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Adventures in the Caribbean Sea: Royal Caribbean Cruise Tips and Review🛳

Adventures in the Caribbean Sea

2018 was really getting the best of us, one of us between jobs and the other with time off to spare, so we decided it was time for an adventure. I would not say that we are particularly good at selecting destinations. We are often inspired by movies; we ended up in Montenegro/Balkans after watching Casino Royale, and on a spider filled riverboat in the Amazon Jungle because of an obsession with the movie Anaconda. One ended with me crying outside of a horrible train station bathroom in Bosnia, the other with me crying all over a riverboat in the Amazon. Clearly, we are a mother daughter pair not afraid of a little adventure, but for this trip we wanted easy and relaxing. One might suggest a cruise. For people who don’t love crowds, lines, waiting for anything, bad food, hot weather, and confined spaces that may not be the best plan. So, we signed right up and literally 3 days later, we flew to Puerto Rico to get on Jewel of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship. P.S. for those who say last minute travel deals are not a thing anymore, I assure you, they are. We got an excellent deal on this 7-night Southern Caribbean cruise sailing from San Juan to 5 different ports with one day at sea. Here are our thoughts, i.e. snarky and judgmental commentary.

Jewel of the Seas🛳

Long, long ago, at age 20, my father and I went on a Western Caribbean cruise with Royal Caribbean on a bigger and fancier ship (Mariner of the Seas) as a college graduation celebration. What a celebration it was, and for this reason, it was a good experience, I was young and vacation with my dad tends to be a lot more of sitting around at the pool and have a beer. Naturally, being older and well, older, this was going to be different and we told ourselves that we would not let the crowds and cruise things bother us. The Jewel of the Seas was much older and smaller than Mariner of the Seas. We initially thought that this would be better, less people equal more space, right? Not so much, we found that there were simply less places to go and more people in smaller areas. Keep this in mind as you are planning your cruise.

Stateroom: 🌎🌎🌎🌎 of 5 on the GOA globe scale

We paid for an ocean view cabin and were upgraded to a balcony cabin. We assumed that the people in that cabin cancelled last minute and since we booked with only a few days to spare, got very lucky. The balcony made the trip significantly more tolerable especially with the issues we had with a neighbor smoking cigarettes in their room. The ability to open the door and have fresh air literally saved me from ending up in the ship hospital as I have severe allergies and asthma. However, amenities, bedding and service were very good.

Service: 🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎 of 5

From the main dining room, to our cabin, we found the service to be excellent.

Cleanliness: 🌎🌎🌎🌎.5 of 5

Though the ship was older and needed to be updated, it was very clean. It probably did not hurt that we are “those people” who carry Lysol wipes, Purell wipes, liquid Purell and a gallon of Clorox Bleach absolutely everywhere on a ship (only kidding about half of those supplies, your guess which ones). See above comments about cigarette smoke as well, this was not just in our cabin, but throughout the ship. The smaller and older ship seemed to lack the air filtration system the larger ship had, or more people were smoking.

Entertainment: 🌎🌎🌎.5 of 5

If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. With that said, there were a couple of singers who were above average, and the productions were…entertaining. Honestly, we did not do any of the other activities that were available as we could not bring ourselves to intentionally be around more crowds than we already were, also…belly flop contest? No thanks. If you were involved in a lot of clubs in high school and are an activity joiner, mark up your daily cruise newsletter to plan for the following day.

Spa: 🌎🌎🌎🌎.5 of 5

There was no chiropractor on board to put my shoulder and neck back together, so I had a hot stone massage per the suggestion of the spa team. I was skeptical, but it was actually quite effective and relaxing. Go to the spa in the afternoon or evening of a day that the ship is in port, it is much less expensive than if you go during a day at sea.

Crowds: 🌎🌎🌎🌎.5 of 5

We judge crowds on a scale of Iceland, 0 to Tokyo, Japan, 5. With this in mind, if you are like us and allergic to people, take the stairs and avoid elevators, eat at random times, choose the later showtime for the productions. Most importantly, BYOB (wine actually, you cannot bring beer on board) and sit away from the crowds and people watch. Better yet, skip the large cruise and go to Iceland.

Food: 🌎🌎🌎.5 of 5

The food in the main dining room was average to above average, the food in their buffet restaurant, Windjammer was horrible to slightly less horrible. If you are a foodie or generally care about what you eat, maybe choose a different cruise line, or stay away from the buffet (also, hello Norovirus).

Ports: 🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎 of 5

We chose this due to the port intensive itinerary and a cruise being the easiest way to see so many islands quickly.

Overall Experience: 🌎🌎🌎 of 5 on the GOA globe scale

I do not know that we are the appropriate people to review this type of cruise as we knew prior to setting sail, that we are not “cruise people,” we are discerning (judgmental) travelers who like a bargain, but also highly value personal space. If you are interested in only unpacking once, seeing a number of new destinations quickly and do not mind crowds, by all means, put on that bathing suit that is two sizes too small like everyone else on a cruise, douse yourself in Purell and go!

Stay tuned for part II, the best part, all about the Southern Caribbean ports!!

-GOA

Adventures in Patience: Tokyo, Japan✈️

One day, last spring, I suggested to my mom that we go on a quick weekend trip. Naturally, moments later, we had a quick trip in two weeks planned…to Tokyo. Are spontaneous trips a good idea-heck yes! Across the globe for less than a week…in retrospect…not recommended. Fast forward two weeks of challenges preparing to travel including the fact that you cannot take many of your prescription medications to Japan, I’m getting off track.

We arrive after many hours of travel and horrors such as being switched to United from All Nippon Airways at the last-minute; we arrive at our hotel that is about the size of my bathroom at home, not the master, but the powder room. There is a slightly larger that twin size bed accessible from one side; I like my mom, but not that much. Rookie mistake: double beds does not mean the same thing in Japan as it does in the US, also rooms always appear larger on the website. I wake up the next day, and get that terrible sinking feeling, you know the one, the scratchy throat, congestion, head feels like it’s going to explode feeling, I’m sick. What can you do? I suck it up and we go attempt to hit all the major sights in Tokyo within a very limited time frame. We head to the metro station overly confident that we have been all over the world and never had too much difficulty with public transportation. We assumed Japan would be no different, plus the guidebook said it would be easy, and as you know, the guidebook is always right. Here’s the thing, it was sooooooo not easy. There were a thousand different metro lines and it was organized in a totally nonsensical fashion. Our typical English-speaking arrogance made us believe that people would speak a few words of English, no one did, not even a word. We managed to figure out how to get around, often just taking taxis by showing the driver our destination on my phone in Japanese to places like the world’s busiest intersection (Shibuya Crossing), world’s most crazy town street (Harajuku). We are not city people, in fact, we don’t even like people that much, and so the overwhelming masses were not pleasant in the unexpected heat. Locals wore boots, hats, and winter jackets, which made us cringe as we sweated in t-shirts.

We needed to save this trip. So far the best part had been all the incredible toiletries in our closet sized hotel room, and the toilets. Oh these toilets, the cleanest, most interesting toilets that played relaxing music and had so many buttons I was afraid to push. At this point, I am thinking, maybe it’s happened. People have been telling me for years that eventually, I’ll grow tired of these crazy adventures and “settle down.” Maybe I’m not cut out for the challenges of travel abroad anymore.

Here’s where the lesson comes in, with the wisdom and creativity of my mom, we decided to play to our strengths, what do we love? Nature and Disney. We went to see Mt. Fuji to get out of the city and the crowds, turns out the masses had the same idea. The most peaceful part of the day and one of our favorite memories was our time at Odawara Castle. We were in our element, wandering around, photographing the truly incredible cherry blossoms in full bloom. This made us feel like us and the passion and energy that only comes from exploring some place you’ve never been began to return. Part two of our plan to save the trip: Tokyo Disneyland. We are Disney fanatics and have been to many of the parks around the world. This warrants a whole new post that you can expect at a later date, but Tokyo Disney Seas rivals the best park in the world and a way, sick or not, adult or child, to bring joy and wonder to anyone.

Here is what I’m trying to say, sometimes travel is super hard and makes you want to hide in your living room watching reality television and never leave. Don’t. Be spontaneous, but know your interests and your limits. When things go wrong, take the time to be creative and do things you know you’ll love, you can find these things anywhere. Take the cab for an extra few bucks to save yourself some stress and always, always go to Disney.

-Generations of Adventure

Adventures in Gratitude: Southern Africa ✈️

Travel for me is like pressing the reset button. Going off the grid, putting the iPhone down, seeing new and incredible things, meeting people who have far less than you, yet are happier and more grateful is an essential part of my existence. Going to the heart of Africa is one way to ensure you won’t be tempted to spend your entire trip on Wi-Fi, because there isn’t any! Though this is my third trip to Africa, second on safari, it changes me each time, teaches me lessons that could never be learned inside my day-to-day bubble.

Warning: Trips like this are hard! You’re filthy all the time, and cannot get clean, as a mountain girl this bothered me far less than it might bother those of you who are not used to having dirt in places it doesn’t belong. I’m fairly sure the amount of deet you have to use to fend off bugs is at least somewhat toxic. The drugs you take to prevent malaria are about as pleasant as my sheer terror and panic to discover that the roof did not connect to the walls in our little “be one with nature” huts in Hwange, Zimbabwe. This resulted in regular visits from the biggest arachnids we have ever seen (I mean it this time dad). Good news is that I take my “spider slayer” with me everywhere, and she has a long history of saving my life from spiders all over the world, my incredible and adventurous mother. Have I turned you off yet?

A family in a shanty-town in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Let me turn this ship around, imagine children ages 3 and up walking 6-7 miles to go to school each day just because they are desperate to learn. Imagine 7-8 people, families living in tiny shacks made of corrugated tin and cardboard in a shantytown in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa, that are numbered, illustrating just how far they are down the list for better housing. With apartheid still in their rear view mirror, their focus is working hard each day to meet basic needs like clean water and food, and they shared with us that their ultimate goal is to educate their children. Imagine our guide for our safari being away from his wife and soon to be 5 children for months on end so he can provide for them, but being endlessly grateful that he is able to go to town (Kasane, Botswana) a couple of times a week to hear their voices on the phone.

On top of all of that, there is an indescribable feeling associated with being mere feet away from the truly wild animal kingdom that can only be expressed by singing “The Circle of Life” at full volume. Watching lions dominate the food chain, elephants care for their young, and zebras trot gracefully across the savannah is incomparable. I leave filled with gratitude that there is digital photography, and I don’t have to spend an entire paycheck developing the 2500 pictures I took in an attempt to capture some of these moments, so we can relive them over and over when regular life seems overwhelming.

What I’m trying to say is, go somewhere that challenges you (we highly recommend Botswana-this is not a sponsored ad) and soak in the silence, the gratitude of those around you, let their spirit and hope and positivity change you. Bring it back home with you and apply it to your daily life, don’t just be thankful at Thanksgiving, think of these inspiring people, and be grateful each day.

-Generations of Adventure

*This post was originally written as a guest post on our dear friend, and Fairy Blogmother’s wonderful blog, Insider Families. Please visit them!

https://www.insiderfamilies.com/