Jewel Day by Day Photo Review 11/16/2013 (Southern Caribbean)

[Familygoboston]

Kathy,

 

By any chance did you go to see the piano player in the Schooner Bar? If so, how was he? We always enjoy hanging out there in the evening after dinner and singing along to the songs. I'm hoping he's good since we will be sailing with him for 2 weeks.

 

Karen

 

His name was Juan Carmello. The Schooner Bar Piano sing along is one of our favs too, and though I can't say we ever sat and stayed for a whole set of his; nothing about what he was doing compelled us to either. He never seemed to draw a crowd, except accidentally (like when people line up outside the Safari Lounge for the Welcome Back event, and we never saw anyone singing along or sitting at the piano. It just wasn't the same as on other ships.

[Familygoboston]

Loving your review. I'm in 9256 just above your cabin. Cruising with Bill & Gina from Ohio May 3rd and a lot of AZ Cruiser friends. Bill said I stole this cabin from under him. haha.:) The luck of the draw I guess. It wasn't available when he booked before I did but it happened to open up at the same time I was booking so I snagged it.

 

I am so excited to see your review! Thank you so much.:) I am on the same cruise with Bill (your stalker) and my Arizona Cruiser friend Lisa, who posted just above me. We are sailing in May. We are on a B2B. I am another aft lover (9260) and I see we have another thing in common - packing styles I do the exact same thing as you, make a spread sheet with all of my "costume changes" down to the last detail. I keep my sheet in the drawer with the hair dryer and refer to it everyday. I always have exactly what I need. No more, no less. I call it my lazy way of dressing. I never have to think about what I will wear each day

 

Sitting back now and waiting for more.:)

 

Oh, ho! So the Arizona crowd is sailing with Billoh again! I'll be waiting for that review! No head smashing this trip!!:(

 

I agree with lazy dressing...I try it all on before I go with all my accessories and any, ahem, specialty undergarments:o. (I think you ladies get my meaning;) )I don't want to arrive and realize I haven't brought the right thing to wear with what I have!

[Familygoboston]

Yah!!!! Love your reviews! You should know that ship like the back of your hand by now--at least your boarding experience didn't involve fog this time! Looking forward to more, and kudos to DH for some awesome pictures so far!

 

Chris

 

Thanks Chris!! Yes, that was some fog!! No PR was a bright, bright, sunshiny day (believe it or not DH is playing that on the piano at this exact moment!!)

 

More coming right now before I pick up DD2 from SAT prep and have a meeting with my Girl Scouts to discuss their Gold awards...busy night! Luckily. It's already written! So without further ado...

[Familygoboston]

We are not done LOSING IT

 

So once the purse was lost and now was found, DH lost his sunglasses IN THE CABIN attached to the top of his new Red Sox hat, which he put on the top shelf of the closet. Fortunately, after 15 minutes searching around the room, and a trip back to the Solarium, we found them hung up by the earpiece on the terry cloth diamond robes that were hanging in the closet (membership has its hassles!) :rolleyes:

 

Ah, finally, it was time to un lose it and relax- we put in a call home to check on the kids- all was well, except for the desperate 1 AM text from DD1 to add more debits to her food plan, which we did with the relatively good wifi at the Marriott before checking out. But we had the courtesy to wait till 2 PM to call her about it rather than wake her at 7 am (LOL) We called her to let her know she was refueled and would not starve while we lived like kings!;)

 

Excursion snafu...but did I lose it? No I did not!

 

We noticed that our excursion tickets were not in the cabin, but there was a note posted at GS that said all tickets would be placed in the cabin during dinner. Unfortunately, there was a snafu with our Virgin Gorda excursion. We received our original tickets we had pre booked for snorkeling in VG AND tickets for an afternoon snorkel excursion at Norman Island (where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed) that we had not booked.

 

This was mystifying, so we stopped at the Explorations! desk for an Explanation! There we learned that the Captain had decided the predicted weather was too rough for any excursions to go to Virgin Gorda from Tortola and the Explorations! staff had proactively re booked us on a similar type of excursion rather than have us be out of luck the next day.

 

I think the "cancelled" excursion tickets were put in our room in error, but we did not lose it! Safety first!! We trusted the Captain to make good decisions about passenger safety and while we were a wee bit disappointed to miss Virgin Gorda, I was very pleased at the customer service exhibited by Explorations! staff to rebook as many people as they could to avoid a jam up that night or the next morning when we arrived in Tortola. This was a very good example of excellent proactive service that I appreciate!!:D As a constant complainer (on my comment card) of the level of expertise of Explorations! staff over the years; this is the second sailing on which we have received top notch Explorations! service.

[Familygoboston]

Dinner

We have MTD and we book a slightly different time each night, based on our predicted activities. But our plans often changed and so did many of our dining times. This was easily accommodated and we never waited more than 5 minutes to be seated and only once had to sit in another section, after requesting our same waiters subsequent nights.

 

 

The dinner menu was (Mojo) and we dined at 6pm, in order to be done before muster at 8 PM. They were not allowing seating's later than 6:30 for MTD in order to move everyone out by 8 PM and we did see a fairly significant line at MTD at 8:30 PM after muster. So that is something to avoid by going earlier or planning a very late diner (9 PM) Our waiter was Ricky from the Philippines and our assistant waiter was Rosendo from Dominican Republic. They were both superb and we requested them every night.

 

 

The MTD section for pairs along the Promenade window wall is very tight. You are really dining at one long table with small gaps between them with pairs to your right and left. It would be impossible to have any kind of a personal or private conversation, even if you used the quietest voice possible. (which neither DH or I posses;)) It did make it nice to chat with the folks to your right or left, but you had enough distance that if the conversation petered you could still act as if you were at "separate" tables. I found this to be a nice mix of social and alone time, but it did limit our dinner conversation to pretty mundane issues and no personal topics.

 

 

 

(MTD kiosk- this is an example of my "bad" pictures)

 

 

 

 

 

(DR set up for lunch)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(DH and Ricky our waiter - this is an example of my "bad" pictures)

 

 

 

 

 

(you can just see the table set up against the window wall on the far right of this photo of the MTD section)

 

 

 

 

 

(No photo of Rosendo, just his sign)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had the seafood spaghetti and DH had the strip steak from the "everyday" menu.

 

 

I'd like to review the food, but I have 3 problems...1) I'm a food fuel kind of person, so if it's hot and tasty, I'm happy. 2) I can't cook and so I don't know if something is prepared properly, well or otherwise 3) I'm a non meat eater (only seafood; or no mammals is how I put it) so I can't really honestly evaluate meals and what you might choose on any given night. I'll share what was offered each night, what we ate and any details that stand out (like the fact that the soups are consistently excellent and that the "everyday" offerings are consistently bland)

 

Day 1 MOJO Menu offerings:

Steak and Spinach salad

Seafood Spaghetti

Horse Radish Crusted Fillet of Salmon

Mojo Marinated Pork

Slow Roaster Prime Rib

Soft Shell Tortillas

And of course every menu offers these daily:

Linguine Pomodoro

Beef Sliders

Fillet of Cod

Grilled Chicken Breast

Strip Steak

[Familygoboston]

Sailaway

 

Muster was at 8 PM on deck 5 outdoors, many people were "dressed" a bit for dinner, but overall it was quick and I found the late muster more convenient than interrupting my afternoon at 4:30 PM and then getting ready for dinner. I felt I had more time to relax outside in the sun without the interruption of muster.

 

DH and I watched the sail away from our deck.

 

(photos of sailaway)

(leaving the Pan Am Pier)

 

 

 

 

(Carnival at the Old San Juan Pier)

 

 

 

 

(A gorgeous moon, if it wasn't full, it sure was close!! This is the moon they photoshop into all the ship photos and have on the back drop for formal night, but we really actually had it!!)

 

 

 

 

(El Morro was simply stunning from the water!)

 

 

 

 

(You really get a feel for the "walled city" from this shot)

 

After sail away, we went to Vortex; which is the Viking Crown Lounge on deck 13 for an after sail away drink. We found this lounge really, really dark. I am assuming it's so you have a chance to see the sea out the windows, but it was flashlight dark, and very empty.

 

We left and found a seat in the balcony for the 10:30 the welcome aboard show. We found the same group of folks there for every show...like the Old guys on the Muppets, we could sit up there and heckle with impunity. OK, Im only kidding, but it did make it easy to escape if we decided the show wasn't for us. We lasted about 15 minutes through Carly's intro and the production dancers and singers and we bailed shortly after the comedian came on at 11 PM. We no longer had an early day planned in Tortola, but we were ready for bed!

[Familygoboston]

Cruise Compasses Day 1:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found this document very, very helpful! As part of the crown and anchor coupons being loaded on your sea pass account, you get this document, customized for you, in your cabin. (I covered our personal info, but that's our name and number...one for each guest)

 

I loved that all my offers were listed, that all my benefits were listed and where to access them, and I loved that we had a more than one night heads up on the "repeater" parties. In the past you would get an invitation on your bed the night before and by then you may have already made plans. You still get the official "invitation" on you bed, but this doc lists which nights the parties you are invited to will be held. This prevents missing an invite due to a poor cabin attendant (it's happened!) and allowed us to plan the week ahead including any of these events that interested us.

 

(C&A paperwork...love this...three cheers for Royal for simplifying this!!!!)

 

 

 

 

That's it for tonight...I'm already late getting DD2 from SAT prep! More tomorrow! Day 2 Tortola

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

Oh, ho! So the Arizona crowd is sailing with Billoh again! I'll be waiting for that review! No head smashing this trip!!:(

 

I agree with lazy dressing...I try it all on before I go with all my accessories and any, ahem, specialty undergarments:o. (I think you ladies get my meaning;) )I don't want to arrive and realize I haven't brought the right thing to wear with what I have!

 

You saw about my accident in Bill or Ginny's review. :) I am avoiding all pre-cruise potential disasters this time. From airport, taxi to hotel, pizza ordered in, shuttle with group to the pier. I should be okay providing no taxi accidents.:eek: I'm still dealing with the last injury.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Oh, ho! So the Arizona crowd is sailing with Billoh again! I'll be waiting for that review! No head smashing this trip!!:(

 

I agree with lazy dressing...I try it all on before I go with all my accessories and any, ahem, specialty undergarments:o. (I think you ladies get my meaning;) )I don't want to arrive and realize I haven't brought the right thing to wear with what I have!

LOL! We are keeping Lisa on a leash - no bridges allowed. She is still having issues from that little disaster!:eek:

 

With the dressing I can mix things up, too. I may wear the same top or pants twice, especially evening clothes. They are only worn a few hours a night. By wearing separates and keep a similar color theme going I can wear things over and over again and it looks like I have on something different (I tell myself that anyway).:rolleyes: Since we will be a B2B I will be using that Diamond Wash & Fold coupon at least once.

[Familygoboston]

You saw about my accident in Bill or Ginny's review. :) I am avoiding all pre-cruise potential disasters this time. From airport, taxi to hotel, pizza ordered in, shuttle with group to the pier. I should be okay providing no taxi accidents. I'm still dealing with the last injury.

 

I read Bills' review and was very concerned for you :( I hope things are better now, but that wasn't a great situation!!

 

LOL! We are keeping Lisa on a leash - no bridges allowed. She is still having issues from that little disaster!:eek:

 

With the dressing I can mix things up, too. I may wear the same top or pants twice, especially evening clothes. They are only worn a few hours a night. By wearing separates and keep a similar color theme going I can wear things over and over again and it looks like I have on something different (I tell myself that anyway).:rolleyes: Since we will be a B2B I will be using that Diamond Wash & Fold coupon at least once.

 

I love the wash and fold...it's one of my favorite coupons- I would give up all the buy one get 50% off for that one;)

One of the things I've stopped doing is bringing day wear for days when I know I will probably spend the whole day in my bathing suit! I also put my travel ensemble in the wash and fold so it's clean for the trip home. I pack only 1-2 work out outfits, because I haven't had a cruise yet, where despite my best intentions I get to the fitness center more than once before the wash and fold day!:rolleyes:

 

So stay safe, all of you...but I do hope you will go out to dinner, Lisa!

Edited December 4, 2013 by Familygoboston

[Emdee]

Hi Emdee, Im so glad you joined me here!:D We really enjoyed this cruise, as far as ports go, it was closest to PG of any of our Caribbean cruises! I'm sure you will have a wonderful time! Is DD sailing with you?

 

Yes DD is coming with me. She hasn't come on any cruise with us this year since Tere Moana and we have done a lot of cruises this year.

[sueb]

Wow, Great review! We are looking forward to our trip aboard the Jewel in January!

[Cmoore19]

Love this review!!!! My kinda review! Lots of detail and lots of pictures!!! I love pictures. Subscribed!

[pzerba]

Awesome start - what a nice surprise to see when I logged in, an in-depth review of my next ship. I'd love a set of the "compii" if you get a chance. paul.zerba@gmail.com. Thanks in advance -- continue the great work!

[Arizona Laura]

Thanks for a great review!!!

 

Laura

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

So stay safe, all of you...but I do hope you will go out to dinner, Lisa!

 

Our group is staying at the same hotel, Tres Palmas, and we plan to order pizza and have a pizza party by the pool. I don't plan to go anywhere but will still get to enjoy dinner with everyone. Besides, we will all share dinner on the ship most nights. That works for me. My flight doesn't get in until night time anyway so not much time allowed for going anywhere.

[MrFunInTheSun]

Great review, humor and pictures! Thanks for sharing! Jewel of the Seas is such a beautiful ship! :D

[windjamming]

Oh, goody - a Familygoboston review!! I love your humor and spin on the world. Your writing is so entertaining, and the photos are just gorgeous. Those night scenes are amazing!

 

Looking forward to the rest of the review. I can't wait to read about Tortola, where we enjoyed the world's most boring excursion. Maybe I can live the port vicariously through you! : )

[BillOh]

Loving your review. I'm in 9256 just above your cabin. Cruising with Bill & Gina from Ohio May 3rd and a lot of AZ Cruiser friends. Bill said I stole this cabin from under him. haha.:) The luck of the draw I guess. It wasn't available when he booked before I did but it happened to open up at the same time I was booking so I snagged it.

 

If that eases your conscience then good, but don't expect anything but coal from Santa :p

 

In all seriousness, I could figure out the day you reserved it. I was checking on that room periodically and the news of the fire on Grandeur was a reminder to call in and check again. I waited till break time to do so and you I read you had it. I blame the LA on Allure for not telling me I could put a hold on that room. Something I didn't know.

[BillOh]

Oh, ho! So the Arizona crowd is sailing with Billoh again! I'll be waiting for that review! No head smashing this trip!!:(

 

I agree with lazy dressing...I try it all on before I go with all my accessories and any, ahem, specialty undergarments:o. (I think you ladies get my meaning;) )I don't want to arrive and realize I haven't brought the right thing to wear with what I have!

 

See, I have my stalkers too. Speaking of garments, Lisa's wardrobe includes.

 

[Familygoboston]

Great review, humor and pictures! Thanks for sharing! Jewel of the Seas is such a beautiful ship! :D

 

Thanks!! She is, and we enjoyed our cruise!!

 

Oh, goody - a Familygoboston review!! I love your humor and spin on the world. Your writing is so entertaining, and the photos are just gorgeous. Those night scenes are amazing!

 

Looking forward to the rest of the review. I can't wait to read about Tortola, where we enjoyed the world's most boring excursion. Maybe I can live the port vicariously through you! : )

 

Oh yes, I remember that from your review :eek: (which I loved btw!) I read that section out loud to DH as a cautionary tale against taking those kind of "culture" tours from the cruise line...we did one in Guadeloupe years ago that was similarly disappointing! Since then we have sworn off of them!! We did a private tour in Dominica that was a real high light!! With Trip Advisor, it's a pretty safe bet to find a good private tour these days. If a private guide starts messing up, you are going to read all about it! ;)

[Familygoboston]

See, I have my stalkers too. Speaking of garments, Lisa's wardrobe includes.

 

 

Now that's funny!:D

[jt1120]

(solarium)

 

My compliments on how your picture catches the real essence of the BLUE plants that adorn the Solarium. We just got off the Jewel this past week and thought that, by day, the Solarium was kind of disgusting and in serious need of refurbishment. Good thing she is going to dry dock early next year.

[Familygoboston]

Day 2 Tortola

 

(pano of Tortola at sunset)

 

 

 

 

 

Woke to the sounds of docking in Tortola. We had the morning open due to the change in excursions, so we checked the internet to make sure everything was ok at home (it was!!) and we called to change our MTD ressies because our tour was getting back later than we had planned originally and it was formal night! Then we went to breakfast in the windjammer. After breakfast we grabbed our snorkel bags and went to walk around Tortola before meeting our tour.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Familygoboston

[Familygoboston]

Tortola- walk around town

 

As advertised the mainly authentic, little town designed to serve local residents was shut down for Sunday. However, the little shopping area near the port was open, albeit that the ladies running the shops played gospel music, were dressed in their church clothes and reading their bibles while they waited for shoppers. We looked around town and found mostly closed banks and shops serving local needs. Like most islands- the groceries stores were open on Sunday mornings- locals come a long way to go to church and like to stop at the "big" market while they are there.

 

We sat on a shady bench and chatted with Valentine, a Grenada native who lives on Tortola and works in the banking industry. He was dressed for church but enjoying a beer while waiting for some guys to finish washing and detailing his car. We talked about commerce on the islands, the quiet beaches where he and others go to enjoy the beach away from the tourists. It's these unexpected encounters that always make for an interesting visit!

 

We also enjoyed watching a large group sailing with us to celebrate a Quinceañera relaxing on a bench in Tortola. The 15 yo girls were shopping together while parents chatted and enjoyed a beer in the shade, the big bothers (17 yo's) sat bored on the bench while the little brothers and sisters played tag. We find people watching lots if fun! Later that night we saw the young ladies looking lovely in their fancy Quinceañera dresses heading to dinner. Of course the best scene was watching the kids, each with a cell phone in his or her pocket, marvel over a pay phone in the shop area and trying to figure out how to use it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of this is within easy walking distance to the pier.

 

 

(a parking lot near the port area)

 

 

 

 

(Jewel at Tortola)

 

 

 

 

(A "decoration" at the market by the pier)

 

 

 

 

(some of the shops in the tourist craft market)

 

 

 

 

(Wild rooster running around...Valentine says they are good eating!!)