Iluv4n6

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!

@cruisinghawg Great to have some info on the likely passenger numbers for the Allure August sailings.  Will be quite interesting to experience Oasis class at ~1/3 capacity for the Aug 22 sailing. 
@Luv2Travel Thanks for re-posting the FB announcement from the Allure cruise director confirming all the main shows are rolling out with the first August sailing. They put in a lot of work on short order to pull that off!  We will be cruising with some friends who have never been on Oasis class before and we were hoping the most if not all of the big entertainment venues/shows would be open.   
Big thanks for the helpful responses!

We also toured with Bernard's Tours and highly recommend them. We stopped at Orient Beach for a couple hours while on the tour. You'll get to see a lot of both sides (French & Dutch) of the island. Please see their TripAdvisor reviews.

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 

Lady Boaty??
 
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I STILL WANT BMcBFOTS!!! ?

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!   

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!   

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!   

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, 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.

The one and only time that we strayed from our normal hotel (Best Western Plus), we stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Baltimore Downtown/Inner Harbor.   101 S. President Street Baltimore, MD  410-837-9500.  It is right across the street from Camden Yards.  I wasn't particularly impressed but it was close to a few good restaurants.
Is Empress replacing Grandeur ?  I thought it was going to be Enchantment again.

I try to find an airport hotel with a free hotel shuttle then take a ride share to the port in the morning.  Plenty of hotels near BWI, all the major chains represented.   

It's Enchantment .... that was an error.
As for hotels .... especially in the Inner Harbor area .... I'd say the two most popular ones are the Hyatt on Light Street (right across from Harborplace) and the Sheraton, which sits behind the Hyatt.  As for the free shuttle ones, there are two Best Westerns that I see are very popular, Dorsey Road (near BWI) and O'Donnell St (on the other side of the Ft. McHenry Tunnel from the Cruise Port) --- I know that there is a nice Pub right by the Dorsey RD location (Stained Glass Pub I think it's called)

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

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!

No double points for a balcony to suite upgrade obtained through RoyalUp.  If you really need those extra points call now and look into the cost to upgrade conventionally outside of RoyalUp.

It is a new practice and it's run by a third party.  They don't necessarily hold back rooms, but by setting up a blind bidding system they are able to capitalize when there are last minute cancellations.  The offer to bid has little to nothing to do with actual availability.  It's also a way for them to collect even more data as to what people would be willing to pay.

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!
 

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!
 

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!
 

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!