Jewel Southern Caribbean Photo Trip Report May 25th!

[Ocean Boy]

Do you know if this is the standard beach that all Thenford Gray's tours stops at? We are touring with Thenford for our July cruise. This place looks really nice. It doesn't give us a specific beach name on our reservation, but we are taking "The Tour" from his website.

 

It is a beautiful beach and it is where he took us also when we toured with him. I suspect if the people on the tour requested another beach he would probably accommodate the group. So if everyone else asked for a different beach you might end up somewhere else. When you contact him to make your reservations just ask if this is where he plans to take you and let him know your preference if you have one. He is very responsive to e-mails and he really tries to please.

[cflower04]

Loving the review so far!!!

[CruisePrincess51]

Kathy - unfortunately, St. Martin is on the other itinerary, not the Aruba itinerary on May 10. We will go to St. Thomas instead. I think the only solution is for you to book the B2B with me!:D

 

The good news is that St. Kitts will be on both itineraries, so all of those great sights will still be good for our May 10 cruise, too!

 

Ginny...I think that sounds like a great idea! :D

 

Kathy

[AmandaKaye79]

i emailed Gray and he said South Friar Beach. Is this the same beach?

[gowensricks]

Wow your review really makes me more and more excited about this Saturday!

[IBookHePays]

Sinny thank you so much for an informative and funny review!

 

i emailed Gray and he said South Friar Beach. Is this the same beach?

 

Yes, Carambola Beach Club is on South Friar's Bay Beach.

[Sinppu]

Great review so far! I am looking forward to the rest. Your sense of humor has put a great big :D on my face.

 

Now....back to the show!

 

Why thank you. I have thus succeeded in my goal :)

 

Did you buy any wine from the shop? If so, what was the selection/pricing like? We have a supermarket by our hotel for when we go in August but some people in our party are headed right from the airport to the cruise port and I'm wondering if they should try to stop or just buy wine at the pier.

 

We did, we bought two bottles of Asti and they cost about $8 per bottle. I'd say the price range was $8-$20.

The selection was all right, I'd hazard a guess that they had 10-20 different items in each (red, white, sparkling) category.

[clott]

Oh yeah we spent all day at sunset beach bar in st marteen as well. This is too funny

[Sinppu]

Sinny,

What an incredible review so far. I can't wait to read the rest. We are booked on the Jewel next May and your review is really giving us something to look forward to. Your pictures are amazing :) Keep the review going...I can't wait to read the rest! We've been to St. Martin several times before, but never to Maho Beach to see the planes, that is a definite MUST for next May. You are truly an amazing writer.

 

Kathy

 

Thanks, Kathy. You have amazing taste :D

 

Subscribing, since this is the ship we've booked for next year.

We go to St. Croix, St. Maarten, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados.

 

We went to St. Kitts last year while on Serenade and we too booked Thenford Grey's tour. And for the person that asked, yes, we ended up at the same beach club, but it was so late in the day when we arrived, there were no chairs/shade available. We ended up going back to town and ate lunch at one of Thenford's recommendations -- DELISH!

 

And to the OP: We too are Windjammer people. In fact, on our Serenade cruise last year, we had a port every single day except one, so we opted to skip the MDR altogether and just went to the WJ or one of the speciality restaurants. It was kind of nice knowing we could dress up as much as we wanted / or not / by choosing the WJ! I suspect we'll do the same thing next year!

 

Keep going, Sinny!

 

Ann

 

I will, Ann!!

[Sinppu]

Loving the review so far!!!

 

Sinny thank you so much for an informative and funny review!

Yes, Carambola Beach Club is on South Friar's Bay Beach.

 

You are welcome and there is more to come :)

[Sinppu]

Thank you very much for all the comments, everyone.

Here we go again!

 

St John's is very nice to look at while eating your breakfast in the WJ.

 

 

We have swam with both dolphins and sea lions on our previous cruises and now it was time for stingrays. We booked this excursion through RCCL.

 

A word of advice: Do not be late. The tour buses are NOT easy to find and you are pestered by about a thousand people offering you taxi services and hair braiding.

 

The ride to Stingray City is about 25 minutes.

 

They start with a presentation where they tell you more about stingrays, give you advice on how to handle them and what to avoid (like sticking your fingers up their nose).

 

Then you sign a document, walk to the pier, take your shoes off and leave them there, step into a boat and off you go on a very boring (as documented below) 10-minute boat ride.

 

The water is wonderful.

[bup1224]

I am loving your review - on the Jewel in Sept. St. Kitt's is one of our ports and I am glad to see your pictures and the review of your tour.

[Sinppu]

Almost as soon as you step down to the water, the stingrays come -and there are many. And they are huge. HUGE.

 

 

The first time they brush your leg while swimming past is amazing. They are soft but strong and it can take you by surprise.

 

 

 

You get an opportunity to pose for a photo with stingray in your arms. The photos cost $15 and can be either printed or on CD.

 

 

Again, a word of advice. If you are taking small children (or jumpy adults) on this excursion, make sure they know what they are getting themselves into. There was a young girl (around 5-6 yo) who refused to be put down the whole time we were swimming and snorkeling.

She was carried around in turn by her father and three older sisters and she gave an ear-piercing shriek every single time a stingray came near. At the end they took her back to the boat where she sat sulking and watching everyone else have fun.

The stingrays were bigger than she was. To a non-adventurous soul, it's not fun.

[Sinppu]

And now when I have just managed to fool you all into thinking that stingrays are cutest thing since Tard the Grumpy Cat, I'm going to show you The Hickey.

Stingrays don't sting or bite, but they might "kiss" you. They have very powerful suction with which they suck their food (sometimes from 4-5 inches away) and if they mistake you for food, you might get one of these:

 

 

No, it didn't hurt.

No, it didn't require medical attention.

Yes, I screamed like a girl when it happened (it took me by a big surprise).

Yes, we got a great story to tell everyone.

 

After getting back on board and showering, we wanted to take some cool photos from deck 12 and IMO we succeeded.

 

 

 

 

We decided to go a bit artsy and I set out to the pier to pose. I had barely time to sit down before our table mates Mark and Carolyn came out of one the shops and I explained them what we were doing.

 

 

"I swear, the stingray was THIS big..."

 

[juggler78]

Love your review, we were on the Jewel in May out of Tampa and loved it. You should get commission from rccl for the amount of people that are going to book this cruise after reading this!

Edited June 4, 2013 by juggler78

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Ginny...I think that sounds like a great idea! :D

 

Kathy

40th Anniversary (one year delayed). That's MY excuse!:D

[jmf123]

 

And as can been seen here, you have to hold up the spear with your eye while your waiter slides the meat off it. It's a rare skill, really.

 

 

If you have a big sweet tooth (mine's more like a whole jaw) you'll love the Dolcetti. It was just.... just...wow. I should've given the WoW card to it.

 

You crack me up, Sinny! I love your sense of humor and your wonderful photos. I'm really enjoying your review!

 

I would love to hear more about the Inn, as I am always looking for lodging recommendations for this part of Florida.

 

Sinny's accommodation in Key West looks great, and I just wanted to add that we really enjoyed our stay at Andrew's Inn. Tucked away just off Duval St. it's very convenient. It was so relaxing and has a nice local feel to it. We even had a kitty come around (it's right next door to Hemingway House). The website is andrewsinn dot com, and there are reviews on tripadvisor.

[Sinppu]

Hi everyone, sorry for the unexpected delay. The internet connection went down but now it's back so I can finish Antigua.

 

Our Meet and Mingle was today at 4.45 pm in Hollywood Odyssey. We were maybe 16 or 18 people but both the Activities Manager and the Guest Event Coordinator were present. And some smallish nibbles.

 

 

We stayed about an hour and it was great talking to our Roll Call members. Thanks for the sweets, Dorothy. They were SO good.

 

Today it was Italian night and we finally met the rest of our table mates. An interesting bunch of people that included people from Texas, Ohio, New Hampshire and a music therapist, retired math teacher and a CPA.

 

I almost forgot my food porn duties.

 

Caprese salad.

 

 

Strawberry bisque.

 

 

Eggplant parmigiana.

 

 

Lasagne al forno.

 

 

Tiramisu.

 

[Sinppu]

Today the MDR crew sang to us and people took part quite happily.

 

 

Here is Lowry's dessert, Baileys on the rocks.

 

 

He also had the sugar-free vanilla ice cream but he did say it was so awful it didn't deserve to have it's photo taken ;)

 

We then had drinks in the Champagne Bar. I had KLPM (surprise!) and Lowry had a Vodka Sour.

The bartender was a bit forgetful. He forgot to put any club soda in the drink and bought the whole can over a minute later. Now there's a strong drink if we ever saw one. But my brave Finnish husband tackled it with no fear.

 

 

We then went back to our cabin and saw Sang. Lowry tried to take a photo of us in the corridor but Sang hid himself and we had a good laugh about it.

 

 

Though the funniest part was when a middle-aged couple came out from one of staterooms, the wife looked at me laughing, Lowry holding the camera and muttered to her husband "Must be newlyweds".

 

It was priceless.

 

Here is tonight's bed buddy. We think it's a peacock... we hope it is, instead of a punk kid with a mohawk hair-do.

 

 

Next up St Lucia.

[Sinppu]

Good morning, Castries!

 

 

Here we had booked Cosol Tours and so had about 20 other people. Our driver was called Baptiste and he was a very funny man who also knew his home country ( and bananas) very well.

 

 

At first we stopped to take a photo of a cove that was used in the Pirates of the Caribbean.

 

 

Next stop was a banana plantation where we got to sample fresh produce.

 

 

 

These are plantains.

[Sinppu]

Next was another viewpoint.

 

 

And a very cute and friendly puppy who loved all the attention.

 

 

Then we saw the Pitons for the first time. They are pretty impressive.

 

 

Then we got the chance to swim in a waterfall.

 

 

There were a few brave souls (didn't hear Lowry complaining) to dip in the cool water.

 

 

[Sinppu]

You could use the toilets and changing rooms.

 

 

We also had a very good breakfast but unfortunately I don't have photos of it. There were a lot of different local produce and I recommend sampling them all. My favourites were definitely the fried plantains and coconut fudge.

 

After the waterfall we drove up to the volcano. The smell of sulphur is strong, so be prepared.

 

 

 

 

 

[Sinppu]

Then we headed to port where we caught a boat to take us between the Pitons to a beach for about an hour of swimming and snorkeling.

 

Now this is the point where you have to be agile. Climbing both down to and up from the boat wasn't easy.

We all made it in one piece and our dignities almost completely intact.

 

 

The beach was nice. The chairs on the smaller stretch are free of charge.

 

 

 

 

Then it was back to the vans again.

 

 

Cosol Tours serves drinks throughout the day free of charge. Rum Punch and beer were free-flowing and there were some very happy people in the van on the afternoon.

 

[Sinppu]

The second formal night was today and I got to be glad I'd bought an extra dress in Miami Beach.

I had quite unflattering tan lines in my neck, back and chest and I cringe seeing ladies showing theirs as if they are something to be proud of. :rolleyes:

 

Just my opinion. (The right one, mind.)

 

 

Today Lowry took part in the poker tournament. They play one every evening and the winners of each get to play a final tournament on the last day.

The winner of that one gets either a nice wad of cash or a free cruise on the Oasis.

 

 

 

Mind you, our first two cruises were poker cruises which Lowry won playing poker online so I had my hopes up.

 

For some reason we got the worst service in the casino. We only met one friendly dealer.

 

Today was the City of Dreams show in the Coral Theatre. It is another music compilation and it's all right but if you miss it, you won't miss it.

[AmandaKaye79]

I have Thenford Gray and Cosol booked for our July 6 cruise. Would you do those over again if you knew what you know now? Did you have any negatives about either of them?