Miss Vickie

I forget the name of the beach, but it's past Darkwood. Cab ride takes about 30-40 minutes, and again, I don't remember how much it was. The restaurant and beach are beautiful and relaxing, the food is delicious, well worth it.

Last time I was in Old San Juan, a friend took me to a store that sold only merchandise that was made in Puerto Rico. I would love to find that store again, but do not remember the name or location. It had art, Christmas ornaments and miscellaneous hand-made items. Is anyone familiar with it?

Puerto Rican Arts on Forteleza. I love that shop!

We're booked on JW for 1/24 and 1/31/15. If you book for that timeframe jump over to our roll call and say hi!

We book ours starting a year out, but virtually always go with private excursions, never Rccl's.

I'm seeing prices of just over 1100 to just over $1200 for Jewel on 1/31/15. If your price includes gratuities and air, you're in the ballpark, if not, that's too high.

Hello,

 

Anybody have any leads on if there is a place near St. Johns, Antigua for SUP paddleboard rentals?

 

Thanks

Adventureantigua.com has SUP available, $65 for the day. When you go to the website click on the book now link, and it's on the list of available activities.

My son went from Philadelphia to Cleveland via Atlanta. And due to a missed connection ended up having to spend the night in Atlanta.

Cleveland to Chicago to St. Thomas to San Juan

We bought ncc's on our January 2014 cruise, with the intention of using them when we booked our 2016 cruise. When the January 2016 itineraries came out in April our TA, who was not the TA with whom we booked our 2014 cruise, had us book the cruise through RCI then transfer the reservation to him. Worked like a charm. We got the cabin we wanted, the OBC. from the MCPC, plus the OBC from the TA.

That's interesting, and must be a difference between the iPhones made for AT&T and Verizon.

I don't believe the difference is in the device, it's the difference between the 2 carriers. Verizon does support it, AT&T was requiring a particular plan at one point, and would support it if you bought a family plan of some sort. I don't know AT&T's current status.

I, too, have heard, although I haven't tried, that Skype doesn't work well on board due to internet speeds.

To the OP: Congrats on the new grandbaby!

You will be able to send and receive texts. Confirm the costs with Verizon, but I believe it's $0.50 to send texts and $0.05 to receive texts. Note that these are SMS (text only) messages, no photos or videos attached. To send/receive MMS (photo/video) messages, you need a data plan, and now you are talking much more money.

 

No Facetime via cellular data.

Verizon, does support FaceTime the cellular network. I use it at home. However, I don't know if it will work on board. And if it does, be prepared for a steep bill.

We've been on all 3, our least favorite was Summit. We found the food and service underwhelming, to say the least, and the shows boring. The ship basically seemed to go to sleep after 9 pm. We loved Jewel, although we didn't find the food to be great. We have 4 more cruises currently booked on Jewel - did a b2b this year, have the same booked for 2015 and 2016.

Not a private tour but the Sugar Train is something you might enjoy. :)

LuLu

When we toured with Thenford we didn't want beach time, either, but preferred a rain forest hike. He arranged for another wonderful gentleman to meet us at the Romney Manor stop, and take us on a rain forest walk while the rest of the group went to the beach. It was an easy walk, more a stroll in the park rather than a real hike, but we enjoyed it. The 78 year old woman with us was able o do it, with assistance from our wonderful guide, who stayed right with her. He returned us to the ship at the end. I'm sure Thenford could arrange something semi-customized for you, too, if you ask.

We love Eli's tours, have done all of them multiple times - the Eco tour at least 6. The Eco boat, and Xtreme have sun shades over a portion of the boats.

Some of our roll calls have been that way . Especially when they go and create a FB page for the cruise:rolleyes:.

But most of the time

When there are cruisers that have cruised together before, they tend to exchange more posts than with others.

I don't think they do it on purpose thou:confused:.

We've got a group who cruise together, book the day the schedules open, start the roll calls and tend to chat a lot. It may put people off because we know each other, but we're always happy to meet new folks. In fact, some of us were the new ones to the group a few years ago. The roll call was intimidating at first, but we persevered and ended up with great friends.

We've been in both, on Serenade, prefer 1104. We have had 1104 on Radiance, and 1604, it's mirror image on Jewel. The 1104 balcony is bigger, a little, the balcony on 1056 is even more covered and kind of tunnel-like. I could also hear the elevator mechanism from 1056, although my husband couldn't. We're booked on 1104 on Jewel for a b2b in 2015 and 1604 in 2016.

We've sailed in both 1104 (many times) and 9256 on a b2b. Although many people prefer 9256, we found we prefer 1104. There's more usable balcony and less wind when the ship is at sea.

Hello All,

I just booked cabin 1104 on the Serenade and I have never been on that class ship. There are a few other D1 cabins available and I am looking for the biggest balcony I can get on the aft. Still available are 9256, 8672, 8670, 7674 and 7174. Are any of those bigger than the one I have? Thanks for any help.

You are booked into our favorite cabin!

Our January 31, 2015 itinerary still shows Tortola, too.

I used a TA....can I still do this through RCI before the cruise?

Tell your TA you want to prepay your tips. They'll add them to your invoice and you pay them when you make your final payment. When you check in at the pier your son and DIL can set up their on board account on their own credit card.

I really hope that was a mis-typed word.

Stupid iPad autocorrect! STICKERED! :rolleyes::D

This person is my domestic partner. That changes things? How would I get them a C&A number before the cruise since he has never cruised before and how do I link it to my profile? :confused:

On our son's first cruise with his partner they visited the LA at the beginning of the cruise. They snickered his partner's card, instant Diamond, and if the ship had had a Diamond Lounge he would have been welcome.

Jewel, I believe, showed up in a Canadian port several years ago with a dead whale on her bulbous bow - happened in 2004, a 60' finback whale.

We've done 2 b2b's out of San Juan, once on Serenade and this past January on Jewel. Although I don't remember exact numbers, there were over 100 b2b'ers on each trip. Logistics were simple, and a very nice lunch in the MDR was held on turnaround day for everyone doing a b2b. We're booked for b2b's on Jewel in January 2015 and January 2016, and many on our roll calls are also booked for b2bs, although not necessarily exactly the same 2 weeks.

I think there are a very small number of excursions where a passport is required. A couple that come to mind are trips to Tortola and Canada (some railroad excursion on the Alaska cruise). It will be noted in the excursion description that a passport is required.

If your ship is docking in Tortola, you don't need your passport (we've never taken it off the ship, never been asked). If you are visiting Tortola by ferry when docked in St. Thomas, yes, you'll need your passport.