Lumee23

Ty both! Sounds like DIY is the best way to go. I just need to pick a beach now 🙂

Hi Everyone! We will be in St Thomas in March and we are looking to do a 1/2 day snorkeling/beach day and then take the Skyride up in the afternoon. We are docked from 8-5 at Crown Bay and we appear to be the only cruise ship in both ports that day. Celebrity offers a Buck Island and Water Island by Catamaran excursion but it doesn't leave until 9:30am, which cuts into our afternoon time a little. They also do not have any reviews on their website and I can't find a similar tour not through the cruise ship. Another option we were considering was just taking the ferry to Water Island ourselves at 9am, which then we could leave when we are ready. 

Has anybody taken that Celebrity excursion before? Any other suggestions? We haven't been to St Thomas before so everything will be new for us. Thanks!

Hi everyone! My husband and I are departing on a Celebrity cruise out of San Juan in March and I am struggling to nail down a plan on what to do. This is our first time sailing with Celebrity and out of San Juan.

We will be arriving the day prior around lunchtime; however, it is an early flight so we want to keep any activity low key. As of right now we were thinking of just walking around San Juan, taking in the surroundings and finding some good food before heading to our hotel for an early night. Our cruise doesn't depart until 8:30pm, which I can't find it now but I believe I saw somewhere that embarkation starts around 5pm? I also read somewhere that they generally let people on earlier than that but I would rather not sit at the port waiting if they don't.

I really wanted to do a stop at El Yunque and was thinking we would have enough time to do this day of embarkation. Has anybody done that before and did it work out okay time wise? The other thing is this would be a Saturday. Most of the tours I am looking at indicate the hike is longer and more strenuous on Saturdays due to a different departure point. We are in our late 30's but not in the best of shape so I am worried it might be too much for us. Anybody have any experience with the tougher hike?

After our cruise we have a late flight that departs after 4pm. We were thinking of doing the Celebrity excursion Old San Juan tour with airport drop-off. Hubby does not want to do the rainforest option and then get on a flight. 

Would love to hear about anyones experiences/reviews and/or alternative suggestions based on our timetables. Thanks so much!

We got our "You've Been Verified" email on Nov 25th, which was shortly after we submitted the verification info. We have not yet received the expected email today. I had reached out to the Live Chat and they were unable to provide me any information aside from the webpage with the offer details. We have been holding off booking a cruise so we are a bit impatient 🙂 

Love the review! I always appreciate the addition of some Disney as well :) We are going on Anthem the last weekend of September on an adults only babymoon. It is our first trip ever together just the hubby and I (no other family or kids) that is longer than a weekend getaway. To say I am excited is a major understatement. I greatly sympathize with the dining struggles as I am extremely shy in person and don't do small talk. We requested a table for two so I am hoping we get it as well. With a 4 and 7 yr old at home eating alone together is quite the luxury lol!

Your Horseshoe beach tips are very helpful! The extended review of the hidden gem tour was great as well. It wasn't an option for us this time since I am pregnant but something I was considering for a future trip. The cave swimming seems like the definite highlight. Looks like you had a great trip! Good luck with the new school year!

Oh no I am a picky eater! I guess I will have to plan for a lot of grilled chicken breast on this trip haha. Thanks for posting the menu!!!

Omg that room. I am so excited now and I have a two year wait for the sister ship.

Great pics! I can't wait to read the rest of your review. I hope you enjoy your cruise!

Thank you so much for taking time to do this! We just booked Meraviglia's sister ship for June 2019 and will also be in the S3 stateroom on Deck 9. We are new to MSC so I am curious about a lot of details; MDR menus, dailies (is that what MSC calls them?), the Aurea experience and of course the room!

Thanks everyone! We ended up calling to book and got the stateroom we wanted! I am still having trouble with the website (looking at excursions, seeing our booking, etc) but it sounds like it is a chronic issue. Happy cruising 😁

Hi everyone, I am trying to book the Bellissima for 2019 on the MSC site and I get as far as payment but the site won't let me enter in the city, state or country. It appears to be an automatically generated drop down based on the zip code entered but will not work for me. I have tried my cell, my laptop and my desktop on multiple browsers and cannot figure it out. I am feeling like I must be missing something.... has anybody had this issue and resolved it?

We will be in Cozumel in December this year and I am concerned about the car seat issue as well. My youngest will be three (she is currently 2.5 yrs) and is very small for her age. She is currently only 22lbs. We still have a little while but the recommended seats are for ages 4 and up and 40lbs and up. Anybody know of a travel car seat product for younger kids?

Thank you you everyone for your input! Much appreciated :D I am really torn between Dominica and Curacao. Such a wonderful problem to have!

Hey Everyone! I am hoping some seasoned cruisers can offer some advice/suggestions. Hubby and I are going to go on our first big vacation without the littles in April of next year and we are at the beginning stages of our planning. This is a very rare opportunity for us so we want to make this vacation count. We have narrowed our trip down to a cruise out of San Juan but are having difficulties deciding on an itinerary. The ones that work best with our schedule are:

1. Jewel OTS - 4/2 - St Croix, St Maarten, Dominca, Barbados, Grenada

2. Adventure OTS - 4/15 - St Thomas, St Kitts, Curacao, Aruba

3. Adventure OTS - 4/22 - St Maarten, St Kitts, Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados

4. Adventure OTS - 4/29 - St Maarten, Bonaire, Aruba, Curacao

We have been to St Maarten and St Thomas for a cruise stop but didn't do too much so we don't have any issues going back to either. Every other spot we have never been.

Since we won't have our young children we were hoping to do more "adventure" type stuff that is impossible/hard to do with kids. The only problem being we are not the most adventurous of people so we would need to start light. We were just on a cruise and did a rainforest hike and swim with a private tour guide that we absolutely loved.

Overall I think I would prefer the Adventure OTS but with such port intensive itineraries I don't think the ship will make that big of a difference to us.

So what do you guys think? Any tips on excursion recommendations would be great too!

We booked the excursion through the cruise that takes you via ferry and then bus to the Baths. Can we do this with a 14 month old strapped to one of us in a baby carrier or is that insane?

So he called back again and the third time was the charm. He got her added to his reservation for $245. While I am frustrated it took multiple attempts to get it correct I am glad we finally got it all worked out. Thanks again for everyone's input!

I had a similar situation recently and was talked to a supervisor for hours. Basically what I was told is that if a room is booked and you want to make a change it is considered a cancellation. I asked where I could look,at this policy and she sent me an email with a highlighted line in the policy regarding name and date changes that did not apply to me. She kept pushing me off to the travel agent who agreed that the policy did not exist. She finally told me that she would have the legal department contact me within 24 hours and I never heard back. I left numerous messages and my travel agent has also left messages with her, worse experience I have ever had with a cruise line! Good luck getting a satisfying answer from Norwegian, what it comes down to is they can get more money and they will whether or not it is fair or makes sense.

That sounds really bad and what I am worried they are doing (canceling and re-booking). A week ago I had asked my TA about adding my aunt to another room as a 4th passenger and she quoted us ~570. She didn't mention anything about having to cancel and rebook. If it comes down to it we will just do that but it doesn't make sense to pay for a 4th passenger in a room when a 2nd passenger was effectively paid for (minus port charges) in another room. :(

I don't know why he booked on his own and not through the group TA. I looked into the form and it looks like he can't transfer because final payment has been made. That would have been the best option but that is out. I suppose I can ask her if she knows why they want to charge him so much more.

So his only course of action is to speak to a supervisor then I guess. I just don't understand where the 1k is coming from. I expected it to be extra but not that much.

Thanks everyone for the info/advice!

I had a quick question regarding pricing. We are doing a group sail for my wedding and my uncle booked his own room directly through NCL (the rest of us used a TA). I don't have all the details because I am getting the info second hand but I am hoping someone can clarify. So he paid $2700 for a balcony for just him for a sailing on Jan 2nd. My aunt now wants to come and since he paid double occupancy on his room we were going to add her into his room. He called NCL and they are telling him it will cost an additional $1000 to add her. If I try booking the same room category with two people it is under $3k total (a difference of under $300). He tried calling twice and got the same answer. Can someone explain where the $1k is coming from? It was my understanding that it should just be the difference in port fees/any promo gratuities.

Any update on the iConcierge availability on the Gem?

Yes. They have whole milk and skim milk.

Great! Thank you!!!

Hi All! Sorry, I did a quick search and couldn't easily find this answer. We are bringing our little one on our cruise and she needs to drink whole milk (not 2%). Is whole milk readily available on NCL ships?

Thank you for taking the time to share the pictures with us! I can't wait to see how it all turns out :D

I just wanted to add my thanks for the dailies!!!!

If you are all going to eat at the three restaurants listed or would like to eat 3 times at Cagney's, why not suggest to those that don't have the SDP, that they can purchase a 3 day package and then everyone will have the SDP.

I have but there isn't much interest unfortunately on my side of the family. My in-laws are foodies so they were all about it. The others won't be going to any other speciality restaurants aside from the Cagney's we are paying for. If we had known about this earlier we would have budgeted treating everyone to a 3 day SDP instead of some other things we chose to do because monetarily it makes far more sense to me to spend the ~$70/pp than ~$35-40/pp and let them have two extra specialty dinners. We may yet still do that but its ~$400 more and we are already over budget ;)