Jewel of the Seas from Miami to the Panama Canal

Well it’s finally here! April 13th, It is day one of my cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas out of Miami to the Panama Canal. Getting aboard became a small adventure. I checked in with the Shore Supervisor, gave him my paperwork and he gave me a cabin assignment. I tagged my bags with the cabin number he gave me which he also wrote down on my paperwork. Following his instructions I left the bags and proceeded to the security access to begin the boarding process. The security guard checked my cabin number against his boarding list and informed me that The Shore Supervisor wrote down the wrong cabin number. He told me to hurry and get back to where I had left my bags and get the correct cabin number written on it. Fortunately I arrived back there just as they were loading my bags. I had the Shore Supervisor recheck the passenger manifest and sure enough, he saw where he had accidentally written down the cabin number of the next name on the list which happened to be 7 decks away from mine. Once that was corrected the rest of the boarding process was a breeze.
The Jewel is a magnificent ship. She is not quite five years old. I have an interior cabin. Of course I would have liked an outboard cabin but this cabin is nicer than the outboard cabins that I had when I cruised with Celebrity. It is very spacious and well layed out.
We got underway promptly at 5 p.m. and our first port of call is two days out. Oranjestud, Aruba. At 5:30 I met with the Activities Director, Glen Osburn, a very nice young man who is new to the Jewel. I asked him about contacting the Excursion Director to for potentially being an excursion escort. He said he will talk to them in my behalf and get back to me. I give my first lecture later on today. More later.