Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas is in the process of having her $30 million refurbishment and we have some new photos of the work being done.
These photos of the work being done were sent to us and it is great sneak peek at what to expect.
Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas is scheduled for an April 2016 bow-to-stern $30 million renovation that will bring a lot of big changes to the ship.
During her refurbishment, Jewel of the Seas renovation features will include
The newly renovated Jewel of the Seas will include 42 new staterooms
Royal Caribbean says staterooms will be available to book beginning December 2015.
From May through October 2016, Jewel of the Seas will cruise round-trip from Rome on an array of itineraries showcasing the best destinations of Italy, Greece and Turkey. These 7, 8, and 9 night itineraries mainly sail through the Greek Isles.
Jewel will complete her European itinerary in October 2016 after which she will return to her home port of San Juan, Puerto where she will sail 6, 7, 8 and 9 night Southern Caribbean itineraries.
At a media event in New York City last night, Royal Caribbean mentioned Jewel of the Seas will have a revitalization in April 2016.
No word yet as to what the revitalization will entail, but TravelPulse reports the new features will be announced, "early next month."
Jewel of the Seas is one of the last ships in Royal Caribbean's fleet to not have had a revitalization yet as part of the fleet-wide effort to bring features and onboard amenities from the Oasis class to the rest of the ships.
One change that is very likely to happen is the removal of the Seaview Cafe, based on the fact all the other Radiance class ships have had their Seaview Cafes replaced with a new specialty restaurant when they had a revitalization.
UPDATE: We originall reported the date of Jewel of the Seas' refurbishment being in April 2017 but that was in error. It will be occuring in April 2016. We apologize for the error.
Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas sailed out of Seattle for her first voyage to Alaska of the season over the weekend.
Since we love to share cruise photos, here are a few great shots of Jewel of the Seas in Seattle.
Big thanks to Tom & Diane Trudnowski, who managed to get these wonderful shots of this Radiance class beauty.
Royal Caribbean announced it will skip a scheduled stop in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico today for Jewel of the Seas due to violence in the area.
Royal Caribbean director of global corporate communications commented on the change, "The call to Puerto Vallarta was canceled due to the recently experienced episodes of violent civil unrest, stemming from criminal gangs that have engaged in armed conflict with local authorities. We also canceled Celebrity Infinity's call on Sunday. We will continue to monitor the situation in Puerto Vallarta."
Criminal violence in Mexico has been a primary reason why Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines have avoided offering more cruises on the west coast of the United States.
I love to have our listeners be a part of this podcast so on this week’s show, we’re talking with one of our podcast listeners, Dr. Kris Leppien-Christensen , who is taking a cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas. We’re going to preview Kris’ cruise as well as discuss the adventure of taking kids on a Royal Caribbean cruise.
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Royal Caribbean has added two roundtrip cruises out of the port of Los Angeles, California, which marks the cruise line's return to the west coast after a number of years absence.
Jewel of the Seas will offer 7-night cruises on September 26 and October 03, 2015.
The cruises will visit the ports of Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Monterey and Ensenada, Mexico. The stop at San Francisco will be overnight.
The news confirms a report we posted back in December of a possible return to the west coast for Royal Caribbean.
Royal Caribbean hasn't had a cruise ship based out of Los Angeles since 2010 when Mariner of the Seas left due to violence in Mexico.
It looks like part of Royal Caribbean's plans for 2015 include swapping Jewel of the Seas and Navigator of the Seas. Royal Caribbean will move the larger Navigator of the Seas to San Juan in 2015 according to a report by Caribbean Business.
The change will occur in May 2015 according to the report and is a good sign for the blossoming cruise port of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Caribbean Business writes, "In May 2015, Royal Caribbean is scheduled to replace the Jewel of the Seas—which currently carries out weekly trips, with San Juan as its homeport—with a bigger ship, the Navigator of the Seas."
Royal Caribbean is rumored to be releasing their 2015/2016 deployment schedule sometime in the timeframe of late February or March 2014.
It's been a few years since Royal Caribbean had a cruise ship on the west coast of the United States but there may be indications Royal Caribbean plans on returning in the coming years.
According to the Port of Los Angeles cruie ship schedule web site, Jewel of the Seas will be making stops there in September and October 2015. It isn't clear if the cruise will begin and end in Los Angeles, but for at least 3 weeks the Royal Caribbean ship is on the schedule.
Royal Caribbean has not made any announcement about returning to Los Angeles, but in the past port schedules have been good indicators of what Royal Caribbean intends to do.
Royal Caribbean hasn't had a cruise ship based out of Los Angeles since 2010 when Mariner of the Seas left due to violence in Mexico.