Jewel Of The Seas

jakoury · March 21, 2008

Well we got back a few days ago and I have to say that this was my best trip yet!

Port Everglades was kind of a let down as it was dirty and a very short sail out with very little interaction with folks on shore.

The ship itself was very well maintained, and the staff was wonderful.

I met our cruise director, Clodgah (spelling) the first night out of port and found her to be a lot of fun. Her husband and infant son were on board as well, and they were great folks. I have to say, and the wife agrees, that she was the best directer we have ever had.

I also met the captain on the first night. He was a great guy named Thor with a great sense of humor. I found by the end of the cruise that he was around us passengers more than any captain from my previous sailings.

We got on the love and marrage game, which was a blast and I participated in the quest very activly. I won't let the cat out of the bag for those of you that have never seen the quest before, but for those whom have seen it, I was involved in the very last part. Needless to say I ended up all over the closed circut TV throughout the sailing.

I got a 5th place in the long ball drive the first time with a drive of 220 yards, and participated again a few days later and drove one 248 yards but still only got 5th again. 248 won it the first time so I figured I was in like Flint. The winning drive was 278 yards! The wife on the other hand got the bronze medal in the ladies division for her drive.

We had Crazie with us and got many comments on her which gave me the chance to talk about this web site with many people. I'm sure a few will end up joining. I will post some pics in the next week or so.

San Juan was a good time. We took a cab to the fort and walked all over it and the cemetary, then walked back to the ship. On the walk back I ended up meeting the owner of one of the cigar shops. We hung out for about 45 minutes just shooting the breeze. He supplied copious amounts of rum and gave me a very nice smoke. He ships to the mainland and I plan on placing an order shortly.

St. Thomas was ok. We walked to the Jewish Temple and got a tour from the Rabbi. It is a neat place to see even if you are not Jewish. It is the oldest temple in the western hemisphere to be in constant use, being built in 1790. The building itself is beautiful and has a sand floor. We went ahead and joined the temple even though we can't forsee ever going to services there.

We did not do much in St. Maarten. Just ended up hanging out at an outside bar with a French guy doing some people watching.

Tortola was my favorite island. It is much more laid back than all the other places I have been and the people were very nice. We went to a beach on the other side of the island. I stayed in the water for several hours all together while the wife napped and read her book. There were many tropical fish around once I got into about 5 feet of water ranging from just a few inchies long to about a foot in length. They were not bashfull at all and I swam and played with them the whole time. To get to the beach we took a jeepny over the mountain, and I was terrified the whole trip. The road going over the mountain has very few switch backs. It pretty much goes straight up to a little over 1000 feet then straight down. The name of the road is "Steep Hill"

We went to Atlantis while in Nassau. We booked it through RCCL, and found it to be very nice. The aquarium was top notch and the casino was beautiful. We ate lunch at an outdoors resturant at Atlantis. It was a huge covered pavillion type thing with the beach on one side and the shark area of the aquarium on the other. The price was not bad either.

The only thing I did not enjoy was the comedian that was on the ship. He just was not funny.

I made the mistake of turning on Fox News the last day and learned of all the bad weather and tornados that hit the Atlanta area. I found out that we had 3 touch down in my community, and we have mutual aid agree ments with Atlanta so I was a little worried about home and knew I would be busy when I got back. And sure enough I have been. Today was the first time I have been able to get on the computer. I was not even unpacked until late last night and still have not gotten the pictures developd.

Overall it was a great trip and I did not want to come back. I highly reccomend The Jewel Of The Seas to all of you.