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Thanks -- will keep tabs on CP nonetheless. I haven't heard what reduced capacity means for the AOS Aug 22 sailing, but I can understand that lower capacity may mean that reservations aren't necessary from a practical perspective. I would be interested in hearing from others who are on early August cruises on Oasis class whether all the normal entertainment venues are open and if they noticed any changes to the show lineups due to either lower numbers of passengers or possibly a planned gradual roll-out of various shows as the ships restart. We always showed up for our reservations on Oasis class. ?

This island features some awesome beaches you really should get off the ship to visit if you've never seen them before, like Orient and Grand Case on the north/French side and Maho by the airport on the south/Dutch side, to name a couple. We are also on the Aug 22 AOS cruise and will likely run up to Orient beach with a couple who has never visited St Marten/Martin. We suspect the beach and surrounding cafes, etc., have rebounded quite a bit after the last big hurricane a few years ago (Irma). We are also looking into renting a car/van/suv with driver for our group for the day. Thinking that will work better than trying to catch a ride back from the beach. You should have no problem hiring a car/van and driver for the day from the taxi stand area instead of pre-booking this. We did this before for about $150/day, if memory serves. Just sent a note to St Marten/Martin tourism office about the typical availability of vehicles for hire near the cruise port. I also plan to check with Bernard's Tours and see what we would get for their $360/day private tour including how many people this can cover in one vehicle. Maybe we would want to split the cost with others?. Also saw that Royal just posted a couple Orient beach excursions from $64 to $99 pp. The higher priced one includes lunch and an additional 1.5 hrs at the beach (compared to 3 hr for the cheaper excursion w/ no lunch), and both appear to include lots of rum punch ?. And from what I can see on the tourism website, we will need a negative Covid test within 48 hours of arrival. So I'm thinking this requirement would match up with the mid-cruise test Royal is now requiring for 7-day E. Caribbean cruises. 18 days and counting!

As more Oasis Class ships begin sailing this month, we would love to hear about how the entertainment options are rolling out. We are booked on Allure 22AUG21 and haven't seen any entertainment options pop up in CP yet. Not surprised by this. We can appreciate that RC has lots of other bigger "fish to fry" to safely restart many ships this summer, but we have always enjoyed the range of fantastic entertainment options on Oasis class, including the aqua show, ice show, and musicals, and hope to be able to do so on our next cruise. Please pass along any news you may hear about how entertainment options may be rolling out for Oasis Class. Will also want to keep tabs with anyone blogging on Allure the first half of August. Thanks! Roger & Carol

Wow! great to see the kudos pouring in for @Sharla! She gets our vote as well. Just riding out this season's Artic blast here in the upper Midwest...nothing like taking the dog out in 30 below wind chills to motivate me into checking back in on cruise news and itineraries!

Thanks, Twangster! I got through on the Captain's Club phone line this afternoon (844-418-6824), and Mr. Josh Gray with Celebrity (who said I should use his name on these boards) indicated the loyalty level match between CAS and Captains Club is not a one-time event. So if we cruise on Celebrity while Emerald in CAS, we will translate to Select Level on Celebrity on that cruise. But (in our case) after we do another cruise on Royal and are Diamond and then go back to Celebrity, we will translate to Elite Level for the next Celebrity cruise. My concern was possibly having to build up from the bottom rung of Select Level and could only do so when cruising on Celebrity, because no future higher loyalty level on CAS would ever translate again to Captain's Club. Perhaps this clarification will help others interpret information they find on the reciprocity between CAS and Captains Club. Of course, nothing is static in the cruise industry, so this would be worth confirming as future sail dates approach.

Thanks, JL. I am not positive if I can control of when the level match occurs. I would like to delay the level match until after I am Diamond on Royal if I can. I am concerned that if I sail my first time on Celebrity while I am at Emerald-Almost-Diamond on Royal this fall, I will map over to Captain's Club at Select Level by default because they will simply transfer my C&A info at that time whether I request it or not. I fully understand that mapping between systems is a one-time deal. But I don't know if I could take one Celebrity cruise this fall and delay loyalty level matching until a second future Celebrity cruise by which time I would be Diamond in Royal's system. If I can't delay the level match, that may affect my decision on the fall Celebrity cruise. Wouldn't be happy dropping from almost Diamond on RC to Select on Celebrity and never realistically being able to climb back up the Celebrity loyalty ladder to ever enjoy their Elite level. It would be like falling 50 rungs on an adjacent ladder if you can't climb up just one more rung on your current ladder first. Was on hold with the Captain's Club number for while to ask about whether I have any control over when I level match from Royal, but hold times are lengthy these days...

We are currently booked on a Celebrity cruise for fall 2020 and will be Emerald in C&A by that time, which would translate to the Select Level in the Captain's Club. We will be Diamond after another RC sailing in early 2021 which would translate to Elite Level in the Captain's Club with its significantly enhanced perks compared to Select Level. Could we avoid mapping over into Celebrity's system at the Select level if we do not join the Captain's Club before or during our currently booked fall 2020 Celebrity cruise, and instead join the Captains Club at a later date and after we are Diamond in C&A? I see no benefit mapping our Emerald/almost-Diamond status over to Celebrity this fall if I have an option not to. I'd rather go with no added perks in Celebrity's system for one cruise than miss out on potentially multiple cruises at the Elite level. Any experience with this? Thanks!

Hi Fellow Cruisers -- We will fly into Baltimore the day before cruising on Grandeur in May and wanted check with you all on any hotel recommendations. Probably any place in the Camden Yards area would work well. Looks like we will be catching Grandeur during her last full year sailing out of Baltimore and before she is replaced by Empress in spring 2021. Thanks for any suggestions!

Thanks! Makes sense from what I can see on the website.

AshleyDillo -- Appreciate you filling in some blanks for me on group meet-ups on the islands! Madero Beach Club and Bonaire Blond Brewery are definitely on the list. Glad to be trying some craft brews after the tastings on Curacao!

Freedom 12/29/19 Group Cruise! Symphony 2/8/20 Grandeur 5/1/20 Rhapsody 1/23/21 Harmony 11/21/21 Group Cruise!

Hi -- Wife and I are excited to visit the ABC islands next week as part of the Freedom group cruise. Based on the helpful info on these boards, we're planning: Curacao - RC Fascinating Curacao excursion - hope we can get up on 1/1 for the 11:15 AM curacao tasting tour, LOL. Hit Mambo beach area and group event. Aruba - Head up to the Eagle beach area--no formal excursion. Group event in the evening. Bonaire - RC Mangrove and Beach excursion - looking forward to seeing lots of exotic (for us) sea birds and especially flamingos. Besides the ABCs: St Martin - Taxi up to the French side and probably hang out at Grand Case beach. Will also want to see how Orient Beach area might be recovering some. We've visited this great island a couple times previously and will see about heading up to the French side along the east shore instead of the longer loop through Maho Beach/airport area. Also looking forward to meeting other bloggers!

Thanks Twangster! Did not see this in the fine print. But we also have a JS booked in late spring so we will have the points covered to translate to Celebrity's loyalty program for fall 2020. Was thinking of potentially rejiggering our late spring cruise if we were successful with a RoyalUp on an earlier cruise and got double points sooner. Based on various feedback on the program, it seems that weak bids, like ours, have a low probability of being successful. Interesting that my TA didn't indicate this limitation to RoyalUp...I had mentioned RU as a means of doubling up on points with an upgrade...or I just missed the info.

I would figure Lyft also works in San Juan airport now, but would be curious if ridesharing is currently limited to just Uber. Prefer Lyft since it was the one I started using...

And book early! I was a little slow on the trigger for booking one of the recommended hotels for our Symphony cruise in Feb--but we did squeeze into the Hilton Downtown booking in early Dec. Options already seemed to be getting thin 2 mos out or prices really moving up for remaining rooms.

We have a couple bids placed for two upcoming cruises to upgrade from balcony to JS, in part to move up the RC loyalty ladder before a Celebrity cruise in fall 2020. We didn't bid much above the "weak" bid range on the Royal-Up-O-Meter, so I would be surprised if either bid is successful. Though we would be in a different location, I would figure any JS location wouldn't be too bad...

Lots of great ideas in this thread! Here's a suggestion for something small that really enhanced our stateroom: magnetic hooks. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015VRQ3VQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It didn't dawn on me until reading these boards that the stateroom walls and ceiling are made of steel. So you can place magnetic hooks just about anywhere. They work great for hanging sunglasses, hats, lanyards, etc, or for making a hanging divider out of sheets to create sections in the room for a bit more privacy. Enjoy Harmony--it's an awesome ship!

I would not expect any drink packages to be cheaper onboard on a per day basis compared to buying pre-cruise, but I was wondering if any bars began offering a "drink card" a few days into the cruise. On some cruises I've seen them sell a drink card a few days into the cruise--with signage at the bar advertising when they do this--say, for ~$75 for 10 bar drinks. Anyone in your group can use it, which is also nice plus. Guessing you did not see this on your Harmony cruise, but thought I would double-check. And thanks, @cruiser4406 for the updates on your recent Harmony cruise about the adult pool and using Whatsapp with Vroom!

@monctonguy we will be in St Maarten/Martin a week from today (?) and should swing by Maho later in the day after we enjoy a couple beaches on the French side. I would anticipate that you wouldn't have to wait long at Maho for a taxi back to Phillipsburg/cruise port. But I can check out the taxi situation for you (cost/wait time...). For our family group of 8, we decided to hire a van from Best Price Taxi service for our family group based on quite a few positive Trip Advisor reviews. https://www.bestpricetaxisxm.com/ Pricing ($250/day) seems to be comparable with some other services and for Leo Brown's new van (which incidentally is reserved by another group from Harmony). Bernards also looked good for a private itinerary for a few bucks more. Andy Martina with Best Price got back to me quickly via email and confirmed we would be in their new white Toyota van. Should have come pics and comments in a week or so!

Thanks for the feedback, @cruiser4406! We will have a few Vroom codes to spread among our family, so I think Whatsapp should work for us. Also good to know Royal IQ is no longer works on Harmony. By the way, did a drink card appear a few days into your cruise? We opted against a drink package this time, but I have noticed more aggressive drink package pricing on CP over the last week or so for Harmony next week, which makes me think they may be behind a bit in their pre-sales.

Digital and Print photo packages are sold on a per stateroom basis only and photos are linked to staterooms based on the guests travelling in that stateroom. Photos of other guests not travelling in your stateroom will be linked to their own stateroom. The following are not included in print and/or digital photo packages: Photos of others in your party not travelling in your stateroom; Group, Wedding, Quinces, Private Studio photography and other special occasion photography; Generic photos of the ship, characters, ports of call, etc.; Any special printing or retouching requests. The fine print above is for the photo package we just purchased (20 photos on a memory stick). It would appear that anyone in the stateroom of the person who bought the package would be included in the photo package. We purchased the package in the name of our grand-daughter who is on our reservation with my wife and me, figuring she would be in the most photos. We have three other cabins in our family group on an upcoming cruise. So I think as long as my wife, me, or our grand-daughter (i.e., the "purchaser" of the package) are in a family photo, that photo would be included in the package. Can anyone confirm this? @Matt you mentioned: Based on Matt's comment, I'm not sure if our grand-daughter would have to be in every photo of any family grouping for that photo to be included in the package, or as along as any of the 3 of us in the same stateroom that "bought" the package are in the photo then that photo would be in the package. Any comments or clarifications welcomed!

Thanks @tiny260! We will try that out.

Sailing Harmony on Feb 3 with a larger family group. We will have a few Vroom packages among the adults, so I would think using a web messenger might be a good way to go for us to communicate among our mix of iPhone and Android devices. (We had some issues with the generic iPhone texting on our last cruise.) Have not looked into the old Royal IQ app to see if there would be any advantage to going that route on Harmony...assuming it is still working OK. @cruiser4406 would love to hear what app your family used to stay in touch during your Jan 20 Harmony cruise.

Harmony Feb 3 E. Caribbean Freedom Dec-Jan S. Caribbean Group Cruise! The tundra around here is definitely re-frozen solid with the latest sub-zero arctic blast -- tropics are just around the corner -- Yeah!?

Thanks @tiny260 and @Gears for your comments! We will reserve a taxi van for the day to avoid taxi lines at the port and the possibility of getting stuck at any of our preferred stops. We are contacting a couple taxi van/small bus services that popped up in a Trip Advisor search (Best Price and SXM Bus tours) and will also check Bernard's for our group of 8. Will update for how they compare. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g147346-Activities-c59-t182-St_Martin_St_Maarten.html