Zacharius
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Posts posted by Zacharius
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23 minutes ago, AGSLC5 said:
Please don't take this the wrong way but I'm curious where do you consider a fair port to go to? Keep in mine these cruises are 4 and 5 nights so they are limited with distance.. They cant make it to the Eastern Caribbean or Southern Caribbean in the short time frame.. Thats why I think they keep picking Mexico, Nassau, and Coco Cay because where else can they go?
Yeah that was my point earlier...there's only so many places to go in a short time. And a place that someone will like, another will hate. And then factor in places that are already full because other ships don't have to change destinations and have been booked in to there for ages. Nothing about this is ideal, but options are limited for the cruise line at this point.
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23 minutes ago, FoxboroCruiser said:
Seems like they managed to change the port for the current cruise... Just wish we received the same. Looks like MOST voyages are getting new ports. We get that it's difficult but wouldn't you be disappointed too? Seems to me they could have figured out something better than a seas day, that's all.
One concern we have is how is the crew going to react to this situation? Many of them are likely losing their jobs when RCCL send the Empress out to pasture a second time. I hope they find a way to motivate them to still be happy and helpful. As professional as a person can be, something like this situation has to have an impact. One hope we have is that many people cancel and the ship is less crowded..
We have a vow renewal ceremony scheduled for Key West on Tuesday, and a number of other things planned in and around this trip. Many I can't get my money back for. I ma not a negative or pessimistic person by nature, but the added disappointment of not getting a new port stings, and I don't just blindly assume that RC did all they could to find a better solution than a second sea day on a small old ship. We're disappointed, but are trying to rally and find ways to make this work.
Every situation is going to be different. Maybe they got lucky and had port availability in the general vicinity of the northern Caribbean for this week, or next week, or the week after, but that doesn't mean they to four weeks from now, or two months from now.
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22 hours ago, Harmony Family in August said:
Thank you so much! This was so helpful! I so appreciate it. We are super excited. My youngest gets extreme anxiety around large crowds. He is very outgoing so we will be talking about the ship with him like now so he will know what to expect.
If you do go to St. John, try to stay away from Trunk Bay. It's the busiest beach over there. If you get there early enough, you can camp out far away from others (when we got there just about 9:30am, we were just about the only ones on the beach) but by the time you get there it could be quite busy. There are a myriad of other beaches that a taxi can take you to. Trunk Bay does have the perk of restrooms, showers, chair/equipment rental, and (I believe) recently re-opened food (though I could be wrong)...but of course that's a direct correlation to it being the busiest, so determine your priorities and go from there.
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5 minutes ago, Keeves said:
I have trained myself to open my car window if I ever have to get out of the car while the key is still inside. Being sure to leave the door unlocked isn't enough, because the odds are too high that my hand will lock it anyway as a reflex. So BEFORE I get out of the car, I make sure to open the window all the way.
My car doesn't have a key, just a fob, which is both better and worse...better because I can't lock myself out (if the key is inside the car, all I have to do is touch the door handle and it will unlock), but worse because literally anyone can do that too if I leave the key inside (as I have accidentally done twice...luckily not for long periods of time) and drive off in to the sunset.
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44 minutes ago, Harmony Family in August said:
Hi we are going on Harmony of the seas in August. We have a 14 and 8 yr old. Our youngest has special needs so when we stop in St Thomas it will be from 12-8 pm. We would like to find a less crowded beach or more private beach to go to. I have been doing a lot of research and it seems that St John might be a great area to go to. We would like to go on our own like rent a car or take a ferry over. Is this possible to go to for 4 hours and get back in time to port? Suggestions?
I cannot address how easy or difficult this would be with special needs, and of course depends on the specific needs, but I have absolutely done this and is my number one recommendation for St Thomas. Here's how we have done it:
1) Get off the ship ASAP, grab the first taxi, take it to the ferry. Know the schedule of the return ferries, and ask your driver to meet you back there so you don't need to wait for any taxi when you get back. Have his number (assuming you're American, most phone companies treat US Virgin Islands like any other state so calling/texting is easy and included) just in case.
2) Ferry across, grab a taxi on the other side to the beach of your choice.
3) Reverse the trip for the way back. Make sure there's at least one more ferry that can get you back to the ship on time in case there's any issue...so for example (just making up times here) if you know you need to be back on the ship by 7:30pm, and there's a ferry that drops you back to your taxi at 6:00pm, leave on the one that gets you there at 5:00pm...knowing the 6:00pm ferry is there, just in case).
With a nine-hour port day, we have been able to spend four hours easily on the beach at St. John, plus stopped for lunch and beers before the return ferry, and returned to the ship over an hour before "all aboard".
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22 hours ago, monctonguy said:
If you think that's bad...imagine leaving the sea pass card in your room and getting locked out and trekking down to guest services in your underwear at 2am.....
Only time I 'lost" a seapass card.....
I'd take losing a seapass card fully clothed anytime over that again.....
God that's my nightmare. This happened to my uncle...at a Vegas hotel...at 11pm...on a weekend. Not exactly the quietest time to have to walk down to the lobby in your underwear.
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11 hours ago, Fuzzywuzzy said:
Definitely sounds like Security does this kind of thing more than you would think.
2000-5000 people
Multiple ports each journey
Multiple journeys each year
Even subtracting out the people who don't leave the ship at any given stop, you still have a lot of people leaving with their cards each day...odds are someone is going to lose one, quite possibly even every day.
- Fuzzywuzzy and chrgrfndan
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Not a cruise, but I definitely went to Florida for a week of vacation and realized I forgot shorts...
Back in college, I went to spend a summer in Europe and went to sleep the night before leaving realizing I had forgotten to pack anything at all...for a two month trip.
- Baked Alaska and WAAAYTOOO
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1 hour ago, toodle68 said:
We are looking at a New Zealand cruise in 2021 and the costs of the flights for anything but coach is beyond our means.. but wife is not thrilled at sitting on a plane for 15 hours, never mind in coach. I have a feeling some of my long distant vacation plans are going to be a tough sell. If we had the vacation time and money, I would do the Vancouver to Hawaii, Hawaii to Sydney and then the 2 cruises that take you around Australia and New Zealand. Only about 60 days vacation needed
Think about it this way...yeah, 15 hours seems long. And it is long, especially in economy. But the chance to visit some of these amazing places may be worth one day in economy (15 hours out + 13 hours back, or vice versa depending on where you're going, is just over one day). If you're doing, say, three weeks in New Zealand, that's 504 hours. A 28 hour roundtrip, though long, is a small price for 504 hours of reward IMHO.
I practically live out of a suitcase for work. I hit every populated continent at least twice a year, and I am in New Zealand at least 3-4 times a year for work. I've also been lucky enough to vacation twice in New Zealand. As many places as I have been in the world, if I had to choose just one to spent every moment of my life, it would be New Zealand. Get on that plane.
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2 hours ago, monctonguy said:
Bringing up this old thread.....as I am watching flights like crazy for my Nov cruise(as this will be my longest and most expensive cruise ever) so we need good flight deals.
Have been watching for a cpl mths now...we are about 170 days out.....flights are around $280 USD return out of Portland and have been up/down $30 or so. However, when I check seat selection it looks like very limited seats left(on the cheapest flights at least)...so I am worried about waiting till the 90 day mark to pull the trigger.
That being said, seems strange flights could sell out 6mths in advance to Orlando...I would think this would be a popular route with lots of seats....
I am torn right now as to what to do.....Is everyone still sticking to and swearing by this 90 day price rule?
I still don't accept any 90 day rule, personally. I fly 125,000+ BIS miles each year and book flights for even more on behalf of others, and I just still don't see it. But my point here is that a seat map is NOT an accurate reflection of inventory, for several reasons. The flight could be almost completely booked but show endless available seats (because many people, for various reasons, don't or can't select seats), and it could be empty but show very few seats (airlines can save physical seat inventory for various reasons, or they could be allocated to codeshare or other partners). There are (paid) ways to find exactly how many seats are for sale in various fare buckets, but the seat map is not an accurate way to find true inventory.
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49 minutes ago, melski94 said:
If you want a ship day then you should do a ship day. Everywhere that tourists go, there are businesses that cater to tourists and so technically a tourist trap.
Not sure I agree with you about the definition of a "tourist trap". There are plenty of places tourists go to in huge numbers because it's a great place to visit. I was under the impression most people referred to tourist traps as overpriced and overrated places that only tourists go to.
- JennyB and Baked Alaska
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1 hour ago, Matt said:
Agreed, and after the lack of beer selection on Royal Caribbean, we go simply to mix things up.
Nothing is better than hearing a guy dressed as a pirate talk beer on a pretty decent level.
Outside the place, in full pirate attire: "Rrrrr, ye want a beer matey?!"
Inside the place, same attire: "Yes, this pale is made with fresh simcoe that was cross-pollinated with a delectable mosaic hop, and our own strain of ale yeast. Very floral, some honey and lavender on the back end."
Back outside the place on the way out, same attire: "Rrrrr, get your booty back in here matey, you need some more, rrrrr!"
- JLMoran, teidy and coneyraven
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Not that I have come across. On a non-cruise vacation, I have played golf near Nassau and rented clubs whilst there, so that's likely an option.
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I personally would never purchase an excursion there. It's so easy to do your own thing, even to go over to St. John depending on how much time you have (With an 8am to 5pm port day, I could justify up to four hours on a beach in St. John with enough buffer to make it back to the ship without concern). Depending on the beach, they may have snorkel equipment to rent (Trunk Bay on St. John, for example, does).
It's the United States, they speak the language, they use the currency you're familiar with...easy peasy to do it on your own, in my opinion.
(This assumes you're American, of course)
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Yeah I think we need more info on what you want out of your stop in Ft Lauderdale. If you have a car (as we do, we always rent one for the day/night when we fly in), you're not limited to any area. We tend to stay 20-30 minutes from port, because hotels are often cheaper and quieter. And since we don't need a shuttle to the port, we don't care where we are. That also opens up a world of hotels if you want to be on the beach, near a mall, near restaurants, whatever.
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I wouldn't do much in Nassau if I were going somewhere else vacation-y on the same cruise. Personally, when I was there, we took a few hours to walk around the town, walk up to Queens Staircase and Fort Fincastle, walk around some of the government buildings, grab a local conch lunch, grab a couple beers at the okay brewery, and head back to the ship. A few hours, no money spent aside from food/drink, and then move on to the next port where I spent good money on a great boat/beach day.
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15 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:
We were just there. We paid either $18 or $20 (can't remember !) (taxi) to go from the airport to the Sheraton Old San Juan. Then it was like another $20 -some dollars to from the SOSJ to the port the next day. Then there is the final leg from the port to the airport at the end. It was also $20-something.
To paraphrase one G. Clooney, "Ain't this place some kind of geographical oddity...$20 from everywhere".
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22 minutes ago, Atlantix2000 said:
The usual solution to that problem is walk across the street from the airport!
Not so easy at a lot of airports, including SJU. It would require a hike down the dedicated terminal road to get off airport property, and then you're just on a highway. Add in to that the luggage and Caribbean humidity just to save a few dollars...no thanks.
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BA has been like this for quite some time. Sounds like either an uneducated Air2Sea agent or they were just trying to say whatever it took to get the sale.
"Choice of seating when available" is the most generic way of saying "choice of seating when we let you or you pay us extra to let you".
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48 minutes ago, melski94 said:
You should check with your Travel agent. China does allow visitors from certain countries to enter certain cities for up to 72 hours visa free. You need to research this to see if you qualify for the program.
Shanghai is one of the cities that now allows it for 144 hours for many nationalities, though personally I don't have a 100% accurate statement as to if it works on cruises or not...frequent visitor to China, but have a 10-year visa and have never done a cruise, so I can't speak to this with confidence unfortunately.
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11 hours ago, VegasFella said:
Wow! Thanks so much, all of you, for the great information & personal insight.
I am thinking (since I am a mostly untraveled person), going ashore might be a good thing to a certain extent.
I have only been to seven U.S. States, and CAN for two days, and MEX for 11 hours. That being said, it will give
me a chance to see "new lands" up close.
When I have rode the ferry (in the SF/OAK bay), I have always loved it. There is just something about being
aboard a vessel on water! I even think the moments when a boat goes into/away from a Pier is completely
awesome. {of course with a ship, it is a mega port) I love the grind of the engines as they expertly pull right
in.
Anyhow, I'm still a novice in most of this.
By the way... When I mentioned the wording "touristy", I did not mean it as a completely bad thing. Even here,
in my city, SOME touristy stuff is pretty cool.
Most things are "touristy" for a reason - they're worth seeing.
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1 hour ago, JLMoran said:
I've read on another forum from others who used the option to not pay until final payment, and discovered (in at least one case far too late) they too didn't actually have their seats reserved. On speaking with a rep they were told that, as @twangster noted, the flight wasn't actually ticketed yet with the airline (i.e, airline wasn't paid) and thus the airline wouldn't reserve those seats for them. I figure that I'll just play it safe and pay for the tickets when I book them, since it's going to be a good 11 months ahead of sail date / 8 months ahead of final payment. Spreading out the charges and all that fun stuff.
Plus, it's definitely important to me that the four of us be able to sit together. My older daughter is a lot better now about flying than she was when she was younger, but she still gets anxious during takeoff and ascent. I'd rather have her by us and able to clutch one of our hands if needed than have to ask a stranger. And I imagine we'll be spending the whole flight talking with each other about the awesome three weeks we had and all the things we saw and did!
This is where cruise line air causes a lot of confusion - there is a big difference between having a "reservation" for air via the cruise line, and actually having a ticket with the airline. The cruise lines will basically put you in whatever flight works best for them, and that may not be determined until you pay and they actually look at what's available in their stock. It's one of the (rather big) trade offs for the lower price on one-way international flights.
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17 minutes ago, JennyB said:
It's definitely a personal thing. For us, part of how we view cruises (so far) is that we want to go ashore to explore places in the world that we would not normally get to visit. Vacations mean different things for different people/families. Do what you want and don't feel guilty or like you missed something you didn't choose to do. It's YOUR vacation.
To me, a short stop in a location is also a good litmus test for determining if we want to visit for a longer land-based vacation. St. John for 6 hours is great...St. John for 6 days is way better.
cuba
in Royal Caribbean Discussion
Posted
It's easy to say communism is the reason for this. But the truth is, as always, somewhat deeper. I'm not going to get in to all of the details, as that can get political really quickly, but don't fool yourself in to thinking communism is the main reason for this in 2019. It isn't. Also, most countries have a way of changing their tune if it benefits them. In the case of US-Cuba relations, US doesn't really gain much from Cuba...they do, however, from China.