Come Cruise with Me-Jewel Review 4/8/11-Southern Caribbean/2,000+ Pics/Super Long

[bionicman97]

Day 1 - The Schooner Bar & More

 

Next up, we went to the Schooner Bar

 

 

I like how they had it decorated

 

 

 

 

Up next - The Safari Club. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 1 - The Safari Club

 

Next up, we went in the Safari club

 

 

They have those self leveling pool tables that I always think are neat and want to play, yet never go to while on the ship

 

 

 

 

This picture was a real shocker to me. I just never expected it. I still can't believe they got a picture of not one, not two, but three Carnival ships together and hung it up on a Royal Caribbean ship (Sorry - I just couldn't resist)

 

 

 

 

Part of the seating area

 

 

All in all, the Safari Club was a nice place and we came here several times during the cruise, but more on that later.

 

Well, I have to stop for now, because we are getting close to our destination. I have to drive home (our family deal is usually wife drives one direction husband drives back) so, I should have more of the review going around 8pm or so.

 

Coming tonight - An International Ice Cream War / The Windjammer / Solarium / Sail-a-way and so, so much more. . .

[Mabers]

Those breadsticks are addicting, aren't they?

 

Congrats on the little-one-to-be, and thanks for doing this fab review.

I was on the same cruise and it was right up there with

the best. That ship is gorgeous!

 

OK....WHERE DID YOU GET THE BREADSTICKS??? All we had were rolls.....not even any crusty bread! I am so jealous!

 

Sheila.

[bionicman97]

Congrats on the little-one-to-be, and thanks for doing this fab review.

I was on the same cruise and it was right up there with

the best. That ship is gorgeous!

 

OK....WHERE DID YOU GET THE BREADSTICKS??? All we had were rolls.....not even any crusty bread! I am so jealous!

 

Sheila.

 

Thanks :)

 

Definitely a great cruise.

 

Oh, sorry, those breadsticks were in reference to when another CC Poster talked about Olive Garden :o

 

On the ship, we got sour dough rolls, savory bites, banana muffins, corn muffins, about 5 different types of sliced bread, a french loaf and some type of cheese bread, but we didn't have any breadsticks either. :)

[judie43]

I am loving your review pictures. I do have to say...your wife is glowing. Pregnant women are so beautiful.

[bionicman97]

I am loving your review pictures. I do have to say...your wife is glowing. Pregnant women are so beautiful.

 

Thanks so much :)

 

She definitely has the glow, hopefully it will stay and morning sickness will go away soon ;)

[Texas Teen]

Enjoying the pictures so far! :D Jewel looks like a very nice ship!

 

On the flip side, those 3 Carnival ships are ugly! :eek:

[bionicman97]

Enjoying the pictures so far! :D Jewel looks like a very nice ship!

 

On the flip side, those 3 Carnival ships are ugly! :eek:

 

Thanks :)

[FL_Cruiser_519]

(Had to google "bear with me" -- wasn't sure if it was bear or bare. It's "bear". The other "bare with me" would mean to undress together, and well, we just don't know each other that well -- This PSA brought to by Curtis ~ "now you know, and knowing is half the battle" ~ where did that phrase come from, I can't remember)

 

That would be from the wildly popular 80's GI Joe cartoon. YO JOE!!

 

Your reviews are great, keep up the good work. I am looking forward to the rest of the trip. It is helping hold me over until our cruise in May on the Freedom of the Seas.

[TerriDHair]

Thanks -- I'm enjoying the little free time I have left ;)

 

For Grand Cayman, since we were with some first time cruisers, we did an excursion through RCI (we usually do private or on our own). It was $72pp called Catermaran Sail and Snorkel. The tour operator was something like Red Sailing (I think). It went to the ship wreck and the reef. After that excursion, we did find a place to snorkel on our own, which I will talk about during that portion of the review.

 

 

 

Thanks -- We had a great wait staff and they were rewarded accordingly ;)

 

Those breadsticks are addicting, aren't they?

 

We took that tour, what time did you go? I don't remember whether there were different times, we took the 12:00 tour. We really enjoyed it!

[bionicman97]

That would be from the wildly popular 80's GI Joe cartoon. YO JOE!!

 

Your reviews are great, keep up the good work. I am looking forward to the rest of the trip. It is helping hold me over until our cruise in May on the Freedom of the Seas.

 

YES! That's what I am remembering it from. Wow, that was a long time ago!

 

Thanks. Enjoy your cruise, we had a great time on the Freedom :)

 

We took that tour, what time did you go? I don't remember whether there were different times, we took the 12:00 tour. We really enjoyed it!

 

Must have been separate times, because we went at 8:30am and got back about 12:15pm. It was really enjoyable :)

[Familygoboston]

First off, I wanted to introduce you to the family. They always go on a cruise with me.

 

 

LOL Bionic for years my husband has been bringing his other " woman"

NIKKI on vacation! (sometimes more than 1:eek:) He shoots Nikkon obviously;)

Congrats on the new baby coming!! The only thing better than traveling

to see the world is showing it to your child!! I wish you and your wife all the best!

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review... I'm reading it with my

babies 14, and 16 who will cruise Jewel with me next year.:D

[bionicman97]

. . .

 

LOL Bionic for years my husband has been bringing his other " woman"

NIKKI on vacation! (sometimes more than 1:eek:) He shoots Nikkon obviously;)

Congrats on the new baby coming!! The only thing better than traveling

to see the world is showing it to your child!! I wish you and your wife all the best!

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review... I'm reading it with my

babies 14, and 16 who will cruise Jewel with me next year.:D

 

I know what you mean. Sometimes people think I had a camera surgically attached to my hand ;)

 

I hope you and your family have a great time on the Jewel next year :)

 

Review will be starting back up in just a minute.

[05mak05]

Thanks :)

 

Definitely a great cruise.

 

Oh, sorry, those breadsticks were in reference to when another CC Poster talked about Olive Garden :o

 

On the ship, we got sour dough rolls, savory bites, banana muffins, corn muffins, about 5 different types of sliced bread, a french loaf and some type of cheese bread, but we didn't have any breadsticks either. :)

Too funny, I thought I had also missed the breadsticks. We've had them on Celebrity but not RCI. And, Curtis, you're funny, too! What a marvelous sense of humor you have ...

[bionicman97]

Too funny, I thought I had also missed the breadsticks. We've had them on Celebrity but not RCI. And, Curtis, you're funny, too! What a marvelous sense of humor you have ...

 

Thank you :)

 

So Celebrity has breadsticks! I'll have to check in to this. It's hard to pass up a good breadstick ;)

[bionicman97]

Day 1 - International Ice Cream War & More

 

So, when we last left off, we were in the Safari Club. Rather than bore you all with more pictures of the ship, I figure I'll save the rest of the ship picks for sea days.

 

Let's move on to the meat and potatoes of Day 1. Did I say meat and potatoes? I meant ice cream (ignore the cookies in the background, we aren't talking about cookies right now ;))

 

 

So why do I call it a war?

 

 

Because my wife and her uncle began to have a contest as to who could make the best ice cream cone for the entire length of the cruise

 

 

When the uncle brings back the last cone, he claims he got applause at the ice cream machine - fact of fiction?

 

 

While he was eating this particular cone, a gentleman comes by and verifies the applause along with saying that the uncle can "make me a cone anytime".

 

Now, I like ice cream, but I really like desserts in general. While they were playing "The next Dairy Queen Idol", I was busy getting the good stuff

 

 

The one thing was an apple strudel, but I still don't know what the other thing was, but it was pretty good.

 

 

Coming Soon - The Windjammer - Is it Muster or Mustard? - Sail-a-way - and much, much more. . .

[05mak05]

Thank you :)

 

So Celebrity has breadsticks! I'll have to check in to this. It's hard to pass up a good breadstick ;)

We haven't sailed Celebrity in several years as we decided to stick to RCI. We noticed bread sticks in the salad bar during the noon buffet. So, we asked for them in the Main Dining Room. Every night our waiter had them for us. In fact, after our table mates tasted them, they also requested breadsticks ... skip the rolls. We did not think the food on Celebrity was any better than RCI, however, the bread sticks are fantastic!

[bionicman97]

Day 1 - Muster or Mustard

 

So on the way down in the car with the first time cruisers, we had the mandatory "Why do they call it a Mustard drill?". So of course, we say "no, it's a muster drill?". Which begs the question "Why do they call it a muster drill?"

 

Our best guess was that "muster" was like "to muster the strength to do something" so we figure it must mean "to gather". So I guess its a "gathering drill"

 

Well, our station was at the Theater (Thank you RCI). We had one of the singers and dancers doing the demo and they made it as fun as it could be

 

 

Here we are at the drill

 

 

After the muster drill, we headed up to deck 12 for sail-a-way

 

 

They had the usual festivities going on

 

 

The Regent something pulled out right behind us

 

 

Here's a shot as we left

 

 

 

 

Coming soon - We haven't ate in an hour! Where's the Sea View Cafe? - & More. . .

[bionicman97]

We haven't sailed Celebrity in several years as we decided to stick to RCI. We noticed bread sticks in the salad bar during the noon buffet. So, we asked for them in the Main Dining Room. Every night our waiter had them for us. In fact, after our table mates tasted them, they also requested breadsticks ... skip the rolls. We did not think the food on Celebrity was any better than RCI, however, the bread sticks are fantastic!

 

I will definitely keep that in mind. We're pretty loyal to royal, but we will probably try Celebrity one day.

[bionicman97]

Day 1 - The Sea View Cafe and More

 

So, by this time, I am completely wasting away to nothing, I can barely walk, I need food fast.

 

Sea View Cafe to the rescue. I had a Cuban and some fries, along with some onion rings - all of which were fantastic!

 

 

After this, we went by to see the solarium

 

 

Then to the Viking Crown Lounge (Got excited in the picture - thought we saw another ice cream cone machine :D)

 

 

I could kick myself for not posting this earlier, but it was kind of funny to watch everyone on the HAL ship do the muster drill right before we did it

 

 

Coming up next - Dinner, a Show & Will the first Day of the cruise ever come to an end? (or will I just drag it out forever?) - Coming up next!

[bionicman97]

Sorry about those last pictures - grabbed the large link on flickr instead of medium - it may load a little slow for some.

 

A quick note: Inevitably when I post a review, someone ask about taking pictures of the shows. Before every show, they always announce "No videos or FLASH photograph" - I don't use flash, it would ruin the picture anyway.

 

Day 1 - Dinner & a Show

 

At 7:20pm, we went to the theater to make sure we could get a seat. They were only having one show this evening. As you can see, we made it just in time!

 

 

The show started with a video about the cruise line

 

 

Then the Orchestra started playing

 

 

Then the Singers came out

 

 

Then the Singers and Dancers

 

 

Then they had this Dance Crew Demonstration - passengers could go to classes and perform at the end of the cruise

 

 

Up next - the rest of the show & more. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 1 - The Rest of the Show

 

Up next, the cruise director came out

 

 

I'm pretty sure his name was Simeon. He was pretty good. I saw him a lot during the day around the ship.

 

 

I think his assistants name was Frankie

 

 

and then we had a comedian. I won't pretend to remember what his name was. I can't remember where I put the cruise compasses at the minute to look.

 

 

Comedy is beyond subjective. The best way I can rate him is to say he was about like the average cruise ship comedian. Take that however you may

 

 

 

 

Up next - It's Dinner time!!!

[proudpatriot07]

Thank you :)

 

So Celebrity has breadsticks! I'll have to check in to this. It's hard to pass up a good breadstick ;)

 

I love a good breadstick, but if Royal has good bread in general, that'll make up for the lack of breadsticks for me :).

 

The solarium pic looks super beautiful too...

[bionicman97]

Day 1 - It's Dinner Time!

 

We arrived at 8:30pm to the table. Our waiter was Maricio and the assistant waiter was Jesus.

 

To start with, I had some sour dough (of course!!) - It was good

 

 

Then, the Vadilia Onion Tart - It was good and a good temperature

 

 

Then, the Caesar Salad - also good

 

 

Then, the Pork Medallions - They were very good

 

 

My Aunt, sitting next to me, got the Chops steak. She could only eat about half, so lucky for me, I got half a Chops steak also!! It was very good, but I probably wouldn't pay $14.95 for it.

 

 

For dessert, I had the chocolate cherry cake and ice cream. This dessert seems to be a hit or miss thing, some people like it and some don't. I like it, but I must have the vanilla ice cream with it.

 

 

 

 

Up next - Dinner is over -- or is it? & The rest of the evening -- coming soon. . .

[bionicman97]

I love a good breadstick, but if Royal has good bread in general, that'll make up for the lack of breadsticks for me :).

 

The solarium pic looks super beautiful too...

 

I pretty much liked all of the bread they serve at dinner time.

 

The solarium is beautiful. I'll share a lot more pic's from it throughout the review :)