The Jewel is a Gem!: Part One

We're back from our cruise; actually, we returned B&E this past Monday am. Alas, it was too, too, short BUT it sure was a lot of fun. I think there is something about having to cram a bunch of enjoyment into a short period of time that tends to make the days more memorable.

We dropped The Kid off at Tampa International around 11:00 am. Sorry to see her go; Mr. B was sad, of course. I was very glad that we were heading to the ship, otherwise, it would have been pretty darn depressing.

It took less than 20 minutes to get from the airport to the Port of Tampa. As it was when we took Jewel's sister ship Radiance out of Tampa this past January, embarkation was a total snap. They really have it down pat. We were on the ship before noon!

Now, here is a somewhat odd thing. Although we were told by one of the bartenders that the ship was full, it seemed amazingly empty throughout the entire cruise, even on the sea days where there is nowhere else for the PAX to be but on the ship. Our new friend Pam said maybe there were a lot of Florida residents on board (read:old) who were staying in their staterooms because it was a bit chilly that first day.

In any case, we went up to the Windjammer (buffet) for an early lunch. Other than going in there on occasion to get a quick bite to take back to the pool area, we stayed clear of the Windjammer. No matter how uncrowded the ship may be, all of the rude and pushy folks seem to end up in there.

Directly after lunch, we headed to one of our favorite bars, The Schooner Bar, on Deck Six. I ordered my first Frozen Mojito of the cruise but for some reason, it wasn't exactly right. Too much lime, no mint. Anyway, we chatted with the bartender for a bit. As is the case with the majority of crew members, he was not from the U.S., but, rather, from Estonia. He asked how many cruises we've taken (this was our 4th together), he said he's taken over 500! Well, of course! It's his job! Anyway, he highly recommended we consider one of the cruises that goes from London to Paris to Norway to Russia.

A bit after 1:00 pm, we were able to get into our stateroom up on Deck 10 (aft balcony). Being Jewel is a sister ship to Radiance and our room was right next to the one we were on in January, there wasn't much surprise with our accommodations. The one difference was a very positive one; the shower had a door instead of the butt-crack invading shower curtain that was on Radiance.

Although I just posted a video of our stateroom, here are a few pictures of #1102.

No pole dancing in this room!

I wonder why they even bother with those "tables"?

Dinky but serviceable bathroom

Best part of the room

Port of Tampa

Already on the phone (actually, he was talking to our vet about some shots Lucy needed)

Wiped out already?

As usual, I'd ordered a bottle of Champagne for our room. It was there (along with our bottled water and coupon booklet) but what WASN'T there was ice!

Ice-less Champagne. First time this has happened! Note the "Contact Stateroom Attendant If You Need Ice" sign. DUH!

This actually became an issue as it took forever and a day to get ice and then the ice we got was pretty scant in quantity. As it turns out, we didn't end up drinking the Champagne until the next night and, in fact, I ended up drinking it with my new friend Pam while Mr. B smoked a cigar with her husband and their friend Fish.

Yes, The B's made some new friends on this cruise! We'd told ourselves prior to sailing that we were going to branch out; rather than keep to ourselves, we'd attempt to meet and mingle. Weeks before the cruise, I signed onto the thread for the sailing and met and chatted with many people online (similar to what I did for the Enchantment sailing where we ended up meeting a few people and going on a private excursion with them in the Dominican Republic).

Turns out there were to be several ladies all born in 1963 on board plus a few other people celebrating b-days. There were also some pretty interesting characters posting on the board; I can't resist copying one post here:

"DH wants me to drive his new truck from Grand Rapids for my flight instead of my old car. So, I boiled him a cow tongue this morning to use for lunch meat or quick dinner while I'm gone. I will be wearing some Mardi Gras beads and an elf hat".

Not to be mean or catty, but, she was an unusual lady. More on her and our new friends and cruise adventures next posting as I gotta run now.

Mrs. B

Radiant Cruise on Radiance: The End

We had a grand time in Cozumel! I was really impressed with the excursion we took; first time we've ever done this. Kudos to Royal Caribbean for this one!

Our morning started with waking up early (even before the room service attendant called) and going out onto our balcony to find us pulled up next to another RCI ship, Liberty of the Seas. A monster! Seriously, if this is the 2nd largest category of their ships, I shudder to think what their new mega-ships look like.

Front end of Liberty of the Seas seen from our balcony

Room service arrived and the attendant was a real comedian. He was totally perplexed by the device they'd put into our room for Mr. B's "deafness". He thought it was a joke we were playing on him. He kept pushing the button on the door that set off the device; it'd flash and vibrate. I think his mind may have been in the gutter somewhat! Anyway, a fun start to our morning.

We were off the ship and signed in for our excursion well before departure time. We were caught by the ship's photographer for one of the cheesy shots (later, we decided liked it well enough to buy it).

Not bad...

We wandered around the dock area a bit; typical shops, bars, restaurants, hawkers, etc. Lots of folks from both ships were milling about, waiting for their excursion. I took several pictures of the two ships side by side to again illustrate the difference in their sizes.

Mr. B in front of ships

Liberty (left) Radiance (right)

Tunnel view!

They loaded us onto buses around 10 and off we went. The cooking class we signed up for was held roughly 15 minutes away at a beach-resort type place. Many of the other excursions were held there, too. Or, one could opt to pay a fixed price and hang out on the beach or in the pool area all day with all you can eat and drink included. Anyway, it was a pretty enough place and the bathrooms were kept sparkling clean by a very friendly attendant. There were also many creatures wandering about, including a resident iguana (who later was carted about for photo ops).

There were about 20 of us who'd signed up for the class. I think we were the only ones from Radiance, the rest were from Liberty. We went into a classroom set up like a kitchen with multiple stations, each holding four people. We joined a couple from West Virginia who turned out to be highly amusing (and even more so after the booze started flowing).

Armed and dangerous with a Mexican spatula!

Chef B and his Sou Chef

Our instructor was an entertaining young man called Chef Luis. He, along with two or three side kicks, kept the class both instructive (we did learn a few things, well, ok, I did, anyway) and a lot of fun.

Paying attention in class

The B's with Chef Luis

Although all of the food was tasty, our Grouper Vera Cruz was by far the best. After the class, we all retired to an upstairs room with a delightful view of the ocean to eat our homework.

Dining room

Grouper Vera Cruz. Yum-o

Mr. B's artistic dessert

After several more drinks were served, Chef Luis passed the hat for tips, and then made the sales pitch for a framed picture of each couple with him (taken during the height of cooking frenzy when all were in high spirits) as well as a small cookbook of regional recipes. The B's being suckers for all things food-related, we purchased both.

After we ate, we had about an hour to laze around the pool before it was time to head back to the ship. We had a few more drinks (why not, they were included in the price of the excursion, which, by the way, was pretty reasonable) and then back to the dock we went.

Having had such an exhausting day, we decided we'd best go chill out in the Solarium for awhile before sail-away. Interestingly enough, when we went back up to the top deck to say "Adios!" to Cozumel, there was absolutely no one else up there, which was somewhat eerie.

Where IS everyone?

No one here either except my DH!

And me!

Since we'd heard so much about The Seaview Cafe (people on the message board are all up in arms because it's going to be turned into a Johnny Rocket's when Radiance goes into dry dock this spring), we decided to try it. We thought it was ok plus. I guess the primary beef is that it'll no longer be free. As an aside, it does seem as though more and more things on cruises are NOT included in the price of the cruise itself.

After dinner in the main dining room (still trying to not be irritated about our crapola table), we went to watch The Quest, which is a funny, adult-game show type variety show which brave passengers elect to make fools of themselves for the entertainment of everyone else. We'd seen this on Enchantment and thought it was worth going to again and it was. Afterwards, I actually got Mr. B up to the disco AND out onto the dance floor where he did his very best Robot Man impression (it's so cute) while I danced around him like a happy glad-fly.

Our last day on board, Friday, was rainy and icky. Boo.

We got our departure luggage tags and they had us slated for the LAST time slot. I think not! We went and changed them at the hospitality desk with zero problems. Good to know for next time. We ate lunch in the MDR and had an interesting conversation with several other passengers. For some reason, it doesn't bother us sharing a table with people we don't know for lunch or breakfast; maybe we should try it for dinner, or, better yet, convince other people to travel with us!

We had a nice final dinner; handed out gratuities, etc.

Obligatory outside stateroom door picture

The process getting off the ship our last morning was very smooth however not everyone (including my DH) likes to follow instructions!

Tampa

It was highly amusing to walk past The Naughty Table on our way off the ship. This is where "illegal" items that passengers attempted to smuggle on board were on display; tagged and waiting for their owners to reclaim them (all except booze, that is; apparently, that is dumped out (or passed around the crew!)) There were TONS of clothes irons, for God's sake! Who in their right mind wants to iron clothes while on vacay! Not to mention, how dangerous one of these could be (fire hazard). Really, people, it's not as if Royal Caribbean doesn't make it ABUNDANTLY clear what is prohibited and that they WILL search luggage. Stupid.

Anyway, our short cruise was delightful with the exception of a few things. Here are the pros and cons!

Pros

Embarkation was a snap

RCI's frozen mojitos ARE TO DIE FOR

Draft beer this time (although only Heineken products)

Large aft balcony with nice view

Weather...was this January?

Dinner at Portofino. The tiramisu was WOWIE!

The Solarium...relaxing and loved the bird sounds

$50 OBC from Cruise.com

Glass elevators over the ocean...cool

Cozumel/Mexican cuisine excursion with Chef Luis

The Quest

Disembarkation painless

Cons

Stateroom attendant not so great

Crappy MDR table

Service in general not as personal

Room was nice but cramped; dinky shower

Pool area a lot smaller than EOS

Didn't like layout of the ship quite as much as EOS's

Showtimes seemed WAY early (hard to eat a leisurely dinner and get to a show)

All in all, though, we had a fine time and can't wait to book another cruise!

Mrs. B

Radiant Cruise on Radiance: Three

Here I am almost three months after we sailed attempting to wrap this up so I can move on to other topics!

Today we'll be in Costa Maya, a port that I know very little about and one that it appears isn't terribly interesting, at least judging from the reviews I read on Trip Advisor. As such, we elected to NOT do any of Royal Caribbean's excursions but will likely get off the ship, wander around the little fake town and then get back onto the ship and hang out in the Solarium.

I'm sitting here eating breakfast out on our balcony. Once again, it's a lovely, warm, sunny morning. Breakfast is the same as yesterday's except I did order some fresh fruit of which I ate most of it since it contained melon and strawberries.

We're supposed to get cell phone signal but we're not, which means we really should get off the ship, if only to check to see if Uncle Chuck calls to let us know how Lucy is doing. She's probably in surgery as I write this. We're sending lots of positive vibes and love back home to our Goose. Damn MCTs! Today's a good a day as any for her procedure, though, as it's Nigel's 20th birthday. "Hey, Nige, keep an eye over our Goose, ok? And, say hi to Clyde for me".

Later

Today turned out to be QUITE warm, maybe 85 or so. We got off the ship for a little bit. No cell phone signal! Boo! We were able to get in touch with the vet right before dinner, though, and Lucy "sailed" through her procedure with flying colors. Yey!

Back to Costa Maya. They had an area set up right off the dock just for the cruise ships. Another liner, Oceania, I believe, was docked right next to us. Although Oceania cruises are supposed to be the height of luxury, the ship was a little pee pee compared to ours.

Our stateroom is right below where the people are standing

The B's in front of Radiance. Well, actually we're standing in front of the BACK of Radiance!

The B's in Costa Maya with Radiance and Pee Pee Oceania in the background

Anyway, this area had shops, restaurants bars (of course) and a pool. We each had a Dos Equis and watched the people playing/swimming with the dolphins. We were back on board in less than an hour as we didn't find this overly titillating! We hung out in the Solarium for 4 1/2 hours and then, later, sat out on our balcony playing cards and smoking cigars. I took one of my absolute favorite pictures of Mark from the cruise during this time. Doesn't he just look like "Da man"?

We were out there when the ship sailed and for the sunset. Roughly 10 minutes after we pulled away, the ship stopped. The Captain came on and said not to worry, they were just making some adjustments. Good thing he did as before we pulled away, we'd noted some scary looking dudes armed with assault weapons down below on the dock (although I think they were there hoping to earn some money posing for photos with dumb-ass tourists).

Scary Commando looking dudes. Tourist walking by looks as though he's doing a double take!

As it turned out, we discovered later that what had really happened was a few of those dumb-ass tourists missed the ship when she sailed so the Captain (nicely) stopped so they could be motored out. This despite the fact they'd told us over and over we were on ship's time (an hour ahead of local time). Duh.

Pretty sunset. That's Oceania out there, back there, whatever!

We had dinner tonight in one of the specialty restaurants; Portofino. Northern Italian. It was GREAT. It is definitely worth it, we think, to pay the extra money for these places at least one night during the cruise. The food and service is certainly a notch (or two) up from that in the main dining room (which isn't bad to begin with).

We had a fantastic bottle of wine but Mr. B's attempt to take a picture of it so we'd remember what it was didn't work out all that great. Oh well!

I don't like this picture but Mr. B says I never post pictures of me so here is one

We discovered a nice surprise when we returned to our stateroom; Cruise.com gave us a complimentary $50 OBC (on board credit)! Also, our pre-paid gratuity vouchers turned up (which seems a bit early since we still have two more days). I think this is our stateroom attendant's doing. In general, we've not been as pleased with him as we were with Esther on Enchantment. He's ok, but, MEB says, and I agree, that he'll not be getting any extra gratuity, and neither will our waiters. And we've definitely not found a special go-to bar person like we did with Placid. Oh well, maybe being in a Junior Suite DOES count for something. Next time, we'll spend the extra money and book another of those.

Best hit it. We're taking an excursion tomorrow in Cozumel and will have room service wake us up at 7:30 am.

Radiant Cruise on Radiance: Two

It's been a month and a half since we took this cruise! Best get a move on, Mrs. B!

Our first full day at sea was a good day! We ordered room service (as we usually do) so that we could enjoy breakfast out on our balcony. Unlike last cruise where there wasn't any place on the order form to indicate what time we wanted it delivered, we were happy to see that the ones on this cruise had several time slots to chose from. Since it was our first morning, we elected to sleep in; having it delivered around 9:00 am. Before it arrived, I stepped out onto the balcony to determine if it was warm enough to eat out there. What a pleasant surprise, it was quite balmy and most likely in the low 80s. Pure delight! On top of it, the sea was relatively calm, enabling me to get this picture, one of my favorites of this trip.

Anyway, room service called with the heads up that they were on their way (a very nice touch as it can work something like an alarm clock) while I was out on the balcony writing in my travel journal about the day prior.

Breakfast was fine; we always order the eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns and grilled tomatoes (actually, the tomatoes just come with it, must be a British thing) and a basket of pastries. Oh, and LOTS of coffee! Nothing terribly exotic but it works for us and keeps us out of the buffet. And, of course, we'd much rather be enjoying breakfast with our private view of the ocean.

We spent the majority of the day hanging out in The Solarium, the adult-only pool area. It took awhile to get loungers as there were a lot of people in there, but, we finally did. There was a definite jungle-theme going on in there, complete with a soundtrack of chirping birds and, if you listened carefully, a bellowing elephant on occasion. Sorta silly, but, it was actually calming. We had a light lunch at The Solarium Cafe (wraps and salad) so that we didn't have to abandon our loungers. We did enjoy ourselves there but found the pool side drink service nowhere near as attentive as it was on our cruise in May. No Placid from India. Boo hoo. Also, later in the afternoon, a rowdy group of Brazilians took up residence in the pool drinking, shouting, and carrying on. Not very calming at that point!

We left around 3:00 to attend a martini class in The Champagne Bar. Alas, there was a requirement for 10 and only 4 of us showed up. Can you believe that? We couldn't! We had a glass of Champagne and sat in there looking out at the ocean through some pretty amazing huge windows; after, we went back up to our balcony for a few hands of cards and a cigar.

Oh, because this was our 2nd cruise on Royal Caribbean and we'd signed up for their loyalty club, we each received a booklet of coupons (waiting for us in our stateroom when we first arrived). Nothing huge; a few drinks here and there and 25% off of logo merchandise, but, hey, free is free and a discount is a discount.

Dinner that evening, the only formal night of this cruise, was fine if a bit noisy. Mr. B repeatedly said, "What?" to me throughout our conversation; he could hardly hear me at all. We'll definitely have to address this issue before we book our next cruise. Anyway, one of the options for dinner was a very tender beef fillet; quite yummy.

I made Mr. B wait with me in The Centrum to watch some show people dancing to the tunes of the 70s, which turned out to be quite lame. By way of apology, I agreed to go up to Star Quest (off The Viking Crown Lounge on Deck 13) for scotch and cigars.

Our evening rounded out with us having fun posing with Mr. Pig back in our stateroom!

Mrs. B

Radiant Cruise on Radiance: One

We left Weeki Wachee the morning of Sail Away Day in a torrent of rain. The drive to the pier in Tampa was nothing short of harrowing and I'm not being dramatic here! We took one of the toll roads which meant it wasn't as crowded as the interstate would have been but there were still plenty of idiots going way too fast given the poor visibility and very slick roads. Not to mention, I had to use the facilities 1/2 hour into the trip. Why does this ALWAYS happen? Mr. B finally pulled off a few exits before we got to the pier; I didn't want to get dropped off at the terminal building and stand there with my legs pressed tightly together lugging our bags, waiting for a porter, etc.

Ok, so, when we did get to the pier (very easy to find), we were relieved to see the ship towering over the terminal building. As some of you know, there had been an outbreak of "something" on the ship several cruises before ours. Over 100 people were reported ill, they completely bleached and disinfected the ship before allowing it to sail again (which meant the people on the following cruise didn't get to board until 6:00 pm and the ship didn't sail until after 10:00 pm). There were reports from that cruise of no one being able to serve themselves (e.g., at buffets) or even hold their own menus in the dining rooms. Also, no salt and pepper shakers, no dishes of butter. Even though there had been zero reports about issues on the following cruise (the one just before ours), we were still a bit anxious about another outbreak. I had come prepared; tons and tons of antibacterial wipes and several bottles of antibacterial hand sanitizer.

Anyway, the ship was there. Mr. B pulled up to the curb and a porter immediately materialized to whisk away our bags. Mr. B went to park the car across the street while I stood there watching a large crowd of seniors get off a bus and the chaotic process of them finding porters for their luggage.

Mr. B came back within 10 minutes and we went inside the terminal building. We were so pleased with the process at Tampa! So much more organized than in Norfolk. We breezed through security, filled out our health forms, and were immediately checked in by a friendly Royal Caribbean employee. A few minutes after, we were on the ship (after stopping to take the obligatory "Welcome Aboard" picture (which we didn't buy because I didn't like the way I looked)).

We come onto the ship on Deck 5. My general impression of Radiance was that she was a bit larger than Enchantment (several decks taller) and there seemed to be a lot more glass and chrome. Over the course of the cruise, we learned she had several more restaurants/bars than Enchantment and some really cool elevators that were designed to appear as if they were out over the ocean. I'd read quite a bit on the message boards prior to sailing about there being some issues with plumbing and that she was going into dry dock in May; after which, she'd come out an entirely different ship (different restaurants, updated carpet, new furnishings in the staterooms, flat screened TVs, some rooms made over to single traveler rooms (an interesting concept), etc.)) We'd been lucky enough to go on Enchantment a few weeks AFTER she'd come out of dry dock so I was a bit worried that Radiance would be on her last legs or something. Not true; we never saw anything that was not perfectly elegant.

So, we wandered around a bit, getting our bearings, but, it wasn't long before we were in The Schooner Bar ordering our first drink of the cruise; Mr. B was pleased that Radiance had draft beer (Enchantment did not) and I, of course, was overjoyed to be reunited with Royal Caribbeans famous frozen mojitos!

After checking out a few more public places, we headed to the main dining room, Cascades (yes, there was a cascading waterfall near the entrance) to find our table.

I'll say this upfront and get it out of the way. The dining room situation was the fly in the ointment on this cruise. Everything else, for the most part, was fine; but, this really irritated me. From the get-go, when I made the RSVP, I was clear that we needed a quiet table because Mr. B is hard of hearing in one ear. Seriously, if there is too much clatter and din, he really cannot hear. I noticed on our invoice/ticket it said "Request quiet table near window; one passenger deaf in one ear". Ok, not exactly true, but close enough.

We found our table; yes, it was a window table sure enough but it also was a table for 10. Seriously, what's the likelihood we'd be able to snag the two chairs by the window every night? And, frankly, neither one of us were thrilled with the prospect of sharing our meals with eight other people we didn't know. So, off to find the Maitre d' to see about getting the table changed. We'd had to do this on Enchantment, too, so were not overly surprised. However, we lucked out then and were moved to a lovely, quiet table for two by the window. Not so this time; we got the run-around about there being a waiting list for tables for two. Mr. B mentioned the deafness; after some shuffling, we did get a table for two except it was right by the entrance to the dining room and behind a waiter's station. On top of it, the table behind Mr. B was full of loud people who seemed to like to shout at one another and the tables next to us had several small children who didn't stay in their seats. Not quiet at all. We tried several more times to get a better table and our head waiter said he kept trying for us, but, suffice it to say, we were stuck there.

I found it extremely interesting that Royal Caribbean took the deafness seriously enough to put this weird vibrating/flashing light device in our stateroom (for emergencies, I guess) but yet we couldn't get a decent table. Of course, I'm thinking had Mr. B slipped the Maitre d' a $20, we may have had our table! This is something I'll have to figure out before we cruise again; how to get the table we want so we don't have to mess around with it/be dissatisfied. I know one way; get a few other people to go on a cruise with us and then we'd have our own table. Any takers?

We had lunch our first day in the Windjammer up on Deck 11; this is the buffet for those of you not familiar with Royal Caribbean. This was the first and only time we ate there for the entire cruise. Nothing was wrong with it, but, I was just sorta paranoid about another outbreak and by the time we cruised, they'd stopped serving everyone. I saw enough that afternoon of people pawing at the food that grossed me out sufficiently to steer clear. I know there are a lot of people who cruise in order to stuff themselves silly at the buffets and all the other free food stations, but, the B's are not included in that crowd.

Around 1:00 pm, we were able to get into our stateroom and start the unpacking process. As others had mentioned, it was quite a haul to our stateroom at the very back of the ship from the nearest bank of elevators/stairs. Heck, at least we'd be ensured some exercise (this and climbing up and down the stairs; something we did almost all the time unless I was wearing high heels). In general, we were pleased with #1104 on Deck 10 (do not ask me why it wasn't #1004!) especially the huge balcony. The room itself was somewhat smaller than the one we had on Enchantment and the bathroom, well, it was downright dinky and I don't think a large person would be very comfy in the tiny little stall shower (with the butt-crack attacking shower curtain) but since it was a five night cruise, we had figured we could make do with the smaller quarters. Plus, we wanted to try an aft balcony. Having said all of this, we've decided we'll always go for a junior suite or larger, mostly because the bathroom is fairly sizable and the attention from the stateroom attendant is much more personal. Our stateroom attendant this cruise was just okay. He kept the room clean; that's about it.

The bed was very comfy and right by the door leading out to the balcony. Nice to wake up every morning to a lovely view of the ocean.

Our luggage hadn't arrived yet but our Champagne had! Despite it being rainy and icky outside, we ventured out to enjoy a flute of Champagne out on the balcony, toast, and wish ourselves a Merry (belated) Christmas (the cruise was our Christmas present to each other). After the bags arrived, Mr. B unpacked (he's much better at finding the perfect spot for everything than I am) while I took pictures and shot the video of the stateroom. This I do to post on-line; you'd be amazed how many people are looking for pictures/videos of "the" stateroom they'll be staying in.

Mr. B checking out the view.

The large balcony.

Final picture with the cell phone before turning it off!

Relaxing after unpacking. Note the weird vibrating/flashing device on the night stand underneath the phone.

Around 3:30 pm, we headed down to Deck 5 for the mandatory muster. Nothing exciting to report about that.

Finally, sail away at 4:30 pm. Another drink in hand, we stood on top of Deck 12 and watched Tampa slip away. Well, not really; the way it's situated in amongst all the channels, it took over three hours to actually get out of there onto the open sea. By that time, we'd of course gone inside to find some place warmer to watch the lovely sunset. We choose the Viking Crown Lounge up on Deck 13, just about the highest vantage point on the ship.

Sailing away with a frozen mojito and hoping the weather improves (it did).

The terminal building in Tampa.

Dinner that evening was fine (although we were both still a bit miffed about the table situation). One very nice thing about the food in the main dinning room is that the portions are just right and there is plenty of variety. As on Enchantment, we'd prepaid for the wine package and there was a fairly decent selection.

The evening ended relatively early for us; by the time we'd finished dinner it was after 10:00 pm and we were both exhausted and ready for sweet dreams on the high seas!

Mrs. B