We’ve just returned from a 2 week “back-to-back” cruise on the lovely “Jewel” sailing from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
We’ve always sailed from Ft Lauderdale before so San Juan was a refreshing change.
It’s a very interesting old Spanish colonial city and well worth the three days we spent there.
We stayed at the Caribe Hilton and would recommend it for its beautiful seaside location and its position in between Old San Juan and the cruise terminal at the Pan American pier.
We loved the Jewel of the Seas.
The staff were so friendly and the captain was often seen around the ship.
It felt very much that the crew formed a close knit team and really enjoyed working together.
We stayed in a Superior Balcony Stateroom (9534) which was very comfortable with a good balcony and lots of storage space.
We didn’t particularly like the dark wood furniture but the queen size bed was super comfy! We chose My Time dining and never had to wait too long for a table for two.
There is a good selection of table sizes in the Tides dining room and although we were served by a variety of waiters over the fortnight, the service was invariably friendly and professional.
The food was excellent and the menu was very varied – which was fortunate as the menus for the 2nd week of our back-to-back were identical to the 1st, which we hadn’t anticipated.
(The same applied to the entertainment, which wasn’t so good.
The shows were OK the first time round but it rather detracted from our enjoyment of the 2nd week that we’d seen them all before!) We chose this cruise primarily for the itinerary.
We loved most of the islands we visited, especially Tortola, Dominica and St Croix and we definitely preferred sailing from Puerto Rico (although the lack of direct flights from the UK was a pain) Overall, this cruise was the best Caribbean itinerary we’ve ever done, we loved Jewel and it represented superb value for money.
Oh yes – and the weather was superb! 28-30 deg C everyday and wall-to-wall sunshine while it was cold and wet at home has to be recommended!
