I just returned last night from a 7 day cruise on the Jewel out of San Juan. It was one of my best cruises of the 15+ I have taken. Although I read a few poor reviews of the Jewel, I did not experience what the writers described. The food in Windjammer was very good, the service in the dining room was great and our room service was just as good. I did not like two of the ports we visited, Grenada and Dominca, but the other ports were really nice - Barbados, St. Thomas and especially St. Maarten. There was a problem during disembarkation as the taxi and luggage port workers decided to strike that day so we were 2 hours longer getting off the ship. Many passengers were complaining about how RC staff handled that issue and delay but it was no different than I have experienced on Carnival during disembarkation. Entertainment was good and we were lucky to eat at the table with the Motown singers for a new nights before they performed and left the ship. I have another cruise scheduled on RC Liberty of the Seas in January and will see how they compare as my experience on the Jewel will be hard to beat.
Cabin was clean and well maintainted during the cruise. Leonardo was our cabin steward and was great.
Boarded ship and left the ship to tour Old San Juan. The embarkation process was very smooth as well as leaving and boarding the ship again.
Walked around town and found a nice beach bar where we spent most of the day
Not much to do there if no excursion. Port is congested with taxi drivers hastling you to take a tour. Area is very dirty
Nothing to do there if you do not take an excursion. Another wasted port that is dirty and you are bombarded with taxi drivers when you get off the ship.
Very nice port. Beach is a ten minute walk and lots to do in the area.
Taxis were expensive. We decided to walk to the beach about 15 mins away. Glad we did because we were told later that the main beach has a fee to enter and is expensive. We paid $7 for a beach chair.