MITSUGIRLY has a JEWEL of a time on my 1st RC cruise in years!

[mitsugirly]

Day 3 in PR ... or whatever day it is. LOL I think I've lost track at this point.

 

Although I really didn't have actual plans today, I still didn't really get to sleep in. I was wide awake at 8:30am and thinking about breakfast. It wasn't as simple as walking upstairs, grabbing a plate, then making my rounds around the buffet to see what I wanted. I was already missing this, but hey, I had fresh cold pop sitting in my fridge waiting on me and there wasn't a locked door to keep me from getting to it.

 

The family woke up soon after and I mentioned I wanted to go to the breakfast place I had heard about the last time we were in OSJ and didn't make it there. We had found the location the night before, when walking around, and it wasn't far away. We headed out...CARTHAGE EXPRESS

 

 

 

This is a cute little dinner with tables around the sides of the restaurant and then a U shaped table in the middle with a train track. I knew this would be something that Sakari would enjoy and she had no idea what was about to happen.

 

 

 

Looking at the menu, they served breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We placed our orders and I was happy to see that they had the Mallorcas on the menu.

 

I waited with anticipation...then it finally happened!!!!

 

Sakari's eye lit up and she was so excited!

 

X8tfvrknQCk

 

They deliver your meal on a train right in front of you.

 

 

Sakari was hungry this morning and insisted on both an omelette and pancakes.

 

 

The hubs got a breakfast burrito and he said it was SO good that he wouldn't mind coming back again tomorrow morning for the same thing!

 

 

We headed out very satisfied and the grocery store was right down the street. Time to get some pop for the rest of the day.

It was already very hot out today and it was only 9:44am.

 

 

It cost $2.99 for an 8 pack.

We headed back to the hotel to put our goodies up.

 

If you don't bring your own bags, you have to buy them. It wasn't much. I want to say around .10 and we decided to keep the bags...just in case we needed them again.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I knew that I had a test due today. I decided that I should probably get it done and out of the way...just in case we had a very long day and I would be too tired to do it once we returned.

 

I got logged on and started to do the test. Then somehow the screen went blank. Um...rut row! The laptop was plugged in, but not all the way. Darnit. Well, the good thing about our test is that they "say" they can be started, saved, then resumed at a later time. However, they also say they are timed and you get an hour. There has been a lot of talk on our community college boards with students wanting to know can you actually start and stop it? Will it save it? Will the time stop? No one really knew or had tried. I guess I was going to be the first to find out because by the time I got the computer back up and running, the momentum of sitting even longer to do a test had already left my system. Nah...let's go visit the forts!!!

 

I looked up information on them (pricing and how to get there) and knew that one of the trolleys would take you there. We just had to find the trolley stop. I figured there would be one in the direction behind us, so we headed down to go find it.

 

Mr Canter Kitty was waiting downstairs and Sakari gave him some lovings.

 

 

 

 

We started walking and there were even more sites and statues to see. We had never been this way before.

 

We came across Plaza del v Centenario. It is supposed to be at the highest point in OSJ and it is close to El Morro. It was built in 1992 and it is rumored to have cost $10 million. It was built to honor the 500 year anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the New World.

 

 

Juan Ponce de Leon Statue. He was a Spanish explorer and was created in New York in 1882 using bronze collected from English canons that was salvaged when the English attacked San Juan in 1792. Leon sailed with Columbus oh his second voyage to discover the New World and looking for the Fountain of Youth, but ended up discovering Florida in 1513.

 

 

 

At the upper level of the plaza, you'll find a 40 foot totem pole: Totem Telurico. The sculpture was designed and made of clay from across the Americas and is meant to signify the origins of the people of the Americas.

 

 

 

[mabones]

JEWEL OF THE SEAS

 

I have cruised with Royal Caribbean only once and it was back in the 90's (or it might have even been in 2000), on the Majesty of the Seas. So, basically I'm a "newbie" to Royal again I guess you could say. I've always wanted to try them again, but their prices are just so outrageous every time I've looked. I did some research (since we always cruise at Spring Break) and found that the Jewel, cruising out of Puerto Rico, was a price that I just couldn't pass up! FINALLY! I would get to try out Royal again. I booked and was super excited!!!!

 

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We'll start with the "formalities" and get that out of the way. (Mostly copied from all of my other reviews, because things don't seem to change too much) with any updates we might have added/adjusted.

 

PLEASE NOTE>>> My reviews are LONG...as in VERY LONG, with a lot of details, A LOT of pictures and this is the experience of my family on the cruise, sorta like a blog.

 

*So, if you are not into long reviews and want something short, sweet and to the point...this review is not for you.

 

*If you expect this review to be done quickly and you don't like to wait...this review is not for you.

 

*If you don't like personal details of our daily activities, this review is not for you.

 

*If you expect me to sugar coat everything, this review is not for you.

 

*If you think I tell you about something that wasn't appealing or I didn't really care for or seen happen and you consider me "complaining" or unhappy...this review is not for you.

 

I'm open, I'm honest, we have a good time no matter what, but I report everything I see. It doesn't make or break my cruise or experience and I always manage to have a great time no matter what.

 

It's sad I feel the need to say these things with my reviews now due to certain people who like to come on a be rude in the past.

 

However, if you like to laugh, get a chuckle every once in awhile, think of our family and some of the things we do that could be pictured on "the people of Walmart" and want details and pictures of places...you have come to the right place.

 

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ABOUT MY FAMILY AND WHO CRUISED THIS TIME:

 

This cruise was myself, my husband and Sakari (pronounced just like it's spelled Sa-Kar-ee, our now 9 year old daughter who will be turning 10 next week). This time, my 3 adult children would remain home (Kenny-31, Kendra-29 and Kolin-23).

 

Kendra, usually tries to cruise with us (pulling along my grandson B, sometimes her fiance, and the last cruise her daughter Kam). But she bought a house last year and they completely gutted it and made it "brand new" and they have been working diligently on trying to get it finished the week we were gone so that they could move in this month. Although it was a hard decision to make, she decided to sit this one out.

 

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My Cruising Experience:

 

As you can tell from my signature line, we mainly cruise with NCL and I have been trying to cruise the entire fleet but have been adventuring out over the last few years with Carnival.

 

In the 80's and 90's I also sailed with NCL and Royal Caribbean. So, this will actually be my 2nd RC cruise.

 

This will make my 21st cruise, my husband's 19th cruise and Sakari's 18th cruise...I think? After awhile, things are starting to run together.

 

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ORGANIZATION FOR THE REVIEWS:

 

People always ask how I organize for my reviews and it takes A LOT to put together a review like this. Once I decided to post how I personally organize for my reviews and if you are interested, it can be found HERE-1ST HALF and the 2ND HALF HERE.

 

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CAMERAS:

 

I am constantly questioned about what type of camera's I use for my reviews.

 

Several years ago I decided to purchase my first Olympus point-and-shoot camera (not by choice, but because I had one of my many "bloopers" with my Canon cameras). I have loved the Olympus since that purchase that we actually have quite a few of them.

 

This entire review was shot with my Olympus Tough TG2 & a few with the 620. I take my model 620 & 830 along with me for back up because you never know what might happen and I would be devastated if I was without a camera. Last Christmas, we also purchased Sakari her own camera (the 620 model) and she uses hers as well.

 

I'm a photography FREAK! Always have been. I do have a DSLR with tons of equipment, lens, and so on, but I find that I just don't want to lug it around with me on a cruise...and of course it's not waterproof.

 

When I process my photo's, I do take it in to PS (I have to get my watermark on there somehow) and I have an "action" that resizes the picture for a more appropriate posting size, and sharpens for web and I put my stamp on it. Every once in awhile I'll get a really crappy picture that just needs something (like white balance) done to it and I really want to share it and I might white balance it. For the most part, I don't do much of anything...no one has time for all that with the thousands of pictures I take!

 

I take thousands of pictures on vacation and I do a lot of walking and snapping. Yes, I may get some outstanding photos and quality, but for every good picture I get, there may be 3 bad ones. You win some, you lose some. I've been known to stand in a spot and take 3-5 pictures of the same thing, using different settings on the camera, just to get what I'm looking for to share. That's just me.

 

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ABOUT MY REVIEWS:

 

I am a very open and honest person. Everyone has a different expectation and experience, but I report how I feel during mine. You may or may not agree with my thoughts or views, but that's the beauty of it...everyone is different and all thoughts and comments are welcome.

 

We are a fun loving and outgoing family that, for the most part, don't get upset about much and roll with the punches. We've had a lot of "bloopers" (especially when the kids come along=Kendra lol), but it is what it is and I have learned over the years that getting mad or upset doesn't solve the problem and only takes away from the fun, so I try not to dwell on bad things (although I will always report them...not to be a Debbie-Downer, but to show this is the experience I had and how it contributed to what was going on at the time) and I move on.

 

We are BEACH people. So, if you are the touristy type of person that likes historical stuff, seeing the sites, or likes to do the land tours, this review might not benefit you too much as far as the ports. If there's a beach, we will be there! I have to drag Sakari the Mermaid out of the water every place we go. So, to the beach it is for us.

 

Sakari decided in 2016 that she wanted to "be a scuba diver" and took classes and became a certified PADI Seal that year. In December of last year, she finished all the PADI classes and became a MASTER PADI SEAL!! I think she was one of the first at her scuba shop to complete the program. They made quite a big deal over it. Now, she is just going to class monthly and repeating the classes for the fun of it.

 

So, you will find us doing some scuba diving in reviews as well.

 

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LAST BUT NOT LEAST: WHY I DO THE REVIEWS

 

My reviews are meant to be helpful to others looking for information. I'm a "picture" kinda girl and if I'm looking for information, give me a picture to help me understand and it will go 10x further in helping me with a decision. So many of you wonderful cruisers have helped me decide places to try out, shared your experiences with me, and even cruised with me....and this is my way of thanking you and continuing to help others the way they have helped me.

 

I'm keeping this "opening" a little shorter than normal. Most people around here know me and I hate to constantly repeat things...so if you want a more detailed "opening" statement, you are welcome to click on one of my other reviews (in my signature line) and it will give you more info on us.

 

With that said...I hope you enjoy the review.

 

Just found this review. We sailed on the Jewel back in 2005 on a 10-day Boston-Bermuda-Caribbean-Boston. This sold us on long cruises! Can't wait to read about this Ship.

[mitsugirly]

Just found this review. We sailed on the Jewel back in 2005 on a 10-day Boston-Bermuda-Caribbean-Boston. This sold us on long cruises! Can't wait to read about this Ship.

 

Hi, thanks for joining and hope you enjoy it.

[mitsugirly]

More of the park area and we could see the ocean from here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it out to the street and this is what we seen.

 

 

 

The fort was literally right there! I guess this means we weren't going to ride the trolley there because it was that close.

[mitsugirly]

So everyone knows, I'm not a "fort-touristy-site seeing-historical buff" type of person. I honestly could care less about these types of things. It's not normally something I would do in any port. However, we were pretty much confined to doing things within the city because this time around we didn't rent a car like last and everything we could do had to be within walking distance. We do have a friend from here and last time we were here he said "You HAVE to go to El Morro" so I figured why not give it a shot. I also figured there would be a good opportunity for pictures as well.

 

One thing I DID want to see (and wanted to see last time and it got too late to go) was the graveyard there. I had seen pictures of it before and it is just beautiful. Not your typical graveyard. I took a photography class once and one of the assignments was architectural buildings and statues and I headed straight to one of our unique graveyards here in town. I love looking at the statues and stones. So, I knew I wanted to go here.

 

It's closer than the fort, so we would head here first.

 

 

This is zoomed in on the fort. Everyone was flying kites that day. It was very hot, but very windy in this area.

 

 

And this was really the distance to the fort not zoomed in.

 

 

We went over to the wall to look down into the graveyard. I said "let's go" with excitement and the hubs was like "Really? You're going down there?"....YEP!

 

 

This is the road leading down there.

 

 

It's a very small road with a small tunnel. I was hoping we wouldn't run into any cars along the way because there's a big turn right before you get to the tunnel and it would be hard to see anyone.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We made it and here was the entrance.

 

 

The beautiful statues were everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Santa Maria Magdalena is the name of the cemetery. It was built in 1863. The wall around the graveyard averages around 40 feet tall. At the time it was built, Spanish superstition viewed death as a mystery and with fear. So, they decided to build the cemetery to overlook the Atlantic Ocean to symbolize the spirit's journey to cross over to the afterlife.

 

 

 

 

Some are very elaborate

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Some of the most prominent Puerto Ricans are buried here and you were considered lucky if you got a spot here in this one of a kind cemetery.

 

The cemetery is divided into two parts, the old and new cemetery. Walk through the beautiful gate painted in yellow and white, and there you’ll find the oldest burial sites including the ones of notable and important personalities in Puerto Rican history. Among them are Jose Ferrer, Jose de Diego, Rafael Hernandez, Jose Celso Barbosa, Salvador Brau, and Pedro Albizu Campos.

 

There was a lot of destruction after the hurricane and the graveyard was not spared either. Workers have been trying to repair gravestones that toppled over and there is still a lot of evidence in the destruction it did.

 

 

 

 

Most of the destruction consisted of the sites closer to the sea wall.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

I can't even imagine the type of money you would have to have in order to be buried here.

 

 

 

 

Walking over to the other section. I had read that it is the older section.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

There was obvious damage on this side too.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

I took so many pictures that day. It was just so beautiful. These that I have shared are just a few that I picked out.

 

We decided to head out and over to El Morro.

 

Back up the small road we went...hoping for no traffic along the route.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

EL MORRO:

 

Castillo San Felipe del Morro is a 16th century fort that began construction in 1539 with it's main purpose to defend the port of San Juan by controlling entry to the harbor. Its present look was completed around the 1780's. It consisted of 450 cannons. The outer walls were originally 6 feet thick and by the end of the 18th century, they were 18 feet thick. The city walls surrounding OSJ took 48 years to build. El Morro has 6 levels and is 145 feet tall. El Morro takes up over 70 acres.

 

In 1961, the US Army officially retired El Morro and it became a National Park and museum.

 

 

We headed out on our long journey to see the forts.

 

 

We spotted a tail going by...

 

 

I couldn't believe how close it comes to the fort. I was wishing I was up there at that time it passed. It was the Carnival Sunshine coming in to port.

 

 

 

Thank goodness is was really windy up here...otherwise, it would have just been too hot to walk out in the open like that.

 

[mabones]

Four common sunscreen ingredients were shown to kill or bleach coral at extremely low concentrations (as low as one drop in 6.5 Olympic sized swimming pools).

• Oxybenzone (Benzophenone-3, BP-3) - Sunscreen ingredient that disrupts coral reproduction, causes coral bleaching, and damages coral DNA. Oxybenzone is found in over 3500 sunscreen products worldwide.
  
• Butylparaben - Preservative ingredient shown to cause coral bleaching.
  
• Octinoxate (Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate) - Sunscreen ingredient shown to cause coral bleaching.
  
• 4-methylbenzylidene camphor (4MBC) - Sunscreen ingredient shown to cause coral bleaching. Allowed in Europe and Canada, not in USA or Japan.
  

We have had great success finding common (cheap) sunscreen like Banana Boat without these ingredients. It is hard to find spray without oxybenzone, though - I have only found one.

 

There is a new Sunscreen out there now made specifically without all the above ingredients. It is made by Sea2Stream. It works great. It comes in different strengths plus they have shampoo & body wash. I suggest you check them out.

[mitsugirly]

Almost there...

 

 

Hours open and pricing...

 

 

When you pay for your ticket, they tell you that this ticket is also good for the other fort.

 

 

When you first walk in, it's like an open courtyard. We weren't sure where to start.

 

 

There were all kinds of little places to go in, read about the history, then many had areas with holes in them to look out.

 

 

 

Then we found this:

 

 

Ok, so it suggest that you start up 1 level on level 5. We just walked all the way up the hill to the fort and it looks like we were walking up some more.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

But first a potty stop. I'm pretty sure this isn't what it looked like back in the day.

 

 

Then up we went.

 

 

Beautiful up there and plenty of picture opportunities.

 

 

They even had one of these to take a closer look (and it was free). Sakari said she was searching for whales.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

Oh my gosh the breeze blowing in the windows felt so good I didn't want to leave!

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

This is the Lighthouse. It was the first lighthouse built in Puerto Rico. The original lighthouse was built in 1846 and the newer lighthouse was built in 1876. Then it was hit in the Spanish-American War in 1898 and rebuilt in 1899. But it soon developed some structural problems and was demolished in 1906. The current lighthouse (below) was built in 1908.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We headed back down to the 5th floor.

 

 

 

A golf course.....(according to above) and what it used to look like. I'd like to know where that swimming pool was about now.

 

 

 

We decided to head down to the 3rd level. No elevators here. You will encounter 77 steps leading down to the next level.

 

 

Sakari decided to not take the steps. It is actually steeper than what it looks and I warned her that if she tripped and started to tumble, there would be no stopping her, therefore, making her a human bowling ball and I was hoping there wouldn't be any pins in her way if it happened.

 

 

I was already dreading going back up them.

 

 

[pebbles1102]

So after confirming that the animals were still ok, Kolin informed me that although Loki was still alive and well...but, he was refusing to come in and there was tornado sirens going off.

 

Now remember that 2 days ago it was snowing. Today it was in the high 70's and there was a report of a tornado...about a mile away from my house that touched down.

 

Loki would not come in. Sakari was so worried that night and this would be her drawing of the night.

 

Her details included flying furniture, the roof is off the house, and poor Loki is trying to take cover under flying objects.

 

 

 

I packed our beach bags for tomorrow and we hit the bed actually pretty early tonight: 11:30pm

 

Up tomorrow would be a day in Martinique. A new place for us. :D

 

 

HI Kim,

 

You must live near Grove City, My Husband Works for AEP and was helping clean up all the damage from the Storms

 

Love your reviews

[mitsugirly]

 

I have absolutely no idea what these were or what significance they had. I would have thought there would be something there to tell you.

 

 

Beautiful site!

 

 

You see those steps in the distance?

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well alrighty then. I guess we have discovered the real restrooms here.

 

I'm still scratching my head at this one. Do they lean up against the back wall and everything goes into that hole? Which flows out and around the fort in the area that was dug out about 4' deep that we seen while walking up here? (In the above pictures)