Jewel Southern Caribbean Photo Trip Report May 25th!

[Sinppu]

Sinny, we are in both pictures of the schooner bar and I saw us from a distance in the windjammer picture so we were in close contact. My husband is the big guy my son is the one in a sun visor and I'm in the middle of them in your schooner picture

 

Oh sheesh, that's just bad luck! The same happened on our Allure cruise, I took photos of our Roll Call members without knowing it :rolleyes:

 

I don't know how to post the photo here, so I sent it to you on Facebook. Look in your "other" folder.

 

Great, thanks :)

[Coolcruise02]

Great review and pictures! Love it :)

[juniorsmom]

I just LOVE your reviews and sense of humor.

[windjamming]

We like the Windjammer. There, I said it out loud. We don't mind crowds, we are not foodies, we are not afraid of germs nor do we mind anything else. If you do not respect me anymore, I'll understand. It's better you found out now than later on when we have ki... what?!

Nevermind.

 

Nice! Windjammer fan here, too. I don't need someone waiting on me hand and foot every meal. When I'm on a cruise, I want breakfast and lunch fast and I like variety. I actually never found the Windjammer on the Jewel to be that crowded.

 

We were on the Jewel for her repositioning to San Juan - so nice to "see" her so quickly again in such a wonderful review! Kiitos!

[HardHeadedWoman]

Here are some compliments: I love this review and I LOVE your dress! I've never been on a Caribbean cruise but we're considering one for next year so I'm excited to read more of your experience aboard the Jewel. :)

 

Lissette

[Sinppu]

Great review and pictures! Love it :)

 

Thanks! Anyone who lives in Coolville has to be just that ;)

 

I just LOVE your reviews and sense of humor.

 

Thanks, I aim to entertain :)

[Sinppu]

We were on the Jewel for her repositioning to San Juan - so nice to "see" her so quickly again in such a wonderful review! Kiitos!

 

Ole hyvä ;) Glad you liked her.

 

Here are some compliments: I love this review and I LOVE your dress! I've never been on a Caribbean cruise but we're considering one for next year so I'm excited to read more of your experience aboard the Jewel. :)

 

Lissette

 

Those are very good compliments, thank you :)

All cruising is great. I hope you'll like it as much as we do!

[Sinppu]

Thanks for the info....looking forward to the rest....help pass the time until November!

 

Karen

 

Hi Karen, you'll get there. Soon!

[tsi_engineer]

Love the review. My DW and I are going on serenade in feb. love seeing pics of any of the radiance class ships

[planitohio]

Thank you for the review and the menus!

[Ocean Boy]

Here are some compliments: I love this review and I LOVE your dress! I've never been on a Caribbean cruise but we're considering one for next year so I'm excited to read more of your experience aboard the Jewel. :)

 

Lissette

 

Be careful, the Caribbean has a way of making you fall in love with it.

[Sinppu]

Love the review. My DW and I are going on serenade in feb. love seeing pics of any of the radiance class ships

 

Thank you for the review and the menus!

 

Thanks guys.

Unfortunately I don't have any other menus.

[Sinppu]

Woohooo - first port!

 

I woke up early and wanted to go running. My first choice was the jogging track, but as this is what it looked like all around...

...I decided against it. I'm not known to be the most discreet person in the world if someone is standing in my way when I run. Repeatedly.

 

So I went to the ShipShape centre and got this view instead:

Uh huh, much better.

 

Not bad breakfast views:

 

This is the only port we've been to before. It was a long awaited meeting again, Lowry is an aviation fan and hence our plan for today was naturally Maho Beach.

The weather was beautiful.

[dawne577]

Thanks for taking the time to write this. Great pictures and text. We loved sailing on the Radiance and can't wait for this cruise. One last time to enjoy the Sea View Cafe!

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review:)

[Sinppu]

Here are the taxi prices:

 

And this is the taxi stand:

 

The earlier you go, the more people there are. They put as many people as they can in the same car and send you on your way. If you know your schedule, you can ask the same driver if they can pick you up later.

At least in Maho Beach there were also plenty of drivers to take you back to the ship.

 

The drive to Maho Beach is about 20 minutes.

The Sunset Beach Bar is pretty crowded and the beach itself is nothing spectacular.

 

But if you come here, you come for the planes.

 

These are the landing times. The same planes depart about an hour later. We have no interest in the leaving planes as we like our lives and prefer to spend them unharmed.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Sinppu

[travellovers]

We are on this same route in July

We don't want to overbook tours so we are just going to book a few before and wait till we see how we feel

My question is......did you dock at each port right in town where we can walk around or are some taxi rides away

We are looking at swimming with the stingrays in Antigua and kids and dads zip lining in st kitts mom's might do the scenic train

Looking forward to more of your review

FYI......loved your dress

[Sinppu]

But the landing planes?? H*** yeah and as many as we can get!!!

 

 

 

 

WOOOHOOOO!!!

 

We meant to check out a few shops when we got back but it was Sunday and they were closed, at least after 4 pm. So we just walked back to the ship. It's about 15 minutes but remember, it can get really hot.

 

 

Which is why we really appreciate that Royal has put up a drink station outside the gangway.

[Sinppu]

Thanks for taking the time to write this. Great pictures and text. We loved sailing on the Radiance and can't wait for this cruise. One last time to enjoy the Sea View Cafe!

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review:)

 

We are on this same route in July

We don't want to overbook tours so we are just going to book a few before and wait till we see how we feel

My question is......did you dock at each port right in town where we can walk around or are some taxi rides away

We are looking at swimming with the stingrays in Antigua and kids and dads zip lining in st kitts mom's might do the scenic train

Looking forward to more of your review

FYI......loved your dress

 

Thanks guys, more to come!

Yes we did dock in town. St Maarten and Barbados were the farthest away, I'd say 15-30 minutes of walking. Depends how fit you are and how you can stand the heat ;)

[SeagoingMom]

We then drove to Tavernier in Key Largo.

 

 

 

Here we stayed at Coconut Palm Inn and yet again wouldn't have wanted to leave.

 

 

 

 

 

I deleted your gorgeous pix just to save space -- I would love to hear more about the Inn, as I am always looking for lodging recommendations for this part of Florida. What did you like so much about it?

 

Thanx for a great thread!

[Sinppu]

We had the early seating in the MDR.

 

 

Tonight was the first formal night which we really like. Lowry has no problems in wearing a suit and a tie and I'm a girl. So yey, dress up!

 

We were seated in a table of six, but there was only one other couple there. They were a few years younger than us, an attorney and a pre-school teacher from Chicago and we had a lot of fun with them.

Coming from another country gives very good conversation topics.

I barely remembered to take photos of our meals, seafood ravioli and...well...a piece of meat. Of some sort.

 

 

During dessert the maitre'd came over and asked us if we would mind changing tables as there was a family of six who had been split up. He put us in a table of 10 people and we were all fine with it.

 

After dinner Lowry went to play poker and I went to see the "West End to Broadway" show. If you like musicals, you'll love this show. The singers are great and I had a great time. Especially as it wasn't crowded, I could sing along to my heart's content and not bother anyone...

 

And our bedtime buddy:

 

Next up St Kitts.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Sinppu

[Sinppu]

I deleted your gorgeous pix just to save space -- I would love to hear more about the Inn, as I am always looking for lodging recommendations for this part of Florida. What did you like so much about it?

 

Thanx for a great thread!

 

Hi! The rooms were nicely decorated. The roofed terrace was great and the service was heartwarmingly friendly. It was quiet and hence very relaxing. It felt like a place where you could just take a morning swim, a nap in the hammock, have a nice dinner in the restaurants they recommended and then come back and watch sunset on the pier aka do nothing and be happy about it.

We decided we would definitely come back if we wanted a place where relaxing is the only thing you can do :)

The lady told us in reception: " Here is your key to the room that will be your home for tonight. So, welcome home." It was so lovely.

 

Thanks for reading!

Edited June 3, 2013 by Sinppu

[Sinppu]

Welcome to sunny St Kitts!!

 

 

Mm hmm. St Kitts, have you been talking to Florida?!

 

I did plenty of research of different tours for this cruise and decided on a Thenford Grey and The Tour for St Kitts. Both Donna K. and bigislandcuiser from our Roll Call had also booked this one and it was great to meet them. I think in total we were 17 people on the tour.

 

 

Mr. Grey was a great guide. He was knowledgeable and had this old school gentlemanly quality to him.

He also had an uncanny ability to predict when the rain would stop and start again...

 

He first showed us around Basseterre and close by villages.

 

 

[Sinppu]

We drove through the rain forest on our way to Romney Manor. We stopped there for about 30 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sinppu]

Mr. Grey pointed out a lot different palm trees, plants and flowers.

 

 

 

 

Yes, we are nosy.

 

 

 

I wonder where could I find seeds for this one?

[BillOh]

You'll see when we get there. Promise.

 

 

 

Great!! Ask away if you think of something!

 

This reply is mainly an easy way for me to remember to come back here! ;) I've enjoyed your other reports and I am sure I will this one. We will be on Jewel for a 2nd time next May and our first cruise out of San Juan. I'll specifically be watching the port stuff, how it is cruising from San Juan and your hotel there. Heck, I'll be reading it all.