Royal Birthday Picture Review on Jewel 5/17/14

Hi - It’s Ken and Paulette; we are Diamond Plus cruisers from Queens, NY. In December, we sailed on Adventure of the Seas, and loved the itinerary so much we booked it again, this time on the Jewel for Paulette’s Bday birthday cruise. We got a really good deal on an Owner’s Suite. About 3 weeks before our trip we noticed the Royal Suite was still available, but we didn’t want to spend an extra $2000 dollars to upgrade. We decided to keep an eye on the RS. Everyday the price dropped. At T-minus 2 weeks, the price had dropped $1700. At that point, we decided to jump on it. We quickly called the RCCL 800 number. While talking to the agent, I asked him to verify if we had received the C&A Diamond Plus balcony discount. The agent then asked, “Which credit card will you be putting the additional $75 dollars on?” I could barely compose myself to read him my credit card number, while doing the upgrade happy dance!!!!!! Two weeks later it was departure day. We got a great deal thru Choice Air for business class on the New American Airlines. We were on the 8:35am flight out of JFK direct to San Juan. We arrived at JFK at 7:15am. There were no lines at the preferred check in or the TSA Pre line. We were in the Admirals Club at 7:30am.

We had tea and stale danish.

From there, we boarded the 757 and enjoyed our welcome aboard drinks – Champagne was mine

Goodbye JFK

We had the tastiest breakfast we have ever had on a plane. Egg Strata and more champagne

After a smooth 3:30 hour flight, on final approach to runway 10, we saw our home for the next 7 days – Hello Jewel of the Seas!!!!!!!

Yeah.....another Jewel review. Great start!

After a carrier landing, our bags quickly arrived.

We jumped into a $19 dollar plus $1 dollar per bag taxi to the Port. 15 mins later we arrived. There is a special C&A bag drop to the left.

As we were checking in on the D+ line the agent asked us to go to the last booth for our seapass cards. When we got to the last booth the agent asked us to stand to the side, the concierge Diego was on his way to escort us to our cabin. After about 8 mins, the agent said we didn’t have to wait any longer and we headed to the ship.

PLEASE NOTE - THE DOUBLE DOORS ARE OPEN

Since the muster drill was at 8pm and it was only 2:30pm, we decided to head to our favorite restaurant Metropol for some local food and drinks.

I had the pork cubes with black beans and rice and Paulette had the Cuban sampler.

They make the best margaritas!!!!!!!

We also picked up a case of water from the Walgreens across the street and headed back to the ship. When we arrived back at the ship our bedroom doors were closed and could not be opened. We called Guest Services and they quickly sent a maintenance guy to our cabin.

After about 45 mins he called his supervisor Sam to assist.

Looking fwd to this review:D

Nice to see the room we have booked for Alaska June 2015

Does the restroom have a separate door entry, other than the one through the master bedroom.

Thanks

Enjoy your cruise

Happy Days

Can you also ask Diego if he will still be on the ship for June 2015' thanks!

Look forward to more pics:D

THE SMOKING GUN!!!!!!!!

Someone lowered the door kick stand and closed the door.

All in all it took over 2 hours to finally get back into the bedroom.

We unpacked and headed to the Concierge lounge to say hello to Diego.

Diego was very upset about the bedroom door. We weren’t upset, things happen…

After the muster drill we headed to our HUGE balcony to enjoy sail away.

And we are underway.....

Fantastic so far! What a coup!! Royal Suite would be AMAZING!!

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What an awesome room!!! Can't wait to read more!!

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Sounds great so far! Looking forward to more.

We woke up at 7:30 am as we were pulling into St Croix.

We had a slow leak dripping from the right corner of the bedroom ceiling. We saw our stateroom attendant Jo in the hallway who said she would take care of it. We went to Chops for breakfast, which is the special breakfast area for suite guests. The eggs benedict was very good. We then got off the ship, and took a $6 pp roundtrip van to Rainbow beach.

The water was much clearer than in Dec, which only meant you could now clearly see the rocks. It is extremely rocky. Bring swim shoes.

We had wings, onion rings and old bay shrimp (only port with no food porn)

After an ok beach day we headed back to the ship.

When we arrived in our room, we noticed the ceiling tile had been removed and the leak had stopped. We guessed they would be back to complete repairs.

We took a quick nap and then got ready for dinner. We would be going to Chops for formal night. The service was good but the food was hit or miss. My veal chop was perfect but Paulette’s petit filet was ice cold.

We quickly sent it back. When it came back it was now a warm dry hockey puck!!!!!! BOOOO!!!!!! Worst Chops experience in all of our years of cruising. Oh well...

Enjoying your review. I'll be sailing on the Jewel in March. Can't wait to read the rest.

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We woke up sailing past Saba and then St Barts.

We went to the main dining room for breakfast, then headed off the ship to the taxi stand.

Great review...we got off the jewel the day you got on. How wonderful for your upgrade. We originally booked a balcony and upgraded last minute to a junior suite for a great price. No royal suite but still so much more room. We walked by your cabin many a time.....

I didn't realize you could get such great deals on choice air for business class. I thought their deals were only best for one way trips.

Hey Ken and a bid BD greeting to Paulette.

Wonderful cabin, looks like you guys are having a ball

Great review with great photos!

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We made our way thru the port

To the taxi stand where we took an $18 taxi to Mullet Bay

Good news - The new bridge is open which really helps with the traffic.

It took us about 20mins to get to Mullet Bay where we got chairs and umbrellas at Daleo's

snack shop for $15. They also have the best ribs and rum punch!!!!!!!!

(Where is the food porn????) They have very good Wi-Fi near the bar for $6 for an hour.

Remember Mullet is one beach over from Maho, so you can see planes landing at SXM.

After a great beach day and 4 orders of ribs, our taxi driver returned to take us back to the ship at 4pm. Since we were the only ship in port there was no traffic.

We watched sail away and the sunset from our balcony.

We woke up docking in St John.

After breakfast we got off the ship and headed to the taxi stand to make our way to Valley Church Beach.

The men in the orange shirts are taxi drivers. The trip was $20 and 20 mins.

On the way to the beach we passed Freedom Square, which has a statue of Vere C. Bird Sr. former Prime Minister of Antigua.

Valley Church Beach has amazing milky water. Chairs and umbrella $10.

The Nest is steps away from the water and has good food and drinks.

The free wifi was fair.

Finally Food porn - I had curry chicken. Paulette had curry shrimp and an order of their

famous Coconut Shrimp...

I don't think I'd have ever left that room! How beautiful! Great pictures, enjoying following along with you.