Jewel of the Seas 4/15/2007

[MarylandBob]

Any other family going on this transatlantic voyage? My partner Jerry and I booked last week.

[WashDCguys]

hi guys

my partner and i are doing the jewel on june 30th

BearFromDC@aol.com

[DwntwnSeaGuy]

Hi Maryland Bob!

My partner and I (both mid 40's) will be on this cruise. We are from Seattle. We just booked this yesterday and snagged the very last balcony cabin available which is a junior suite.

I see you guys have a grand suite - LOVE those staterooms. We had one on the Brilliance several years back.

This will be our 13th cruise but our very first trans-atlantic cruise so we are both a bit anxious over how we will deal with so many sea days up front and then all the ports at the very end. Hopefully it means we will arrive fully relaxed and ready for some "port action"!!!!

Interestingly enough, we cancelled our previous cruise booking on the Celebrity Century for a 9 night cruise out of Amsterdam. For some reason, even with the renovation, the Century didn't instill a sense of excitement in me.

We have generally, in the past either sailed on HAL Vista Class or the newer NCL ships. On HAL, it seems the "FOD" always gathered in the Crow's Nest for pre-dinner cocktails, whereas on the NCL ships we gathered in the Star Bar.

I'm wondering what bar on the Jewel we will claim as our pre-dinner gathering spot :)

At any rate, we look forward to this voyage and meeting you and others in April!

Cheers!

John & Steven

[MarylandBob]

Hi John and Steven,

 

Glad you guys will be on the voyage. Jerry and I have done a number of cruises including one other transatlantic about a year ago on the new Westerdam. That was a westbound sailing from Rome to Ft. Lauderdale. We both agree it was probably one of the best cruises we ever took. The time to relax and enjoy the life aboard ship is great! Because we sailed a southerly route, the weather was perfect all the way across.

 

We usually travel on HAL because we like their service, the Vista ships are fantastic and the line treats "family" well. In fact, we're sailing on the Noordam on 10/25 out of New York to the Caribbean. We've always met a good number of folks on board, in fact, on a West Coast Mexican cruise, you would have thought it was an RSVP charter. We also like Princess and Celebrity. To be honest, we've never been all that impressed with RCCL but we really liked this itinerary and the fact that the Jewel is relatively new gives us high hopes that we will not be disappointed.

 

Two friends that we met on the Westerdam transatlantic cruise have also decided to join us so that makes at least 6 for our FOD cocktail parties! I'm sure that as April draws closer, this thread will become more active.

 

Maybe you can give us some tips on booking a good cruise to Alaska, we've been considering a round-tripper from Seattle at some point in the future. You live in a beautiful part of the country, we stayed in Vancouver for a few nights at the end of a Hawaii cruise we took a few years back. We drove up to Whistler one day and saw some fantastic scenery all along the way.

 

Let's keep in touch.

 

Regards,

Robert and Jerry

[DwntwnSeaGuy]

Hi Robert & Jerry, I'm going to respond to your post "in line" below!!!!

Hi John and Steven,

 

Glad you guys will be on the voyage. Jerry and I have done a number of cruises including one other transatlantic about a year ago on the new Westerdam. That was a westbound sailing from Rome to Ft. Lauderdale. We both agree it was probably one of the best cruises we ever took. The time to relax and enjoy the life aboard ship is great! Because we sailed a southerly route, the weather was perfect all the way across.

 

Do you know if the route on the Jewel will be a southernly route as well or more northernly? I'm thinking more northernly since are heading up to Northern Europe. At any rate, I'm hoping we will enjoy the time at sea and arrive rested and refreshed ready for the ports of call. We are spending just a few days in Amsterdam at the end of the cruise due to time constraints. And, this will be our 3rd time there so we are looking to some relaxing fun different things there as well.

 

We usually travel on HAL because we like their service, the Vista ships are fantastic and the line treats "family" well. In fact, we're sailing on the Noordam on 10/25 out of New York to the Caribbean. We've always met a good number of folks on board, in fact, on a West Coast Mexican cruise, you would have thought it was an RSVP charter. We also like Princess and Celebrity. To be honest, we've never been all that impressed with RCCL but we really liked this itinerary and the fact that the Jewel is relatively new gives us high hopes that we will not be disappointed.

 

Funny you should mention the HAL Vista ships. We took the inaugural cruise of the Westerdam out of Venice, took the Oosterdam to Alaska out of Seattle, and earlier this year the Noordam from the port out of Rome on a wonderful Mediterranean cruise.

We've only been on RCCL once before and that was on the Brilliance of the Seas and honestly, it was a lovely ship. However, the food was so-so in the main dining room and there were some amenities lacking in the staterooms such as bathrobes and decent toiletries. However, I do believe that the Jewel will have the new beds and bedding in place prior to our cruise so that will be a nice treat. Also, we are ordering robes as gifts to ourselves to be placed in our stateroom that will be nice to take back home with us. I'm also bringing one of my favorite lines of shower products for our stateroom. In other words, I'm going to make our cabin feel more luxurious if it kills me :)

 

Two friends that we met on the Westerdam transatlantic cruise have also decided to join us so that makes at least 6 for our FOD cocktail parties! I'm sure that as April draws closer, this thread will become more active.

 

We've never sailed on an all gay cruise and have always found other nice gay people for our FOD cocktail parties! In fact on one cruise, there were about 40 or us of us and the hotel director took notice of us and obviously recognized that we were a group of upscale double income no kids gay men and women, and he went out of his way to accommodate us. He even reserved the alternative dining room one evening just for us!

 

Maybe you can give us some tips on booking a good cruise to Alaska, we've been considering a round-tripper from Seattle at some point in the future. You live in a beautiful part of the country, we stayed in Vancouver for a few nights at the end of a Hawaii cruise we took a few years back. We drove up to Whistler one day and saw some fantastic scenery all along the way.

 

I would be happy to give you tips on an Alaska cruise out of Seattle. As I mentioned, we took the Oosterdam and it was a lovely trip! I love Vancouver - so much fun.

 

Let's keep in touch.

 

Definitely, looking forward to chatting with you in the future and we'll keep this board rolling along!!!!

Cheers!

John (and Steven)

 

Regards,

Robert and Jerry

[DwntwnSeaGuy]

:D

Heavens, I'm all a twitter!!!

I just went on the RCI website for kicks and grins to see what cabins were left and, lo and behold, there was ONE category GS available. So, I called my travel agent and he was able to snag it for us!

YAYE!!!!!

[BlondyX]

My partner and I will be on this cruise! We have our first aft balcony cabin. We're very excited!!

 

This is my DP's 2nd cruise. We did Alaska in August with Celebrity. Will be my 4th. First Transatlantic, in fact first time to Europe for both of us!

 

Looking forward to chatting with you guys!!

 

Juli and Marianne

[MarylandBob]

Welcome to the group, Juli and Marianne. Hi again John and Steven.

 

Haven't posted in a while because we've been busy at work and getting ready for our Caribbean cruise that begins on Wednesday.

 

As for the route of the Jewel, I believe it will be warm for the crossing at least for the first few days but I suspect it will cool down as we sail more northernly which we must do. I'm glad you guys were able to snag a Category GS, that's what we booked. We booked our first suite on the Westerdam a few years back and we haven't been able to go back to a regular room since. It's funny, I remember when we satisfied just to be on the ship even it was inside, now it's the suite life, have we become jaded???

 

I look forward to talking to you guys about Seattle and Alaska. I suspect that may be our next cruise in the Fall of 2007.

 

We'll check in when we get back from in a few weeks. So long for now!

 

Robert and Jerry

[DwntwnSeaGuy]

Hello Juli, Marianne, Robert & Jerry!!!

We are so looking forward to meeting you and spending some quality time (aka days at sea) getting to know you. The more I think about our six luxurious days at sea, the more excited I become.

I'm sure our little group of 6 or 8 will grow as our sailing time draws closer and we're sure to find some fellow family members who didn't know these boards existed. Since this will be our first cruise of any length on an RCI ship, I'm wondering which cocktail lounge will be the best for our pre-dinner cocktails. On HAL, it was always the Crows Nest. On NCL it was always the Star Bar. On Princess, it was Crooners before, during, AND after dinner.

In the meantime, it's fun keeping in touch via this board and I look forward to more exchanges.

Cheers!!!

John In Seattle

[lyonrm]

Hey guys,

 

My partner and I have also booked this cruise. This will be our 7th cruise on Royal Caribbean. Our first three were on Travel Out gay groups out of Galveston on the Rhapsody of the Seas (Western Caribbean). Then we did a transatlantic last April on Celebrity Century. There was a group of about 70 of us onboard. We all stuck together; however, the usual drama existed.

 

Celebrity is suppose to be a premium version of RCCL. My partner and I are in our late 30's - early 40's. We like to remain physically active. We found that the facilities were inferior to RCCL, there were too many silly rules and regulations, and the activities were too boring thus catering to the nearly dead. After that we decided to stick to RCCL which best suited our lifestyle.

 

Then we did two other cruises, Splender of the Seas (Greek Isles) where there were only a few other couples that were rather stand-off-ish.

 

We are really excited about this iternary. We have been to Amsterdam twice and just love it. This year we will be there in time for QUEEN'S DAY. We have found that northern europe is extremely friendly to americans.

 

We are looking forward to meeting you all.

 

Russ and Donnie

Houston, Texas

[JMHinSEA]

Hi Russ and Donnie!!!

Welcome to our growing group!

I find your comments about Celebrity quite interesting because my partner and I cancelled the itinerary we originally booked on the Celebrity Century for this one.

So, sounds like we made the right choice. We have never sailed on Celebrity and, like you said, it's supposed to be the more upscale version of RCI. However, after looking at pictures of the Century's renovation, I just couldn't get excited about being on that ship. For some reason, it just wasn't "doing it" for me. However, once I found the transatlantic itinerary on the Jewel, I instantly knew this was "it" and my partner agreed so our travel agent very easily switched over our deposit.

This will be our 15th cruise and we've always been fortunate enough to meet other great gays and lesbians onboard and have shared great times together. Looks like we've got a wonderful group shaping up here.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, this will be our first transatlantic, and the more I think about the glorious days at sea the more I look forward to the cruise.

Unfortunately, we are on a very short time frame and will only be able to spend 2 nights in Amsterdam after the cruise so I think we'll be missing out on Queen's Day so you'll have to celebrate for us! We have been to Amsterdam twice before and loved it and pretty much did all the "tourist" things so we're looking forward to just relaxing and enjoying what we like to call our "fairy tale village".

I understand that there is a well known garden that should be in bloom with tulips while we are there so I hope to see that.

I look forward to communicating more with all of you!

Cheers!

John In Seattle

formerly dwntwnseaguy now JMHinSEA

[lyonrm]

Hello John

 

You guys made the right choice by changing your cruise from the Century to the Jewel. Right after we did the TA cruise last April on the Century it went into dry dock to be updated and boy did she need it. The only part of the whole ship that was nice was the main dinning room. All in all we were able to have a FOD meeting posted in the cruise paper and it was held everyday in one of the lounges. We all also were able to change our table setting so that we could eat together at night in the main dinning room. Well we are looking forward to meeting and making lots of new friends.

[MarylandBob]

Hello all, Welcome Russ and Donnie,

 

Hope everyone enjoyed a Happy Thanksgiving. It's nice to see that our group is continuing to grow. I'm sure we'll have more family checking in before we sail in April.

 

We recently returned from our 10-day Caribbean cruise on the Noordam. It was great. For the first time, we took a stateroom in the back of the ship. We were offered a low-cost upgrade from the cruise line to the highest end suite and am I glad we did it. The room and balcony were about 780 square feet. The balcony wrapped around the corner of the ship so we had views from the back and side. We could have entertained 25 people on the balcony alone.

 

I hope RCCL does not disappoint. Jerry and I have really gotten used to the great service and ambience of HAL but the Jewel looks fabulous and we are ready to experience a different set of entertainment and ship layout.

 

It sounds like Russ and Donnie prefer RCCL and I've heard quite a few other people say that Royal has improved many things including their dining. I'm sure it's going to be fantastic. Who can complain anyway when you're sailing for 12 days.

 

Right now, we're scheduled to fly home on the day of disembarkation but one of the wait staff we spoke to on our Noordam cruise who lives in Amsterdam said the Queen's Day festivities are not to be missed. So, we may have to rethink our return plans.

 

Season's Greetings!

Robert and Jerry

[JMHinSEA]

Hey MD Bob!

My partner and I were on the Noordam last year out of Rome. We had a nice suite but certainly not what you had :)

 

Like you, we've gotten used to some excellent service and treatment from HAL. Honestly, I'm not expecting the same type of experience from RCI. I'm trying to keep my expectations in check.

 

However, I am looking forward to some features on the Jewel that the NCL ships don't have such as the open airy high atrium, a separate men's steam and sauna that you don't have to pay extra for :), a dedicated movie theatre, the concierge lounge with complimentary cocktails.

 

Also, I'm looking forward to having more than one alternative dining option. We sailed on the Brilliance of the Seas when it was a new ship. That was quite some time ago of course. I have to say the food in the main dining room was mediocre. However, dinner in the two alternative dining rooms was exceptional - comparable to the Pinnacle Grill in quality in my humble opinion. I've also heard that the quality of the food in the main dining room has improved so I'm hoping we will all be pleasantly surprised.

 

I'm hoping that the bedding upgrade will be done by our sailing, I'm thinking that this should be the case. This will increase my satisfaction by 100% alone since, as you know, the beds aboard HAL are quite lovely.

 

All in all, for the price we paid for our GS, I think we'll be just fine and dandy :)

 

I am so looking forward to the glorious days at sea. We will definitely have to claim one of the lounges as our pre-evening cocktail spot :)

 

Cheers!

John

[BlondyX]

Hi Everyone!!

 

John, I cannot tell you how much we are also looking forward to the sea days and this is my first trip to Europe as well. So I'm just all around thrilled to be taking this cruise.

 

Does anyone need to know that we set sail in 130 days?? Not that I'm counting!

 

We look forward to meeting all of you, this should be a great cruise.

 

Wanted to stick my two cents in as far as the Celebrity/RCI debate. We were on the Infinity to Alaska in August and we had a fantastic time. We are pretty laid back though and I can see how the more active set may have found it lacking. Especially since lounging poolside was not really an Alaskan option. Celebrity works as a mellow vacation, which is what we needed at the time. We are looking forward to the activities that I've been reading about that RCI offers, should prove to be a different experience.

 

130 days!!

[BlondyX]

I just saw on the other roll call board that aft cabin 7674 (one next to ours) is available.

 

Aft Balcony....someone may want to check it out and see if it is still up for grabs.

[rienreiter]

Hi Everybody:

 

I have been following this thread for a few weeks but was holding myself back from posting until I was sure that I was going to be on this cruise.

 

Any room for a solo traveler here? Just booked this cruise a couple of weeks ago after having switched around a couple of times from other cruises that eventually I was not able to make (don't want to lose that $200 on board credit).

 

I am involved in a long term relationship (20 years) but my partner is not able to make it as he does not have as much vacation time as I do and we already have made all of our 2007 vacation plans but I still have two more weeks to play with. I am looking forward to this cruise with the exciting ports of call as well as meeting all of you.

 

Regards, Juan

[DwntwnSeaGuy]

Hi Juan, welcome aboard!

So glad you are joining us on the cruise!

We look forward to meeting everyone! We've always met great friends aboard past cruises. It's amazing how we even run into friends we've cruised with in the past even on different cruise lines - the cruise world is surely a wonderful community.

We will definitely have to claim one of the lounges as our own for pre dinner cocktails.

On Holland America, we seem to always gather in the Crows Nest. On Norwegian, it's the Star Bar.

This will be our first cruise "real" cruise with RCI, so with 6 days at sea, we are looking forward to developing some great onboard friendships.

We took a 3 day cruise on the Brilliance of the Seas several years back and I dont' think that 3 days gives one a true feel of a particular ship or line..

One thing I do remember about the Brilliance is the beautiful artwork aboard the ship and how light and bright the public rooms were.

At any rate, it's wonderful we have such a good CC group already here and others are sure to join us!

Cheers and Happy New Year to all of you!

John in Seattle

[rienreiter]

Hi John:

 

Thanks for the welcome! I'm really looking forward to this cruise also.

 

As far as claiming a spot for pre-dinner cocktails, the Champagne Bar might be an ideal place. It's small but it is by the centrum/lobby so the music playing down 2 decks below might make conversations a little difficult. There's also the Colony Club, a large and elegant lounge all the way aft on deck 6 which might be more conducive to a large group (depending on how many of us will be there). The sports bar, just ahead of the casino on deck 6 also, has a tendency to be quiet as not many people go there. We can continue discussing as the time gets closer. We can always try out one place and if we don't find it suitable, we can change venues.

 

You're absolutely correct. Three days aboard any ship is not sufficient time to get to know the ship or the line. And by the way, the last time that I looked at the itinerary, we had 7 days at sea; not 6.

 

I've been on the Brilliance 3 times so I really was trying to stay away from making the crossing on her again. So, even though the Jewel is mostly identical, I'm looking forward to being on a similar ship but one that I have not been on before.

 

Regards, Juan

 

PS HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!

[MarylandBob]

Hi Juan and All,

 

Can't believe we'll be throwing the 2006 calendar out tomorrow morning and beginning another year. Only 3 and 1/2 months till sailing! WOW.

 

Hope everyone had a good holiday, Jerry and I have been off for the whole week. We're capping off the vacation with a New Year's Eve celebration tonight in Baltimore. We have season's tickets to the Baltimore Ravens NFL team and for those of you who may be football fans know, we are in the playoffs. Our game is at 4:15 p.m., dinner at 8:00 p.m., fireworks at midnight. We're staying downtown at an inner harbor hotel for the night so, let the merriment begin.

 

I guess we have to seriously begin thinking about the cruise, i.e., planning our shore sightseeing, etc. There is one great thing, no real planning is required for most of the voyage. Just figuring out where to have the next cocktail!

 

Happy New Year to All,

Robert and Jerry

[rienreiter]

Hi Robert and Jerry! HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! Can you believe that we are only approximately 100 days away?

 

Regards, Juan

[rienreiter]

I know that two of you have booked Grand Suites (plenty of room for pre-dinner cocktails and parties:D ) but for any of you out there who have booked E2 category cabins, the price just went up by over $300. I think the other categories remained the same.

 

Regards, Juan

[jbear$]

trouble with posting...........We are days from booking T/A on JOS. Did Connie T/A last Spring. Please give a critique on the rewards of PORT or STARBOARD on an east- bowned itin.thnx, jtd+mdg

[jbear$]

trouble with posting...........We are days from booking T/A on JOS. Did Connie T/A last Spring. Please give a critique on the rewards of PORT or STARBOARD on an east- bowned itin.thnx, jtd+mdg

[rienreiter]

I think I recall reading somewhere on these boards that cabins on the starboard side will be able to view the sunset. If this is important to you, now you know which side to book.