**Jewel of the Seas 9.21.2013 Review**

Now, I’ve never done one of these before so go easy on me! This will be my first review for my recent southern Caribbean cruise onboard the Jewel of the Seas.

A little bit about me before we get this underway, shall we?

My name is Deon and I’m 31 years old. I went on my first cruise in September 2009 on the Liberty of the Seas and I quickly became obsessed. I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada and love to see as much of the world as I can and I feel that cruising is the best way for me to achieve this.

Now that that’s over, let’s get this started!

I took close to 800 pictures so I will have a lot of visuals for you throughout this review. I will also make special note of any tips that really helped me out. If you have any questions, please post them and I will answer. I still have the cruise compasses and I don't plan on scanning them, but if you have questions about when the shows and certain ship activities took place, I can let you know.

I booked this cruise in May 2012 as a solo trip for a birthday gift to myself. I’ve come to realize that I prefer cruising solo – I do what I want when I want and how I want, plus I get my own cabin! Since I was traveling alone, I just booked an inside cabin since I figured I wouldn’t be spending much time in the room.

I had originally planned to fly into San Juan the same day as the cruise, which departed on a Saturday, but I kept hearing so many good things about the city, so I quickly made changes to my flight and flew in the Thursday before sailing, giving me a day and a half to explore the city. To extend my vacation even more, I made arrangements to stay in a Toronto airport hotel on Wednesday night, since I had an early flight to San Juan.

I arrived at my airport hotel around 5pm. A dear friend was able to drop me off there as I live about 45 minutes away from the airport. Signature Sandman Hotel is less than a 10 minute drive from the airport and is very comfortable. It has a restaurant on site and other restaurant options close by. I’ve stayed here previously before flying out for another cruise, which is why I decided to select it again. It was also only $100 for the night, so it definitely fit into my solo budget!

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Looking forward to your review.:)

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I spent a great, but restful night there as I prepared for my early flight. My flight to San Juan via Miami was scheduled to leave at 6:40am so I set a wake up call for 4am. I was already awake though – it’s hard to sleep the night before flying out for vacation, right? I know I’m not the only one. I was also lucky enough to get window seats for both flights so I was able to capture this amazing picture during the second leg of my flight.

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It was an eventful two flights, but I finally arrived in San Juan around 2:15pm. It was a quick and painful taxi ride over to my chosen hotel.

Now, I have a serious thing about hotels. I don’t know what it is but I do a lot of research when it comes to selecting a hotel to stay in. I started with the Villa Herencia and then I switched to the Radisson Ambassador and then it was the Conrad Condado and then back to the Radisson before I finally settled on the Doubletree by Hilton San Juan about a month before sailing. In the end, I was extremely pleased with my choice.

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I did have to pay a bit more, but I was fine with that. When I made the reservation, I had asked for a higher floor and they only have 8 floors, so they put me on the HHonors floor, which was nice of them. The room was beautifully decorated and has a fridge and microwave. It would be a little tight with two people, but it was perfect for me alone. The best part about this location is that it was directly across the street from a grocery store so as soon as I checked in and checked out my room, I headed across the street so I can stash my fridge with some snacks and drinks.

Now, I don’t speak any Spanish. I know hello, good morning, good afternoon and good night and that’s about it. While I was in the grocery store, I just communicated mostly by smiling and nodding or following what movements the person was making. Overall, they would quickly catch on that I didn’t speak Spanish and would switch to English, which I greatly appreciated. I had wanted to go out for dinner on Ashford Ave. which was literally a 5 minute walk away, but it was pouring most of the night, so I enjoyed dinner at the hotel restaurant, La Perla, which was very good and quite affordable, in my opinion. After that, I called it a night, knowing that I had a big day planned for tomorrow.

Looking forward to your review.:)

Thanks :D I wanted to start it before I start forgetting everything LOL

Yay! Great start to your review! I sail on the Jewel in November. Thanks for helping to build the excitement! Subscribing to this thread now.

Okay, Scandal just started, so I'll be continuing this tomorrow! :D

Looking forward to the rest of your review. I am sailing on the Jewel next week on the same itinerary.

I love reading reviews! Thanks for writing it! Looking forward to more.

More please.....like others leaving soon!

Thanks in advance!

Karen

great start

What a great way to wake up this morning - logging onto CC and finding a review on the Jewel!:D Thank you for doing this. I am looking forward to more.

What itinerary did you do? We are doing a B2B in May, so it is all good for me.

One more question - what did you mean by a "painful taxi ride" in San Juan?:eek: I hope that was a typo and you meant "painless"!:p

Looking forward to the rest!

We sail in November, and are staying in the Condado area, and we made reservations at La Perla for dinner- but I thought it was on the beach at the Marriott in a big conch shell shaped building...was your La Perla in the building at the double tree, or out in the beach? Maybe there are 2?

Looking forward to the rest, and to learn if your itinerary is the one we will sail- ours includes Tortola and Dominica and I don't think Jewel has sailed that itinerary yet, or at least no one has reviewed it if they have!

Hi We're sailing on Jewel in December. I can't wait to hear more about your trip! Great review so far keep it coming! Thank you

Rhonda

I am also looking forward to reading your review!

Okay, Scandal just started, so I'll be continuing this tomorrow! :D

Great start!!! looking forward to the rest of your review! :):)

Okay, Scandal just started, so I'll be continuing this tomorrow! :D

Yo sister gladiator, keep going!! Can't wait to hear more. (We'll be cruising together fyi, I'm on the 3/21 explorer too...)

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forums mobile app

Great start. I completely understand the Scandal interuption. We are on the Jewel in August. We booked an inside cabin can you post a few pictures. This is my first inside cabin and I want to make sure I have a good idea of what to expect. Hope to hear more soon.

What a great way to wake up this morning - logging onto CC and finding a review on the Jewel!:D Thank you for doing this. I am looking forward to more.

 

What itinerary did you do? We are doing a B2B in May, so it is all good for me.

 

One more question - what did you mean by a "painful taxi ride" in San Juan?:eek: I hope that was a typo and you meant "painless"!:p

I definitely meant painless! LOL sorry about that. My cruise stopped in St Croix, St Maarten, Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados.

Looking forward to the rest!

 

We sail in November, and are staying in the Condado area, and we made reservations at La Perla for dinner- but I thought it was on the beach at the Marriott in a big conch shell shaped building...was your La Perla in the building at the double tree, or out in the beach? Maybe there are 2?

 

Looking forward to the rest, and to learn if your itinerary is the one we will sail- ours includes Tortola and Dominica and I don't think Jewel has sailed that itinerary yet, or at least no one has reviewed it if they have!

I apologize, I don't know why I said La Perla LOL The restaurant on site was called Cafe Pierre.

I set my alarm clock for 9am on Friday. I didn’t want to let the day get away from me. I was out of the hotel by 10:30am and headed to my first stop – Pinkys! Now, this popular breakfast spot is located on Ashford Ave, so it only took me a matter of minutes to get there. Sorry, I have no pictures as I was busy eating! The breakfast sandwich I ordered was great and affordable.

Now, part of my pre cruise research included affordable ways to get from Condado to Old San Juan, as my main intention was to visit El Morro fort. The hotel front desk worker advised me that a taxi would be $19 each way and there was no way I was doing that on a solo traveler budget, so through Cruise Critic and some personal research, I discovered that the transit system would bring me into OSJ for 75 cents each way. I take the bus at home and have taken the bus in a few American cities, so that was my chauffer of choice.

After breakfast at Pinkys, I made my way to the bus stop which was right outside the restaurant. I was told to get on the #21 bus, but when the #53 bus pulled up, a local resident advised us (myself and another couple) that we could take that bus to OSJ as well.

TIP: as I mentioned, the bus is 75 cents and they require exact change. I saw them try to refuse a woman who didn’t have change for a dollar, but we were able to change it for her so she wouldn’t miss the bus. I also made some change for other people as well while we were at the bus stop, so we all made it on!

This picture is from the bus terminal on my way back to the hotel.

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See? Not scary at all!

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The ride into the bus terminal, which is a block away from the Sheraton in OSJ was about 20 minutes; it went around the convention centre as well en route to the station. From there, the free trolley meets you to go throughout the city, but of course, I couldn’t recognize the big 1 sign glaring at me, so I ended up walking to another stop and meeting it.

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Great review so far. Can you tell me if your cabin had a mini fridge/cooler? Do you happen to know the gym hours? Sailing on Jewel in November also have inside cabin.

Thanks!

The free trolley ride is about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the traffic throughout the city. I wanted to get a lay of the land, so to speak, so I stayed on for the first ride and went past my intended stop, which was El Morro fort. Afterwards, I wish I had gotten off, but I did get to see a lot of the city, so I’m grateful for that. OSJ definitely has a charm to it and next time I am there, I think I will opt to say there instead of in Condado.

On my second trip on the trolley, I got off and went to explore El Morro fort. You can get into one fort for $3 or both forts for $5. Even though the other fort was walking distance from the bus terminal and I could’ve stopped there on my way back, I decided just to get the pass for the one fort.

This national site is absolutely beautiful! I made the long walk up and spent about 45 minutes to an hour walking throughout the fort. I spent some time reading the various signs as to how the fort helped to defend Puerto Rico.

The best surprise within the fort was definitely the washroom … yes, the washroom! I’m so glad I needed to use it or I would’ve never seen the wonderful balcony that greets you in the back. I’m sure I looked weird taking multiple pictures but I couldn’t help myself.

That's me taking a picture break while taking the walk up!

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This is the balcony in the washroom!

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I had such a great time going through the fort. Unfortunately, just as I was coming out, I missed the free trolley :( So I waited for about half an hour for the next one to come. A word of advice - it is hot in there and it can be difficult walking at times so please have water with you and wear comfortable shoes. While I was walking down, an ambulance was going up, so I'm sure someone was unfortunately not prepared.

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I was waiting at the bus stop with a woman who didn't speak English, but we managed to communicate and share a few laughs, so that was nice. I just communicated with her expressions LOL this is a statue that's across the street from the free trolley.

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Once I got on the trolley, it took me a little more than an hour to get back to my hotel and once I got in, I was done for the night. I had intentions of checking out the night life on Ashford Ave. but I felt so comfortable at the hotel that I didn't feel like getting dressed up and leaving, so I had room service and enjoyed some TV time while night fell in San Juan. Plus, tomorrow was the big day that I had been waiting for for over a year - embarkation day!! :D