lacruiser

There are two excellent books that feature Grenada—“An Embarrassment of Mangoes “ and “The Spice Necklace”. Both are accounts of a Canadian couple who give up their jobs, buy a sailboat and sail the Caribbean. They fall in love with Grenada. Author is Ann Van Der Hoof. Strongly recommend!

Someone please tell me the website that shows which ships are in port on any given day…please and thank you❤️

We will be on Explorer out of San Juan b2b on 3/20, with an eastern and southern itinerary. Our ports include St Thomas, St Croix, St Maarten, St Lucia, Barbados, St Kitts, Curaçao and Aruba. Do any of these ports still mandate ship-only excursions? We’ve been to all these multiple times and prefer to make our own arrangements. TIA!

Question about shore excursions: are you restricted to RCI excursions or can you book your own? We’re on the 1/23 Jewel sailing and I hope we can make our own plans.

If you’re looking for authentic, imaginative fabulous food, leave the overpriced, tourist port for a taxi to Mahahual and go to La Chilangoense! Don’t be put off by the unassuming exterior. There are (surprisingly comfortable) tables and chairs by the water, and the food is amazing. For what we paid at the port palapa restaurant for a Mexican beer, small margarita and an order of guacamole we got a delicious, huge mango margarita, beer, a La Repetida tostada (fresh marinated tuna with various crispy veggies,) a marlin taco and a Taco Macho, plus complimentary chips and a bean dip to die for. Jackie, the very personable owner will take great care of you. Lots of beach vendors, all of whom were very polite, took our first “no, gracias” and wished us a good day. Altogether a great experience!

Thanks!

I’m looking at booking shore excursions for our upcoming eastbound PC transit. I’m wondering if the ship changes time as we pass thru the different zones. Ie, when we are in Cartagena, will ships time coincide with local? Thx in advance!

Hey, sandebeach, thanks for sharing your experience. Just booked the 9/10 4-day for a quick girls trip and we are excited! Btw, where in SoFlo are you? Delray Beach, here...:cool:

This has come up for us on longer sailings since we have friends who dine with us and we are trying to plan out when we want to eat in MDR and when in a specialty. We generally are able to get the concierge to get the menus themselves for us, and line them up in the proper order. (I should mention that several of said friends are Ps, so maybe this is a courtesy that not everyone might expect?) If no concierge access, perhaps a question to the Maitre d'?

HTH

Well said, LeeRB. DH emigrated from Cuba when he was 6 and still has family there that he hasn't seen since. One day we will go, but as much on our own terms as possible.

Thanks for all the interesting replies. I think I'll check out the dental cement and/or crown replacement kits to keep just in case.

The dentist we visited saw me without an appointment; we just walked in. She was lovely, spoke excellent English (which wasn't an issue since DH and I both speak Spanish), had a very modern office with the equipment I was used to seeing at my dental office in the states. She said that normally she would give me a temporary crown while the permanent one went to their lab for thorough cleaning, etc., but since time didn't permit she would re-cement it. When I got home my dentist said she'd done an excellent job. And, she refused to take ANY money at all! She finally accepted $20 to give to her receptionist!

We've cruised many times, and frankly never had occasion to need a dentist while on board. However, we were in Cozumel for a week and I had a crown come off a front tooth.:eek: We immediately started computer research and were able to locate an excellent dentist with not too much trouble.

Anyway, it just occurred to me to wonder what I'd have done if this had happened during a cruise. I know there is always a physician on board -- does he/she do double duty? Or is there also a dentist along for the ride?

We've done the daysail twice with Mystic Man and had a wonderful time both times. We sailed (well, motored) down the island, spotting whales and dolphins, all the way down to the Pitons, then leisurely back up the coast. I believe we had two snorkel stops, and also pulled in at a couple of places (one where "Dr. Doolittle" was filmed). There is a stop in Soufriere to pick up lunches, which were delicious and substantial, and everyone got off there to pay. The crew was polite and so proud to show off their beautiful island, and delicious rum punch was served throughout.

We will be back in St. Lucia this December and will probably go out with them again.

American Bear, I'm with you on Radiance class, but you lost me on the 24=hr food...come on, do you really want 24 hour food??? Back when they did the midnight buffets the waste was incredible.

The ships are fabulous, the loyalty program has kept us coming back till we are now D+ (probly won't ever be pineapples, but that's ok), and we have found the service overall to be really good to excellent.

I'd like to see some different itineraries, particularly for the smaller ships that could dock in other islands, and -- I know this is really picky -- I'd really love to see something other than the Chateau de Tuesday that they pour!!:p

Just did this same itinerary in late August to celebrate my younger daughter's 21st birthday -- a mom and daughter trip. I have lots of RCI cruises under my belt, and 3 Carnival trips. Will not sail Carnival ever again.

This is a fabulous ship, and a super crew. I think it's also a nice intro to RCI in general. The Voyager class is now their mid-size class, so you can get in idea of what the bigger ships might look like (Freedom and Oasis classes). There's plenty to do, great restaurant venues, and the drydock changes were really nice. The ship looks great.

We loved this itinerary, and had never been to Roatan or Belize before. In Belize we did a cave-tubing trip that we booked online (don't do ship excursions anymore, much easier and cheaper to book your own), and in Roatan we joined some fellow cruisers that we met on our Meet n Mingle thread and took a cab over to Bananarama beach and did a shore snorkel. The cave-tubing trip was one of the most unique and enjoyable excursions I've ever done. We felt perfectly safe on both excursions, and while I do agree that both islands suffer from poverty, I can't really say that it's any worse than say Grenada, Dominica or St. Lucia.

Book the cruise -- you'll have a blast! We did.

Several years ago we did a cruise out of Colon, Panama down to Colombia and the ABC's. Due to the passenger demographic, the cruise was designated as a "Spanish immersion" cruise about 6 months out. Fortunately, DH and I both speak Spanish! The great majority of passengers were Mexican and South American. We had a blast!

Not sure what deck you are on but we've always had afts on AOS (and other Voyager class ships) and love them. The balconies are huge.

I'll be comparing the GS this time around...:D

I'm embarrassed to say that it never occurred to me to ask. I always ask if they are getting off, but from now on if they say no I will certainly ask! Thanks for bringing it up.

Thanks, delirious! We will board AOS on the 30th and I'm so happy to hear your positive comments. We sailed her on a B2B last year about this time and I thought she was tired, tired, tired. I realize they didn't do that much in the drydock, but great service makes it much easier to ignore dated decor. Looking forward to it!

Those annoying tour boats probably look like floating dollar signs to the St. Lucians. Their economy is heavily dependent on tourism, and I'm sure they are more than happy to see us coming, loudspeakers or not.

Marigot Bay is gorgeous, and I for one enjoyed the Dr. Doolittle background.

We booked directly with Mystic Man Tours, and are hoping to repeat that trip in a few weeks. It was one of the most enjoyable daysails we've ever taken, and compared to similar trips in St. Thomas, St. Martin, Barbados (and thru RCCL) was quite a bargain.

Thanks, Bob!

Question for those who may have reserved or had the Ultimate package previously: the website prices it at $55 per day, per person. If you are on a 7 day cruise, do you have to order it for all 7 days or can you purchase a lesser number of days? As a D+ member, I can drink the "chateau de tuesday" for free, of course, but I really do love champagne. :p

Sailed that itinerary on NAV in late August. Ship was really beautiful, with all the refurb updates being well thought out. Great new restaurant venues, lovely D Club. Good itinerary -- we had a blast. I'd sail her again in a heartbeat. Caveat: I live in Louisiana so we could drive. If you had to fly, then that advantage goes away. Quantum looks really interesting, but as you say Anthem will be close to you. Does the itinerary of either sway you one way or the other?

One other thing: Galveston is kinda fun. There's a fabulous restaurant (Rudy and Paco's) that is to die for; very intimate and not inexpensive but some of the freshest and best fish (red snapper) you will ever eat, and the Boardwalk area is fun to walk around. We didn't experience any issues with debarkation, as some have reported.

Whatever you choose, enjoy!

Took my daughter on NAV in late August for her 21st bday. We were excited to try Sabor, since we are both Mexican fiends. Sad to say, we were both a little disappointed. We have traveled frequently in Mexico, understand the difference in Tex-Mex vs "real" Mexican, etc. Just weren't bowled over by Sabor the way were thought we would be based on the rave reviews. Frankly, I can make guacamole that's as good as their tableside version at home. On the other hand, we had exquisite food in Giovanni's, with service to match. But hey -- go to both! You really can't go wrong, and NAV is a gorgeous ship. Enjoy!

A little off-topic, but posting for whoever it might interest! I took my younger daughter on NAV the last week of August to celebrate her 21st birthday, which is Sept. 1. She received a "child's" seapass card, not unexpectedly. She is D and I am D+. What we didn't think through was that the Diamond Lounge servers would refuse to serve her alcohol, even with our explanation (with id) of her age, my offer to sign off as her mother on whatever was needed, etc. Needless to say, it was disappointing. We did not enounter this in the CL, or in any of the restaurant venues.

Please, no flaming about underage drinking. I thought it was unusual that one venue was so strict, and the rest not at all. We hated to be relegated to the CL for our pre-dinner champagne since the D Lounge is so much prettier!

We had a fantastic cruise, though, and I'd sail on NAV again in a heartbeat!