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Jewel Of The Seas- Cruise Review- June 14th-21st. (With photos)

Ty85

By Ty85,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Ty85

Ty85

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Greetings everyone!

 

This is my second review on CC, my first one was the NCL, Spirit around the Western Caribbean. I stopped writing about it simply because I forgot to keep it going. But don't worry, I won’t forget about this one. It’s still fresh in my head.

 

About me: I'm 21 years old, I live and attend college in Denver, Colorado. My major is hotel management with a minor in management. I love the travel industry and can't wait to make a career out of it. I also love to do photography. I got a Canon Rebel t3 for Christmas a year ago. I'm still learning how to set exposures, settings, and all that jazz. On this cruise I took roughly, 1,100 photos.

 

The crew: My aunt, my grandparents, my mom, and my brother.

 

How we picked the vacation: My grandparents wanted to go on vacation since we didn't go on one last summer. It was also a rough two years for them. My grandma had two surgeries and also lost her sister. So they wanted to go relax and create fantastic memories with their family. We are huge Disney fans, and love to go, but we wanted to do something else. So they looked into cruises. We looked into Alaska, Europe, and Bermuda. After researching we all agreed on the Southern Caribbean. They chose Royal Caribbean due to the price and date. We also liked that it embarked out of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

 

Our cabin. My grandparents were able to get our rooms side-by-side which was a huge plus. We were on deck 9 close the library. We each had a balcony, another huge plus!

 

Before the cruise: We left for San Juan, June 12th. We traveled all day and didn't get into San Juan until 1am. June 13th was our day to explore OSJ and relax. We flew with United, my aunt is a mileage plus member and we also have mileage points. This cruise didn't embark until 8pmish (I think almost 9) anyway, people were able to fly in the day of the cruise.

 

Off to the review!

 

June 12th:

 

Our flight to Newark, was at 12:45pm. My aunt and grandpa love to get to the airport 3-4 hours before the flight. Nothing wrong with that, just a lot of siting around. The flight was about 3 hours 30 minutes. Got into Newark around 6:30pm, then our flight to San Juan left around 9pm and got in about 1am.

 

Our hotel was the, Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino. The hotel sits right next to the convention center. It was about 20 minutes from the airport to the hotel. To the cruise terminal, about 15 minutes. It was a very nice and modern hotel. Our room faced out to the convention center and also the harbor, yes we saw the cruise ship in the morning! We thought the cruise terminal was near the Sheraton Inn, which is across the harbor next to the yellow building. But i guess certain cruise ships go to either or. The room was very spacious and also had a big balcony. I didn't get any photos of the hotel :( but, I will post a link to the hotel so you can see for yourself.

 

After we checked in, we ate a quick meal and went to bed.

 

Coming up: Our full day in San Juan and lots of photos!

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Ty85

Ty85

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Thank you everyone, for the kind words! I hope this will be a great review, to gain information and to relive the cruise.

 

June 13:

 

Today was our day to go out and explore San Juan. We got up early to get ready and go have breakfast. We chose to eat at Choices, one of the hotels restaurants. It was pretty good and very filling. Next to Choices, is a small coffee and pasty area. The pastries are pretty cheap and filling as well.

 

We left around 1130am. The hotel is very good about getting taxis for you, can translate with them, and help you work out a price. The taxi was about 20 dollars. Which was pretty reasonable. We decided to check out the Fort, El Moro. The distance was about 20 minutes. There was a festival going on and we had to walk the rest of the way. Which wasn't bad.

 

The fort is part of the National Park service, so children under 15 are free, above 16 is 5 dollars. Seniors can purchase a life pass which is 10 dollars and can get you into any National Park in the USA for free, it also includes three adults as well.

 

The fort is a pretty spectacular place to visit. There is a large grass area where people fly their kites, have a picnic, and relax. Some kites were so far, it looked like airplanes! no joke! Near the fort is a cemetery. As well as government offices ( i think). It's pretty big, lots of places to see different outlooks and underneath. Walking in some areas was a bit of a hike, so people with walking problems should take note. It's note that bad, just some steep hills and lots of uneven stairs. We saw a lot of different animals hanging around; a Iguana, a cat, and some green parrots?

 

The fort has a gift shop, a place to watch a video, lots of literature to read as you walk around, and nice bathroom facilities. We spent a good few hours here.

 

OJS1_edited-2_zps27798653.jpg

 

I really love this photo, because it captures the true essence of the fort and what happens around it.

 

OSJ4_zpsf917d6be.jpg

 

OSJ10_zps1c79c5a0.jpg

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DonnaK

DonnaK

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Our hotel was the, Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino. The hotel sits right next to the convention center. It was about 20 minutes from the airport to the hotel. To the cruise terminal, about 15 minutes. It was a very nice and modern hotel. Our room faced out to the convention center and also the harbor, yes we saw the cruise ship in the morning! We thought the cruise terminal was near the Sheraton Inn, which is across the harbor next to the yellow building. But i guess certain cruise ships go to either or. The room was very spacious and also had a big balcony. I didn't get any photos of the hotel :( but, I will post a link to the hotel so you can see for yourself.

 

 

 

Loving your review so far.

 

Cruises that visit San Juan for the day, as a port of call, dock in Old San Juan.

 

Cruises that originate in San Juan use the Pan American pier.

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Ty85

Ty85

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Sorry for the long wait!!

 

Work got busy and will continue to be very busy until after 4th of July.

So, where was I?

 

After the fort, we walked to the other fort and down the street. We were in search of food! We ran into Senior Frogs and decided to eat their since we were all starving! The food was good, I got a smothered burrito with beef, and it was pretty tasty. The restaurant wasn’t packed at all. After lunch we walked around in search of a shoe store, my aunt forgot her dress shoes. We found a Payless shoe store and then walked around more. A thing I noticed with taxi drivers is, if you look like a tourist or an “outsider” then, they will honk at you all the time.

 

We got back to the hotel and decided to relax and get ready for the cruise the next day! We went to the pool which was very nice. It’s a very long lap pool type with an infinity look. It features a bar and two hot tubs. We ordered room service, and went to bed.

 

We got up early to get to the cruise terminal. I got out to the balcony and BAM! There she was! We got very excited and couldn’t wait to get there.

It was a very short drive to the cruise terminal. Let me take this time to talk about the driving in San Juan. People drive all over the road! There are so many yield signs, no one really follows the speed limit or pass with care. Taxi drivers were always on their phones and swerved a lot when driving. Making it a very uncomfortable drive.

 

We got to the terminal around 1:15. Making us one of the first to get through. The process was very quick and organized! Pretty much after we dropped our luggage off, it was a quick stop to one counter to the other then we were getting our photo taken. So, no waiting in a designated zone. Once we got on board, the staff who greeted us said everything was open, even our rooms!

 

We immediately went to our rooms to drop off our bags. Our rooms were side-by-side. We each had a balcony as well. We were on deck 9 very close to the library. Each room slept 3 people very comfortably. Our rooms had two twin beds and a pullout couch. I slept on the couch; it wasn’t very comfy, you could feel the dip where the couch and bed met. The balcony had two chairs and a table, it was a good size. The bathroom however, was small. Our room attendant was Francisco, he was very nice and kept the room very clean. After checking out the rooms, we went to the windjammer.

On deck 11, the windjammer was a good size buffet. However, the food was very hit or miss. They had lots of healthy choices which is good but, if I want chocolate cake, I want the actual thing. We ate breakfast and lunch there and dinner two times. Since we didn’t embark till 8pm, we had a lot of time to explore the ship. After lunch we explored the ship and got our drink packages. My brother and I got the soda package. Child was 34 and adult was 54.

 

After purchasing those, we explored the ship some more and ran into the spa. The spa offered tours and lots of great deals. 20 percent off and sometimes more. I wanted to try a massage since I never had one until the cruise. I got the seaweed wrap and half body massage. She also through in hot stones for no extra charge. Also, if you booked a massage, you got 15 minutes free. More on that the next day.

 

After walking around, it was time for the fan favorite, muster drill. This was the first time we had an evening muster drill. It started around 8pm. The drill consisted of someone checking you in, an announcer going over how to put on your life jacket, and where you need to meet. It was really long, it also didn’t help that it was very humid. Once that was over, we walked to find a spot for take-off. We found our spot overlooking the helicopter pad. It was good and not crowded. Once we were out of the lagoon, we went to our rooms to relax and get ready for St. Marteen.

 

Thank you for your patience. Work got really busy, so next up will be photos of San Juan and the ship!

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Ty85

Ty85

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OSJ18_zpsff36c8a2.jpg

 

 

 

OSJ19_zps6e4bb747.jpg

 

OSJ20_zpse7a0aceb.jpg

 

 

View of the cruise ship from the hotel room. I zoomed in about all the way on my 75-300mm lens. But you can see the ship clear as day from the room. It made us very excited to see her and to know we will be sailing with her for 7 days.

 

OSJ23_zpsfb257e85.jpg

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