What can you tell me about these suites? any tips, pictures? family of 3, one being a teenager, so we were looking for extra space.
Any info is appreciated, we've never been on RCI so are trying to gather up and read as much info as possible :)
This is perhaps a timely review following Matt's Brilliance cruise at the weekend. He has posted great pics of a post refurb Radiance class ship, here's a look at one that remains "as is". This is also a mirror of the itinerary Matt did in 2013, but in reverse order, so from the outset, I must acknowledge that his observations were important in how we approached our cruise. Cruise Critic members may recognise this, I posted much of this over there under my CC user name 'madra2112;.
The background. My wife celebrated a significant birthday in October. Obviously a gentleman doesn't reveal a lady's age, suffice it to say I'm 51 and she's a bit younger!
Our roles when it comes to cruising are reasonably well laid out. I plan, book, research, listen to the podcast, read and post here and on Cruise Critic, prepare folders and action plans, fill in ESTA forms, renew the travel insurance and draw up a timetable of excursions.
She lives in the real world, and enjoys the cruise when the time comes.
This time, I was adamant that she should be centrally involved in the planning, as this was her birthday cruise, and in late 2014, started asking her what she wanted to do. Her response was very succinct. "I want to go to Barbados, and you work away after that".
Fair enough, and with that in mind, the research started.
When Jewel came up as an option, I was drawn to it immediately. The Radiance class seems to have a particular place in the hearts of the Royal community, and Matt had written and podcasted very positively on his experience on that route. I was also intrigued by San Juan, and the more I had heard of it, the more it struck me as a place I wanted to visit.
And so, the planning began. Surf the net, listen to back episodes of the podcast, confirm the decision, book the cruise. I also looked very carefully at Celebrity Summit, which had an almost identical itinerary. However, Matt's Jewel review swayed it, and by the end of last year, Jewel was booked for the first week in November, visiting Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua, St Maarten and St Croix.
Months turned into weeks, weeks into days, and suddenly, it was the last day of work before the break. I work as a journalist, and was scanning the Irish Daily Mail, when my eye was drawn to an article about the traits and characteristics that define a gentleman. The last column is........interesting!
However, the next day, after an overnight stay in the Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport, we flew via JFK to.........San Juan, Puerto Rico!
One very handy aspect of flying from Dublin is there is a US Customs centre in Dublin airport, the idea being that you clear immigration and security before travelling.
The formidable gentleman processing us questioned us about our plans, as soon as we mentioned cruising, it emerged he has 20+ RCI cruises under his belt, and was heading for Venice to catch Splendour the following week.
In the unlikely event that he's reading this, I hope you had a wonderful cruise my friend!
We flew Aer Lingus into JFK, landing just ahead of schedule. Aer Lingus has a special partnership deal with Jet Blue, which meant we had one ticket, we were issued Jet Blue boarding passes in Dublin, and our luggage was checked straight through from Dublin to San Juan.
We had been offered two options when booking. One was a Jet Blue flight to SJ an hour after we landed in JFK, the other was a 4.5 hour layover. o be safe and sure, we chose the longer stop. When we landed, we were off the plane at 1.30pm we checked the boards, walked to the gate where the 2.20pm San Juan was showing, to find they hadn't started boarding yet.
However, we waited, read books, explored Terminal 5 and spend some time 'Up on the Roof'.
And so, after a relatively relaxing day in the air, we landed in San Juan and were whisked to the Hotel Miramar.
The next morning, I got up and walked around the Condada Lagoon and the South Eastern tip of Old San Juan. Beautiful. Already, I was convinced we'd done the right thing.
Hi, we have never cruised with RC, only Disney with our teenage daughter. We're looking at Liberty of the Seas in Jan or March 2019, can you tell me if any of you have cruised with Disney before and now RC if you enjoyed it as much? also the main differences? I appreciate any and all feedback. :)
We just booked our first family cruise on the Harmony for May 2018 and super excited :D . This is our first cruise as a family with my last cruise back in the mid 90s in my teens, my wife's in the early 2000s and our 3 kids (will be 7,6 and 5 at time of cruise) first all together. Western Caribbean itinerary, 2 boardwalk balcony rooms since we will have my mom and brother with us also. My previous cruise was back on the old Norwegian ship the SS Norway so this will be quite a different experience for me. Im sure ill have tons of questions before then so will post here when the time comes.
