The Arizona Cruisers Invade the Southern Caribbean B2B on the Jewel of the Seas!

Planning the Perfect Cruise

 

The day had finally arrived! One year ago we had booked the Jewel of the Seas for a 7 night Caribbean Cruise while onboard the magnificent Allure of the Seas. We had made new friends on that Roll Call which became a stronger friendship on the cruise. Bill & Gina (BillOH) was taking about the Jewel’s Southern Caribbean route. Since it was a cruise on my bucket list we took a look and decided to book, also. Once we got home we took a closer look at the Jewel’s next itinerary and decided to add that one on to make it our very first B2B.

 

Soon many of the other Arizona Cruiser’s who had been with us on the Allure decided to join in, also. Other Arizona Cruisers joined in over the next couple of months, too. Bill & Gina’s friends Jon & Penny also booked the first cruise. So, here we were, a year later, and 8 of the Arizona Cruisers were at the Phoenix Airport ready for another exciting adventure in the beautiful Caribbean! We were to be joined by the others in San Juan.

 

 

Within a couple of months our little group had grown to 12 for the first week and 10 for the second week. Eight of us were doing the B2B. After the first week we would be losing four and gaining two for the second week. My mother was supposed to be along as a room mate for Nonnie (Irishnana), but she unfortunately had a stroke in January and had to cancel. She is doing better now, and Nonnie changed to an inside cabin as a solo cruiser and stayed with us.

 

We had been busy planning for the full year. If any of you know me you will soon discover that I thrive on the research and planning for a cruise and this port intensive two weeks motivated me to start the research early. I know from experience that popular excursions fill up quickly and I wasn’t about to let people in our group who were interested in what I discovered be left out! My research was done primarily on Cruise Critic, but on this cruise I also turned to Trip Advisor for some interesting alternatives. So we had most of our plans in place early and in March we had a planning party to finalize our plans. Of course, we jump at any chance for a party and a good potluck, so it wasn’t hard to get everyone together at Laura & Gene’s lovely home:

 

The first week group:

 

The second week group:

 

Norine & Gene (Quilting Queen) kind of overlapped both weeks as they came to San Juan for our pre-cruise plans and then took advantage of their time share to spend a relaxing first week in a lovely San Juan Resort and joined us onboard for week two.

 

Let me take a moment to introduce myself. I am Ginny (Sunny AZ Girl) and my DH is Steve (AZ Illini), or “Old” Steve as our group calls him. Since we have two Steve’s and two Gene’s in this group the “Young” and “Old” designations have been made. Depending on your own perspective, those designations may or may not be appropriate! We are both in our early 60’s. The B2B would be my 14th and 15th cruises and Steve’s 12th and 13th. Our entire group ages range from the upper 40’s to the mid 70’s. Different interests and abilities mean that we may not always do everything together, but the bottom line is that we are all good friends. The beauty of cruising as a group is that we can all be together, but still everyone gets to tailor their cruise to fit their needs. So, while this may be primarily my story, from my perspective, it is also about my wonderful group of friends who chose to join us on this adventure.

 

The Arizona Cruisers all met right here on Cruise Critic. Our first thread started around 2006 and we are now on Part 4 of our main chat thread. We have a forum “Arizona Cruisers: Never Ending Circle of Friends “where we have many different threads, including our cruises, recipe exchanges, prayers and more. We have regular parties, lunches and individuals often just get together for fun and support. There are many more of us than the ones on this cruise and each one is special to me. Who knew such a group could evolve out of an on=line forum about cruising?

Pre-Cruise San Juan, Thursday May 1

 

There were eight of us on the flight from Phoenix to San Juan on May 1, 2014 for our early morning flight to San Juan with a connection through Dallas. We were flying in on a Thursday, allowing for a full day in San Juan to recover from our long flight. We also looked forward to some to time explore Old San Juan and time together as a group.

 

I had pre-arranged a shuttle company, Puerto Rico Shuttle Van Services & Tours, to pick us up from the airport. We used this company several more times during our stay, with additional transfers with luggage to the ship for 18 people, and pickups from the ship to the airport on both the May 10 and May 17 pick ups dates. The price for these transfers with luggage was $10 pp. The owner, Francisco also transferred us to Old San Juan and back from our hotel for $10 pp round trip. Let me say that in all cases he or his driver was prompt and efficient with a smile. I cannot recommend him enough. I will be using this company anytime I return to San Juan. So much better than the inconsistent experiences I have had in San Juan with taxi drivers. More on that later.

 

We arrived at our Bed & Breakfast, Tres Palmas Inn, in a residential area of San Juan located between Condado and Isle Verde. Tres Palmas is a small privately run hotel. It is older and quaint, full of character. Now this character is exactly what my DH and I love. It is not for everyone and it was not the perfect place for our entire group. I DO think it’s pretty darn nice for a group, though. By the time everyone was there we had pretty much taken over the place. Those who were not part of our initial group who were there soon became part of the group in one way or another!

 

Tres Palmas was highly recommended on previous reviews on CC and on Trip Advisor. Steve and I love history and we love architectural details. We spent 15 years in Illinois renovating a 100 year old Victorian house. It was a 15 year labor of love. We had window a/c as the monster hot water furnace in the basement used radiators that creaked and groaned and did not allow for the ductwork required for central air. We scraped 100 years of old polish and paint out of scrolled woodwork and banisters with dental tools and brushes. We checked to make sure no one was in the shower before flushing the toilet to make sure that a loved one did not get scalded or frozen to death. Today we live in a spanking new home in Arizona. We love it here, but our hearts still skip a beat when we see a piece of history lovingly restored and HGTV’s renovation shows are among our favorites. So we do not mind the quirks that come with Tres Palmas.

 

So here are the Pros and Cons of Tres Palmas as I see them:

 

Pros – Beautiful scenery, comfortable bed (for us), very clean, quaint details, great for a group with a nice meeting area, sufficient breakfast, friendly, accommodating staff, quiet interior rooms, you can’t beat the price for ocean front rooms in San Juan. They were working diligently on the place during the day while we were there trying to make continual improvements. If anyone had concerns, if told to the staff, corrections were made if possible. We were in Room 10 and it was lovely and very quiet.

 

Cons – No restaurants or stores in close proximity for people who cannot walk distances, hot water comes and goes, one person in our group stated the bed was very uncomfortable, not everyone is comfortable in an older facility, rooms overlooking the ocean are also overlooking the street and can be noisy at night.

 

Again, we loved the place. We would stay there again. My biggest concern is that several people in our group did reserve specific rooms and they were “upgraded” upon arrival. Since every room is different the upgrades were not always considered to be that. One room may have two Queen Size Beds or a single Queen Size Bed. Another room may have a King Size bed. Some rooms even have kitchenettes. Room sizes vary widely. The Tres Palmas website describes these rooms in detail and each room was chosen with care depending on each person’s preferences. So a room change without consulting the person who booked the room was a big deal. In at least one or two cases the a/c units were being repaired or upgraded, so a change was understandable. However, it was not always an upgrade in the eyes of the customer. That said, I do not know anywhere that would have been as accommodating to us as a group as Tres Palmas for the price.

 

Here are some more views of Tres Palmas through my eyes:

 

 

 

 

 

When we arrived it was after 8 PM. Bev and Dave (Hershey Kiss) had arrived earlier and had walked to a restaurant about 10 minutes away. The eight of us were hungry. Since there was no restaurant nearby we asked the girl for advice as to where we should go for dinner. After an unsuccessful attempt to get delivery at that time of night she told us of a nice place to go to eat a short cab ride away – Mango’s at Ocean Park. She called a cab for us, specifying a van to hold 8 passengers. The cab arrived promptly. The girl at the desk told us a cab has a minimum fare of $17, so that is what we expected to pay. We got there and the cabbie asked for $16. Nice. Our dinner was good, but the atmosphere was very loud. After dinner we asked the restaurant to call a cab for our return and one showed up after about 10 minutes. There were no other cabs around as this tends to be a local place. Upon letting us off at Tres Palmas the cabbie said the fare was $22. So much for set prices in San Juan. However, it was per cab, not per person, so it didn’t break any of us.

Pre-cruise San Juan, Friday, May 2

 

The following morning we awoke to the sound of the surf hitting on the beach. That was one of those things I loved about this location. The streets were quiet. Some people slept in while others just enjoyed the scenery from the upstairs terrace of the beach at street level. We could see the high rise hotels from our beach front.

 

 

Sheila (Prickley Pear) enjoying the view:

 

 

 

Arizona Cruisers Norine & “Old” Gene had flown in on a red-eye flight and arrived around 11 AM, just in time to join us for a lunch and exploration trip into Old San Juan. Promptly at noon we all met at the ground level breakfast area and Francisco picked us up for our excursion. We had met another couple from California at Tres Palmas and we invited them to join us. We are always “adopting” people from other states into our group!

 

 

Great start Ginny. Waiting to read more and see all your awesome pictures.

Once we arrived in Old San Juan Francisco dropped us off near the Parrot Club where we had 1 PM reservations for lunch. We were there a bit early so we had a few minutes to shop.

 

Lunch was delicious. I heard no complaints. There was a varied menu offering both local and traditional lunch items. I had some really good fish tacos and ordered an interesting nacho plate that was huge – enough for everyone at the table to sample. The chips were plantains, and were very tasty. We enjoyed the ambiance, food and company of the Parrot Club. I must say that we had wonderful service. Our servers would put our first week servers on the ship to shame.

 

 

After lunch we split up as we had different things we wanted to do in this historic city.

 

 

 

We went off with our new friends from California. I enjoyed the architecture of the city and would love to stay in this part of town sometime. This is probably a good time to explain that I am NOT a shopper. I am not big into jewelry (I would rather spend my $$$ on a cruise) and I find most ports shopping offerings an endless repeat of the same old stores full of jewelry, watches and cheap Chinese imports. When I do shop it is for locally handcrafted accessories or art pieces for my home and sometimes I just get tired of sorting through the cookie cutter assortment of jewelry and tee shirt shops and just give up, especially when I am hot and thirsty. As it happened, I got hot and thirsty about the time we found ourselves outside Senor Frog’s. Now, up to this point I had been on 13 cruises and I had never made it inside a Senor Frogs. Just the sight of that grinning green amphibian flashes images of pier runners in my mind. However, since we didn't have to board the ship until the following day I felt pretty confident that it was safe to enter this mysterious watering hole. And you could tell there was no ship in port as there were very few other people there. I am sure it is a much more raucous place on a ship day! As a matter of fact, I felt as if we had the streets of San Juan to ourselves in stark contrast to the other 3 times we had visited.

 

After downing a Pina Colada and some sinful dessert we left with me knowing deep in my heart that I could now say that I had visited a Senor Frogs. Somehow I am afraid I will be mentally relegating it to the category of Diamond Internationals and cheap tee shirt shops. Been there. Done that. Time to move on. Besides, Steve picked up a very annoying whistle while there and I am sure the other Arizona Cruisers can agree that he does not have to go anywhere near a Senor Frogs again. ‘Nuff said.

Considering a southern itinerary. Can't wait for more! :)

Francisco picked us up at 4 PM at our pre-arranged spot. We were there a bit early so we took a few shots of the historic square that was our resting spot.

 

 

 

When we returned to Tres Palmas we found that Rita (AZSwissGal) had arrived along with Bill & Gina (BillOH), who we had adopted into the Arizona Cruisers the year before. We ordered pizza early to be sure we could still get delivery and had a great pizza party in the downstairs courtyard while we were treated to a perfect sunset over the city. Lisa and “Young” Steve (AZ Karaoke Girl) arrived during the pizza party. Don’t worry. We saved plenty of pizza for them!

 

 

 

Here are more of my pre-cruise pictures in San Juan!

Great start Ginny. Waiting to read more and see all your awesome pictures.

Thanks, Lisa!:)

 

Considering a southern itinerary. Can't wait for more! :)

You would love it. The Southern islands are great - the best in the Caribbean. As the review progresses, I think you will find it is focused more on the islands than on the ship. The Jewel is a wonderful ship, but the itinerary is so intensive I spent most of my energy on the destinations.

 

Thank you for following along. I hope I don't disappoint!

Really enjoying the start of your review. Looking forward to the rest of the story.:)

Great start to your review Ginny.

 

Puerto Rico Shuttle was wonderful.. I agree that we would use them in a heartbeat.

 

Laura

Really enjoying the start of your review. Looking forward to the rest of the story.:)

Thanks. I am still uploading pictures. I took a lot.:eek:

 

Great start to your review Ginny.

 

Puerto Rico Shuttle was wonderful.. I agree that we would use them in a heartbeat.

 

Laura

Yes, they were great. I glad we found them.:)

Really enjoying the start of your review. Looking forward to the rest of the story.:)

I always enjoy reading about your adventures! Pics are beautiful. Thank you!

Great start to your review Ginny.

 

Puerto Rico Shuttle was wonderful.. I agree that we would use them in a heartbeat.

 

Laura

 

I'll 2nd that, Affordable, reliable, and comfortable. As I mentioned, I had a hard time committing and planning for this cruise so that took a lot of burden off me. Glad we tagged along.

Will be doing a B2B in July on the Jewel. Can't wait to read what you did on each Island and on turnaround day.

I always enjoy reading about your adventures! Pics are beautiful. Thank you!

Thank you so much for the nice comments.

 

I'll 2nd that, Affordable, reliable, and comfortable. As I mentioned, I had a hard time committing and planning for this cruise so that took a lot of burden off me. Glad we tagged along.

I didn't mention that you really do need a group of 5 or more to make the luggage transfers affordable compared to a cab price. However, I have had a couple of experiences with cabs in Puerto Rico with cabs that weren't so great, so I was glad to find PR Shuttle recommended so highly on TA.

Will be doing a B2B in July on the Jewel. Can't wait to read what you did on each Island and on turnaround day.

 

Stay tuned! More coming soon.:) You will love your B2B. The Jewel is the perfect ship and has the perfect itineraries for this. I wish I could go again.:cool:

Week One, Day One, Boarding Day

 

We awoke to a beautiful Caribbean morning. Once again, we could hear the surf all night long and in the morning. I could wake up like that every morning! We had until 10:30 AM to relax before Francisco picked us up for our transfer to the ship, so I spent some time along with some of our friends enjoying the morning.

 

The beach in front of Tres Palmas in the morning

 

Bev (Hershey Kiss) on the beach:

 

Bill (BillOH) & Gina

 

Breakfast was served on the verandah where most of our friends had already congregated when we arrived. The breakfast was standard Continental fare serving cereal, toast, bagels, fruit and some cold meats and cheese, coffee and juices.

 

We met on the verandah once again shortly before 10:30, luggage in hand. We were all anxious to get on the ship and begin our cruise! There were 12 Arizona Cruisers on the first leg of the cruise. We added Bill and Gina, Emily and Frank and the other couple from California at our hotel to the shuttle. Francisco arrived right on time and began to pile the luggage for the 18 of us into his comfortable bus. We weren’t sure it would all fit, but he made it work without any problem. We said good-by to Norine and Gene until the next week and soon we were on our way to the port.

 

 

It was about a 15 minute ride to the port. The ship came into view:

 

I thought our embarkment was easy on the Allure last year, but this was by far the easiest embarkment we have ever experienced. We arrived at the port close to 11 AM and we were on the ship, in the Windjammer, by 11:20. This was our first cruise as Diamonds so I was looking forward to a special waiting area like on our Allure cruise. We were directed to a Diamond line for check in, but at that time of the day it was totally unnecessary. Our friends who were with us and entered the terminal before us who were Gold actually made it on the ship before us! As usual we headed to the Windjammer for the beginning of the feeding frenzy that would continue for the next two weeks! It was not overly crowded. Notice the empty table. But we were there early. As others have mentioned, there was no Honey-Stung Chicken but the fried chicken was good. Fried chicken is my weakness, so I tend to gravitate that way.....bad choice for my waistline.......Reminder for next time - eat more salad!

 

 

I do like how the Windjammer is set up on this ship. The serving stations are set up with a lot of space in between them and there is usually not a big problem finding a seat. Don't be afraid to ask someone who has two places at a larger table if you can join them. That is the joy of cruising - meeting new people. Most people are friendly and don't mind at all. People may say there are no tables available, but there are plenty of seats!

 

That said, I must say that I like the Windjammer for a fast meal. However, I do prefer to be served and will usually choose other options when time allows. There is also less of a chance to be tempted to overeat. Just sayin'.

 

At 1 PM the doors opened for our cabins so we headed to check out our aft cabin 9660. We were lucky to be able to snag the same center aft cabin for both parts of our B2B. The cabin is a D2 with an extended balcony. The balcony had a table, 2 chairs and 2 loungers. We noticed that the table had been upgraded and was larger than in the past. Sine we enjoy breakfast on the balcony, especially on port days, that was a nice upgrade. There is always plenty of room for the two of us to store everything comfortably, even when packing for two weeks. We even had empty drawers and cubbies.

 

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Our luggage arrived within a few minutes and we unpacked rather quickly. After storing the empty suitcases under the bed we headed off to check the first item off of our “to do” list. We headed straight to the Loyalty Ambassador in the Crown and Anchor Lounge. And, of course we had to get a picture looking down through the “glass floor” to the bottom of the Centrum:

 

 

When we arrived we found that our friends Bill and Gina were already there also anxious to book their first cruise. We waited for a bit for our turn. I came carefully prepared with the cruise I was anxious to book – the Celebrity Solstice for a Hawaii Repo cruise, April 26, 2016, 10 nights Honolulu to Vancouver! There we met Inga the LA and absolutely loved her. Such a delightful lady, a big improvement from our experience with the LA on the Allure who was at best just all business and really did not seem at all interested in us personally. We booked our cruise and went off to explore the ship a bit more and meet the members of our Roll Call at our Unofficial Meet & Greet in the Schooner Bar at 4 PM.

The Meet & Greet was well attended as we had a very active Roll Call. We enjoyed meeting everyone. The Schooner Lounge is a great venue for this type of activity. It is centrally located and has great views on this class of ship.

 

 

We had Main dining at 6PM on this sailing. When we arrived at the Tides Dining Room we found that we were assigned two tables of 7 (the 12 AZ Cruisers plus our “adopted” couple Frank and Emily from Orlando - Helldod878). We even had two different waiters. Our tables were next to each other and we switched around on a regular basis so we all had a chance to spend time with each other. In addition, occasionally some members of the group would have dinner in other venues. I don’t know if that confused the waiters or not, but it was far from the best service we ever had on a cruise ship. Our wait staff was disorganized all week. The one main waiter was nervous beyond belief and jumping around everywhere. They were very nice, but there was nothing special about the dining service. The meals were made special by the people with us. We had a great time as a group!

 

 

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Muster Drill was at 8 PM, prior to our 8:30 Pm departure. Unlike some of our friends who were able to do their Muster in the comfort of the Dining Room or in lounges we had Muster on the Deck 5 Promenade, standing under the lifeboats. Here we saw our new friend, the LA Inga who was also our Muster leader. She assured us that in case of a disaster we would be safe in our large, crowded lifeboat with her at the helm, ushering us all to sanctuary. I was secretly hoping she was as good of a life boat captain as a LA. I was also praying we would never have the chance to find out!

 

After our instructions Captain Gustavo gave his bilingual instructions and we were dismissed. We headed up to to Lisa & Young Steve’s cabin with their spacious balcony, 9256 – the coveted corner aft D2 balcony for sailaway. We watched the lights of San Juan fade in the distance as we pulled away from the dock.

 

 

That evening we skipped the Welcome Aboard Show and headed to Karaoke to see Lisa do her favorite thing. That evening she was the star of the show and we enjoyed every minute!

 

 

On the way back to our stateroom we stopped to admire the ever changing colors on the screen in the Centrum

 

Enjoy the rest of our boarding Day Pictures

I am enjoying "cruising with you" through this review. Can't wait for next year when we are on the Jewel, Thanks for sharing with us!:)

I am enjoying "cruising with you" through this review. Can't wait for next year when we are on the Jewel, Thanks for sharing with us!:)

 

Thank you for the response. I'm glad to know someone is following the review. It's always a lot of work to do a review and it is encouraging to get feedback.[emoji39]

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

I'm sure there are a lot of followers out there---keep up the good work :) Actually, I read a lot of your pre-cruise posts so I was very happy to see the start of your review (gee---makes me look like a stalker or something doesn't it?----no worries---I'm just a Cruise Critic addict :)

 

ch214: Looks like we're sailing together on 04/25/15. Hop on the rollcall and chat with us---we can share Sunny AZ Girl's info :)

I'm sure there are a lot of followers out there---keep up the good work :) Actually, I read a lot of your pre-cruise posts so I was very happy to see the start of your review (gee---makes me look like a stalker or something doesn't it?----no worries---I'm just a Cruise Critic addict :)

 

ch214: Looks like we're sailing together on 04/25/15. Hop on the rollcall and chat with us---we can share Sunny AZ Girl's info :)

 

4/25/15???? No - we'll be gearing up for the Oasis on May 9 at that time. We are currently booked on the Celebrity Solstice on 4/26/16. Is that the one you're thinking of? I would love to join you, though. Too many cruises, too little time (and money!:eek:)

 

I welcome stalkers, btw. I tend to be one myself - at least where Cruises are concerned.;) Thanks for following along.

 

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