MITSUGIRLY has a JEWEL of a time on my 1st RC cruise in years!

[mitsugirly]

I love your reviews. Thank-you. I actually have gone to several beaches based on the information you have provided.

 

So glad you enjoy them and even better if you've managed to go to some of the places and liked them too. Hopefully this one will give you some ideas as well. :)

 

So excited to read about your adventure! I thought you were going to Mexico this time. I remember thinking that wouldn't be the best cruise for you and your family. The snorkeling and scuba is much better in the Caribbean and the water is much warmer.

 

 

Well.....we had originally booked the Mexican Riviera cruise but after so many people convinced me that the water would not be as warm and not as calm and not good snorkeling/scuba, we decided to change it up and book this cruise instead.

 

 

Love your review so far!

 

Thank you

 

Yay, the next Mitsugirly review is here, looking forward to it!

 

LOL it must be a PR thing. Exact same thing happened to my luggage when we sailed out of PR and I agree, dragging a damaged suitcase across those cobblestones was not a fun experience!

 

Thanks and hope you enjoy it. Not fun when the luggage has a broken foot...at all. Funny thing is...THIS LUGGAGE IS THE LUGGAGE I BOUGHT IN PUERTO RICO THE LAST TIME WE WERE HERE. LOL It didn't last very long.

 

 

So how was the Voom Speed we are almost a year away but I figure while other things may change up and down the Internet could only stay the same or be faster :)

 

Love your reviews and we were on the Epic just after you did that review too!

 

I thought it worked great! The only issue was logging on and only in our room and only on the computer. But once it got logged on, it worked just fine. The phones didn't have any problems.

 

Thanks for the comments and I hope you enjoy this one too.

 

I just wanted to say Thank you so Much for taking the time to do theses reviews.

I have learned a lot from reading them.

 

 

Why thank you. I appreciate it.

 

 

Glad to see Arbor Mist get a shout out! We aren't big wine drinkers but bring Arbor Mist with us on cruises as well. Despite my co-workers calling it "juice." We also like moscato. Another one you may like is Beringer White Zinfindel.

 

Enjoying the review as always!

 

Thanks for the suggestion on Beringer White Zinfindel. I'll have to check it out. I like my cheap wine.

 

My wife likes White Zinfandel and Arbor Mist. We were on a Celebrity cruise and she ordered a glass of White Zinfandel from our wine steward. He was crestfallen and said "I have working with you to choose wines that go with your meal and now you order this!" He did bring the white zinfandel. She now drinks mostly Pinot Grigio.:)

 

Haha, that's funny but I'm super glad that when I finally found a wine that I like, it's cheap! Go me!

 

 

 

Loving your review so far!

We are sailing the Greek Isles on the Jewel in June. Can’t wait to read about your experience onboard.

 

Thank you. I hope you continue to enjoy.

 

Ah! This review could not have come at a better time, as I am boarding the Jewel in little over a week (and flying to San Juan in less than a week)! Your reviews have always helped me so much on deciding what beaches to go to, and although we're taking a different route than you, I'm anxious to hear about your RCCL experience on the Jewel...this will be our first RCCL cruise, as I've become a big NCL fan! Can't wait to follow along! Hope the cruise was better than the hotel! ;p

 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise out of PR. I just love cruising out of there (and staying there for a couple of days). I do need to get back to NCL and try some of their new ships. I've been slacking. LOL (I also miss their free drink package).

 

Thank you very much for the reassurance. I wasn't too worried about not having a ring on the camera when using it on land, but I was very worried about it under water. Knowing that you have used yours underwater with no ring in place makes me feel a lot better about using mine without a ring. Eventually, I will probably buy an updated model, but I'm waiting, hoping they will come out with a model that can go down deeper underwater. I know I could buy an underwater housing for the camera which would allow it to go deeper, but one of the things I like best about the Olympus is that I can use it in the water without a housing. I do have a SeaLife camera that I can use on deeper dives in it's housing, so I can wait and see what Olympus comes out with.

 

I have taken my camera down to 35' so far. No problems but I don't even know what it's really rated for either. Oops. Hopefully there won't ever be any problem without the ring. So far so good.

 

 

Good heavens that hotel. Reminds me of why we don’t go camping. Dirt, bugs, heat, humidity. That’s a lot of nope. To us camping is a 4 star hotel, as someone said, without room service.

 

Our experience with internet aboard RCI, both Liberty and Vision, is that we have had to log off one device before we can log onto the next one. Based on your experience, this might vary from ship to ship. And I’m with you about internet being a must-have. I couldn’t enjoy my time away without knowing work and my kids and kitties were ok.

 

Haha. You sound like me. I'm NOT a camping person. My kids always try to get me to go and I told them if there's a hotel with a/c and a shower down the road, I'll meet you there. I used to camp all the time when I was in my 20's and hated every minute of it. The cold damp nights, getting rained on and the tent leaking, then graduating to a camper and I still didn't like it. My kids go camping and riding their 4 wheelers and they both have side-by-sides too and they'll get so muddy and no showers where they go...for days. Yucky.

 

Yea, even if the hubby didn't need internet for work and me for school, I would want it as a way to keep in touch with my kids (still have my 24 year old at home) and the fish and dog. I kept messaging him every day to ask if they were all still alive. LOL

 

 

Thanks for the reviews. Interested to read the rest of it.

 

Thanks

 

I am just starting to read this review, so sorry if this comment is a little late in coming and I hope no one else has already made a comment similar to mine.

While everyone has a different experience on a cruise, even on the same ship, your Allure cruise will be so completely different than this cruise on the Jewel. Only because the Allure is so completely different than the Jewel. Allure is much bigger and has much more to do. Not that the Jewel is a bad ship. Just way different.

Thanks for the review! I always enjoy them and I for one, enjoy all of the details of your cruise!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

I totally agree. When I get a chance to sail on Allure/Oasis, I'll be doing it for the ship and not the destination. That is a vacation destination in itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YAY, Been waiting for ur review Been on the Jewel twice still a NCL fan Thank u so much for ur reviews

 

 

Glad you found the review and thanks for coming.

 

Saving my place! Love these reviews:)

 

Thank you

 

 

 

Merciful goodness that hotel was a DUMP. I'm heartbroken for them about the hurricane, but it strikes me that hotel was a dump BEFORE!!

 

So delighted to have hopped on at the beginning of another amazing review. And tell Sakari she is looking more beautiful and grown up every day.

 

I'm kinda thinking the same thing prior to the hurricane as well.

 

Aww, thanks for the comment about Sakari. She is just growing too fast. (and btw, I told her just now and she's blushing and said thank you)

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Reading along! My friend and I will be on Jewel out of Civitavecchia in 77 days!!

[rjrice1]

Thank you so much for great review.

You do look amazingly young... loving your pictures.

Following.... taking hubby on the Jewel in Dec... for his 70th bday..

[CAC104]

We landed and was in the cab by 6:20pm. They would hand us a ticket with the price to get from the airport to our hotel in OSJ. $25

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you find the taxi prices higher than the last time you were in P.R.?

[vawalkers]

So excited to read your review and will be following!!! My husband and I are celebrating our 25th anniv on the same cruise in two weeks. We have always enjoyed your reviews and feel you are pretty much spot on! We have held out planning a couple of our ports waiting for your thoughts.

[hoopslover]

Thanks for another wonderful review. We board the Jewel today for 2 weeks. I hope I can follow along, but if not I will read it after we return. We had a 4+ hour delay at LAX which caused a missed flight out of Miami. Caught the next flight by 5 minutes. Staying at Best Western Plus Condado Palms and it has great a/c. We booked it last June and it was reasonable. Lookimg forward to the rest.

Donna

Edited April 15, 2018 by hoopslover
Typo

[mitsugirly]

Reading along! My friend and I will be on Jewel out of Civitavecchia in 77 days!!

 

I hope you have a wonderful time on the Jewel.

 

 

Thank you so much for great review.

You do look amazingly young... loving your pictures.

Following.... taking hubby on the Jewel in Dec... for his 70th bday..

 

Thanks so much! Have a wonderful hubby-birthday cruise!

 

Did you find the taxi prices higher than the last time you were in P.R.?

 

Hi Carol. I can't really answer that because last time we rented a car prior to the cruise and then after the cruise we walked across the port to the Sheraton.

 

 

So excited to read your review and will be following!!! My husband and I are celebrating our 25th anniv on the same cruise in two weeks. We have always enjoyed your reviews and feel you are pretty much spot on! We have held out planning a couple of our ports waiting for your thoughts.

 

Why thank you so much. Happy Anniversary and I hope you have a wonderful time on the Jewel.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for another wonderful review. We board the Jewel today for 2 weeks. I hope I can follow along, but if not I will read it after we return. We had a 4+ hour delay at LAX which caused a missed flight out of Miami. Caught the next flight by 5 minutes. Staying at Best Western Plus Condado Palms and it has great a/c. We booked it last June and it was reasonable. Lookimg forward to the rest.

Donna

 

Thanks and I hope you enjoy the review.

 

 

HAPPY CRUISE DAY! It sounds like you have gotten off to a rocky start and hopefully things get better. So glad you were able to get a good deal on a place WITH a/c.

[mitsugirly]

Ok, so I have been dragging my feet lately and trying to get my pictures organized and done for the ship.

 

Doing the pictures for the ship itself is always my least favorite part of the review. It takes forever to make so many folders for the pictures, note what floor it was located on, the name of it and then going through the hundreds of pictures I have and trying to determine where the heck that was and what place.

 

I may get some of them wrong, but I've tried my best. Some may be grouped together as well. I probably also missed a lot, but I'm sharing what I have.

 

We'll start out with a few "extras" around the ship.

 

We'll start with a picture that was located right outside my cabin door.

 

 

I loved this saying

 

 

 

The psychedelic staircase

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

This ship liked faces..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around the ship in various places, you would find these touch screens. NCL also has these (I believe on just the new ships) and they can be very helpful if you are trying to find something or book something. I really didn't use it this time because the ship was pretty easy to navigate.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

One thing about this ship is all the glass you will find everywhere. Even the elevators were all glass and on BOTH sides.

 

There was a centralized area, on only ONE side of the ship, unlike most ships that have elevators on both sides or the middle, this was just the one side...the side with the glass wall.

 

It was beautiful. It brings you closer to the water/ocean for some pretty spectacular views. Once you step on the outside elevators, you have a view of the ocean or you have a view of the floors as you pass them. Once you step on the inside elevators, a view of the atrium or a view of the floors. Pretty cool!

 

 

These weren't just any old glass on the elevators either, they had etchings in them.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We will start with DECK 4

 

CORAL THEATRE:

 

 

 

I see fish...so far I'm liking it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Coral Theatre continued:

 

 

Notice that each chair had a place to put your drink? I thought that was very well thought out. However...I would later find that it wasn't. See the slice in the arm piece to "slide" you glass in? Well, I guess they designed this for wine glasses only because our pop glasses (regular sized) would not fit in this. Boo!

 

 

 

[beccawes7471]

Following, always love your reviews!

[mitsugirly]

THE ATRIUM: The masterpiece, the centerpiece, the wow factor of every ship.

 

Now I have to say that back in the 80's-90's when I took my first NCL and RC cruise, one of the big things they had in the atrium was some type of waterfall as a centerpiece. You don't see waterfalls much anymore and to my surprise, this ship has some! I was excited to see it and it brought me back to my old cruise days.

 

Here's a video of the 2 waterfalls they had on the side of the atrium and an overall quick footage of the atrium.

 

OOn_6XpWZHE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

TIDES DINING ROOM: This is on both the 4th and 5th floor.

 

One thing I did find interesting is that you could make reservations...for the ANY time dining. I thought that was weird because isn't the reason you pick any time dining is because you just want to "show up"?

 

One side is for those that have reservations and the other side was for walk in's.

 

 

 

We always ate on the 5th floor so I didn't even realize there was a waterfall on the 4th floor until once when we went for lunch and ate on the 4th floor.

 

 

Although it wasn't much of a "waterfall" and more like a "trickle of water" on that black wall.

 

[mitsugirly]

Tides Dining continued:

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

DECK 5

 

ART & PHOTO GALLERY

 

Here is the place that you go to view your pictures the ship photographers take of you:

 

 

The system they had was like most ships, where's Waldo in the hundreds of pictures hanging on the walls.

 

 

One good thing is that if you gathered all of your pictures, they would put them in a plastic folio and hang on to them for you.

 

The only negative I found is that it took them forever to process and put pictures out. Every ship I have been on, you are in port that day and had your picture taken when you exit the ship and by that evening, your pictures would be out. These guys took until the next day to put out any pictures from that day. I'm not sure if all RC ships are like that or not, but it was the one thing that I didn't like about it.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

As for the "art gallery"...art was everywhere on the ship, just as it is on all ships. They had auctions and one day, toward the end of the cruise, they had the auction in the Safari room. I randomly took a few pictures there and around the ship of things that caught my eye.

 

This drawing is one that I could see Sakari doing with the crazy filled in shapes. I think we'll have to try it some day.

 

 

 

Another psychedelic picture that appeared 3d and moved with you.

 

 

 

There was a series of these pictures of women and they had jewels attached to them. I thought they were very pretty.

 

 

 

Then there's my favorite picture...kissing fish. I was eyeballing this picture from day one. This artist does a series of pictures like this and they seem to be black pieces of foam that is put on top of each other to create a 3d picture. Then topped off with bright colors of course. I would later find out that this particular picture cost $3,000!!! Say what??? I immediately put in a request for Sakari to make me something like this!

 

 

[mitsugirly]

SHOPS OF CENTRUM:

 

The way this area was set up, you were pretty much forced to walk through this in order to get to the other side. On previous ships, I felt that it was more of a centralized walkway or a way to walk around it, but this felt like you was constantly entering the stores each time. Maybe I was just coming in on the wrong side of the ship because there was always this set of steps that entered the shops and straight into the store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Shops continued:

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

CAFE LATTE-TUDES:

 

 

This was a place to get cappuccinos, premium coffee or snacks with a seating area for the coffee bar.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

NEXT CRUISE:

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

DECK 6

 

 

CINEMA:

 

The Jewel has it's very own Cinema and we are not talking about the big screen at the pool deck. An actual cinema!

 

It was very small, but still really neat. We did not get to use this, as much as I wanted to, because honestly, there wasn't anything playing worth watching to us and they played the same movies over and over both here and at the big screen at the pool. Most of the time they just rotated them. One movie was even 18 years old!!!! I was very disappointed in the movies on this ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think it was the first night of the cruise that they played Nemo & maybe Finding Dory. That was the only thing I would have been interested in seeing...over and over again. I love these movies. However, after that first night or two, they did not play it again.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

THE PIT STOP:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

CASINO ROYALE

 

The one place you can always find a lot of pictures from me. LOL

 

I thought this casino was very small compared to most. Maybe it was the layout and how things were kind of a chopped up feeling. But it just didn't seem very big and not much selection...however, it did have many of the games that I do play, so that was a plus.

 

My #1 favorite on this ship was of course Alice! They had 2 of them and it was always my go-to machine each time and I always seemed to do really well on it. If I ever got down to around $5 on another machine, I would take that $5 and put it in here and usually walk away with $60-70.

 

The machine on the end was the best and hit the most, but the 4th one down I did do decent on a few times.