Today was our last day of the cruise and our only sea day. I'll talk a little about what I did today but mostly I'd like to look back at my Jewel of the Seas cruise and discuss what I liked and didn't like.
This morning we all slept in and the girls went to breakfast first. I slept a little later but was up around 9:30am and went upstairs for breakfast in the Windjammer.
After breakfast we took the kids to the Fisher Price playgroup. This is an unsupervised event where lots of preschool toys were available for use in Vortex for an hour. There were about 5 or 6 kids total who showed up, so plenty of toys to go around. There was also one Adventure Ocean staff member there who played with the kids. It's too bad this was the only time that worked for us on the entire cruise.
After we went to Centrum shops for last minute shopping. We ended up buying 4 formal portraits of our daughter that came out really well. Interestingly there is no CD purchase option on Jewel but thanks to our Crown and Anchor society discount, we got 50% off the second photo. So 2 of the photos were half price. The photos are still quite expensive ($19.95 per photo) but we couldn't turn these down.
We also stopped by the Loyalty Ambassaor's office to look at NextCruise certificates. I love these things because they always end up being the best deal on booking cruises most of the time. Our friends booked their certificates so I think we've hooked them on another Royal Caribbean cruise and we bought an extra one, well, because we can't get enough cruises!
We had lunch in the main dining room, which is something we love to do because of the food variety offered here. Unfortunately the menu today wasn't great but we met some nice people at our table. I'd still recommend trying lunch in the main dining room, especially for the build your own salad option.
After lunch the kids took a nap so Tim and I went to the casino. Okay, we tried to go do something else but the pool was packed and the cinema was not showing another film until 4pm.
First rule of the casino is be prepared to lose any money you play. Sure you hope and want to win more, but you have to assume you will lose. If you're okay with that, then the experience can be fun and we talked to some pretty fun dealers.
By now the kids were up so we decided to take it easy in our staterooms. We had considered going to the pool but the pool was so packed it didn't seem worth it.
We got ready for dinner and had I think of the better dinners in the main dining room. Lots of options to choose from and of course, we had to say goodbye to our waiters. For their farewell song, all the waiters opted to sing "Leaving on a Jet Plane" with one of the waiters playing acoustic guitar. I thought it was a nice touch.
After dinner I had a cigar up on the jogging track (deck 12) and had one last hurrah of vacation. Then it was back to the room to pack our stuff. I did manage to order room service and get the honey stung chicken, which tasted great but not quite as fun when you get it on embarkation day.
With the cruise over, I've definitely come away with some observations from my experience. First and foremost, I think Jewel of the Seas is in great condition and I'm not sure what people are referring to when they say they see signs of age. I looked around the ship and found really nothing to speak of. No peeling paint, no broken facilities. Nothing. It's a great ship.
Jewel definitely does feel smaller than other ships that I've been on but I enjoyed it. Sure there isn't as much to do onboard but with these port intensive itineraries like the southern Caribbean, it's no problem at all. One good thing about a small ship is we wanted to trade email addresses with someone we met earlier in the cruise so we started looking and in about an hour we found them. Can't say I'd be able to do that as easily on another, larger ship.
I love the Centrum and how beautiful it can be lit up and the great entertainment but my gosh is the music loud. It's fine in the day time but when they are blasting music at night until midnight, that's not cool.
Yes, there will be a substantial Spanish speaking population on your ship but it's not like you feel out of place or anything. I estimated in an earlier blog post 20-30% of the guest population were probably Puerto Rican but it wasn't anything I'd worry about.
In terms of the islands we visited, St. Maarten and Antigua were hands down the best for good value and lots to do. St. Lucia and Barbados are good as well, albeit very expensive. St. Croix was a big disappointment and nearly everyone I spoke with mentioned not enjoying their time there.
The WiFi onboard is limited to certain areas of the ship but since the entire Centrum is covered, that's not a problem. By far the connection was worst in the evening and best in the morning. Also the onboard computers are terribly old so if you want to use the internet, bring your own device.
The staff were terrific all around and I had arguably the best wait staff and stateroom attendants in a long time, if not ever. They weren't the kind of staff that did magic tricks and back flips for you, but they worked hard for us and made us feel like their guests. They earned their gratuity and we will miss them all.
The food onboard was good overall and I'd rate everything I tried somewhere between "good" and "very good". Maybe 2 or 3 dishes were excellent. My biggest gripe about the food is the breakfast spread at Windjammer never changes but that's a fleet wide thing and I can live with it.
In terms of bringing toddlers onboard (2.5 and 1.5 year olds) being so port intensive it was fine but obviously having no pool access and limited child care options (in-room babysitting only) was a concern. We knew about that shortcoming when we booked the cruise but on cruises that have more than 1 sea day, I'd be more critical.
I'll have more in-depth reviews in the weeks to come, including the excursions we did, restaurants we ate at onboard and more. I really appreciate all the great feedback I've received in the comment here and via social media. It was a real treat for me to check what you all thought and talk about it.
So I'm signing off from my Jewel of the Seas adventure and I can't wait already for my next Royal Caribbean vacation!
