Ray

we used Uber while in San Juan, couldnt fault them a lot less $$$$$$ than standard taxi

Just the 1 for me 🙂 449 days to go lol Could probably do a cruise every year if sailing out of UK but prefer to visit places i havent been before, so cost rises due to flights and hotels, but it's all worth it 🙂 .

FREEEEEEEEDOM of speech lol

will be good to see for myself so i know in future what deal to go for and where. Pretty sure this cruise will cost more than if i waited but thats life! cant take it with me so may as well spend it 🙂

i use the Revelut prepay mastercard for paying for hotels, flights etc that are not in GBP. i top up in GBP and can convert into numerous currencies at the same time. right now 1GBP is worth over 1.30USD which is a more than any bank etc. By using this card to pay directly in USD it removes international transaction charges by banks for converting currency, so i save even more 🙂

So today after much consideration i bit the bullet and booked a cruise 🙂 Nothing unusual about that, as it's something some on here do on a monthly basis lol ( yes i'm jealous ) HOWEVER When i booked my first and to date only cruise i had no idea what i was doing, i had no idea about sales, costs or additions such as OBC, in fact i had never actually seen a cruiseship before. After spending time on this site i realised that there is so much more then just hitting confirm on the UK RC booking screen, so today in the name of research i booked my next cruise with MEI Travel in the US. My plan is to check each sale and see what the cost would be at that time taking into consideration freebies such as OBC, Wifi, etc to determine whether booking in UK or US is best for UK residents and also what the best deal is. The cruise itself is 7 nights on FOTS 28th June 2020 to the ABC Islands & St Maartan from Peurto Rico. Current Deal UK Oceanview Balcony : £2,356.78 + free Wifi US Oceanview Balcony : £2036.50 + $50 obc ( RC ) + $50 obc ( MEI Travel ) THIS WAS BOOKED 🙂 the OBC i received will be used to cover wifi for my wife So today because i booked with blog sponsors MEI TRAVEL i am £320.28 better off 🙂 Now i'm not stupid i realise exchange rates will vary, or that UK may get a deal that is way better ( drinks pack included ) But the way i see it, come June 2020 i will know whats the best deal for me for all future cruises. i will update this thread for each sale as they happen Ray

RC US SITE for cruise you are looking at Price of this sailing if booked on US site is £500 more than if it were booked on UK Site and you dont get free wifi etc

Just compared the prices on RC US site to that of the UK site, on the US site i can get a balcony room for the same price as an Oceanview on UK site, also US site gives $50 OBC.

Looking at that sailing ....it says prices start for Interior room at £1035pp x 2 = £2070 however if you want the BOGO then its this Buy One Cruise Fare, Get One Half Price + Onboard WiFi + Gratuities Included On Southampton Sailings: guest 1 from £1,380, guest 2 from £690 so that equals £2070 So thats the same price as paying in full , you are just getting the wifi and gratuities for nothing well you are meant to but they are even charging for that

Free Gratuities apply to sailings from southampton only Last Month I priced FOTS cruise to the ABC Islands for the week you are looking at , checked again with this new 50% off 2nd Guest and it works out £100 more expensive than previous. Going to wait until they hopefully put the drinks pack in FOC, should work out less expensive that way

Hi You have nothing to worry about 🙂 i sailed for the very first time out of San Juan and i could not find fault with anything. We stayed in a hotel in the Isla Verde area for 2 nights prior to the cruise, getting an uber to the cruise terminal was easy and only cost $11. Due to there being 2 cruise ships sailing that day traffic was pretty busy, what should have taken 15mins at most took 1hr. We planned to arrive at 10:30AM to beat the que's however arrived at 11:15 am and was still on ship very quickly. The Terminal was easy to access and we were on ship in no time at all, in fact spent longer in shop than in que waiting to be seen, from getting out of uber to on ship in less that 40mins. We used RC shuttle to airport, it cost more than taxi/uber but couldnt be bothered waiting on a taxi/uber. Your luggage is put onto a small truck and thats the last you see of it until it gets to airport. At airport you are dropped of at an area where an RC rep is sitting outside and you either collect your luggage or wait for it. Loved San Juan and will cruise from here again

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8064661/arron-hough-coast-guard-werent-told-overboard/ Think the main issue was that it happenned about 4am xmas morning and no one noticed until much later that he was gone, it was only after they checked cctv of ship that the saw him going out onto deck 4 then up to deck 5 but never return.

i took 2 US and 2 European adaptors along with 1 twin usb 1 socket adaptor, this way i could use all sockets for UK plugs which are different to standard european sockets

With regards power strips, while disembarking freedom last month i noticed 2 very large tables in an area near luggage pick up that were full of conficated electrical equipment including some power strips

Must agree with Bernards tours $40 per person, a great tour round island with some rum punch thrown in to make it even more enjoyable lol various stops for photos and lunch etc 4-5hrs so plenty time to walk round cruise port shops afterwards