7 Night Southern Caribbean Cruise

[new2cruising2014]

Thinking about doing the 7 night Southern Caribbean Cruise on the Jewel of the Seas. It is out of San Juan. The ports of call include:

St. Thomas, St. Croix, Antigua, St. Lucia. Grenada

 

Should I fly in the day before?

Is booking a shore excursion with the ship better than going out on my own?

And if anyone has any pictures of the ship and ports of call that would be great.

I want to do a lot of research before booking this cruise. :)

Any advice is welcome and thanks for your help!

[Clarea]

We always try to fly in the day before. Gives you some leeway in case of flight delays or cancellations. Plus, Old San Juan is an interesting place, so you could do some walking around there and have a nice dinner the night before the cruise.

[DonnaK]

We did this cruise last May. I wouldn't book any ship's tours. Just do a little research on the ports of call forum here on CC, and on Trip Advisor.

 

I highly recommend Cosol Tours in St. Lucia, and Lawrence of Antigua.

 

Check out this review by Sinny: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1855341

(we were on the same sailing as her)

Edited June 27, 2014 by DonnaK

[cb at sea]

Of course you should fly in the day prior....if you can't, take the VERY FIRST FLIGHT in the morning....less chance of delays, but no guarantee that there will be no delays!!!

 

Get a guidebook, either from your library, or buy one on your ports....that's your best research means!!!

 

There's seldom a good reason to use the ships excursions....many things require NO excursion at all! The guidebook will help you make that decision!

[CRUISEFAN0001]

We've done the Southern Caribbean route on Adventure of the Seas twice, with Barbados being the only difference (instead of Grenada). We also had St. Maarten included...which is one of our favorite stops, along with St. Lucia.

 

Would recommend you come into San Juan the day before...you can easily get to Old San Juan for an afternoon or evening of sightseeing prior to your cruise departure the next day. A simple cab ride will get you there. Getting in the previous day also eliminates any "travel drama" with delays if you came in on the cruise day itself.

 

Your port stops have plenty of excursions to choose from - both those offered by Royal Caribbean on their website as well as private cruises. Your choices depend on whether you want to sightsee, get a tour, rest on a beach someplace, golf, or something else. Again, there are plenty of options available.

[Debitoo]

Definitely fly in the day before or 2 days if you can swing it. PR is such an interesting place and 1 day doesn't really do it justice. The S Caribbean is such a great itinerary. Enjoy!

[new2cruising2014]

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate it!

[rjrice1]

I learned a lesson this past March; cruise out of San Juan,

Booked the very first flight out of Orlando (direct flight too)

Got to the airport and notice flight delay 30 minutes. Telling everyone there is engine trouble and they are working on it.

Then shortly afterwards they cancel the flight with no flights till the next day.

After lots of $itching.. they offer us a flight in three hours from West Palm Beach.. told us it was only 90 minutes away.

We grab it... went to get our luggage.. guess what airport is 2 plus hours away.

Can't go back to the ticket agent.. no tickets to get to him

No time to rent a car, our car is at the hotel...

Grabbed a taxi... $430.00 plus tip. Half way there the driver tells us cash only..

WTH? thank god I had $$ in my excursions folder...

Taxi got us there with 5 minutes to spare..

Even missed a wedding since we didn't get there till 6ish and was supposed to be there by 10 ish

Jet Blue did refund us the money for the cab, gave us a future credit after proving to them it was not weather related (that is the other reason---gave them the weather where the plane was coming from and Orlando.

Gave them map quest informing them the real distance and ect.

Many people had to fly to St. Thomas to join the cruise

One couple luggage was flown to a different airport and didn't get till five days later.

We are cruising again and Jan and yes, I booked a pre cruise hotel.

To think flying out of Orlando we could of miss our cruise and our friends from Boston and Canada got there... with flights the same day

Cathy

[racerxspeedy]

I've done it both ways but it's always more of a vacation if you can enjoy SJU the day before you sail. The only way I would go the same day is direct flight early morning from large airport with backup flights. Will be going there twice in 2015.

[MichaelCMTX]

As others have said definitely with a PR departure fly in the day before.

 

My folks still get a little skittish when we leave Dallas at 5am for a Galveston cruise. "You can't do that!!"

[Keith1010]

Absolutely. It is wise to fl in the day before because if you fly in the day of the cruise and your flight is cancelled or delayed you could miss the ship.

 

Keith

[erniesband]

Thinking about doing the 7 night Southern Caribbean Cruise on the Jewel of the Seas. It is out of San Juan. The ports of call include:

St. Thomas, St. Croix, Antigua, St. Lucia. Grenada

 

Should I fly in the day before?

Is booking a shore excursion with the ship better than going out on my own?

And if anyone has any pictures of the ship and ports of call that would be great.

I want to do a lot of research before booking this cruise. :)

Any advice is welcome and thanks for your help!

 

We'll be doing a B2B in January on Jewel and have done 17 Southern cruises from San Juan. Here's some things we've done over the years and would recommend, none are ship tours all from independent operators. And I agree with all those that say get to PR the day before.

 

St Thomas - shopping paradise, for a relaxing day book a daysail, we like High Pockets, or head over to St John and the better beaches.

http://www.sailhighpockets.com

 

St Croix - Virgin Kayaking on the Salt River - http://www.virginkayaktours.com

Cane Bay for snorkeling from shore.

A trip into Christianstad for it's history.

Rainbow Beach really close to the pier.

You can see most of Fredrickstad in an hour.

Depending on when you're going a trip to snorkel at Buck Island, it can be rough in winter when the North Swells are big.

 

Antigua - For water adventures any of the tours by Adventure Antigua - http://www.adventureantigua.com

For history, a tour that goes to Nelson's Dockyard, Shirley Heights, etc. Gordon or Lawrence get good reviews.

Antigua is also known for it's beaches, 365 of them.

 

St Lucia - this island is best seen with an all day tour like Cosol, Mystic Man and others offer, It's a natural paradise. Ziplining is very popular here. If you want a great beach day with good snorkeling look into a day package with Island Divers at Ti Kaye resort. http://www.tikaye.com

 

Gerada - We really like the tours offered by Mandoo and have done almost all of them including the Seven Sisters Hike, and the Spice Tour. This year he's arranging for us to go snorkeling at the Underwater Sculpture Garden.

http://www.grenadatours.com

 

And don't forget to give yourself some time to explore San Juan. Come in a few days early, see Old San Juan, the forts and El Yunque.

Edited June 27, 2014 by erniesband

[mjgep0316]

The other thing to consider which I did not see mentioned above is that although the ship may depart at 8:30, you should be able to board as early as Noon. If you fly in that day, you may not board until late afternoon (with larger crowds) and will be stressed out from travel by the time you get on the ship. We are sailing on Jewel out of SJ in October and coming in the day before and plan to be at the pier by 11AM...it's like having an extra half day on the ship - why not take advantage of it?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[reallyhooked]

Go to "Beyond ships.com" click on Jewel

[Agutaya]

I learned a lesson this past March; cruise out of San Juan,

Booked the very first flight out of Orlando (direct flight too)

Got to the airport and notice flight delay 30 minutes. Telling everyone there is engine trouble and they are working on it.

Then shortly afterwards they cancel the flight with no flights till the next day.

After lots of $itching.. they offer us a flight in three hours from West Palm Beach.. told us it was only 90 minutes away.

We grab it... went to get our luggage.. guess what airport is 2 plus hours away.

Can't go back to the ticket agent.. no tickets to get to him

No time to rent a car, our car is at the hotel...

Grabbed a taxi... $430.00 plus tip. Half way there the driver tells us cash only..

WTH? thank god I had $$ in my excursions folder...

Taxi got us there with 5 minutes to spare..

Even missed a wedding since we didn't get there till 6ish and was supposed to be there by 10 ish

Jet Blue did refund us the money for the cab, gave us a future credit after proving to them it was not weather related (that is the other reason---gave them the weather where the plane was coming from and Orlando.

Gave them map quest informing them the real distance and ect.

Many people had to fly to St. Thomas to join the cruise

One couple luggage was flown to a different airport and didn't get till five days later.

We are cruising again and Jan and yes, I booked a pre cruise hotel.

To think flying out of Orlando we could of miss our cruise and our friends from Boston and Canada got there... with flights the same day

Cathy

 

Thanks for sharing this story, Cathy. Yes, it would have seemed safe to have had the first flight of the day from such a close airport, but one never knows. Better safe than sorry. I'd rather be sitting in SJ sipping a margarita than than running around an airport trying to get on another flight any day.

[new2cruising2014]

All of this information has been extremely helpful!

[slyster]

We are taking this exact cruise in November. I can't wait to visit these islands!

 

This will be our third cruise out of San Juan. I would recommend arriving the day before too but unfortunately, we are not able to do this as we are going to a wedding the day before. We do have the first cruise out and it's a non stop flight. We should be there before 1pm with no problems.

 

We sailed Serenade, the Jewel's sister ship....they are beautiful ships :)

[dacsmom]

I am doing the Southern itinerary next October and will fly in the day before. I wan to explore Old San Juan and not have to stress about flight delays.