed the open air seating behind the Windjammer. We went directly to the ship from airport but as we had been delayed we didn't have time to take a taxi over to Old San Juan. We would have been allowed to get off even though I had been told by a RC agent on the phone we would not be allowed. There was no close places to go to shop for last minute things. Checking in went smoothly.

We have done some bigger ships and there was a few things we missed but honestly we were happy and busy all week!

We did not do the Aruba itinerary last week so can't help on that.

We saw sushi in the Windjammer I believe every night (did not do MDR)

Just got back from and enjoyable week on the Jewell!! Any questions I'll be glad to try to answer or give my opinion.

Well we are leaving on a cruise out of San Juan on Sat, I have 2 tours booked through the ship and 2 with others so we'll see how it goes. To be honest most of the time we just go off the ship and go with someone offering a tour we are interested in unless it's something we definitely don't want to miss!

On trip advisor you can also check out things to do if you go under the more button there is a travel forum you can click the country you want to visit and get lots of ideas also tour guides and ratings. Between that and cruise critics I get lots of information to plan my travels!

Last fall I gave my family (6 of us ages 21-25 and 47 the option go on Carnival with more port stops which we like or go on Royal hands down they said Royal they like the food and entertainment much better!

Hubby and I are leaving Sat on the Jewel had originally thought of the Freedom again but had 3 sea days tried to sway him towards Carnival at the time as they had more stops and was cheaper he was not interested!!!

I would definitely check the ratings for any tour company you book through. We had booked through Patrice Bailey in Jamaica (highly recommended on Trip Advisor) I was worried she wouldn't show up but she was there on time and even remembered my first name I was impressed! But another couple was waiting for a tour booked through an online company and was not informed their tour was cancelled and they didn't want to join us as they were afraid they wouldn't get their money back from the other company and didn't want to pay for 2 tours in one day .

Labadee - You will have to book thru the ship if you want to do an excursion unless you want to make it a beach day. In Sept we did these stops and we chose the boat to a fishing village which was kind of neat as we had been there before but didn't get to really do much.

Grand Cayman-you may want to go to stingray city or you can take a tour of the island which a lot of time include the town of Hell, rum factory (neither was worth the stop in my opinion) and the turtle farm (got to hold a turtle)

If you want tour companies look on trip advisor and you can get which ones may be worth it to you. You can also walk off the ship and you will be approached sometimes rather aggressively with different options but if you have an idea what you want to do can get some decent prices!

Not sure what activities you like but in Cozumel my family 3 adult kids, new son in law , hubby and I did the Wild Tours xrail adventure to jade Caverns (through the ship found I could have booked it a little cheaper on my own, but if you like mud if it's been raining and a bumpy crazy ride we all had an awesome time!

I've never seen a lower Pullman. We were on FOS in Sept an inside room for 4 and just had the twin beds they can put together and the Pullmans down from the ceiling. Honestly if you had the twin beds together and the child would fall out of bed (even though there are rails on the side) they won't have far to fall and will have a soft landing your bed or you! You could also block the end where they climb up with a suitcase or something similar and I can't imagine it would be a problem.

We did self assist off Freedom in Sept as we had to make a 19 hour drive home by Monday morning. They will give you instructions how to do it but they said no large luggage I panicked and went to guest services they said as long as we could handle it no problem. Just be prepared there are escalators and maybe a few stairs but I managed with a 29 inch suitcase and a backpack and so did the whole family. We were off the ship had the car top carrier packed and was leaving at 8:15AM. You will have to get up early as you will be the first ones off the ship. It's also nice as you don't have to worry about what you need to leave unpacked for the following morning!

Carryon- Put in anything you definitely can't lose! Cruise documents, passports, meds & camera. I have a bathing suit also as I figure if my luggage is lost I can still swim and have something to wear while my clothes are being laundered!

Wow this thread got me thinking we did a cruise out of Port Canaveral in Sept. There was 6 of us and when we got our luggage some of the clothes were damp in a couple suitcase and my sons and my suitcase had some pretty wet clothes we thought it was from the rain but wasn't sure how it got under the canopies, but maybe they took a dip! RCI did give us a couple bags that we filled and they dried our clothes for us!

Is this the one in Jamaica? We had considered I believe it was on this river in Sept but when I contacted them they said there really wasn't many rapids and just class 1 and 2 so my family changed their mind figuring we can do that at home on our local river. So go on Trip Advisor and contact a tour guide and ask them questions you would like to know,

Some more ideas things we have done

Antigua - Took a tour of the island saw sugar plantations and Devils Bridge and went to a beach for a couple hours

St Kitts- took a tour of the island and have gotten dropped of at a beach for a couple of hours have done this twice. In about 10 days my hubby and I are doing the 6hr Mt Liaumigia Hike with Poinciana Tours if you have anyone that is interested in that kind of thing. (look it up on tripadvisor) I'd be happy to answer any questions in a couple week if interested.

St Lucia- we have toured the island by taxi van got to see Twin Peaks, volcano and mud bath another trip we found a couple different guys offering a land sea combo for $65 pp (ship was $100) for a 3 1/2 hr tour. We did a fast boat ride for 45 mins. went slowly by a fishing village, saw the Pitons, George Foreman and Mike Jaguars vacation homes, then did a land tour up to the volcano and a warm waterfall. Went back to the boat and they took us to a black sand beach were you could snorkel if you wanted for 1 1/2 hrs. tour ended up lasting about 5 hours! This was our best excursion on this vacation!

Barbados- If you have your own snorkel gear you can have your taxi take you to the beach and you can swim out to see the sea turtles (where all the ships excursions end up) just be careful as boats are coming in and out.

We have also done a land tour and in 12 days are doing the Harrisons Cave through the ship as they have priority getting into the caves and the price I got quoted to have a tour guide take us seemed very expensive! Would normally just take the chance getting off the ship and doing on our own thing I didn't want to risk it as my DH wants to do it pretty bad for something different! Any questions feel free to ask.

Just remember a lot of these island you can get similar tours off the ship for a much better price and the more people you have you can bargain even more. When we have our 3 young adult children with us we usually get a way better price than by ourselves!

Thank you for the information saurian.

 

I will be on FOS in June and was looking forward to trying the rock climbing wall (I used to do a bit of climbing in my younger days). My question is does the ship provide climbing shoes or will I need to bring my own? Other than hiking boots and Tevas, I don't really own any atheletic foot wear, and I'm not bringing my hiking boots on the cruise.

 

Thanks.

Sorry but we were on FOS in Sept and they provide the shoes and helmets just make sure you have socks! We have also done the wall on previous trip and shoes have always been provided!

I may not understand this but why can't you do the Caribbean in May? Also I am curious is there anything on Celebrity cruises for kids to do? I've always heard they are geared for older people so have never checked with them. We did an Alaskan Cruise on Royal in 2009? with our kid 16 -20 and it seemed like it was mostly older people.

If you are taking your 4 year old maybe look for a ship that does have a water area for kids, mini-golf (they have fun playing even at that age) and I know they have kids programs that keep the little ones entertained. We weren't fortunate enough to take our kids when they were small but started cruising when the youngest was about 13 and they still enjoy going as young adults. Though they are more into the volleyball tournaments, mini-golf , rock climbing walls and now the flow rider!

We will be on the Freedom next month and have a snorkel excursion planned. Where do you put valuables.....cash, credit card, sail pass....when playing in the water?

If you go to a sporting store they have water boxes that you can purchase and you can take your stuff with you in the water!

We always use the safe for wallets, cellphones and anything else of value. When we go off the ship we try to figure out how much cash we will need (as we usually to tours independently they take cash) then bring a little extra, take a credit card and our sea pass cards and put them in a waterproof container you buy at a water park I also have a decent waterproof camera so if we plan to do snorkeling I just take everything in the water with me except towels, clothes and shoes. Sometimes it's frustrating that I don't have my really good camera with me, but it's a lot easier not having to worry that someone may be making off with our stuff while we are out in the water.

We've never done windjammer for dinner. How does it compare to what is offered in the MDR? Any of the same soups, entree's and desserts?

 

My DH and I will be leaving for cruise #10 Apr 19th and have only ate at the MDR 1 time! GASP! We just don't really enjoy being waited on and taking 1 to 2 hours to eat a meal! We like to eat and run so Windjammer works for us! At dinner time the lights are dimmed and they usually have a meat that the MDR is also having (of course I've never seen lobster) they have sushi on a lot of the ships and plenty of desserts. Whether they are what the MDR offers I can't say as I haven't been there only the 1 time, but we have never been hungry on RCI now on Carnival my husband has been!

Unfortunately it has been 2 1/2 years since we have been on Norwegian Dawn and Royal just last Dec. so I am sure things could have changed, but to be honest back then I was about scared away from NCL from what I had read! Our opinion at the time was that food wise it pretty much compared to RCI (they had a pretzel bread my young adult kids loved my boy gained 8# that cruise!) entertainment wasn't too bad our families biggest complaint was they got bored! No mini-golf, dodge ball, flow riders etc. We were actually booked on the Epic for Sept and cancelled it after reading reviews of separate shower and toilet with frosted glass wall you could see the silhouette of the person through! Having 2 adult children sharing the room with us figured we might have a problem!

There's a lot of stuff to do while cruising from belly flop contests to the Quest and also your evening shows. Just check out the compass they leave on your bed every night and see what looks interesting to you! Make sure you post a review when you get back being it will be your first cruise it will be nice to see a "new" persons perspective! We are fairly easy to please people so overall have enjoyed our cruises. You will have some things you aren't impressed with but no big deal and some things will blow you away (like seeing the size of the ship the first time you cruise) Just go with an open mind don't expect perfect and you should have fun! We will be headed fro cruise #10 in 2 weeks can't wait!

To criticize a person for not wanting to try local food is ridiculous IMO. Our family are not (foodies) we eat to live not live to eat! We like to travel to see the different countries and see what the world has to offer! We have ate a few things off the ship but we do not care about eating. To me it's crazy when I see people to get off the ship and plop themselves at a bar for the day why bother spending the money to go on a cruise? I guess every one has what they like to do on vacation and you have the right to choose what you like!