Suska_83

The dolphin swims are in jeopardy. I read today that one in the Bahamas was closed down by the courts. Very controversial.

I can see why, they are wild animals and to have then "caged" and perform for people cannot be a good thing. we will be doing the one you suggested. Thanks a lot!!!

You're making a very good choice for this cruise and what you want! :)

On another cruise at some point you'll be able to find a more convenient place to the "Dolphin Thing"!

Have a Great Time! :D

LuLu

Yeah , I talked it over with my siblings and they are interested, so We'll be doing that :)

The dolphin swim is also marketed to hotel guests, so it may be more crowded now than a few years ago.

 

Try the sea lion swim at Coral World. Lots of fun and gives you plenty of time to do something else. The sea lions are rescues so less controversy than dolphins.

I'll talk it over with my siblings, I just looked at the excursion and it looks good. Thanks for the suggestion.

You said you have done this excursion before. Was it from St Thomas to Tortola? If the description says 6.5 hours, I think you should expect it to last that long. If the excursion isn't as long as described, someone is likely to complain.

Yes I did it with Carnival 3 yrs ago, and it departed from St. Thomas, transportation included. Same excursion. And we were in the USVI for less time than RCCL. That's why I don't get why its so long. If it is that long then we will be doing something else.

My family and I are going on Freedom in a couple of weeks and this is one of the stops. I want to book and excursion( preferably with thru Royal) to Tortola dolphin swim, but on the website it says 6 1/2 hours long, we are in the island for 7 hrs and I want to do some shopping as well. I have not booked it because we don't want to do JUST that. I have done this excursion before when I cruised with Carnival and it did not take this long and we were in the island for less time. If anyone has done this excursion with Royal, Is it really 6 1/2 hours long? what makes it that long? I read the details on the RCCL website and it's not very clear. Your imput would be greatly appreciated :)

Don't obsess....do what ever is most comfortable for you. You're paying thousands of dollars for the trip. If buying some Euros before you leave from "where ever" costs you 10 bucks....so what, if that's what your'e most comfortable doing...do it!. I don't understand why some folks post a question about saving a couple a' bucks about money conversion, shuttles, transfers, parking etc, etc. Like I said, you're spending thousands of dollars on the trip. To save (or spend) 10 or 20 bucks more or less on something that you are more comfortable with.....just do it!

I found out that It was cheaper to use American express exchange at the airport(Logan) to fend off for public transport and eating out the first day your there. I always take some with me, at least 200 euros . then go to an atm and take out the maximum amount possible to last me the days i'll be in that city before heading out to the next one.

ATM's are the best place to get Euros; never had a problem with a debit card with a 4 digit numerical PIN.

I used that last year when I went to Italy, though it was hard finding an ATM that would accept my metallic stripe card, I had to use the google search engine to see which ones I could use and take out the maximum amount until the next city visited and do the whole process once again.

I'm happy that banks for 2015 will have to roll out the chip and pin cards, it will be mandatory for them to do so.

I have or broke even. I tend to just eat salads and rolls. With occasional desserts. As the food quality has decreased I find that I eat less.

 

Not a cruise, but just came back from 6 weeks in Europe and lost 5 lbs. and I wasn't eating exceptionally well either.

 

 

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I was in Europe last year for a month and when i came back I had lost 10lbs, and i ate a lot. but there was also a lot of walking involved and portion size in europe is a lot smaller than USA. great time though.

as far as the cruise, I was on one and I didn't gain a pound. So it depends on your genes and what you do.

OK for all those frequent cruisers I have a question about average prices for food off the ship and how much you typically budget for something like this.

 

Our upcoming cruise in November is very port intensive, we chose this option because we were not sure how we would like cruising so to ease into it we chose a cruise with just one full day of sailing. We will be in a different port 5 days and I'm trying to get an idea of just how much money we should put aside for lunches and drinks (non Alcoholic) during our days in each port.

 

At this point we don't know what kind of excursions we will have planned for each port as I'm still trying to figure out what we want to do at each stop.

My assumption is we will be far away from the ship at each port that stopping back on the ship to eat lunch will not be feasible or something we want to do.

 

 

We are traveling on the Jewel of the Seas Nov 8-15th with stops in

BVI

St Kitts/Nevis

Dominica

St. Maarten

Barbados

 

For two adults what average amount of money have you put aside in the past for eating off the ship?

 

Suggestions are welcome. We are NOT picky eaters at all and by that I mean we are totally comfortable with something fast and easy we don't need an expensive elaborate sit down meal in these ports.

 

Anyone that has been to any of these stops if you have favorite places you ate at we would welcome the suggestions.

Well I remember 3 yrs back, we ate at the ports, Puerto Rico, USVI, and it was expensive. my sister's salad was almost 20 bucks not counting the drinks and in PR 50 dollars with drinks for a plate that WE SHARED!. Tourist traps, don't eat near where the cruise is docked. Lesson learned.

We live in Central PA, about 2 miles from I-81.

We have taken the route that your friend has suggested and we love it.

Whenever we have taken it, there has been minimal traffic on the roads compared to I-95. The terrain is hilly/mountainous and in spots is very scenic.

There are not quite as many rest areas since you are not blowing through states like you do on I-95.... but we have never had a problem finding an exit with bathrooms/gas/food.

 

I definitely would recommend you taking this route for a nice change of pace. For us, it adds about 20 miles to our trip but I think it is well worth it.

 

Good luck! Have a safe trip!

Thank you so much for your input, now I feel more confident about taking this route, I don't mind hilly, I actually like it. My colleague did say that its about 20 miles more, but I like you think it is worth it if it avoids the major traffic in NY,NJ DC :).

If your phone is connected via Bluetooth, you can use Google maps and the directions come through the car speakers like a phone call would. We found this out by accident one day when my wife was looking for directions while we were driving around. I found that Google maps does provide better directions, so I may try using it on our next trip.

 

 

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I've never tried that before. My car does come with bluetooth, but never actually tried it with Google maps. I do trust google more so than the car's GPS, thanks! I'll play with it today.

I second this. I drive from New York to Myrtle Beach a few times a year and the past couple times Virginia has had the worst traffic of the entire trip - dead stop for up to a couple hours due to construction. I would try to avoid I-95 S until you pass Richmond if possible! :)

thanks for the info! I will look at the map again, this secondary route takes me past DC, but i do hit VA on I-95 S.

you can also put your car and yourselves on the amtrak auto train and take the train from Lorton, VA to Sanford FL. Saving yourself 17 hours of driving. Then you are only 4 hours from Fort Lauderdale. (I'm not sure what port you are sailing from). I find the Amtrak Auto Train part of the vacation.

mm That's a good idea. Probably for the next time we go down to FL. My family wants to drive down there since they've never driven that far, part of the vacation experience I guess :). We are going to Port Canaveral and plan to get there saturday, stay in Cocoa Beach for the night, and head to the port the following day.

What gps nav to do you use for your mobile? Google maps gives you the fastest times to your destination and you can take out toll roads, etc...

i have google maps on my phone. and the car we're taking comes with a GPS. I input the address (Port Canaveral) and it still gives me 95 all the way.

If it's your first time driving a new route, it can be helpful if highway splits or you need to take exit. I mostly use it to track how far I am from where I need to go :).

 

 

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That true, I use it just for reassurance. And also telling you the exits to take especially on secondary roads which we will be driving its always a plus.

Try to avoid 95 from dc to Richmond! We just went from Phila to Myrtle Beach and we were backed up for almost two hours each way. Lots of construction which adds to the normal mess there! ( and we were very careful to plan the times we went through that area) Follow your maps and your GPS should recalculate! Have Fun!

Your right. Colleagues and friends say the traffic in DC is the worst, even if you drive in the wee hours of the morning, always traffic. I am avoiding that. Thank god.

Other than the slow down near Massaponax when heading south, the worst traffic we hit when going and coming from NYC is the New Jersey Turnpike. It was horrendous last year! I am definitely looking for an alternative route this year.

 

Just drove down to Orlando and no traffic problems on I-95 in May we drove to Port Canaveral, no problems, in December we drove to Ft. Lauderdale, no problems until we got to the turn off for the port.

exactly!. It is horrendous every year though. I hate GWB, i hate it with a passion. I know NY NJ traffic since i'm a new yorker, living in MA. Plus also going this way instead of taking 95 all the way i save on Tolls, which is a plus.

You can trick the gps by giving it segments, I.e. Ma to point x then to point y, etc. We've done it as we also try to avoid I-95 from NJ to Hilton Head, SC and we take I-78 west to I-81 to I-77 to I-26 to I-95. We tell it to go Martinsburg, wva, to charlotte to get it to get what we want. Hope that helps.

That's a good idea, I was thinking about that, its my first time driving that way, although it will be 4 of us that are able to drive and we are pretty good reading maps, but its nice to have GPS to tell you the exits. I know 17 is a route which is a secondary road, that's when it might get iffy, but we are counting on getting a little lost, so we are planning to leave early.

So I got my boarding passes and tags . Excited!. Now, my family and I are driving from MA to Fl. My colleague gave me alternate routes to avoid I-95 (NY,NJ.MD,DC) since he has a house in FL he likes to drive down and avoids the traffic that is usual in those states. Instead of taking I-95S all the way he has me going 81-S to 66-E to 17-S to 95-S a little after DC. That's great, but for the life of me I cannot put it on the GPS in the car or the phone. It will not take the alternate route. I have maps(thanks AAA) and the nice man at AAA highlighted the route, It looks great on map, but using technology for so long, it's kind of going to be back to 1999 with paper road maps. Is there any way to input the desired route in any device?. I'm good with maps(found my way in Italy with no prob with one), but I was not driving:confused:. Have any of you driven this route? Is it good? any input would be great help.

My TA said that middle names are not important as long as the last name matches. For some reason my passport has first,middle, and two last names(my mother's and father's), so it gets to be really long when i travel, which is every year, sometimes they run out of room lol . But it is not an issue as far as middle names go.

I like the fact that I don't have to do much planning. I'm usually the one that does it for my family and friends (planning, hotels, train transfers, even where we should eat when we get there). This year I used a TA, I'm a little nervous still because I'm the one that takes care of everything so HOPEFULLY it works out ok :confused: (Phew!!). Although, the excursions will be my thing( I can't leave everything up in the air right?). But once I get to my cruise, I will Chillax and enjoy the sea and what it has to offer, Relax, and probably use the majority of their amenities which I didn't use on my last cruise 3 yrs ago.

I renewed my passport Feb. 2013 even though it was not going to expire until Aug. 2013 but I was heading for Italy and it needed to be valid past the six months after I got back which was in Aug. I requested it the 2nd week of February and got it two weeks later. No Prob. But a friend did have to renew her passport she did it in at the beginning of June and got it mid July of last year. SO it can change based on the postal service(summer is vacation time for many) it can affect when you get it.:p

Has any ever used this website viator . Com to book excursions?

 

 

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I wear by them. All the trips i've made. I've booked excursions thru them. They never disappoint. Granted for a Cruise (i've only been to one so far) I booked the swimming with the dolphins in Tortola and private beach with lunch in Turks and Caicos and it was great! (plus great prices too). All other trips i've had (Europe, Canada) I've booked the majority of the excursions thru them with no problem. So yea I do recommend ;).

instead of a power strip, I found this cute little adapter at Target for $5. You can plug in 3 things and a spot for USB too (like for an Iphone or Ipad) It even had a night light on it. here is one from Staples. [ATTACH]316447[/ATTACH]

 

I also bring a pop up hamper to help keep the room tidy. And clothespins and extra plastic hangers. There is a cord in the shower to hang your wet swimsuit but with the hangers and cloth pins you can hang more. The cord isnt very big.

Hey that's pretty good. I'll check Target out for this, I have european power strips but not those. I'll definitely get on of those. :D

My attorney wants to know how the order should be worded. Can anyone share if they have successfully received a court order for travel and what exactly it states?

Ditto!, He/She should know what to say and draw the correct papers to present to court.