Blue Collar Diamond's review of Jewel's last Southern Caribbean cruise from San Juan

[BillOh]

By 10am we were all equipped and headed off to Orient Beach. Below are two videos of our drive from the port area to Orient beach. It may show off some bad tourist driving the locals had to put up with. I forgot to start the video, so after about 100 yards I stopped in a shopping center and started it. Then we pulled over for a minute when I lost the sun shield off my camera lens. These videos are taken with a chest mounted gopro4. I don't think I've watched them all the way through yet. I will soon.

 

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[suesnake2002]

Following

 

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[ARandomTraveler]

I was using a Tamron 18-400. Outside its pretty good, my Canon 28-300 is much better indoors.

 

 

 

Thanks!

 

 

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[accio_7]

Enjoying your review, Bill, love your writing and sense of humour :) You guys look as if you have a good group of cruising friends <3

 

Keep up the great work!

 

 

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[kandj05]

Bill, did you and your wife enjoy the canams?

 

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[BillOh]

Bill, did you and your wife enjoy the canams?

 

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Forums mobile app

 

 

Very much, they were easy to drive and I was familar enough with the roads there to feel somewhat comfortable. I did get passed by scooters a couple of times. On those roads I don't think we got over 40kmph, but I was looking around quite a bit.

[BillOh]

We had a great time at Orient beach. It was a Tuesday and there were 2 ships in port so there were plenty of people. We did get something to eat and drink at the Perchlite bar. It was good and we were glad to be able to help the recovery effort. We were about 100 yards north of the old Papagayo restaurant which doesn't appear to have any re-construction going on, it still had a collaped roof. We were right in front of Club Orient and you can see external cleanup of the property is underway. The individual vilas had the glass blown out, but you can see some clean up going on inside the units. I have no plans to return in 2019, so by 2020 this place should be recovered, or so I hope. The area roads were in good shape. We packed up around 2:30 to make sure we got back into port on time as we were told there was a parade downtown. We just got back before it and were back on the ship by 3:30.

 

We had another good time in the Diamond lounge. We cut the DL a little short as they did have an adult version of the Comedy show at 7:30pm! We enjoyed this very much and still made dinner. After dinner we went to Love and Marriage. This was our first view of Andrea Olivieri in an MC capacity. When I had communicated with him prior to him coming on board Royal as a CD, I told him one thing people would appreciate is new questions for Love and Marriage. On that he delivered. The middle couple were clear L&M Marriage and had some prepared answers, one shocked the CD a little, but it was clearly re-hearsed. But Andrea did a good job as host. English is not his native language, but we does communicate very well and the ladies love the Italian accent. He let his AM do Quest.

[BillOh]

By 10am we were all equipped and headed off to Orient Beach. Below are two videos of our drive from the port area to Orient beach. It may show off some bad tourist driving the locals had to put up with. I forgot to start the video, so after about 100 yards I stopped in a shopping center and started it. Then we pulled over for a minute when I lost the sun shield off my camera lens. These videos are taken with a chest mounted gopro4. I don't think I've watched them all the way through yet. I will soon.

 

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Did these links work for anyone, its the first time I've tried to use them, I can just put up a regular URL link.

[lola2013]

No luck with the videos.

[Clarea]

Did these links work for anyone, its the first time I've tried to use them, I can just put up a regular URL link.

Didn't work for me BIll.

[Ocean Boy]

They don't work for me either.

[tOSUSteve]

They worked last night when I viewed them from the CC app, but not this AM from a web-browser.

[BillOh]

They worked last night when I viewed them from the CC app, but not this AM from a web-browser.

 

 

Thanks for that, but the majority say no go, wondering if its me or not

 

 

 

 

Again, this is a two part video of our drive from the port area to Orient beach on May 1st. I stopped filming on Orient beach :evilsmile: But I should have taken more pics of the damage there. While better than I expected, it still has a long way to go.

[ARandomTraveler]

Did these links work for anyone, its the first time I've tried to use them, I can just put up a regular URL link.

 

 

 

I didn’t try the link because I was able to see your video within the post.

 

EDIT TO ADD: I tried the link now just to check, and yes they work. Thanks for the videos!

 

 

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[BillOh]

I haven't uploaded any pictures for Day 4 Martinique yet, and to be honest, I may only upload 1 pic of an interesting building in the port that may be the tallest in the Caribbean, east of Puerto Rico.

Hoping this google image works.

 

 

 

Before going on about Martinique I'll wrap up a couple more points about Tuesday night. I'd heard from some of the recent cruisers that new CD Andrea was hosting star parties around 11pm many nights. Turns out this is a subject that Andrea and I both have pretty good knowledge and experience with. I bought my current light bucket back in 1984 when my daughter was young. I've shown the rings of Saturn, bands of Jupiter and several Deep Space Objects to tens of thousands of people for the first time. Being a 30 year member of the Columbus Astronomical Society I can say that is no exaggeration. We showed up outside the sky bar and the weather didn't look promising, so he canceled till the next day after departing Martinique.

 

We made no plans for Martinique, so we just decided to get off the ship, shop and look around, so we can say we have been there. It was a hot sunny day, but not above the mid 80s, but we were just coming off a cool late spring in Ohio. Just off the ship there were a series of booths with the usual tourist trinkets and they were set to handle US Dollars or Credit Cards. Along the ocean front rode, there was more of the same and quite a few more shops for locals. There were some food shops that may interest some people, but after a few shops on street number 2, I finally talked my wife into going back on the ship. This was the day of our 37th anniversary. A few more things of interest once we got back on the ship, but I've got to stop for now.

[Ocean Boy]

Thanks for that, but the majority say no go, wondering if its me or not

 

 

 

 

Again, this is a two part video of our drive from the port area to Orient beach on May 1st. I stopped filming on Orient beach :evilsmile: But I should have taken more pics of the damage there. While better than I expected, it still has a long way to go.

Probably a good thing. Most of the "scenery" that I have encountered at Orient Beach would be much better off left unphotographed.

[BillOh]

I mentioned not being over excited about visiting Martinique, and I guess it was a self-fulfilling prophecy ;) But it was our 37 anniversary and I had a Chops dinner to look forward to. I also mentioned that tall building. I thought it looked good and has to be one of the tallest in the Southern Caribbean/East indies.

 

 

After a couple of hours of walking around and getting my 6000 steps in (BTW, I gained only 1 pound on this 7 day cruise. (Ignore I was at my heaviest in 8 years) we got back on the ship to find a gift basket, bottle of wine, and card waiting in our room.

 

 

We had a 7:30 reservation in Chops along with our friends Jon an Penny. I had the bacon appetizer and it was so-so. A bottle of champagne was brought to us for dinner as well. Between the Diamond happy hour and the champagne, I probably created my own disappointment at Chops. The other three ordered the Filet Medium and I ordered the NY strip also medium. I think I had so much to drink I didn't sample my steak right and wasn't aware how it was well past well done till after the waiter asked if my steak was ok and I dismissively said yes. Oh, well, I managed to get enough to eat and drink. My steak was was way over cooked. Penny's was more like medium rare, but she actually likes it that way. Gina and Jon were also happy. My fault as the waiter reminded me when I didn't eat half of it.

 

We finished off the evening with CD Andrea's stargazing talk. He was well prepared and had hand outs. I found myself just being quiet and thinking, "Yes that's right" to everything he said being as knowledgeable as I am on the subject. I was excited when he pointed out the Southern Cross I've never really observed more below the 35th parallel. He also had a really cool laser pointer. I've done star talks with similar tools, but apparently they are making them every brighter now. This one was impressive at a reported 3 watts. I've been working with lasers for over 30 years so I know care must be taken with a laser this powerful, and Andrea did take care. We were on deck 13 forward so there was no shot of accidentally destroying the night vision of the bridge crew. It was a great time and a nice end to our anniversary.

 

Coming up Barbados and our best cruise excursion ever!

[perfect match]

Coming up Barbados and our best cruise excursion ever![/QUOTE]

 

 

Bill, you know I'm waiting to hear about this one! I'm excited to already hear you calling it your best cruise excursion ever! :D

 

We are home from our Grand Cayman trip, so I'm starting to get caught up here on CC. I haven't tried your St Maarten videos yet because I wanted to keep reading. I'll go back and look at them now. I have seen some recent pictures of the damage on the island, but not going towards Orient Beach. I will be interested to see what you saw on your ride. BTW, I couldn't see any of your pictures while I was on the resort wifi in Cayman, but I can see them fine now that I'm home, using the same tablet in both places. I figured the problem was the resort wifi. :confused:

[Senaloy]

After a nice welcome from the Cruise Director I found a young couple we were hoping was still there. In the last months of our roll call a young lady from Oklahoma joined us. She was getting married and they booked this cruise for their honeymoon. While doing her research she found cruise critic and our roll call. We quickly adopted her into our group and hope we provided some good insight. We were a little nervous for them as they were getting married on Saturday, boarding a 6am flight on Sunday to San Juan and boarding the cruise. We were happy to see they made it. We would see them several times and I hear they had a great honeymoon.

 

Yay!! I found the link to your review. Quickly catching up.

 

I can say that as a first time cruiser (but definitely not last), that of all of the things I stumbled across in researching the ship, CC and the Roll Call thread was by far my favorite thing! Everyone was so welcoming an informative. I've told everyone who I have spoken to about CC and that if they are not involved, they need to get involved. My best information did not come from my travel agent, but from all of the CC family!

 

Bill, I do love your writing. It's like reliving the cruise again :)

[BillOh]

Yay!! I found the link to your review. Quickly catching up.

 

I can say that as a first time cruiser (but definitely not last), that of all of the things I stumbled across in researching the ship, CC and the Roll Call thread was by far my favorite thing! Everyone was so welcoming an informative. I've told everyone who I have spoken to about CC and that if they are not involved, they need to get involved. My best information did not come from my travel agent, but from all of the CC family!

 

Bill, I do love your writing. It's like reliving the cruise again :)

 

 

I'm really glad to hear from you! Since your anniversary is so close to ours maybe we will see you again. Good luck returning to real life.

[BillOh]

Sorry folks, the pictures below aren't showing, that may be my fault, I'll check at home tonight and repost.

 

When I sailed Jewel in 2014 she docked aft inward several times, I remember the group of Arizona cruisers we were with then had a banner on their aft balcony. In St Croix, our first port, I woke up to this view.

 

 

For St Croix, we had our only Royal sponsored Excursion. It was a tour of the Cruzan Rum Factory and the Captain Morgan factory with sample drinks at each site. But that wasn't till noon, so we got off the ship and shopped in the port area. There was only a small amount of hurricane damage and a few shops to visit.

 

Our ride on the rum tour excursion was an open air taxi holding about 20 people. It was a perfect day for it weather wise. On the ride, St Croix seems to be in pretty good shape. There were some broke windows and fences knocked over, but it seems to be pretty active. We arrived at the Cruzan factory and started out tour.

 

 

That is my wife on the left and cruise friends Jon and Penny. Jon has tried Cruzan rum before and says its good. I'll have to try it soon. The place was somewhere between a family run business and a big company.

 

Cruzan imports old bourbon barrels from the US to age their rum, you can see them here with some remaining hurricane damage in the back ground.

 

 

 

 

After the tour, we were able to use the two tickets each to sample the product. The tour guide "accidentally gave me a 2nd pair of tickets so I was holding a bootie of 4 drinks.

Turns out they came through later and gave everyone more. They made people happy. The rum it self was good and the pina colada's on a hot day on vacation was great. We left happy.

[Ocean Boy]

Sorry folks, the pictures below aren't showing, that may be my fault, I'll check at home tonight and repost.

I have pictures right now.

[BillOh]

I have pictures right now.

 

 

Thanks for letting me know. I don't from home. Very odd.

[perfect match]

I could only see some of your pictures while I was in Grand Cayman last week. Last night, at home, I had no problem seeing all of your pictures. Still at home, tonight I can't see any of your pictures. Each time I come on is a different experience. I am using the same device the whole time, and I can see the pictures in other posts.

[BillOh]

I could only see some of your pictures while I was in Grand Cayman last week. Last night, at home, I had no problem seeing all of your pictures. Still at home, tonight I can't see any of your pictures. Each time I come on is a different experience. I am using the same device the whole time, and I can see the pictures in other posts.

 

 

It definitely seems to be my hosting site. :mad: