NJCruisers

21 hours ago, KJ1231 said:

I got one of these portable safes. You can wrap the cord around the chair to secure it and then cover with a towel. They can still steal the whole chair but will be a little harder.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005K6JQXQ 

 

That looks awesome, too bad my phone won't fit:( 

On 3/26/2019 at 11:33 AM, tiny260 said:

Yes, they usually actually have a station on the dock or on the way off the ship to check out blue pool towels.

Be cautioned, they will be checked to your Sea Pass card, however many you take, you have to bring that many back and check them back in, if not you will be charged for the towels.

I usually go by the pool deck and get them and already have them packed instead of trying to do it while you walk off the ship.

Are they nice big towels?  Honestly I was thinking of bringing older oversized towels and then leaving them at Coki Beach at the end of our trip. I'm just concerned with not having a balcony to be able to dry them over night.  

On 3/24/2019 at 12:28 PM, SpeedNoodles said:

Anyone else sick to death of people sending articles about this to them, apparently as some sort of warning as to why you should not cruise, or are my friends just jerks?

I'm petrified to fly.  Between all the plane troubles lately and now this I too have some friends who are jerks as well, lovable, but jerks! 

On 3/23/2019 at 4:56 PM, AGSLC5 said:

The Whole North East including New York and New Jersey have off that week.. Just a friendly warning because of this we have a HUGE influx of tourists and Hotels raise the prices in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami to extremely high rates that week. So if you can book now and try to find a deal. 

Not all of NJ, my kids have never been off a week in February, only get the Monday.  However they are off a week in November which Disney refers to as Jersey Week because half the state (at least it seems) flocks there.  I made sure to book our upcoming cruise AFTER that week on purpose:)

We plan to bring our Samsung WB1100 camera with us, although it's kind of bulky it takes much better pictures than our phones.   Curacao is just so beautiful I know I would regret not taking it afterwards.  I will probably bring it along on our Aruba Trikes excursion too because we will have a trunk to carry things, I don't plan on taking it to the beaches.  

We're also bringing my son's Go Pro  - it's an older model but I'm just learning how to use it.  I want to take that on all excursions for sure.  I already purchased the underwater filters (very inexpensive on Amazon) & the floating hand grip.  I plan to test it out in the water over the summer so I know what I'm doing come November.  Luckily since it's very small we can take it into the water whenever we want.  

I'm still a bit torn on how to secure our stuff, my current thought process is to use a a zip tie to attach my small backpack to a beach chair & just use nail clippers to cut it off at the end of the day.  Not perfect, but easy enough to stop the grab & go type of thief.  

I'm going in November, I highly suggest Twangster's blog that was posted earlier, so many great photos and good info.

17 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

The Loving Cups are extinct. I collected those. So sad to see them go....

I cleaned out not too long ago, saved one in each color and donated the rest with a whole bunch of other stuff to goodwill.  Not sure why we started a shot glass collection when we got married but we have so many now and I was worried that they may have changed the look of the cup and hubby would want to get one every night again!

On 3/19/2019 at 5:43 PM, foxrunner said:

Total Newb,

1st post, and a question. Do you ever just bring folding beach chairs on the cruise? If not is that because the cabin space is limited? I'm always looking to save a buck, maybe I'm not cut out for the cruising life.

 

I love my Tommy Bahama beach chair (from Costco) & if we weren't flying I would totally bring mine!  If we ever decide to cruise out of NJ I'm pretty sure I'll bring it.  

I haven't cruised in almost 10 years, but I remember every night at dinner our group had the shot of the day or something in those metal shot glasses - is that still a thing and is it included in the drink package w/o the souvenir glass? I think they were called Loving Cups or something corny like that.  

3 minutes ago, Orange Crush said:

Is the drink package cap still $12/drink, or did they bump it up to $13 like the Oasises & Quantums?

I'm going on Freedom and my cap is listed at $12. for a Nov. sail date.

15 hours ago, Linda216 said:

When will all these prices and options open up on my cruise planner? I’m over 300 days out! 

The good thing about that is you can take advantage of Black Friday deals!  I locked in 2018 rates then re-booked my our drink package on black Friday, then got a good deal on an excursion I was interested in on Cyber Monday.  

14 minutes ago, Sh2738 said:

Thanks for posting these. Disappointed that they are still so limited with the drink menus. I miss the old ones that had many pages especially of tropical frozen drinks to have more variety of what you can get like blue Hawaiians and lava flows. Maybe one day they would return to this

Yes!  I've been looking for those myself and thought it was just me not having any luck finding them.

On 3/16/2019 at 3:34 PM, twangster said:

This is from sister ship Navigator a couple weeks ago. 

Thank you - I hope they serve the lobster roll on sea days!  

23 hours ago, twangster said:

Plus it's included in your cruise fare so why not?

Notably absent on this menu were Eggs Benedict.  Other ships have had those on the breakfast menu.  Not sure it that is just Navigator or becoming fleet standard.  

Just curious if you ask for something special like that if they can make it happen perhaps the next day.  I know I've seen that suggested at dinner.  Also - is there a lunch menu for the MDR?

I mean it's not like I'm going to cancel my cruise or anything if they go up but it's good to know ahead of time - thanks!

38 minutes ago, spiralqueen said:

From what I understand, your rate is locked if you choose to prepay gratuities, but not if you choose to wait until you are on board to pay. If you used a travel agent, just ask them to tack gratuities onto your invoice as you would like to prepay them. If you booked directly with Royal, I'd imagine you could call them to have them do it, but I don't have experience with that as I've always used a TA. 

Thanks - I did book with a TA and have prepaid my gratuities.  

@twangster I'm not sure why I didn't see this sooner, but thank you so much for this blog.  Although at the time you experienced it I had no idea I would even be taking another cruise, I'm going on the Freedom in November and absolutely loved reading your blog and those pictures were just amazing.  I also emailed the link to myself so I would be able to find it again!

As a newbie, can you tell me if your rates are locked in from when you booked or do they go up by sail date?  

I would check out Old Navy - you could get him a few pairs of colored jeans and cotton button downs and he would still be comfy but look a little better than regular jeans.  Also, Old Navy doesn't break the bank and they are pretty comfortable. 

My son (19) wears a lot of their tan colored jeans and his go to "dressy" outfit is a pair of those with a white button down & he looks pretty sharp.  

2 hours ago, marton2 said:

Woodwind for sure. My wife and I booked our snorkeling excursion through them and it was awesome. My wife's first snorkel experience and she received personal attention the whole trip. If we go back to Bonaire, we'll definately book with them again. Made lots of memories and stories we still tell to this day. Remind me one day when we meet on the ship to tell you about the day it rained honeybees onto our trimaran on approach to Klein Bonaire and almost all of us made it below deck to safety. (of course there wasn't room left for the crew and me.) Good story. (Nobody was stung by-the-way).

Yes, I booked Woodwind a while back and I'm sticking with them.  We've only snorkeled twice so what someone may consider just an okay trip may very likely blow us away.  I do plan to touch base with them before the cruise leaves as we will not have the wifi package.  

Honeybees in the ocean?  Wow!

We're in port from 8am - 9pm.  We booked Aruba Trikes for the morning tour which is 3.5 hours then we plan to hit a beach afterwards. I've never been on it before so I can't recommend other than what I've seen of them on Trip Advisor and Facebook.

4 hours ago, Matt said:

Two websites worth checking are http://ports.cruisett.com and https://www.cruisetimetables.com/

Huh, they have conflicting info for the Nov. 17th Sailing of Freedom.

1 hour ago, Todd W said:

you can build a pair directly from Vans website, selecting which particular model of shoe and then either use Vans preset design patterns or upload any design and/or picture of your own for the sides of the shoe as long as it isn't copyrighted. I created my design from a photo i took of a pineapple. There are about 10-12 different variables of the many parts of the shoe that you can choose to "design"  (color of laces, eye stay, vamping, tongue etc)  in the creation process.  this pair cost me right at $100 including shipping and took about 5 weeks to get them but well worth it knowing they are one of a kind.

Definitely worth it!  

5 minutes ago, Todd W said:

thanks, these were for me but my wife really loved them which means i'll end up having to get a pair made for her now as well.   

I had no idea they could be customized.  My son is an avid skateboarder and lives in Vans - would have made an awesome birthday present.  

30 minutes ago, Todd W said:

i just had these custom vans designed for our upcoming April cruise, does that count?  

 

OMG - Those are SO COOL!