NAGooner

For those of you in Ontario, have you read your Ministry of Health issued COVID-19 vacination receipt (don't know about other Provinces or Territories)?

Mine reads -

• Agent - COVID -19 mRNA
• Product name - Pfizer Biontech COVID-19 Vaccine mRNA
• Further down - You have received two valid doses (after my first dose the receipt read - you have received one valid dose)

Does your second dose receipt read any differently? Ddoes it mention the first dose you had or just as I described above?

If as described above, will this vacination receipt satisfy the US authorities to let you enter their country and the cruise line authorities to board their ship?  Or are we going to require an international vaccine passport?

If I am out to lunch on this feel free just to ignore me!!!

NAGooner

43 minutes ago, Projunior said:

And whose general consensus might that be? That of the people speculating and theorizing on CC on the basis on no known facts?

 

What might be the reaction of airline passengers to Aruba's easing restrictions only on cruise ship passengers but enforcing more stringent requirements on people flying in? Forcing airline passengers to have a rt-PCR test within 72 hours of arrival and to upload test results and to obtain an ED card and to pay the COVID insurance, but allowing cruise ship passengers to slide. Hard to imagine airline visitors happy about that. So unless the islands change their policies, universally, between now and the start of sailing, I will remain skeptical. 

 

I am booked for July 17. As long as I can cancel, I don't have a problem. But my sanguinity is will be placed on hold until I hear something from Celebrity. 

 Whose general consensus might that be - well for one it is the Government of St. Lucia.

Government Information Services press release dated March 23, 2021 (partial), courtesy of St. Lucia Times. Press Release:– Saint Lucia is gearing up to welcome its first international cruise ship since closure to the sector amid the global Covid-19 pandemic. "Following considerable dialogue with local authorities, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has signaled the return of the cruise industry to Saint Lucia after more than a year, naming Her as a port-of-call on a mid-July itinerary, that will see Celebrity Millennium make its first voyage of the season to the destination, as well as to sister islands and homeports of St. Marten and Barbados on its Southern Caribbean route."

And St. Lucia Hospitality and Tourism Association, courtesy of St. Lucia Times March 31, 2021 (partial) "Service Providers anticipate Cruise Tourism Returne - Last week, tourism authorities announced preparations for the possible reintroduction of cruise ships to Port Castries, this summer".

And St. Lucia Tourism Minister, Dominic Fedee, courtesy of Loop News March 22, 2021. “We are enthusiastic that with the advent of science and technology amid this pandemic, we can prepare for a silver lining,” said Tourism Minister Dominic Fedee. “The impact of the cruise sector has been noted the world over and its absence has left an impression on our island’s people. We are therefore looking forward to working within strict protocol to see the successful resumption of the sector,” Fedee added.

Discussions are ongoing between Royal Caribbean and the government appointed oversight committee.

NAGooner

Notamermaid,

Thanks for posting the video of the Scharnebeck twin ship lift, it brought bck fond memories of a day trip quite a few years ago - the thing I remember most about the visit was having to climb the long set of stairs to reach the top (it felt long at the time - it is a 38.00m rise between the lower and upper parts of the canal).  We had to stop at a suitable locale after our visit to recharge on coffee and cake!!!

NAGooner 

Fouremco,

On our last cruise (CB in November 2018) our OBC refund was sent to us, some four to six weeks later, as a US$ cheque (no choice) which we deposited in our US$ account at RBC.

NAGooner

meester_jamie,

The Carnival Miracle will dock at the Mega Cruise Terminal, berth 1 (the one nearest to the Rif Fort).

When you leave the ship head across the  concrete walkway past the Curacao sign, past the tourist booth and the white tent like awnings, keep going to your right and head past the taxi stand and the shops to the port security gate.

When you exit the security gate continue to walk along the decorative foot path, sea on your right, gardens/park on your left. The path jogs to your left, than to your right and goes between the Renaissance Hotel & Casino on your left and shops on your right.

The seating area in front of the Renaissance Hotel is where guests can have breakfast, next to this is the Casino entrance. On the other side, in front of the shops, is a seating area with a number of seats and sun shades (umbrellas) where everyone sits and connects to the free WiFi. This is a good place to meet and takes about 5 to 10 minutes to walk to from the ship.

The actual walk is a lot easier than trying to descibe it as there is only one way to go and it is sort of obvious once you are there.

If you continue down this path you will get to the Rif Fort, walking through the fort gets you to the seawall and the road to the Queen Emma Pontoon Bridge.

NAGooner

cole'snana,

Enerald Beach Resort is about 3.6 miles from Havensight Mall, a 10 to 15 minute ride. The cost for a shared taxi is approximately $8.00 to $10.00 per person. each way.

NAGooner

SlvrFox85,

On the cruises that I have been on to the Caribbean Ship Time has always matched Island Time, regardless as to time of year (St. Thomas is on Atlantic Standard Time and has no daylight saving time). However, if your ship does not observe Island time, and assuming a winter cruise, there will be a 1 hour time difference, ie 8:00 am Island Time will be 9:00 am Ship Time.

If you dock at Havensight it will only take 5 to 10 minutes to get off the ship and get to the tour meeting place (the tour parkng lot adjacent to Gate 3). Private tours are usually scheduled to leave from 30 to 90 minutes after docking (8:30 to 9:30 am) and the tour operators are well aware of the time ships dock.

If the ship says that you are scheduled to arrive at 8:00 am than it is likely that you will dock at 7:30 am and be allowed to leave at 8:00 am, having been cleared by the local authorities. Cruise lines are pretty good at keeping to the planned schedule although sometimes they could be a little late, if eg. two ships are scheduled to dock at the same time.

I am assuming that when you booked your diving excursion you provided details of the ship you were on and the arrival time. If your tour is scheduled to depart at 8:00 am I would suggest that you contact the operator directly to clarify pick-up times, ie how many minutes after the ship docks will I be picked up, unless the small print on your reservation confirmation contains this information.

NAGooner

Port Royal,

In the late November 2017 monthly press conference Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris said that all beaches belong to the Government and that the public has the right to access any and every beach in the federation of St. Kitts & Nevis and that there has to be at least one public landward access to every beach as per the National Conservation and Protection Act  - Caribbean News Now!, December 2, 2017 edition refers (a situation which is quite common in most of the other caribbean islands).

So I can go and sit on the beach on my towel, swim in the sea, drink my duty free drink, eat my local food, etc., and generally conduct myself in an appropriate manner befitting a guest in their country, but I cannot use any of the facilities provided by the hotel or resort without paying for them. 

NAGooner

PandaBear62

Our experience is that on evenings when the ship is in port late, eg on our recent Carribean Princess cruise we were in Curacao until 10:00 pm, anytime dining remained anytime dining but traditional, fixed dining, became open seating dining - 5:30 pm first seating and 7:45 pm second seating became 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm open seating. You showed up anytime between these times and were seated at the next available table for your group, which may or may not have been your regular assigned table.

Traditional diners still went to their respective dining room (Palm Dining Room) as did anytime diners (Island and Coral Dining rooms), there was no co-mingling of diners between the various dining rooms - the changed dining room times were announced in the Princess Patter for that day, under dining guide.

However, just to complicate matters, we were in St. Thomas until 7:00 pm but the anytime and fixed dining times remained the same as always. This would have affected the early fixed seaing times of 5:15 pm (early fixed seating) and 5:30 pm (first seating).

I would check with guest services once onboard to clarifty dining times and options for those late departure ports as there is usually some flexibility built into the system.

NAGooner

Disney Wonder docks at the Havensight Cruise Pier, so it should be a 5 to 10 minute walk from the Pirate Treasure Museum (next to the Paradise Point Base Station) back to the ship.

NAGooner

phillychick,

If you mean your question to be taken literally, it takes about 30 minutes for the actual taxi ride, from when you get into the taxi at the port until you get out of the taxi at the airport.

If you want to know how long it will take to get from the ship to the gate that is a different storey - check out the the "Ports of Call, Canada (Alaska/Pacific Coastal) board" and search there, or search, on the same board, for "Martincath's posts", for more detailed information. It will largely depend on the date/time of year, how many ships are in port that day and when they dock, when your plane departs and whether you have Global Entry or NEXUS - than you should allow 2 to 3 hours for direct flights to the US..

NAGooner

Luvcrusn,

We had the same challenge on our last cruise in August (more nonrefundable OBC than we could use).  A few days before the end of the cruse we received our remark/comments form and it had a place for additional tips. We filled in the names of the staff and the amounts we wanted to give them, took it to guest services, checked that we had filled it out properly and handed it in.

We told the staff members what we had done (the amounts were

added to their wages). One of them came up to us and told us that he had already been advised what we had done and the amount.

The amount of the daily gratuiites goes into the tip pool, additional gratuities, over and above the daily amount, go to the staff member regardless as to how you provided it. If you remove the daily gratuities than any amount given to the staff member goes inrto the tip pool.

NAGooner   

Caribbean Princess is now on its way to Fort Lauderdale, approximately 5 miles, or so, from Philipsburg (at 21:45).

NAGooner

Caribbean Princess was supposed to leave Philipsburg at 17:00 today (Friday Oct. 5) on its way to Fort Lauderdale. As of the time of this reply (20:45) it is still docked.

NAGooner

Hi all,

So, having read a number of threads regarding flight departures I am still confused, hopefully you can help?

We will be one of two ships docking at 07:00 on Sunday September 2, 2018 (a total of 4,000+ passengers). So, assuming that we have a leisurely breakfast, what time, approximately, should we leave the ship to catch a 13:00 flight to Toronto so that we are not rushing (knowing that we have to pick up our luggage, clear Canada customs, line up and catch a taxi, drive to the airport and generally do a repeat at YVR, whilst, at the same time, allowing for a bit of cushion?

We have a choice of either Air Canada or WestJet at that time, alternatively we can catch the next plane, from either airline, at 15:00.

NAGooner

poffles,

Just to give you an idea of on board bottled beer prices (courtesy of the Preisman's Blog):-

Budweiser - $5.50 (January 2016), $6.00 (June 2017)

Heineken - $6.00 (Jan), $7.00 (June)

Stella - $7.50 (Jan), $10.00 (June)

Peroni - $7.50 (Jan), $10.00 (June)

Fullers London Pride - $9.00 (Jan), $10.00 (June)

They change the packages around and charge what they think the market will bear, which often time bears no relationship to local retail prices. So before you would have to pay $7.50 for a Stella, now you have to pay $1.00, plus, in each case, the gratuity.

On our last cruise we had the Classic package, which we found to be generally ok, and opted to pay the difference in price rather than upgrade. If you find that the Classic package doesn't work for you one of you can upgrade to the Premium package whilst onboard.

NAGooner

poffles,

Stella & Peroni are/were $10.00 each. The limit on the classic package is $9.00 per serving. Therefore you will pay the difference plus the 18% gratuity, or $10.00 - $9.00 = $1.00 + $0.18 = $1.18 total.

The Classic package states that you can "Choose from an incredible array of beers, spirits, cocktails, liquers, frozen drinks and wines by the glass up to $9.00 per serving" (December 2017 sailing, booked in North America, other markets may have different conditions attached to the beverage packages).

There are 18 beers on the classic package list and a further 28 beers on the premium package list, but not all may be available on any particuler sailing, e.g. on the sailing I was on Moretti beer (on the classic list) was not available, but Peroni beer (on the premium list) was.

NAGooner.

JerseyGirlatHeart & kdawg954,

A lunch cruise on a catamaran (9:00 to 2:00 or 10:00 to 3:00, approximately), which generally includes swimming/snorkeling with the turtles, swimming/snorkeling at a wreck (they all go to the same dive sites so it can get quite crowded there - boats tend to stagger their times), a general swim around near a beach, lunch and an open bar is good fun even if you don't snorkel or swim. If you don't swim you can stay on board, or if you want to go into the water and are not a strong swimmer you can wear a flotation device or use a noodle, and, in either case, the crew will look after you. A strong rum punch or three will help to calm you down. They also provide a cab, included in the excursion price, to get you to and from the Cat's mooring location.

You will be sailing in the sea so the water can get quite deep, you're likely to be in over your head.

I don't believe that you can have a bad Cat Cruise. The number of passengers probably determines the onboard atmosphere. Check your Ship's roll call.to see if any other cruisers are looking at this activity and check Trip Advisor for other snorkeling with turtles tours.

See below for a partial list of those Cat Cruises that are highly recommended on Trip Advisor and on these boards.

Cats that take 8 to 16 passengers are Calabaza, Silver Moon, Elegance, Good Times, Calypso, Shasta, etc. Larger Cats that take 30 to 40 passengers are Cool Runnings, El Tigre, Jammin', Tiami, etc. All of them are likely to oprovide what you are looking for. Check the CC & Trip Advisor reports to see how party friendly they are, boats with less passangers tend to be more sedate. The larger Cats and Cat cruises organized by the cruise ship tend to be more crowded.

I have been on both Calabaza (a 9:00am departure) and Elegance (a 10:00am departure), each meet your requirements and offer a similar experience, we had a great time on board and I can recommend both of them.

By the way, Calabaza has two cats, where they both booked fort the day you are in port?

Call or email a couple of them to check for availability (or use their websites), and ask them the same questions you posted here. Some of them may be flexible on times, after all there could be a lot of potential customers on the cruise ship you are on (their flexibility may depend on the total number of passangers in port that day and the ship's docking times).

If you dock at 9:00am, and allow 30 minutes to clear whatever they do before you can get off, you will be able to make a cab pick up at the port at 9:45am/10:00am and a cruise at 10:00am/10:15am. You need to allow 15 minutes to get to the pick up point if it is in the port and 30 minutes if it is outside the port.

NAGooner

RockinJ,

Firstly, If you post your question on the St. Lucia board.you are likely to get a better response than if you just post here.

Secondly, try one of the following highly rated tour companies (from TripAdvisor) - Cosol, Serenity LVL, Barefoot Holidays, A Touring Service, Island Man Tour & Taxi, Real St. Lucia, Joe Knows, Spencer Ambroseç James, Smarty, Stannis, etc. Check out their reviews and tineries to make sure they are providing the tour that you are looking for.

For example, the following all offer something similar to your requirements:-

Serenity, Island Tour, $60.00 group, $335.00 private

Spencer Ambrose, Land, Sea & Beach Tour, $105.00 group

Spenser Ambrose, Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break, $90.00 group

Cosol, Island Tour, $75.00 group

Barefoot Holidays, Soufriere Island Delight Tour, $78.00 group

A Touring Service, Soufriere Tour, $45.00 group. $170.00 private (exc. lunch and entrance fees)

Island Man Tours & Taxi, Soufriere Tour $160.00 private (exc. lunch and entrance fees)

NAGooner

mcrcruiser,

Don't know if you have received a reply to your email, they are usually pretty quick, but if you are still intertested in touring with them you may want to check out their "Terms & Conditions".

As they want an upfront payment we went looking for their cancellation terms. If you don't turn up for the tour you forfeit the money you previously gave them (usual stuff), but no mention as to what happens if the ship does not make port. You have to input a related web site to access this document - it looks like they either have a lawyer in the family or have have had some unfortunate dealing with previous customers, it must work for them as it hasn't been updated since 2007.

NAGooner

Has anyone toured with this company lately? A search just gets me comments from years ago. :confused:

Canadarocks,

Where were you looking for comments on this tour company?

I agree with what you are saying re CC, howewver If you go to TripAdvisor and look up Curacao, Things to do, Tours, you will find 146 tours of Curacao; Curacao Actief is listed as number 20, with a rating of 97% (excellent & very good) and has 221 reviews, including quite a few from 2017. They offer a number of tours and airport/hotel transfers so there may not be many reports covering the activity you may be interested in.

I was looking at their east west tour, but I am not that happy with where they stop for lunch, and I don't much like the idea of paying in full up front, so I am still mulling over whether or not I should book with them, or whether to ask them a few more questions.

NAGooner

tunisbridal,

No I haven't taken this tour.

I will be in Aruba on December 7, 2017 and I am looking for a tour for that day, so I searched on TripAdvisor and this was one of the tours I looked at .

The information you gave was somewhat vague, but the picture of the bus helped, so I looked it up and provided the link to let you decide if this was the tour you were looking at and to let others, who maybe familiar with this tour, comment.

This Aruba board does not have any reviews of this tour but TripAdvisor has 48 reviews, all from 2017, with a 98% excellent rating (rated 53 of 151 tours).

NAGooner

.

tunisbridal,

I think you mean the "RockaBeach Tours". They have a beach bus tour from 10:00 to 15:00 inc 3 hour tour plus1 1/2 hrs at a beach, cost $50.00 pp, follow the link

http://www.rockabeachtours.com/

or visit Tripadvisor for more details.

NAGooner

I have tried to go to Cosol Tours website but it is saying the account is suspended? Does anyone know what is going on? We want to book with them for a December cruise.

Sunshine100,

I guess it is - I don't have any special insight, it could just be a glitch or maybe he hasn't paid his bill this month!!. The site will probably be back up soon.

If you were set on touring with Cosol, and can't wait, give him a call at 1 758 719 6697.

Otherwise try one of the other highly rated tour companies which offer similar tours to Cosol's - Serenity LVL, Barefoot Holidays, A Touring Service, Island Man Tour & Taxi, Real St. Lucia, Joe Knows, Spencer Ambroseç James, Smarty, Stannis, etc. Check out their itineries to make sure they are providing the tour that you are looking for.

NAGooner

Hi. My family of 4 will be on the Jewel of the Seas in March. I think it would be fun to swim/snorkel with turtles, but my husband can't swim. I'm assuming most of the vendors provide flotation devices. Do you know which one would be most likely to put his mind at ease? I doubt he'd go in the water, but I don't want him to be a nervous wreck if the kids and I are. Also, what is the water depth typically like on these excursions? thanks!

 

I'm ok with skipping this all together, but if I can find something to make him calm while letting my teens have this once-in-a-life opportunity, it would be a win win.

 

thanks!

Cruiser 123,

No one has responded to you so far, so here goes:-

A lunch cruise on a catamaran (9:00 to 2:00 or 10:00 to 3:00, approximately), which generally includes swimming/snorkeling with the turtles, swimming/snorkeling at a wreck, a general swim around near a beach, lunch and an open bar is good fun even if you don't swim. If you don't swim you can stay on board, or if you want to go into the water you can wear a flotation device or use a noodle, and the crew will look after you. A strong rum punch or three will help to calm you down, but no drinking until after the snorkeling.

You will be sailing in the sea so the water can get quite deep, you're likely to be in over your head. :rolleyes:

I don't believe that you can have a bad Cat Cruise. The number of passengers probably determines the onboard atmosphere. Check your Ship's roll call.to see if any other cruisers are looking at this activity and check Trip Advisor for other snorkeling with turtles tours. See list below a partial list of those Cat Cruises that are highly recommended on Trip Advisor and on these boards.

Cats that take 8 to 16 passengers are Calabaza, Silver Moon, Elegance, Good Times, Calypso, Shasta, etc.Larger Cats that take 30 to 40 passengers are Cool Runnings, El Tigre, Jammin', Tiami, etc.

Call or email a couple of them to check for availability, and ask them the same questions you posted here.

NAGooner