WaveSplasher
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Posts posted by WaveSplasher
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St Maarten: You could this DIY
Get of the ship, head for the taxis, take yourself to Marigot (French side) Explore the town a while, then start your climb to the fortress at the top (Easily recognizable once you get of the taxi) for great views of Marigot and the learn some history as well. After you are done, head back down, to a french cafe below selling croissant and smoothie. (Its just opposite the taxi area)
Next hop back on the cab for Maho Beach. Make a stop at the point where Holland meets France for a photo stop with the flags. Then continue to Maho beach, grab a good spot, and order 2 carib beers. With that, watch the planes land.
Most people will leave after the KLM had landed, after which, you can head back to port, take the water ferry to downtown St Maarten. And enjoy. You can slowly explore the town, have lunch then take the water ferry back to the ship.
St kitts. We went with Mr Gray tours. He brings you for a tour around town, then to the batik factory, next he brings you to Brimstone fortress. After which next stop is Timothy Hill( Caribbean sea meets the Atlantic). He gives you an option later whether you want to return to the ship or head down to a nice beach (Where clear water and a restaurant awaits you) I can't remember the name buts its rather famous) then he comes and pick you up later in 2 hours for your return trip to the ship
San Juan: We were there from 7. to 1pm. However since you arrive at 4pm. You could do the el morro fort straight away. Then walk down to San Cristobal, taking the sea views as you walk along the coastline. Next, you can go down the slope to Old San Juan for some shopping. ( I did the reverse of this since we arrive in the morning.)
I hope this advice is good. I'm a first timer to the islands, so this is what i did.
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Anyone took a 3 night cruise on the Quantum in June this year as a re-position cruise to China leaving from Singapore? Since the Oviation is coming to Singapore next June to do a 3 Night cruise, I did like to go onboard but I'm skeptical.
There are a few questions i will like to ask.
1. Were the queues for the IFLY, North Star, and bumper cars long?
2. Was there any renovations ongoing throughout the cruise?
3. If I do book , which will probably be in January, are the shows like StarWater still available?
Thanks for any replies, and if all is good, I will visit the next cruise on my upcoming Mariner Of the Seas
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Our first RCL cruise was also on the Indy and we had USD 200 OBC and I'm no expert but this is what we spent.
We didn't take the excursions, didn't use the spa neither did we use them for specialty restaurants.
We spent almost half it on laundry since we were on holiday for a month in the US and the cruise was only a week or so long.
The rest was spent on drinks and withdrawing for usage in the casino and the logo store.
Drinks are a couple of milkshakes, mudpie, beers (they had a beer special on boarding day) with a free cooler bag and daily drink specials(cruise compass)
For the Casino, The slot pull is fun, Roulette is exciting as you watch the ball spin and hope for it to land on the spot you want. Lots of choices as well. Or play blackjack. These 3 games are good for beginners.
Souvenirs from the logo shop are definitely a must. Like T shirts with the ship and the Ship facts printed on it. There are models but not really good quality.
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Looking at potentially booking something for March or over the summer and Royal's prices are through the roof. Even with the BOGO50% deal, their 7-day cruises are coming up on average about $300-400 higher than a comparable Carnival cruise. I know Royal is always more expensive than Carnival, but usually $100-200 a week pp that I've seen, not anywhere from $300-$500pp. They're even charging $150-300pp more than Celebrity for the same length of cruise on the same dates, and that's with the 2nd person 50% off factored in.
What gives? I haven't been in the cruise loop for a year or so, so maybe this is old news, but anyone have any insights for someone just looking at cruises for the first time in a while?
Well. If I'm not mistaken, there is a spring break in March and school is off in June. So prices generally tend to be higher during peak season. And also the difference between a RCl cruise and a Celebrity Cruise.
Granted celebrity is the upmarket of RCL and prices should be higher. But if given a choice, families will choose RCL over Celebrity for entertainment, and the kids club etc, Furthermore, there is a Dream-works parade on the FOS for the kids too.
So IMHO, that is why the price is higher during the months you are looking at since RCL knows that there will be high demand from families wanting to come on the FOS.
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What souvenirs do you recommend that we can bring home to keep as a memento. Something that is related to the culture of Norway or Bergen itself.
Thanks
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We had the
Norwegian Breakaway
Disney Fantasy
An Aida Cruise ship
Independence Of the Seas
In St Maarten..Pretty crowded if you ask me, especially at Maho Beach. But surprisingly the wait for taxis was quick
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idk the last time i played on a slot on the Indy, i pop a 25p in and after some tries, I won over 350 USD... I thought it was a good payout.
I mean if a 25p per slot pull can give you a payout of 350 USD... I think it's a pretty good payout in my opinion.
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The Mariner Of the Seas doesn't dock in Phuket. It anchors in the bay outside of Kalim beach, or sometimes Patong beach and then you have to take a tender to shore
If you look at google Maps, you can see the Mariner anchoring a few meters off shore
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Ah well, I was hoping for a freedom class ship to do the Norwegian fjords. Totally fell in love with the Indy, but i guess the Serenade will be fine. :)
By the way, 2 quantum ships in China? I think 1 will go to australia
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Now that I think of it, we have cruised twice, once RCCL and once Princess, but we never received towel animals in our stateroom.
Not that we care about it, but is that a sign that we didn't tip enough to receive this? We always use suggested tip rate and I believe we tip some extra in the beginning of the trip.
I'm sorry you didn't receive it. I have been on one RCL cruise and I received Towel animals every other day. And I didn't tip at the start of the cruise, but at the end. I think it depends on your stateroom attendant. If you didn't receive your towel animals, you can ask your stateroom attendant to do it.
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For our cruise on the IOS, they were loading the food supplies in Fort lauderdale which was the starting point of the cruise. Captain metioned that they take in at least over a week's worth of food for the cruise.
When the ship docked at the ports, there wasn't any loading of supplies.
For resupplying of Oil, they did it in St kitts which was after 3 days, 2 days of cruising and 1 day in St maarten. We didn't refill after that and continued our journey
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Our first cruise after a 10 year halt was the IOS
Things that stand out:
My first Meet and greet
Won a ton of money in the casino on the first and second day
Saw someone got arrested by cops and kicked off the IOS
Amazing service
I will keep cruising because it's the sense of relaxation that you get, and being pampered while enjoying a glass of cocktail sitting in your chair on the balcony watching the sun go down..
You get to experience a lot from the people to the ports. They stay there long enough to give you the full experience.
I will return to RCL because of the fun and friendly and amazing service on board the IOS. I knew RCL will not let me down and with that I will continue to cruise with them
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Yes you will have to fly into beijing and make your way to Tianjin. Look for the HSR to get you into Tianjin for convenience.
The difference is the addition of casinos and more retail shops on board and removal of some of the bars. You should also be aware of the culture difference on board as well.
In some ports, you will dock at the container port and be driven 2 or 3 hours before you get into the town center or some sights.
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If it's tender then its the excursions who probably will go first but when the ship is docked, be there at the gangway a few mins after they put the gangway out. Then you will be the first off the boat...
We did that during our trip and always was the first few to leave. We once had to wait at level 1 for a while because the machine wasn't set up yet. :D
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Hey there
You can take the Link Light Rail from the airport to downtown... It's cheap and really efficient. Takes about 30-45 min
If you are worrying about luggage, dont be worry. When we when there, it was during the seahwaks vs 49ers.. Yet we still had space and lots of room to move about. Most of the fans will drop at he century link station.
However, here's a note.. To take the train from the airport, you have to walk a bit far about 10 mins walk, through a carpark to the station. Is a bit scary at night..
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There you go... Rhapsody sail-away from singapore
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Hey
I have a video of the ship departure from Singapore...I will post it by the end of this week
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After you have determine your cruise line... you need to set your mind which Stateroom you want like suites, balcony. If you see the price is right or there is sale, book your stateroom.
This is from my experience. I book in November when there was sale and OBC, got a cabin which was my second choice. Then if you want your favorite cabin and it is not available. Keep checking back. The cabin will surely be available. It happen during our booking.. We didn't have a final stateroom until January when we got the hump balcony that we were craving for. I book late and in the end got a good deal from it. It depends you know
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Seas Calm and weather good with lots of sunshine, but it was really windy during our sailing. The highest was 35mph
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We had someone get arrested for drugs and their family got dumped off at St Maarten our recent Cruise... Talk about the worst vacation you can get..
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Oooo the pirate drilll...
Please share more on the pirate thing as the ship passes into the red zone and the suzel canal..
Thanks
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Hey there again..Nice meeting you :D
We had a hump cabin on deck 6 6338...
The good thing about this cabin, is that there is not crowded for the elevator, near to the main dinning room just steps down, it worked well for me since my dinning room was King Lear. And we could get food from the cafe promenade, settle guest service etc quickly. No need to walk alot.
I have not been on other decks but Deck 7 is the next closest deck i will choose.
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Sorry to hijack the thread
This is my first cruise with RCL so i will review this as a first time experience on the entertainment since it has become a subject.
Parades
Olympia
Set in the olden days of greece where crew members comes out dress in gods like Hercules, Zeus, Poseidon...and sing songs, dance. They will introduce the various department with greek style signs.
Mad hatter
Was disappointing that I didn't go for this..
Invitation To Dance
People dancing to the different dance style like tap dancing, jazz with music to accompany. If you don't like that kind of stuff, it gets boring after a while.
Under the Big Top
It's basically like a circles who came onto the ship and showed off what they can do. My first impression was this backdrop of a circus, and since i have never been to one, looks impressive. Ricky came out, dance a little and the show begin. Costumes look great and they had puppets like the elephant and the horse, which looks cute. The songs sang were great, coupled with the choreography. There was one segment that I fondly remembered about the backdrop with all the soft toys and dolls. Then during the segment, they sprang alive..I honestly thought they were fake.. They make it realistic, along with the flying acts and stuff.
Once Upon a Time.
Different bedtime fairy tale style story. Some songs seem a little hard to catch considering the band was playing very loudly and it just doesn't seem right in parts. That being said, the good thing is they had massive props(rapunzel, and the one for cinderalla) Red Riding Hood had a car, and the lead singers were quite good.
The ice show is Strings.
Strings is about a lady who plays the violin the whole show, while ice skaters dance around the ice rink,going through different countries. From what I can see, the whole show was energetic, engaging, with good choreography accompanied with an excellent violinist and catchy songs. A couple of Ice Skaters miss and fell, but all was professional and continued. Finally Ricky comes out in skates,everyone laughs and the show ends.
This is what I experience first hand, first time on the cruise. I agree that people on B2B, returning guests, will not see the same level, and that if you keep coming back, the show will feel old.
If I do return on the Indy, the show I will most likely want to watch again is Strings, but that's just me.
Now My question is, how long do they wait till they change the productions?
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This is a far-fetched idea.
Maybe the quantum will be followed by an escort of navy ships...
Or hire private security personal for this stretch with guns. (watch a show on Cruise Ship Diaries)
Check out this link
http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/241385/Pirate-proof-cruise-ship
Ask anyone who has done the Suez canal transit on any RCL ships going through..They might be able to tell you something... Anyone?
What to do with luggage in Singapore for one day?
in Ask a Cruise Question
Posted · Edited by WaveSplasher
Not Much... From Marina Bay station, you will need to change at Raffles Place) to the Green Line then its all the way to Tanah Merah for another change of train to Changi Airport.
Its only a 30 to 45 min train ride down to the airport including waiting times for train. There are lifts provided at every train station for you to use if you have luggage. But do not worry, there is not much lugging since your trains are only on the opposite side of each other if you follow the route above.