Jewel ~ S. Caribbean and Panama Canal ~ April 25th & May 2nd ~ My Diary

[westwood65]

Thanks so much for your reviews. I look forward to them all. Love hearing about the beaches that you visit in the different stops. We are on the Jewel in the fall and very much looking forward to it.

[bob@karen]

I love this review and will look for others you have written. Your "moo" comment really cracked me up!

[LoveThoseSeaDays]

Thanks so much for your review. Especially liked to "sail along" with you through the Panama Canal.

 

We are on the Jewel's New Year's sailing, and I'm wondering if you could please share your beach/tour recommendations for our ports. It's so helpful to see the hotels/restaurants where you found a comfy place by the shore and a nice lunch.

We are looking for recommendations for Barbados, Antigua, St. Lucia and St. Croix.

 

Thank you!

[Champagne Cruiser]

Thank you again for your fabulous review. I take so many notes. I think you should "publish" a Jane's Top Recommendations for Cruising". It could perhaps list all the beach recommendations for each port and top food and activities for each ship.

[maxs mom]

Thanks so much for your reviews. I look forward to them all. Love hearing about the beaches that you visit in the different stops. We are on the Jewel in the fall and very much looking forward to it.

 

We are hoping to get back on the Jewel before too long ourselves. It's like going home!!

[maxs mom]

I love this review and will look for others you have written. Your "moo" comment really cracked me up!

 

I just couldn't help it. I swear, that's what I think of every time I see a ship's excursion lining up on the pier!!

[maxs mom]

Thanks so much for your review. Especially liked to "sail along" with you through the Panama Canal.

 

We are on the Jewel's New Year's sailing, and I'm wondering if you could please share your beach/tour recommendations for our ports. It's so helpful to see the hotels/restaurants where you found a comfy place by the shore and a nice lunch.

We are looking for recommendations for Barbados, Antigua, St. Lucia and St. Croix.

 

Thank you!

 

Sure!

 

Barbados.....We've been going out to Accra Beach for a while now. It's a little further out than the Boatyard....where most people go. I don't like to go where most people go!! The taxi driver can drop you off at the Tiki Bar all the way at the end. Good deal on chairs, umbrellas, and food. Service on the beach. You have to go early, though.....some ship excursions come here now, which makes me sad. You might check ahead of time with the Accra Hotel that is on the other end of the beach. Sometimes they will have a room for the day if they are not full. Good if you can share the expense with another couple. Also if you are adventurous and can share expenses with another couple......go out to Crane Beach. It's about a 45 minute taxi ride, but this beach is absolutely stunning. Fabulous resort here. For about $25 or $30....you can go out on their beach....you still have to rent some chairs for a nominal fee. But the money you pay comes off your bill for lunch....in a restaurant on top of a cliff......fabulous view. They let us tour the property the last time we were there. Amazing!! We have GOT to get out there again one of these days.....It's just a little pricey, but well worth it!!

 

Antigua.......We have been going out to Valley Church Beach for a while now. Lots of others have found this beach as well now, but it's still a nice place to go. Good food for lunch.....try the coconut shrimp!! Great rates on jet skis if you're interested. Again.....get there early!

 

St. Lucia.......haven't been to this resort in a while, but I understand it's still a good place to go. It is an all inclusive place called The Rendezvous....very close to the port. I'm not sure what the rates are now, but you can google it and find out. We've gone with reservations and without. Drinks all day, swim up bar in pool and a decent lunch. Now this is an older resort, but still in good shape. It is adults only.

 

St. Croix......we always go to a little resort right there close to the port called Sandcastle. You can get a $3 shuttle at the end of the pier (to the right). It takes about 5 minutes to get there. Again......older resort. Excellent food and drinks. The beach is kind of rocky and nothing to get excited about......but we like it. Nice and quiet. You could also check on a resort called the Buccaneer. I haven't been there but I understand it is nice. A little bit of a taxi ride, but you can get those taxis right at the end of the pier as well (to the left). I believe you can get a room for the day there. Check with them about reservations.

 

Hope this helps.

[maxs mom]

Thank you again for your fabulous review. I take so many notes. I think you should "publish" a Jane's Top Recommendations for Cruising". It could perhaps list all the beach recommendations for each port and top food and activities for each ship.

 

Thanks, Jean!!

 

LOL! These little reviews here on CC are about all I can handle!!

[maxs mom]

Well.....it's the beginning of the end! Always a sad time on a cruise! We have to start saying good-bye to everybody!! We head to the CL at the usual time and in our "private" elevator one last time.

 

 

 

On the way down the hallway on Deck 10.....a familiar sight. Someone working on the toilet system. They really have their hands full trying to keep those things flushing. One of the engineers told some friends that the most common thing flushed down the toilets, without question....on all ships...is ......are you ready?.......those green dinner napkins!! What!! Good grief!

 

 

An amazing sunset, once again!

 

 

We made some wonderful friends on this sailing! We sure hope to see them again soon on the high seas!!

 

 

 

Edited June 7, 2015 by max'smom

[maxs mom]

We bid Joseph and Diego a fond farewell. I know we will see them again soon!! I hope so anyway!!

 

 

 

 

On to My Time for dinner. The Hostess was really good to us. She was Ann's roommate!

 

 

It's really nice when your table is reserved for you like this!!

 

 

Sad to say that our meal in the dining room was not good at all tonight. I ordered the sea food mash and it was almost inedible! I have had it when it was delicious, but not tonight. What a shame. Oh well.....there WAS Key Lime Pie!!

 

[maxs mom]

Our wait staff was incredible! There was nothing that they wouldn't do for us. We will definitely ask to be seated with Ann again in the future!!

 

 

 

On the way to the casino tonight we saw Dick and Jane dancing in the Centrum!! They love to dance and are so fun to watch!

 

 

 

We also ran into my morning CL buddy, Kay. She was delightful!!

 

 

We went to the casino tonight....not to gamble.....but for a raffle that John was entered in. He got his ticket from the spin to win machine. Apparently, a lot of folks also had a ticket.

 

 

There were just some dinky prizes.....like t-shirts and hats and stuff. I think they gave out about 5 or 6 or so.

[Dick and Jane]

Oh! I feel so honored to be included in your photo gallery.

[maxs mom]

We ran into another former cruise buddy, also named Kay. She won one of the prizes.

 

 

Such a sad sight while walking back to our cabin!

 

 

Those are ours!!

 

 

 

All good things must come to an end. I set up a wake up call for the morning and we went to bed!

[maxs mom]

Oh! I feel so honored to be included in your photo gallery.

 

You guys are the best!!!

[maxs mom]

We got into San Diego very early. What a beautiful port. We thought we might have a lot of wait time getting off the ship. We've heard of others having problems. We went to the Windjammer for breakfast this morning so we could eat a little faster than the MDR. That worked out well. Still had eggs to order! We grabbed a table with Skiergirl and Mr. Ski. Glad to be able to say good-bye to them.

 

 

 

We went back to our cabin and got all our stuff together and headed down to the Safari Lounge (Diamond Plus area for disembarking). Well the Lounge was still being used by immigration. They were still looking for people that had not presented themselves yet. Always the way!! So we grabbed a seat in the Schooner Bar. We actually did not have to wait too long. At 5 of 9 they called us to get off. Our scheduled time was 9:05. It was probably one of the easiest disembarkations we've ever had. We picked up our luggage (after a big long hug from Diego!!) and walked out the door......We didn't even have to show anybody our passports!

 

Our plan next was to get a taxi over to the car rental place at the airport.....which was right there at the port! We rented a car and drove up to Los Angeles to visit our very good cruise buddies who live there. There was a birthday involved! We spent the night with them, then met up with cousins who live in Pasadena. We stayed with them for two days and we had wonderful visits with everyone. We flew home from Los Angeles the following Tuesday. It worked out great and I'm so glad we did that instead of flying home right away.

 

So once again....two fabulous cruises are in the books!! We had a marvelous time and met some very wonderful people, as we always do, but there seemed to be so many this time!! I hope that we can keep in touch and cruise with many of them in the future. I think we will!! As our cruise buddies in Los Angeles will tell you......don't tell us to come to visit......because we will!!!!!!

 

So as always.......we would like to offer a toast to all our cruise buddies.....past and present......It was a blast......and we hope to see you again on a future float. We'll be on the Independence in September.....but always looking for something in the meantime. In a couple of weeks we will celebrate our 30th anniversary. Our first cruise was spent on Song of America for our honeymoon, so I feel like we have been with Royal Caribbean for 30 years.

 

Here we are boarding that very first cruise. Little did we know that was the start of an addiction that many of us here on CC have. It's been a great 30 years and hopefully, before 30 more......we might join the Pinnacle Club!!! Stay tuned!!

 

 

I think that picture cost $3.95!!!!

 

Cheers and Salud!! Until we see you again!!

 

Edited June 7, 2015 by max'smom

[CRUISEMAMI]

So sad to see this review ending!What I'm going to do until Sept 20th???

 

 

 

Oh yeah....104 days left!:)

[CAT GIRL]

Jane - great review ! Glad to see that Moe and I made it into some

of the pictures. It was like reliving the whole things again through you.

And of course I always enjoy the pictures of Diego: Concierge

Extraordinaire.

I also agree about Crane Beach in Barbados. Such a lovely beach and

resort. The last time we tried to go there, there was a lot of

construction and the drive time was terrible. We ended up turning around

and coming back to the ship. We've never tried again after that.

Maybe if you are on the same sailing as us when it stops there

we can share the adventure together. Moe and I actually considered

a destination wedding there.

Hi to everyone that we met. Happy Cruising.

 

Anita

[Yorkvillain]

Amazing job as always Jane. Thank you.

[joand452]

Thank you for the great cruise review! I enjoyed seeing places I've been and not been.

 

Where are we going next??

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[maxs mom]

So sad to see this review ending!What I'm going to do until Sept 20th???

 

[ATTACH]351553[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH]351554[/ATTACH][ATTACH]351555[/ATTACH][ATTACH]351556[/ATTACH]

 

Oh yeah....104 days left!:)

 

I don't know, but I am certainly looking forward to the Indy. It will be here before we know it.

[maxs mom]

Jane - great review ! Glad to see that Moe and I made it into some

of the pictures. It was like reliving the whole things again through you.

And of course I always enjoy the pictures of Diego: Concierge

Extraordinaire.

I also agree about Crane Beach in Barbados. Such a lovely beach and

resort. The last time we tried to go there, there was a lot of

construction and the drive time was terrible. We ended up turning around

and coming back to the ship. We've never tried again after that.

Maybe if you are on the same sailing as us when it stops there

we can share the adventure together. Moe and I actually considered

a destination wedding there.

Hi to everyone that we met. Happy Cruising.

 

Anita

 

So nice meeting you guys!! Hey......that would be wonderful to get out to the Crane again in Barbados! Sometimes it's kind of hard to find someone that is willing to do that with you. We had such a wonderful time out there when we went. I hear they have an elevator down to the beach now. We will certainly look for you on another cruise!!

[maxs mom]

Amazing job as always Jane. Thank you.

 

Thanks for following along!

[Johnamac123]

We got into San Diego very early. What a beautiful port. We thought we might have a lot of wait time getting off the ship. We've heard of others having problems. We went to the Windjammer for breakfast this morning so we could eat a little faster than the MDR. That worked out well. Still had eggs to order! We grabbed a table with Skiergirl and Mr. Ski. Glad to be able to say good-bye to them.

 

 

 

We went back to our cabin and got all our stuff together and headed down to the Safari Lounge (Diamond Plus area for disembarking). Well the Lounge was still being used by immigration. They were still looking for people that had not presented themselves yet. Always the way!! So we grabbed a seat in the Schooner Bar. We actually did not have to wait too long. At 5 of 9 they called us to get off. Our scheduled time was 9:05. It was probably one of the easiest disembarkations we've ever had. We picked up our luggage (after a big long hug from Diego!!) and walked out the door......We didn't even have to show anybody our passports!

 

Our plan next was to get a taxi over to the car rental place at the airport.....which was right there at the port! We rented a car and drove up to Los Angeles to visit our very good cruise buddies who live there. There was a birthday involved! We spent the night with them' date=' then met up with cousins who live in Pasadena. We stayed with them for two days and we had wonderful visits with everyone. We flew home from Los Angeles the following Tuesday. It worked out great and I'm so glad we did that instead of flying home right away.

 

So once again....two fabulous cruises are in the books!! We had a marvelous time and met some very wonderful people, as we always do, but there seemed to be so many this time!! I hope that we can keep in touch and cruise with many of them in the future. I think we will!! As our cruise buddies in Los Angeles will tell you......don't tell us to come to visit......because we will!!!!!!

 

So as always.......we would like to offer a toast to all our cruise buddies.....past and present......It was a blast......and we hope to see you again on a future float. We'll be on the Independence in September.....but always looking for something in the meantime. In a couple of weeks we will celebrate our 30th anniversary. Our first cruise was spent on Song of America for our honeymoon, so I feel like we have been with Royal Caribbean for 30 years.

 

Here we are boarding that very first cruise. Little did we know that was the start of an addiction that many of us here on CC have. It's been a great 30 years and hopefully, before 30 more......we might join the Pinnacle Club!!! Stay tuned!!

 

 

I think that picture cost $3.95!!!!

 

Cheers and Salud!! Until we see you again!!

 

 

LOVE your honeymoon pic on Song of America !!! What a great memory !!

Edited June 7, 2015 by Johnamac123

[maxs mom]

Thank you for the great cruise review! I enjoyed seeing places I've been and not been.

 

Where are we going next??

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

We are on the Indy for a B2B in September. Then the Serenade in December. Vision in February. Got to fill in some blanks, though!!.

[maxs mom]

LOVE your honeymoon pic on Song of America !!! What a great memory !!

 

Thanks! It's pretty funny to look at those pictures now. I hit golf balls off the back of the ship and John shot skeet off the side!!