Mike T

70+ year old woman in our group, very active....wants to do Snorkeling in St Thomas.  How hard line is RCCL about the 70 year old age limit?

6 hours ago, WAYNO said:

Yep, thanks.....

From the Northwest to the far Southeast is an ordeal and even a chore, separate, over and above the cruise.  Leaving at 5 AM the day before, arriving that evening, and finding your way to a hotel, necessitates a complete decompression when we get aboard the ship the following day.  Pretty much two days of stress followed by an instant vacuum of no responsibility at all.  I can't wait.

 

Hope that big storm they are talking about doesn't mess with your plans!  I'm sure one of the bars on the ship can help with that decompression! 
We fly out of Indianapolis at 540a Friday...get to Miami about 845a...our Air BnB in South Beach is not available until 3 so we'll be toting our bags around for a few hours I guess.

It's CRUISE WEEK!!!! 

Safe travels to everyone getting down to Miami and hope your week goes by quickly! 

@ElmoHongZito not sure how old your kids are but we found a guided ATV Tour of St. Marten at this place and will be doing this when we go in 2 weeks.

https://www.johnnysscooterrental.com/

For St Thomas, we've heard Honeymoon Beach on Water Island is a good place to go.  Take the water taxi over and spend the day on Water Island...you can rent golf cart there .  Not a ton to see on Water Island from what I'm reading, but some good photo ops and Honeymoon Beach is there.

Good night...this last week has gone by slooooowww!  Two more weeks!!  Lesssgo! 

17 hours ago, Laura P. said:

How do we find out if our upcoming cruise has a theme night? We’ve been on many cruises where people are all decked out in 70s or 80s attire, but I hadn’t seen any information on it before sailing, so we didn’t pack anything or participate. Thanks in advance for any insight!

Not sure how far out your sailing is, it should show you on each day calendar around the 6p time slot.... but if it's not...If you go in the app and change to the most current sailing, you can see what's going on each day.   You can also get access to MDR menus and what their theme is for the night.  Hope that helps.

Friend of mine made recommendation for Honeymoon Beach on Water Island in STT.  Ferry over, rent a cart from Rachael's Rentals , explore and then hit beach for day.  Said they have some decent snorkeling there.  She said they saw turtles.

@Joann H We had the sold out issue on our 2/25 SOS sailing....
We found this place in STT on Water Island...https://rachaelsrentals.com/  plan to rent a golf cart and explore the island.  Friend of mine has been to Honeymoon Beach there on Water Island and said it's great...good snorkelling, chairs, umbrellas, and food for rent/purchase.  I am told the carts are cheaper from here than the other vendor on island?

In St Marten we found this https://www.johnnysscooterrental.com/ and they have a guided ATV tour that takes you several popular spots so that's what we are doing there.  Has really good Trip Advisor Reviews as well..

Hope that helps

I have a friend who has relatives that live in St Thomas... She told me that Honeymoon Beach on Water Island is a great beach and has some good snorkeling there.  Said they saw turtles and fish.  So we are taking ferry over from STT to WI and renting golf cart from Rachael's https://rachaelsrentals.com/ to explore WI and hit Honeymoon Beach for the day.  I think the cart rental is $55.

You could also check out www.resortforaday.com and see what they have available

3 hours ago, Infinity said:

Our first RC cruise this summer has us at Perfect Day at CocoCay on June 20, 2023. The port schedule is showing three ships there that day with the potential for 13,000+ total passengers, which scares me for the crowds. Is it possible for more than 2 ships to be there the same day? Or is it likely that the schedule will change for one of the ships?

I don't think they tender any ships there and only room for 2 to tie up at pier...

Have you looked at resortforaday.com ?

On 1/22/2023 at 1:17 PM, TheMick424 said:

Anyone else unable to see the Solarium Bistro in the app for our sailing?  It appears on the web based cruise planner, but no where to be found in the app if I select our sailing. Wondering if it is going to be closed

@TheMick424...It was just shared with me on our FB group that if you go in the app and select the current sailing, you should be able to see the menu for Solarium Bistro...same with MDR.  We are trying to plan our dinners accordingly and this really helped..

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

To be clear, Royal will NOT adjust the price....you must do that by cancelling your original package and re-purchasing.

Just went through this upgrading from refreshment pack to DBP....This is something they need to change.  We give you the money, you're holding it.  Now we have more money invested and original $ on hold while we wait for refund to the original form of payment. 

If we want to upgrade something that costs more, just pay the difference and upgrade my profile to the new package.  It's silly they do it the way they do, but I'm sure there's good reason in their eyes (perhaps is has to due with inventory of beer/wine/booze ?).   

Would be a an upgrade to customers if they allowed for just paying the difference...Just my $.02

I almost feel dumb asking this...but...We are staying at an Air BnB in South Beach the night before our cruise.  I'm not worried about Uber from Airport to Air BnB...but will we have any difficulty getting Uber/Lyft on a Saturday morning from there to port?

3 hours ago, GregD said:

This seems to be a very YMMV policy. It varies ship to ship, server to server. @Truly108 Go with the expectation of multiple apps and deserts, and one entree. Then ask and you may be pleasantly surprised.

What is YMMV stand for?

On 1/22/2023 at 11:07 AM, mike2608 said:

I was lucky enough to reserve my shows, but only because I checked my RC app daily otherwise I would have missed out. (Symphony OTS Feb 25th)

Yep...that's the same with me on that sailing also.  Got all shows booked.  Hoping that we're able to get our 2nd and 3rd specialty dining nights on the night we want once we board.

On 1/21/2023 at 7:09 PM, Ampurp85 said:

So even when you pay the specialty dining price some restaurants only allow for one entree. Chops is one of them, everything else as many as you want but one entree. 150CP may have a one entree as well depending on the ship.

When we sailed on Freedom last year and the year before, ...we ate at Chops and ordered as much as we wanted.  Perhaps this has changed?

49 minutes ago, Zacharius said:

I don't have any direct answers, but a couple of things to consider:

• If you do find someplace, make sure it's an OFFICIAL immigration facility. Some places have fake touristy stamps, and those can invalidate a passport. 
• Stamps are becoming less and less common as immigration systems go more digital and info is more easily shared between countries. 
• Even if you do find a place, it's very rare that US immigration will stamp a US passport, and note that St. Thomas is the United States. 

Thanks @Zacharius...I didn't consider your first point...2nd, yes and 3rd I knew...just fun to collect them of the various places we've been.

Can anyone advise where in St. Thomas and St. Maarten you get your passports stamped?  Kinda silly, I know but my Wife and I like to collect those when we travel.

On 1/17/2023 at 3:25 PM, MAS from ATX said:

Have you been able to book the second dinner? We were told that we have to wait until we board to book #2.

You have to wait until you board.  That's the trade off for getting a deal...or so I am told that's why. 

Renting a golf cart on Water Island during our port stop in STT.  Golf cart place opens at 9a...If we take the 8a ferry over, is there anything immediately available to see/do right at that ferry port on Water Island to burn 45 minutes?  

We're on Symphony next month and have these port stops.

I found this for St. Maarten...we had a lot of the RC excursions sold out so I was on my own to find something.  They have great Trip Advisor Reviews...

https://www.johnnysscooterrental.com/

For ST. Thomas, we're ferrying over to Water Island and renting a golf cart from Rachael's to explore and then hanging at Honeymoon Beach.

Who has used non RC sponsored vendors for excursions/sight seeing in St. Thomas and what was your experience with them?  

While not on the RC cruise itineraries, Turks and Caicos...Grace Bay Beach is FANTASTIC...I know Carnival docks at Grand Turk but that is not Grace Bay.  Those that have been to Grace Bay will tell you...it's unreal.  So if a land based vacation is in your future and you want one of the best beaches out there...GO!

We were at PDCC Jan '22 and had a cold front come down...it was about 50 degrees when we docked...by afternoon it was in the 70s and comfy in the sun but it was still pretty windy.  We had our teens with us and the waterpark was crazy cold! .  Hoping for warmer temps next month for our 2/25 sailing and 3/3 visit to PDCC