Iluv4n6

Thanks, @Gears.  What we would be looking for is not really a guided tour, so much as transportation to specific places we want to be sure to see during this visit.  Because we would want to stay an hour or 90 minutes at the prime spots (Grand Case and Le Galion Beaches), we probably would want to hire the same taxi van for the day so we wouldn't possibly get stuck at one of the beaches for too long before would would be able to move to the next spot.

Game Plan:

1) Grand Case Beach

2) Lunch in Grand Case/Marigot

3) Le Galion Beach 

4) Maho Beach to see a plane come in

5) Phillipsburg stop before heading back to the ship.  Could take water taxi from here instead, I think.   

Sounds like there would be taxi vans available to hire for the day without necessarily reserving in advance.

I appreciated @Chalker's recent informative and enthusiastic review of Bernard's Tours for a private group tour of St Maarten, but wanted to check with others on the availability of taxi vans after you walk off the ship in St Maarten.  We have a family group of 8 and want to focus our tour on the Grand Case and Le Galion beaches on the French side, including lunch on the French side, and finishing with with short stops at Maho Beach and Phillipsburg on our way back to the ship.  If we go with a tour company, we would probably need to reserve ahead.  At the same time, based on my one previous visit, St Maarten looked well-served with taxis--I just don't recall the prevalence of larger van taxis.  We would need something a notch bigger than a normal-sized family van with 7-person capacity.  

Would appreciate any comments from the terrific RC Blogger community on group transportation for touring this awesome island!

Thanks!   

9 hours ago, cruiselife said:

Those plans sounds great to us. I talked with my wife about it last night and we would be happy to share the van with your family if you would like to. It sounds like a lot of fun. I completely understand if not, no pressure! I just sent you a private message with a little more information about us.

You guys sound very flexible -- thanks for your willingness to share a visit to the island with our crew.  I also sent you a private message with more info on our group.  Might also be good to know what new van Leo's got to gauge if we would all comfortably all fit -- probably, but might be worth checking out anyway! 

2 hours ago, cruiselife said:

That is awesome! If you are interested we have reserved the famous Leo Brown to be our driver for the day in St. Maarten. @Matt has made several mentions about Leo in his blogs and podcasts so we were excited to get to have him as our guide for the day. It is just my wife and I for now, but Leo said he has a new van that has room for up to 12 people that he is very proud of. If you are looking for something to do in St Maarten feel free to join us. He mentioned that the per person rate would be much lower the more people there are, so if you are interested let me know and I will give him a call and get an updated quote! We would pay him directly in St Maarten. We don't plan to fill up the van, but we are hoping to find another couple or family to join us. If not, no big deal, I just figured I would rather ask a fellow RC Blog follower than random people on the cruise! He said he can take us anywhere we want to go and he plans to take us to the French side of the island, an authentic restaurant, a nice overlook, and all of the best beaches.

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/07/30/freedom-of-the-seas-live-blog-day-five-st-martin

Wow -- great to know, @cruiselife!  I thought I heard somewhere that Leo Brown upgraded his wheels.  My wife and I visited St Maarten last February and were able to hire Leo also -- fun tour around the island! 

For this cruise, we have a larger family group of 8 -- wife and me, plus some extended family including 11, 16, 21 year-olds and three other adults.  My guess is this might be more than you would bargain for to join you and your wife! 

On our first visit, while we got a great tour of the island, but I think we spent too much time at the first overlook (the one that looks back over Phillipsburg and the cruise dock) and Maho Beach before heading to the French side.  This visit we would really like to splash around on Grand Case Beach and Le Galion Beach with the younger kids--both on the Franch side--in addition to also having a great lunch on the French side.  We did not get to experience either of these awesome beaches on our first trip -- and I have heard them recommended on multiple RC Blog podcasts.  After visiting the French side we would be up for a shorter visit to Maho to see a plane or two then a a final stop at Phillipsburg (or maybe fit in a shorter Maho stop on the way to the French side).  But we will message you compare notes on what our group and preferences and see how it matches up with your plans.

Hope to bump into you onboard in any event--keep meeting great folks on RC cruises!  I have dawdled a bit with making final arrangements for this vacation with one of the last items being transportation on St Maarten for the day.  So your comment was definitely timely!

As an FYI from an upcoming Harmony cruiser (2/3), all but one of my reservations is showing up in the app, and those that do show up look correct.    

Guess we will be on the same gangway @cruiselife, just boarding a bit later than you!   @Scott Johns, have a great cruise! 

Thanks @Chalker for your post!  We may look into Bernards Tours when we visit St. Maarten next month.  Based on my one prior trip to this fantastic island a year ago, taxis were abundant for easy access around the island.   We hired @Matt friend Leroy Brown for the day--he transported my wife and I and we had a great time. 

Our next visit will be with a larger family group, so hiring a van for the day would be the way to go and we may give Bernards tours a shot.  I don't recall vans at the taxi stand from my last trip, but I wasn't looking out for them.  Anyone know if a vans are easy to secure at the taxi stand or whether reserving ahead would be the way to go?  Also I though I heard somewhere that Leroy may have upgraded his vehicle (to a larger van?), but not sure about that.

Thanks again!

12 hours ago, Matt said:

When you go to purchase it, can't you just select the option to add guests from another reservation and add your reservation number and last name?

Thanks, @Matt for your reply.  I had some more time this evening to try initiating the CP order process for different types of purchases.  For the Dragon's Breath zip line at Labadee, I do get the "Add Guests From Another Reservation" link underneath the names of the persons on the lowest-numbered reservation for our group consisting of four rooms/reservations. But when I initiated an order for a 4 Vroom package or the soda package, for example, I only could see the two persons on the lowest-numbered reservation.  The webpage did not include a link for adding guests from another reservation.  I also did not see a link to add other reservations when I proceeded through the Payment Information, Personal Information, and Review Order screens.

On the plus side, Sharla at MEI was able to order the 4 Vroom package and link it to the reservation for my room (not sure how she did this yet).  So maybe this is a temporary glitch with CP, or perhaps I am just not real savvy with the CP interface not having used it for some time or for any purchases other than for just a single reservation on prior cruises.  

Will update with anything that may be helpful for others...even if I have to queue the Homer Simpson "Doh!" track...

We have a family cruise coming up on Harmony in February and I have linked the four room reservations for convenience in making reservations.  But I have noticed that the CP order process--such as for the multi-Vroom package--pulls up the reservation with the lowest number for our group first, which is not mine.  And CP appears to force me to make a purchase under this reservation before I can (presumably) advance to other reservations/family members.  It looks like I may need call RC about this or possibly to de-link the reservations to be able to make a purchase just under my reservation number, but I don't want to loose any other reservations (e.g., shows) in the process.

On the on hand, I suppose I can just order the multi-Vroom package for another adult in our family group and pick up the sheet of Vroom codes RC leaves in their stateroom, but I'd rather receive the Vroom code sheet directly.  When I looked into this, it was also after hours for me to call RC customer service, but maybe this is the way to go to sort this out.

Appreciate any insight! 

Thanks!

We enjoyed the Mystery Dinner on Adventure OTS on the the Aug 31 NE and Eastern Canada cruise.  While the Mystery Dinner menu is limited compared to the regular Giovanni's menu, the food was great.  The filet was our favorite dish on this cruise. 

They rearranged the dinning room into seating at six long tables to maximize the number of patrons for the event, while maintaining an aisle in the middle of the dinning room for the actors.  So I can understand that a limited menu would facilitate efficient food preparation and serving for a densely-packed room--and provide a few breaks for between courses for the show. 

Giovanni's Mystery Dinner Menu.pdf

Thanks for the thread.  We have booked the Mystery Dinner Theater on Adventure, which is also at Gionvanni's...sounds like the regular venue for this event across the fleet (i.e., for those ships hosting this event).  Can report back in a few weeks on the menu.  Probably still pretty good even if a limited. 

We enjoyed the Prohibition event on Oasis and are looking forward to MDT on AOS.

Will have to check out some curated cruise "stations" sometime...but when we arrive in our cabin and start the unpacking our playlist begins with:

Day Tripper -- best guitar riff of all time, IMHO.   We'll follow up with some some Stones, Boz Scags, Eagles, more Beatles, and Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns (really cool jazz/funk/rock outfit in Vegas made up of musicians who play in shows on the strip and take Mondays off to play the music they like...oh, yeah, and some awesome LA musicians often join in).

23 hours ago, princevaliantus said:

Did you pack it in your carry on luggage or in your boarding luggage? I also wonder what they do with all these excess confiscations.

It was in my packed luggage, so I had to go down to the naughty room on Deck 2 to retrieve my suitcase on Day 1...This was on Oasis in February.  Basically the same cord as Twangster's got nabbed.  

They set aside confiscated items for you to pick up at guest services during disembarkation, but we did self-assist and I didn't bother to wait in another line for a $5 item.

Yes -- we had a short (3 ft) extension cord confiscated on Oasis earlier this year.

12 hours ago, hmills96 said:

Found it! It's Halifax Hop on for Hops. 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/shoreExcursions/product/detail/view.do?sourcePage=shorexByPort&ProductCode=HXB6&DestinationCode=

Thanks for sending the link, @hmills96.  CP is still giving me trouble this evening to see whether he Hop on Hops excursion is an option for our Aug-31 cruise.  

In the meantime, I came across a useful link to breweries/brewpubs in a map of the Halifax port area:

https://www.ratebeer.com/beermap?p=0&z=15&lt=4464182&ln=-6357389

As suggested by @monctonguy and visible on the brewery map, there are quite a few beer-infused establishments near the port.  So I think we'll do fine with a stroll around downtown.

10 hours ago, monctonguy said:

You do not need to book anything to be honest. I know there are a few brewery's in the downtown area that you could visit on your own.

We'll check on timing to for a side trip down to Peggy's Cove.  May depend on how early a start we get.

Cheers!

@hmills96, thanks for the suggestions about beer-cruising the Northeast!  We may check out the Portland brew bus on 9/2.  I don't recall seeing a Halifax beer-centric excursion through Royal for our cruise, but will have to double-checked this...CP has been a bit finicky for me tonight, so I will try again later to be sure one didn't pop up and I missed it.   With all the excellent beer options on this itinerary we are skipping the drink package this time...but if the drink card shows up half-way through our cruise we may have to mix in a few more onboard beverages.   

Thanks, @fonemanbob, @karl_nj, and @KathyC aka KathLuvsGH.  We may revert back to carrying our own...no big deal with that...unless we are feeling especially leisurely.  

2 hours ago, PrincipalTinker said:

I will say we had our luggage picked up the night before. By the time we finished breakfast they were calling our number. We walked right out and met a porter that walked us through security . It was very easy and seemed to get us through the shortest line.

Sounds great -- we may try the "normal" luggage pick-up option for our disembarkation and enjoy breakfast onboard for a change on the last morning.  We don't have to rush to catch a flight. 

2 hours ago, fonemanbob said:

Customs is a real breeze now that their are no declaration forms to process.  

Thanks for confirming speedy customs at Port Liberty -- went fast for us at Port Canaveral earlier this year, but we left the ship early with self-disembarkation. 

Great to hear Cape Liberty is an easy disembarkation port when you carry your own as we will soon take our first cruise on AOS out of this port.

16 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

When we walked off between 8:30am and 9am for Anthem in March, it was fast. 

And it also sounds like you don't necessarily need to line up early to get off the ship and make it through customs quickly .

Like many on this thread, we also view medical evac as the largest travel risk to protect against while cruising.  We have used Allianz insurance to cover this base and--knock on the metal walls of our cabin --we have thus far not needed to file a claim.  We will also take a look into annual insurance plan options.    

With summer events winding down up our way, we can focus back in on the AOS Aug 31 sailing.  So far we have reserved a 2-hr trolley bus tour of Acadia for the visit to Bar Harbor, but have not booked any formal excursions for St John or Halifax.  We will likely Lyft/taxi around some...or possibly rent a car to visit Peggy's Cove outside of Halifax.  Plus there are plenty of interesting-looking brewpubs in these ports, which will deserve thorough investigation   Which is one reason we opted out of the drink package on this cruise...the other being that we booked the Mystery Dinner....  

Can't wait for this itinerary and our first cruise on Voyager Class!   

We are on Adventure (8/31) and have booked a non-RC excursion (trolley-bus tour) that leaves Bar Harbor at 10:00 a.m. (9/3).  Will look for any tender tickets onboard, but plan to get down to the tenders early anyway (arrival 7:00 a.m. in Bar Harbor).  Not sure what to expect for wait time as we have not had to use a tender for quite some time.  Nonetheless, I would anticipate we would get onshore with reasonable time to spare before our excursion.   Just hope that the wait time to get onshore is less than our two-hour trolley-bus tour!   

7 minutes ago, fonemanbob said:

If you need an extension cord your room attendant will get you one.  Been there done that.  

Thanks for the suggestion to ask the room attendant for an extension cord -- we will use that on our next cruise!

On 7/3/2018 at 9:43 AM, DunkelBierJay said:

I like to have magnetic hooks for hanging stuff like lanyards, hats, etc...

I second having magnetic hooks and also suggest bringing a magnetic clip or two.  These are great for hanging my fold-out dopp kit, hats, sunglasses, etc...and we like to use the clip for hanging cruise compasses and any messages for our room steward.

We made the mistake of bringing a short (3 ft) extension cord -- not a power strip -- on our last cruise (Oasis).  I figured it would be OK to bring because it does not generate heat and appears similar, at least conceptually, to a USB hub with a built-in extension cord that also splits power from one outlet into several USB ports.   But I learned the hard way, through a trip to the naughty room on deck 2 to access my luggage, that any extension cord is prohibited.  Probably because it would enable you to draw a potentially unacceptable/unsafe(?) amount of power from one stateroom outlet.

Great question -- we tapped into the brain trust of these boards ahead of our last cruise which greatly enhanced our cruising experience.