We flew into San Juan from Palm Beach on Saturday afternoon, October 25th, and took the cruise line arranged buses to the ship which was seamless. The Jewel was as beautiful as I remembered her from our New England Canada cruise on her in 2004. At our evening departure we noticed smell of tobacco smoke while we were on our starboard balcony. Inquiries the next day identified several areas both outside on Starboard and inside in one of the nightclubs on deck 13 that featured late night parties.

Having enjoyed St. Thomas and St. Kitts on past cruises we enjoyed staying on board ship. Ashore at Aruba and Curacao, we hired taxis for exploring and enjoyed lunched on both. The colorful buildings and the waterfront dining were a delight. The food on the ship including the specialty restaurant, Chops, was not great. Everyone of the ship staff offered outstanding service. The entertainment which we always enjoyed on RCCL was not great this time. The only night that scheduled a big production, we went to the 9pm show and after 45 minutes wait, it was canceled when the curtain would not open. We were told that we could come back at 1045 for the late show if they could fix it or wait and they would do the show in an afternoon later in the week but never did. The headliner shows during the rest of the cruise were a disappointment.

At this time we will not try future cruises on Royal Caribbean until they change their smoking policy.