It's always a bittersweet moment, to pull back the stateroom curtains and find yourself back where you started. We had returned to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I snapped a few photos, then scrambled to get ready and pack up our remaining items.

On Day 6, we docked in Kingstown, St. Vincent. We did not have an excursion booked, but Aaron and I had read that we could take a water taxi to Villa Beach.

St. Vincent is another port that we visited for the first time on this cruise. Since we've done so many Caribbean cruises over the years, it's rare that we visit a new port of call, which is why this Southern Caribbean itinerary was interesting to us - three new ports of call!

On Day 5, we docked in Scarborough, Tobago. Today, we had an excursion planned that Stove booked through Viator - Tobago Bucco Reef Glass Bottom Boat Tour.

I asked Aaron if he wanted to go up to the Windjammer to get breakfast before we left the ship, but he said he wasn't really hungry. Big mistake. We should've gotten breakfast.

On Day 4 of our Southern Caribbean Cruise on Jewel of the Seas, we docked in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

We ate breakfast in the main dining room this morning. The host recognized Stove and seated us at our own table of six. Throughout breakfast, several different dining room managers came over to our table to ask us how we liked our table last night. I'm not sure what Stove said or did to get this celebrity treatment, but I'm not sure I want to know.

On Christmas morning, we docked in Bridgetown, Barbados. We had made plans to meet for breakfast in the main dining room at 9AM, but discovered that morning that the dining room closed at 9AM. Judy and Stove "just happened" to be ready early and went to the MDR for breakfast. The rest of us headed up to the Windjammer.

While I wish there was more variety, there were some decent breakfast options in the Windjammer. I liked the breakfast hash and omelets (if the line isn't too crazy).

On Christmas Eve, we woke up to a surprise from Judy!

Judy and Stove used these magnetic dry erase boards to leave messages to Stove's siblings on their New England cruise on NCL in September. NCL has a no door decorations rule (loosely enforced), and one of his sisters was actually told that she had to remove the whiteboard from her door. Royal Caribbean allows door decorations, so no issues here!

I brought Christmas stockings from Amazon for our doors that Aaron and I hung up with magnetic hooks.

We met for breakfast in the dining room. They seat breakfast on the 4th floor (lower level) of the dining room.

The interesting thing about Embarkation in San Juan is that it was very late. I believe the earliest possible check-in time was 12:30 PM. Aaron and I, as well as Stove and Judy had a 1:30 PM port arrival time. Rachel and Landon waited until like two weeks before the cruise, so they had a 3:30 PM check-in time. Rachel and I briefly looked into getting The Key, but it didn't seem like that great of a value, and we couldn't book it for six guest by the time we looked into it, anyway.

We had a 2PM checkout time at Aloft, so we weren't in a hurry to get up and get ready. Except for Landon who was stir crazy and I guess hungry... so he and Rachel set out on a mile walk to get a bagel, while Aaron and I stayed in the room and watched a totally unhinged adaptation of A Christmas Carol on BET (you know I had to look it up.... it's Christmas Deja Vu).

Also, our bag finally arrived! That morning, I got the notification on the Delta app that our suitcase had arrived. I checked the AirTag which confirmed. It took a few hours after that for our bag to make it to the hotel. Stove was out and about, so he volunteered to hunt it down. It wasn't at the front desk, but he's persistent... he walked around and found a room marked "Luggage Room," went inside and took the bag. Then an hour later, we got a call to the room from the front desk saying that they had my bag.... 

Ahoy! I'm here with another cruise review!

If you're a longtime follower of the blog, you probably know that it is Shinglebell family tradition to cruise over Christmas. In 2020, my sister Rachel and I started alternating Christmases with our boyfriends' families, and we went on our first cruise as the Shinglebells + Boys on the NCL Encore in 2021. Last year, I spent Christmas with Aaron and his parents at sea on the Celebrity Summit. Which means....

It's a Shinglebells Christmas cruising year!

In case you're new to my trip reports or just need a little refresher, meet the Shinglebells: