Aauclair

The Uber locations are very clearly marked, as is the Taxi stand and the 747 Bus.

The easiest way to get downtown would be Uber. If for whatever reason that is not working for you, you can easily get a taxi ( the line can be long but it moves fast ) or even get a town car ( there is a counter inside near the taxi area ).

1 minute ago, spenecer said:

Fellow passengers seem very upset about the cancellation of St. Lucia but it’s the only port where I didn’t have anything planned. I didn’t book any excursions because it seemed like we wouldn’t be there very long in the daylight (sunset being around 6:30). I’m trying to claim that I saw the future but my daughter claims not. 

( we did not have a great St Lucia excursion or experience…chaotic pier experience, weird excursion transfer, a barely okay activity…our bus nearly got hit by a truck…I would have preferred a sea day;)).

6 minutes ago, spenecer said:

We left at 6:30pm. As I was getting Drink #5 (Lavender Patch), the captain or Daniel the Cruise Director came on to announce that St. Lucia would be cancelled and we would have an extra hour in St. Kitts. We will be arriving at 8:00AM instead of 9:00AM. 

Yikes. That does not seem to be a fair trade. So you have an extra sea day tomorrow?
 

We loved our day on St Kitts, so you have a fab day to look forward too. 

8 minutes ago, spenecer said:

The Snorkel Trip to Turtle Bay involved a lot of snorkeling. At least an hour, maybe close to two hours of snorkeling but the turtles clearly had other things to do today because we didn’t see any turtles. 
 

I had bought an underwater bag for my phone to take pictures. The bag kept my phone completely dry. It also prevented my phone from recognizing any touches under water. The only photos that happened were from me taking photos above water. So, my phone floated in Turtle Bay for two hours unscathed but I don’t have any photos to show for it. 
 

On the other hand, the excursion was a LOT of exercise, like at the end my legs were more tired than after an hour on the exercise bike. I am exhausted. My daughter said she  is fine (I hope she feels the same way when she is 50-mumble-mumble years old).  I was going to take a nap in the sun but I feel completely rejuvenated after two frozen drinks from the Waves Pool Bar (thank you liver for your generous creation of alcohol dehydrogenase, amen).

 

The excursion puts you on an air conditioned bus from the pier to a ‘launch’ somewhere on Curaçao. You get to fill out some liability disclaimer forms on the way. Don’t sue anyone. They are not liable. I got to ensure them that i would not hold them liable for my daughter. There is a driver for the bus and a tour guide who talks a bit about the island as you drive. It was a little informative but not very informative (a historian is not a prior occupation for our tour guide). Then we got on the dive boat which had a ‘marine toilet’. If you have an old lady bladder, you will appreciate the inclusion a toilet. I did (a lot).  You then zip very fast in the boat to turtle bay while they explain the snorkel mask, the fins and how to use the toilet. There is no time for anything else. 
 

Once at the snorkel site, one guide led us around the area with informative information while the other made sure nobody drowned. I got to see one person get a cramp rubbed out.

 

The snorkel mask and fins are provided. I, once again, ended up with a mask which was too big so  it kept loosening and leaking during the entire excursion. I’m sure I have a small head or some kind of issue since this always happens when I snorkel. My mask did fog, but I spit in it which I noticed wasn’t being advised by the tour operators. I think is probably too dangerous now with HIV and other diseases, but I spit in mine! And my view was crystal clear after that!

 

Wild animals cannot be guaranteed and I thought it was a good tour even sans turtles. 

I am so sorry your tour was turtle free. Been on a few excursions where the wildlife has not shown up ( whales are notorious for this ). 
 

Glad you enjoyed it anyways, and now with all the exercise, you have no excuse not to sit around and nurse a drink…or three?

18 minutes ago, spenecer said:

Day 4

I left my sunglasses at home so when we got to San Juan, I stopped at Sunglass Hut to look at another pair of Raybans. My daughter very quietly excoriated me for considering spending $400 on a pair of sunglasses so I ended up getting a cheap pair at CVS on Sunday morning before we embarked. I am pretty sure I have lost the cheap pair of sunglasses somewhere yesterday between the glass of Champagne and the Eastern Legacy. And now we all know why excessive drinking is bad for you.  Am I going to stop, no, because I have three days left on this cruise. My cruising co-worker also told me that a drink package wasn’t worth it because there was no way to get 5.3 drinks in the evening after a day on land. I am sure proving him wrong!

Here are two photos of Curaçao taken from Deck 15. I’m writing this post on my AT&T International Day pass as I wait for the girl to rise. She was pretty crabby yesterday during the excursion because we got up early for an 8:15, so today we have a late (11:00) excursion.  I would walk to the city and see the pretty buildings but I’m afraid to leave her on the ship since it is a ‘remove from cruise’ offense to leave a minor on the ship by themselves. And they definitely flagged her yesterday when we got on/off the ship. As my daughter says, ‘I have no rights yet.’

We are booked for the Snorkel Trip to Turtle Bay through NCL so I think all of my views of the town will be long distance.  

There can be no crabbiness while swimming with turtles, I promise you! I hope your girl loves it! I loved hearing my almost 6’ 14 year old screaming underwater when the turtles swam to, under and by him:). 

4 minutes ago, spenecer said:

Day 3, Drink #7 - Eastern Legacy

The bar line at Headliners is really long and now that the hour is later, there are many empty seats, so I snuck off to Maltings to get a drink. My daughter has abandoned the field for bed. It turns out the 18+ really means that all the songs were written decades before she was born and she didn’t recognize anything. On the hand, I could sing along. 

You mean SHOULD sing along;)…

2 hours ago, amygutman said:

We booed the Epic for November for a TA - the Haven was literally 1/2 price over other Havens for the same-ish TA itinerary. Even though we know the pool is uncovered (hence, the cheaper fare), and the ship gets not-so-glowing reviews, I think if you go into the trip knowing these things, then it's not worth complaining. 

 

As the mother of an eye-rolling 13 yo boy, I feel your pain, and you are giving DH and I a good laugh at your initial postings. Can't wait to follow along. 

 

Warmest, Amy

We just came off the Haven on the Epic and had the best time. The staff was outstanding and they totally catered to our teen:). So many good snacks and always a chocolate milk in the fridge. We have been in the Haven on two other ships and The Epic was as great as our other experiences. Maybe it depends on the staff, partly, in which case, we struck gold:). Have fun!

1 hour ago, spenecer said:

I got us waterproof clear bags for our iPhones for the turtles and snorkeling. I hope they work. They had good reviews on Amazon. I also bought water shoes as I wasn’t sure if the tours provided them like the snorkeling equipment. 
 

My daughter has promised to attend all the entertainment with me, possibly to ensure that I make it back to our cabin if I’m too drunk.  She has told me that nobody listens to the Beatles and Elton Jon anymore but on TikTok everyone is playing Flowers by Miley Cyrus. For what it is worth, I know some of the lyrics to the song now and could totally belt it out at Karaoke.  Do the Howl at the Moon performers take requests?  I’m pondering what naughty song I could request that would horribly embarrass her. 

Howl at the Moon is all requests! If you add a couple of dollars OR a beer for the boys and a cranberry vodka for Genesis, you will definitely get consideration…add that you want to mortify your teen and they may be all over it! Miley is possibly in their repertoire ( so is Baby Got Back…). 
 

The  Elton John shows are really good - not imitating him really, kind of a tribute to him. The second show is very different than the first ( good broadway feel ). I was surprised how much I liked it. The Beatles is more imitation. My kid really liked the Elton John show ( summer camp songs he knows ) and didn’t like The Beatles ( despite being raised in them ). 
 

Yep. Our guy was the only kid at the table full of overly nice seniors. He would have crawled under the table if that was possible...

Anyone getting you to the turtles will be great. If it is the same spot, be warned that there is a man who will yell at everyone from the pier - he is harmless but very loud. Also...water shoes. Teen absolutely refused to put them on...and then did because the rocks were rough. There are no photos with him in those shoes. 

Also, absolutely find a waterproof camera ( even a cheap one ) for the turtles. They get really close and the photos are amazing! We even had a pelican land on us. Maybe don't tell her that. 

If you can get her to go to Howl at the Moon with you, do it. We couldn't get our kid to go but it is a lot of fun. 

You are hysterical:). We survived and thrived on the Epic three weeks ago with our 14 year old ( poor kid…I booked the trip on the wrong week of his March Break, so while he got a three week March Break, we could bring no one with us and he was stuck with just us ). 
 

He completely rejected the teen club. 

Aruba and St Kitts had awesome beaches, We did the Aerial Tram in St Lucia which was interesting if your kid likes naturey things. We had a guide tell us about all the things that can kill you in the rainforest:). 
 

Pro tip: book the swim with the turtles tour in Curacao with Samurai Tours - total hit with the teen. Also Teppanayaki…but basically he loved the buffet and all the ice cream he could eat. 
 

Pro Pro Tip: unlimited wifi for the teen paid off. Had him find five weird and interesting facts about every stop every morning. I know people criticize unlimited wifi for kids on the ship but they don’t usually have teens. He was not on his phone the whole time;). 
 

I hope you have an awesome time and as with all things, the Free At Sea drink package helps with everything:)

We just got off the Epic and we had a great time. We ate well, had great stops and tons of good entertainment.

We have also sailed over New Year’s ( on the Bliss ) with our kids and that was memorable - lots of families with kids of all ages.
 

My advice, because these are big ships, is to try and book everything as early as you can. The big shows always seemed to have room on the Epic ( we were on a full ship ) but the smaller locales where you can’t reserve ( Cavern Club, Howl at the Moon ) took getting there early to get a good seat ( or changing seats as people left ). Take all the specialty dining you can. 
( we did Teppanyaki and Cagneys ). We sailed Haven on both so I do not have cabin info outside of there ( but if you can swing Haven…do it! Your life will be much easier as you will have the concierge who can organize everything for you ). 
 

We made a reservation for Taste ( MDR ) but we didn’t really need to. The meal was delicious. 
 

The only tiny criticism I had is that my white shoes got stained orange on the ship. There is an issue sometimes with blowback from the smokestacks that can cause this ( only found out about it after my shoes were stained ). We were at the basketball court when this happened. 

Have fun! 

1 hour ago, ashkay16 said:

Been on NCL before but first time Haven this July out of NY .  How is nyc check in for haven guests ?   Also what time is Haven bar open till each night .  Thanks in advance . 

Haven check in in NY was the fastest Haven check in we have had. It was seamless and we were on the ship within 20 minutes. The whole parking the car to being on the ship took about 45 minutes - kind of crazy. Getting out was as easy:). Have a great cruise. 

I loved the FF Haven room we had. We had a ton of space, it took no time at all to get to the Haven restaurant and pool area and I really enjoyed the experience of being able to see where we were going. The balcony was fine, just different and we did not find it's size to be a negative. 

It is noisier but not in a way that interrupted our sleep at all - we always knew when we were arriving into a port!

I like trying different rooms and would book a FF room again.

On 2/4/2023 at 4:20 PM, eileeshb said:

Did you feel the 70-200 had sufficient range on the boats? 
I have a sigma ex 70-200 f2.8 but I also have a canon EF L 100-400 f4.5-f5.6 and a Sigma EX 100-300 f4.5-5.6 the canon lens is a legacy of my sports photography and the sigma 100-300 was my late father’s which was used for surf photography.  Both the longer lenses are over a decade old, heck I’m pretty sure the sigma is from 2006. I’m in two minds as to whether it’s worth hauling one of the longer lenses with me when the shorter one is faster.

I was really happy with many of the images I got with my 70-200 f2.8 - great shots of passing islands, seals and whales and it was more than enough for the glaciers. I have printed many of those images and they remain favourites. I love shooting off the top of the ship while sailing. I have the 100-400 f4.5-5.6 now and I am debating between the two of them for my next cruise in a few weeks ( so not much help there am I?). You can't go wrong with the faster one, but what if you run into Alaskan surfers...then you might miss the 100-300;). ( I am joking not joking...I love photographing surfers, one of the reasons I got the 100-400 this year ). I love the challenge of thinking which two lenses I would bring if I could only bring two...it would have to be the 70-200 F2.8 and then my Sigma Art 35mm F1.4. And then I would sneak my FujiX100 on as well;). 

Bring them all:). Alaska was one of my favourite cruises, with many of my favourite images. I tend to print my images quite large and would have been devastated without my 70-200 f2.8. Whales off the ship, islands covered in seals, a glacier calving in front of me, park rangers jumping from their boat to ours...never a dull moment. But then my 50 f1.2 for the wildflowers and moss in Juneau and family moments. And then my 24-70 F2.8 for everything in between. 

You will love this cruise, as a photographer. Bring mittens and a hat, it gets chilly on top but make sure you get out there! Enjoy.

13 hours ago, flcraigs5 said:

is there good snorkeling at GSC? Trying to decide if we should bring our gear.

For the snorkelers in our group ( think Australia Great Barrier Reef as their last snorkel ), it was cute but not incredible. For our first time snorkelers, they loved it:). The underwater garden is not a totally clearly marked area, so there is room for exploration. There were some fish, but not a lot, when we were there. 

No specific Haven area ( we were in Haven on the Bliss a few weeks ago ). We rented a large cabana and that was terrific for our gang of 7. We were told all cabanas were sold out but asked to be put on a waiting list. One became available quite quickly. We appreciated the shade, comfy seats, little fridge and terrific bar service to the cabana. We were steps from the BBQ and the food truck. Our cabana was 499$ I believe. 

If you decide not to rent a cabana, when you get off the tender, take the little tram to the far side of the beach after collecting some floats and snorkeling gear if you want. There is a much quieter beach there which is lovely.  There is a food truck, the BBQ area, a bar and bathroom facilities. Lots of seating available until at least 11 AM when it finally got a little busy. It is a 8 minute walk back to the underwater garden and straw market if you feel like doing that. The main beach was super crowded and there were longer lines for everything. 
 

Oh! Bring bug spray! We all got no-seeum bites! Still had a lovely day:)

Hanno Myer 

Ship - NCL Bliss

Deck - 13

Stateroom # - 13706

Stateroom Category – H7

Starboard or Port Side - Starboard

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – Very quiet stateroom with one exception...and this is not necessarily a negative! Because you are in the very front of the ship, you hear when the anchor is deployed and when the ship is arriving into port. This was actually really neat, as I was awoken ( again, not a bad thing in my case ) and able to see our arrival into a pre dawn NYC  - amazing! As for noise from other rooms? We heard nothing. 

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - Yes

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – Balcony is smaller and enclosed for this room, as you are directly under the bridge. A little obstructed if your whole family is crowding around to watch the pier runners, but also not windy at all on cooler legs of the trip. 

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - Small

Was wind a problem? - No

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - Not at all

Any specific problems with this cabin? - No! It was amazing. This cabin was large enough for our family of 7 to celebrate New Year's Eve dinner in it, comfortably. We were three in the room normally, 2 in the bedroom and with our 11 year old sleeping on the generously sized pull out couch. 

Any other comments? We would definitely sail in this room again. 

The large Villas are terrific ( could fit your group easily, with some people even lounging on the floats included ), but could pose a mobility/safety problem since the ramp you need to climb up to access many of the villas is quite steep. Going up would be tricky if he has knee issues and going down could be unsafe as you end up moving pretty fast by the bottom. With proper support, you could make it work...but if he wants to move around the area a lot, then it might be a problem. Perhaps there are large villas with no ramps that you could request. 

The Silver Cove options would not have as much of a problem but are a hike from the straw market. 

That said, the BBQ, bar and food truck near our large villa provided everything we needed and it was so much quieter and nicer. And close to the bathrooms. We went to the bigger beach for snorkelling but ended up just enjoying the smaller lagoon close to us for the rest of the day.

Have fun! 

We successfully added a person very last minute on a RCCL cruise 4 years ago. It was not difficult, took one phone call and about a 1/2 hour to confirm. 

Good luck!