Jewel of the Seas - August 30, 2006

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cruiztime

Guest
Turning my thoughts to our summer cruise on Jewel - time to get serious and start planning. We just came home from cruising on the Infinity and now I can concentrate on our next venture.

Looking for other cruise-addicts who will be on this sailing. Eager to hear from you, share ideas and suggestions.

Will arrive in London 3 days pre-cruise and need some suggestions on areas and hotels that would be good for first times to stay while visiting London. We will fly into Heathrow.

Here are a few of my questions:

1. Where to stay :?
2. Best way to get from airport to hotel :? Cab, shuttle service, etc:?
3. What should we see while in London :?

I look forward to hearing from others who will be on this cruise or from folks who can share their London experiences.

Marion
 
C

cruiztime

Guest
Still checking to see if we have any people on this board who will be coming with on on the Jewel of the Sea in August...

Would like to hear from you:wave
 
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golfngirl

Guest
My husband and I will be on the Jewel for the August 29, 2007 cruise to celebrate my 50th birthday (gasp!). How was your cruise and what advice do you have for us? This will be our first time sailing with RCI. We plan to spend extra days in London post-cruise. Where you recommend that we stay? How was the weather? Did you enjoy the itinerary?

Thanks so much!
 
C

cruiztime

Guest
We loved the ship, easy to get around - I didn't get lost once!

I enjoyed our Med cruise better as far as the itinerary went. We took the DenRus private excursion in Russia with folks from the Cruise Critic board (2 days). A little expensive $730pp but well worth the experience.

We booked our hotel on priceline because the rates were so out of sight. I put in the neighborhood of Paddington/Baywater and got the London Hilton Kensington. I have photos of our room posted on TripAdvisor. Highly recommend the hotel. A bus stopped right in front of the hotel, very convenient. We could get where we needed to go within 20 minutes. Bid $70 for the hotel. Some of the floors have all just been renovated. TripAdvisor folks suggested I ask for the 4th floor because all the rooms had been upgraded. I took their suggestion and was very happy with the accommodations. I did not find the room small. When I read hotel reviews of European hotel the biggest complaint is the room size. The hotel could have been in any US city.

I am a big Celebrity fan but RCI is a good value for the money. I did not find the service or the food to be up to the standards of Celebrity. I am not saying it was bad - no such thing as a bad cruise - just a better cruise!

London was the most expensive city I have ever visited. The US dollar is worth 1/2. Think the current exchange is $1.90 to the pound. An inexpensive dinner - 2 personal pizzas and one beer was 23 pounds - over $40.00. We purchased the day pass for the bus - I think it was 4 pounds pp. We did the hop on hop off bus one day, it stopped right in front of the hotel at 10:30AM (only one pick up). Again, when you take the exchange rate into consideration the 35 pounds is quite expensive. We also got a free one hour river cruise with our ticket. Took us under the London Bridge and I was glad we did it.

There is a lot to see in London. I wanted to take one of the London Walking Tours but we didn't have enough time. We were there for 3 days pre-cruise. We took a day tour to Stonehenge, Bath and Windsor Castle. Nice to get out of London and see some of the country side.

The weather was perfect. Just needed my rain jacket one day. Temps were high 60 - 70's. Even though I complain about the high prices - I liked London. Easy to get to main sights via bus or underground.

We also spent some time in Harrods - you could spend an entire day just walking around and checking out all 28 of the restaurants in the store!

You will have a wonderful time, wish we were going with you. If you want any other information you can contact me at cruiztime@yahoo.com

Marion
 
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