jbrinkm

Where do these take you? Can you set your own itinerary, or do they just go to all of the main sightseeing stops? Does the bus go to non-beach sightseeing places, like the Donkey Sanctuary and Arikok, etc.? I'm debating whether or not to rent a car - there will be 6 of us and we have a scuba trip in the morning but are in port until late and want to sightsee in the afternoon.

What about parking? How easy is it to park at different locations around the island?

I also had this question - what type of parking would be near the port? Street parking, public lot, pay lot? Generally, what is parking like around the island if we wanted to stop at a beach?

Thanks! I went ahead with Value Parking - I forgot that we had used them once before and had a good experience. But it is always good to have another recommendation available - our favorite place to park off site at another nearby airport was bought out and closed. Appreciate it!!

Yes, Hans said that we could combine the snorkelers nearby in Curacao! Jeffrey from Happy Divers Aruba said that it would NOT be great there to combine, just as you @omeinv said, so we have our plan. Thank you for all the advice everyone!

You may be able to figure out how to do it prior to your cruise from asking on here and/or watching some videos. I did not find snorkeling to be too difficult. Perhaps you have family or friends that own a snorkel set that you could borrow to try on? Then you just need to find a spot and rental gear which are fairly easy to line up, rather than an instructor. Essentially, you just put your mask on, put the mouthpiece of the snorkel tube in your mouth (it should be clipped to the mask) and float/swim along, face down. The tube will stick up above the water. There are little tricks (i.e. make sure no hair is trapped in the mask, don't tip your head too far forward so the tube gets water in it, do you want a fins, do you want a floatation device, etc.), but that is basically the whole procedure. Out of your three, I have only snorkeled in Cozumel, but found snorkeling to be pretty good in the Chankanaab/Cabana Beach/Money Bar stretch of the island, just off the shore. It is a rocky drop off there and you use steps to get into the water, and therefore, visibility is excellent (very little sand stirred up). We saw many, many different colored fish along there. There is some current in Cozumel - so we found the fins necessary when swimming against the current, even right along the shore line.

Anyone who regularly flies out of Newark, can you recommend to me a good off-site parking lot? "Good" to me is: safe, reasonably priced and quick/often shuttle service.

I had the refreshment package on our last cruise and I ordered 2 daquiris WITH alcohol one night - we had some onboard credit. The first one, I specified that I wanted to pay for a normal daquiri, which I did - the second one (from the same server), they just assumed I wanted a mocktail as part of my package and brought one without alcohol. I was confused when I didn't have a slip to sign, and more confused when I started drinking it. So I second this recommendation!

Aha! Sorry...

I just booked Jamie's boarding day lunch on Symphony for $13.99pp. @marci22 check the app - I tried first via the planner on the website and it wasn't available, but when I checked the app, I found day 1 lunch.

Oasis herself? I haven't been on Oasis, but Allure has cute little "secret" balconies overlooking Central Park that you access from the 9th floor. I believe Symphony does NOT have these, but probably Oasis does. Oasis will have the Freestyle machines so if you are planning a beverage package, you'll have access to those by using the provided cup. The early dining time seems to be shifting earlier - even if your paperwork says 5:30pm, it may move back to 5:00pm or 5:15pm. There will be some shows that require a reservation. Those open up on a not-consistent schedule but probably near the beginning of the month before your cruise (i.e. if you cruise Jan 14, start looking Dec 1 and keep checking every day). There will probably be cruise planner sales during the week of Thanksgiving. That's all I can think of right now as far as tips & tricks.

For some reason, RCI thinks that my Labadee excursions would benefit from an Internet package??? "your labadee shore excursion gets even better with an amazing Internet Package"

Here ya go! https://www.irietours.com/

I should clarify - my own family (2 adults, 2 teens) is planning to dive on both islands - my parents just asked if they could tag along to the site of ONE of the two stops to do some snorkeling. So we don't have to pick between the two islands. We are planning to dive both. I was just curious which would be better to combine the two, and we'll do the other on our own. If it lowers the quality of the dive to have snorkelers along, since it sounds like Curacao has the better diving, perhaps we should try to combine Aruba? Or does the advice still stand to try to do the combo on Curacao? Is most diving at Curacao from shore or can you go to a better spot via boat?

I've gotten distilled water on the last 2 RCI cruises I was on (both on Allure OTS). My TA put in the request for me both time. I use it for a nasal rinse I need to add a prescription medication to for my terrible sinuses. On the last night, I fill up my medical use bottle and set it aside. Then we take some of our empty water bottles and fill them up with the leftover distilled and stick them in the cooler with our ice bucket. We use those to drink until we get to the airport.

Those of you who got really great room assignments - were you cruising on less crowded ships? (i.e. older ships, off times) I'm wondering what GTY rooms might look like for our cruise as my parents have chosen this option for our Spring Break cruise on Symphony. I imagine that our cruise may be pretty full!

Was that Diveseekers by any chance?

My parents are going on our next cruise with us. We are excited to dive for the first time after working on our certification this summer & they would love to snorkel. Which island do you think would be better for us to try to book a boat trip that offers both scuba & snorkeling? My parents will probably just walk around and sightsee on the other island. Also, we have a much longer day in Aruba than we do in Curacao. The cruise will be in March.

We had a good Discover Scuba experience with our teens at Cozumel Dive Academy, which was a 10 minute walk north from our pier on a cruise (Royal Caribbean). There was a little bit of current which caused a small, but not insurmountable challenge while we were going over the signals and information in the water (we were kneeling) and when entering and exiting. There is a shallow area there that is roped off and a whole dive area with benches and showers. The water is extremely clear there and there are lots of fish once you get moving. We enjoyed it so much that we came home and are most of the way through PADI certification now. We just have our open water dives to finish up. I can see Roatan being an awesome place to do it as well - I'm thinking of the French Key area where it is pretty shallow and warm and very clear.

I believe Harmony would have the Central Park "secret" balconies... Allure does, but Symphony does not. They are on the 9th floor near the elevators and overlook Central Park. You do get some background noise, but it was sort of a gentle background buzz IMO. Only chairs for 2 people out there but there is a table.

The pecan crusted salmon was really good. Warm cookie was a great dessert. Kids enjoyed the tortellini with cream sauce. On the flip side, the apple cobbler on formal night was terrible - it tasted like they used rancid oil to make it. Try to find the apple blossom on the lunch menu instead - YUM!

Holy cow that's a lot of criticism for a theoretical discussion topic.

Lately I've been booking a lot of flights in the "slightly upgraded" category where I can choose my own seats and get a free carry on suitcase (in addition to the under-seat personal item). I wish airlines would offer an option to upgrade the free carry on to a checked bag for a small fee (in the $10-20 range). When I fly for cruises, I'd rather have 4 checked bags than 4 carry on bags for my family, especially because I end up having to pay for two additional checked bags to fit cruise stuff for a week (2 adults, 2 teens). So I end up with 4 "free" carry ons and 2 larger checked bags which isn't the easiest to travel with, and also doesn't seem to hold as much as the 4 big bags would. Then, very often, I'm offered the option to check my 20" suitcases because the flight is full and they are trying to make room for carry ons that people really want to have with them. I don't necessarily want mine with me - I just want to use my free bags, so I always check them. So the airline ends up checking 6 bags for me that weigh slightly more than four 50lb bags would. I'd be curious to hear if any other families might take advantage of an offer like this - those who don't try to cruise for a week from a backpack worth of stuff 😂

Seems like a perfect situation for a Go Pro camera or similar.

I was coming here to say AJs but see that you already know about it. We've been there twice and really love the guinea pigs, which surprised me with the other exotic animals available to pet.