MandyMooToo

This is what has happened to us each time! I do the check in on the app and scan our passports and he get the expedited but I do not. Go figure! Oh well, they let us through together as I send him first, ha ha.

We just considered the same thing and decided to do what we always do, head down the day before. We live in Tennessee and are traveling in March (still a small risk for snow) and really wanted to take the cheaper flight but I would be worried to death the whole time so we didn't. Normally we drive and go out of PC so the drive is 10 hours or less but lately we have been sailing out of FLL and MIA which puts us closer to 13-15 hours with stops and that is a long day my friends! So this time we are paying the extra and flying?

Last time we went to Nassau we got off and grabbed a taxi to John Watlings distillery and took a tour (historic place) and then went to the cigar place to watch them hand roll cigars and then wandered through town back to the port, picking up a few souvenirs. We were only off the ship a few hours but it was nice and inexpensive. We really don't do excursions there and may stay on the boat next time as we have been here multiple times.

We did the Beach Rendezvous a couple of months ago and the beach was fine. It was not dirty or overgrown and definitely did not see and dog feces. It was a nice excursion and the bus ride was a good way to learn a bit more about the island as one of the tour operators gave us a a lot of detail about both sides of the island and its history. But I will say that for the money I would likely do what we did on our first trip to St. Marteen and that is take the water taxi over and go that beach. We paid less than half of what we did for the RCCL excursion and got a bucket of beer, water an soda, two chairs, an umbrella, free wifi and a lovely beach to relax on all day with the ship in sight.

Sounds like it may be a UK thing. We have been doing MTD for years now and while we did have to pay grats up front when we did it the first time we have not had to do that for the last several cruises. As a matter of fact, I had my TA add them in last night and paid them just so I wouldn't have to fool with it once on the ship.