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Live Review Jewel of the sea!! Sailing June 8-15th

Sbfherring
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Sbfherring

Sbfherring

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Day One! Friday June 7th

The day was finally here that we are leaving for our first cruise!! a little personal info, from: Houston Texas, I am 30, husband is 32, one 2 year old at home and 15 weeks prego with #2! We booked this cruise way in advance of finding out about our little bun in the oven so I guess you can call this our babymoon!! I booked the cruise back in December and then the research started. Since this was our first cruise and a vacation that as my 2 year old would say "big people only" I wanted to go on a great ship that wasn't bombarded with kids. After researching for a loooooooonnnnnggggg time we choice the Jewel, it did not have the huge kid attractions like the surf wave, ice rink, zip line.......... and the reviews said it was a beautiful ship. After almost an unhealthy addiction of researching port and itineraries this sailing sealed the deal. I wanted a port intensive cruise because we are traditionally island junkies who go to a island for a week and have a fun packed week of scuba diving, soaking up the sun and doing more adventures activities. Also I didn't want to be stuck at sea and hate cruising, or get really bad sea sick. So the Jewel was the winner! I am typing this review present time so as the trip continues so will this review!!! I won't be paying for Internet on the boat so you will have to wait for the final when we return but for now here is day one.

 

Day one Friday.-travel day. Took a flight from Houston to Orlando then orlando to San Juan. Since it is summer the flight to Orlando was packed with 90% of Disney crazed kids, fun. Lets just say I plugged in and watched a movie to drowned out the noise. I guess a perk was by the time our boarding number was called A34 exit row seats were still available because everyone had kids and could not sit in them. You probably could have even gotten one if you were in the c section of boarding! My husband who is 6'3 was elated! Made it to San Juan without problems. We only checked one bag because ever since we got married 6 years ago, every trip without fail the little luggage elves take our luggage and hide it in Alaska or Timbuktu for 2 days andbthen bamb. It shows up. i was not about to get on a boat with no cloths even though my husband would probably not mind. Lol! I was paranoid that our luggage would get lost so I packed all my cloths using the bundling method in a carry on.

 

Side note. There was no way when I found this method i thought it would work. But alas it did!!!!!! Attached is the link. It has changed my packing life forever!!!! Also I packed all liquid items in our checked bag with a hair dryer.

 

 

San Juan is lovely. 2 visit here we had a 10 hour layover on our way to St. Lucia 6 years ago for our honeymoon. That trip we did the fort. Very fun. Took a cab from the airport (21$then +1$ a bag so total 24 without tip. We tipped 4$) to Old San Juan to our small boutique hotel in named the Art Pop Hotel, #103 cruz street. It is a old house that was turned into a 9 room hotel. It is nothing fancy. Small private room with a bathroom. Perk-walking distance to everything in Old San Juan and the price was right. 87$ including tax and a continental breakfast. If you are not a go with the flow type of person or over 40 this is probably not the best hotel for you. I personally describe it as an upscale hostel. One great thing is the receptionist/concierge/all knowing local San Juan resident, she is a little encyclopedia on this place !!! She is sooooo nice and helpful she knows a ton of local info. Someone needs to give her a raise!!! We walked around town for the afternoon getting a few things we had forgot. Like one of my swimsuit bottoms!!! Haha i blame it on baby brain!! we found a Marshall's a block away from our hotel so I found one and some board shorts both for 20$. I was happy.

This is where it really gets good! Listen people I probably, no not probably is the word i am looking for. I without a doubt, most defiantly, positively had one of my all 3 time favorite meals EVER Friday night. We are big foodies from Houston, our city has a great culinary sene, comparable to NYC, San Francisco, you name it we have it houston has it. This pallet of mine has had some pretty good eats in its 30 year of life! My aunt and Uncle who live in NYC come down to SJ in the winter to escape the cold north and they are also two big food junkies! My Aunt raved abut his restaurant so we booked a 7:30 party for 2! Marmalade is the name!!! We had a great time 2.5 hours of a party in your mouth!! We did the 5 course tasting menu and wow is an understatement! To better describe it I should use words like magnificent, marvelous, stupendous, Superb and bravo!!!!!!'They have a wine pairing option with the menu but I had to pass since baby was cooking away! Chef Peter Schintler (who cut his teeth at New York City's Le Cirque) came out multiple times to our table. If you want to know all I ate msg me and I will let u know!! But I will say a must is the truffle whit bean soup!! The tasting menu was the perfect size. We got two appetizers a person, the soup, one entree a person and one dessert a person. Go here if you can!! Make a reservation!!! Come to the island just for this if you can. our bill was 180$ without drinks. We had ice tea. .it was sooooo good and well worth it. Plus you are in vacation so splurg a little!!!

 

here is their link to the restaurant

 

http://www.yelp.com/biz_redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marmaladepr.com&src_bizid=kYrU7m5U7kWL0ll29oi8HA&cachebuster=1370692250&9e9d2d3de694e1bd18d39f8d01245d1b

 

If it doesn't work just google it

 

We walked there and felt totally safe and came back and crashed. It had been a long day!!!!!!!!! More to come!!!!! current time Saturday 7:21 am. About to go eat breakfast and do some bag arranging and head to the ship around 11:15!!!

 

Trying to figure out how to post pics from ipad might have to wait until we are back stateside to do!

828117814_ImageUploadedByCruiseCriticForums1370693304.342180.jpg.2ae4918d63662ea77e9475d813226086.jpg

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MrFunInTheSun

MrFunInTheSun

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Thanks for bringing us along "Live" with you on the Jewel of the Seas. She's a beautiful ship, your in for a great week. Thanks for your efforts in bringing this "Live" to, they are lots of fun to do.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Please excuse any typographical errors.

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luvseaair

luvseaair

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Thanks for bringing us along "Live" with you on the Jewel of the Seas. She's a beautiful ship, your in for a great week. Thanks for your efforts in bringing this "Live" to, they are lots of fun to do.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Please excuse any typographical errors.

 

Read your live report MrFunInTheSun - it was excellent, plus you put in all that hard work testing the drink package for all those of us yet to try it! :D

 

Sent from my GT-I8160 using Forums mobile app

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MrFunInTheSun

MrFunInTheSun

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Read your live report MrFunInTheSun - it was excellent, plus you put in all that hard work testing the drink package for all those of us yet to try it! :D

 

Sent from my GT-I8160 using Forums mobile app

 

Thanks! They are fun to do, am looking forward to doing my next one on the Freedom of the Seas in November and most likely on the Enchantment of the Seas in September.

 

Wish I was on this sailing of the Jewel of the Seas right now.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Please excuse any typographical errors.

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Sbfherring

Sbfherring

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Day 1 continue.

Breakfast at the hotel was nothing fancy. I had toast and and a apple with peanut butter. They had pancake mix but it is a self serve and self cleaning kitchen so I didn't want to make a mess. We met a really nice family from Arizona at our hotel so we caught a van taxi to the Pan American pier in San Juan. I am glad i ran into them because the hotel cleaning staff told them the wrong pier and they were going to walk to the old San Juan pier.

Note to first time San Juan cruisers......... You can't walk to the PA pier from old San Juan. it is about a 7 mile drive and took about 15 min. the cab was 15$ plus 2$ per person after 4 people then 1$ a bag.. Total was 32$ so we paid 15$ and the family paid 20$ and we called it even!! Let me tell you how pleased we were with the whole check in system at the pier we got out of the cab at 11:45. Gave our luggage to the porters. We had preprinted our room tags so it was way easy!!! Went through security, no line!! We even brought on 18 cokes!!' ( Bought 2 -8 packs for 2.99$ each at the local grocery. There 12 pack was 5.60$ so we opted to spend .50 more and get more!! )No problem!!! Got our sea pass and was in the windjammer eating by 12:10. No lines. No wait. No problem!!!! I was giddy as a kid in candy shop!!! walking onto the ship was such a liberating feeling, heart beating fast, clammy hands wet with excitement, I was like wooooo awwwwwww whooooooo! We did pack a day bag because we new it could be up to 8pm until our luggage got to our room, had dinner at Portifinos at 6 so we wouldn't miss sail away. So we hung out in the Buffett until our room was ready. Windjammer was a good surprise. I know I am a foodie but I had a better meal than I expected!! I had a ton of caesar salad and a honey nut roasted chicken. Drinks available for free, water, tea two types of juices- Mango something and a strawberry kiwi. Disappointing desserts though. Most of there desserts were gelatin based, so I would pass on all of them again except the chocolate and strawberry log roll. That was yummy !!! Got a nice window seat overlooking the water and watched the paddle boarders paddle by from inside. The Buffett is on deck 11 so it is pretty high and the paddle boarders looked like ants!! after we ate we headed down to deck three to find room 3049. What would you know. Our luggage was already there waiting for us at 1:00pm!!! My husband is an anesthesiologist resident and most of my cruise friends said don't wast your money on a bigger room and yes we are on a budget so room 3049 was the winner!!. Mid ship room, rooms above and below so no night club boom boom at 2 am! I am pleasantly surprised. Don't get me wrong It is small but we fit, unpacked everything with room to spare. Some things that I will highlight that I discovered reading CC that we brought were, over the door shoe rack to hang in the bathroom to keep all our toiletries , sunscreen, and nick nacks. Two door hooks to hang wet swim suits on and cloths that needed to be ironed( our ironing system is pretty basic. A water spray bottle. Thats is it. Hang your cloths, sprits it with water then pull tight and bam once dry looks good as new. if heavily wrinkled it needs to dry a Few hours. We get our night cloths out in the am, check them to see if they need to be "ironed" and they are good usually by lunch and always by dinner!). Also I hear that hanging it in the bathroom while you take a shower works, the steam will do the same thing! Will report once I try this trick!!! Also a hairdryer, power strip and extension cord. There are two plugs for the whole room! After we unpacked we started exploring the ship. I love the size of this ship it is not Huge so I did not feel overwhelmed! It was fun exploring.

 

After that we came back changed and headed to the solarium for a swim. Something surprised was that I had no clue that the water in the pools were saltwater. my parents have a saltwater swimming pool back home but this was a salty as the ocean I l liked it because I could float without sinking!!! We loved the solarium. Lets just say it is more of our style! After a nice swim we came back and got ready for dinner at Prontofinos .

 

Here is one of the most frustrating things that has happened to us yet. when we went roaming the ship we found the dinning room and found our table. When we booked the cruise back in December I requested a table for 2. I was really looking forward to that. We found our table and we were at a table of 6. So I said no problem. It can be changed. We had no clue who to so we went to guest services and they let us know that the matridee was the only person who could change the seating assignments so we went to go find them, we found them and they said come back at 6. No problem. We had the mandatory muster at 530 then dinner at portofinos at 6:00. I decided we could stop by after muster but before dinner. Muster went Extremely long like 45 mins, and the elderly people where getting tied and sitting or getting escorted in. It was very uncomfortable. After muster it was a mad dash to dinner there were people everywhere. There are four main entrances to the dinning hall and no one told us earlier in the day where the main matradee was so we of course went to the wrong level and wrong door first. when we got to the right floor after swimming up stream like a Salmon in egg laying season there was a HUGE line of people waiting to enter the 630 dinner and people where giving us the stunk eye because they thought we were trying to cut in line. We made it to the matradee it took about 5 minutes and multiple time explaining the problem and it was finally fixed. Thank the LAWD!!!!! We got a table for 2! Problem solved! We arrived at Portifinoes about 630. The whole night the restaurant had 3 couples!

 

The food was not great. I was pleased but not delighted. Nothing bad but nothing great. We left stuffed like a turducken on thanksgiving!!! Our waiter was awesome! she was so kind, great service we tipped her more even though tip was added already. One thing that I would say was I was disappointed at how much alcohol was in there desserts. I prb should just ask next time because I got the sampler and 3 out of the 4 tasters had at taste able uncooked alcohol . After dinner we tried to get to the helicopter pad but we got lost in the casino area so we headed up to deck 12 for sail away. San Juan was so pretty at night we sailed away on deck 12 for about 30 min them we went to the back of then windjammer and sat in chairs at the aft to watch the island get smaller and smaller. We went to our room to rest for 20 min we planned on going to the comedy show at 10:30 in the Coral but we laid down at 915 and I didn't open my eyes until this morning. At 6 opps!! Perk on inside room!! It is DARK!! I love it. Loved being gently rocked to sleep, I was out when I closed my eyes. You cant feel the ship move much and if you do it is not very much. Current location sitting by the windjammer watching the approach to ST. Croix, about to eat me some yummy breakfast this baby and I are hungry!

Plans for the day, original plan was to go scuba diving at the wall at Crane Bay but since we are a party of 3 we canceled that idea and reserved a day pass at Sandcastles Resort- 20$ two chairs and umbrella able to use there pool..... transfer 3$ a person each way, so beach day here we come.

Breakfast review. I think they should start serving breakfast at 630. I have been up since 6 and there are quit a few people mulling around looking for food. Found coffee. Ate pancakes sausage bacon and watermelon when the windjammer opened at 7.

Great trip so far!!!

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Sbfherring

Sbfherring

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Day2

Wow what day. We had a blast. Getting of the boat In st. croix was easy. we got off about 915, very easy to find the shuttle, we made it to the beach had front row beach chair and umbrellas by 945. You can see the ship from the hotel and you could probably walk it..... might take you about 15-30 minutes. I opted for the 3$ shuttle back. The sandcastle hotel was nothing special i probably would not stay here if we went on vacation but we were not here for the rooms we were here for the beach. Th water was pretty, perfect temp, perfect sun, perfect day. We spent most of the morning just laying around in our chairs. One of our favorite activities was searching the shore and shallow water for sea glass. i found a ton!! Lots of different colors primarily green but found some aqua, blue, and clear colors too. One thing that was great about they hotel was the lunch ....26$ for 2 HUGE burgers, sweet potato fries and 2 cokes, they were so yummie. Very very good!!! The afternoon was the same resting, swimming, floating in the water. Before we left we had access to there swimming pool with purchasing the pass after we cleaned off all the sand in the outside shower we jumped into there pool. This thing was so little. I would call it a large plung pool. But it was not salt water and it was nice get some of the salt water off or at least cover it up with chlorine. We decided to leave the pretty beach behind at 330 . we wanted to get back in time and watch the late comers in the game "run for your life's". My only negative thing about the whole beach day is that they say the shuttle comes by every 15-20 minutes and we had to wait for about 35-40. No big deal we are easy but I would be freaking out if we waited till 445 to leave!! We made it back to the ship. ate a snack, we don't have dinner until 830. So we headed to the helicopter pad to watch the people who were cutting it to close to leaving. One family was 2 min late the employe threw them in a truck raced them down to the entrance and let the get on. After that you were left behind. I loved the helicopter pad area. There was a nice breeze and great views. After the helicopter pad we cleaned up and then got ready for our first formal night and our first night in the dinning room. I brought a fancy dinner dress not prom or long gown. my husband wore Pants , shirt and tie, we opened for no jacket because we packed in carry ons and there were people dressed like him. most of the crowd had jackets but the were probably at least every other table a dude dressed business like Keith. I was surprised at the masses of people everywhere that night, there are tons of professional photo opportunities but with that plus the formal wear that come lines. All the photo ops were around or near the centrrum and it was very difficult to manage your way around. Very overwhelming. Made it to dinner. Little line waiting to go eat. I felt that our waiter that did all the work was overwhelmed. Her had 3 tables of 2 plus a table of 12. I ordered an appetizer and a salad. Never got the salad. And I thought service was very slow. One other couple even mentioned to him that he looked very busy and he was. I had read reviews on the food and I think one of the best ways to describe it as one fellow cc member says. "It's is not gourmet" but not horrible. After eating dinner we headed back to change bc there was a theater show at 1030. Broadway musical songs I thought would be good to watch. Also is was freezing so I wanted to be warm. Thank the Lord I brought a long sleeve sweater I would be buying something warm if I didn't have it. We stopped by Starbucks to get a coffee since it was going to be a late night and headed to the Coral Theater. The show was ok. Nothing special. They picked some songs I had no clue what they were and they did do a few classics but I was surprises nothing from phantom. the song from Cats I hadn't remembered it from seeing the show in London. Cast consists of 4 principle singers 2 girls 2 guys, 8 dancers. Nothing spectacular spectacular but well worth a try. We came back crashed and looked forward to our tomorrow in St Marteen.

 

Day 3

Breakfast same old yummy. Pancakes, sausage, branched out today I added some lovely granola. Today we planed another beach day. I had researched it, watched UTube videos and I choose mullet beach. Very very very beautiful 20$ cab ride there. Not to crowded had front row beach chairs and an umbrella. The only thing thing is there is a significant drop off of sand to where the water is. We didn't have problems getting down it but it might be hard for some people getting back up. Not sure why it was happening but my guess was just erosion problems........ there was a part that was easy to walk up and down without the drop off at one end of the beach.

We bring our snorkel gear everywhere, not much to see in the water bc there were few rocks or coral but that is why the way was soooo clear. there is a rocky side on the left side of the beach that a few people snorkeled at and saw a few things but nothing substantial. Two catamarans came by mid day and let there people swim for about 45 minutes but they left and it was back to us 50 beach bums. lunch was good we ate at the beach bar had two burgers. Yummy. Do you see a lunch pattern. Lol. A nice surprise was the beach bar had wifi for 2$ for an hour so we got to call back home and FaceTime chat with our two year old! Didn't expect to see her all week! We walked the whole beach .....to the right it is substantially rougher and the water is probably not safe to swim close to the right boundary of the beach there is a cool rock ledge you can climb. walking over to the rocks at the top there was a small pod of iguanas soaking up the sun! I had researched the traffic in st. Marteen and discovered it was horrible so I wanted to be safe than sorry so we left at 330. You can be stuck in traffic for 2 hours if it is a busy port day with lots of ships or on a weekend, but thank the heavens we were the only ship all week at our ports. When we grabbed a taxi from the pier there is a posted sign that says to mullet beach 20$. No problems. There is a cab stand about a 10 min walk down the road from the beach or the bar tender at the bar will call you a cab for 1$. We called a cab and waited bout 5 min. The cab driver showed up and gave me he'll about having a damp swim on and cover up. We had brought a completely dry towel and he was giving us he'll still. That was just the beginning we asked how much. He said 30$ my husband said no way we paid 20$ to get here and that is what we will pay to get back. He just threw our stuff out of his 1990 Nissan minivan and left. So we decided to take the short walk to the taxi stand and try there. The walk w nice nothing special. Walked through a pretty rough gold course and ended up at the taxi place around 345. Found a taxi driver confirmed 20$ price to pier and set off. This ride was probably the most scared I have been in a taxi. I have traveled around and have been to a few islands with questionable roads and drivers but this guy had me praying literally he travel about 10 miles per hour and never looked at the road. there we many times that he was just staring out the window and would drift so far Off the road or into oncoming traffic he should have to severely jerk the cab back so we would not perish in a fireball car explosion . He was nice but about 2 miles away from port he changed his game and said it was 20$ to here. I think we were on from street. Lots of shops and it would be 10$ extra to the port. We were like no way dude. My husband was about to blow a gasket. I neutral, like Switzerland, calmed Him,and discussed its logically with the crazy man and he backed down to 20$. Ptl! Made it back to the ship at 445. In plenty of time! showered and rested for a while then we went to the schooner bar and played cards until dinner at 830. Service was better there weren't quit as may people like the night before and the centrum was not as crowed also. Dinner was good got my salad too but the brought our a wrong appetizer but they realized it and fixed it. After dinner we had a early evening because we had the only royal Caribbean excursion booked for Tuesday morning at 830. We are going to swim with stingrays!!!!

 

 

Day 4

Antigua-Stingray city

We woke early. ate breakfast pancakes, sausage, bacon, fruit. headed to the pier to meet our Royal Caribbean excursion guide at 815. I had done a lot of research and for the price it was the easiest to book through the cruise to swim with the stingrays. The cab ride would have been expensive one way so that is why we booked with royal. 69$ per person with transportation was a great deal. It is about a 30 to 40 min drive, had a group of 11 in our van and when we got there a group of about another 20 were also from the ship getting off a bus. They had booked a double excursion kayak and swim with the stingrays. I was super excited about this trip..... for my whole life of 30 years my parents have been talking about when they go to the cayman islands my mom loves swimming with stingrays. i have allllwwwayyyss wanted to do it. So finally after 30 years i got the chance! The facilities were nice. Restrooms, changing area, large outdoor sitting area with pretty trees had a few exotic animals in cages(monkeys, lizards, birds). we had a short briefing about what to expect, learned how to do the stingray shuffle...very important so you don't step on a ray and get stung! Then they loaded us into 3 speed boats. Pretty little fast suckers, it was an overcast and windy day so the ride was bumpy I held on but wasn't ever nervous or scarred. the ride to the sand bar where the rays hung out was about a 5 min ride it. Approaching the dock you could see the rays from the boat and one thing that took me by surprise is the size, some of the were very large! you come upon a floating platforms where the boats unload and hop out. there are ladders that you climb into the water at one end. Entering the water with 30 plus rays you can say I was squeezing my husbands hand with a little anticipation and nerve! at the deepest the water was only 4 feet but the average was about 3 even got knee deep In a few places. Getting in the water we where the first group of people for the day and I had done some reading that the first crowd of the day the rays might be a little more aggressive because it was breakfast time. I didn't feel that way. They were so nice and friendly. The would rub up against your leg and come and check you out to see if you had any grub. To describe the way they felt the best description is....like a soft slippery Wet leather. They were strong. It was good to always be aware of where they were because they could possibly knock you over if one of them came from behind you and you were not ready. We got to feed them there morning squid. there mouth is small on the belly side or bottom side of them so when you feed them it feels like a vacuum. We got to hold them and they had a guy taking pictures with his camera. We had our camera but we did buy the 15$ cd with our picture on it just in case some of ours didn't come out. We were in the water about 45 minutes and it was the perfect amount of time. There is a reef that surrounds the sand bar so there was plenty of snorkeling to be done. They provide snorkels and masks but we brought our own. The clarity in the water could have been better but since it was so windy it wasn't very good. Other days when the wind is low it would probably be crystal clear. But on our day the visibility in the water was about 30 feet. You can still easily see you feet at all times but is not as clear as it could. They guides were so nice, the rays are not in captivity they can come and go as they please but they pretty much say around. They guides where very knowledgable about the animal, they even had some of the frequent flyers named. My favorite ray, her name was Frisbee, when she was small someone cut off her tail so she looked like a frisbee. Returning to land we were greeted with rum punch or fruit punch. And there were showers to get the salt water off of and also there was an area we you could preview your picture with the rays. Ours turned out so good! We headed back to the ship and were on board eating Lunch in the windjammer by12. That afternoon we headed to the market to do a little shopping for our 2 year old and it was kind of overwhelming. I have done market shopping before but the people there were a little two aggressive for me. They wouldn't take no for and answer and they were very pushy about me seeing there booth. We found a cute little dress and headed back ,napped and the headed to dinner. We were In Bed pretty early. It was a long day and we were both tiered.

 

Day 5

St Lucia

Breakfast. Do I have to type this again ...pancakes, sausage, bacon, fruit. My heart,belly and baby are content.

I had been anticipating this island for the whole trip I was so excited to go back to where we honeymooned 6 years ago. I love this island and still to this day love it. i will be retuning for and extended stay one day. Trying to convince the hubby to come work at there hospital 3 days a week for a month!!!!

We booked the zip line tour through a company called treetop adventures and we had a blast!!!!! The cruise has one you can book through an excursion but we opted for this one because it was 59$ per person with transportation.

If you haven't been to St. Lucia before the best way to describe there roads are like a roller coaster. Very windy and hilly, but they are well taken care of and out of all the islands they were the smoothest and widest.

Back to zip lining. We met our guide off the pier at 930 and she brought us to our ride.. Usually these people cram you in like sardines .into a van, get you to where you need to go but truly our transpiration was the nicest experience ever! We were put into a decked out leather seated air conditioned Toyota four runner with plenty of room and it was just the two of us. Our drivers name was Roger and he gave us a free island tour and pointed many things out on our way to the rain forest. Nice ride, nice man. He has 6 year old twin girls so that was fun to talk about our kids. W headed to the east side of the island. We had not seen that side of the island 6yeas ago and it was beautiful. There where cliffs and little rock islands. beautiful overlooks so you you could see the atlantic ocean. The waves were nice. The Atlantic Ocean was beautiful. We made it to he Zip line in about 40 minutes. got pared with a group of 6 adults that were from Colorado and Oklahoma. They were nice. We suited up in harness, hairnets, helmet and after you sign a if you die it's not our fault waver we headed to the lines. Their were 11 total but one was I call a puddle hopper I don't even thing it was 75 feet long but the other lines were great fast , fun, and beautiful We were literally in the middle of the rain forest and where zipping thought the trees like Tarzan and Jane!! Love it!!! There was a lot of walking up stars so I did get winded a few times but that probably was do to a growing human in my belly. I am 15 weeks prego and had a blast! I got an approval from my Ob before we left and she was like go for it. I am not showing at all so I was totally comfortable. The only warning from my Ob was don't slam into a tree and brake your hip. We also casually forgot to tell the company that i was prego. It is not forbidden by them but probably really frowned upon. Haha!! after doing the lines it would have been pretty much impossible or vey unlikely to do that. Also I just didn't mention if you take your time there should be any problems. Hubby describes it as moderate stair walking. We were the first group of the day and I recommend getting there early, the groups get larger and that is just time you have to wait for your group to be done. 8 was the perfect size!!! There complex was nice bathrooms a store lockers for valuables. I wore tennis shoes, you can't wear flip flops. Closed toe shoes are probably the way to go. I would be a little nervousness in open toe stay on saddles like chaos or Tevas. some of the other people had those saddles on that were more like shoes closed toe in front but strappy in the middle. They said to work fine. Our group was done in about 1.15 hours, prefect length. Turned in our climbing gear witch was all new and nothing old looking, also name brand gear so the company wasn't cutting corners on getting cheap gear. headed back to the ship with roger by 12:45. I can not tell you how great Roger was. He told us about St. Lucia politics, lol. I'm not much into that anyway he stopped the car at an overlook so we could see the Atlantic Ocean. Talked about the bananas and so much more. driving through Castries he pointed out some cool things. He showed us to the market and other little local eateries. We tipped him 20$ we we left even though his service was included in the price of the tour we thought we got great serve I wish we could have given him more but we did what we could. After saying a tears goodby to roger we headed up to the buffet to eat lunch we ate in a hurry, we wanted to hit up the market to find a few things for the family back home. You could walk there but traffic is crazy around the port so they have his nice little water ferry for 5$ pp round trip that picks you up at the pier and drops you off right In front of the market. St. Lucia market was much more nice than Antigua. the people were not as aggressive and we found more little dresses for maymay(daughters name- Madison Claire nickname maymay) found some hot sauce for our dads, locally made.....decided to blow up a picture of us with the sting rays when we got back home and frame it for the moms and called it quits on the shopping. we did have one more stop to make before we boarded. I had been talking to the hubby about how I wanted something special to remember my trip, how I wanted a forever something.... we came up with a brilliant idea. To start a trip pandora bracelet. St Lucia is a very special place in my heart we found the store that sells beads and I got my first bead. It is beautiful in every way. I wanted a bead for the trip to remind me of how wonderful it was so we got a bead with a beautiful cut blue stone on it. It is perfect, it reminds me of the crystal clear blue water of the Caribbean and our first cruise. It looks like a jewel too, so that fit perfectly with Jewel of the sea. I was one happy girl. Hope to one day fill it up with beads from all our travels. What a great keepsake to have for a

Forever. We got back to the ship ate a snack and took a nap in the solarium. Haha woke up right as we were sailing away we ,moved from the pool to a window view in the solarium to watch the sail away. our captain really does love his cargo we waited 15 minuted for a couple would were running late on shore. That night back on ship was the second formal night we were tired and opted for the 8 o'clock movie so we had good dinner in the windjammer. I had a huge plate of salad with ranch dressing I was craving ranch, some pasta and some roles. It was a nice dinner expert for the grumpy old ignorant man making rude comments about how bad his day was. He was 4 tables away and was very cranky in felt sorry for his table. We made our coke floats(our favorite snack that we make, free soft serve ice cream for the buffet and a Coke from our room...Heaven In a cup) headed to the theater to watch Trouble with the Curve. The theater is small seats 48 people but big enough. Good movie. Fun night. The theater is on floor 6 near the front and almost in the casino. After the movie we fell fast asleep in our little dark cave.

 

Day 7

Barbados. -beach day

Breakfast-not typing you know by know what I am eating... This was the one day that I planned nothing. I usually know exactly where I am going and what I am going to do weeks before vacation. But Barbados was our last stop and I just didn't do much research. I did know however that I unwanted to do a beach. When we first booked the cruise i did do a little research and wanted to hit up Mullins because it looked pretty quite and nice, but I had read over the blogs and cc that the beach is disappearing and the restaurant closed in April so that was a no go. We walked off the boat and went into the tourist info center picked up a map and looked at it...... talked o the lady and decide on Acra beach or also know as Rockley. I didn't want to do Carlie's bay because I hear it is crowded and more like a bar scene than beach not relaxing style and probably didn't fit our personality .we jumped in a cab paid him 20$ and were at the beach within 290 min. He drove us through town and showed us some cool things but we were at the beach by 945 had our front row chairs (15$ for 2chairs and umbrella)and were relaxing in no time. The beach was nice had a few vendors stands with clothing and souvenirs. I think we were approached once by a guy trying to give massages but that was it. This beach was so different than the other beaches on our trip, there were a lot more waves and the waves where perfect for body surfing. Not a good beach for snorkeling, but great fun waves. Also it was a good place for kids because there was no significant drop off into the water so the little ones could play in the shallows and be safe. The one thing that was a little unusual was that the was a significant current that was defiantly felt while you we in the water. The water naturally pulled you to the right but I was never nervous the sand gradually got deeper so you could be in what ever depth you wanted. I did however get tiered of trying to walk against the current so a few times we just walked along the beach after we floated down a ways. Fun beach, great way to end our island hopping. We did three beach days all different types of beaches!

 

st croix- fun snorkeling.

St marteen by far the most beautiful.

Barbados-Most wavy and most water fun!

 

We have a funny lunch story. There is a very visible restaurant on a rocky cliff to the far right of the beach. Very pretty, so we walked the beach passed the tiki bar that served burgers and things and walked up the hill to find the pretty restaurant . Champers named, it looked like a bar but a lady came out I asked if they serve lunch and she showed us to our table right on the cliff ledge over looking the ocean. She handed us the menu and my jaw dropped. Lunch would have cost us 180 dollars. Hindsight we probably should have asked for a menu before we sat but they did not have one posted and we walked out. I love food but we were not prepared to dish out that much cash. So we ended up at the Tiki Bar with overcooked burgers for23$! a burger, two cokes and left with a 56$ bill. I thought that was crazy for what we got and my burger was not well done but burned. Barbados wins the award in my book for worst and most expensive lunch.

 

Our day flew by in the afternoon we did more body surfing and I moved my chair in to the shallow part of the water for and hour to pick up some last chance sun rays and soon it was time to head back to the ship. We headed outta 4:00. you can ride the public bus back. Prb would have but the lady at a clothing stand said it is a 15 walk from the bus drop off to the pier so we grabbed a cab that was hanging out in the parking lot. He charged us 25$ we didn't want to argue since we paid 20$ to get there so we paid him and were back on the ship by 430. The walk from the bus terminal might have been 5 minutes. Will do it next time for sure! We hung out in the solarium for a while got a virgin piña coloada(baby approved) then napped until our dinner in the dinning room at 830. One top 5 favorite places to hang out was on deck 5 under the life boats on the rail near the water nice breeze good for sailing away. Dinner was good then that night we stayed up to go see the LOve and Marriage game show at 10:15. I was so funny I recommend it for anyone who is married or around that age I prb would not have let my kids watch it but I am pretty conservative with watch they see. I laughed a lot, cringed a lot, and left pretty amused!!! After the show we hit the sack the next day was our only day at sea we were looking forward to resting and doing a few things on the cruise compass that I had highlighted.

 

Day 8

Well here it is our only day at sea. I was a little nervous being a first time cruiser and being stuck on a ship for over 24 hours with only water meeting the eyes. i sometimes secretly thought preparing for this trip that I would feel like like I am in prison or trapped and nothing I could do about it. ....but I survived and liked it. We had planed our day to mostly rest but we did make it out and about in the morning to play bingo in the safari club. I was a little taken back at how much it cost to play for 4 games. We bought a card with 6 squares for 32$. There where about 60 people playing it if you won one of the four games you did get a good cash prize. We didn't win, so sad. We probably should have gone to the captains corner( q&a with the captain, head ship engineer, and hotel manager) in the centenum at the same time but we had to choose and bingo it was. After that we went to the centenum. To watch a demonstration on towel folding animals it was interesting and they gave us a little brochure so we could channel out towel making skills at home. Post towel activity we headed up to eat lunch and then when back and took a nap. We slept until 1:45 that is when we went to the pool deck to watch the "worlds sexiest man " competition. It was so funny, our cruise director did a great job. We got a spot on the stairs and watched it. The pool area was soooo crowded but it was mid day and pretty out. I had gotten some sun in Barbados the day before so after the competition we headed to the Solarium to hang out and swim. We did that till about 6 and then went back to our room to see how disembarkation would work. When we got back to our room there were detailed instructions on how the day would go. We had no clue that all our luggage had to be out by that night a 11 so that was something new. We got our new luggage tags, filled them out and rested more. Can you guess the theme of the day was..........rest! We went up to do dinner in the windjammer around 745 I couldn't stay up and do a 3 or 4 course meal starting at 830 that night so we just ate early came back to the room and started packing. It did not take us long and soon our room was all packed and we were putting our luggage outside our door so the luggage fairies could come and take it away. We made one last run to the gift shop to get a stuffed Nemo fish for our daughter and called it a night.

One thing that I didn't expect was all the selling going on, on the ship all day I felt like I was at a mall. I know they have to make money and to do that people have to be on board and friday was the only day that we are all tied there...... it didn't bother me much, no one was pushy and they sold things in areas where it wouldn't get to contested.

We were asleep by 10:30.

 

We did not have a early flight so our disembarkation number was 21 which was fine with me since we didn't have to meet in the coral theater until 9:20 am to leave more resting time. They disembark you in groups by numbers and they have different meeting times so customs will go smoothly. You can register early to walk of the ship at 7:15 carrying your own luggage or 7:30 without your luggage but you have to and prove you have a flight before 12:30 be a US citizen.

 

The morning of disembarking was a breeze our luggage was gone except for the cloths we wore on our back and a small makeup bag with our toothbrushes and things that we needed in the am. we ate breakfast the windjammer was opened 6:30-8:30 and then around 920 we headed to the coral theater to leave. It was sad saying goodby to our little room that was our home for a week but all good things must come to an end. We waited about 20 min in the coral and was walking off the ship about 9:40. we walked into the San Juan terminal to find our luggage and go through customs. We found our luggage with no problems when I saw the line for customs I thought we were going to be in line for hours but it went really fast we were only in line for about 20 minutes. The line almost reached the back of the hanger where we were staged. Walking outside there was a plethora of taxi drivers and we were on our way to the airport with in 5 minutes. Taxis 25$ the cruise port Is a little farther than Old San Juan so 25$ seamed right.

 

In conclusion WE HAD A GREAT TIME!!!!! Probably won't cruise every year but we are up for it again. I hear Alaska calling one day.

 

Here are our top 5 best and worst of the whole experience.

 

Top 5 best

1. We loved the port intensive intenirary

2. Loved the dark room

3. Loved you could always find a quite place

4. Favorite sitting place on the ship Helicopter pad or deck 5 outside (they are tied)

5. Always being able to find something to eat!

 

Worst 5.

1. We felt like our room attendant was always knocking and seeing if we needed anything or always coming by before dinner while we were trying to get ready to do turndown service.

2. The nightly shows could have been better but loved Love and Marriage show.

3. Service in the dinning room was very rushed and we felt that our waiter was overwhelmed a lot. Also we wished we had my time dinning when we booked the cruise in December it was all full and you could not even be on a wait list. The three nights we ate in the main dinning room I thought I was about to fall asleep in the middle.

4. More self serve drink stations around the ship closer to rooms would have been nice

5. It would have been good to have a self serve laundry area

 

Side note we never used room service. I had planed to but our room was so dark I would wake up before the hubby and just go eat what 1 call first breakfast and watch us go into port. Then when the hubby was up around 8 i would go eat 2nd breakfast with him. i would use it if I had a balcony though.

 

Also we tried the sea view a cafe once it was ok but I had heard there onion rings was what you went for and they where out the whole week. So sad. There fish and chips were good though.

 

 

Note for the pregos: I loved cruising pregnant!! Royal allows you to sail up to 24 weeks and I had a blast!!!i had a note from the doctor but since I wasn't showing I didn't even hand it over to them. Lol! Great babymoon, don't be afraid!!! Know your body and take your time and eat whatever you want!!!! had brought drugs galore to fight the sea sickness but being prego the list is very limited. zofran, Benadryl, and Tylenol. That is what i had packed. I didn't take anything...My only prego moments came at dinner where I couldn't eat a lot. Not sure if it was a prego thing or just a tiered thing but don't feel bad if you can eat everything on your plate. I also didn't eat any sandwiches or salads that were mayo based (pasta salad,tuna or chicken) from the Buffett. There are plenty of other options!!!

 

Favorite unusual thing: watching the flying fish from the helicopter pad! We saw a lot of these fish they have these wings and they jump out of the water glide in the air sometimes for a Long way and then dive back in the water! I had seen them when I was a little kid but I forgot how cool they were!

 

Ship speed and wave averages: The worst the seas got where about 8-10 feet one night and you barley felt the boat move. The average wave hight sailing at night was about 6 feet. The average boat speed was about 8 to 10 knots........except for the night we went from Antigua to St. Lucia that was an average of 17 knots. The day at sea we were cruising along at 14 knots. Calm seas with wind out of the east the whole trip.

 

Over all we had. Blast and we give the cruise a A!!! Hope you enjoy the review and pictures. Please feel free to ask questions!!!

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BillOh Holiday Sharing Rare

BillOh

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I guess a perk was by the time our boarding number was called A34 exit row seats were still available because everyone had kids and could not sit in them.

 

 

Now there is looking at the bright side! I'm just starting this review as you are probably finishing it, I hope you don't get flamed for the kid remarks, as someone will always say, "don't sail a family cruise line if you don't like kids" Such a tired and worthless remark. :rolleyes:

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BillOh Holiday Sharing Rare

BillOh

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Worst 5.

1. We felt like our room attendant was always knocking and seeing if we needed anything or always coming by before dinner while we were trying to get ready to do turndown service.

 

I could see why that would be top on your list. I know the better cabin stewarts I've had know when your dinner time is. On my last Allure cruise we went to dinner at Chops early on formal night so we caught him off guard. He did comment that he thought we had late seating, so I know he checked.

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AmandaKaye79

AmandaKaye79

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Went through security, no line!! We even brought on 18 cokes!!' ( Bought 2 -8 packs for 2.99$ each at the local grocery. There 12 pack was 5.60$ so we opted to spend .50 more and get more!! )No problem!!!

 

 

Did you have them in your carry on bag or did you check them? I want to carry on a few cokes and some water but I thought it wasn't allowed. I read somewhere that you can only carry on 2 bottles of wine.

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