This cruise was a last minute decision. My best friend called to say that she and her daughter (age 8) were planning a cruise over Spring Break and asked if we would like to join them. Since we all live in Florida, it's pretty easy for us to hop on a ship anytime we feel like it, so we said sure. My friend was initially looking at cruises on Royal Caribbean, but I found the 5 day Western Caribbean on the Jewel and convinced her that it was a better bet, based on our amazing experience on the Jewel's sister ship, the Pearl. Boy, was I ever wrong!

We arrived at the port just as it was starting to rain, but got our luggage onto a full cart before heading into the terminal. When our luggage arrived at our room, it was so soaking wet that the clothing inside was actually damp. I'm not talking about cheap luggage either. This tells me that the porters did nothing to try and protect the luggage and that it was obviously left standing in the rain for an extended period of time.

Check-in was relatively painless, so things were off to a good start. We enjoyed the day until dinner, when we dined at Azura. Everyone's entree was delivered together, except mine, which arrived approximately 15 minutes after everyone else's and then only after my flagging down the waiter, who basically ignored us after serving the first three entrees. Read more