Jewel of the Seas ~ B2B ~ Sept. 6th and 13th ~ My Diary

[CRUISEMAMI]

I see the 'cruising toes' That's a sign of wonderful cruise!!!

 

 

 

Sent with my iPhone

[maxs mom]

The only problem with this stretch of beach is that there is a lot of sea grass that washes up. They do a pretty good job of keeping it cleaned up, but it was particularly bad today, especially out in the water. I usually like to swim here, but I didn't today. It cleared up quite a bit towards the afternoon.

 

They have recently added some water sports here and we enjoyed this guy on what I called "rocket shoes"!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, I have always said that this is the best place to parasail! And this guy was doing the wind surfing thing. Very entertaining to watch all of this!

 

[rebeccaknott]

Hi Jane,

 

I am loving your review so far. It was so nice to meet you and hopefully we will end up on the same ship again one day.

[maxs mom]

Hi Jane,

 

I am loving your review so far. It was so nice to meet you and hopefully we will end up on the same ship again one day.

 

Hey There!! Great to meet you as well. Hope you and "Jose" are doing well!! I have a couple of pictures of you guys......hopefully you can grab them off of here and save to your computer. Would be fun sailing with you guys again!!

[denamo]

Yeah! Glad to see you back with a review on the Jewel. We've been considering cruising on the Jewel, and so glad it's you, doing the review. Pictures and commentary are most enjoyable!

 

BTW...love the rocket shoes guy. Looks fun.

[maxs mom]

It turned out to be such a nice day. We settled in and read and enjoyed the sights. The beach bar is great here. They let you run a tab. There are nice beach boys and great bar service.

 

 

We made our lunch reservations for noon. This is the lower part of the restaurant. We always sit in the upstairs area because of the beautiful view.

 

 

This is the view from upstairs.

 

 

 

I ordered the Caesar salad and John ordered a hamburger......both delicious!

 

 

 

They have all kinds of wonderful things on their menu. It is quite extensive and they have some great specials. I will have to branch out next time and try something else. The prices are in euros, but the US dollar amount is also on your bill, so no worries.

[maxs mom]

Yeah! Glad to see you back with a review on the Jewel. We've been considering cruising on the Jewel, and so glad it's you, doing the review. Pictures and commentary are most enjoyable!

 

BTW...love the rocket shoes guy. Looks fun.

 

Thanks!! You can't go wrong with a cruise out f San Juan. We learned a long time ago.....that the best cruises in the Caribbean leave from San Juan and if you can go on a Radiance Class ship....that makes it perfect!

 

It was so fun watching rocket man!!

[maxs mom]

After lunch and on the way back to my chair.....I always like to order a Bushwhacker for dessert!! This was very good!!

 

 

More relaxing at our chairs this afternoon!

 

 

 

We enjoyed watching this little dog play with a family (not his) and run off with their ball every chance he got!!

 

 

 

He hid under my chair a couple of times!!

 

[maxs mom]

All too soon, it was time to get back to the ship. There were a few other ship folks at the beach today, so we hitched a ride back with them as their driver came back for them. We told their driver that ours wouldn't come back for us and he told us that was against the law. Anyway.....we got back without any trouble at all....and the folks from the ship happened to be from North Carolina as well!!

 

 

There was a shuttle that took us right to the ship's door when we got back to the pier area. Very nice.

 

 

We were back on the ship around 4:00. Time for some ice cream, showers and some down time!!

 

Tonight was formal night. We didn't get real dressed up (we just don't do that much any more). We enjoyed some CL time this evening and met a great couple from Tennessee. We enjoyed hanging out with them the rest of the cruise. This is Dan and Donna:

 

 

This is John's formal wear!

 

 

Here is another couple.....Dan and Rose from Florida. We also saw them a good bit as they were also dong a B2B.

 

 

An then here we are:

 

[Lady Hudson]

So glad to see you are back. Thanks for taking the time to write your reviews. Katherine

[SherriZ366]

I see the 'cruising toes' That's a sign of wonderful cruise!!!

 

 

 

Sent with my iPhone

Agree about the "cruising toe."

[kleo30]

It turned out to be such a nice day. We settled in and read and enjoyed the sights. The beach bar is great here. They let you run a tab. There are nice beach boys and great bar service.

 

$50 is a good deal for the cabana.

 

Do they accept cash? Or do you need to use a CC?

[CPPADILLA]

Yipee, another Jane review. I will be following along, always love your reviews. We will be on the Jewel next October since she is coming to the west coast for a short while. No airfare for us, just over an hour drive to the ship. :D:)

[britty1]

Hi Jane: One of these days we are going to sail together - we are friends of Lisa/Guy and we will be sailing with them in March out of Galveston. Anyway just wanted to pop in and say that we really like your idea of formal wear, that's about what our formal wear looks like. :D

[maxs mom]

So glad to see you are back. Thanks for taking the time to write your reviews. Katherine

 

Thanks!! We aren't cruising again until Nov.! I don't know if I can stand it!!

[maxs mom]

$50 is a good deal for the cabana.

 

Do they accept cash? Or do you need to use a CC?

 

Yes.....they do take cash there.

[maxs mom]

Yipee, another Jane review. I will be following along, always love your reviews. We will be on the Jewel next October since she is coming to the west coast for a short while. No airfare for us, just over an hour drive to the ship. :D:)

 

So glad that you will be able to cruise on Jewel on the West Coast. Those cruises should be really good!!

[maxs mom]

Hi Jane: One of these days we are going to sail together - we are friends of Lisa/Guy and we will be sailing with them in March out of Galveston. Anyway just wanted to pop in and say that we really like your idea of formal wear, that's about what our formal wear looks like. :D

 

Hey! Yes....I remember you! We would love to find a time to cruise with Guy and Lisa again. I hope we can soon. Maybe we'll get to meet you one of these days!!

[maxs mom]

So the Concierge on Jewel is Diego Tripaldi. We have not cruised with him before, but let me tell you......he is one of the very best!! Diego knows everybody's name before you even come into the Lounge. He greets everybody and does his best to do everything he possibly can to make your cruise special, whether you are a Suite Guest or Diamond Plus. He is truly a gem!! I am so excited that he will be on board when we cruise the Jewel again in Nov. and Dec.

 

 

 

Well.....now it's time to go to dinner in the Main Dining Room. We are using My Time Dining. We have a standing reservation every night for 8:30 unless we are at a Specialty Restaurant. We went any time between 8 and 8:30 and were always seated right away.

 

Tonight was our first time there, though. We walked up to the podium and there was a bit of a line. I thought, "Oh no!", but the line moved VERY quickly and we were seated in a quiet out of the way spot and our waiter was Kasa. We were quite happy with this. I was very impressed with the MTD situation on this ship. They were very organized, had plenty of people seating everyone, and everything always went well here for us.

 

Tonight I started with the shaved melon and then had the Salmon Vignole Salad as an entrée. Wonderful!!!

 

 

 

John had Kasa bring him some iceberg lettuce with a chicken breast cut up on top of it and that was no problem. He had that almost every night (he is a picky eater!) and Kasa laughed about it, but it was never a problem.

 

We enjoyed coffee and cheesecake for dessert.

 

 

 

We were all done in under an hour......can't beat that!

 

Since we were such pitiful losers in the casino last night, we stayed out of there tonight. We just enjoyed some down time in our cabin this evening. On the way out of the dining room, we saw Dennis, the cruise director, doing a TV spot. They waved to us!

 

[adamdiane]

Hi Max'smom,

 

Thank you for your review which I am really looking forward to as we are doing a B2B in November - the 2 weeks prior to your next B2B on Jewel.

 

We like to frequent the concierge lounge too so am interested to hear about Diego!

 

What, if anything, did you do on changeover day? We are thinking about renting a car and driving to El Yunque.

 

Can't wait for your next update.

 

Adam

[maxs mom]

Hi Max'smom,

 

Thank you for your review which I am really looking forward to as we are doing a B2B in November - the 2 weeks prior to your next B2B on Jewel.

 

We like to frequent the concierge lounge too so am interested to hear about Diego!

 

What, if anything, did you do on changeover day? We are thinking about renting a car and driving to El Yunque.

 

Can't wait for your next update.

 

Adam

 

Hi Adam! Sorry we will miss you in November! We'll keep things in good shape for you. First of all Diego is the best!! You will enjoy him as the Concierge. Actually....you can keep things in shape for us and remind Diego that we will be on board after you!!

 

Actually we are pretty lazy on turn around day. We just love to hang out on the ship, but many people get off and do a lot of stuff. You can get off pretty early, so driving to El Yunque should be doable. When we were younger we would do stuff like that. Now we need naps!!!

Edited September 27, 2014 by max'smom

[maggieq]

Jane, absolutely love you doing this review. Definitely a great ship to do a back to back on. We loved Diego too in May.

[kruise runner]

HI CRUISER

Thank you ,for your review of the Jewel great picts. We will be sailing on her in Nov . Thanks again:D

 

Jewel time in 49 days

kruise runner:cool: , kruise kat:)

[maxs mom]

Monday ~ September 8, 2014 ~ St. Kitts

 

Up early again today and same routine. This is my view of the sail in from the CL while drinking my coffee. Always love to come to St. Kitts!

 

 

Nice breakfast this morning. I actually ordered something different from the usual. I got oatmeal and they actually brought some blueberries to go with it. Yum!

 

 

We were, again, practically the only people in the DR.

 

Today we took a taxi......easily obtained right at the end of the pier.....over to the Marriott. After sampling all the beaches in St. Kitts, we decided that the Marriott was the place for us and we have been coming here for years. It is always a wonderful day.

 

The place was empty! You can get a day pass here for $35 pp. We set up the Wi-Fi before going out to the beach. It works great in the lobby, but kind of spotty on the beach and the pool. First we head out to the beach for a while.....it was empty! We had our pick of all the cabanas.

 

 

We set up camp here!

 

 

It was beautiful today.

 

 

[maxs mom]

It was so nice out on the beach today. We had a relaxing morning. Peace and quiet and a good book!

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the security guys came over to talk to us. He was very nice and we chatted for a while. His name is Keslar. He said that any time we came out there to look him up and he would get anything we needed. They don't give you Marriott towels any more with a day pass, so it's OK to use your RCI towels. Keslar brought us some towels though, and we started using those.