CrimsonCruiser

Hello! Our upcoming cruise in August will mark our first visit to St. Maarten and while we do have a quick tour for the morning, we'd love to take in some local food instead of getting windjammer on the ship. Our main restrictions: mom has shellfish allergy. She can be in a place where it is cooked but cannot eat any. Ideally no more than a 10 minute walk from the port since our tour is with Royal and we'll be dropped back off at the port. Where do you guys recommend?

ooooh smoke free Casino on Harmony...I'm VERY intrigued. one of the reasons I let me free play run out is because of how badly the casino stinks

It's a nice add-on and on an Oasis class ship places like 150 Central Park or Chops Grille can be really nice elevated experiences. I do think it's worth it if you are already interested, but the MDR has an elevated feel as well. I wouldn't say get a dining package, but splurging on one while you're on board is nice. You need the app to do check in. Once you have it, open the app and put in your sail information. It will pull up a screen with the ship and a lot of icons along the bottom. Scroll left to right to find the "check in" button (I think it's purple) and click that. You can select your boarding time without inputting the rest of the information (passport, emergency contact, credit card). Boarding Time is the second option under each person's name. Any one person on a reservation can check-in all parties.

These are my before thoughts and hopefully I'll remember to come back here and update after we sail in August. We have a Breezy Bay daybed booked and for our purposes, I think it's good. My mom isn't much of a beach person so the (seemingly) close access to Oasis Lagoon will be good for her, while the beach access at breezy bay isn't too far either for me. A snack shack also looks pretty close so we'd have easy access to food (and that famous chicken sandwich). Based on the maps I'm looking at South Beach is quite removed from everything so it would certainly be more quiet and off the beaten path and maybe great for people who have done PDCC a ton before and really just want to chill with no frills.

I usually use a hotel's shuttle. Most hotels within a mile of airports have free shuttles.

I'm also sad that Labadee isn't as popular a port. Not just because it's a nice stop and far more friendly on the wallet than PDCC but also because they money in Labadee goes into the local community and schools. I like that Royal's leasing of their land does actually give back.

O.O Titan of the seas ages like milk

Just wanted to come back here and say...I found the bracelet! Turns out my cruise WASN'T the last place I wore it. Instead, I wore it to a friend's wedding and apparently put it (and a lipstick and my earrings) in my purse from that night...and never unpacked it before putting it back on the shelf! I had pretty much given up hope that I would find it after I moved and didn't see it in the empty apartment so that was a lovely surprise last night ^_^

It's CHECK IN DAY!! Did it first thing this morning and got our preferred 11AM slot but looks like boarding will start at 10:30!

That is really scary..I can't imagine being caught outside in that....and they were departing so the stabilizers probably weren't even getting their best work in since (from what I've heard) they work best at higher speeds

i didn't even know this was an option O.O I like this plan very much

I need to drag you with me when I take my mom to try real ramen because this blasphemy will not stand!

you typed "very very dangerous"...did you by chance mean generous? Or...do I not know about a scandal around him (I've never watched any of his videos, but I've heard of him enough to know basic things about him)

I like to reiterate that the beds are separated. It's a house keeping task but if the conceirge knows about the request, they can make sure the room steward remembers as well. Also, I like to ask for things to be in the room that I know we might need like a corkscrew or extra hangers. Gonna take smokey's advice and put down allergies. I don't know if it will help since we always do my time dining and therefore aren't guaranteed the same servers, but it certainly can't hurt.

Discovered last week that my friend and her family are going on this sailing (hilariously, I will be getting on the ship when they get off ). So this is a roll call for them just for the fun of it.

I did the seated and it was my first ever zipline. I enjoyed it. Would do again if I had the money/time. The scariest part was getting anchored in on the platform - it's VERY tall (obviously) and that (visual) drop can give anyone vertigo. not sure how one is harnessed in for the head-first version but it's something to take into consideration maybe?

I think it's important to note that the waitstaff in the MDR and other restaurants won't have access to the many flavors of soda in the freestyle machines. If you don't want to carry your filled cup into the MDR you are most likely limited to coke, sprite, diet coke.

There is a lot of storage in 1 bedroom GS. Big closets and drawers and shelves everywhere. With some smart unpacking (use packing cubes in drawers so undies don't get mixed, ask for extra hangers so you can hang as much as possible, bring magnetic hooks to hang hats and bags on the walls instead of in closets, maybe leave lesser worn shoes (ie water or formal nigh shoes) in the suitcase and pull them out only when needed, then toss them back in at the end, etc)I can't imagine everyone not having enough space for things (and I overpack)

I think there are wait lists onboard. Probably at the shore excursions desk.

Ohhhh this is so cool! I wish it was something they could offer in the US.

So we got the Royal Up for our Harmony sailing in August. Grand Suite 1 bedroom is a minimum of $560 per person. Much higher than we wanted to spend especially with the insane costs of the photo packages on this sailing.

If I'm honest, I think the main reason we are loyal to royal is because we know what to expect and the perks of C&A. We, so far, only take one vacation a year and with that we don't want to risk being disappointed by trying something new. We know Royal because we've only done Royal. We know what level of food, service, fun, people etc to expect and that gives us great relief. I truly think if we could cruise more often we'd do more...but we can't. It does also help that Diamond is such an enticing level to get to. We stayed loyal to royal because we wanted all our monies to go toward getting us to Diamond. And now we're here and no way we wanna give up those perks easily.

I love dollar tree for the decor and lately, they've had a not-tacky beach series they do every summer. The sign was part of it and I've collected a few others. Got a blue and a white anchor. Now I just need a crown Lol. And of course a Seas the Day wooden panel.

I don't anticipate it going anywhere as, when we were on Allure last summer the Cruise Director pointed out that on the ship is the only place where one can see the stage production. He even said people intentionally fly in from overseas and choose Allure JUST to see that show...so....yeah even if it was normal to change the broadway shows, sounds like it's a good draw to keep people coming to an older ship.

I saw this at my local dollar tree over the weekend and thought it would be a great door decoration for anyone sailing Star Class: