JEWEL b2b (Greece/W Med) semi-live Aug24 - Sept14 REVIEW w/lots of photos

Again, please allow me to save you time, money and more frustration:

Tip #2: DO NOT take a guided tour!

I already know this as well. Not that they are useless.... in fact this lady was a scholar! Wow... so smart, so much info, but I was not there for a sermon of full Greek mythology and history. There are maps everywhere to follow, and placards everywhere to read about the history and spot you are standing at

She was brilliantly intelligent, however every spot we stopped was at least 10 minutes each with a full explanation. No joking, and maybe Beachcruzer can correct me here if I'm off base, we stopped and talked 5 different times, 5-10 minutes each... that's about an hour and we've barely started our journey up the hill. And I guess her cane should've been an obvious red flag regarding her possible snails pace and inability to climb to the Acropolis, but I did not clue into that at all. My bad for sure.

We reached the famous amphitheatre of Dionysis... I had been leaving the group to roam and take pictures as the tour guide spoke, no exception here. This place is magnificent.

So raw, yet plenty examples of original structure still standing here

The Royal seating at front row was interesting... why the curvature at the bottom? I would think that's not so comfortable for the legs.

It was at this point the 4 of us discussed that we should bail on the tour, so I politely let her know we wished to move forward and thanked her for her services thus far. She just nodded with acceptance.

Summary so far:

Over an hour late to the Acropolis, thickening crowds, big line, 35euro to save 20min in line and then lost probably 1/2 hour listening to Greek mythology I cannot remember one single word of on the tour. Lol!!! :mad:

What do you do? Move forward and have a great time, that's what!

We got to the top with what was likely peak morning tour time, huge crowd, but we made our way up to enjoy the awesomeness to come!

Our first view of the Parthenon! Just an awesome site

Like the entire pathway below with all the various sites and stops, there's plenty of placards/signs here as well to educate you of the ongoing restoration

Gorgeous view below from where we had just walked from (the amphitheatre). Also in site right across the street from the Amphitheatre is the Acropolis Museum. Farther to the left is the Temple of Olympian Zeus. That's also where the main road was where the X80 bus drops you off (for those of you determined to still take the bus!)

There's very little of the original art/sculptures which still exist on the buildings

Ah yes... money shot! Simply gorgeous. As mentioned in Rome, photos do not do justice compared to being there in person

Time to explore the rest of the Acropolis. Besides the Parthenon there are other structures such as the Propylaia, the Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena Nike. Personally, I love the huge flag at the point of the Acropolis with a great view.

Lots of scrambling for a photo op

Awesome view of Mt. Lycabettus... I wanted to go here and was in my plans before the X80 debacle. Turns out we just did not have time so I never made it. Google it, very cool. There's a funicular that goes to the top and the view back of the Acropolis and the City of Athens would've been amazing to witness.

But seriously, the view here is not too shabby!

On this super high note, we made our way out and back down the hill the way we came, and out through the same road we had walked up to get here. Again another scorcher out here, It was time for lunch (souvlaki!) and Greek beer.

We also grabbed some snacking food on the go... there's these "nut" carts in various areas. Delicious... salted, roasted, candied, you name it... pistachio, almonds and more. 2euro for a little bag.

We had made a beeline across the street top head for the Panathenaic Stadium, but gf really wanted to head back to take a look at the Acropolis Museum, so we did an about face. In fact, I'm glad we did.

This is a wonderful museum with some of the most important pieces of the Parthenon and other buildings on display, both artifacts from digs as well as pieces of the buildings

I'll keep this part simple as I have a ton of cool photos, but to get a really good feel you really have to look at the restoration of the various pieces on display, my favorite being the pediments of the tops of the buildings.

Remember the sculptures at the top of the Parthenon pediments I took a photo of a few posts back....

Here you get to see the actual real pieces, some restored (you can tell by the added mortar to put the pieces together).

I just loved this area. The museum has 3 floors of very cool stuff. We did this in only about 1 hour, but could've easily spent a half day. The cost? A whopping wallet busting 3 euros! Yes, not a typo.... 3 euros. I think the next time I'm here (God willing) I weill want to do the museum first so that I can look for certain areas and sculptures as depicted in the museum

Walking about 20minutes from the museum, back across the street passing the temple of Zeus, we arrived to one of my must sees on this trip.... the Panathenaic Stadium, the first location of the modern Olympic games held in 1896.

If I remember correctly 7euro per person

It is the only stadium in the world built entirely out of marble!

Totally awesome! Originally built around 330BC, it was rebuilt in marble about 150AD with a capacity of 50,000. It was mostly abandoned and buried in the 4th century, and was excavated in the late 1800's. After being refurbished, it hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the first Modern Olympics in 1896. Factoid: It is the last venue in Greece from where the Olympic flame handover ceremony to the host nation takes place.

Down through the bowels of the stadium is the museum, totally worth the visit. there's some very cool exhibits, the most interesting being this room with most all of the original torches dating back to Berlin 1936.

Can you imagine sitting here in this setting with 49,999 other Grecians cheering on your favorite athlete? Surreal

I got to run the stadium, Canada flag in hand, sit on the royal seats (still intact), stand on the podium (gold medal winner!). Good fun, this was a great visit

It was here we had to make a decision... try to get up to Mt Likavittos or do something else for an hour before heading for the bus back to the ship. We decided an hour just wasn't enough time for Likavittos, so we simply crossed the street and decided to stroll through the National Garden, past the Zappeion, past hadrian's Arch and to the bus stop... looking back at my photo of the bus schedule we were early so we decided to go round the corner for a gelato... there's a Greek yogurt store there which is excellent!.... and then back to the bus stop.

We were waiting for the 4pm bus... approx 45min ride like this morning... get back to ship around 5pm.

Strange....hardly any other cruisers around from what we can tell. The bus arrived about 10min late at 4:10 and was relatively empty!!! Where was everybody? The bus screamed down the highway back to the ship... this morning's 45min affair took only 20min to get back. Even with walking through terminal one, getting on a pier shuttle, and going through security, we were back on board before 5pm.

When gf and I went to the Museum, we split up from Beachcruzer and DH. Turns out they took one of the earlier X80 buses back to the ship... along with the other 3000 people on board the Jewel it seems!!!! Lol. Beachcruzer told me that experience was even worse than the morning ride. I understand the word "sardine" doesn't cut it as an adjective. And the ride was as long if not longer due to the packed bus.I guess most of the ship wanted to be back on board 3-4 hours prior to all-aboard. She mentioned had they known the bus would be that bad, the taxi option was a total no brainer.

Upon getting back to my room, this was waiting for me on the bed... I had not given the LA a head's up, this was automatic.... nice! (280)

I don't have a whole lot to share this evening with the later sailaway and super busy day behind us.

We had MTD for 6:15 this evening and this time butter chicken was on the Indian menu....YES!!! Superb Indian food this evening, great dinner in MTD thank goodness. The show was a magician... I was told later we were lucky that we had skipped it as it was supposedly not that good. we opted to go see Ravi again before he closed shop in the CL and then we took a walk outside to take some random evening shots I can share with you here.

Another beautiful sunset

Some more evening shots before the partying starts up at the Vortex... now that the Crypts are gone from Voyager & Freedom Class hips (other than Indy), this is my fave dedicated nightclub spot on RCL ships.

Yes, Ravi had the bar rotating on a couple of nights

Tonight was 70's night.... very well represented, full dance floor on deck 4 with the railings on most decks (even 8 and 9) full of people.

we had been down there dancing non-stop from the very first pre-recorded 70's tune, through the RCL singer set, and then when the flashing rings were thrown, past the time the Macho Men did their thing.... whew we were tired! It was close to the end so we booked it up to deck 8 to be close to our room before everyone started to disperse. Great crowd!

Show over, it was time for the staff to say goodbye

It was goodbye for us too... I specifically noted the drone of the Centrum party as we entered the hallway to our room... we entered our cabin and closed the door.... nothing. So even with a major event our room was quiet inside.

A big day behind us, we have another early day ahead tomorrow in Katakolon.

At grave risk of repeating myself, Hoopster, many thanks for doing this. Excellent reporting and wonderful photos. We are following with great interest.

Sounds like another wonderful, very full day! :cool:

Day 6 - Katakolon: Olympia, Magna Grecia Agritourismo, Kilo's Honey Farm

Today turned out to be an excellent day... perfectly paced, stress free,a nice surprise. When planning for this cruise, I had no expectation of Katakolon other than the ruins at Olympia. Also with very little research, it is easy to see the port itself does not have much to offer... a tour and getting out of Katakolon is a must to make the most of the day.

I had sent out feelers to various tour companies pre-cruise based on Trip-Advisor and CC recommendations, and chose Andrew of Katakolon Taxi. Excellent email response and communication, we began our day easy day without needing to get up too early as our port time was 10am - 4:30pm all aboard. We woke to yet another beautiful hot day

I also had some time for some random photos. Here's a few... I mentioned in a previous post "Explorer's Court"

Not to confuse this with anything to do with the Explorer of the Seas, this is the landing area on deck 8 with some Centrum seating.

This was where the loyalty ambassador used to have her desk. What's here now? This wall! ... and newly installed cabin 8087 is right behind it. Note straight ahead the entry from the centrum into the cabin hallway.you can see the door to cabin 8588... this cabin is subject to the most Centrum noise

The Cemtrum view from deck 8

This is a super easy port to understand... walk out the pier to the parking lot, see the buses and row of taxis under the "taxi" tent, and decide what to do! Simple

One of the few ports on this sailing (and next) that afforded decent close up views of the Jewel on the pier.

Most all taxis here are Mercedes

Andrew was standing there exactly as promised, sign in hand with my name on it. We introduced ourselves and headed for his Mercedes. I also noted many cruisers simply heading for the "taxi info" booth. A few options here... go to St. Andrews Beach, taxi to Olympia, etc... lot of choices.

We had a great chat with Andrew for the 25-30min drive out to the ruins... he told us all about this region. we talked about his family, life currently in Greece, the economy, all sorts of things. While the countryside is nice, there is nothing pressing as you drive by that is a must-see stop. We pressed on and direct to the ruins, and we were at Olympia in no time... waaaay before the crowds and RCL buses. excellent!

Hours are 8-8... like the Acropolis, getting there early in non-prime "cruise excursion" hours is the key

Many of my photos are in sets of two or three... Andrew provided us with an excellent book to use while we walked through the site. It was a "before and after" book, which shows the ruins today, then turn the page over and shows you what the site looked like back in the day. Along with that, the placards at the site weren't bad either, but the book was very key for us to really enjoy and get a feel for what this city looked like. Here's an example

The ruins here are quite raw, with pieces on the ground all over the place. Going there blind without some direction is a mistake for this site... unlike the Acropolis in Athens, just a little bit of homework here goes an extremely long way. Without the aid of this booklet, we would've been totally lost just meandering through the site without really knowing what we were looking at and why.

During the live portion I had mentioned the diameter of the fallen columns that are on the ground... here I am for reference (I'm 5'11")

This was a great visit and a super nice morning so far. We had a time limit with Andrew so we made our way through the site and headed out for the archaeological museum

Much like seeing the Parthenon, and then seeing the Acropolis Museum as a must-see in Athens, this archaeological museum goes hand-in-hand as is a must see after walking through the ruins.

There;s several pieces here that are prominently displayed whereby we re-opened the book and scrolled back on photos and said "oh yeah! This is the statue that belonged when we were stranding here" in this photo. Kind of pulled everything together, and very well done small museum... does not take long to go through at all. This is one of the most important displays, we knew exactly where the pillar was that supported it and were able to relate to it's location and importance on the site.

The displays are beautifully done. Each display corroborates with a specific area or building on the site, so that you can look back and understand where it belongs on the site

There's also a large room dedicated to various ornaments, tools, weapons, etc excavated here

Like the rest of the museum, all labelled and easily readable (warrior helmets from 6 BC)

In unison with the ruins, the museum hours are 8-8pm.... 12 euros entrance fee

It was time to hop into Andrew's taxi and get going.

We had a couple of choices which he gave us options for, and we all decided to go to the Magna Grecia Agritourismo working farm for wine tasting and tour. Truthfully, I had seen this on Trip-Advisor as well as the #2 thing to do in Katakolon and wondered how in the heck this could be #2!

I tell you what... biggest pleasant surprise of this entire cruise. Great visit to this place. It is also offered by RCL onb one of their combo tours, however with Andrew he had claimed we had to be there by a certain time to beat all the cruise tours... he was right! W arrived and were the only ones there. The owner herself greated us and gave us a private tour, but not before offering us an olive tapenade pastry and a glass of wine

I'm not a wine connoisseur, but my gf is... we both couldn't believe how good this white wine was, surely one of the best I ever tasted. This year and last were fabulous years on the farm weather wise with superlative quality crops. I mentioned to the owner I wished to buy a bottle of wine at the end of the day to bring back to the ship... which I did ... birthday wine!

Peppers of all varieties, eggplant, ponies, bird cages... you name it, they had lots on this working farm which we toured. And while wine was one of their main products, olive oil and olive products we also as big on their list. Rows and rows of large olive trees wioth bumper crop of olives

There was a small presentation of how the olives are harvested with the actual equipment and pictures. we got to walk into the wine production area.... modest sized workshop area, not huge at all. There are various grades of olive oil as well... the black canister being the "extra:special" cold press extra virgin limited edition.... I bought one of each(green and black). The special olive oil I will reserve for dipping, salads... not cooking.

When we arrived we were given the option of only the wine tour, or a full lunch. we all opted for a full lunch of 12 euro each. It's a set menu of all of their products... breads, olive oil, fresh grilled veggies, home-made humus and dips... sounded awesome! But first she offered to browse through her stores. She is also a jewelry designer and importer. My gf went nuts! There are some very very nice (and expensive) one of a kind beauties in this store. As a guy who despises shopping (especially jewelry/women "stuff"), even I appreciated what was offered in here. Yes, gf bought a very expensive and utterly gorgeous one-of-a-kind heirloom braclet.

May favorite that I was oh so close to buying were gold plated branches/leaves of actual olive trees from their farm. What a super cool idea. I was all over this... until I looked at the prices.{.... gasp!!...}. This smaller one was one of my favorites

The very smallest (middle right) were 80e I believe. My favorite was 180e. The largest (top row) were upwards to 900e.

Super super cool, one of a kind. Would definitely be a centerpiece on any wall and a conversation piece for anyone who saw it.

We were told lunch was ready, so we proceeded to uor table... oh so good.with more of thir awesome wine (this time red).

Lunch over, it was time to get reeady to go. we noted way more people now behind us starting to filter in... we had beat all the tours and enjoyed a superb couple of hours here. Time to buy our goods and bid a very fond farewell to Magna Grecia.

We had about another hour + 15min, too early to go back to ship but also not a lot of time for anything else. However, Andrew gathered us and quickly made his way to Kilo's Honey Farm... easy to get to as it's on the way back to the ship anyways. Upon arriving, he let the owner know of our time constraint. It was not busy so it was no problem getting us set up.

This is a very small private working farm, and yes live bees. So if you;re allergic, be aware. We only saw a couple buzzing around so they are obviously kept a ways away... we did not get a tour of the bee keeping area, but were shown around the immediate area and given a small demonstration of how the honey is harvested.

That's Kilo herself in the photo above. She was raised on this farm owned for at least 3 generations. She shows us a picture of the farm house from her grand parents... other than the chickens and trees, the house behind looks almost exactly the same. You can;t tell from the picture, however there's a fig tree on the right still standing today... and it's huge producing wonderful fruit. Andrew picked some for us.

Kilo brought out home-made Kataifi (Greek crusty pastry) which is normally honey dipped... mmm mmm mmm

Of course, there's an opportunity to purchase product when leaving. There's several types, and in fact I bought one (I only showed you limited pics here, there's more I could explain show). having said that... it's just honey. Is it Greek related? Ancient? Historical? No. A fun little stop. Yep.,not bad, but definitely not something that is must-do. The hour we had was just about perfect for this place. A nice little stop to end a great day out.

We arrived back to the port with ample time to spare. The main street was still full of cruisers going in and out of the shops. We had time to look around as well, but simply opted to head back to the ship. We bid Andrew farewell for a job well done and a great day.

While my gf wanted a nap to recharge, I took a walk around the ship a bit to see what was going on and perhaps take a few photos of areas I hadn't been able to get yet on embarkation day.

Deck 7 "Business Center" (Centrum)

The encased Magnum, Martini Bar deck 6

Next cruise center deck 5

Centrum Deck 4

Although it takes space away from this dance floor area in front of the stage, very glad the green staircase was not removed here (as it had been on Serenade)

Guest Services

On a wall to the left of Guest Services towards the R-Bar is a set of photos of the birth of Jewel... cool photos worth taking a quick look at.

Interesting to see how the final block was p[laced on Jewel... we watch Lloyd post all the Oasis Class & Quantum Class photos over the last few years of the various stages of build, but I hadn;t realized how the back of the WJ was placed as the last block here on Jewel.

I had already knew this... Jewel is not that old, delivered in 2004. To put that into perspective, Voyager of the Seas was born in 1999! Will be interesting to see if an older Voyager Class in the years to come gets sold or decommissioned before a newer Radiance Class as they age.

Sailaway upon us, I had planned to hopefully be on the helipad for this day, however Jewel had backed into port so that killed that idea. Simply we enjoyed it from our wonderful hump balcony instead.

As you've seen in other photos, the gangway is pretty much midship right under my balcony. The pilots also enter from there while the ship is moving. This guy was a little more flamboyant than most, waving a fond farewell to those whistling and clapping at him as he jumped from Jewel onto the pilot boat.

Bye bye Katakolon!

Tonight was formal night, but we really wanted to have a day of simple casual... ie. I wanted shorts for once. we opted for the WJ.... however we never got there! We were having a grand time up in the CL... Ravi was prescribing his medication and we made a meal out of the buffet selection there (bacon wrapped chicken, samosa, caprese salad cups... plenty of good stuff this evening). We did go to the production show and the of course the must-see Quest. Simona had been sick this week with her right-hand man taking over... he was just ok. The Quest itself was made great by some of the hilarious participants fortunately! Good Quest, but no where close to as good as when held in Studio B on the larger vessels

With a sea day tomorrow, we had planned to attend the Latin Party up at pool deck at 11:30pm. We got up there at abput 11:35.... ghost town! Hmmm... band not playing yet either. Ok, let's check out Vortex... also ghost town. That was actually a blessing as we were actually tired from the previousd 4 busy days, and we decided simply to head to bed, looking forward to not getting up to an alarm tomorrow!

Day 7 - at sea The plan? R & R!! Backstage Tour, Tutti Bar MDR for lunch, Bridge Tour

I had wifi on this last day at sea while doing the live portion so I'll keep this day short(er).

We entered the Messina Strait at about 9am. From there, I was hoping to get a glimpse of Mt. Etna towering over Italy but there was just too much cloud cover. I took a photo during the live looking over over to Etna... with the naked eye you could make out Etna, but just barely. You just couldn't see her with the photo. Ah well.

The Strait isn't a must-see event imo... it's still interesting enough for those who haven't been through, however there was a larger percentage just chilling out on pool deck. I found it interesting in that I loved my stops in Messina I've had on previous sailings, and wanted to watch the Sicilian side go by

You can barely make it out on the photo above... X's Silhouette was going into the Messina's port

The entire transit took about an hour from the southern most point to this point, the shortest distance between continental Italy and Sicily. There was constant ferry traffic to/from both sides as we made our way through

Like ports of call, transit through the Messina Strait requires a pilot. Here he is getting off the ship.

The great weather, the new awesome outdoor seating in the CL, and the passage close to Sicily made for an excellent breakfast in the CL on this morning. Once the transit had completed, we went back up for another coffee and to chill out. With a Backstage Tour, trying out the Tutti Bar at lunch, and Bridge tour all planned within the next few hours, we had decided not to bother getting a pool lounger at all until later in the afternoon.

Soon, it was time to head down to the Theatre.

What the performers see when they look out with the lights on.... lights off with spotlights glaring down, they see only the first few rows.

Stage sets

Going around the back of the stage we were able to view the cubby-holes storage and performer costumes

All in all, this was only about 30min. Not as interesting as other backstage tours I have had when the Engineer and/or sound technician was present, lights turned off and on, etc... very little interaction here to actually see how things work, so a little disappointing. Nonetheless, it was decent, and the Performer's team captain was extremely helpful in answering any questions anyone had.