This article is reposted from the WeChat public account of a reader from our WeChat group, Lazy 33’s Food, Drink, and Fun. Original link.

About Booking

We booked this cruise trip a long time in advance. Later, I shared the plan with friends, and two families of friends booked as well. Then one of those families encouraged several of their own friends to join, and in the end it turned into a grand trip with six families traveling together.

After waiting a week for the quote, we got the lowest price. For the Christmas season, it was a pretty good deal. It also came with $770 in OBC, of which $300 was even credited to my account immediately after booking.

I also mentioned the ship-selection process in the booking guide. As usual, I made a spreadsheet and listed every ship that matched our vacation dates and had sailings of seven nights or longer. I do not like short cruises, since they cannot go very far.

The list included prices, itineraries, and so on. The things I cared about most were: 1. fewer sea days and more ports of call; 2. good food; 3. good service; and 4. ideally, a waterslide. Taking all of that into account, we finally chose an older Royal Caribbean ship, Jewel of the Seas. The itinerary was as follows:

Among the 5 ports on this trip, we had actually already been to three of them. San Juan was somewhere we had previously visited on a dedicated trip, and we had been to St Lucia and St Kitts on our first Eastern Caribbean cruise. But many years had passed, so we did not mind going again.

Cruise Day 1 - Sail Away

I still chose the latest boarding time, but my takeaway from this trip is that I should have chosen an earlier one. If you arrive late, they will not deny you boarding, but if you select a late time and arrive early, you may have to wait. So choosing an earlier time seems to offer more flexibility. After breakfast, we had nothing much to do, so we went to a playground at Cocoa Beach near the port for a bit, then got gas and returned the rental car.

When returning the car, we happened to run into our friends. The rental car company at the port had a shuttle to the terminal, and the driver was very friendly. We happily boarded together with our friends. It is best to print your cruise luggage tags in advance and staple them on directly; you can ask the hotel to help with the stapling. Or you can bring them to the terminal and have the staff help staple them. Remember to print one tag for each piece of luggage. If you forget to print them, that is fine too. The terminal staff have blank luggage tags, and if all else fails, you can drag your bags into the check-in area and still check them there. It is just not as convenient as preparing everything in advance.

Before boarding, many things on the official website were discounted, and buying discounted items at that point was a great deal. After boarding, prices were much higher. This time we booked the following in advance:

  • Sprinkle Time Cupcake Decorating Class: My kid likes making cupcakes, so I booked it for a sea day to give the kid something to do. There was also a similar sushi making class, but it had sold out long before.
  • Photo Package: Buying photos after boarding is really quite expensive. Buying a package in advance, the price for 100 photos was not much higher than for 20 photos, so I just bought 100. Compared with the onboard price, it was truly a very good deal!
  • Arcade Credit: It was 20% off, so I bought $50. But the arcade on this ship did not have many fun games. In the end, we barely used it all up by catching rubber ducks.
  • Anniversary/Birthday Decoration: The boarding day happened to be my anniversary with my teammate, so I bought this package. Before we boarded, the staff had already decorated the room, but the aesthetic was honestly worrying—it had a very strong Indian sari vibe...
  • 9 Chocolate Covered Strawberries: I originally planned to share them when friends came over to celebrate together, but later I forgot about them. Room service was also unreliable. They did not bring them until the day before disembarkation, after I repeatedly followed up, and finally served them to us during our last dinner. We shared them with the people at our table, and they were quite tasty. The kids all wanted a second one.

In addition, I also booked all of our shore excursions in advance. You can also find tours locally, but I do not really like that kind of uncertainty and prefer to look for well-reviewed options. As usual, I made a spreadsheet, including the forecasted temperature for each day.

There were really very few people in the latest boarding group, with no line at all. After boarding, as usual, we first went to the emergency station to hear the safety briefing, and then we could go to our room. This time we again booked a JR Suite with a sofa bed, and my kid was very happy to sleep on the sofa bed. According to our friends, the room was about twice the size of a balcony room. This ship was really popular. When we booked, only one room at the very back of the ship was left. But that was fine: we booked it first, and afterward I checked the official website from time to time. When I found a room closer to the middle, I checked the reviews and did not see any red flags, so I quickly asked the agent to switch us. Rooms within the same category can be swapped for free. If you do not know what a category is, see How to Plan a Cruise Trip.

When I entered the room and saw a bottle of champagne, I was quite puzzled, because I knew I had not bought champagne. Two days later, when I reviewed the booking confirmation, I discovered it was also included in the agency’s package. Next to it was the photo frame that came with the Indian-sari-style anniversary decorations.

The ship’s app has a messaging feature. Since we had a lot of people this time, I created a group chat, so even without buying Wi-Fi, everyone could still contact each other. After boarding, people asked where they could see their dinner information, so I took a photo of my key card and sent it to everyone, saying, “It’s right here.” We had originally been happily thinking that we could sit with everyone at dinner, but only then did we realize that because the ship was so full, early dining had been fully booked long before. Our friends did not manage to request it and were assigned to my time dining. My time dining sounds flexible, but in practice you need to stand in a long line at the restaurant entrance. On our ship, my time dining did not start until 6:45 at the earliest, so I strongly do not recommend it for families with young children.

Our friends lined up at guest services, and in the end they were very lucky: the staff arranged a large table for 14 people for them. Of the 6 families, 4 were seated together, while we had instead been assigned our seats in advance and were separated from everyone else.

Besides checked luggage, in our carry-on bags we usually pack things we will need as soon as we board, such as slippers and disinfecting supplies. Anything that can wait a few hours goes into checked luggage. After disinfecting everything, our checked luggage had not arrived yet, so we went to join a spa event first.

If you are a spa enthusiast like me, and the spa is not discounted before boarding, you do not need to book it in advance. After boarding, go attend one of the spa’s free events. During the event, there may be opportunities to win free spa treatments and the like, and all participants get a discounted package. After you use the discounted package, if you book again, just ask directly whether there is any discount; returning customers all get discounts. There are also some very good discounts on port days, so pay attention to the information in the app.

This was a free event that tested the pressure points on your feet. My kid watched it and wanted to try too.

There were a lot of people on deck when the ship set sail, and for once we actually went to take a look. You can tell the sky was gray and overcast, and the weather wasn’t great.

Side topic: we really were quite lucky on this trip. On the day we left, we flew out smoothly very early in the morning. A friend had an afternoon flight, and because it snowed in Seattle, they were delayed for a while. A few days later, as everyone knows, Seattle’s transportation basically ground to a halt. Luckily, all six of our families had already flown to Florida before everything was paralyzed. Later Florida also had extreme weather. While we were in the Caribbean, not only was it rainy for days, but the temperature even dropped below freezing in Celsius. We managed to avoid that perfectly too; by the time we returned to Florida, the weather had improved. For the return trip, Seattle’s transportation issues, including the airlines’ disorganized operations, had all recovered as well, so getting home was also very smooth. So grateful.

Very soon it was dinnertime. Sometimes I took photos of dinner, and sometimes I forgot. For example, on the first day I was mainly busy getting to know the people at our table, so I didn’t take many photos. But! The food on this ship, especially the appetizers, was really quite good. Out of the four cruises we’ve taken, this should be the tastiest ship so far. Compared with Carnival Splendor in particular, it was more than just a little better.

The service was also excellent. On the first day we ordered a Rainbow Salad for our child, which was basically a cup of fresh diced fruit. After that, as soon as we sat down each day, the server immediately brought one over for the child. This is also one of the benefits of having the same servers every day, which I mentioned in the booking guide.

During Christmas, the ship was decorated very beautifully.

Photo Credit for the picture below: Emma

After dinner, we quickly went to kids club to register our child, which was very important, haha. One of the best parts of taking a cruise is that you can get free childcare. On this ship, children age 3 and up can be dropped off, while children under 3 only have open play. On port days, it is basically open from morning until night; on sea days, the day is split into three sessions: morning, afternoon, and evening.

You can also order room service for breakfast, but only the continental breakfast is free. Since we were staying on the 10th floor, the buffet was just one flight of stairs away, so we felt there was really no need. When we needed to get up early, my partner usually went upstairs to get food for me, the slower one. Also, it’s already very easy to gain weight on a cruise, so even going out and climbing upstairs for a meal can count as exercise. Can’t miss such an opportunity…

In the evening, the kids soaked in the pool together and were over the moon. After that, we invited everyone to our room to drink Champagne and celebrate my anniversary with my partner. Our room attendant was also incredibly nice. She helped us get ice, and then brought us ice every day afterward. Her service was warm, proactive, and thoughtful. Housekeeping twice a day was also always right on time; as soon as we left the room, it was cleaned. We really liked her.

The kids all came to the party in pajamas, so it naturally turned into a pajama party. There’s no need to worry about making a mess while partying on the ship, since someone will clean it up anyway.

One more quick note about laundry. The laundry service on the ship was $39 per bag. They give you a paper bag, and you can stuff in as much as you want. Based on my experiment, rolling the clothes lets you fit more in. The laundry service was also very careful; they ironed a label onto every piece of clothing to prevent mix-ups. For wet swimsuits, my partner tied them to the balcony chairs, and the sea breeze was very effective. They were dry after one night.

The most amazing thing about this cruise was that I barely got seasick. I’ve gotten motion sick on all kinds of transportation since I was little, except trains, and I’ve taken quite a few cruises too. This was the first time I only had mild dizziness and didn’t need medication at all. Because I was busy with year-end summaries, I had to work overtime on my laptop every night. Looking at text on the computer for too long still made me a bit dizzy, but other than that, briefly looking at my phone and so on was basically no problem. Our friends also at most felt a little dizzy on the first day, and then were fine afterward.

Cruise Day 2 — Sea Day

The guy at the entrance of the buffet was in high spirits every day, dispensing hand sanitizer for everyone. For made-to-order omelets, after taking a number they could even deliver it to your table, so the service was pretty good. There were a lot of breakfast options, probably the most variety we’ve seen on any ship. As for the taste, it was just average, but acceptable.

After attending an event the night before, I booked a SPA appointment for this day. The SPA was very comfortable, and I fell asleep before long.

We ran into friends at lunch and went to the Arcade together. For the Arcade card reader, the card has to be swiped sideways. Our whole group studied it for quite a while before figuring it out.

Our good friend Emma’s family went rock climbing:

For dinner I ordered this seafood pasta, which was quite good. Again, I only took one photo because the person sitting next to me kept talking to me. In the following days, they never showed up again, so I started taking more food photos.

In the evening there was a clown performance. After watching for a little while, my child said they had a headache and didn’t want to watch anymore, so we went back.

That night I went to the SPA again. I had brought my own nail stickers and asked the nail technician at the SPA to apply them for me. The nail technician had a terrible attitude and was also very unprofessional. The process was noticeably painful, and afterward I discovered that she had broken the skin in several places on my hands and feet, which hurt a lot when I showered or went into the ocean. I also told the nail technician that the edges of the nail stickers needed to be pressed down, but she didn’t do it, so the nail stickers started lifting not long after. Bad review, bad review.

Cruise Day 3 — Haiti

Labadee is a small port in Haiti leased by Royal Caribbean. So it counts as a private island, and there are no tourists from other cruise lines in the visitor area.

Because of that, excursions basically have to be booked through the cruise line. Booking in advance also comes with a discount. We booked the most famous overwater Zipline. There are two versions: headfirst and seated. The headfirst version would make me dizzy, so we booked the seated one. Our child didn’t meet the weight or age requirements and couldn’t ride. I originally wanted to ask a friend to help watch our child, but the child volunteered to go to kids club and wait for us. So after breakfast, we first dropped the child off at kids club. Maybe because it was the first port day, our child was the only one in kids club for the entire morning, with two teachers serving one child.

Another thing I was happy with on this ship was that we arrived on time at every stop. Even if the ship departed late, it made up time by moving faster. More than eight months after our last Cancun trip, we saw the Caribbean Sea again.

What was pretty funny was that one section of the pier wasn’t built high enough, so by morning it was full of standing water. Tourists all had to take off their shoes and step through it. Still, it didn’t affect the happy mood of finally seeing sunshine and the beach.

The staff on the island were basically all locals, enthusiastically dancing.

The visitor area is about this big. There is a free tram that stops at three or four different stations. The main spots are basically two centers: one right where you get off the ship, and one farther in at the town square. Free lunch is provided at both of these places. Barefoot Beach Club is only for Royal Caribbean Diamond members and above. The meeting point for our zipline was right where we got off the ship.

There is a beach here, but it does not have much in the way of facilities, and there were not many people.

This is where it is on the map.

The wait for the zipline tour was very long. After putting on the gear, there was a long wait, then we first went to do a test ride. There were a lot of people, so they had to split everyone into many groups. After that, we took an open-air truck to the actual ride, followed by yet another long wait. In the end, the zipline itself lasted only a few dozen seconds, but the whole tour took about an hour and a half.

That said, the view from the top was still quite nice.

The ride down was pretty mind-clearing, though you do have to remember to switch into landing position halfway through, from crossing your feet to spreading your legs. Come experience it with us~

After it ended, we hurried back to the ship to pick up the kid. This day was Christmas Eve, and the kid had written a letter to Santa with this request:

After picking up the kid, we went back to the room to change clothes, then quickly got off the ship again to eat. We ate at Dragon's Plaza. Later, we went to the town square and saw that the food there seemed to be the same. The food was not great; it was basically fast food with a slightly larger variety. After eating, we took the tram to Adernaline Beach. This beach has an overwater swing that looks good in photos, but the sand quality is terrible. There are lots of small stones and coral, so it is very easy to cut your feet.

I saw on the map that there were also things like a roller coaster, water slide, and water park, so I went to explore Columbus on my own. Unexpectedly, on the walk to Columbus Cove, you pass through a small village where locals are selling handicrafts. The sales approach was extremely aggressive—people kept coming up and saying, “Let me show you something.” There was also a person riding around on a bicycle wearing clothes printed with “Guest Security,” which just made the whole place feel unsafe. I kept my eyes straight ahead and quickly walked through the area. Once I arrived at Columbus Cove, it was another peaceful-looking beach with quite a few tourists. There were far fewer stones on this side, so walking barefoot was no problem.

I bought a pass for the water slide. It was $25 for unlimited rides for the day. There was only one slide; it was pretty long but not particularly thrilling, and was fairly gentle. No one was riding it at all, let alone lining up. I rode once, rested a bit, and probably rode five or six times in total. At the end, I chatted with the guy stationed at the top of the slide. He said he liked the job a lot because it was stable and relaxing.

The water park is only for ages 7 and up. The kid really wanted to play but could not. I had also wanted to try it, but since the kid could not play, I gave up on it too. Later, we found a smaller floating water feature that was free. The kid spent several hours on it and still said it was not enough. We could not understand how something like that could be fun for so long.

It was still very hot during the day. Around 4:30 p.m., it got a bit cloudy and started to cool down. The rides all closed at 5 p.m., and we played until the very last moment before starting to head back.

After getting back on the ship, we noticed that the ship still was not leaving. Then the announcement system throughout the ship, including inside the rooms, came on. It turned out the ship had arranged an event for “Santa’s arrival.” All the kids were ecstatic. My kid kept asking me where Santa was going by ship, and all I could do was make something up...

⬆️ Photo Credit: Emma

This day was formal night on the ship. I complained to the people at our table that I did not understand why they would schedule formal night on a port day. Later, we figured it was probably because it was Christmas Eve. However, the Christmas Eve menu was the least appealing of the entire trip, all traditional Christmas Eve dinner items.

Halfway through dinner, the crew began performing, and the Christmas atmosphere was very strong.

There was a gift waiting in the room: a toiletry/makeup bag. A friend said it seemed like only suites received them.

Cruise Day 4 — Puerto Rico

On Christmas morning, we went to the formal dining restaurant for breakfast. They were handing out eggnog at the entrance, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

Breakfast in the dining room was a bit more refined, but taste-wise it was only slightly better than the buffet.

We took it easy until the afternoon. I had actually debated for a long time about the tour for this day. Since we had been to Puerto Rico before and had basically done everything we should and should not have done, I wanted to try something different this time. Unfortunately, because it was Christmas Day, I searched all over the internet and could not find anything interesting. In a moment of frustration, I booked the ship’s Old & New San Juan Tour, and I regretted it so much.

First of all, I already do not really like ship-run tours. They are all large-scale, so inevitably there is a lot of waiting. On top of that, on Christmas Day, Old San Juan was insanely congested. It was truly faster to walk than to ride in a vehicle. Our entire tour made only two stops: 10 minutes at the castle and 15 minutes in New San Juan—and all of that time was spent waiting in line for the women’s restroom. The driver/guide was also in a bad mood, probably because he had to work on Christmas. At the parking area by the castle, he even got into an argument with someone.

On top of that, all the scenery we saw was stuff we had already seen before, which made it even more disappointing. I did not remember San Juan being this crowded.

We passed by the little alleys in Old Town, and they were still as colorful as I remembered. Too bad I could only snap a few photos from the car.

I remember that the last time we came here, my partner and I had ice cream by this square.

This was where the second stop was. We basically got off the bus and ran straight to the restroom. By the time we waited in line and finished, the allotted 15 minutes were up.

That said, being somewhere warm puts me in a good mood, so I did not really feel annoyed. It was only on the way back, when they handed out the survey and I saw that everyone else had given very low ratings, that I belatedly realized this tour really had not been a good experience.

Traffic on the way back was a total mess again, and the tour had already run way over time. The driver asked if we wanted to take a shortcut, which was illegal, but since it was Christmas, he said no one would be checking. Everyone voted to take the shortcut.

My friend Emma signed up for a Walking Tour. It involved hardcore walking the whole way, but she did get a lot of beautiful photos.

The photos above are all Emma’s masterpieces.

My partner lost his hat in the car. After we got off, there were a bunch of night-market stalls, so I helped him look for a hat, and we eventually bought one at CVS. Kids’ cold medicine was out of stock across the U.S. during that period, but this store in Puerto Rico actually had a pretty complete selection of medicine.

Fake designer-bag blankets everywhere, lol.

We went back to the ship starving and had dinner. Since we had missed our dinner time, we needed to wait for My Time Dining. But maybe a lot of people were eating off the ship that day, because there was no line at all, and they seated us at our original server’s table. This meal was very good. I ordered two salmon tartare dishes, and the shrimp was tasty too. Since there were fewer diners, our server basically stayed with our table the whole time and even played with our kid for quite a while. The experience was great.

After dinner, I still wanted to get off the ship and walk around. My partner had been taking care of our kid throughout the tour and said he was exhausted, so I took over and brought our kid off the ship for a stroll. Bargaining for a toy for him went quite smoothly, so everyone was happy.

There were a lot of food trucks on the other side, all with long lines. To thank my kid for coming out with me, I bought him a $1 brightly colored candy. We wandered around a bit and then headed back. On the way back, we also ran into a mom whose child had gone missing. She was absolutely devastated, and it was heartbreaking to see. I immediately held on to my kid tightly.

There was a little car with very fancy decorations.

A little after 10 p.m., the ship set sail. For me, still very much in vacation mode, the day’s flaws did not overshadow the fun.

This time, photography enthusiast Emma traveled with us and took quite a few wonderful photos. Please enjoy these, especially the sunset shots.

Emma's photography will also appear from time to time in the next post, so stay tuned.

About the Author

This article is republished from the WeChat official account 懒人33的吃喝玩乐, run by a reader from our WeChat group. The posts are all original and well-written, so if you're interested, please give it a follow.