The shutdown of the United States government that began today at midnight has had a lot of effects throughout the country, including a Royal Caribbean cruise.

USA Today is reporting that cruise passengers aboard Brilliance of the Seas that had booked an excursion to Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine were turned away due to the shutdown. Royal Caribbean had to cancel all of its excursions to national parks.

Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez elaborated on what the cruise line is doing instead, "We were able to come up with some alternatives in order to accommodate those guests that had booked excursions to the national park."

Some other options offered include the Mount Desert Oceanarium or going on a schooner sail.

Martinez indicated the cruise line will monitor the shutdown situation and make whatever changes are necessary for upcoming cruises.

Royal Caribbean released the first video starring Quantum Experience Advisor Genvieve Gorder, detailing her work on the interior design of the brand new Quantum of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean announced a few weeks ago that Gorder was hand-selected to be the first celebrity expert designer that will work on creating the look for Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship that debuts in late 2014.

Royal Caribbean announced today 29 new cruises on Mariner of the Seas to Southeast Asia.  

Beginning in November 2014, Mariner of the Seas will sail out of Singapore and offer three- to five-night cruises to ports such as Phuket, Thailand, and Penang, Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur (Port Klang) in Malaysia.

A special seven-night itinerary, departing February 11, 2015, will overnight at Bangkok (Laemchabang), Thailand, and call at Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Vietnam. Mariner of the Seas’ winter season will conclude with an eight-night itinerary from Singapore to Shanghai (Baoshan), China, departing on March 7, and featuring an overnight at Hong Kong with calls at Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My) and Xiamen, China. 

The Voyager-class ship, Mariner of the Seas, has been operating between Asia and Australia.

Royal Caribbean announced last week new cruise packages for trans-Atlantic cruises that allow guests to extend such voyages with a two- or three-night, pre- or post-cruise land stay.

These new add-on packages include breakfast, airfare options, transfers and tours at destinations such as London, U.K., Reykjavik, Iceland, Barcelona, Spain, or New Orleans, Louisiana.

In addition, those that book a balcony or suite category stateroom on an Ocean Voyage cruise package will receive the Premiuym Beverage Package for the first two guests for free.  The unlimited alcohol package includes call and premium brand cocktails, refreshing frozen or non-alcoholic cocktails, beers, house wines by the glass, and fountain sodas.

Some of the Ocean Voyage packages include a 16-night Windsor Castle and London package that combines a 13-night Ocean Voyage from the Caribbean to England aboard Independence of the Seas – departing May 4, 2014, from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to Southampton, U.K. Guests will then enjoy a three-night post cruise stay in a four-star hotel with breakfast, a West End Theater performance, and a Windsor Castle Tour with stops at St. Georges Chapel and Windsor Great Park. 

There's also a 19-night Spanish, French and Italian Riviera cruise package combines a 13-night Ocean Voyage from Fort Lauderdale to Portugal and Spain, departing May 1, 2014, aboard Liberty of the Seas. Guests enjoy a two-night extended stay in Barcelona with two-day tickets on Barcelona’s ‘Hop-on, Hop-off’ Bus Turistic. 

Or perhaps a 20-night New Orleans and Barcelona Entertainment package aboard Serenade of the Seas, which departs April 26, 2014, and combines a 16-night Ocean Voyage with a pre- or post-cruise option. Vacationers can opt for a two-night pre-cruise stay in New Orleans, which coincides with the city’s famous Jazz & Heritage Festival; a two-night post-cruise stay in Barcelona with a two-day ticket on the ‘Hop-on, Hop-off’ Bus Turistic; or both for a grand 20-night adventure. In New Orleans, guests also have the option to purchase tickets for the Jazz & Heritage Festival. 

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!

Today is our last port day and it's always a bittersweet day for me (well, not as much as tomorrow will be) and we are in Barbados. 

As per usual, up at 7am, in the Windjammer at 8am and off the ship at 9am.  The crowd at Windjammer at 8am versus 9am is incredibly different and 8am is much better.  I think I've said this in past cruise reports but I'd like to see more variety in breakfast.  Unlike lunch and dinner, the breakfast spread has been exactly the same every day.

We got off the ship a little before 9am for our tour we had booked with Tyronne Griffith tours, which was coordinated by people on Cruise Critic.  Because we all booked as a group on Cruise Critic, we were able to get the per person rate down to $25 per adult (kids free) and free water, beer and rum punch.

We met the driver right at 9am and after sorting through some paperwork issues we were on our way. They managed to cram 12 of us in one van, which while theoretically possible was not comfortable.  In addition, the air conditioning was not as cold as we would have liked.  

The tour itself was informative and timely.  It took about 4 hours and took us all over Barbados.  Our driver was quite good and pointed out every detail on the island.  We went to historical places of interest as well as scenic points.  

The hit of the tour was when we stopped to feed the local wild monkeys.  Aside from disturbing the monkey's natural way of feeding, it was an undeniably cool opportunity.  Our driver had a bunch of bananas that he cut up and gave to us to feed them.  It felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

As I said, the tour took us all over the island and we definitely saw a lot for the price.  At the end we had the option to go to the beach or go back to the ship.  We opted to go back to the ship to try to let the kids nap.  

Overall, I found the tour good although I think personally I don't love group van tours.  After doing this sort of tour in St. Thomas on a previous cruise and this tour, I'm beginning to think I'd prefer a more personal tour (albeitly at a higher cost).  Everyone I spoke with seemed to mostly enjoy the experience.

After getting back to the ship we walked through the shopping plaza at the pier.  Of course, it's tourist trap stuff and given its lack of air conditioning, I can't say it's worth more than a walk through.  However, there is free WiFi provided there so I guess I can't slam it too much.  If you happen to be there, go to the Barbados Tourism Office because it's air conditioned, has the best WiFi signal and has chairs for you to sit down (and electricity to charge your devices).

Back on Jewel of the Seas, we tried...and failed to get the kids to nap.  So we had lunch in the Windjammer and then relaxed in our stateroom during the afternoon.  It was a nice opportunity to enjoy our balcony, which we probably have not spent enough time on this cruise.

We got ready for dinner and had a few extra minutes so took some professional photos with my daughter near the Centrum.  I have hopes they came out well enough to warrant buying.

Dinner was in the main dining room and I really love how our wait staff knows us so well that they are starting to bring us food and drinks without asking and it's exactly what we wanted.  Frankly, this is the best wait staff we have had in a number of years.  It's kind of amusing since they admitted this is their first or second week working together.  My hat is off to Leao and Silveno.

A quick note on the main dining room menu, the escargot has been replaced on the menu by the scallops. On our February Freedom of the Seas cruise, the escargot was still on the menu despite not being available but it's now removed.  RIP little (tasty) buddies.

Spreaking of the wait staff, I have to bring up a pet peeve of mine which is the head waiter.  I know they work hard but more often than not they just end up coming over to essentially kissing up.  Sorry, I don't need to tip someone just to have someone talk to me and my kid.  Granted it's not a lot of money to tip but when I don't have special requests for the head waiter, it kind of bugs me.  Especially when we didn't even meet our head waiter until the second or third night.

Anywho, we went for a walk around the ship on deck 5 after dinner, which the kids loved.  The front deck and helipad were blocked due to high winds (or at least, I am assuming that is the reason). 

We went up to the Windjammer to have more of their sushi but I'm sorry to say the sushi tonight tasted pretty awful.  It was great the other night but today it was lackluster.  Oh well, better luck tomorrow!

My wife and Sarah went out for a girls night out so nothing else exciting happening for me.  Tomorrow is our last day (boo!) and it's our one and only sea day.  Looking forward to some pool time and sleeping in!  Gotta have priorities.

Today is our fifth port of call, St. Lucia.  It's also our last scheduled beach day.  Because of the distance between our last island (Antigua) and St. Lucia, we arrived at 9am instead of the usual 8am.

I mentioned in yesterday's post that the Captain warned us the night would have more motion than we were used to but I felt the amount of motion was akin to what I'd consider little motion on most other cruises I've been on.

We went to the Windjammer for breakfast and for the sake of keeping my breakfast posts interesting, I'll note my omelette order was messed up twice. The first time they added ham to a veggie omellete and the second time they omitted the Jalapenos.  If that's the worse I can say about my cruise than I'm doing well.

We got off the ship, which had by far the smallest pier ever.  No mile walks to be found here!  Once we got there, we started negotiating with the taxi drivers.  We wanted to go to a beach with a view of the Pitons... until we were told it would take about 1 hour and 20 minutes just to get there!  

We huddled together to figure out our options.  If it were just me and my family, we would have gone back to the ship for swimming but our friend's child can't swim in the ship's pools so we talked with the taxi driver about other options and he recommended a beach about 20-25 minutes away.

St. Lucia also has a reputation for being expensive and our taxi ride would cost us $50 each way for the 6 of us.  I think we just took a "whatever" attitude and went with it.  The driver was fine, but compared to other drivers we had not very interesting. Nonetheless he was nice and got us to the beach quickly.

We arrived at Pigeon Bay, which was a fairly unremarkable Caribbean beach.  Water was crystal clear and had great color, although it did have a bit of a current despite not being very deep at all. 

There were locals at the beach who rented us 2 chairs and an umbrella for $10.  There was free WiFi also, but you had to walk off the beach to access it.  Nearly as quick as we sat down, the horde of vendors started trying to sell their stuff to us.  Some of them were pretty aggressive, meaning a simple no was not enough to send them off.  Luckily they all got it in fairly quickly and didn't bother us for most of the day, like had happened in Antigua.

We decided to spend the day at the beach, having our taxi driver pick us up at 3pm.  The kids loved the beach and ran around to their hearts content.  There were another 6 people or so at the beach, so it was not crowded at all.

There were two restaurants right behind the beach that offered local food.  I tried the stewed lamb which was tasty and a rather large portion.  

After a few hours of swimming our driver returned and got back to the ship for a late lunch and to get ready for our second formal night.

Before heading back onboard I explored the tourist trap area outside the ship on the pier.  You standard issue selection of overpriced jewelry, clothes that change color in the sun and other nick-nacks made in China.  I wil say there is a rum shop all the way in the back that offers free WiFi, which had a huge crowd around it. Not sure how much rum they sold, but getting people in the door is half the battle.

My take on St. Lucia is it's beautiful, but expensive and really too large for just a cruise ship stop.  I'd have rather spent another day in St. Maarten or Antigua but you don't know what you like best until you see other things you don't love as much. It's a notch on my "cruise ship belt" and I can't say I had a bad time.  

This formal night dinner we were in the main dining room and it's "lobster night".  I'm not one to eat lobster but our friends were and said it was good.  I should mention I brought a bottle of wine to the main dining room and was charged the corkage fee.  It seems like if the waiters assume you brought the bottle, then no corkage fee. So it seems pretty hit or miss but the value savings even with the corkage fee really makes a difference.

After dinner I went to the "Top Tier Crown and Anchor Society Event" for C&A members Platinum and above.  Met the Captain and other senior staff and had the usual assortment of free drinks, which were quite plentiful. The event itself was, well, a dud.  The cruise director came out and thanked us all and shared how telling staff members we remember them makes their day.  Then the staff danced and that was it.  I'm guessing they figure everyone is just there for the free booze and cut out the filler.

After the event, we had reserved in-room babysitting again so we put the kids there and it was time for adult night out.

First up, the girls had drinks at the Schooner Bar while us men played a couple rounds on the self-leveling billiards table.  Billiards is free and the table is cool, although Tim had his doubts the table was 100% effective.  A good time all around even if I was beat both times.

Next up we went to the casino.  Once again the girls went to the bar and drank while us men played blackjack and roulette. And lost. It was fun but we had bad breaks everywhere.  Like I said, we had a good time but gambling is a lot more fun when you're having fun.  If you're wondering, Guest Relations will not advance you money on your SeaPass account, however the casino will for a 5% fee.  

Next we headed up to the Vortex bar for 80s & 90s party.  The Vortex bar is just fun because it's neon and spins very slowly.  Silly things like that amuse me and we had fun, although the music mix wasn't great.  Rather than playing a mix of music from both decades, all we heard while there was music from the 80s.  And some of the selections aren't exactly dance party music (like "Walk this Way" by Run DMC/Aerosmith).  Alas, the girls had drinks and had a good time.

By now, we were ready to head back to pick up the kids from the babysitter because we have an early morning tomorrow.  The babysitters were great and both kids loved spending time with them. Well worth the money for the escape for us adults.

Tomorrow we are going to our last island of Barbados. We have a tour booked through a group of people I "met" on CruiseCritic so I'm excited to see how that goes.  Leave your question and thoughts in this post's coments!