JEWEL b2b (Greece/W Med) semi-live Aug24 - Sept14 REVIEW w/lots of photos

I see on an earlier post you mentioned taking the wine to Chops or Giovanni's... Do you just rock up with your bottle and they charge (or not in your case) corkage? What about the MDR?

Yes, been like this for a while. It was only early this year it was being reported (announced) that a $15 corkage fee was being "re-introduced"... I say re-introduced as the fine print on RCL has always been $25 for a very long time, just never enforced. Perhaps there's been a lot of backlash/unacceptance from the cruising public so RCL has backed off recently. I've read other reviews as well over the last couple of months before sailing that others were not made to pay the corkage either

And yes as well to MDR (and any other dining venue).... just walk in with your bottle of wine, put it on the table, and the waiter will open/pour for you :D

Day 2 - at sea.... R & R!!

Yaaaaaaaawn!.... wakey wakey to a gorgeous day on the Med. Capt Dustin announced the night before that we would be entering the Strait of Messina at about 5:30am but I sure wasn't going to wake up for that. My usual routine was to quickly walk up to the CL to grab triple espresso for my gf & a double cappuccino for myself... pleasure sitting on the balcony for a few minutes each morning just chilling out, coffee in hand.

I did carry my camera with me today, but didn't plan on using much as I just wanted a break to chill out at the pool deck and soak in the atmosphere/sun. My biggest pet peeve with Radiance Class is the small pool and the smallest pool deck in the entire fleet. This sailing proved the point. Here is the pool deck at about 11am... good luck finding a lounger.

Now you may say "no problem, we'll just go up on deck 12, there'll be lots of choices up there".... wrong! Every lounger on deck 12 right up to the gym on both sides were full, as well as many on the bow area in front of the gym. Sunning top deck was a major thing on these sailings with the majority European crowd.

We extremely luckily found two loungers together... I have no clue how... that popped up in front of us on deck 12. I think someone had just left them for some reason, so we made our home there for the day. In the meantime we took a walk around to check things out around pool deck. Got to love the Sangria option.

I was floored at the line-up for towels. I'd never seen a line-up 30 cruisers long at the towel station, but sure enough here it was during peak times.

Amongst the daily events such as pool games & latin line dancing, today also featured the Belly Flop World Championships! You know, I'm a former world champion myself and was tempted to go after another medal, but alas I decided to give some else a chance lol!! Actually, Both gf and I agreed I wouldn't have had a problem medaling as it was relatively weak at silver and bronze, but I would not have won the gold... gold medalist was a Spanish guy with a little bit of weight on him who really knew how to flop.... excellent splash! He would've kicked my butt with all the cruisers holding up their hands, voting this guy a "five" as his score. A deserved champion... Viva Espania!!

The t-shirt sales were in full swing right off the bat.... no waiting for day 7 on this sailing

We took a stroll through the Solarium, and it was full as well.... all chairs/tables/loungers taken and many cruisers taking advantage of the pool there as well (vs. the people soup in the main outdoor pool). We walked by to check the offerings of the Solarium Cafe and when they are open for business

There's an entire section of various pizzas, but besides that there are cookies, soups, croissant sandwiches & paninis, salads, etc. We did not eat here once being on shore most days.... today was WJ and the other 2 sea days over the next 14 days we tried the Tutti Bar in MDR for lunch. Looked good here though

The rest of the afternoon was truly uneventful. One thing I appreciated was once the Belly Flop and perhaps one other event was done by 2:30'ish pm, there was nothing else going on pool deck so that everyone can just chill out. No live Caribbean band playing here in Europe, simply pre-recorded. After more down time in the sun, a nap and chill in the room, it was time to get ready for Ravi's medication in the CL (he loved to be called "Dr. Ravi" lol), and we also had our 2nd specialty BOGO evening booked for Giovanni's. Great start here....

The pasta were excellent.... we shared a combo of the special of the day (ravioli stuffed with ricotta & spinach), the mushroom risotto and carbonara, all of them excellent.

Btw, I met Max, a new officer on board part of the Hotel team under Peter & Alex.... he lives in Napoli. I asked him how he was enjoying the ship and he said it was great, especially since the pasta is made fresh on board. I did not know that, and can attest it was very good here in Giovanni's

We both had the Ossobucco.... while still pretty good, not as excellent as previous sailings on Harmony & Explorer in that the sauce was too tomatoey.

It was on this evening we met Jeffrey for the first time. Ask for him in Giovanni's if you're sailing soon as he leaves Jewel prior to her TA. Excellent server and even a better person. Got to speak with him several times on various occasions as he also maintained the DL in the mornings. Very very nice man

Mmmmmmmm..... cannoli and Tiramisu. Ok.... I'm talking absolutely real Italian cookie fingers soaked in Amaretto. Excellent Tiramisu... very impressed, best ever on RCL for me. Again, I factor this in to the source of the product here in Italy rather than on Florida for the North American sailings.

We made it just in time for the Captain's reception ball in the Centrum... we were in a very long line for photos, and only about 3 couples away from Capt Dustin fully well knowing it was close to time for him to stop and the event to start, when they cut us off :( In the end, they allowed a few more and were the very last ones to get a picture. We quickly had pleasantries, but that wasn't the time for chit-chat about our home towns, etc, so we let him get to his duties and we made our way to a vantage point to enjoy the event. I was told by Diego he is not a social person wanting to be out in crowds, so perhaps my best chance of speaking with him would be this evening. As it turns out it was the only time we saw him in person the entire cruise. Most all other officers were extremely visible all week long.

Centrum was full up most of the decks, nice to see a great turn out for this and the applause was enourmous

Tonight's Headliner was a Motown Group I've never seen or heard of called "The Emperors of Soul".

I'd give them a 7 out of 10.... Good, but I will not remember them a year from now (unlike one of the best Motown Headliners on RCL I've seen named "Tribute", who I have seen a number of times and still remember on RCL... they may no longer be on RCL as they've been around for many years)

The rest of the night was great.... a little bit of salsa in the Centrum, then a little bit of Vortex dancing, then bedtime. A great day at sea as usual on Jewel. Tomorrow it's our 1st port of call.... gorgeous Santorini!!

Day 3 - Santorini sail-in, Water taxi to Oia, Sunset dinner in Fira

I woke this morning to beautiful sunshine sailing through the open water in anticipation of Santorini. It was a nice & easy morning, really nice not having to be up at the crack of dawn for an early excursion like I was accustomed to at many ports. The previous day we were notified by card/envelope in our stateroom that we were invited to a D+ and up Santorini sail-in "event" to be held up at the Colony Club on deck 12 at 11:45am so that was our focus after lazying around all morning. We headed up to deck 12 after our morning ritual coffees & breakfast in the CL.

Zumba Class was in full swing... hopefully that ended soon so that they can experience the incredible views coming in minutes!

Passing by the Sport Court, we were greated by the Loyalty Ambassador and Diego manning the split open entry to the Colony Club area to ensure only D+ and up were entering that area (Sergei had cordoned off the aft side of the ship by the stairs down to the WJ). We were immediately offered one of various cocktails... alcoholic and non-alcoholic, of many types and colours. Sangria, champagne, mixed drinks, you name it.... very nice! We also were one of the first to arrive so we immediately went to check out the spread they had prepared for us

Super nice set-up and very well done.... over the top in fact. Too me it was a smaller throw back of the old midnight buffets, of course on a waaaay smaller scale, but nonetheless very nicely done with very good quality offerings like profiteroles and baklava on the desert bar, sushi made from Izumi, and other tasty treats. Thankfully we did not have a big breakfast as this was awesome. Many many thanks for RCL (I assume specifically the team on board, Peter & Alex Hotel Directors and staff, probably Diego and Sergei as well) for setting this all up. Obviously this was very memorable and special for me and I will remember this sail-in even more so.

Happy with food and drink, having a great time speaking with the officers who are there as there's not many people yet, we begin our approach into the caldera in the distance off of the port side.

There's Oia way way off in the distance.... getting really excited!!

Looking back from where we just sailed, and the curved path we're taking into the caldera

Having a blast with Beachcruzer and DH. Bucket list sail-in :D

More views as we enjoy sail-in

At the heart of the sail-in, now you can see the numbers of fellow cruisers enjoying this event. Smiles everywhere, lots of positive comments. We were getting close to the anchoring area with the MSC ship just ahead. Also in the photo below there's a another view of Oia way off in the distance on the cliff

Here we are pulling up close to the MSC ship (I can't remember if this was the Musica or Symphonia)

And on the starboard side of the ship, there is the main island of Santorini in all her glory, with the town of Fira at the top and the tenders preparing to do their thing below.

A lot better than sailing in to Nassau, Falmouth & Cozumel the 5,000th time on Oasis Class perhaps? :evilsmile:

Pictures does not do this view justice.

Tendering was an absolute breeze.... thanks to Diego. Per the cruise Compass (and CD Simona's announcement the night before) tendering tickets were to be handed out starting at 9am. I did not bother to even check the line and see how it all worked... all I know is that Diego had told us the night before that he would be escorting anyone in the CL down immediately to the 1st tender when it was ready, so to be prepared and on time when the ship is announced as cleared.

With the sail-in event shutting down, we headed to our room to grab our pre-prepared stuff to bring with us and up to the CL we went. Within about 20min Diego announced to everyone to congregate in the deck 13 elevator lobby as we were leaving... elevator came up, he turned his key in the elevator to take control as we whizzed directly down to deck 2 without stopping, and he motioned to the security officer to open the rope/barrier to allow us through. I understand there was quite a large non-excursion/DIY crowd on the staircase deck 3 waiting. However it seemed there were many tenders ready to go as we boarded tender #1.

This tender was at the centrum... I did note another tender loading from the front of the ship, obviously from the theatre and people going to excursions, so two tenders going at any given time. Nice & Comfortable tenders

Great view of the Jewel behind us as we powered over to the "Old Port"

Last tender 9pm.... check! Taking note just to be 100% sure as we are likely to be on one of the last tenders this evening

Unless you are absolutely and totally blind, no one can miss the various massive signs staring at you in the face the very moment you step off of the tenders... especially this one immediately in front of the RCL tendering area that day

Last year I had started researching how to get to Oia. A few years ago I simply walked to the bus staion up in Fira and took the local bus (about 45min to Oia)... very easy actually. However this time I wanted something quicker, easier for all four of us... I had been researching the water taxi situation from previous years and there have been a ton of on-line reports that water taxi service had been discontinued due to the economy (let alone un-reliable)... these were reports from 2016. I was eagerly waiting for reviews at the start of the 2017 season. Thanks to fellow CC'er little britain and a few others, reports came in immediately that water taxi's were running this year. In fact there were a couple of companies along the pier doing this. No problems with English. 15euro includes bus back to Fira.... no brainer!

There were also reports that you should check for a boat that is full... if it's empty, you may sit there for a while until other cruisers elect to take the water taxi as well. In this case, we were one of the first on the water taxi and waited maybe only 15min for it to fill up. Also note, like the Caribbean, there are several other excursion options here as well for cruisers.

There's another RCL tender coming in as we go aboard the water taxi.

As mentioned, within about 15 minutes as being one of the first 20 or so people on the 100 person water taxi, were were off to Oia!

The water taxi ride is only about 20-25min and was just beautiful to soak in the sun and enjoy the views up on the cliff. Although Jewel is already quite far away, you can still see her clearly here in the distance... in fact, weather was so clear Jewel was clearly visible from Oia as well.

First look at Oia as we approach... I have close ups as well. Watching the famous blue domes come into view is surreal.

The water taxi "pier" is around the corner of the cliff in Amoudi Bay with a gorgeous view up of Oia. The archipelago itself is breath taking.

Keep in mind there is very little room for even small cars let alone transport buses. Here in Amoudi the bus could not get all the way down to the pier area, so we had to walk up the street a bit and hop into small Mercedes type passenger vans (about 25 people each). They had several there waiting for us.

I took note of the times.... every hour on the hour for bus back to Fira. Noting that we had a dinner reservation in Fira for 7pm, we were likely going to take the 5pm bus back and walk around Fira a bit before dinner. More on the bus situation later when we return.

The bus up the cliff from Amoudi Bay was maybe 5 min... that's it. They dropped us off at their bus station (NST travel was the sign) and pointed us in the direction up the street, through a parking lot and into a square.... no problem, we'd find our way through into the heart of the village. Here's our first look at the square as mentioned above right after the parking lot.

No signs, but pretty easy to figure out where to go from here with a little sense of direction ... head pass the square and up the path where everyone else is coming and going! Lol, simple. Even along here there are great little stores and eateries to stop and look at as you make you're way up.

With only about 2-3 minutes of walking up the path of stairs, a main square is reached with a beautiful church. It was not open to the public, would've loved to have seen inside, however I also noted the promenade path ahead with what would be my first view of the caldera looking back to Fira, so that peaked my interest more!

And finally, the first view from Oia.

It was here that I posted this "OMG" in real time lol

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=53920760&highlight=OMG#post53920760

Here's another view as a panorama.... you can clearly see Jewel waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off in the distance.

Take note of the distance by following the cliff, for those wishing to walk/hike the entire way on a path from Fira to OIa (supposedly about 2 hours with no stopping).

With only about 2-3 minutes of walking up the path of stairs, a main square is reached with a beautiful church. It was not open to the public, would've loved to have seen inside, however I also noted the promenade path ahead with what would be my first view of the caldera looking back to Fira, so that peaked my interest more!

And finally, the first view from Oia.

It was here that I posted this "OMG" in real time lol

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=53920760&highlight=OMG#post53920760

Here's another view as a panorama.... you can clearly see Jewel waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off in the distance.

Take note of the distance by following the cliff, for those wishing to walk/hike the entire way on a path from Fira to OIa (supposedly about 2 hours with no stopping).

I'm enjoying reliving our cruise through your review and accompanying pictures. Santorini was truly a beautiful place! I don't think I could have made the walk between Oia and Fira in that heat though! Thank goodness for the bus! Even if we did end up taking a long walk around finding our way back to the ship! ;)

Even if we did end up taking a long walk around finding our way back to the ship! ;)

Hehe.... yep, that heat was something else. I'll get to that "walk" where the bus drops us off in Fira in a little bit :(

There are a zillion iconic photos on line of Oia so I'll try to keep this part simple... I myself took a zillion -1! Lol.

The famous blue domes... there! I can prove these are my photos, not internet stock images

I'm not a shopper at all.... but I have to say there's quite a few cool little places to peer into in Oia. Infact here's a nice little store I had purchased prints from the last time I was here. Great to see they are still around. Look closely inside... a stack of art on the tables to choose from, great place to buy.

From the main shopping path, we had stopped in a couple of clothing stores off of the main path, and then we veered into a more residential type of neighborhood in order to get to the Amoudi Bay side of Oia. Hmmmm.... maybe I can buy a investment/retirement property here (or Mykonos). I'll have to look it up.

Within a couple of minutes we were popping out of this neighborhood towards the cliffs edge again, with the several windmills that are present on this west side of Oia

Along the main areas prior to getting to the residential neighborhood we came across many shops and eateries as mentioned... lots of very cool things to possibly consider as souvenirs.

It was interesting here too as I noted a group of donkeys slowly walking down a side path right at us. No stopping them!!!... A couple of people had to move to the side, they were not going to move over. They turned the corner alone, in single file, and then again down another path as if they knew exactly where they were going...

Actually they did know! At that moment I guess their owner riding another donkey with three more in single file come down that same side path, and followed the previous three.... I assume to bring them home or take them to a pick-up point in order to bring a delivery up the cliff perhaps?? I don't know, but those first 3 donkeys were on a mission and just kept going way ahead of their owner. Pretty funny and interesting to watch.

And finally here we step out to see the wonderful view afforded on the western edge of the caldera. The snaking pathway leads down to Amoudi Bay and the pier which we arrived from with the water taxi. There's also several hotels here along the cliff ... wow, that would be something to wake up in the morning to this view! This is also the side of the island to see the best sunsets, but with this itinerary there would not be enough time to get back to the ship.

Here's a better look down at Amoudi Bay from the lookout point, and a full view looking back from where we just walked from (note the Windmill top right). Simply gorgeous.

Literally hanging on every post! Amazing pictures!!!! Thanks so much!!!

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With only about 2-3 minutes of walking up the path of stairs, a main square is reached with a beautiful church. It was not open to the public, would've loved to have seen inside, however I also noted the promenade path ahead with what would be my first view of the caldera looking back to Fira, so that peaked my interest more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, the first view from Oia.

 

It was here that I posted this "OMG" in real time lol

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=53920760&highlight=OMG#post53920760

 

 

 

Here's another view as a panorama.... you can clearly see Jewel waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off in the distance.

 

Take note of the distance by following the cliff, for those wishing to walk/hike the entire way on a path from Fira to OIa (supposedly about 2 hours with no stopping).

 

I'm enjoying reliving our cruise through your review and accompanying pictures. Santorini was truly a beautiful place! I don't think I could have made the walk between Oia and Fira in that heat though! Thank goodness for the bus! Even if we did end up taking a long walk around finding our way back to the ship! ;)

What great coverage of how you did this! Thank you so much

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So amazing!! Loving this so much!!!

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Literally hanging on every post! Amazing pictures!!!! Thanks so much!!!

Ah Debbie... you, Phil and the gang are in for a fabulous cruise in October. And you more than anyone else following can understand any comparisons/differences I make as we sailed together on Radiance... in my humble opinion I feel the Jewel has a general better "vibe" (staffing, etc) in comparison to our Hawaii sailing (which was still an awesome cruise)! and now add your Italy/Greece itinerary. Hope some of this will help you guys out a little bit. :D:D

Are you in a suite again? Say hi to Diego when you board from me... I hope he cracks a big smile, we chummed around quite a bit.

(p.s. I made mistakes in Mykonos and Athens I will share so hopefully the next set of installments will help you out also)

What great coverage of how you did this! Thank you so much

So amazing!! Loving this so much!!!

You're welcome! Thx to both of you for following along :)

Let's see.... minimum 90+ degrees now mid-day ... what do you think Beachcruzer? Was it at least 100 maybe??

For my gf and I it was time to duck out somewhere for a bite to eat and an ice cold beer!! We followed the main path back through the crowds to the square from where we started from as we said bye to Beachcruzer & DH (they were heading back to the ship... and their unforseen loooong walk!!:mad:... more on this soon). We turned back to a restaurant I had stopped at 5 years ago and went on in.... great view but suuuper expensive (go figure, with that view? Yep). We were looking more for real Greek experience such as homemade Dolmathes and I did not remember that this place was "Americanized" with sandwiches and so forth... we quickly left and walked down to street to pick another place at random based on displayed menu and gut feel....

We came across this place

Just a hole in the wall with the smallest of circular stairs heading up.

The menu was displayed and looked authentic, so up we went

OMG! What a great view. Truthfully, I had to put my camera down for a bit and just soak it all in for this lunch. We ordered our Greek beers and food (yep, Dolmathes and a few other goodies).... did I mention the view?

We hung out there more than we had thought... hot and a little tired, we just chilled, munched, and enjoyed the amazing view. With lunch done, we decided to try and make the 5pm bus transfer back to Fira .... originally we had thought we would stretch it to 6pm). We left the restaurant in haste as it was already 4:50... off we went. We arrived through the same path/square/parking lot that we had entered from and found a very long line for the buses. It looked like one bus was just leaving and I initially felt we perhaps missed a transfer, but almost right away they were loading another smaller bus... and right after that a larger coach which is what we got on.

So basically the company running the transfers had several buses ready to go based on the number of people for the cruise ships... nice! We did not wait even a minute and we were being boarded. While gf napped during the ride, I watched the scenery as we drove away from Oia along the north side of Santorini which slopes down in a "flatter" manner, not as many cliffs per se... there's really not much to see. Here's an example.

Not really knowing exactly where we were, I can tell we were getting close to the main town of Fira as there was more activity on the streets we were entering, more cars, buildings etc.... when all of a sudden the driver stopped and said we all had to get off, this was it the farthest we go. No one in the bus knew where we were, but the driver simply pointed up the street.

Ok... up the street we go, past a place I had researched called Tony's rent-a-car. Several people on CC have recommended this place and I remember looking it up on google maps, so I knew we were not too far from the main part of town and the cable car.

Up this street there's a fork in the road... to the left it goes downward into what seemingly is a part of town that goes away from the cable car. So we took the right, and in about two blocks reached a dead end cul-de-sac whereby others on the bus immediately turned back to go down the left road. I did not turn back right away. Instead, I walked ahead and found a small sidewalk with some people standing there.... I turned back and stopped at the tourist info center that was renting out ATV's... she conifmred we were right in going into the cul-de-sac continue into that small path, it was not a dead end. By that time, most of our bus mates had already (mistakenly) gone back down the hill and turned the corner into the "wrong" fork in the road on the left. I think this is where Beachcruzer and DH ended up... it was away from the cliffs and a loooong walk through town to figure out how to get back to the cliff & cable cars! Whooops..

So gf and I went back up thbe cul-de-sac, towards that little sidewalk that looked like a private entrance into someone's back yard, and as we approached and stepped through that path......

Unbelievable!! Wow. Note that the cable car, donkey path and old port are directly ahead and down, this is a part of town I've been to before... obviously this path would connect to all the stores and so sorth of Fira.

In the meanitme..... wow!

We had some time to kill before our 7pm dinner reservation so we meandered through Fira, taking pictures of the some of the architecture and scenery, and also stopping into some shops along the way. Here we are walking overtop the cable car station on the path I showed you above.

By this time, the MSC ship had left the caldera.... this is the crowd in the streets with just Jewel cruisers.... imagine 3 or 4 ships

Like Oia, many cool specialty stores, some with typical tourist souvenirs but also some with one-of-a-kind offerings.

The streets are simply a tight maze of stairs up and down, so easy to get lost. One good thing is that there are signs almost on every corner pointing to the old cable car, or Old port, or Donkey path

Even the stairs are labeled down to the Old Port... I didn't want a picture of tons of people's shoes, so I snapped this one quick but I believe to top stair was 588 of the "Old Port" donkey path. There were still more stairs up to the cable car through the streets... these numbers were just for the donkey path down to the port