Jewel of the Seas Boarding Day

Last night we returned to the hotel restaurant for dinner and enjoyed a delicious meal.  I tried their signature cocktail, El Convento, which includes Grey Goose, St Germain, grapefruit juice, and lemon juice, and is topped with a dehydrated lime slice.  (Another use for your new dehydrator, Rachel?) it was excellent! Charlie sipped some local rum.

I ordered fish tacos, which did not disappoint. Charlie chose fried snapper, and the portion was too much for him to finish.



This morning Charlie ran out to get some batteries and saw the staff setting up for a wedding reception . The hotel is a beautiful venue for a reception!

After waiting for our scheduled Uber and seeing the best route closed for street work, we saw the Uber vanish from the screen, replaced by a different car and driver.  We waited for it to arrive, but finally the bellman said he’d call us a taxi.  He very kindly dragged our bags uphill to an adjacent street, where we joined another couple (and eventually another couple) in a minivan. The others were going to a different port for a Virgin cruise ship, but our port was quite close.  We were dropped off and joined a long line outside the terminal.  Soon the line began to move, and we were able to hand over our bags.  Check-in and Security didn’t take long, and we were able to board our ship.  

After checking in at our muster station, we headed up to the Solarium and got our first adult beverages at 11:30.

This is the oldest Royal Caribbean ship we’ve been on, but it was refurbished in 2024, so looks nice. It’s also the smallest RC ship we’ve tried, with a central atrium like the Queen Mary 2.  We had the Solarium all to ourselves.  Here are a couple of photos illustrating its theme on Jewel of the Seas, which began sailing in the Asian market.


At noon we headed down to deck 6, to find Chops Grille. We had a nice table by the windows.


We both had the shrimp cocktail, followed by steak salads, and we (somewhat) virtuously eschewed dessert. Rooms were ready by the time we finished lunch, so we found ours and unpacked our bags.  This is a “free” cruise courtesy of our casino status, although we upgraded to a balcony cabin and added the dining package. Still, it was quite a bargain!

In a few minutes we’ll head to the port talk, and later we have a dinner reservation at Giovanni’s Table. Sailaway isn’t until 7:00 p.m.  Tomorrow we dock at Charlotte Amalie in the Virgin Islands.  That’s it for today, barring any startling developments!


Comments

  1. EleanorJanuary 10, 2026 at 11:11 AM

    Wow the theming is so cool! So different from the other RC ships I’ve been on

    ReplyDelete
  2. RachelJanuary 11, 2026 at 3:54 AM

    That theming is wild!! Sorry about the snafu with your car, that’s stressful. And that cocktail in the first pic looks right up my alley!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ice Skating and Sushi

Image
Yesterday afternoon, we went to the ice-skating show, which was Tarot-themed. Costumed skaters portrayed the Lovers, the Empress, the Joker, etc.  We were as impressed with their skills as we were with the skaters’ on the Wonder in March. Lots of fancy spins, lifts, and jumps! Charlie told me that our ship (Voyager, launched in 1999) was the first in Royal Caribbean’s fleet to have an ice performance rink. There are servers who bring you drinks, so Prosecco it was!  We had reservations at Chops Grille for dinner, and we enjoyed our meal as the sun set. We both tried the appetizer crab cake (not as good as Charlie’s), the lobster bisque (okay), then petite filets with baked potatoes and asparagus. Once again, we failed to capture a pic of the excellent chocolate cake with ice cream.  As I mentioned yesterday, ship’s time moved ahead another hour, but so far we’re adjusting all right. We did have some loud noises overnight from the pool deck on the deck above ours. It sound...
Read more

Off to a Good Start!

Image
Yesterday we left home for our next adventure, back-to-back cruises out of Los Angeles.  We managed to pack lightly, so for the next two weeks I’m going to look like some slight variation of this: Waiting for the elevator Our driver was waiting when we went downstairs, and due to the 4:30 p.m. traffic, took us a VERY circuitous route to the airport. That took about an hour. We got through Security with zero line — although Charlie did get pulled for a “random” bag check.  We went to the Cadillac Mexican restaurant and enjoyed margaritas and snacks until it was almost time to board.  We were the first two to board — no people needing assistance, no Concierge members — so we got settled into our bulkhead seats and were soon sipping some sparkling wine while boarding continued.  We departed at 8 p.m.  I read most of the 3.5 hour trip, finishing a book shortly before landing.  Unfortunately, our plane landed at the remote terminal, which required a short wait f...
Read more

And We're Off Again!

Image
Our highly anticipated trip this time is a month long, as we're taking back-to-back cruises from Vancouver to Hawaii, then on to Sydney, Australia! Royal Caribbean is repositioning Anthem of the Seas for the summer season Down Under.  Yesterday morning at 6:15 a car picked us up to head to the airport.  An hour later, we were through Security and settled into the airport lounge.  We had worried a bit about the government shutdown's impact on TSA and/or the airport itself, but at that hour, at least, all was well.   We tried to pack lightly for this month-long trip, but we didn't attempt to carry on everything. Here's Charlie's luggage: And here's mine: In Charlie's defense, his shoes are bulkier -- I only packed a pair of sandals in addition to the shoes I was wearing -- and he packed a good bit of handy stuff for the cruise ship that we'll both use. The flight to Vancouver went smoothly, although we were a little late leaving. Consequently, our "br...
Read more