B2B on the Jewel ~ Once Again! ~ Nov. 29th and Dec. 6th ~ My Diary

[kandj05]

Thank you so much for the review. I eagerly anticipate the day when my husband and I are able to travel enough that the people on the ship remember us. That is such a nice welcome back when they're excited to see you, isn't it?!

[mikechass]

Always love your reviews. We are on AOS out of SJ in January! I can't wait to get away. I am looking forward to your beach review. I took VERY detailed notes on your two week Southern Caribbean cruise a while back.

Thanks again for taking the time to do this!

Chass

[OHCruisin]

Ever since the demise of the Mud Pie.....the Huckleberry Cheesecake has become our go to dessert. I also like the other chocolate dessert with the coconut ice cream.....but we split the cheesecake tonight. Yum!

 

 

 

We devoured it!

 

 

 

We used one of our BOGO's here tonight and they let us use the other one for Portofino later in the week. We paid for it tonight' date=' though.

 

We strolled around a bit after dinner. The ship was beautifully decorated for Christmas.

 

 

 

We stopped in the Sports Bar and watched the final half of the Auburn/Alabama game. Then this magnet in the casino drew us in there. I think most everyone knows how my luck goes in the casino. We wisely just watched tonight and didn't get taken in. I know......hard to believe!!

 

We were pretty wiped out, so we went to bed after that.[/size']

 

Interestingly, we had the new Chops menu on Liberty last month, but the Mud Pie was still on the dessert menu. Maybe they're adding it back?

[emilygrace]

Thank you so much for the great photos of the new balcony furniture. We will be on the Jewel (my ALL time favorite ship) next September. I had to get in one more cruise on her before all the changes. But I'm glad they have already replaced the old furniture. I like that table....now it is possible to eat breakfast out there in comfort. And since we have one of the corner of the hump balconies, we might even have a lounge chair!

[LABCHICK]

Hi Jane

 

So good to see you on here doing one of your great reviews. The Jewel is our favorite ship so it is wonderful to see all your pictures and read you review. It brings back some wonderful memories for us.

[cruiselife4me]

Hi John and Jane,

 

Another great review, I do enjoy reading them. We have this same itinerary on Adventure in 2016. Can't wait! Mary

[PCWalton1]

Jane, thanks for posting. We have three cruises on Jewel next year so I am excited to see the ship. [emoji2]

 

Sent from my Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk

[CAT GIRL]

Mary.....you will love it. We do hope to go back on the Jewel again next year' date=' but at this point we don't know which weeks yet. Gotta make sure Diego will be there first![/size']

 

A good concierge can really make a cruise. Diego is topnotch. I

wouldn't even consider sailing on his ship if he wasn't there.

Isn't that funny? His ship.

We will see him in 2 weeks. I'm sorry will we miss Rosa. She is

on vacation.

I'm enjoying your review.

[micmacmissy]

Jane and John...my favorite cruise critic couple! You guys are so darn cute...I want to be just like you when I retire! :)

 

Looking forward to reading the rest...and the Christmas trip after that!

[maxs mom]

Thank you all so much for the nice comments!! Good to hear from all of you!!

 

Janice......that Mud Pie on the new Chops Menu is a faux mud pie! Think about Jello Pudding! They contracted out for the old Mud Pie, but that has gone bye-bye because it cost $14 a pie. Hell.....I'd pay them an extra -$14 if they would just bring it back!! But don't be fooled by what they have in there now!!

Edited December 18, 2014 by max'smom

[pcur]

We were off to the Concierge Lounge around 6:30. It closed at 7:30 tonight because of Muster Drill' date=' so we stopped by to say hello to Diego and have a couple of drinks. We were so surprised when we got there to see Joseph, the bartender that worked in there in September. He immediately remembered us and also our drink preferences. He had them ready!! Amazing! Diego has Joseph working the CL permanently now because they have a really good working relationship. It really makes things run smoothly in there. Joseph is one of the best!

 

 

Tonight we sat with a fun loving family from the UK. They were on their second leg of a B2B. They were impressed that we knew Joseph. They were always dressed nicely and always looked like they were having fun all week.

 

 

This is when we learned that we were sailing this week with 700 less passengers than they sailed last week. Amazing! That's why there were never any crowds anywhere. It was kind of nice.

 

We enjoyed our drinks then went on down to the Muster Drill at 8:00. Our station this week was in the Schooner Bar. Yay!! Love it when that happens. The Muster Drill did not last too long and we were soon on our way to Chops for dinner. They also remembered us in Chops......remembered our preferences and even remembered where we sat the last time we were in there. The Head Waiter had just come from the Explorer and he remembered us from that ship. He made us guess all night where we knew him from.

 

We ordered our standard here.....I got the goat cheese salad and a petit filet. John got the onion soup and a New York Strip. Also a baked potato. (Still missing those onion rings!) Everything was delicious. Service was just a little slow but not too bad.

 

 

 

 

 

Jane, I missed you again, and for the second cruise in a year!

 

We were on the Jewel that week, too, and I was in and out of the Concierge Lounge every night, but we sat out in the Centrum. I absolutely fell in love with Joseph. Such a sweet and gentle man.

[maxs mom]

It's formal night tonight and we got a little bit dressed up.

 

 

The CL was very quiet tonight. Only a couple of groups there. We sat down by ourselves and watched the Patriots/Packers game for a while. We were later joined by a couple from Michigan and their daughter.

 

Dinner tonight was in the My Time Dining section of the Main Dining Room. The MTD area of this ship is one of the most efficient and well run in the fleet. This guy does great job!

 

 

We asked to sit with Kasa, but they said that he was only serving large tables this week. BUT when we got there tonight, they had made arrangements for a table for two in his section...just for us. That was great. We were very happy. We zipped through dinner in about 30-45 minutes. I had the shaved melon and my favorite....salmon vignole salad. John.....the ultimate picky eater......always asks for iceberg lettuce with a chicken breast cut up on top. Kasa was very aware of this and cheerfully brought that to him almost every night! Kasa also brought us a cheese plate every night that we enjoyed. Cheesecake and chocolate soufflé finished the meal. A great experience in the dining room tonight.

 

John's nightly meal:

 

 

My entrée:

 

 

 

Dessert:

 

[maxs mom]

Jane, I missed you again, and for the second cruise in a year!

 

We were on the Jewel that week, too, and I was in and out of the Concierge Lounge every night, but we sat out in the Centrum. I absolutely fell in love with Joseph. Such a sweet and gentle man.

 

Peggy!!!! I can not believe it! Now that's your fault! You never posted on the roll call!! You'd better speak up next time!

[maxs mom]

Next up was the casino. I lost everything I played here in September, but I was willing to give it another try. Once again, the place was empty, so it was easy to have our pick of machines. I played a couple of machines and more than doubled my money.....so I cashed out. We received raffle tickets for some kind of drawing so we hung around to see what that was about. Turns out it was a mini slot tournament where 10 people were chosen to play against the CD, Mike Hunnerup. John and I both got pulled to play!

 

 

We all got a free drink and sat down at our machines. Apparently we suck at slot tournaments because we came in ninth and tenth place! I didn't know that you had to touch the screen to pop balloons as well as hit the button until it was too late! Oh well.....it was fun and we got t-shirts. Unfortunately no pictures because we were both playing.

 

We went down to the Christmas tree after that and asked someone to take our picture there.

 

 

When we got back to our cabin there were Diamond Plus pins on the bed saying "Congratulations on becoming Diamond Plus!" LOL!!! They were about 15 years too late!

 

[maxs mom]

Monday ~ December 1, 2014 ~ Grenada

 

Up early today....to the CL for coffee and then to an excellent breakfast.

 

My view of the sail in from the CL.

 

 

 

 

We haven't been to Grenada since 2005, so we were happy to get back there. We did the whole island tour back then after taking the water taxi over to Grand Anse Beach. We didn't particularly care for that back then, so I researched some place different to go today. All you beach lovers.....get your pens ready to take notes on this because it was our best beach of the whole trip!!!

 

First of all, though, as we were getting off the ship, we had to wait for a person to be wheeled off to a waiting ambulance. He looked awful. Found out later that it was the Staff Captain who had appendicitis.

 

 

This was the welcome area at the end of the pier. We went through here and found the land taxis.

 

 

Most people will tell you to just take the water taxi over to Grand Anse Beach and get chairs and umbrellas there.....that it is just fine. DO NOT listen to them!! Keep reading and I will tell you what to do!!

[maxs mom]

This is what we did..........We got a land taxi to take us to the Radisson at the other end of Grand Anse Beach. It cost $20. We got day passes for the Radisson and they were -$40 pp. Totally worth it!! We got towels and the use of their property. There was NO ONE there! And it was gorgeous.

 

 

 

Our spot on the beach:

 

 

 

 

 

This place was wonderful. What made this beach the best of the whole trip was that there was NO ONE there! And no vendors either! We went to a lot of great beaches on this trip, but this was by far the quietest and had the fewest people around. I highly recommend coming here if you want peace and quiet and just a beautiful place to hang out for the day. More pictures to follow.

[maxs mom]

I took a long walk on the beach.

 

 

An excursion sailed up nearby on a catamaran. They got to have some beach time, but no chairs or shade for them.

 

 

 

 

 

Chuck and Ashlee, from our roll call, came strolling by. I think their taxi driver dropped them off some place nearby so they could walk on the beach. We ran into them many times during the week. I think this was their first Royal Caribbean cruise. I hope they'll be back.

 

[maxs mom]

Very nice bar and grill here. We got some drinks here and I ordered lunch, which was good. We ate on the beach.

 

 

 

 

The beach was so nice here that we sat there most of the day. Then we moved up to the pool before we left.

 

 

 

 

We had our pick of all the pool chairs!

[maxs mom]

 

 

I made a new friend here!

 

 

The grounds were just beautiful:

 

 

 

 

Our morning taxi driver said he would come back for us, but he didn't show, so we just grabbed another taxi back to the ship.....very easy. When in Grenada again.....we will definitely come back here!!

[CAT GIRL]

Thank you all so much for the nice comments!! Good to hear from all of you!!

 

Janice......that Mud Pie on the new Chops Menu is a faux mud pie! Think about Jello Pudding! They contracted out for the old Mud Pie' date=' but that has gone bye-bye because it cost $14 a pie. Hell.....I'd pay them an extra -$14 if they would just bring it back!! But don't be fooled by what they have in there now!! [/size']

 

OMG, isn't that mud pie awful now? I didn't know they had changed

it. Imaging my surprise when this gelatin wannabe pie came out.

And then the Caesar salad is different too. I think Chops has lost

me as a customer.

The mud pie

was the deal breaker.

[Kik35]

Jane-Can't wait for the rest of your review!!:D. Love all your beach info!! We're doing a similar itinerary B2B on the Adventure in April 2016(yeah I know..) and had no plans for Grenada until now.:cool:

Plus always have a special fondness for the Jewel, since she was the first ship we cruised on.

[maxs mom]

OMG, isn't that mud pie awful now? I didn't know they had changed

it. Imaging my surprise when this gelatin wannabe pie came out.

And then the Caesar salad is different too. I think Chops has lost

me as a customer.

The mud pie

was the deal breaker.

 

LOL!! Well.....I'm not giving up on Chops yet. I love the new warm goat cheese salad. And the cheesecake is real good. So is the other chocolate dessert. But I sure do miss the old mud pie.

[maxs mom]

Jane-Can't wait for the rest of your review!!:D. Love all your beach info!! We're doing a similar itinerary B2B on the Adventure in April 2016(yeah I know..) and had no plans for Grenada until now.:cool:

Plus always have a special fondness for the Jewel, since she was the first ship we cruised on.

 

Claudia.....hang in there...that's a long time to wait....but it will be here before you know it. You can do lots of research and planning!

[maxs mom]

Once back on the ship, we got some frozen yogurt, showers, and a nap!

 

 

The CL was really quiet tonight. We met a nice couple from OK with the same last name as ours. We enjoyed talking to them.

 

 

Our table was ready for us in the dining room when we got there. There just weren't that many people eating at this time. Kasa and his assistant were great! It was Italian night and that means Insalata Mista and Lasagna for me. Dessert was sticky bread pudding for me and a sampler for John. All very good. Another 45 minute dining room meal!!

 

 

 

 

 

We strolled through the shops for a little while, then hit the casino. The machines were not so nice to us. So we went to bed early.

[ckrobyn]

Loving your review Jane :)