Jewel of the Seas — Food Porn!

 This blog post is devoted to the food from my recent Jewel cruise. Start salivating!

Cold Soup, I can't remember what kind

Melon and Prosciutto Salad - Main Dining Room

  

Caesar Salad - Main Dining Room

Cheesecake - Main Dining Room

Chocolate Dessert- Portofinos

French Onion Soup - Chops

Caesar Salad - Chops

Steak - Chops

Asparagus and Brocollini - Chops

Green Beans - Chops

Pappardelle Pasta - Portofinos

Foot-Long Baked Potato - Chops

Red Velvet Cake - Chops

Steak - Main Dining Room

Ricotta Stuffed Pasta - Main Dining Room

Tortellini - Main Dining Room

Prime Rib - Main Dining Room

Lobster - Main Dining Room

French Onion Soup - Main Dining Room

Turkey and all the trimmings - Main Dining Room

Are you hungry yet??

Until next time...

Day Eight - Disembarkation

Homeward bound today! Yes, I say that with enthusiasm. I LOVE vacation, but I also love getting home.

We docked at 6:00 am.

One of the things I love about Royal is that they don't force you out of your room by a certain time. We didn't have to lug our carryon luggage with us as we all headed up to the Windjammer for our last breakfast. The Windjammer was crowded this morning, it took us awhile to find a seat. We then took a last walk around the ship before heading to our assigned area for disembarking.

We were in Group 18 scheduled to meet in the Coral Theater at 9:00 am to get off the ship.

We had a 12:38 pm flight out of San Juan airport. 

Earlier in the week we went down to Guest Relations to inquire about getting off the ship early because of our flight time. While it wasn't 11:00 am or before, it was still not late in the afternoon. We were assured that we would not have any issues and EVERYONE would be off the ship by 10:00 am.

When we got our Group 18 assignment I went back down to Guest Relations again to double check that we would have enough time to get off the ship, go through customs and get to the airport in time. Again I was told that we had plenty of time.

We headed down to the Coral Theater a little before 9:00 am. They were on group twelve and currently were not letting anyone else off the ship because the customs line was backed up. The staff did not know when things would start moving again.

A drop of sweat fell from my brow.

9:15 am we are still waiting.

9:20 am we chatted with Daniel from the activities staff (he was in charge of the theater). We told him about our flight and we wanted to get off with the next group. He reluctantly told us we could, but most likely our luggage would not be out yet. We told him we would take our chances.

Finally at 9:35 am they started letting people off again. We were only delayed about thirty minutes, but it was a long thirty minutes (and I like to get to the airport early!).

And guess what? Our luggage was sitting there waiting for us. A porter quickly found us and we got in the customs line. Which was long. But it moved pretty quickly.

End result? We made it to the airport with a little time to spare. It was just a little stressful not being allowed off the ship for a bit.

After a turbulent flight home, we landed in New Jersey on time. And as expected, it was cold and rainy.  Unexpectedly, we got picked up in a stretch limo and saw a rainbow on the ride home. Now that is the way to end a perfect trip.

Until next time...

Day Seven - Sea Day

Sea day! Today was the only sea day on the cruise. This cruise route offered the sea day either at the beginning of the cruise or the end, depending on the dates. I will always pick the sea day at the end if I can. After 5 port days, it was time for a day of rest. Rest? Yeah, right...

I did actually sleep in a bit. I skipped breakfast in anticipation of a nice lunch later. First activity was to do some last minute shopping, I picked up a few t-shirts and purchased the obligatory "Inch of Gold." Well, silver in my case.

Then I headed down to the Centrum for the Officers Q & A Session. This is an opportunity to quiz the staff. Questions today ranged from, "Why are there no limes on the ship?" to "What kind of contracts do the different levels of crew have?". The session lasts about an hour and is very informative. My friends and I had a chance to chat with Staff Captain Kate McHue afterwards.

I then did a lap around the ship to scope out the deck chair situation. The pool area was packed, the solarium was packed, even the obscure parts where there are a few random deck chairs, everything was taken. Hmmmm, this could be a problem. But we'll worry about it later.

Time for lunch! The Jewel of the Seas has this hidden gem up on deck 12, the Seaview Cafe. It is above the Windjammer and I am pretty sure a lot of people don't know about it. It is never crowded. It is a small cafe where you can order a nice variety of fresh-made food. There is no surcharge for this. It is just a nice place to get out of the sun and have some great food.

After lunch I watched the "Sexiest Man Contest" on the pool deck.

At 1:30 pm it was time for the "Make a Wish Walk at Sea." For $10 you can purchase a t-shirt and the proceeds are donated to the Make a Wish Foundation. It is followed by a walk up on the jogging path. The officers of the ship were available to sign the shirts afterwards. A nice souvenir of the trip.

Captain Gustavo, Staff Captain McHue and Chief Engineer Petrovic signing t-shirts

T-shirt signed by all the officers

It was finally time for me to catch some rays. I will note, I am a bit of a chair hopper. I was able to find a single chair up on deck thirteen, full sun. It was very hot. I lasted there about thirty minutes. Then I meandered down to the solarium where I found another single chair. I spent most of my time here in the pool. Next I wandered out to the pool area, where at 4:00 pm, there were plenty of chairs available. After spending time in the pool, I headed back to the room to get ready for dinner and sadly, pack up my suitcase.

Solarium pool

Our last dinner was in the main dining room, again with excellent service. We lingered in there so long we missed the Farewell Show in the Coral Theater. There weren't too many activities going on this last night. We ended up where we started on the first day, in the Safari Lounge for Karaoke. There were a few more people than the first night, but it was still pretty poorly attended. Maybe the karaoke craze has run its course.

Time for bed, tomorrow we head home.

Day Six - Barbados

When I got up today I was a little disoriented. My group was doing different things today so I didn't need to be up at the crack of dawn. I got out of bed, walked out on to the balcony and was greeted by this view...

My thought was "where the heck are we?". We were supposed to be in Barbados! And we were. I was just surprised by the port area being so industrial.

My friends and I both booked the "Barbados Beach Break" excursion through the ship for today's activity. We just booked them at different times. Three of us were booked for the 8:00 am trip (I didn't feel the need to be on the beach at 8:00 am) and two of us were going on the 12:15 pm trip.

So I spent my morning enjoying the ship. I had a nice leisurely breakfast in the Windjammer, spent an hour in the gym on the treadmill and elliptical and then read for a while on my balcony.

I am going to note that it was a national holiday in Barbados the day we were there. Stores were closed. My friend joked, "Here the stores close for a holiday, in America we have sales."

At 12:15 we disembarked to go on our excursion. There was a terminal to go through with shops to get to the bus for the excursion. The excursion was $29 which included transportation to and from the beach, a chair, umbrella and a rum punch. We boarded the bus and 20 minutes later we were at Accra Beach.

It was a nice beach. The water was turquoise blue with decent waves. It was a bit rocky (not as rocky as the beach in St. Croix), I would advise bringing water shoes. We had about three hours on the beach.

When we got back to the ship terminal I took a few minutes and made good use of the free wifi that was offered.

Tonight was the second formal night. There was prime rib and lobster on the menu. Rayfton made sure we had plenty of each.

We had a full night of activities ahead of us. I made sure that everyone in our party was prepared to stay up later tonight. First up, the Coral Theater to see "Revoice", a five member a cappella band. I had seen them on my previous Jewel cruise so I was excited to see them again. If I had to use one word to describe them, it would be "incredible". If you ever had the chance to see them, take it!

We then found seats on Deck 5 overlooking the Centrum. We had a bit of down time, so we spent some quality time people watching. At 10:30 pm the Centrum came alive with the 70s Disco Party. The music of Donna Summer and the Village People filled the room. The Village People actually made an appearance, well, it was really the activities staff. They were very entertaining and energetic.

The Safari Lounge was our next destination. The Quest was our next activity. I can't tell you what it is because it takes the fun away if you have never done it before. Just be prepared to be entertained immensely.

It was way past everyone's bedtime now. Tomorrow is a sea day, so sleeping in is on my agenda...maybe.

Day Five - St. Lucia

Today we were spending the day on the island of St. Lucia.  Once again the ship docked promptly at 8:00 am.

View from my balcony of the port in St. Lucia

Today I was taking my first Royal Caribbean excursion of the trip. Since my friends were not so agenda oriented, I booked this excursion a week before the trip. I like to have a plan in place. Well apparently I had the right idea because my friends ended up joining me. We took "The Best of St. Lucia" excursion, a three and a half hour tour of the island.

There were a lot of people on this tour. We were divided into a few groups on different buses. My group ended up on a bus with "Smiley" as our guide. He was a lot of fun and very personable. After making our way up some very windy roads, the first stop was a college. There were a lot of monuments and a fantastic view. Smiley gave some local history and also information about the local vegetation that was there.

The Jewel of the Seas is peeking out on the left of the photo.

The next stop was Caribelle Batiks. This was one of the reasons I picked this particular tour. I am a quilter and all things fabric interest me. We got a brief lesson on how the batiks got made. We were then led into the store where they were hoping you would purchase some things. The items in there were beautiful and I did indeed make some purchases.

The last stop was a rainforest. We got to sample some local fish and fresh bananas. There were some interesting plants to see. There were also other groups there zip lining.

A drive back on St. Lucia's winding roads ended the excursion. The tour was $59. Was it worth $59? On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate this a 5. I have always found that booking privately versus a ship excursion, the private tours win hands down.

We got back to the ship about 1:30 pm. I did my usual routine, a little shopping, head back to the ship, relax in the solarium until dinner.

We were back in the main dining room tonight at our usual table with Rayfton and Kimber. A little info about these two. 

Rayfton hailed from India. He was incredibly passionate about his job. You could see the enthusiasm in his face. He has been with Royal for twelve years and started out as a dishwasher. His work day sometimes went from 4:00 pm until 4:00 am. He always gave us the chef's recommendation and then his own personal recommendation. If we were undecided about something, he would bring us what we ordered but also bring extra entrees "for the table" so we could sample everything. The same went for the desserts. He was into the fifth month of his seven month contract but was leaving the ship early on Saturday to fly back to India (21-hour flight!) where his wife was due to have a baby mid-May.

Our waiter Rayfton

Assistant waiter Kimber

Kimber was the more quiet of the two. He was from St. Lucia where his wife and baby currently live.  He would work extra hours the day before the ship docks in St. Lucia so he could be off the ship the entire day and spend it with his family.

Their typical contract is seven months on and then six weeks off. Not an easy life!

We attended the production show after dinner. Again, it was just ok. Then some of us went to bed. The rest of us went to the Name the Lyrics show in the Safari Lounge.  A lot of fun!

Tomorrow is our last port stop, Barbados!