Jewel of the Seas--Southern Caribbean

[totallytigger]

Has anyone been on Jewel of the Seas for Southern Caribbean? We are going early June 2014. We have done several cruises--1 RCCL Mediteranian cruise--but have never done Southern Caribbean. We're thinking about doing Pirate adventure in Barbados and Horseback Riding in St Johns. Any input about these excursions?

 

[Laz]

We are doing a B2B on the Jewel beginning June21st. We did one of these cruises 2 years ago on the Serenade of the Seas and loved it. We stopped at Barbados, St. Lucia, Antiqua, St. Martin, St. Croix. What is your sail date?

 

[totallytigger]

We sail out June 7th. Have you stayed pre-cruise in San Juan? If so, what hotel? Since it will be just my daughter and myself, I am very safety oriented. Glad to hear you enjoyed it in the past--we're very excited to go!!!

 

[Laz]

We always go the day before. We like to stay at the Sheraton at the Convention Center. You could probably get a less expensive hotel, but my wife and I want to get some last minute work done and we know that they have good internet access. It is a short taxi drive to the pier. In fact, you can see the ship docked at the pier from the pool area. Their are not any places near their to eat, but my wife and I ordered a pizza from room service. The price was reasonable and we could not eat it all. Many people stay at the Hilton Caribe.

 

[NMMickeymom]

Hi Totallytigger We are on the same cruise!! We are very excited to see all of the Southern ports. We are traveling with another family and will have 4 kids aged 11 and 12. We are staying at the Hampton Inn one night pre cruise and the Marriott Resort & Casino post cruise for 3 nights.

 

[totallytigger]

We are a little sad right now. . My DD is a Physics major in college and specifically going into Astrophysics--so she was extra excited to see that we sail out of San Juan. There is a very famous--in the astronomy world--observatory there that evidently recently closed d/t lack of funding!! I offered to change our plans but she said that she would somehow suffer through a week in the southern caribbean!! LOL. We will probably arrive Thurs --sight see Fri--then head home right after cruise return. We did a horseback ride through the rain forrest on a previous trip and it was great. So we might do that again.

 

[ep1229]

DH and I did this cruise Jan 18 - 25 and we had an AMAZING time. Before this cruise, we had only ever been on Disney Cruises (3 of them) so I didn't really know what to expect. I was really afraid I would be disappointed. I was totally wrong! The food was even better than Disney's food. The ship was spotless. It is an older ship and due to be refubished in 2016 but it is super clean. The crew was very friendly. We totally enjoyed ourselves. We met so many couples that have been sailing for years on RC and they have really good experiences.
We went to St. Thomas, St. Croix, Antigua, Martinique and St. Lucia. For excursions, the Buck Island snorkeling in St. Croix was supposed to be really good. It was sold out so we couldn't get on that one. We did the Lobster Catamaran lunch in Antigua. That was the best excursion of the whole trip. The St. Lucia snokeling by the Pitons was excellent as well. I had heard from other cruisers that if we booked for the next week, there was a 50% off discount! I wish we knew that earlier otherwise we would have done a B2B. The ports were really good and I like that there was only 1 sea day. It was such an awesome trip! For the restaurants, Chops and Portofino were really worth it. If you can get reservations, definitely check it out.

 

[brendat22]

We are sailing 6/14/2014 on the Jewel / Southern Caribbean.

We have only sailed DCL in the past and so are a little confused with the way things work on RCCL. If you guys have any tips you learn about please post them here. Something I am confused about that I haven't found on this new board (which I was thrilled to find yesterday!) is how the towel rental works? Do you check one out the first day and have to keep renting them each day or do you do this one time and keep trading for a fresh towel? Seems like a pain in the butt and kind of silly that they do this ..........can anyone explain the process?

We are thinking of staying at one of the Marriott properties on the beach in San Juan - does anyone have any experience staying at one of these resorts?

Is there a 24 hour drink station where we can get water / ice tea or lemonade or do we always need to go to a bar if we are thirsty?

We are super excited for this trip and the ship looks beautiful!

 

[Laz]

We are sailing 6/14/2014 on the Jewel / Southern Caribbean.

We have only sailed DCL in the past and so are a little confused with the way things work on RCCL. If you guys have any tips you learn about please post them here. Something I am confused about that I haven't found on this new board (which I was thrilled to find yesterday!) is how the towel rental works? Do you check one out the first day and have to keep renting them each day or do you do this one time and keep trading for a fresh towel? Seems like a pain in the butt and kind of silly that they do this ..........can anyone explain the process?

We are thinking of staying at one of the Marriott properties on the beach in San Juan - does anyone have any experience staying at one of these resorts?

Is there a 24 hour drink station where we can get water / ice tea or lemonade or do we always need to go to a bar if we are thirsty?

We are super excited for this trip and the ship looks beautiful!

You will show your room key to get a no cost pool towel. When you return them, just make sure they check off your name/room number. As far as drinks, as long as the Windjammer Café is open, you can always get free ice tea, lemonade, coffee, ice water, etc.

 

[buckeyemom16]

Excited to see this thread and follow along. Just booked the May 24 Jewel. Very happy with this itinerary!!

 

[woody73]

You will show your room key to get a no cost pool towel. When you return them, just make sure they check off your name/room number.

I read that RCI is no longer requiring a room key to get towels. This began Jan 2014.

Woody

 

[mmbl]

I read that RCI is no longer requiring a room key to get towels. This began Jan 2014. Woody

That would be nice. It would also be nice if they get rid of their MN- 5 am room service charge! If they're going to charge a fee for room service, they should have a better selection of items and/or an alternate location that is open round the clock for those who are still up at 3am!

 

[mmbl]

We have stayed at El Canario pre and post cruise. We enjoyed it. If I'm not mistaken, the owners had a couple of properties all fairly close to each other.

http://www.hotels.com/hotel/details...on=San+Juan,+Puerto+Rico&hotelId=369916&rooms[0].numberOfAdults=2&validate=false&previousDateful=false&reviewOrder=date_newest_first&isRedirectFromMobile=true