Jewel of the Sea Southern Caribbean Photo Review- March 28, 2015

[PompeySailor]

Wonderful pics

Love the one with the Solarium open, proof it is not a myth that they open it:)

[Mamacane71]

The Ships tour bring back fond memories of 2013

Cruise! We LOVED the Jewel!

Edited April 17, 2015 by Mamacane71

[Paulette3028]

Did you enjoy John and Katrina Blair as your Cruise Director and Activity Manager?

[bbw187]

Loving your Jewel review usckatieh as much as your FOS review last year. We sailed in October and will be again on FOS/Eastern this fall. Our travel budget doesn't allow for air travel :(

But, on another note and as a fellow USC Gamecock (living in Lexington) I would like a copy of your travel template (bhw187@gmail.com) Also, since you mentioned you are a wedding photographer, please share if you have a website. I see a wedding in my daughter's future and would love to see your work.

 

You have a precious family as seen in the pics and they are so lucky to share in these travel adventures! Go Gamecocks.......except BB this year! It's not looking so good :(

 

Beth W.

[American Bear]

Loving your review so far! We are sailing Radiance in AK next year, and since they are both Radiance class, I really appreciate the closet and bathroom photos.

 

Our opinion, the Radiance Class is RCL's best!:D

Just pure CLASS.

[American Bear]

Excellent photos, and review.:D

[silvercrikhix]

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful photos and cruise review!

Off to read your others! Happy Sailing!

[usckatieh]

Did you enjoy John and Katrina Blair as your Cruise Director and Activity Manager?

 

Having only one sea day and not staying up for the late evening shows/events, we didn't really see much of the cruise director or activity manager, but my in-laws seemed to thing the CD did fine introducing the performers at the nightly shows.

[usckatieh]

A view from Dominca as we sailed into port

 

 

The sun in between the clouds

 

The only place we saw rain all week was Dominica and it is a RAIN forest (hey, no false advertising!). The showers were short and there was sunshine in between.

 

I didn’t know very much about Dominica before we sailed but this ended up being my favorite island. My research had said that there weren’t a lot of beach options because most of the beaches were black volcanic sand or too rough for families, so an “outdoor adventure” or a tour was the way to go. The ship offered quite a few reasonably priced options for Dominica so I figured we could pick that excursion a day or two before. And since I had planned all the other activities, it would give the guys some input on what they wanted to do. So, the day before we arrive at Dominica, I try to get some freeback on what tour they’re interested in and the best I got was “Wait, is it a 3 hour tour? A 3 hour tour?! We can’t do that! We’ll never make it back!”- cue the Gilligan’s Island music. Very helpful.

 

So, MIL and I chose the City Highlights & Emerald Pool tour through Royal Caribbean for $39.75 per adult and $23.75 per child. I really didn’t care which tour we did as long as I got to see a waterfall. This one gave a slight discount for kids too. It was very easy to book this at the Excursion desk. We just walked up, told them which one we wanted, gave our room numbers to charge it to and they printed the tickets. Here’s a description of the tour:

 

 

It was still a little soggy when we pulled into port.

 

 

Our tour didn’t start until 12:30 so we hopped off the ship at 10:30 to do a little pre-tour shopping. We shopped along pier area. There were lots of handmade type items (a lot of them were the same from booth to booth). Here’s the shop area

 

 

I found a cool necklace, Kasiah got a hair clip and Patrick got a little wooden toy puppy. Here’s Kasiah’s souvenir

 

 

My husband didn’t really like downtown area because there were constantly people aggressively asking you to take a cab tour. He’d tell one gentleman that we already had a tour booked and another one would immediately come up to ask him the same question. So after a half hour of browsing we went back to the ship for lunch. But if you did want to take a cab tour, they were quoting them as $15/person and there will be no shortage of interested tour guides.

[usckatieh]

We had a quick lunch at Windjammer and then met our group at end of pier. There were about 20 people and we loaded onto a small bus. The tour guide was a lady who had grown up in Dominica all her life. She explained that they were a relatively newer travel/cruise destination- just for the last 20 yrs. As we were driving, she gave a great overview of the history of slaves, Europeans and indigenous people on the island. I took a hyperlapse video of the drive through downtown. If you pause it as you go, you’ll get a glimpse at the everyday life.

 

 

A quick selfie of Kasiah and I. I’m wearing my souvenir necklace.

 

Our first stop was Morne Bruce which was a short ride from pier. It included an overlook of the city and ship and a few vendors. This was a quick 10 minute stop.

 

 

 

They offered to stop if anyone wanted to explore the Botanical Gardens but to be honest, aside from a large tree, there wasn’t much to it. I could have skipped it and been fine. It’s not what I would consider an island highlight.

After the Gardens, we started a long drive to Emerald Pool. I think they trip took about 45 minutes. The roads to the Falls were very windy and bumpy so I don’t think I’d recommend driving there on your own. I fact, when I tried to google map Emerald Pool, it showed me the complete different direction from where the Dominica website showed it. For the rainforest locations, taxi or tour is the way to go.

 

Here’s a quick photo of the hillsides from the bus. Very pretty scenery when you get breaks in the dense rainforest!

 

 

 

I think some of the passengers were starting to get a little motion sickness by the time we got to the waterfall but we all made it. The trail to waterfall is stepped but uneven so some of our group with difficulty walking turned back to the shelter at the beginning of the trail. It wasn’t any problem at all for the kids. The trail was just a 10-15 minute walk through the rainforest. As we walked our tour guide explained about some of the local plants.

 

[usckatieh]

Color infrared- Path through the Rainforest

 

 

The notable characteristic of infrared is that it turns the foliage white so I knew the rainforest photos would be interesting.

 

A little stream with the regular camera

 

 

Color infrared

 

 

Emerald Falls

 

 

Here's the pool you wade into. Legend is that it’ll make 5 years younger. I warned Patrick that I was NOT changing diapers again. ;P

 

[usckatieh]

Top of the waterfall

 

The kids and I took a little dip. The water is very chilly but as you can see some parts of the pool are only a foot or two deep. Underneath the waterfall is about waist deep.

 

 

You can also view the falls without getting in the water.

 

There are short mini-paths branching off the main path back to the shelter- don’t miss those! What a gorgeous view!

 

 

The trail back to the bus was uphill but it was a very steady, easy climb. On the last creek, the guide spotted a little yellow river crab.

 

 

On the way back to the ship, we stopped for complimentary guava/grapefruit juice. They had other snacks and goods you could purchase.

 

Patrick enjoying his guava juice.

 

 

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying some grown-up juice (aka Kubull beer- made on the island)

 

[usckatieh]

Here’s a map of where we went from Roseau to Emerald Pool. You can see how squiggly the road gets once you leave the coast. Lots of switchbacks.

 

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As if the island was yelling “ya’ll come back now”, we were graced with a beautiful rainbow over downtown Dominica as we pulled away from port. I really enjoyed the scenery of this island and it has a very unique character. The locals all seem very grateful to have us visit their island.

 

 

Rainbows followed us as we sailed along

 

 

Can you see why it’s my favorite island? Soooo pretty. Not sure I would spend a week here but it was an gorgeous day trip.

 

 

Tonight was the second formal night and I finally remembered to take some food photos!

 

 

Mmmmmm. Is your mouth watering yet? Here’s my baked Alaska- my favorite desert of the cruise.

 

 

Next up- Best Barbados Bang for Your Buck!

Edited April 18, 2015 by usckatieh

[pinkroses]

Any outdoor store. We had a teacher recommend them for a trip to France, at that time Platypus was the only brand. I got ours at Eddie Bauer but I have seen them other places. I did a quick search and found this link so you can see what they are.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Vapur-10159-Parent-Element-Bottle/dp/B00GDEP85Y#immersive-view_1429204792686

 

Thanks! It's a really good idea!

[Paulette3028]

Having only one sea day and not staying up for the late evening shows/events, we didn't really see much of the cruise director or activity manager, but my in-laws seemed to thing the CD did fine introducing the performers at the nightly shows.

 

We loved Jewel when we sailed on her in 2013....and it is a very port intensive cruise. We always took early excursions to be back on board by 2-3pm and enjoy 'an empty pool deck' for a few hours. Then the start of afternoon activities, everything from Bingo to Trivia and line dancing....and some of those activities would be hosted by the Activity Manager.

 

Seeing your photos of the ship, reminded me of just how much we enjoyed that cruise.

[American Bear]

Deck 4, cont.

 

Looking up in the Centrum (I hope I'm spelling that right!)

 

 

 

 

Your Centrum pictures show the beauty of the Radiance Class!:D

[usckatieh]

 

 

 

 

[usckatieh]

Day 6- Barbados

 

This morning was chocolate breakfast in dining room so we skipped our regular Windjammer fare and tried out MDR. Be aware that if you order off the menu, the service for breakfast is just as slow as dinner. But the chocolate waffles (waffles with strawberries and chocolate syrup on them) and the breakfast chocolate milkshake were phenomenal.

 

Don’t expect a "beachy" view when pulling into the Barbados port. It is very industrial. I found it interesting that Royal Caribbean had in their documentation several times that camouflage clothing is not allowed on Barbados. My husband being an avid hunter, we had quite a few hats and backpacks that didn’t make the trip for that reason.

 

View of port from the ship

 

 

For Barbados, I researched a few location options that I thought would be family friendly. One was Harrison’s cave and the other were two beaches that I head were great, Accra or Carlisle Beach. I decided to go with an establishment on Carlisle Beach called Boatyard Beach because $15/person includes a chair per person, umbrellas when available, use of the beach and ocean trampoline/climbing wall, wifi, a complimentary drink and shuttle back to ship (every 15 minutes starting at 1pm). It almost seemed like a deal too good to be true.

 

Our ship was parked behind a Holland America ship at the pier so it was a long walk down the pier to the shopping area. The taxi bay was a little harder to find but we just asked a security guard and she pointed us in the right direction. They have a very organized taxi system and it was a short ride over to Boatyard Beach. The ride took us through the downtown area which looked very nice for tourism. Lots of places to shop and there were yachts parked next to building near Independence Square.

 

Here’s a map of where we started and finished.

 

 

The cab fare was $25 for all 6 of us. I was a little nervous because the parking area in front of Boat yard makes it look like a dive bar or something, but I was pleasantly surprised. We paid the lady at the front our $15 and you walked through the restaurant/bar to a beautiful ocean view!

 

 

We got there about 9:30-10:00am and it there were still first row chairs open and plenty of umbrellas to go around. I can’t say the same thing when we left about 2:00. They were busy and running out of chairs by noon.

 

Here’s a view of the umbrellas (taken closer to noon)

 

 

I’m pretty sure the red umbrellas belong to Boatyard too.

 

 

Not sure how you get into these little cabanas, but that’s worth checking out next time

 

Edited April 18, 2015 by usckatieh

[usckatieh]

Outdoor eating area/dancing area

 

 

Bar

 

 

They provide life vest for the kids from behind the bar. The water does tend to get deep fast- it goes quickly from ankle to waist deep and then about neck deep, but there were nice little waves so you could have fun bobbing around. The water near the trampoline and wall was very deep. We had a little challenge getting Patrick out there because even with a lifejacket on, he tended to cling to Daddy which isn’t a great idea when Dad is just treading water. We still managed to make it over there and jump around for a while.

 

Here’s the ocean toys

 

 

They also had a pier that you could jump from or a rope swing

 

 

Note from my husband, the further you get from the pier the less you’ll see the vendors. There are lots of people trying to sell you glass bottom boat tours to see the sea turtles for $15 (which I thought would be exciting but the kids were having too much fun on the beach) or rent jet skis for $50/half hour. The vendors tended to hang out in the shade of the pier so he said next time, he’ll pick chairs farther from the pier.

 

The kids in their snorkel gear, which they didn’t end up wearing for very long

 

 

[usckatieh]

The kids mostly enjoyed making sand sculptures

 

 

 

A few notes about the complimentary drink- you can pick a drink from a select list for your free option. They have a rum punch, sodas, pineapple juice for the kids, etc. If you don’t want alcohol, you may want to specify. I ordered a coke for myself and watched her drop a shot of rum into a glass and fill the rest with soda. Glad I was paying attention and didn’t hand that one to the kids- haha!

 

Around 1:00, they also announce free shots at the bar for 10 minutes and I saw lots of buckets of beer. Looks like it can get to be a party bar by the end of the afternoon but there were still plenty of families around and everyone was having a good time. The bar also sells food like chicken tenders, fish sandwiches, etc.

 

I didn’t realize it until we left but the little shop next to the bar sells things like beach toys and towels. I was debating traveling with beach toys but decided against it, so next time, I may pick a few up for the day and then share it with another family when we leave.

 

This ended up being my husband and daughter’s favorite stop of the whole trip and I have to agree, I’d love to go back! There’s something wonderfully relaxing about spending the last day on the islands bobbing up and down in the clear blue water enjoying the sun and the Caribbean breeze.

 

Excursion Packing List

 

I thought I'd quickly mention my excursion packing list, in case it helps anyone. I keep this list in my phone so I can check through it each night as I’m packing a bag up for the next day. Here’s what I have on my list:

 

- Photo of port authority numbers- I started doing this because of the post by a cc’er of what happened when he missed the boat in the Bahamas, I believe. I appreciated him sharing his story to remind me how important it is to be prepared even if you don’t think anything would happen to you. I just snap a quick shot of it on my phone.

- Seapass, drivers license, credit card (husband brings one as well in case we get denied but that never was an issue- we alerted them of our travels beforehand), passport, cash

- Waterproof camera

- Sunscreen

- Drops for contacts

- Sunglasses

- Poncho

- Big camera

- Plastic bag for big camera in case of rain

- Hand sanitizer, tissues, band-aids, safety pins, Motrin- in a little travel pouch

- Travel size Bug spray

- Granola bars/box of cereal

- Car seats if needed

Beach days

• Book
  

• Water shoes
  

• Life jacket
  

• Snorkel/mask
  

• Towel
  

 

This list worked well for our family on every island.

 

Sunset was always while we were starting dinner (bad part about a 6pm seating in April) but I caught this right before dinner as we sailed out of Barbados.

 

 

The fun in the sun was just too much for Patrick who fell asleep sitting in his chair before the entrees arrived. I’m actually surprise this was the first day that happened.

 

 

Kasiah was excited that they did the napkin waving on the Jewel too. The wait staff here really got into it!

 

 

Kasiah cracked up at the silly monkey that stowed away in our cabin during dinner.

 

 

Next up- a sea day of rest and relaxation!

Edited April 18, 2015 by usckatieh

[usckatieh]

 

 

 

 

[usckatieh]

Today is our lazy sea day so of course we slept in and caught a late breakfast. How did I not notice the omelet station in the Windjammer before today?! The custom made omelets are delicious. Much better than the kind of weird cottage cheese looking eggs on the buffett.

 

I wanted to give you some thoughts on soda package for the Jewel. Personally, my family was a little frustrated with it. There was never diet coke in Freestyle machines, so the diet coke lovers had to go to one of the bars to get their fix. There are only two machines on the ship which are in the back of the Windjammer, which is closed before 7:30am and after 9:30pm. Finding the deck 12 entrance to the WJ helped that issue, but the expectation for soda drinkers is to go to the bar after that time and the bars around 9-10pm are generally pretty busy so you end up waiting just to fill up your Coke. Would they purchase it again? Yes. Could RC stand to make some improvements like adding an extra machine and keeping up stock with the ones they have to increase customer satisfaction? Definitely.

 

After breakfast, Kasiah and I caught a towel-folding demonstration in the Centrum. They even give you printed instructions on how to make some of the animals so you can go back to your room and try. The kids had fun with that in the morning.

 

 

Some of the kid’s favorites- The bulldog, mouse and sea turtle

 

 

Of course, the pool, hot tub and waterslide were sea day essentials.

I really enjoy the MDR for dinner so we decided to catch one of the specialty restaurants for lunch on the sea day.

 

Here’s the kids playing in Schooners outside Portfinos. We did call up the day before for a reservation and they took our room number and said we could come anytime between 11:30-1:00pm.

 

 

Portfinos is $20/person for lunch and $7/kids and this was a very delicious meal! They started with a ciabatta-type bread with cheese appetizer, and then you choose your appetizer/salad and entrée from the menu, which has about 5 options for each. I ordered an amazingly scrumptious prociutto wrapped mozzarella ball with some sort of vinaigrette drizzle and a few greens. Here’s a photo after a few bites. ☺

 

 

The steak was also yummy. Not as good as a Chops filet, but still tasty.

 

 

We also enjoyed the desert sampler. You can see it wasn’t too busy at lunch.

 

 

The rest of the day was spent reading and sitting on balcony, enjoying the waves going by.

 

Somehow we missed trying out the self-leveling pool tables and the climbing wall (the hours didn’t work well with our other activities) but there’s always next time!

[usckatieh]

Back to Puerto Rico, my heart’s devotion! Am I the only one that thinks of that song from West Side Story every time I hear Puerto Rico? Just like I can’t said Aruba, without think “Jamaica, oh I wanna take ya”. Here’s my little guy on the early disembarkation morning.

 

 

We had a 12:30 flight and my husband and I like to be early so we chose the 7:00am self disembark. We don’t have any trouble carrying our own bags out anyways. We grabbed an early breakfast at the WJ (they opened at 6am disembarkation morning).

 

If you do self disembark, you will not use the luggage tags they leave in your room and at 7:00 you meet at Coral Theater. We got through security in customs in 5-10 mnutes. Very efficient.

 

It was super easy to catch a taxi to airport. The agricultural check in desk was right when we walked in. They scanned our bags, gave us stickers and sent us on to check in with the airline. Since we didn’t print the return tickets, the lady helping with self service helped us get those printed and bags paid for. The security line was also very quick. The process took 15-20 minutes total. Better early than late though!

 

We didn’t have much to do, so we hung out at Margaritaville and once lunch came around, we ordered some chicken fingers and quesadillas. The food was unremarkable and very highly priced but it’s an airport so you don’t have much choice. Keep your expectations really low and you’ll be happy.

Our non-stop flight had us to Charlotte by 4:30pm and we made the drive home by 6:30. Then it was time for the long process of unpacking, laundry, photo editing and of course, cruise review!

 

Final Thoughts

 

A few parting thoughts on my experience with the Jewel of the Sea-

 

• The best parts about the Jewel-The outdoor eating area at the WJ is awesome! I’ll miss that going back to the Freedom/Oasis class. The glass elevators that look over the water are fun. The Jewel staff is great- dining staff went out of their way to make you happy, room attendant made towel animals every night and was very thoughtful to try to stay out of the way, supervising staff took responsibility for any issues with suitcases, Windjammer service, etc.
  

 

• The things that could have gone better- Coke machines being hard to get to and often out of products, room service constantly messed up orders despite repeating them back correctly- not sure how that happened, there were less options in Windjammer than the larger class ships (I missed my friend rice breakfast) and we had several issues with the bar service in MDR but nothing that ruined the trip, obviously!
  

 

• Neutral comment- there are no touch panels so I should have brought deck maps for exploring. I’ve downloaded those before for the Oasis and never need them, but they would have come in handy on the Jewel. I also found it helpful to carry around the compass on the sea day so we knew when the activities were- also because I’ve been spoiled by those touch screens. I also don’t think the shows really compare between the Jewel and Oasis class.
  

 

• As far as what I can tell from the Adventure out of San Juan vs. Jewel- I know the Adventure has more activities, like ice skating, etc. but we really didn’t have enough time to do the activities anyways, between all the ports, so I don’t think that would have affected our overall experience.
  

 

• I like the promenade style, central location better than the Centrum for traffic, but the décor of the ship itself has a classic cruise feel- less “plastic” than some of the newer ships. Overall the well maintained, upscale look and great staff of the Jewel give this ship a really unique and pleasant atmosphere.
  

 

What’s up for next cruises? The options are endless! We’re considering a land-based Caribbean vacation so the hubby can finally get his scuba certification (we’ve so far been unsuccessful with catching the ship-based programs). We’ve never done an all inclusive before and we really liked the islands of St Maarten and St Thomas. Or there are so many islands in the Southern Caribbean itineraries, maybe we’ll take a different route and sail out of San Juan again. I hope you enjoyed the review and let me know if you have any questions at all! Happy cruising!

Edited April 21, 2015 by usckatieh

[Agutaya]

Thank you for a great review. I know it took a lot of time to edit and download the photos before even writing the review, but it was very much appreciated. I took lots of notes for our B2B cruises on Jewel in the fall. Now I'll check out your other reviews too. Glad yo shared the links.

[NemoCrownie]

Fantastic review! Thank you for taking the time out of your busy life to do this. Your children are adorable and your photography is amazing.

 

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