My husband and I recently sailed on Jewel of the Seas out of San Juan. This was our 11th cruise overall and our second time on Jewel. We sailed on her previously in the Baltics and on her sister ship in Alaska. We really like this size ship and were not disappointed.

We flew in a day early and stayed at the Hilton Caribe. We were in one of the villa rooms. Our room was fine, but it was a long and confusing walk to the pool/beach area. If I stayed here again, I'd not stay in a villa. There were not a lot of food options right there, so we ended up going to the convention center and eating at a Brazilian Steakhouse. I'm gluten free and this restaurant had a lot of delicious options for me. Another recommendation from the concierge was the restaurant Choices in the Sheraton at the convention center. I'd like to try that another time. Breakfast in the hotel restaurant was good and you could order from the menu or eat from the buffet.

I did a separate forum post about food and gluten free on the ship, so I won't repeat that here, except to say that we were VERY disappointed in Portofino and would not spend our money on this again. Read more