alwalaska

Interesting. I don't think I had heard of them. Is the Venetian the "pants required" main included dining room?

I haven't been on the Dawn since the refurb in 2016, plus, I can't seem to remember much about the ship itself from our most recent Dawn cruise. Are there outdoor games available like ping pong, shuffleboard, etc? Which lounges have evening entertainment? We usually enjoy the singers or guitar players that they have had in the past. Is there a card/game room? Do they still have daily puzzle sheets available in the library to pick up each morning? Thanks!!

Can you please tell me more about the tender ticket kiosks. Is this on all ships? We have a tender port on the Dawn in February. Does Platinum help at all with tendering? I remember one time we were told to get at the back of the 3 flights of stairs line. Our benefit was not needing a ticket, but they were calling tickets so fast, the line was always crazy long.

Yes, and the one video where the title makes you believe they show the area outside of the port and the walk to the sites in the town stops at the exit of the port and says there are a bunch of police, etc just outside of the port area, so they aren't going any farther. None of the videos I've found answer questions about whether or not there is a charge for the chairs and umbrellas in the port area. Whether or not it is safe to walk from the port area to the fort. I like using Google maps to "walk" around areas, but the street views for the port area are several years old. If you know of any videos that actually go over walking from the port to the cathedral and/or fort, can you please post the links? Thanks.

Since this thread seems to be full of questions and not answers, I have been scouring the Internet. I found a thread on TA where someone said it was safe and that a common form of transportation is a Moto Concho, if you are willing to try it. Just Google it. Also, a person who went replied with the following info: 2. Re: Taino bay and walkability Jan 16, 2022, 12:29 AM Save I just returned from Puerto Plata as a cruise ship shop at Taino Bay, this was one of the best carribean ports I've ever been to . They created a very nice fake shopping village with bars, restaurants and a resort pool as well as numerous beach chairs on a sandy( area without ocean access). From the cruise port it is an pleasant walk to town with an umbrella street, Amber Museum ( 2 bucks and free wifi) Church and scenic downtown, we walked back along a well paved clean ocean route to the fort and then back to the pier. Big Kudos to the local government for having a sufficient police presence along the route to the downtown. Hopefully someone who knows more will reply here sometime in the future.

Thank you so much for putting this all together and sharing!

Are you asking for the return trip or at the start of the cruise? Also asking about airport or cruise port? We've had friends have major problems with lines and flights at Orlando, so I would go 2-3 hours before the flight at a minimum. But then again, I worry a lot about missing flights, so I'm always early. I don't know about the buses from NCL, but the drive from MCO to Port Canaveral is normally about 40-60 minutes. The longest amount of time is getting out of the airport and onto 528.

Does the app have the same level of information on the activities as the Dailies? On a prior cruise it seemed like the entertainment descriptions and some of the activities were only in the paper dailies. Also, do you still get a paper Daily in your cabin each night, or do you have to hunt them down?

Thank you for the information! The ships I am seeing are NCL Dawn, Vision of the Seas, Rhapsody of the Seas, and Celebrity Equinox. Equinox probably has to go to the Mega Pier, but the other 3 are fairly similar in size. Maybe the location I pulled the schedules from is incorrect on what ships will be there.

It looks like there will be at least 3 ships, plus us (NCL Dawn) in Port of Feb 14. When I've been researching, I've been seeing 2 @ the Mega pier and 1 next to the floating bridge. Any idea where the 4th ship will dock? Also, I would love to know which berth we will be in. I found info through October on curports.com, but I can't find anything beyond that. It will make a difference on the order that I plan on doing things since we will be doing our own thing and not using a ship excursion. Thanks in advance for any help.

Our only visit was in 2014 and we rented a car. Back then, there was an Avis at the Mega Pier. We docked at the other port and walked over to the Mega pier. We loved Shete Boke and the flexibility we had with the rental car. I did go full coverage since we were in a foreign country, but it was easy to get around. Curacao is always at the top of the list of islands that we have visited and Shete Boke is the biggest part of that. We stopped at several different locations in the park and also did a little hike.

So far I have only found one review that was relevant, it was on TA, and that person said they paid $65 for the cab and they waited 3 hours while they explored at the top and took them back as well. I'd love to find out more. I hope eventually people start posting experiences again.

The one time I had this happen it was also option 3. They were very apologetic when I repeated (it was very clear in the first email) that it was a Cruise Critic group and how it had always worked in the past. They did still offer refreshments, etc. at an extra cost if we wanted them.

Seriously? I would not have thought I need to pack tissues. Good to know.

We eat early too. Typically, that works in our favor, but not always.

I love your suggestions. Thanks.

No, but I have heard the Renaissance by the airport is really nice and with a mall right out the back door. We were looking at points, not $$, so I'm not sure how the prices compare. Overall, AC is not one of my favorite choices when it comes to Marriott. We mostly stay at Residence, Towneplace, Fairfield, and sometimes Courtyard and higher if we have the points or are celebrating something special. I'm not sure where in that list AC would fall. I've only stayed at one for work a couple of times.

Thanks for verifying. That was the conclusion I came to as well.

Is this something official (where they will eventually update the web pages and coupons, or something you just need to know about? Also, what counts as an appetizer at La Cucina?

I gave up calling after a couple of locations that used to offer shuttles to the cruise port no longer offered them and decided we would Uber/Lyft. The list posted above says it was updated April 2022, so that seems like the best place to start, but compare the locations on Trip Advisor and call the hotel as well. Reviews for the Tahitian (supposedly offers both transfers free) are awful.

We are staying at the Sheraton just a bit farther down the road from the Marriott near the cruise port. We stayed there this past February and really enjoyed both the hotel and the customer service we received. It is in the Marriott family and from a points standpoint is slightly less than the airport Marriott. We are staying at the airport Marriott post cruise because we have a super early flight and I don't like worrying about traffic and transportation when I have an early flight. There is a lot to see walking distance from the hotel and along the free trolley (about 2-3 blocks away), so we aren't renting a car on either end. We will likely 3 times (airport to hotel, hotel to port, and port to airport/hotel). I'm looking for transportation alternatives that may be less expensive but haven't found anything yet.

You can check these out for now... https://profcruise.com/norwegian-dining-and-restaurant-menus-2022/ I've seen the new menus mentioned a couple of times, so I'm interested to see what those look like. We have an 11 day cruise on the Dawn in Feb and it is a pretty unique itinerary, so it will be hard to find the menus. To the OP, the MDR menus typically are fairly consistent across ships, but do vary based on location, food availability, and to a small degree the chef's preferences. I haven't sailed NCL since 2019 and that was the Pride of America that is a little unique, so my info could be outdated.

For me it is the convenience of throwing it in my backpack for shore excursions. I actually prefer the water on board and would refill our platinum water bottles and put them in the fridge for the next day, but now with the boxes of water, that probably won't work. 😞 Have to bring my thermal cups since the other water bottles I have will leak.

BirdTravels is on Breakaway and said she had Coke 0 there, at least for now. I hope they do have. I will make do with Diet Coke.

As always, I am loving all of your info. Thank you for posting. Too bad you can't go on our ship and itinerary before we do to help out with that info. 😉