Long Review - Jewel Western (6 Day) 12/10/06

[TexasMom2]

I was excited to take my Mom on this cruise for her 65th birthday present. She suffers from pain in her legs and feet as a result of diabetes, so my goal was to provide a relaxing and fun vacation with as little pain as possible. I also just had surgery 5 weeks ago and was not my usual go-go-go self. I am happy to say that it was easy to do and we both had a wonderful vacation. This review will not be action-packed, but hopefully some information will be useful.

 

This was my 5th cruise, 3rd for Mom. I have been on the Rhapsody twice, the Adventure and the Grand Princess. Mom had been on a short Carnival cruise in the mid-90s and the Grand Princess with my family last December. Neither of us had sailed from Port Everglades before.

 

Pre-cruise in Fort Lauderdale

We flew from Houston to FLL the day before (Dec 9). IAH was uncrowded for our 10:40 a.m. flight and everything went smoothly. Collected our luggage and hopped into a taxi for the short ride to our hotel, The Atlantic on N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd., a Starwood Luxury Collection property. I used Starwood points for the standard king room which was beautiful, with a balcony facing the ocean, enormous marble bathroom with separate shower, two sinks, water closet and soaking tub. If you are a Starwood member and have points to redeem, I highly recommend this hotel. The wind was gusting and cool, so we decided not to attempt to walk anywhere for dinner and took a cab to Chuck's Steakhouse on 17th St. Dinner was pricey and just average, I wouldn't recommend it for a steak dinner. You will note that there will be other references to steak in my review because we ended up eating it three times on this vacation!

 

Embarkation

Check-out time at our hotel was 11:00 and I had debated whether to wait in the hotel until 12:30 or so to get to the pier because I didn't want Mom standing too much the first day. I'm glad we went ahead and departed at 11:00 – we were at the terminal and sitting in the waiting area by 11:20 and on board by 11:45. Wow, what a beautiful ship! We went directly to the Schooner Bar for a cocktail and made reservations for Portofino's and Chops, which were were right there. I heard later in the week that reservations were gone at both restaurants, so I'm glad I did this early. We also made a reservation for Mom to have a facial on Thursday (Costa Maya).

 

Cabin

We had an E1 balcony, 7108, right next to the panoramic elevator. We never heard any hallway noise or elevator pinging, so the location turned out to be perfect. The cabin seemed to be smaller than the E1 on the Adventure, very tight getting around the end of the beds and by the TV cabinet. It could have been caused by the beds arranged as twins instead of a queen. Plenty of storage space for two girly girls (my Mom, the typical southern belle, with loads of products, clothes and a 2 hour or more daily toilette). I missed the extra space and bathtub hubby and I had in a JS on the Rhapsody in September, but it worked out fine. Our steward was just adequate...skimpy on the ice and forgot to bring the prepaid gratuity vouchers the last evening. We were late for dinner as we tried to hunt them down to take to dinner for our wait staff. We pre-ordered the egg crates but couldn't get them until the second night, so the first night was a little rough for Mom.

 

Dining

We enjoyed every single meal that we had on the ship. The first day, we decided to have a light lunch in the Windjammer because of dinner coming up at 6:00. The leek soup was wonderful, along with half of a pre-made sandwich. Plenty of salads, entrees and veggies to choose from. At dinner, we were assigned a table for six and met a lovely couple from Florida. The other couple only came on lobster night and ate at the Windjammer the rest of the time. Our wait staff were efficient and personable. The first formal night and the following night (Key West and Cozumel), we ate at Portofino's, then Chops. We both ordered the filet at Portofino's, even knowing that we were dining at Chops the next night. It sounded so good, we had to try it, and it was the best steak I have ever had (a ringing endorsement, since I am a Texan). The service was wonderful. Chops the next evening was wonderful as well, but the filet was different...a pure beef flavor without the marinade, but still very good. The family style vegetables were excellent and plentiful. Standouts in the Tides dining room were the lobster (for Mom, I am allergic), Vidalia onion tart, the veggies, bread selections, warm chocolate cake with milk chocolate sauce, and the sugar-free desserts. To manage Mom's sugar levels, we ordered fruit plates to store in the fridge and kept a few bananas, apples and milk in the cabin for emergencies. Every morning we had coffee (diet coke for Mom) and a croissant while we dressed for breakfast in the dining room or Windjammer. We visited the Seaview Cafe on our last day at sea for lunch and had hamburgers and onion rings, which were very good. The longest we ever waited for room service was 45 minutes. Most of the time it was 10 minutes for the coffee and croissants. We were very pleased with the quality, variety and availability of food on this cruise, a far cry from our last cruise together on the Grand Princess.

 

Ports of Call

Key West (docked) – I had purchased the trolley tour tickets online for $25/person, a savings over the ship's tour. I thought we might do less standing around if we went independently, and I'm glad we did. Hopped right on the trolley and the tour lasted about 1 hour 45 minutes. It was cool that day so it was a blessing we were on the trolley and not the open-air Conch Train. We hopped off on Duval Street and made our way down to the Hard Rock Cafe for appetizers and cocktails. We walked back to the ship, window shopping a little on the way, and reboarded. Mom had had a rough night and decided to take a nap. She slept through the sailaway get-together with the other CC members and I didn't have the heart to wake her to get to the Sky Bar at 3:00.

 

Cozumel (docked) - We took a taxi to Paradise Beach. The weather was not the best – intermittent sprinkles and mostly cloudy, but we could scoot under our umbrella and wait out the sprinkles. We read, napped, had nachos and fries and a few pina coladas. A very nice day, even with the rain.

 

Costa Maya (docked) – We had already been to Costa Maya last December, it was raining and Mom had a facial at 2:30, so we hung out in the Solarium to read and nap, which was kind of hard to do with the dominos being shuffled constantly that day by a cute foursome. A highlight of the day was watching the Queen Mary 2 come in and dock right behind us, very interesting to watch as one of the ropes got caught on a light pole and other ropes had to be fished out of the water with some fishing pole-looking contraption.

 

Grand Cayman (tendered) – Our racing catamaran/stingray tour was canceled due to low participation, so we tendered ashore to do some shopping. We weren't all that disappointed because neither of us could get in the water, but we did want to sail around a bit and that was the only tour I could find that would give us a few hours on the water. The swells were rough so tendering was an adventure! The combination of the up/down motion, the fumes and the length of time to fill the tender gave me a few moments of nausea, but it passed. Mom was a trouper and had no problems. It was hot and humid, so we didn't stay long ashore after completing our shopping and headed back to the Solarium for some quiet time.

 

Our day at sea was spent relaxing, packing, and of course...eating and gambling.

 

Entertainment

Well, we were a boring pair. We listened to a few bands in the lounges, visited the casino quite a bit, and attended the Quest game. We got to the Safari Lounge early to get a seat for Quest, only to find that we couldn't see anything on the floor because people standing along the rails blocked the view. We did have a few teams close to us, and they were hilarious to watch. The Rosario Strings were wonderful, especially the violin. I loved the music played in the dining room on the landing at the waterfall. Much ado and snickering is made on the Princess boards about the "singing and dancing" waiters on RCI, but I must say I enjoyed it very much and it seemed as the staff enjoyed performing for us.

 

Debarkation

We had an 11:51 a.m. flight, so we went to Guest Relations to request early tags and ended up with Beige 3, which was the 2nd group after express walk-off. Walked right off the ship into the customs/immigration line, the whole process took about 15 minutes. Our luggage was found easily with the help of a porter and straight into a taxi. Couldn't have been any easier for two decrepit southern belles. Our flight to Houston was on time despite earlier fog and we arrived home by 1:45 CST to a toasty 80 degrees (it was cold when we left). Rhapsody passengers departing from Galveston today will be thrilled with the weather – clear blue skies and about 75 degrees.

 

Other Stuff

Other than the evening we left Key West and were off the northern coast of Cuba, this cruise was the smoothest I've been on. It was bumpy that one night but it didn't last long. My first time midship and that may have had something to do with it as well. The Jewel is laid out well and very easy to navigate. The layout of the Windjammer puts the Grand Princess to shame, there were always tables available, and the staff was light years ahead of Princess staff. There were quite a few kids on board but all well-behaved. Just one crying baby in the Solarium one afternoon and a few kids running up and down the stairs in the dining room on the last evening. Quite a few 20-somethings in the casino at night, apparently there was a group of 80 which included many college students traveling with their parents and having a good time. Most everyone was dressed well in the evenings. Hot tub hogs were rampant, I watched one group stay in the Solarium hot tub for about 3 hours. I can't bring myself to get in one after watching beer drinkers never exit for periodic potty breaks.

 

We loved this cruise but felt it was a little too short. I loved sailing from Port Everglades (especially the send-off from the homes and condos lining the port exit to open water) and I'm glad I was able to make Mom's 65th birthday special while she is still mobile. This review turned out to be really long, so if you're still with me, I would be happy to answer any questions.

[corinnv]

I enjoyed your review. My family will be on the Jewel for the 2/18/07 sailing. We are a diverse group. Traveling with us will be my husband, our three girls ( 19, almost 3 and a 7 year old) My in-laws and my sister and my mother. My inlaws have been on many cruises, but this is the first for our family. My husband is an avid diver, so we have been to many of the islands. I am looking forward to a relaxing vacation this year! My husband was not too keen on a cruise, but since it is my treat he did not have a choice!;)

 

My mom has not traveled in years and this is her birthday gift as well! It sounds like there is plenty to do for all age groups. I am glad your mom had a nice time!

[Cruising89143]

Thanks for the review and glad that you enjoyed your cruise. I was getting off of the ship as you were boarding. She is a beauty.

[TexasMom2]

I enjoyed your review. My family will be on the Jewel for the 2/18/07 sailing. We are a diverse group. Traveling with us will be my husband, our three girls ( 19, almost 3 and a 7 year old) My in-laws and my sister and my mother. My inlaws have been on many cruises, but this is the first for our family. My husband is an avid diver, so we have been to many of the islands. I am looking forward to a relaxing vacation this year! My husband was not too keen on a cruise, but since it is my treat he did not have a choice!;)

 

My mom has not traveled in years and this is her birthday gift as well! It sounds like there is plenty to do for all age groups. I am glad your mom had a nice time!

 

A great place to be for sailaway is the port (left) side, not sure what it is like on the other side, but the homeowners and condo dwellers on the port side give you a great send-off and some condo balconies are decorated for the holidays.

 

You and your family will have a wonderful time (especially since you are all together). Don't be surprised if you turn into a cruise addict like the rest of us. :)

[Merion_Mom]

Tina, thanks for the great review.

 

I think that there is a special reward for people who come back from a cruise and make posting to Cruise Critic a top priority! ;) :)

[TexasMom2]

Rewards are good. :)

 

I wanted to post quickly and make sure people knew that quality food was plentiful and easy to find.

 

Back to the real world tomorrow, I've been on medical leave for 4 weeks, then 2 weeks vacation.

 

Thank goodness I have the Tahitian to look forward to, but it's 6 months away. :eek: