WhoCruiser

There's one born every minute, or so they say... 

Another vote of confidence here for Native Choice. My recurring Doctor Who Celebrity/Fan meet the stars group was on Wonder Of The Seas at Costa Maya at the end of October, and we did our own group booked online in advance directly through Native Choice. Absolutely wonderful experience, and the walk out of the cruise line owned private compound and up the street to Native Choice's location was only a few blocks. We ended up paying about half of what Royal Caribbean charges for essentially the same tour. Highly recommended. 

8 hours ago, Leroyr55 said:

When I look at the title I’m thinking that’s pretty expensive for a pay  

And there I thought it was a sign on the loo door on Ryanair, LOL! 

Updating this, it was apparently a shootout inside the Holiday Inn Express hotel this morning, shooter dead, 2 officers wounded, traffic back to normal after a few hours, hope no one missed their cruises. 

Local TV news at noon is currently reporting that 17th Street is closed due to a police involved shooting, between Cordova Road and SE 15th Ave, which is right in the neighborhood of one of the port entrances, the Causeway to the beach, and half a dozen of the most popular pre cruise hotels, so keep this in mind if you're on your way to a Fort Lauderdale/Port Everglades departure today.

36 minutes ago, WhoCruiser said:

Hoping it's just an IT glitch, as I've seen some things drop off the calendar for stretches of several months on some other voyages I'm following, that would be extremely troubling, if actually true... 

Appears so far to only be an IT glitch. Several others here have reported several months of listings disappearing too for other ships, and when I went back in and played with the search settings some more, it did show up again, as seen here 5 minutes ago, so it's an intermittent IT issue that will hopefully fully resolve soon. But I'll still keep my eye on it, as it strongly resembles the opening salvo of some serious shenanigans that went on last year that caused a LOT of confusion & problems for those booked on Liberty towards the end of the year...

Hoping it's just an IT glitch, as I've seen some things drop off the calendar for stretches of several months on some other voyages I'm following, that would be extremely troubling, if actually true... 

24 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Given that I’m sure you weren’t expecting great prices, glad it worked out with the Star delay & getting on both ships.

I have our usual sail dates on hold while I wait for Wonder & Utopia group rates. My TA said he should have them tomorrow.

Likewise. Posted public rates not great, waiting to see how our agent did for the group. But in my case, getting a specific departure date and departure port makes all the difference, and we got them both, which simply didn't exist on Carnival or any other line that has announced so far, so I'm happy. So, back now to keeping everything on course for THIS year's December voyage that's already planned, already being promoted, and is already booking reservations, knowing that our NEXT voyage after that is ready for planning and rollout further down the line. I hate having to reserve nearly 2 years ahead of sailing, but lately it's the only way to get a fairly decent deal before everything inevitably goes up. 

8 minutes ago, AlmondFarmer said:

Hopefully $18/day beverage package person is working on loading prices for these sailings. 

LOLOLOL! 

29 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Not yet. It was about this time two weeks ago though.

IT department still banging the keys, LOL. Refreshing every half hour to see how the port docking timing & various cabin categories shake out. Departure date & general itinerary were enough for me to know what I needed, and prices will only go up by waiting, so we pounced.

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

I was holding out hope Quantum would be doing more than just Cabo/Ensanada. Now just waiting to see what Navigator's prices look like before I start pressing "buy"

Letting my TA do the dickering over specific cabin classes, rates, and GAP points to what he thinks is a good deal for us, but we're now holding a block of 50 cabins, so Carnival will be getting some inventory back very soon, LOL. I too would have liked to see more variety in the 7+ day range, but I got the EXACT departure date that works best for my group, and I can live with a stop on the way home at tired old Ensenada as long as I have the overnight in Cabo first, and a sea day in each direction. 

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

Quantum: https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Deployment/2025_2026/LA/QN_2025-2026_LA_Deployment

Navigator: https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Deployment/2025_2026/LA/NV_2025-2026_LA_Deployment

Thanks Smokey! So new I can't even search it by date & port on the Royal booking engine yet, but the deployment announcement links work. And I do see one itinerary that works better for my group than what we are currently holding for almost 2 months now with Carnival, so I've notified my agent to do his magic and try to grab us some Space (& Time) with Royal. 

20 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I wish that port schedule had 2026 available just so I know if Navi or Quantum dates match a narrow window. If not, I have my future cruises ready to go.

Exactly this. I need to know whether to keep the group booking I'm currently holding with Carnival for a specific date range that works for me, or to dump that if Royal puts out something that would do as well or better.

Fourth year in a row that I'm in this "holding pattern" situation.  It's a pain in the @$$ having to wait so long when their main competitor has had the information I need out for several months already.

My recurring celebrity/fan group with cast & crew members of BBC TV's "Doctor Who" recently did essentially the same tour directly through Native Choice at $58 per person, and filled up two smaller 15 -20 passenger tour busses. Excellent service & extremely knowledgeable local drivers & guide. Worth the few blocks additional walk to get to the Native Choice bus boarding area for the significant savings over the ship's official offering, would definitely recommend. 

I'm pretty sure pigs will fly before you ever see that occur.

I see you have already gotten things sorted by booking at Embassy Suites but for anyone else using Amtrak, for future reference if you are getting off of Amtrak at the Fort Lauderdale station that station is also shared by the local Tri-Rail commuter line. If you get on to the Tri-Rail and take it one stop further south to the Fort Lauderdale Airport Station you will be literally across the street in walking distance of the Courtyard by Marriott, an excellent property that I have used and would highly recommend. The same management also owns the Fairfield Inn about a block further away from there, and I believe also a third hotel in the Marriott Bonvoy family, the particular name of which escapes me at the moment, all three of them are within a 5-minute walk of the Tri-Rail Airport Station.

If you're in Port early enough in the day to do it before they close at 5:00 p.m. it's an easy walk up the hill from the port through Old San Juan to the El Morro Fortress, easily the most interesting thing to see, and not necessary to book as a tour through the ship to do it. And if you're up for it times two, an admission to El Morro also includes admission to the San Cristobal Fortress on the other side of the harbor entrance as well, both are run by the National Park Service, and both close at 5:00 p.m. daily. Mind you if some of the larger newer ships need to dock at a different facility you might need a taxi ride or to do it as a tour. I've only ever been there on the smaller ships that pull right in at the Old San Juan pier. Going there again next year on Explorer Of The Seas and hopefully plan to do that for our early afternoon arriving port call.

If you've not done one before an Everglades Airboat ride can be fun and will burn up a few hours before they drop you at the airport.

If your itinerary also includes Roatan I would strongly suggest you pick to do the one there, at the Roatan Institute of Marine Sciences at Anthony's Key Resort, independently, they no longer are offered directly through the cruise line, but if you book with them directly online in advance it will cost you less than half of what any of the other dolphin encounters will, the only hitch being you have to get yourself there and back from the ship, which is only a $10 taxi ride each way that takes you about 20 minutes to do. It is Far and Away better than either of the other Alternatives, not the least of which reasons why is that it is run by a legitimate Marine Research Institute and is not just a tourist trap.

I can answer that question in three easy words - don't do it! In theory my time dining is great for a small family or group of friends, but for a larger group in practice it is a freaking nightmare and will never work the way you want it to.

If you're the type who might enjoy what's commonly referred to as a booze cruise party boat I can highly recommend what Royal Caribbean's tour office calls the sunset harbor party cruise which is actually the one run by local operator Red Sail. It is probably the best of its kind I've ever been to with a very fun atmosphere and an actual full open bar to mix drinks for you as opposed to the usual barrel of generic rum punch that most of the cheaper operators employ.

4 hours ago, Villageidiot said:

We did this tour in February but not through RCI. We booked with Native Choice and really enjoyed the tour. Native Choice was very reasonably priced and the guide was excellent. The bus was modern and air conditioned. Roads were good IIRC. Plenty of shade at the ruins.

I can second that report on Native Choice, took more than 20 of my group with them last week on this tour. The roads were decent the buses were nice we were actually split into two mini buses of about 15 seats each. Cost about half of what Royal Caribbean wanted for essentially the same tour the only catch being that as an outside supplier you have to walk through the entire shopping area exit onto the city street and go about another two blocks down the road to their meeting point. Would heartily recommend to anyone who doesn't mind the extra walk, hell the walk from the ship off the pier into the shopping center is longer in itself then the walk up the street once you hit the pavement.

There is a metro rail Metro mover stop almost directly across the street from it you can go directly from the airport to there using the orange line and just haul your bags about a half a block. If I recall correctly I think it only costs about two and a half bucks. Have used that same method myself in the past to get a number of my people from the airport to my hotel at the time which was the eurostar's Langford downtown which also was only a block from one of the Metro mover stations.

If I recall correctly I think Royal's terminals are much closer to the port entrance then either NCL MSC or Carnival. 

On wonder right now with my group of about 75 or so. Most of us, about 50, all coordinated to ask for 11:30 arrival times facilitated by our 10:30 departure time from our group hotel with GoPort, and everything went off without a hitch. I and everyone else with me agreed that it was the fastest and smoothest onboarding our group has ever experienced in 23 previous voyages spanning 35 years on assorted lines.