Brobbins246

I'm struggling over keeping my Southern Carib (out of San Juan) cruise booked for April 2022 or cancelling and planning a land vaca in San Juan. 

Basically due to a cancellation (Royal ship relo) and inferior ship swap out on rates I had locked in from 2019 on the better ship, I feel like I'm throwing money at my booking now to get back some of what I lost on the cancellation.  The $100 OBC Royal gave me on the cancellation doesn't make up for it.

I figure we could do so many things in Puerto Rico for a week that would be just as cool as the other islands we'd be going to.  I have Hilton Friends and Family rates on the Hilton Caribe and Condado resorts so I'll save money on lodging.  I don't care about shows or the casino on the ship, but my daughter said she'll miss the main dining room waiters.

I put this question in the Shore Excursion board hoping to get advice on what to do in San Juan for a week, but I guess I'm also looking for opinions on if I should chuck the cruise at all or stick with it.  Of course this is cruise fan blog, so I know opinions could be skewed, but I still trust your opinions.  Thank you.....

I'm heading to St. Lucia for the first time in 2022.  I'm torn between taking an excursion from the port south to see the Pitons (I just want to lay my eyes on them), or heading north to Rainforest Adventures in Castries where we can do better activities for the family.  We won't have time to do both.  Any chance the ship goes around the south end of the island where I could see the Pitons before or after docking?  That would be good enough for me.  We'll be coming from Antigua to St. Lucia to Barbados if that matters.

My April 2022 on Freedom got swapped for Explorer and I was able to see the new itinerary by looking up the Explorer sailing on that date.  All the same islands except in a different order and one new island replaced the only sea day we originally had.  I'm fine with the itinerary change because I prefer to do pool lounging on the ship while it's in port for less crowds and less wind.  I figure port intensive trips give you more options for either staying on the ship or getting off each day, while a true sea day is only one option. I'll just have to figure out which island I want to visit the least and stay on that day.

Just lifted and shifted my April 2021 Southern Caribbean ABC islands cruise for April 2022 Lesser Antilles islands.  I would have kept the ABC's if I could, but the spring break week we needed didn't go there in '22 so it's back to the drawing boards on planning.  Any favorite recommendations for St. Thomas, Antigua, St. Lucia or Barbados?  We'll be on St. Maarten too, but we already know we'll hire Leo Brown for the day.  Thank you!!!

April, 2021 Southern Caribbean/ABC islands on Freedom, fingers crossed!! We booked this last summer way before COVID was a thing.  Fortunately we were taking 2020 off from cruising so we haven't had to deal with any cancellations. Hope things are sailing smoother by 2021.  

I don't have hot flashes yet, but I plan to call them Power Surges when I do!

Also, even for the ships that have it, the chat feature doesn't have push notifications, so you won't know if someone sends you a message unless you're always checking it.  For me, it kind of defeats the purpose.  I'm looking forward to that feature improving. 

I'd love to combine Hibachi with a dining package, but I'd be worried about all the seats being reserved by people buying this separately before the cruise.  With the one courtesy reservation they make for you, I can't imagine it would ever be for Hibachi because of the up charge, and then you'd have to hope you can get seats when you board for your other nights.  I've got a family of four to do this with.  What do you think the chances are it won't already be sold out before the cruise?

5 hours ago, JLMoran said:

Carnival: "We're sailing again on August 1!!"

CDC: "Hmmm, really now..."

NYT headline on July 24: CDC extends "no sail" order until December 31, 2020

Change that CDC quote to "Hold my beer"

I'm annoyed that RC is still advertising Canadian itineraries as "Canadian Itineraries" prior to July 1st in the Find a Cruise section.  There's no mention there about those ports being closed until then.  You have to find info like that in their Travel Restrictions area, or be on a website like this to know that.  I realize they still want to fill the ships, but wouldn't you think they'd put a little asterisk or something in the booking section explaining what their plans are for ports they already know are going to be closed?

The company I work for (about 4,000 employees world wide in manufacturing) is requiring 14 day quarantine for anyone returning from a cruise or the level 3 countries.  This only affected about 5 people, most of which are salaried.  

3 hours ago, dodgestang said:

I don't see how considering we are in the "during" COVID-19 phase

 

True! I guess I meant after it started.  I don't want to think about how long it might be into we're really "after" it.

Does anyone else feel like life has been separated between "before" and "after" COVID-19? 

Are you guys still on the ship heading to Florida? 

1 hour ago, RCVoyager said:

Hey Brobbins.  A big thank you for pointing out cruise mapper.  I have been using marine tracker for years, and I still will do so for certain things, but I really like cruise mapper too.

You're welcome!  The desktop site seems to have more features than viewing it from a phone, like you can filter on the cruiselines.  Just a little tip if you didn't notice that yet. 

Cruisemapper.com is a good site for seeing where all the ships are for all cruise lines on an online map.

https://www.cruisemapper.com/

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2020-03-11/us-bans-foreign-nationals-who-have-been-in-europe-from-entering-us

Yep, looks like US citizens are not affected along with some other exceptions. 

8 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

And this may make things a bit complicated for those on the Allure TA right now for getting back.

Maybe Allure will need to provide the lift home and turn into a B2B.

Princess didn't want another quarantined ship!

As others have said, the full contract would supersede anything we speculate here.  But even if you don't receive any cash benefit simply for missing an island (like your nonmonetary loss for missing the fun of stepping foot on that island vs. having an additional sea day), you might be able to claim direct expenses for any ports missed.  For instance, if you booked a non-RC excursion and are looking at losing your deposit, that could be a claimable event.  However most non-RC excursion companies will refund deposits when the ship doesn't dock, but you could have a rare exception. 

Where are you staying on Saturday night?  If your hotel is in OSJ they would probably hold your luggage while you walk around, then you can head to the cruise port once you're ready to board.  It might be more hassle to go to the cruise port twice with all the traffic. 

I highly recommend this one.  We had six in our group so the 4 hour private tour rate for six worked perfectly for us and made the price per person less than the ship group tours.  If you have less people it might be pricy, but I still recommend it.  Very professional and took us everywhere we wanted to go, plus we saw things we wouldn't have know to ask about. 

https://bahamascruiseexcursions.com/excursions/nassau-private-island-tours/

Look for a Cruise Compass posted on this site for the same ship and itinerary as yours to confirm the nights for formal night.  It's different for eastern vs western Caribbean, or something like that.  It's good to know if your formal nights are on a sea day or port day for planning time to get back on the ship to get ready if you're going all out. 

3 hours ago, Josh Mk said:

Hey! Chacchoben are in Costa Maya, the small ones in Cozumel are San Gervasio Ruins.

Oops, you're right!!  We were in both places on our cruise and got them mixed up.  I remember now, they went to Chaccoben from Costa Maya instead of the further away ruins like Chichen Itza.  Thanks for catching that!

Thanks everyone.  My trip is still a year out, so plenty of time to keep watching for new reviews on the food quality before I book anything.  At this point I'm leaning towards Giovanni's.