Another Jewel Southern route review, more like a trip report with pictures!

[purplethorn]

..... I did make interesting note of a Japanese/American Couple one morning that had two young kids and it would appear they were raising them bi-lingual with their parents language and English. I noted that as they spoke to them one sentence would be in one language and the next sentence would be in English. Just one of many observations I would make this week. It was interesting.

......

I also watch for politeness and acknowledgement of polite practices. I was on deck 9 so I walked up to deck 11 many times. Once as I was going up the stairs I saw someone coming down the stairs from the windjammer with one tray wiht 2 full dishes of food. They were being very careful walking and trying not to spill. I stopped short, stayed still and let them pass without fear of running into me. He said, "Thank you", which I appreciated. While not exactly rude behavior, I did see many examples of people walking without looking more than 1 foot ahead of themselves. Also I noticed when people get confused and not sure where to go, its always at a choke point. :)

 

 

We do this with our 2.5 yr old DD - we speak to her in Bulgarian and repeat everything in English so she does not feel left out in daycare - she is totally bi-lingual now :D

 

Also, on our last cruise I had to run around with plates from WJ to the room (because of DD) and I am always appreciative of people who help me pass through or push the button in the elevator always thanked them ... glad that it does not go unnoticeable :D

 

great review , more southern Caribbean please! :D

[BillOh]

What is the new RCCL towel policy?

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I believe in 8 of my 9 previous cruises you had to go to the towel station and check out up to two towels against your Seapass card. If you returned them there was supposed to be no charge. I never had a problem, but there were too many reports of people getting charged for towels they returned to disregard the problems it caused.

 

Now they are just letting you take towels, which is convenient, but so many people don't think of others. On a few occasions it was hard to get a towel (without some sneaking about)

[BillOh]

great review , more southern Caribbean please! :D

 

Tonight when I get home I'll work on our next stop Antigua. I always like to have something in my reviews that nobody has ever seen in a review before. That will happen tonight when I post the best part of Royal Caribbean's excursion, "A taste of Antigua".

 

Because of my surgery I was limited in what I could do. A friend suggested this stinker of an excursion. More tonight!

 

Hopefully this will make up for the lack of pictures of the ship as I was on it before, and was concentrating on the ports with my camera.

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

Great review! Awesome pictures and great video at Maho Beach.

 

You may be from Ohio, but you're well adopted into the AZ cruisers!

 

Looking foreword to more....hurry!! :D

 

***

[BillOh]

Hi Bill- I've been waiting for all of you to return to read your reviews! Hope the AZ crew weighs in soon too! Sorry you had such trouble with dining...maybe I can finally encourage you to the dark side- MTD, if you get a clunker wait staff team, you just switch!

 

Looking forward to more of your photos!

 

I may give that some thought. I know Penny and Jon would probably prefer the earlier dining, but the person booking first has made the choice. On this trip a couple of times I walked in on deck 5, the MTD deck and knew I was wrong right of way because of the lines! I don't want to wait in line! But I was waiting just as long once seated! :o

 

Anyway for giggles, I thought back to all my cruises and re-read some of my reviews and rated each dining experience on a 1-10 scale. Here is what I came up with.

 

[Jimbo]

Tonight when I get home I'll work on our next stop Antigua. I always like to have something in my reviews that nobody has ever seen in a review before. That will happen tonight when I post the best part of Royal Caribbean's excursion, "A taste of Antigua".

 

Because of my surgery I was limited in what I could do. A friend suggested this stinker of an excursion. More tonight!

 

Hopefully this will make up for the lack of pictures of the ship as I was on it before, and was concentrating on the ports with my camera.

 

Bill, I bet your review goes something like this of that excursion? It was $60 per person right?

 

 

Horrible Excursion. You first start off by visiting the backyard of someone in a sketchy neighborhood and get a speech about pottery, then walk across the street to another house where you can purchase art done by the owner of the house and then drive to yet another backyard to get a sales pitch by a 'herb' woman to buy her herbs and teas. It all felt like these were all cousins or something and the driver was driving you to the relatives' houses to buy stuff. That's probably not the case, but that's the feeling I got. The description says you get a short swim at a beach. That was not an option. Everything was hurried and no time was given for a swim. If face when I approached the water, the guide yelled, " let's go, let's go".. very disappointing. This was done in March 2014. "2014" was not an option in the drop down menu to select, so I picked "2013"

Edited May 13, 2014 by Jimbo

[At Sea 4Ever]

Following! Nice pictures!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[BillOh]

Bill, I bet your review goes something like this of that excursion? It was $60 per person right?

 

 

Horrible Excursion. You first start off by visiting the backyard of someone in a sketchy neighborhood and get a speech about pottery, then walk across the street to another house where you can purchase art done by the owner of the house and then drive to yet another backyard to get a sales pitch by a 'herb' woman to buy her herbs and teas. It all felt like these were all cousins or something and the driver was driving you to the relatives' houses to buy stuff. That's probably not the case, but that's the feeling I got. The description says you get a short swim at a beach. That was not an option. Everything was hurried and no time was given for a swim. If face when I approached the water, the guide yelled, " let's go, let's go".. very disappointing. This was done in March 2014. "2014" was not an option in the drop down menu to select, so I picked "2013"

 

This is largely it with some minor modifications and a couple of additions, but its clear we were on the same excursion. I also took a picture of the best part of this excursion, I hope you will be amused. Should be up in about 6 more hours :)

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

I was the lucky one that booked the coveted aft wrap 9256 from Bill before I knew he wanted it. But once I had it, I wasn't giving it up. Sorry Bill! :)

 

We had early dining and I felt our wait staff was rushed and forgetful. They missed my salad on the first night so I never got it. Also, I really wanted to order wine at dinner especially during formal night. Never saw a bar waiter. That was very odd. The wait staff kept talking to us about how important it was to fill out a wow card but nobody at our table filled one out for the wait staff. We certainly didn't get a WOW moment from them.

 

I was also a little disappointed with Tres Palmas Inn in San Juan. I had numerous emails with them and my confirmation paperwork all shows room 16 but when I checked in, they gave me room 17 with 2 full size beds. When I asked about it, they said they had already given out rooom 16 to other guests that had it reserved before us. I questioned why they let me reserve it a year previously if it had already been booked in 2012 and they had no answer for me. Our shower was cold water too so that was a rough morning having to take a cold shower. I won't stay there again but then again we won't ever sail out of San Juan again. San Juan cruise port was fine but not happy with the airport porters. We tried to tip them $5 for 4 bags and he demanded $8, $2per bag. :rolleyes:

[BillOh]

I was the lucky one that booked the coveted aft wrap 9256 from Bill before I knew he wanted it. But once I had it, I wasn't giving it up. Sorry Bill! :)

 

In the many times we have had to talk the past few months, I may not have been clear, I hope you know that I in no way think you stole that room from me. It just happened that way and its just one more thing I like to give you grief about.

 

 

 

I was also a little disappointed with Tres Palmas Inn in San Juan. I had numerous emails with them and my confirmation paperwork all shows room 16 but when I checked in, they gave me room 17 with 2 full size beds. When I asked about it, they said they had already given out rooom 16 to other guests that had it reserved before us. I questioned why they let me reserve it a year previously if it had already been booked in 2012 and they had no answer for me. Our shower was cold water too so that was a rough morning having to take a cold shower.

 

 

Oh, I probably didn't get to talk to you about this, but that morning I figured out the hot water situation. There was on central hot water tank on the roof and you had to leave the shower on for 5 minutes to get hot water. The problem with room one the rotary dial shower control wasn't marked with H or C and it was the opposite of what I have seen anywhere in the world. When you first turn on the water its on full hot and you have to go past it and around to cold. I suspect the original plumber hooked it up backwards and sanded off the H and C to cover it up :D. At least half our group was in rooms other than what they reserved. It was clean and in a safe place, but left some things to be desired. Since we got in just before you and left the same time I didn't even go into the pool/hot tubs.

[BillOh]

Anyway for giggles, I thought back to all my cruises and re-read some of my reviews and rated each dining experience on a 1-10 scale. Here is what I came up with.

 

 

Looking back at my chart, I should have given Allure 2011 a 9 not an 8. But the trend from 13 on does seem headed in the wrong direction.

Edited May 13, 2014 by BillOh

[Ocean Boy]

I'm very much enjoying your review! I don't think I could have at all tolerated getting out of dinner at 11 PM. I would have felt like my entire evening on the ship was shot. It would have been a major issue for me.

[BillOh]

Ok, I’ve mentioned I wasn’t happy with the excursion “A Taste of Antigua” This is an official Royal Caribbean excursion. Here is how it looks on their website

 

 

On the tickets it clearly says bring your swimsuit. More on that later. The average age on this excursion was probably up there compared to other more active excursions and the tour started out bad for me being near a couple of older ladies whom I would nicely refer to them as “busy bodies”. They had a comment for everything and and irrelevant follow up questions. It started out highly annoying.

There were about 3 or 4 vans loaded and I think they vary which stop goes first as not to overwhelm a few of the stops I’m about to mention. I think this explains why my order is a little different than the one Jimbo mentioned in a previous post. But the outcome is probably the same. The tour passes a few possibly interesting sites, but I’m not sure as the two busy bodies on our bus kept interrupting the guide. We ended up making our way to a residence high up in the hills. I thought it a little odd that we were going to someone’s house and parking in their driveway. I will say they had a nice bush in the front yard.

 

 

Once we walked around the back yard of this house we could see their “garden”. We were advised that there currently was a drought. I doubt the area I saw could have sustained much growing wise. We were herded into a gazebo with about 20 seats. A lady came out and started talking. We learned there was a local hospital on the island that covered trauma and basic illnesses, but major disease required going overseas. She showed a bunch of strange herbs that she said cured polio. Cancer, diabetes and bad attitude. (Ok, I forget exactly what the elaborate claims were; I was already in mental shut down, anxiously awaiting getting back on the bus to the next stop.

About 20 minutes in another bus tour arrived and they put those people all around us. Much to my chagrin the lady started her presentation all over again. A couple of times the lady sent her minions off to her garden to fetch some miracle herb. The guy would remain out of site for a minute and come back with something in plastic bags that I’m sure were either prepared and placed or already on their persons. Of course at the end the lady had a lot of stuff to sell. I got off easy; my wife wanted some miracle hair moisturizer. My friend wasn’t as lucky his wife spent at least $30. The final indignation was the lady said she only had one bathroom so she would appreciate it if people waited till further on in the tour. I’d love to opportunity to question her about this again. Oh, I forgot, we each got about ¼ ounce of a liquid in a Dixie cup that was natural viagara. I think it was watered down grape kool-aid.

We drove around awhile, again with the two busy bodies, I’m not sure what we saw. I kept hearing the guide referencing a prize to the first person up a pineapple tree. He also kept pointing at trees and asking if people saw the pineapples. After what seemed like an hour, we ended up at a pineapple plantation. At this point, go back in the post and look at the photo in Royals ad for this excursion. I guess that is what pineapples look like. I wouldn’t know for sure as there wasn’t a single pineapple on this plantation. Another thing there wasn’t was bathrooms or water.

 

Next the guide told us that there were 365 beaches on Antigua and they are all public. We were headed to one of them. When we finally arrived at the beach I saw the highlight of this tour and people flocked to it with great desire and appreciation. Here it is below.

 

 

While everyone was frantically using the above facility our tourguides all met up and put out a folding table with stuff that was allegedly grown locally along with a Styrofoam cup of some sort of ginger drink. Everyone could get one small piece of each thing. I doubt there was a 100 calories on that plate and we had been with the group a couple of hours. The nearby beach did look really nice.

I asked the guide where the changing facilities were. He indicated there were none (RC said beach time) and we only had 10 minutes till we left. Other, probably nicer excursions used this same area and we found a place to buy a coke and take a couple of pictures below.

 

 

 

We were then told we were going to a pottery store. We were told it was a short distance from the ship. Someone asked if they could walk back from there and was told it wasn’t possible. We drove back into town making frequent turns into progressively narrower more residential areas. We finally stopped blocking the street and walked into a corner building. I think I am still being objective in saying after 5 seconds all I saw was crap. I was back on the bus. Below is the pottery store.

 

 

Our bus was parked in front of this place.

 

 

This place might have been a highlight for many people. An old man came home to this place while we were waiting. He walked in, sat on the floor with a bag. There was nothing in the shack to sit on. Suddenly his cat came into view and he spread a napkin out and shared his dinner with his cat. A lot of “ahhhs” were heard. From there we were dropped off back in the port. I plan on notifying Royal how bad I thought this excursion was. I doubt they know or have known long. I really think this was run by a family or group of people scamming Royal Caribbean.

 

 

I'm off to click on the WRITE A REVIEW on RC's page for this excursion. I look forward to coming back to Antigua and seeing something else.

[BillOh]

The excursion in the previous message took us up to about 3pm. At 5pm on this port day was our "meet and mingle" in the Viking Crown Lounge. Despite it being 5pm on a port day the turn out was pretty good. There were cookies and lemonade. Everyone was given a name tag with their name, including spouses and children of Cruise Critic members. Elvis the Activities was the Emcee of the event. He was personable and a nice guy. He did mention, which for me was the 2nd time hearing it, that Royal Caribbean does monitor Cruise Critic and they tell him whenever his name is mentioned. Hi Elvis.

 

There was a generous price raffle of which I got a hat. Elvis also passed around a microphone and everyone said their name, their CC screen name and where they were from. I thought this was a good gesture that helped to make sure people didn't just show up, get prizes and leave as was the case on my Allure 2011 cruise. Now this wasn't the Meet and Mingle from our 2013 Allure cruise, that was one Epic party! (Actually at least 7 or 8 of us from that cruise were on this one. ) We had a good time and people with early dining made their dinner. Note: Normally M&Ms are done on a sea day, but this cruise the only sea day is the last one. I salute Royal for making the best of the situation.

[Cruzin-K]

Too bad your day in Antigua was such a bust. I've been there twice and thoroughly enjoyed it. The first time I did a catamaran sail/snorkel/beach excursion which was fabulous. The next time I got a day pass to a beach resort which was a nice relaxing day out. I guess I'll be sticking with beach activities on future cruises as well.

[BillOh]

Too bad your day in Antigua was such a bust. I've been there twice and thoroughly enjoyed it. The first time I did a catamaran sail/snorkel/beach excursion which was fabulous. The next time I got a day pass to a beach resort which was a nice relaxing day out. I guess I'll be sticking with beach activities on future cruises as well.

 

There was a catamaran at the beach we stopped at. Had they given us 30 minutes at this beach and glass of water, I wouldn't have blasted this excursion as much. I look forward to going back some day.

[Familygoboston]

Ginny is doing a B2B, so her review will be coming up.

Have to wait another week then !

 

I may give that some thought. I know Penny and Jon would probably prefer the earlier dining, but the person booking first has made the choice. On this trip a couple of times I walked in on deck 5, the MTD deck and knew I was wrong right of way because of the lines! I don't want to wait in line! But I was waiting just as long once seated! :o

 

Anyway for giggles, I thought back to all my cruises and re-read some of my reviews and rated each dining experience on a 1-10 scale. Here is what I came up with.

 

 

Wow, a graph...I'm not worthy! ;)

 

I guess I did see some lines occasionally, but they generally move fast for "Guest with reservations " I've never waited more than a few moments when I've had a reservation...there might be a few parties in front, but they aren't waiting for a table to empty, they are waiting to be seated in a table that's been readied for them at that specific time. I can't speak to how it works if you just stroll up at 7 PM, but it wouldn't surprise me that you might have to wait for a table to open up at that hour. But it's the stalled dinner time that we avoid with MTD; we dine at our pace, slow or quick depending on what we want. I've been very pleased, I wouldn't go back to traditional at this point. I do try to make more of an effort to get to know people in lounges and before shows since you do miss that if you dine alone. And you don't have to dine alone, if you've made friends on RC you can all dine together at a set time at MTD, but you have more flexibility!

Great report, Looking forward to digging into your port pics- Antigua is one we haven't done since the 90s!

 

ETA: well, read it and ok, we ARE NOT doing that! :eek:I would have been scared witless to drink anything they offered!! Ok so we have booked a private tour, and Ive done my reading, so I'll tell him where I'd like to go (which is quite different from telling him "where to go". ;)Sorry you had such a miserable experience!

Edited May 14, 2014 by Familygoboston

[emeraldcity]

Thanks for posting. I am enjoying the review. I love the reerences to the occasional thought given to the workplace you not missing. It always adds a little sweetness to the day when you're lounging on a deck chair on a cruise ship and it occurs to you that you're normally at work at that time.

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

It's too bad you guys didn't join us at Coconut Beach Club. For $45/pp we had use of the pool, beach chairs with palm umbrellas, all you can eat lunch buffet which was really good food I might add and all you can drink from the bar. We drank tons of margaritas. It was a good day. Perfect ocean with very little waves to swim & soak in with beautiful white sand. I guarantee you would have had a better time than that RCI excursion. Next time.:)

[Cruzin-K]

It's too bad you guys didn't join us at Coconut Beach Club. For $45/pp we had use of the pool, beach chairs with palm umbrellas, all you can eat lunch buffet which was really good food I might add and all you can drink from the bar. We drank tons of margaritas. It was a good day. Perfect ocean with very little waves to swim & soak in with beautiful white sand. I guarantee you would have had a better time than that RCI excursion. Next time.:)

 

That's where I went in January. In spite of one downpour, we had a great time there. The lunch was great, and the locals were very friendly :D

 

Jewel of the Seas, January 2014 by lucypocket, on Flickr

[courtsavvy]

It's too bad you guys didn't join us at Coconut Beach Club. For $45/pp we had use of the pool, beach chairs with palm umbrellas, all you can eat lunch buffet which was really good food I might add and all you can drink from the bar. We drank tons of margaritas. It was a good day. Perfect ocean with very little waves to swim & soak in with beautiful white sand. I guarantee you would have had a better time than that RCI excursion. Next time.:)

 

We loved our day (and the company!) there. Fun times :)

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

We loved our day (and the company!) there. Fun times :)

 

For sure. We had a blast. I still have some pics to post for you if I can figure out which website to upload them to. Facebook doesn't always work well for uploading to cc.

[Jimbo]

Best tour guide in Antigua is Lawrence.

 

http://www.lawrenceofantigua.com/index.php

 

Jimbo :)

Edited May 14, 2014 by Jimbo

[Ocean Boy]

There was a catamaran at the beach we stopped at. Had they given us 30 minutes at this beach and glass of water, I wouldn't have blasted this excursion as much. I look forward to going back some day.

 

It is too bad that your day went as it did. When we were first on Antigua we took a tour down to Shirely Heights and Nelson's Dockyard and we had a great day there. Hopefully, your next visit will go better.

[BillOh]

It is too bad that your day went as it did. When we were first on Antigua we took a tour down to Shirely Heights and Nelson's Dockyard and we had a great day there. Hopefully, your next visit will go better.

 

I'm sure it will, I was pretty limited in excursions this cruise because of my surgery in January. I'm posting a lot of the negative stuff this time, but we really did have a great cruise.