Today the real fun of our cruise vacation begins and without a doubt, embarkation day is my absolute favorite day of the cruise.  Today we got to board Jewel of the Seas and start the fun.

We woke up and had breakfast at a small cafe in San Juan.  It was quaint, quick and cheap and just the right sort of basic breakfast food we needed.  Called Cafeteria Mallorca, it was pretty close to our hotel and I think everyone was happy with it.  Naturally, I went easy on my breakfast in anticipation for our first meal on Jewel of the Seas!

After breakfast we made a pit stop at a CVS to buy wine.  Seriously.  It turns out there really aren't any wine stores in Old San Juan and for whatever reason, this CVS has an amazing selection of wine for a convenience store.  We wanted to bring our alloted amount of 2 bottles of wine for dinner and made out quite well.

Now it was time to get to Jewel, so we went back to our hotel, got a taxi, loaded up our stuff and took the short drive to the port.  Nearly immediately we could see Jewel of the Seas docked in San Juan habror at the Pan American Pier.  The taxi drive was no more than 5 minutes and we arrived at 10:30am.

Once there, the pier was closed although they allowed guests to take their luggage and wait in line.  What was weird was the porters were there, but not taking luggage.  However, there was a special line for Platinum Crown and Anchor members and above and in that line, porters were accepting luggage.  I felt bad for the other people in the main line because they had to drag all of their luggage into line and then wait with it.  

The check-in process did not begin until 11 so all guests had to wait outside, which was only a problem because it was oppresively hot and humid.  Luckily we only waited perhaps 20 minutes and at 11am the doors opened and we were let in.  Security and check-in was a breeze and interestingly the ship was open for boarding immediately.  We got onboard and made our way right to the Windjammer.

Although the ship was open, the Windjammer was not open yet.  They informed us the Windjammer would open in another 10 minutes so we hung out until it was ready.

A little background on me, we haven't been on a Royal Caribbean ship this "small" before.  We had been on Voyager, Freedom and Oasis class ships so Radiance class is going to be an interesting comparisson for us.  Just driving to the pier, we noticed it looked smaller than other ships we had been on.  That being said, smaller isn't a bad thing.  It's simply different and throughout these blog posts, I will be making comparissons to note differences.

The Windjammer opened up and I was impressed by how classy it looked compared to the Windjammers on newer ships.  I liked the deep blues and hard wood look.  It reminded me of the Schooner Bar on other ships.  

Food wise, the Windjammer was as good as I remembered.  Wide selection with a lot for everyone.  Of all the food I tried, I had to get the honey stung chicken if only for the sake of embarkation day tradition.  Eating lunch in the Windjammer on my first day is that moment when it starts to sink in that I'm on a Royal Caribbean vacation.

After lunch, we went to Guest Services and booked in-room babysitting.  $19 per hour for up to 3 kids.  The staff member informed us they would take our day and time requests down but they would notify us if there was a staff member was available.  It's kind of like someone puts out a notice to the staff members a guest wants babysitting and if someone signs up for it, then you get a babysitter.  Basically, there isn't a dedicated babysitter.  

We then headed to the Main Dining Room to check our table assignment.  Our table was for six, which is perfect for our group.  I also spoke with the Head Waiter on duty to request Indian curry every night for dinner.  I told him I was vegetarian, which is a lie but it's easier to say that than explain that I can't get enough of their curry.

Next up we took the elevators to the spa for a tour.  Frankly, I think the spa on Jewel was much nicer than the spa on Freedom of the Seas in terms of decor and ammenities.  Quick note, the sauna and steam room are complimentary for all guests.  There's also some really amazing thermal, aroma and massage rooms.  You can book an unlimited pass for the heated chair, rainforest shower, aroma and steam rooms for $69 per person.  My wife is debating it but I think our itinerary (6 islands, 7 nights) is too port intensive to make it worth it.  They do offer a day pass for $20 per person.

After our tour it was 1pm and time for our room to be ready.  Sure enough, we got to our deck and the doors were open for guests to go in.  We had booked a "hump" balcony room and the room was clean and in good working order.  The real reason we booked this room was for the super big balcony that can fit 2 regular chairs, a table and 2 lounge chairs as well.  

After relaxing in the afternoon we went back to the spa for the raffle drawing.  I didn't expect to win but our friends wanted to give it a try and so we went.  As it turns out....we didn't win anything.  Oh well!

The spa raffle took longer than we expected and so it was off to dinner in the main dining room.  I know there are a lot of strong opinions about the main dining room but I really like the experience of the main dining room.  To me. it's something very special to cruising and Royal Caribbean does it well.  Yes, I saw people show up wearing shorts, hats and flip flops.  But I think was way worse were people showing up an hour or longer late for dinner and being seated!  I'm assuming this is a day one thing but I found it incredibly rude personally.  If you are going to be that late, then enjoy the Windjammer or one of the specialty restaurants.  Anyway, off my soap box.

Dinner was great and this was my second time around with the new menu.  I found the vegetarian tortillas to be good while my wife loved her grilled chicken dish.  Our friends raved about the coconut seafood soup.

By the way, the wine we bought?  No problems getting it in and brought it to dinner and at least thus far, no corkage fee charged to me.  This is exactly the same experience I had on Freedom of the Seas in February. I'm certainly not complaining!

Following dinner it was time for muster drill.  Seriously.  8pm muster was so odd because every other cruise we have ever been on had muster in the later afternoon.  But with this Jewel of the Seas cruise, we were sailing at 8pm so a late muster drill was a necessity.  I was quite happy to discover our muster station was in the Schooner bar because that meant it was air conditioned!

After muster it was finally time to sailaway, so we made our way to the front of deck 5 to go to the helipad. There were probably 20 people or so there, so plenty of room.  Helipad is still very much a well kept secret for sailaway!  It was quite beautiful leaving San Juan harbor at night to see everything lit up.

The kids wanted ice cream and the adults were open for another snack so we went to the Windjammer (before you ask, Seaview Cafe was closed and we do have plans to go check it out).  Another good selection of food and their free sushi I found to be MUCH better than the free sushi on Freedom of the Seas.  I'd compare it to supermarket sushi here on Jewel and the rolls with fish were worth a snack.

Tomorrow we will be in St. Croix, a first for us.  St. Croix is part of the United States so we will be tweeting and Instagraming a storm up again so follow us there for up-to-the-minute updates!  Also, post your questions and comments in the comments area below and I will do my best to answer them for you.  

Day 1 Cruise Compass

Day 2 Cruise Compass

Royal Caribbean announced its ocean voyage itineraries, which are cruises that go from one side of an ocean to another, which includes 11 ships and 35 destinations. Included in this batch is the brand new Quantum of the Seas, which will debut in November 2014.

In coordination with the announcement, Royal Caribbean is offering complimentrary premium beverage package for all new individual bookings made in balcony- and suite-category staterooms on 13 select 2014 Trans-Atlantic Ocean Voyages.  The complimentary premium beverage package offer is available from September 11 through October 15, 2013 and vacationers must ask for option code SPV3 to receive the offer.

Royal Caribbean senior vice president of Marketing Carol Schuster commented on the announcement, "Royal Caribbean’s collection of Ocean Voyages offers unique and enriching WOWs.  Our ships are world-renowned for their wide range of exclusive and innovative onboard amenities and our friendly and engaging Gold Anchor Service. Combined with exciting onboard enrichment and interesting itineraries, guests on these sailings will enjoy a distinctive experience that can only be found on Royal Caribbean."

Today our Jewel of the Seas adventure finally begins, after about 18 months of planning, the day is here and we are ready to go.  Well, we aren't actually going on Jewel today but we are flying to San Juan, Puerto Rico to begin our vacation a day early.  

Our flight will leave New York's JFK airport at 8:55am so we set our alarm for 5:40am to get ready.  I think the excitement got the better of me and my wife because we woke up at about 5am and decided to just get up and go.  So up and at 'em we went, getting the last things packed, waking up the daughter and waiting for our town car service from Legends Limousine at 6:30am.  A quick ride to the aiport and we were on our way.

The whole flight experience was great.  We were on time, had minimal turbulence and landed safely, what more could you ask for?  I will give big kudos to Delta because on the flight, WiFi was free while it lasted (once you are 100 miles from United States it ends) and all of their movies on the entertainment system were free.  Plus there were games and customizable music too.  Really good inflight enterainment, especially for free.

We landed in San Juan at 12:30 and made our way to our hotel to drop off our luggage.  We are staying at the Sheraton Old San Juan, which is located inside Old San Juan and convenient to everything we did.  We dropped our luggage off and started to explore Old San Juan.  We were starving so we tried some Puerto Rico authentic street food, the alcapurrias.  It's basically a fried beef patty and it was really tasty.

Now that we had some real food in our stomachs, we took a tour of the Puerto Rican Governors Mansion.  It's a 20 minute free tour of the mansion grounds and it's quite beautiful.  It's a combination of Spnaish architecture and Moorish revival.  

After our tour, we took a walk to check out El Morro, which is the major Spanish fort on the island.  It's massive and we took the opportunity to explore various areas of the fort.  My daughter loved running around the fort and checking out the various tunnels and areas.  I've never seen her so excited about something not stereotypically childish.  Admission was $3 per adult and kids were free.

We did a little more sight seeing around the city but by this point we were all tired after being up since about 5am.  Our friend recommended a place for another Puerto Rican specialty, mofongo.  

We headed over to Restaurante Raices for dinner and tried a couple kinds of mofongo (fried, mashed plaintains) along with what is described as a giant pork chop.  The restaurant itself is a cross between over-the-top historical decor and real tasty food.  

Overall the food was really good, although the prices were a little high (most entrees were between $15 and $20).  We had a good time there so it wasn't a bad choice by any means.  But next time we are in Old San Juan and want mofongo, I may opt for somewhere else just to see what other choices are out there.  

After dinner the whole group was done physically. I would have loved to go walk around a little more, especially since I haven't been able to check out San Juan at night.  Alas, no need to push myself too much and tomorrow is day one of our Jewel of the Seas cruise so I definitely want to have enough energy for that.

Definitely a great first day and we are all even more excited to get onboard the ship and let the real adventure begin.  Our plan is to have breakfast at 9am and then be ready to go to the cruise terminal by 10ish.  I do need to make a pit stop to buy some wine to bring onboard first but I think we will be at the cruise terminal by 10:30am.

We will have a lot of updates in our live blog here but also on Royal Caribbean Blog Twitter and Instagram.  Follow along and then get the whole summary here tomorrow.  

We love to share the amazing Royal Caribbean photos our readers have sent us each and every week for Friday Photos.  Basically, it's a showcase of the best Royal Caribbean photos from our readers and this week's batch looks to be the best yet.

If you have photos that you would like included in an upcoming Friday Photos blog post, then please send us your best Royal Caribbean photos!

First up is a photo from Shawn Holmes and it was taken on the Explorer of the Seas while he was watching the bellyflop contest.  Watch out below!

Harry Yerikyan sent us this photo of the Oasis of the Seas' name and I suddenly wish I was onboard Oasis to see this for myself.  That and the seven night cruise that comes with it!

Speaking of Oasis of the Seas, this photo from Travis Rogers says "WOW" because it's from above the Aqua Theater.  Why can't my photos come out this cool?  Travis did say he managed to get this shot from the back of Deck 15 (sports deck) looking down on the Aqua Theater on Deck 6.

Jill Snyder sent us this photo from Allure of the Seas of the Royal Caribbean sign on the back of the ship.  Love this view!

Next up is a photo from Mark DePrimo and he sent in this photo from Explorer of the Seas docked in Bermuda on ‎Tuesday, ‎October ‎27, ‎2009, ‏‎5:27:00 AM. He says he likes to get up early and walk around the ship taking pictures. It's the only time you can get shots without a lot of passengers around.

Bryce J. Griffler sent us this gorgeous photo of Alaska from his cruise there in 2013.  Really cool shot!

Last up is a photo from Matt who said he surprised his wife with an upgrade to a Crown Loft Suite on Allure for their 5 year anniversary on 8/18/13.  Husband of the year material right here!

Thank you to everyone who sent in their photos this week. Have a great weekend and be sure to send us your photos so we can post them next week by using this form.

Royal Caribbean is offering guests who book a Bahamas, Bermuda, Caribbean or Alaska cruise between September 23, 2013 and October 15, 2013 up to $300 in onboard credit per stateroom for salings between November 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014.

Royal Caribbean is reminding us all that winter is around the corner and for most of us, that means cold temperatures but the good news is Royal Caribbean has escapes to some very warm places.

Onboard credit will break down as follows

• Up to 5 night cruises
  • Interior and Oceanview staterooms: $25
  • Balcony and Junior Suite staterooms: $50
  • Grand Suite or higher staterooms: $150
• Six nights or longer
  • Interior and Oceanview staterooms: $25
  • Balcony and Junior Suite staterooms: $100
  • Grand Suite or higher staterooms: $300

The Winter Offer is applicable for all new individual U.S. and Canadian bookings.  The onboard credit offer is applicable for all new individual bookings.

Whether you are a newly wed, been married for many years or just met someone, there are a number of ways to have a romantic time on your Royal Caribbean cruise.  Here's a few of our favorite ways to show that special someone you care.

1. Buy flowers

You don't mess with what works and buying your sweetie flowers is a special way to show that you care.  Not to mention flowers are not very expensive either.   It can be just the right kind of surprise, be it just one rose or a full bouquet.

Flowers are usually available for sale from a cart on ships with a Royal Promenade, but are also available on other ships.  You can also order flowers prior to your cruise departure via the Royal Caribbean web site.

2. Dinner date at a specialty restaurant

Dressing up and going to a special meal just the two of you might be the recipe for the start of a perfect evening. These days, Royal Caribbean has a number of restaurants to choose from and with the Adventure Ocean and Royal Tots Nursery to leave your kids at, there's a great opportunity to have some alone time at dinner.

It's hard to go wrong with dinner at Chops Grille or Giovanni's Table.  If you want to really go all out, try 150 Central Park.  Whichever restaurant you choose, ask for a table for two near the window.

3. Decorate your stateroom

Royal Caribbean offers stateroom decorations to celebrate a number of occasions.  They usually consist of signs, streamers and other decorations on the walls and doors of your cabin.  It's an easy and relatively inexpensive way to show you care.

Purchase the decorations before your cruise via the Gifts & Gear section of the Royal Caribbean web site and be sure to keep it a secret until you arrive at your room.  You can choose between decoration packages to celebrate being just married, a honeymoon just celebrating the cruise.

4. Buy a romance package

Just like the stateroom decorations, Royal Caribbean offers a number of special romance packages to purchase to surprise your signifigant other with.  

Booked via the Gifts & Gears section of the Royal Caribbean web site, there's rose petals, champagne, and lots of other gifts you can select from.

5. Couples massage

The Royal Caribbean spa is a great way to relax and for couples, there are couples massaged offered on every cruise to share in a relaxing moment.  Don't forget there are couples massages also offered on Royal Caribbean's private islands if you prefer land based relaxation.

Tour the spa when you board your cruise ship and see which massage package sounds perfect to you.  Look for deals on port days to save a little money.

6. Put a special message in the Cruise Compass

If you want a special way to say you love someone, how about a personal message in the daily Cruise Compass?  Guests may have messages added to the Cruise Compass by speaking with someone in Guest Services onboard your ship and costs $25 per message.

7. Order room service

Room service is always a ritzy way to have a private meal and ordering room service breakfast to be delivered to your balcony might be the perfect way to start a romantic day.

Room service is complimentary on Royal Caribbean ships, so order it the night before and have it arrive right on time and set up for you and your special someone where ever in your stateroom or balcony you think will be best.

8. Renew your vows or get married

Royal Caribbean recently revamped its onboard wedding and vow renewal offerings and if you have the money for it, having a special ceremony onboard may be a great way to show your affection (again). 

Royal Caribbean offers a number of packages to choose from and your best bet is to start at the Royal Weddings department and browse what is available.

Royal Caribbean and Wireless Maritime Services (WMS) have launched the second phase of 3G cellular data services onboard Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas. 

Having already launched EVDO in November 2010, WMS has followed that up with the launch of UMTS (3G) services.  This marks the first time that both 3G services have been successfully deployed onboard cruise ships, and marks a major milestone in passenger connectivity.

EVDO stands for “evolution data only” which is the 3G path for CDMA carriers.  UMTS stands for “universal mobile telephone service” and is the 3G path for GSM carriers.  

Prior to this, cellular data speeds onboard cruise ships were regulated to 2G speeds, but now guests can experience speeds of four to six times those speeds with these upgrades.

“It’s one thing to have UMTS work in a lab environment, it’s an entirely different and thrilling level of success to have it working as well is it is onboard these ships,” said Tony Patino, vice president of engineering at WMS.  “Leveraging the expertise of our parent, AT&T, the WMS Engineering and Deployment teams have been working diligently to optimize and develop better use of parameters, finely honing our technology in order to achieve this great result.”

WMS recently announced the signing of a new four-year contract renewing its relationship with Royal Caribbean Cruises continue providing cellular at sea wireless services to guests and crew on all existing ships across the Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises brands.

As reported yesterday, we planned on not getting off the ship in Falmouth. I've never done this before. It was an odd sensation at first. I was immediately concerned that I'd be bored or Sean would be bored.

We slept in for the first time this vacation. It felt amazing. Went to a later bfast in the WJ & took our time getting ourselves together for the pool deck. We scouted chairs, we had an abundance of options as you can imagine. Settled in & relaxed.

At noon, the screen on the pool deck came alive with a showing of The Wizard of Oz. it was magical. The myriad of people who stayed on board were so different but if you looked around at one point or another we all were singing along. It was really cool.

We stayed by the pool until this nasty storm came through. Thunder & lightening & and rain so heavy at times you couldn't see the island of Jamaica. This is the most it has ever rained on a cruise vacay for me. Ever. It's kinda driving me nuts.

Turns out after watching the rain pass it was the perfect time for a nap. We originally planned on a quick cat nap. Of course 2 hours later...

Off to dinner we went. It was tiger shrimp night. Finally. This is my first cruise since the menu revamp about a year and a half ago. Ps if you're an escargot fan, prepare yourself. There is a worldwide shortage, and they are currently unavailable! But they've replaced it with bay scallops (the tiny baby ones) so it's fine. Grab a sourdough roll & dig in.

After dinner we headed to the theater for the Love & marriage game show. We thought it might be fun to get on. Knowing that there we 67 other honeymooners we realized there would be competition, we smoked 'em! The crowd picked us!!!!!

This was truly a once in a lifetime experience. How often is your new husband of 10 days going to have to know your bra size on the spot & only have 10 secs to draw a portrait of you that looks like the girl from the ring!? And for me to answer in front of 1400 people that the first thing my husband touches in the morning is a kitty of some variety. Thankfully we can relive this over z& over again on RCTV and on the DVD they're sending us home with. (Mom, you're welcome).

The best part of the night!?! WINNING!!!!!!

We took our winnings & headed back to our love shack. Caught the broadcast of the show & drifted off to Grand Cayman.

Thank you all who have been posting comments. We've been here & there with wifi, but I promise to reply/answer any when we get back on Sunday with pictures.

Thanks!!!

Smooches.
Steph & Sean