Review - Jewel of the Seas-New England & Canada....

[Cheryl H]

This is late, but better late than never. The photos are in Webshots in my signature below. We were on the Jewel, cabin 8002, which is a family oceanview. This was me, my husband Eric, and our son Dustin, age 3 1/2.

 

The review is in the next post.

[Cheryl H]

September 26 to October 4, 2008 (yes, I know 2008, sorry for the delay, but maybe some details here will interest someone planning a trip to New England on the Jewel).

 

Boston - Day 1

 

The Plan: Fly to Boston, Taxi to Seaport Hotel, and find a place for dinner.

Our flight was delayed due to bad weather. Landed in Boston, collected our luggage and caught a taxi to the Seaport Hotel. What a nice hotel. We won this bid on Priceline. Upon arrival, we tried to tip the bellman, but tips are included here, so no tipping. The man who checked us in had our 3 year old son go to a treasure chest and select a toy. He picked a car. Our room was very nice.

 

Boston - Day 2

 

The Plan: Tour Boston Children's Museum, Taxi to Black Falcon Terminal, check in at ship

We caught a taxi to the Children's Museum (which is very close). I believe the taxi was 4.60 plus tip. Then we waited outside the Children's Museum to catch another cab back to the Seaport Hotel. The Seaport was holding our luggage until time to go to our ship.

Our ship is at Black Falcon terminal which is very close to the Seaport Hotel.

We toured more of Boston at the end of our cruise.

 

Portland & Kennebunkport - Day 3

 

The Plan: City highlight tour including a photo stop at Portland Head Light (lighthouse), scenic drive through Old Port, views of Casco Bay and the islands from the East End Promenade. Tour continues on to Kennebunkport for approximately 2 hours of free time for lunch and shopping.

 

Portland is the prettiest city I've ever been in. All the homes were spectacular and they had manicured lawns to match. The homes were more than just pretty. It was their architecture that made them stand out.

 

Our tour continued on to the Portland Head Light. It was totally fogged in plus it was downpouring. Our son was asleep so we didn't get off the bus to walk over to it. We passed a lot of pretty shoreline. One area was full of surfers. They were taking advantage of the big surf due to bad weather.

 

Our tour continued on to Kennebunkport. This is a must see. We were very impressed. This is such a cute little town. We drove past President Bush's home. We were told that his grandfather bought the property in the early 1900's for 20,000. The bus stopped in town. We had fish & chips at Federal Jacks.

 

Shopped in some of the gift shops. Bought some postcards. Our son picked out a toy school bus.

 

Bar Harbor - day 4

 

The Plan: Motorcoach tour through Acadia National Park with a photo stop at Cadillac Mountain. Tour returns to sea level to embark the Margaret Todd (151 foot four masted schooner) for a sail on Frenchman Bay. See panoramic views of Cadillac Mountain from sea level. Hopefully spot some wildlife.

 

A storm had hit Bar Harbor before our arrival. The Margaret Todd lost their gangway or their pier. Not sure which. The schooner was lovely. We saw it in the harbor. They were going to try to make arrangements to still take us out, but it didn't work out. This portion of our tour was cancelled. We did take the bus tour up into Acadia National Park. We did see some fog, but at the top, we were on the other side of the fog. There was a lovely view from the top of Cadillac Mountain. We could see our ship down in the harbor.

 

We were told to sign up for a ship sponsored excursion here to be assured that we would be on the first tenders to shore. I guess that was true. We made it in plenty of time for our tour.

 

Well, since our schooner ride was cancelled. We walked around the shops there in the harbor area. We had fish & chips at a restaurant right on the pier. After we left the restaurant, we noticed a sign giving a discount to all cruise passengers. Drat. We had already left. There were two Christmas stores here. I bought a beautiful Christmas ornament.

 

Saint John New Brunswich - Day 5

 

The Plan: City tour with a stop at Carleton Martello Tower, a stop at Reversing Falls Rapids at Fallsview Park, and a photo stop at Fort Howe. Finally walk through the Old City Market on Germain Steet. Return to ship.

 

Carleton Martello Tower was a neat stop. It was built to lookout for a land attack from the USA (so we were told). We climbed a few stairs and entered. It was set up with bunks, a dining area, etc. In the lower level, it had an area with windows for firing from, plus a storage area possibly for powder.

 

We stopped at Reversing Falls. Basically it's a river and when the tide comes in, then the water stops flowing and is calm for about 20 minutes and then the tide pushes the water back upstream. However, we were not there long enough to see this. We took some photos. It was still a nice stop, but we did not see the water change directions.

The final stop was at a food market. It was a neat building. Lots of fresh fruit & such there. Also a few hand made items. We did not buy anything here.

Day at sea - day 6

 

Halifax Nova Scotia - day 7

 

The Plan: London Double Decker Bus (hop on hop off). Has 12 stops. Hoping to hop off and see the Citadel. Also want to tour the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (Titanic Exhibit).

 

It was gusty & chilly here today. We rode the double decker bus. We got off first at the Citadel. We wondered around here on our own. I suggest that you go to the information area to check on when the next guided tour is. Without a guide, it is hard to know what you are looking at. There's a dry moat around the entire fort. We also saw a couple holding cells. You could climb the stairs and walk around the top part of the fort. There were signal flags up top. We did not do the guided tour because of having a 3 year old with us. There were bag pipers here playing. That was a neat touch. Also they had a changing of the guard ceremony. The guards are in kilts.

 

Next stop we got off was the Maritime Museum. This was also a neat stop. It was 2 floors. It has a large exhibit about the ship that blew up years ago. Upstairs was the titanic exhibit. I would have like to have had more time here to read more about the ship wrecks in the area. We had to keep moving because of our son.

 

After we finished in the museum, we walked back behind and over to the harbor walk area. There's a couple little shacks for beaver tails and such right there. We walked left of those and walked past the ferry boat terminal. We were headed toward the Historic Properties area. There was a building full of shops and a few eating places. (We came back here to shop). We walked through this building and out the other side and went to Salty's. We got a window table and ordered fish & chips.

 

After lunch and some shopping, we would have probably walked more of the boardwalk area, but it was cold and starting to rain, so we got back to the Maritime Museum and hopped back on the double decker bus and headed back to the cruise ship area.

 

At sea day - day 8

 

Back to Boston - day 9

 

The Plan: Debark ship early this morning. Taxi to Hilton at Logan Airport. Stow luggage with bell services and catch a cab down to Long Wharf. Have lunch in Quincy Market. Take hop on hop off Old Town Trolley tour of Boston. See Old North Church, the USS Constitution and Cassin, and the Old State House Museum. Dinner at Legal Seafood at Long Wharf before getting cab back to hotel for the night.

 

We took a taxi from the ship terminal over to Hilton at Logan Airport. We won this on Priceline. We liked the close location for a quick getaway for tomorrow morning. Anyway, we arrived at the hotel. Three bellmen totally ignored us. We struggled to get 4 suitcases and 4 carryons and our three year old into the hotel and way over to the check in desk.

The hotel clerk did have a room available even though it was very early in the morning. We were grateful and there was no extra charge. So once again, the bellmen ignored us and we struggled to get our luggage to the elevator and up to the 7th floor. We liked our room and we liked the hotel, just not the bellmen.

 

So our luggage is in our room and we're ready to see Boston! We take the free shuttle over to the Hyatt. There's a water taxi terminal at the Hyatt. The shuttle driver gave us a card with the hotel's transportation number on it (for when we return). We walk down and there's a water taxi right there. We bought round trip tickets to go across the harbor to Long Wharf. (our son was free). Round trip is $17. One way is $10. It was a lovely ride and there were lots of sailboats out.

 

The taxi pulled up to Long Wharf. We saw the Legal Seafood and headed directly for that. This was the best fish & chips we had all week. Plus our waiter gave us lots of information on Boston.

 

We had decided on Old Town Trolley since we heard they have many trolleys so there are really no long waits at any stops to reboard. This was true. After our lunch, we walked back around to Atlantic Avenue to the trolley boarding station. We prepurchased our trolley tickets online to save some money. The trolley was a great way to see the entire town. We were very impressed. We got off first at the navy yard in Charlestown. We followed the brick path back to the USS Constitution. We went through security and our bags were xrayed. This is free. We got in the line that was for a guided tour. The tour was very nice. A young navy man led our tour. He was very good to explain how the soldiers fought, the conditions they were in, what they ate, how it was cooked. We also went below and saw the sleeping quarters. Please try to take the guided tour otherwise, you'll just walk around the top deck and get off without finding out any history.

 

After that we walked across to the USS Cassin Young. It's a destroyer built during the 2nd world war. We walked around top deck. Also we could go in a few of the areas and see laundry, the radio transmission area, the kitchen, etc.

 

We walked back to the trolley area, and sure enough it was only a few minutes and here came our orange & green trolley. Next we got off at the Old Statehouse. We were given lapel pins to wear. We went upstairs and met a man dressed like Ben Franklin. He was demonstrating handwriting instruction. Very interesting. His writing was so precise it looked like it came from a printer. He explained the different sorts of letters (for instance the letter S is written different ways). We also walked to the lower level (restrooms here). If you arrive at the State House and go in a door and see the T (subway), then you've entered the wrong door. Find the entrance door to the State House.

 

We reboarded the trolley for the rest of the tour. I would have like to have had more time to get off the trolley in the shopping area. There were several nice shops here. I think the shopping area stop was Beacon Hill.

 

We finished up back at stop #1. The trolleys stop at 5:00 pm. Stop #1 is right on Atlantic Avenue. We walked across the street and under the glass canopy to enter Quincy Market. This was a big food court with no where to sit down. We quizzed a policeman and he sent us outside and around to a tex-mex place called Zuma's. We had some mexican here (husband tired of seafood). Zuma's is in the lower level. On the upper level was a neat jewelry store with mostly semi precious stones. They had a lot of pretty jewelry that was priced under a hundred. I wish we had more time to shop there.

We did not make it into Fanieul Hall. After dinner, we headed back across the street to the water taxi area. We phoned the number on our tickets and a water taxi was sent right over. Our water taxi driver let our son "drive" the taxi across Boston Harbor. That was really nice. We got some pictures of him holding the steering wheel.

 

We got back over to the Hyatt area. We phoned the Hilton and they sent over the free shuttle bus.

I was really impressed by Boston. I'd like to go back.

 

Leave Boston - day 10

 

We got up early and got the free shuttle to the airport. There's a way to walk directly from the Hilton into the airport terminal. However, I wasn't sure which terminal that would put us in. So we let the shuttle driver drive us directly to the airline.

[gottagoacruzn]

Hi Cheryl, great pictures of the cruise, I'm headed for the fall on a 9 day cruise in mid Oct, with stops in Boston, Portland & Bar Harbor Maine, Halifax and Nova Scotia, roundtrip from New Jersey. Want to see all the sights, take pictures and eat lobster.

 

Virginia

[Cheryl H]

Hi Cheryl, great pictures of the cruise, I'm headed for the fall on a 9 day cruise in mid Oct, with stops in Boston, Portland & Bar Harbor Maine, Halifax and Nova Scotia, roundtrip from New Jersey. Want to see all the sights, take pictures and eat lobster.

 

Virginia

 

Thanks!! Oh you are going to have such a good time. I think the New England cruise was our favorite so far. Did you get your tours picked out? Enjoy all the lobsters!! For me, it was fish & chips. We cannot get decent fish here in Indiana. But we do have pretty good sweet corn.

 

We're booked for Alaska for May. Have been busy picking out our tours as well.

 

Have a great time on your cruise!!!

 

Cheryl

[hello]

Thank you for your tips, Cheryl ... I enjoyed reading your review!

[gottagoacruzn]

Thanks!! Oh you are going to have such a good time. I think the New England cruise was our favorite so far. Did you get your tours picked out? Enjoy all the lobsters!! For me, it was fish & chips. We cannot get decent fish here in Indiana. But we do have pretty good sweet corn.

 

We're booked for Alaska for May. Have been busy picking out our tours as well.

 

Have a great time on your cruise!!!

 

Cheryl

 

Hi Cheryl, yes I've picked out the tours, but since I don't use credit cards, will have to wait til I get on the ship. Yup, you can bet that I will be munching on those lobsters.:D You will love Alaska, its so beautiful and don't forget the camera. Have been to Alaska several times.

[qqmelodia]

Hi Cheryl,

 

Very nice review and pics. I am bringing my 2 yrs old with us to canada and new england this sept.

I saw that you brought your son to boston's children museum, did he enjoy the place? Also, did you bring a stroller? Did you do most of the tour from the ship or privately arranged?

Much thanks for your insight.

Best regards,

qq

[Cheryl H]

Hi Cheryl,

 

Very nice review and pics. I am bringing my 2 yrs old with us to canada and new england this sept.

I saw that you brought your son to boston's children museum, did he enjoy the place? Also, did you bring a stroller? Did you do most of the tour from the ship or privately arranged?

Much thanks for your insight.

Best regards,

qq

 

Thanks!

 

Yes, he enjoyed the children's museum. I think we were in there probably 2 hours. The museum was very similar to our children's museum here in Indianapolis. I believe we got there just a few minutes before it opened. Afterwards, we waited at the curb for a cab back to the hotel to get our bags. We had lunch on the ship, so I'm thinking we were only in the museum for about 2 hours.

 

No, we didn't bring a stroller. We never really needed it. We did end up carrying him while he slept in Boston on the tour of the Constitution and Cassin, but those weren't really stroller friendly anyway.

 

We loved the Fisher Price play groups on the Jewel. Also we were glad we brought our DVD player. We bought new DVD's of Wonder Pets and Max & Ruby along. He watched them in our room, plus he watched them at the airport when our flight was delayed.

 

For dinner in the main dining room, we brought along his leapster game and headphones. The staff was wonderful!! They had fresh fruit waiting on him every evening.

 

Yes, all the tours (except Boston), were ship tours. He especially loved the tours that involved a bus ride. For Boston, we took the water taxi, and trolley ride on our own. There's also an aquarium on Long Wharf to see, but we didn't have enough time to do it also.

 

They did have family swim time in the solarium pool each day on certain hours, but no swim diapers were allowed, so we could not swim. He wasn't quite all the way trained yet (in pullups still). But we kept plenty busy with him. He never missed swimming.

 

Have fun on your trip!!

[bermuda8553]

Hi Cheryl,

Great pictures, and I enjoyed your review also. A lot of Good info. I have a question . I will be on the jewel 9/25 in room 7004 a fov. How was the motion. Some people said it can be a bit rocky. Did you find there was a lot of movement being at the front of the ship.Also kind of a personal question, but if you want can you tell me what you did about the room steward. The normal tip is $3.50 a day pp, but where the room is so big did you do extra or was there something that told you what was recommended for that room.Thank-you for any help.:o

[Cheryl H]

Hi Cheryl,

Great pictures, and I enjoyed your review also. A lot of Good info. I have a question . I will be on the jewel 9/25 in room 7004 a fov. How was the motion. Some people said it can be a bit rocky. Did you find there was a lot of movement being at the front of the ship.Also kind of a personal question, but if you want can you tell me what you did about the room steward. The normal tip is $3.50 a day pp, but where the room is so big did you do extra or was there something that told you what was recommended for that room.Thank-you for any help.:o

 

We loved our Family Oceanview!! Well, it's funny you should ask about that......it is not considered a suite. However, our room steward left a letter that was obviously for a suite as it listed the suite tip price suggestion. Well, I knew better. He was a good steward, but nothing over and above the call of duty. We left the normal customary tip. But when I got home I called RCCL and asked them about it....because if it was indeed a suite, then I wanted the 2 cruise credit (which would put us at diamond). Well, they explained that it was not a suite. When I explained about the letter our steward left, they apologized and offered to refund part of the tip. I didn't have them refund any as we just left the normal tip amount. But I just wanted to call and confirm that it was not considered a suite. The only thing our steward did extra for us over and above was to hang our dry cleaning up in the closet. I had to ask for a sheet change for our son because I noticed it was the same sheets with a stain on it. I guess he didn't notice it when he would make the bed.

 

No, we didn't notice any extra motion. However, there was a stormy afternoon when the entire ship was moving quite a bit due to the rough sea. The captain came over the loud speaker and said he'd be moving out of that area, and shortly we were clear of that. But we did not notice it any more in the front than any where else. It was a bit unnerving though. There had been a hurricane go up the coast about a day ahead of our cruise. That one afternoon was the only effect we had. They did a great job avoiding it.

 

Enjoy your cruise!!!

[linkerbink]

Thanks for the review, Cheryl. I just signed up my sister and myself for this cruise for NEXT October (YIKES....too long to wait!). I've been wanting to do this cruise for some time now. What will make this really neat is that our other sister lives in Windham, Maine which is just a few miles from Portland. So, we plan to have her meet us at the ship and we'll spend the day together. Should be a nice extra treat!:)

[Cheryl H]

Oh have a great time!!! I've done 2 cruises with my sister. Now we are each married and haven't been able to cruise together. We did spend some time at Disneyworld together. But not the same as our "sister trips".

 

Enjoy!!!

[bermuda8553]

Thank-you for the tip info as I didn't want to not leave enough,but I didn't want to over tip either. Also I feel better now knowing that the movement is probably no worst than any other place on the ship, unless of course being New England we get a n'easter.LOL I'm really looking forward to this trip as my sister and I are taking our 77 yr old mom on her first cruise. We finally convinced her to go on one, and I want her to enjoy it, which if there's bingo every day she will! Thanks again.

[Cheryl H]

Thank-you for the tip info as I didn't want to not leave enough,but I didn't want to over tip either. Also I feel better now knowing that the movement is probably no worst than any other place on the ship, unless of course being New England we get a n'easter.LOL I'm really looking forward to this trip as my sister and I are taking our 77 yr old mom on her first cruise. We finally convinced her to go on one, and I want her to enjoy it, which if there's bingo every day she will! Thanks again.

 

Is she going to be in your family oceanview with you? That's quite a walk to get clear to the front of the ship. We didn't mind the walk...helped us walk off all that food.

 

I hope your Mom loves the cruise. My parents took their one and only cruise a few years ago. Mom loved it and Dad hated it. They never went again. Part of the problem was they were always lost and had trouble finding their room. I wish I would have been with them.

 

Enjoy your trip!!

[bermuda8553]

Yes my mom is in the room with us. She walks everywhere. She's never had a license so its been a way of life for her. Sometimes I have a hard time keeping up with her.LOL She is getting excited about the cruise now so as long as the seas are smooth she should have a ball.

[murtiv]

Cheryl, We are from Greencastle In. Just down the road. We have a group og 8 that is going on this cruise on Sept 18. My wife and I have been on this cruise before. 10 years ago! We are spending 2 days in Boston since we have not seen much of it. What sites do you recommend? What did you like best about Boston? Dale & Sandy Jessup

[Cheryl H]

Cheryl, We are from Greencastle In. Just down the road. We have a group og 8 that is going on this cruise on Sept 18. My wife and I have been on this cruise before. 10 years ago! We are spending 2 days in Boston since we have not seen much of it. What sites do you recommend? What did you like best about Boston? Dale & Sandy Jessup

 

Hello!! Glad to meet you!

 

Well, I don't really recommend the Boston children's museum. Our son liked it, but it pales in comparison to Indy's children museum.

 

I really enjoyed the Old Town Trolley because it gave us a good overview of the entire area. Some suggested to us to take the T (subway), but the thought of getting a "charley card" and figuring out which lines to take where was a little intimidating to me.

 

We liked the Navy escorted tour of the Constitution and it was free. I think I would have enjoyed the trolley even more if we would have had time to get off at more stops. The shopping at Beacon Hill looked interesting. We passed Samuel Adams grave. And I would have liked to have seen the Old North Church and Fanieul Hall. By the time we got to Fanieul Hall, my husband just wanted to grab supper and head back to our hotel. He was exhausted. I believe there's a way to walk thru Christopher Columbus park to get to the north end where the Italian places are. That's great that you will have 2 days. We had to try to cram it all into one day.

 

We even loved the water taxi ride across the harbor. It was sunny and there were a lot of sailboats out. I could kick myself because I thought I'd take pictures of the sailboats later, but by the time we took the water taxi back, the sun and the boats were gone.

 

We didn't get off at the Boston Common park because someone had told us that there may be panhandlers there, which I guess if I was homeless I would visit the park too. So we skipped the park. Not sure but what we might have been misinformed. I'm not really a park person anyway.

 

I understand there's a ranger guided tour of the sights on the Freedom Trail, but we were not sure about all that walking and a 3 year old in tow. The trolley saved us lots of walking.

 

Have fun on your trip!! Wish we were going again. We're doing Alaska next. Do you have your tours picked out yet?

 

Eat a bunch of fish & chips!!! I wish Indiana could get some good fish here. Red Lobster just doesn't compare.

 

I'm not sure I was any help. We want to go back again and see more.

[Cheryl H]

Forgot to add that the Boston pier was very well organized and we really liked the porters there. The guys we met seemed happy to see us. I think our porter looked like a retiree. He took our bags and we tipped him of course. The line wasn't very long at all. And there were the usual cookies and I think coffee or punch.

[bar10der421]

Thanks so much for your "two years later" review. It works great for us as we are just starting to plan for Canada/New England next June.

 

We did some of these ports nine years ago, but Boston and Bar Harbor are new to us. You really gave me a lot of good ideas!

 

We went to Alaska some years ago; I was hesitant at first but it turned out to be a wondeful cruise! Alaska is breathtakingly beautiful. You will love it. Enjoy!!

[Cheryl H]

Thanks Laura. Have fun planning!! I think planning is half the fun.

[gottagoacruzn]

Hi Cheryl, got one question I'm sure that you haven't heard before. On the Halifax tour, and that the tour goes to the Halifax Citadel tour, how often does the changing of the guard take place? Will be on this tour and would like to see that.

 

Virginia

[Cheryl H]

Hi Cheryl, got one question I'm sure that you haven't heard before. On the Halifax tour, and that the tour goes to the Halifax Citadel tour, how often does the changing of the guard take place? Will be on this tour and would like to see that.

 

Virginia

 

Sorry I have no idea....but I would think it would be several times per day. It was just one kilted guard switching with the other, but he sort of marched in and the other marched out. So it was nice to watch, but it wasn't a big deal (if I remember right).

 

We did hear a bag pipe going....we could hear the music but couldn't see him. Then when we were up above, I spotted him down in one of the lower levels next to a building.

[gottagoacruzn]

Hi Cheryl, thanks for your input.

[Saitken69]

Cheryl H,

thanks for your trip report! We are doing (mostly) the same itinerary in mid-October!!!

and thanks for the photos too! I'm really started to get excited about the cruise now.

much appreciated.

shanny

[atlasali]

Cheryl - thanks for the photos. We sail mid-Sept.