Zacharius

3 hours ago, twangster said:

I think in general he is correct.  So many return guests don't leave the ship.

But so many do, too. People on here and other sites are constantly stating how it's nice to stay on the ship in Nassau because it's quiet...meaning a lot of people are still leaving, and I imagine it's both first time and return passengers. 

2 hours ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

Is Nassau more of a short cruise destination? I have been on 13 Caribbean cruises and never been to Nassau. I don't purposely avoid it, it has just never been on an itinerary I have booked. 

I think it's both. It is an easy stop for a 3-4 day cruise, but I have been on 7-day Caribbean cruises that stopped there. 

There are about 5,810,559 hotels in London, and the ones offered before me in this thread are all pretty solid. As a Hilton regular (but not exclusive), I feel like I have stayed in most London area Hilton brand hotels. Of those, I often find myself returning most to the Conrad St. James (on the expensive end) or the Hilton London Bridge (mid-range). 

Someone before me mentioned the Premier Inn brand and they're usually pretty solid and affordable. I have never had a bad experience at any of them around the UK. I'm by no means an expert on their London area locations, but can assure you that if you find any of them in London with a good rate and good location, you'll have an enjoyable stay. 

There is a tiny, pretty cheap hotel behind Victoria Station (walking distance to Buckingham Palace) called the Cherry Court Hotel that I have stayed at a few times and recommend it highly. It's a small, 10-12 room, family run place on a quiet side street but only a few minutes walk to the massive Victoria Station, and it's very cheap by London standards. BUT, the rooms are very small, and there aren't elevators...things to consider, but for the price, it's awesome if you don't plan to spend much time in the room. But again...small, and no elevators (and some rooms are three floors up). 

58 minutes ago, Qeyton Dude said:

Not sure about the DBP, but I'm sure glad those Dimond drink vouchers work on the last day, oh, I mean morning. Vacation ain't over till you get home.

God created airport bars for a reason

On 1/21/2023 at 4:16 PM, 4ensic said:

You've found the best use for a can of Bud (From someone who originally worked close to the original A-0B Brewery in St. Louis).

 

As a beer snob, I agree. 

How "nearby" is the hotel? I only ask because the Port is so close to the Airport that many hotels around there are "airport" hotels, and they should have airport shuttles. If not, it may be worth looking in to an "airport hotel" that does have a shuttle, even if it's slightly more expensive. 

On 1/19/2023 at 12:48 PM, sleepy425 said:

If you go with a ride share, for peace of mind you can schedule the Uber the night before. 

There is always the caveat of one not being available. It actually has happened to me twice where I booked it the night before and then I didn't actually get one in the morning. Both were in decent sized cities (San Juan and San Diego) at about 4am. 

19 hours ago, Censored said:

I always book Air2Sea. A guarantee to get you on the ship. The Royal Caribbean Air2Sea program is a seamless, worry-free way to purchase flights in conjunction with a cruise reservation. Book airfare through our Air2Sea program and should an issue arise, our Emergency Travel Team will work with our airline partners to do everything possible to get you to your cruise.   

Even that statement contradicts itself - "guarantee to get you to the ship" vs "do everything possible to get you to your cruise". Will they do everything possible? Probably...whatever that really means. But there's no total guarantee they can get you to the ship. They can't add seats, or flights, and often times Air2Sea tickets have special terms and conditions versus "normal" tickets so you may not be a priority to the airlines even if Air2Sea wishes you were. When it's a Caribbean cruise, which often visit islands with fairly limited flights, it starts becoming clearer and clearer that it may not be as easy as they want you to believe. 

Taxi makes things really easy. Be prepared to share with a few other people. If you like a driver, grab their number for a pickup later if they're available. 

27 minutes ago, CrimsonCruiser said:

I think I know the answer but...can I get those tourist stamps in my expired passport? I was surprised to get it back when we last renewed and it seems to be the safest place to get those fun stamps

I don't see that being a problem...the old passport is basically a meaningless document anyways (officially, at least). 

29 minutes ago, Vincent said:

So this would be in addition to having and/or presenting your visa for a longer than 90 day stay?

What I am trying to understand is if a US citizen would be required to apply and obtain ETIAS authorization as a visa is not currently required to travel to EU for a short cruise, as long as you have a valid passport?

My understanding is, if you are someone who needs to have a visa for your visit (due to length, being a student, worker, etc.), you do not also need ETIAS. One or the other, depending on your purpose of visit (or your citizenship). ETIAS is simply used to do the pre-screening that would already have been done on any visa applicants. 

Those who do an ESTA for entrance to the United States on the Visa Waiver Program do not also need a visa; those who have a visa do not also need to do an ESTA assuming their entrance in to the United States is for the same purpose their visa was issued (tourist, business, student, etc.); I assume ETIAS would be the same. 

I don't have any direct answers, but a couple of things to consider:

• If you do find someplace, make sure it's an OFFICIAL immigration facility. Some places have fake touristy stamps, and those can invalidate a passport. 
• Stamps are becoming less and less common as immigration systems go more digital and info is more easily shared between countries. 
• Even if you do find a place, it's very rare that US immigration will stamp a US passport, and note that St. Thomas is the United States. 

20 minutes ago, wordell1 said:

We did not need anything other than our passport in June 2022. 

Because it's not fully implemented yet

28 minutes ago, Vincent said:

however this an EU program necessary when even visiting countries within the Schengen area. We travel in June, so trying to make sure all of our i's are dotted and t's crossed.

My understanding is that you need it to enter Schengen, but not to move between Schengen countries unless you leave Schengen in between (for example, you don't need to show it when going from France to Italy, but you would when going from France to Italy via Tunisia). I also understand it as being multi-entry, so the same ETIAS would work for any Schengen country that you attempt to enter.

That being said, my understanding is they're targeting November 2023, so your June trip shouldn't need one. 

22 minutes ago, cruisellama said:

Is there a rationale for what type of car is on display on the various ships?

The one they could get for the cheapest

I mean, I have no idea, but I'm guessing that is part of it. 

1 hour ago, Atlantix2000 said:

If your country has an embassy in the Bahamas, that might be the safest place to call to get a definitive answer.

They may likely have a good answer, but I believe the truly definitive answer would come not from OP's embassy in the Bahamas, but the Bahamian embassy with charge over OP's country of citizenship since they're the one that would be granting any kind of visa/permission and would have the official word on rules. 

40 minutes ago, Atlantix2000 said:

The vast majority of the Caribbean countries do not have a 6 month passport validity rule.  (I'm tempted to say none of them have it but I could be wrong.)  This topic pops up often because there are countries in the world that have such a rule so the general recommendation is to renew your passports early just in case.  For US citizens, there is no need to worry about a 6 month rule on the cruise you have described.  For non-US citizens, I'm not 100% positive, but I believe you're still good.

The US does require six month validity on passports from many countries. There are some exemptions (quite a lot, actually, at https://fam.state.gov/FAM/09FAM/09FAM040309.html), but since OP doesn't state what passport they carry, I am not sure what rules do or do not apply to them. 

I am a dual citizen and always enter the US on my US passport, so I don't have exact experience with this, but I am familiar with traveling to countries that require 6+ months, and know of many people coming to the US on non-US passports...experience has always told me that countries that enact this rule follow it pretty darn closely. Do you have time to renew your passports and get the US visa transferred to the new ones? Also, make sure you have the proper documentation to enter The Bahamas too, as they're an independent country with different immigration laws than the US. 

As mentioned earlier, the biggest part of this is your citizenship. While I assume most are US citizens on here, not all are, and that's of critical importance. So yeah, US citizens can, but as far as I know, others cannot because their birth certificates may or may not prove citizenship or any kind. 

(Technically, US birth certificates don't either because one could always renounce US citizenship, but that starts getting way more in the weeds than needed. I'm a bit of a geek about these things.) 

On 1/14/2023 at 9:27 AM, AndyPandy said:

Smile your on CCTV and it can get boring on the bridge at night. 

1 hour ago, Xaa said:

Nah, gives you 6 more nights to turn the tide back in your favor.  I like my chances on a cruise ship.

Gives you six more nights to find the next one

4 hours ago, Maggie M said:

It's nice that you can use it whenever you want unless there's bad weather, in which case you wouldn't want to be out there anyways!

It depends. There was an eveving where we went through a pretty good storm, but because we of the way (and speed) we were moving, the rain all hit the front of the ship. We had the front-most balcony where you could not only see out the side, but out the front as well via a clear plexiglass shield. We sat out there for hours with drinks, watching the rain and the lightning over the open sea, and didn't get a drop of rain on us. 

You can use it whenever you want. Whether or not it's comfortable is up to you. But we sit out there in pretty much any conditions as long as its relatively warm. 

13 hours ago, AandD said:

I have never met anybody from Namibia but there was a time when I called Ghana home. Imagin Royal coming out of London or Holland or the Mediterranean down the west coast of Africa to Namibia. Or vice versa. If the people of Namibia are as you say that's great. I know the Ghanaians are great people. Think of all the ports in between.

There are definitely cruises that hit places all along the west coast of Africa - Casablanca, Dakar, Banjul, Accra, Lagos, Libreville, Luanda, Walvis Bay, and of course Cape Town. They're smaller ships and I don't see a company like Royal Caribbean doing it anytime soon. But having been to all of those places, it would be a great introduction to Africa for those who are new to the region. 

1 hour ago, FireFishII said:

 I have been to Barcelona before and know a little bit about the lay of the land.

One option I always like to recommend - if you've been to Barcelona before, but haven't been to Madrid, take a look at that. Madrid is a great city (I personally prefer it to Barcelona quite a bit), and it's easy to get from Madrid to Barcelona. Madrid also tends to have more nonstops to the US than Barcelona does. So, perhaps fly in to Madrid, spend a couple days there, then take one of the many nonstop trains from Madrid to Barcelona (they're only about 2.5 hours, and yes, actually nonstop). 

On 1/7/2023 at 10:39 PM, Cactus527 said:

I'm waiting for California to fall off into the ocean due to an earthquake so that way Arizona becomes beachfront property. 

Been listening to a bit too much George Straight, eh? 

5 hours ago, teddy said:

Here's a link to Trenitalia's website.  Plug in your stations/times and you can see your options.

https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

Yep - go directly to the source, which for Italy is Trenitalia. Other websites may or may not be accurate on times.*

* - I mean, it's Italy, so time is always just an idea anyways

I wear a hat like 90% of the time, but I definitely don't wear one to any kind of sit down restaurant. However, add me to the club of "you do you, boo"...I really don't give a damn what someone else does in a restaurant, whether it's Chili's or Capital Grille, if it doesn't impact me in any negative way. 

4 hours ago, CruisingNewb said:

Hats off when praying. 

Interesting. As someone who is not religious and doesn't pray, I've never heard this one before. Makes sense, but it's a new one to me. 

1 hour ago, TravisMA81 said:

Guys get hot too.   

I'm always hot...or at least, that's what my wife tells me.