Jewel of the Seas Nov 1st Trip Report

[mn1111]

Thanks for the detailed description. It really helps. I'm on the December 6th sailing and I am driving my husband nuts with my excitement. Your review and photos are wonderful. This is our first cruise in 6 years due to family illness. Is the suite worth the upgrade? Thanks again.

 

Hi,

 

I'm glad you are enjoying the review! This is a beautiful ship and you will have a great time! For us the upgrade was definitely worth it as we got it for only $230 extra going from a grand suite through the casino desk. I wouldn't pay the regular rate for it though even if I could afford it, especially with this itinerary as we were off the ship most days. Also we hardly enjoyed the rest of the ship because our cabin was too nice to leave. I actually had to force myself up to the pool deck on the sea day just to be able to say I saw it. Have a great cruise!

 

Neda

[rzyjzq]

Enjoying your review and pictures! Thanks so much for sharing your vacation with us!

Susan

[mn1111]

Enjoying your review and pictures! Thanks so much for sharing your vacation with us!

Susan

 

Thanks Susan!- I'm going to try and get St. Lucia and hopefully Grenada done as well later on today.

 

Neda

[jumpjump]

Thanks for the review! Love the photos! My cruise on the Jewel is around the corner!!! (10 days left). Excited!

[mn1111]

Thanks for the review! Love the photos! My cruise on the Jewel is around the corner!!! (10 days left). Excited!

 

I'm so glad you are enjoying the review! Have a great time on your cruise, the ship is beautiful!

 

Neda

[mn1111]

Day 9- Wed Nov 5th-St. Lucia

 

6:30AM came way too early today because even though we came up to the cabin at a reasonable hour, I ended up going back downstairs to make another donation at the casino and stayed there way too late. At the rate I was going, it's a very good thing I'm on a first name basis with the lady that comes around to shut everyone's electric off. So at 6:30AM sharp our 7:00AM coffee showed up and this was one day that I wished I drank coffee, but we did order a few pastries and some fruit as we would not have time for breakfast this morning since we needed to be off the ship very early. I've always loved St. Lucia, it has such a lush and tropical feel to it, though that might be because it is lush and tropical! Anyway, it was nice to have a view of the pier today and it was so pretty, I snapped a few photos.

 

View from our balcony-

 

 

 

 

 

Today we were meeting my friend Shal who owns Jungle Tours to go offroading through the rainforest and do some snorkeling in Soufriere in his open air four wheel drive land rover jeep thing. I've known Shal for over 15 years and always spend the day with him whenever in St. Lucia so I was really looking forward to seeing him again as it had been a few years since I was there last. There were only four of us today Mary, Elise, Gabi and myself. Lori and Michele decided to do a day pass at a beach resort which they said was fabulous though they were definitely missed.

 

Since we had to be off the ship so early, Diego escorted us down to the disembarkation deck. There was a bit of a delay due to the need to wait for the local customs officials to clear a piano or something or other and there seemed to be no sense of urgency on their part. The line to get off was really getting long at this point, but Diego brought us past the ropes so we could be the first ones off the ship when it finally cleared. While we were waiting, there was this American officer (first American I noticed working on the ship) who was really talking down to some of the crew members that I'm guessing were of a lower rank than he was (he had a few stripes on his shoulder things). It was frustrating to watch him bully them around like that as he was really pompous, I wanted to say something so badly, but held my tongue as they were all adults.

 

Finally the ship cleared and Shal was waiting for us right where he said he would be. I was pretty surprised to find an air conditioned van instead of the jeep, but it couldn't be helped as Shal said the jeep needed repairs and he had to send for the part from England and it hadn't arrived yet. It was disappointing because the jeep is way more fun, but we made the best of it as we were happy to be there.

 

Also disappointing was the fact that the road we usually take through the forest was closed due to a mud slide from a hurricane that passed through in 2010 and they still hadn't cleared it. Shal said that there were still no plans to open it back up as of right now and the poor locals who live along it now have to carry their produce to market on their heads. I truly hope for their sake that road gets open soon. We ended up having to take the regular roads and just skirt the rainforest, but we still had an excellent day though I really missed driving through those rivers.

 

On the way to Soufriere we made a lot of stops at various points, some with vendors and some without. Shal was good at pointing out things of interest as they came up and there were plenty of good photo opportunities though Gabi was the one mostly snapping away as I only got a few.

 

Obligatory view of the ship from a hill photo

 

View of the pitons heading towards Soufriere

 

 

Stopped at a spot with tons of these little butterflies-I thought they were so pretty, I had to take a picture!

 

[Adellsbooks]

OMG Neda-

This is the best description of our adventures. You do realize people make a living with free travel doing what you just did. You took me back to such incredible memories, with the vivid detail of Hemingway. I WANT TO GO BACK NOW!!!

Mary, Elaine and I are so lucky to be apart of all the hard work you put in to create the "Perfect" vacation. And it truly was. We got a chance to see things we never would have seen, traveled the way we never would have traveled. Drank delicious wine in soft robes, enjoyed the wind in our hair on boats, found treasures in the whitest of white sand.

And we met some really great cool people along the way.(Gabi, Lori,Michelle), among many more.

Thank you Neda. And may you never again travel without me or Mary again... we do make a hell of a team...;):):cool:

[mn1111]

OMG Neda-

This is the best description of our adventures. You do realize people make a living with free travel doing what you just did. You took me back to such incredible memories, with the vivid detail of Hemingway. I WANT TO GO BACK NOW!!!

Mary, Elaine and I are so lucky to be apart of all the hard work you put in to create the "Perfect" vacation. And it truly was. We got a chance to see things we never would have seen, traveled the way we never would have traveled. Drank delicious wine in soft robes, enjoyed the wind in our hair on boats, found treasures in the whitest of white sand.

And we met some really great cool people along the way.(Gabi, Lori,Michelle), among many more.

Thank you Neda. And may you never again travel without me or Mary again... we do make a hell of a team...;):):cool:

 

 

Thanks Elise! Don't you worry, I already have some new plans in the works, though we still have to talk Louis into letting the three of us go at the same time again.

 

Lisa from our roll call put some photos and nice comments up on her blog about the party we had in the suite. She did a really nice job. This is the link to it:

 

http://travelistasink.com/2014/11/10/cruise-critic-how-suite-it-is-pictures-of-a-fancy-cruise-suite/

[mn1111]

St. Lucia Cont'd

 

After a few hours of going up and down the windy and very scenic hills we arrived at our first real stop which is a hot waterfall we usually like to take a dip in. This was always a great spot because other than a few tourists staying in local B&B's not too many people knew about it and it definitely wasn't a regular stop for other tour companies. Well that was then and this is now, now my quiet little spot became very busy, I'm guessing because of the road closure blocking access to the places they would normally go.

 

When we first arrived there were two buses full of people, who thankfully were on their way out. We did get to enjoy the spot in relative quiet for a while before another smaller group came through, but I'm definitely going to have to find somewhere new until that road gets fixed next time I go there.

 

The water from the falls comes directly out of a volcano at about 100 degrees Fahrenheit and there are several concrete pools with varying degrees of warmth connected to them, including the warmest one off to the side that had a pipe stuck in the cliff with very warm water pouring out of it. There are also benches on the other side to keep your stuff dry and just to sit and take in the scene. I only got one photo of the falls for some reason.

 

Photo of falls while it was still empty

 

 

Some of the local guys talk the walk down with us (they seemed to really like Elise) and pulled different fruit off the trees along the path and cut it up for us to try. It was all very delicious and fresh. They also prescribed different remedies to all of our ailments, it was recommended by all that I take lots of coconut oil for some reason. They all looked so healthy, I may take them up on it and see what happens!

 

After about an hour or so here we were ready to move on to our lunch spot which was over at the Still Beach Resort, about a 10 minute ride away. The first thing you notice at the Still is the view as it is stunning!

 

The photo really doesn't do it justice....

 

 

View looking towards the village

 

 

After admiring the view our attention turned to the buffet they prepared for us. It was all local food including some kind of stewed chicken, rice with lentils, breadfruit and fresh green salad among several other yummy things. I took a photo of my plate but it was too late, I had already dug in and quite frankly the half eaten food just looks too gross to post, but you'll have to trust me that everything was really good!

 

Photo of the restaurant, buffet area towards the back

 

 

The main draw of this place for me is the excellent snorkeling right off the beach. There aren't a ton of fish like at other spots though there are plenty of them, the real bonus is that the coral is in excellent health and is in great abundance. There are some what I guess are fumaroles (not sure of the correct term) on the ocean floor there that create bubbles in the water as you swim along. There is also a drop off to your left that goes down pretty deep and lots of coral heads and large sponges growing up along the wall.

 

Mary and Elise tried snorkeling in the shallow calm area next to the boat dock (they were too chicken to go out too much further), while Gabi and I swam out around the headland to the bat cave.

 

Some photos I took while snorkeling in the water.

 

 

 

I'll continue the photos in another post as it will allow six at a time.

[mn1111]

St. Lucia Cont'd

 

 

You can see the bubbles to the left of this photo

 

 

Next two photos show the drop off (to the right) I mentioned earlier-It was very deep

 

 

 

Cool sea cucumber we came across

 

 

After turning the "corner" and swimming about 25 yards or so, there is a crack in the cliff maybe about a foot wide that is told contains about 200,000 bats. Depending on the wind you can sometimes smell them when you get in the general area, we were thankfully blessed that day with no smell. They are hard to see, but usually you can catch a glimpse of several of them, however you can hear them chirping or whatever sounds bats make away. I don't know if we saw 200,000 of them, but that whole crack was sure full of little bats. I snapped a photo of the crevice, but no bats came out in the picture as it was too dark in there and no way was the flash on my little camera going to light it up.

 

[mn1111]

St Lucia Cont'd

 

After about an hour or so of snorkeling it was time to head back to the restaurant where Mary, Elise and Shal were hanging out. I could of stayed out for at least another hour or so, but the water was getting a little rough and it was also close to the time where we had to head back to port. I wish we had more time in St. Lucia as it always seems so rushed, probably because of the distance we have to drive to get down here. Shal used to have a small boat that we could take back up the coast which cut almost an hour off the trip back, but he doesn't have it anymore. He said he is looking for another one, so hopefully next time it will be an option.

 

For anyone who wants to go snorkeling here, you would enter the water on the other side of boat docks on the right side of the beach and swim along cliff.

 

Photo of dock-taken from Oyster.com

 

 

There is some stuff to see on this side, but the best spots are after you turn the corner. The photo below is one I grabbed from tripadvisor showing the both sides. You can see the "crack" in the cliff where the bats are, the whole area around it has great snorkeling. I don't usually go too far past that spot, but it may be good further out as well. I wouldn't do this alone if you are uncomfortable in the water though because as soon as you turn that corner you are literally alone out there and no one from shore will be able to see you if you get into trouble. Other than that, it is definitely an easy swim to do.

 

Photo of the other side of the cliff (taken from Tripadvisor)- the bat caves are over by where the catamarans are and the furthest dock to the left is at the Still.

 

 

It took about an hour and a half to get back to port. Once there we had about 40 minutes to shop around before we had to board, so we took the opportunity to look around.

 

Back on board we did our usual routine and brought out the wine! I forgot to mention in a previous post that when we got back from St. Croix a few days before, our room steward Ronaldo came by to let us know that someone left the switch for the shower steam function on in the bathroom. Apparently it created a big mess with water dripping down the ceilings and it also set off the smoke alarm. We truly had no idea how it happened, my guess is that because the switch for it is on the wall next to the lights, someone switched it on by accident thinking it was a light and when nothing happened, left it like that. We were really still having a hard time figuring out the lights throughout the cabin as they were pretty complicated (for us that is).

 

Well anyway, that evening all of a sudden the smoke alarm goes off with no warning. It turns out that Elise's romper that she wanted to wear was wrinkled and she had the bright idea to turn the steam on in the bathroom and hang her romper there to dewrinkle it. She swears that she only did it for 10 minutes, but if it's anything like the ten minutes she says she will be ready in, it was probably more like forty ;). Within minutes we had security at the door to check on everything (it was so embarrassing), but thankfully there was no water anywhere and they radioed the bridge and cleared the alarm to shut it off. Needless to say, that steam was never turned on again after that! After that little adventure, we definitely needed another glass of wine.

 

Tonight was formal night and none of ud felt like getting dressed up, but the windjammer didn't seem too appealing so we sucked it up and tried to get a little presentable before heading down to the main dining room. We all ordered the lamb chops which were actually good in fact just as good as the one we had in Portofino the other night.

 

Initially I ordered mine medium rare, but they came back literally almost raw. It's almost impossible for something to be too rare for me, but these were definitely way too rare to eat. Dennis brought out another plate that were cooked better, but all of a sudden he started looking very nervous. It turns out that there was some kind of lamb chop crisis in the kitchen and the head chef was actually walking around to the waiter stations hunting down missing lamb chops! Apparently they were running out in the kitchen and the chef suspected that the waitstaff were somehow hoarding them at their stations and he was determined to find them. It was pretty comical to watch, though I never found out the outcome as to whether or not he found any. I hope my extra plate didn't get Dennis in trouble.

 

After dinner we went up to change and then headed down to the casino where I actually held my own that evening. I didn't win, but at least got some play for my money as the crap table was up and down that night. Mary and Elise played down there too, I went up with Mary and Elise stayed and closed the casino. I think this was the night of the deck party and if it was, I headed up there for a few minutes to grab some snacks for Mary and I and ran into Lori and Michele. They said they had an awesome day in St. Lucia and told me a bit about where they went which sounded fabulous! Michele is a great dancer and I think she ended up hanging out at the dance party. I ended up going back to the cabin and sitting out on the balcony with Mary dreading having to go home in a few days before finally going to sleep.

[Folk Singer]

the photos are amazing. :):):)

[WhiteSoxFan]

Looks like the exact itinerary we are on in January. You didn't happen to save those Compasses did you?

Edited November 20, 2014 by WhiteSoxFan

[mn1111]

the photos are amazing. :):):)

 

Thanks so much! The scenery was amazing, the actual photos not so much, but hopefully next time they'll come out better.

[mn1111]

Looks like the exact itinerary we are on in January. You didn't happen to save those Compasses did you?

 

This was a great itinerary! You should have an awesome time, especially if you like blue water. I'm so sorry, I didn't take any compasses, in fact I think we only glanced at one once because we were so busy on the islands.

 

Neda

[Familygoboston]

I'm enjoying your review, thanks for posting! We have several of the same islands on our Adventure Cruise, and I've already booked private guides in most islands, so your photos are helping me to decide what I want to see while we tour around with the guides. I def want to have them take us a little off the beaten path;)

 

Thanks!

[maxs mom]

Neda......really enjoying your review. I like to do these, too. It really helps you relive the trip! We did a B2B on Jewel in September and will leave the day after Thanksgiving to do another B2B. The Jewel is the best!! Love Diego!! Can't wait to see him again.

 

What was the resort in St. Lucia where your friends got a day pass? Do you know any of the details?

 

Looking forward to more!!!

[mn1111]

I'm enjoying your review, thanks for posting! We have several of the same islands on our Adventure Cruise, and I've already booked private guides in most islands, so your photos are helping me to decide what I want to see while we tour around with the guides. I def want to have them take us a little off the beaten path;)

 

Thanks!

 

I love Adventure, I sailed on her several times when she was year round in San Juan! The southern Caribbean definitely has the best itinerary in my opinion.

 

I remember reading your awesome Paul Gaugin review a while back when I was considering a similar cruise on that ship. Your pictures were beautiful, I remember drooling over them! My main goal on the islands is to stay one step ahead of the crowds, usually I'm pretty successful, but sometimes things change and it's a miss. If you can do the boat charter in St. Thomas, definitely go for as it's an awesome day (if you like boats). There is a company called pocket yachts that has really reasonable rates for a charter, I may try them next time as it was hundreds of dollars less than most companies. Have a great trip!

 

Neda

[mn1111]

Neda......really enjoying your review. I like to do these' date=' too. It really helps you relive the trip! We did a B2B on Jewel in September and will leave the day after Thanksgiving to do another B2B. The Jewel is the best!! Love Diego!! Can't wait to see him again.

 

What was the resort in St. Lucia where your friends got a day pass? Do you know any of the details?

 

Looking forward to more!!![/size']

 

Hi Jane,

 

Lucky you to get to cruise so much!! I could never do it that often as the casino would bankrupt me. I've read a few of your reports, in fact I have friends going on a cruise visiting St. Kitts and I recommended the Marriott to them based on on your Jewel review! We loved Diego too, he took really good care of us all week long.

 

I don't have the name of the place Lori & Michele went to, but I asked Elise to facebook her to get the name or for her to come on here and give more details (I don't have a facebook account). I remember it was on Reduit beach and I think it was $85pp for the day all inclusive including food, drinks, a room, watersports and even a massage. They raved about the place and said the hotel did a great job getting the vendors to leave people alone as that can be a really big problem in St. Lucia these days depending on where you go. I know on Anse Cochan they will even bother you when you are snorkeling in the water from boats! I'll post again with the name if I hear from Lori. I was hoping to get more of this review done today, but had to work late so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

Neda

[seashell]

thanks Neda for the review. It ups the anticipation for my cruise in january.

michelle

[mn1111]

thanks Neda for the review. It ups the anticipation for my cruise in january.

michelle

 

Have a great cruise Michelle, wish I was going with you!

[mn1111]

Day 10-Thursday Nov 6th-Grenada

 

We woke up bright and early in Grenada, well most of us did, as Elise's late night partying ways finally caught up to her and she wasn't going to budge! Grenada is a very picturesque port to pull into with it's red roofed buildings surrounded by lush green hills. I was sorry not be awake when we pulled in as there was a P&O ship blocking our view of the town once we were docked, but we did have a nice view of the whole of Grand Anse beach on the other side which I neglected to get photo of, though did get some shots of the town as we were pulling out later that day.

 

St. Georges Grenada

 

 

 

 

 

Today was the day we outsmarted the coffee delivery people as we ordered it to be delivered a half hour before we wanted it and it worked like a charm. Lori and Michelle were meeting us in our room at 8:15 since we had a car picking us up at 8:30 to take us over to the Mount Cinnamon hotel for the day. After the delay in St. Lucia the day before and minor back up it caused, we weren't taking any chances and had Diego escort us down again, though it ended up not being necessary as there were very few people disembarking early that day.

 

Mount Cinnamon is located at the very end of Grand Anse beach away from most of the crowds and they had a good day pass package for a reasonable price (well semi reasonable price). Normally we wouldn't be in such a rush to leave so early for a beach day but Mary and I wanted to have breakfast there that morning because we knew the hotel used local produce in their restaurants and we just wanted some really good tropical fruit and local baked goods for a change of pace.

 

We like to do this once in a while if itinerary permits when we cruise, ever since our very first one that we happened to take together in 1994. Our first stop was Martinique after a sea day and we were only there for half a day so didn't have any plans as there wouldn't be enough time to do anything major. We just took the little ferry in town over to the resort area and happened upon a small boutique hotel that had a pretty courtyard with lots of beautiful plants and flowers and we sat down and ordered some passion fruit juice and a basket of baked goods, it was so good we still talk about that breakfast (especially the juice) and the gorgeous setting! We went back once years later and tried to find it again, but didn't have any luck.

 

The car the hotel sent was waiting for us right on schedule and the driver was very friendly and fun to talk to. It was about a 10 minute ride down the coast and up a hill before we got there. Lori and Michele are beach lovers and like to be in the sun and on the water a lot so they were initially not going to stay with us for breakfast and instead were going to head right to the beach. The weather wasn't so good that day as it was cloudy with on and off rain so they decided to hang with us in the restaurant after all. The hotel has two restaurants the main hotel one on a terrace off the lobby at the top of the hill and other one called Savvy's in a cabana down on the beach. Breakfast was served at the one on top of the hill so we had some really nice views. I meant to take some photos, but didn't get a single shot. I did snag two off of tripadvisor showing the breakfast area and view below.

 

Breakfast area off the main lobby -Taken from Tripadvisor

 

 

View from breakfast area-Taken from Tripadvisor

 

 

Breakfast was just as good as we hoped it would be. The fruit was excellent, bakery items delicious and they had this fresh squeezed golden apple juice that was really good as well (Mary really liked the coffee there and said it was as good as the Ritz's). Everyone who worked there was so friendly and nice which made it even more enjoyable. Even better is that we found out it was included in our package which wasn't advertised so we only had to leave a tip!

[mn1111]

After breakfast, the hotel provided us with some towels and gave us a ride down to the beach. Because the hotel sits on a hill, you either need to walk down a garden path to the beach or like in our case have them drive you down. As soon as we pulled up, it started to rain again so we took cover under the beach cabana and hung out there for a little while until it stopped.

 

Inside the cabana-It was nice and cozy in there!

 

 

In spite of the weather, the beach there was really nice and you could see the ship docked in port.

 

View of the ship from the beach

 

 

 

After a little while the rain stopped, but it was still overcast with the sun looking like it was trying to make an entrance. I knew Lori and Michele really wanted the sun to come out, personally I try to stay out of it as much as possible and make an effort to keep to the shade even though I don't burn too easily. The cabana guys brought out some floaty mats for us to use on the beach, they were the plastic blow up kind and not the good foam ones, but they were free to use and served the purpose.

 

We took a dip and hung out on the beach for a little while and had many vendors approach us offering everything from a song to hair braiding and personal guide services. There was a rope on the beach that the vendors couldn't go past, so if they became too troublesome you could retreat behind the rope and be left alone in peace. They really weren't too bad except for two, one guy that we had to pay to go away after I almost let him talk me into a guided snorkeling tour where he would have to use one of my masks and another guy who wanted to play music for us and wouldn't take no for answer from anyone he approached.

 

We knew to stay behind the rope when this guy came around, the lady sitting there wasn't so lucky (he wasn't very good either).

 

 

I'm not anti-vendor by any means and totally understand that people need to do what they have to do to make a living and I'll even buy stuff that I don't want from them just to help out, but we have had a few bad experiences and therefore like to be cautious if it starts getting too chaotic.

 

The funniest and most memorable incident was on a beach in Barbados on the same cruise I mentioned Martinique in earlier when we didn't know any better. Mary was looking at sarongs at some tents they set up on the beach and moved onto the next "stall" to look at another, when out of nowhere the first vendor ran out and grabbed her arm telling her not to buy from the other lady. Now the other lady gets into it and grabs Mary's other arm threatening to stab the first vendor with a pair of scissors. They literally each had one of Mary's arms and were playing tug of war with her. Before I could react, my mother caught wind of it (we took her on this trip), came running over to rescue Mary and started yelling at the two in her little accent to "leave her alone" at the same time hitting them with her pocketbook trying to get Mary free. OMG, I couldn't stop laughing it was soo funny to watch as my mother was this little tiny thing and the other women were at least twice her size! They knew to back off when she came around though.

 

View of the cabana/restaurant from the beach-Lori and Michele trying to catch some errant rays of sun

 

Edited November 21, 2014 by mn1111

[mn1111]

It was now almost noon and we had lots of options as to what to do. There were all kinds of things on-site such as bocce ball, tennis, canoes, hobie cats etc all included in the package. Mary and I decided to try the pinacolada's instead (mine always with half rum and hers with regular rum and the rest of mine) and wow were they excellent! Definitely right up there with the ones in St. Croix and probably even better (I can't decide).

 

Originally I was going to arrange for Dive Grenada located right next door to run me out to a reef for an hour or so of snorkeling, but the weather didn't look too promising so ended up not pursuing it.

 

We decided to take a walk down to the other end of the beach to check out the spice market near where the ferry drops everyone off. Looking down the beach it didn't seem that it was too far, but in actuality it was almost a two mile walk. I wanted to turn back 1/4 of the way down as the sun had just come out and I really wanted to check out the reef past the Flamboyant hotel to see if it was any good, but could tell Mary was looking forward to the market so didn't say anything and kept on walking. We also ran into Gabi on the way down, she was going in the opposite direction to see if the snorkeling was any good.

 

It took about a half hour to get there and once at the beach near the market we could see a big difference from where we were as it was very, very busy on that side. There must of been hundreds of chairs all packed close together with all kinds of water sports and activities going on. It definitely wasn't my cup of tea, but most people there were really enjoying themselves and having a blast.

 

My first mission was to find someone with a boat to get a ride back up the beach with, as I definitely didn't want to do that walk again, especially since our time was so limited. That mission was accomplished in about two minutes as there were boats everywhere taking people out on banana boat and tube rides and we found someone who said he would take us back after we were done in the market for $10pp.

 

Upon entering the spice market, we noticed that there really weren't too many people in there shopping. There were definitely some lookers, but the few places we purchased from all said that we were the first sale of the day. There were a lot of nice crafts here, but the prices for spices in port were definitely better. I felt bad for some of the vendors especially a few of the elderly woman and bought a few things from them anyway. If you do purchase spices here, make sure to open some of the jars as we saw one woman open one and it was all black (maybe mold) on the inside of the lid. I don't think they check the inventory too well and if sales are slow, things may not be the freshest over there.

 

After checking it out for about a half an hour or so, Mary and I went to get the boat ride back, while Lori and Michele decided to walk. At first they were going to put us on this little put put boat, but the driver or captain was having trouble getting it started. We stood there for about 5 minutes watching him try to pull a cord through something to warm up the motor (he didn't seem to be having much success).

 

The boat they wanted to put us on originally-Mary was having none of it!

 

 

When the sales guy saw us getting impatient and nervous he found another boat for us. This one was being used to pull people on some sort of tube, only without a hole through the water. The problem is that there was no ladder and this little scrawny guy had us use his knee to step onto the boat. I was worried that I would snap it like a twig, but it held up just fine! The captain had the bright idea to pull a group of people along while bringing us back and then decided that wasn't such a good idea, so we got back to the hotel only to have to go back down the beach with them again to drop the tubers off, before getting let off at our spot. It was a lot of fun though so we didn't mind at all.

 

Photo of the beach taken from the boat we ended up on-The tube things are what they towed people around on. In hindsight, we should of just gotten on the tube and let them tow us back.

 

Back at the hotel, we realized that it was time for lunch. Anything on the lunch menu was included in the price of the package as well as unlimited drinks. Lori and Michele weren't back yet and they weren't sure if they were going to eat or not so we went ahead and ordered. They got back right after that and once they found out that the lobster was included, they decided to give it a try. We all ordered the grilled lobster and it was definitely excellent!

 

Photo of lunch plate

 

 

After lunch we ordered another round of drinks and enjoyed the water some more. Not too long after that it really started pouring hard so we took shelter under the cabana until the taxi showed up a few minutes later. I never did get to check out the reef, but hopefully will another day.

 

Rain pouring down on the beach

 

 

Mount Cinnamon was a great place to spend the day and had both excellent facilities, service and food. I would definitely do it again if looking for a beach day in Grenada, though I think next time would try to get over the Tobago Cays if there is a viable option to getting there and back in a day (will definitely research that for next time). I would love to do a land trip here, but the airfare from JFK is crazy high and it would be cheaper to fly to Hawaii or even Tahiti than it would to come here from NY for some reason (unless Lori can get us one of her crazy airfare deals).

 

We got back to port with about an hour left to shop which we definitely took advantage of as this was our last chance. Back on board, Elise was waiting for us on the balcony. She ended up spending the day in town, talking to people and shopping around. She also got scammed by a vendor selling corn on the cob and somehow paid like $15 for an ear of corn that should of cost $3 because of a currency mix up (she said the lady smirked at her while she was leaving so she knew something was up)! She also said that my brother was trying to reach me and to call him ASAP.

 

It turns out there was some really bad news at home that had I known about earlier in the day, would of hopped on a plane back to JFK right away. It was too late now as the ship was pulling out of port and the next day was a sea day, so there was really no way to get off, though I was ready to go home at this point and really wanted to be with my family. Spent the next few hours on the phone with family etc. and decided there wasn't anything that could be done so I just relaxed with some wine and tried to calm down until our 9:00PM dinner reservation at chops.

Edited November 22, 2014 by mn1111

[NemoCrownie]

I am so sorry your vacation had to end with so much anxiety and worry. I have loved your detailed review and your excellent port and pre-cruise plans. You have provided information on several different activities that I have not seen mentioned before. We have two weeks scheduled in Jan/Feb on the Jewel so your review is extremely helpful. I love your suite pictures, that would be a fantastic way to spend a week. Hoping your home news was better upon your return as that hopeless feeling had to put a damper on the end of your marvelous vacation.

 

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