ravensbad
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Posts posted by ravensbad
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There is an app for that... watching your cruise price. It emails you if price changes.
The downside to the automatic emails is it could be 12+ hours before you get the email after the price changes, and it doesn't take into account booking perks (like OBC). I find the emails useful, but I still end up checking the website almost every day. On several occasions I have caught a sale or price drop long before I ever got an email.
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note to self, pack plastic bags and hoard cookies for DH. :)
Fortunately, there is no lack of cookies on this ship... Between the buffet, Park Cafe, and the specialty coffee place we never had to go very far to find something sweet. The white chocolate raspberry ones were my favorite and I'm looking forward to having my fill again this December. The late night pizza at the Park Cafe was very good as well.
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I was on the Serenade last December and will be again this December. The ship was in beautiful shape all around. They were building a new Next Cruise area throughout our cruise, which was kind of annoying at times (very loud, especially in the Guest Services area), but other than that we didn't notice any areas that were out of order or in need of attention. Well, I take that back, the movie theater definitely could have used some sprucing up. It had some broken seats, and the cushions had definitely seen better days, but that's the only area I can think of that wasn't up to par with the rest of the ship.
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My suggestion would be to check the Ports of Call forums:
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Grant price drops after final payment date.
Allow shareholder benefit OBC to be combined with anything.
And a balcony discount that can stack with any promotions
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I was planning to just go to Chankanaab for our first time in Cozumel but I was looking for alternatives to cover my bases and I noticed that Discover Park Mexico offers a combo ticket that would include both parks as well as lunch and transportation between the parks: http://discovermexicopark.com/experiences/chankanaab/
I'm curious if anyone has tried to do both of these parks in the same day. We are in port from 8am-5pm (both parks close at 4pm) so I guess that would give us 3-4 hours in each park. Do you think this is enough time to do and see everything without having to rush through it? We don't really care about the tastings/etc. at Discover Mexico, we would just want to check out the displays and maybe one of the shows. And we won't be doing any of the wildlife encounters at Chankanaab but we would like to see the ruins exhibit, the sea lion show and other wildlife, and also fit in some snorkeling. I would really like to make the most of our day in port, but I would rather only go to one park and save the other one for another time if it means we have to rush through everything and not enjoy it. But if 3-4 hours each is plenty of time to see and do everything at both parks then this sounds like a great thing for us.
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We did Stingray + Snorkeling excursion. It was wonderful, Capt Chip and crew were amazing.
Oh, so no Turtle Farm then? Darn.
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Hey there,
We were with them this last Thursday and it was a blast. The name of the company is Stingray Sailing. Highly recommend them.
Thanks for your reply. I did actually look at their website: http://www.stingraysailing.com/index.html
All I see is one tour listed, $65pp, and it's just Stingray City and some snorkeling. Is this the right place? Did you book something custom with them?
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While Sugar Beach does a day pass, it's very limited and really not worth the money at all. Doesn't include watersports, etc.
You can visit the resort yourself without a day pass, especially the beach which is the main draw...ALL beaches in St Lucia are public.
Spencer Ambrose offers a day trip that's excellent for those wanting the beach time without the drive (1.15-1.5 hour drive one way at $90us one way taxi). His Beach Break is speedboat to Sugar Beach and back, with about 5 hours at the beach / resort. Includes lunch and drinks along the way.
Sugar Beach provides free lounge chairs and palapas for shade for day trippers off to one side of the Beach, and if you go with Spencer, you have first pick of those chairs. You can also spread your towel our anywhere you like along the beach - just can't use the hotel's beds or umbrellas without renting then... You can patronize the beach bar and restaurant if you want - super expensive though, ie $18us plus service charge and VAT for cocktails...lol. You can book an awesome couples massage at the spa for something romantic - amazing rainforest setting, private mineral bath for part of the treatment, etc.
Good luck and enjoy!
Somehow I missed they were going to St. Lucia. That is also on our itinerary this December and there are a lot of good options here as well. Lots of highly rated Land and/or Sea tours, beach breaks, etc. We ended up booking the land and sea adventure with Spencer Ambrose tours. It's a little more expensive but it offered the best combination of stuff we wanted to see along with more time at the beach than other tours (around 1 hour with others, 2 hours with Spencer). Plus, you get to ride in a speedboat :D
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The ports of call forums are a great resource for researching excursions. I have been to 2 of your islands and will be going to a third this December.
For St. Maarten we booked an island tour with Bernard's Tours, who is highly recommended and is very well rated. My only complaint was stopping at the beach in the middle of the tour, I wish it had been at the end. There also just wasn't that much interesting stuff to see other than Maho beach. You stop and see a marina, a scenic overlook, a market, Orient beach, and the aforementioned Maho beach. Maho was definitely the best thing on the tour, but the other stops just didn't get me that excited. Don't get me wrong, it was a good tour and a fun day, but it just doesn't compare with St. Kitts for us. You can see my review at Trip Advisor here: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g147346-d1840452-r333167609-Bernard_s_Tours-St_Maarten_St_Martin.html
For St. Kitts we booked an island tour with Royston Tours and it really was the best excursion we did on our cruise. St. Kitts has so much neat historical stuff to see on the island (unlike St. Maarten), it was an awesome day. Again, you can see my Trip Advisor review here: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g147374-d628726-r333176432-Royston_Tours-St_Kitts_St_Kitts_and_Nevis.html
I researched Barbados quite a lot for our upcoming cruise and picking one excursion was difficult. There seems to be a lot of neat stuff to do and see on the island, but there also looks to be multiple options for really good snorkeling. In the end, we decided to go snorkeling with Calabaza but we will definitely have to come back to Barbados a few more times to experience everything the island has to offer.
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In my research so far I've found a few non-cruiseline Altun Ha tours:
Shore Excursioneer offers several: https://www.shoreexcursioneer.com/belize-city
Way to Go Tours: http://www.waytogotoursbelize.com/tours/altun-ha-tour/
Coral Breeze Tours: http://www.coralbreezetours.com/Belize/Mayan/ruins/Altun/Ha/cruise/tour/current_category.15/Product.10/tours_add.html?t_product=10
Island Marketing: https://belizecruiseexcursions.com/excursion/altun-ha-belize/
I have to post the disclaimer that I have no experience with any of these companies, but I have seen positive reviews from other people. Hope that helps!
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Surprised no one answered this. I'm not sure about your first question, but it does seem from the description that you would be snorkeling at the barrier reef. I have seen it mentioned that Bannister Island is now called Starfish Island so that sounds like a trip to Starfish Island with maybe some snorkeling thrown in? I just got done reading a lot of reviews for this port, in particular I found Mitsugirly's reviews very helpful. Here is her in depth review of Bannister/Starfish Island:
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=36498626
Your third option definitely sounds like the Shark/Ray alley that people talk about, and that trip likely includes some snorkel time at the reef which sounds close to what you're looking for (and it looks like a lot of fun). Again, a useful Mitsugirly review:
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=44890530
If you weren't interested in the sharks and rays maybe go with the first one? Hope that helps.
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I was just reading Mitusgirly's cavetubing review, located here:
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=30667696
She mentions that on the way up her group was given the option of going the longer way, where you get to tube through one extra cave, or the shorter way. Some companies apparently don't give groups the option, but I haven't researched enough to determine who does what. I do know that the company she went with was cavetubing.bz
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Yes, existing thread running already:
Dang, I looked and didn't see anything and it was right there halfway down the front page. Thanks.
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Saw this story today, very sad. Curious how a lifeboat "became detached" during a lifeboat drill.
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Good points! We're going to try an indi local tour company called Stingray Tours, which has very good trip advisor ratings, this time around. The tour includes snorkling, feeding the rays and stop at turtle place. $240 for a family of 4. Can't be beaten for a tour hard-capped to max 25 guests.
Do you have a website for them, and a link to their tripadvisor? As you might imagine, searching for any combination of "Stingray" "Tours" and "Grand Cayman" brings back way too many results that aren't what I'm looking for.
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Thanks, Ravensbad......sounds like we we in for a wonderful cruise experience.
With 11 days, I assume we will have two formal nights?
I booked the drink package today before prices increase.
We did have 2 formal nights on the 10-night cruise so I assume there would be 2 on the 11-nighter as well.
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Thanks to Bob for the link, Trainman for the pics and thanks to everyone else for your replies.
I'm happy to hear about all the glass for viewing. Although Anthem was our last cruise and was awesome, she lacked the viewing spots and felt more enclosed. We had all the bells and are looking for a more traditional cruising experience. Of course she was built for cooler climates.
My dad was a semi-pro pool player who passed in 1974. He would be amazed about a pool table at sea. Anthem has one in upper Music Hall.
Sounds like we made a good choice.
Anyone else ?
I don't really have more to add beyond what everyone else has said about the ship. I will say that we feel fortunate we ended up on the Serenade for our first cruise. We loved all of the views of the sea. Every restaurant, bar, and in fact, most of the public spaces (other than the shops, centrum, and theater) have views of the ocean. We really felt like we were on a cruise (we were in an interior, so no ocean views from the room), it was awesome. We were on the 10-day itinerary last December and loved it so much that we booked the 11-day itinerary for this December. I've done some researching and have found that most of the newer ships don't have nearly the same amount of views available and I'm afraid that after being spoiled by the Radiance class we will be disappointed sailing anything else. We don't really care for all the bells and whistles that appeal to a lot of people (Flowrider, iFly, Ropes Course, North Star, etc.), anyways.
Service was superb across the board, and that is not an exaggeration. People genuinely went out of their way to make us happy. A good example was the bartender at the casino bar. I was waiting to get my soda refilled and he was pretty busy, so I decided to try again later and went back to what I was doing (a CC organized slot pull). Well, when it died down the bartender actually came and found me and asked if he could refill my drink. He had noticed I walked away because he was busy and wanted to make sure I got what I needed.
The 10-day itinerary is changing next year so I'm hoping to book it again and enjoy a 3rd cruise on this ship.
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We did an island tour with Royston Tours and it was a great day. And it was pretty cheap too, only $45 for a whole day tour. Here is his website:
http://www.roystontoursstkitts.com/
We originally were supposed to have Royston but his van had broken down so he sent his brother and he was fantastic.
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This thread says Crown Bay, don't know if things have changed since 2012
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Barbados is supposed to have some pretty nice snorkeling. We will also be there in December and if you head over to the ports of call board you can find lots of discussion on the various operators. Your two options are either go to one of the beach clubs and then get one of the guys there to take you out snorkeling with the turtles and to the wreck for $15-20 per person (around 90 minutes total) or book one of the 4-5 hour catamaran snorkeling excursions through Silvermoon, Calabaza, etc. for $110-115 per person. I'm sure Royal offers similar excursions but we decided to book our own.
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It's $70 per person but you can choose to eat at any combination of the 3 specialty restaurants. So you could eat at the same one all 3 times if you like, or split it up. Whatever floats your boat.
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In am using CHROME and this is going on day 3/4 for me of the Ooops vacation message :rolleyes:..I just tried again a few minutes ago
I've found that once you get this message in one browser it tends to get "stuck" and even if the website is back up you will continue to get the "on vacation" message. Try clearing your cookies and cache and restart your browser and see if that works.
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Has anyone used these gift cards with a TA? I asked my TA about them but she has been, quite literally, no help. She sent me a link to the Carnival FAQ which has no information about using a card through a TA. Can I buy the card and apply it directly to my balance, or do I need to send her the gift card number and she uses it to pay on the balance? What about using it for stuff on board, do I need to buy on board credit with it ahead of time or something, or can I just take a card with me on board and use it at guest services, or what?
edit: I found my answer in another thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2373781
Upgrade Fairy - Sort of
in Royal Caribbean International
Posted · Edited by ravensbad
I like *************** because of how customizable the alerts can be.
edit: well, I guess CC doesn't let this site get linked for some reason (it's not an online TA...) Just google search something about cruise + fish + .net