CruizinTigers

6 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

Doors, walls, and ceilings are metal.

Thank you!

Any one who's been on the Adventure of the Seas recently, can you tell me, are the doors metal?  Deciding whether or not to bring magnets to decorate our door a little bit on our cruise this summer.

It says whether you are docked or tendered in your cruise docs. If they aren't available yet, the information is available if you look at your itinerary on the website. If you click on explore this itinerary, scroll down each day and beside the day number, it will say if you are docked or tendering or cruising.

 

Saint John is docked and Bar Harbor is tendered to address the ports you have listed.

Thank you!

It used to be on the booking confirmation, but I just looked at mine for our fall Canada/NE cruise and it doesn't say. But, I'm pretty sure that's not a tender port. There is one our itinerary, but I don't think it's St John.

Thanks! How about Bar Harbor? We have reservations with Olie's Trolly to Acadia, and am wondering if we need to account for a tender ride in when planning departure from the ship for this excursion.

Is there a way to find out ahead of time, whether your ship will be at the dock or need to tender in on the various ports of call for a given sailing? I'm most interested in our Saint John New Brunswick port of call next month, but am interested if there's a way to find out in general.

Thanks!

Thank you!

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We did the Bucket List excursion last year and I would recommend it if you are looking to do one of the ship's excursions. It was well timed to see both directions of reversing rapids and walk though the sea caves, which were the two main things I wanted to do.

Thank you, timf2001. Do you recall what time the excursion started when took it? Our trip has us pulling in to Saint John New Brunswick at noon, and the excursion is at 12:30. I wonder if our late start time would impact what you described with the reversing rapids or sea caves.

I have been to Saint John four times with RCI. After the first trip, I just rent a car from Avis, a very short walk down the pier on Water Street. With the currency exchange, the most I paid was $44 U.S. I've gone to the Fundy Trail twice - spectacular. I've gone to the Irving Nature Center (fairly near the port). Wonderful. I've stopped at the sea caves that are before Fundy Trail by the small restaurant on the coast. Fabulous. $44 plus gas, plus about an $8 entrance fee at Fundy - for two. Best excursion of all.

Thank you!

We are staying just outside St. John with friends as I write this. If I were you, of your two choices I would opt for the Bucket List excursions.

Thank you!

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We will be cruising to New England and Canada next month on the Anthem of the Seas. I am searching for personal reviews for two different RCI excursions for Saint John New Brunswick. We are currently booked on the "St. Martins And The Bay Of Fundy" excursion, but are now looking at the "Saint John Bucket List" excursion as well. They look similar, and the excursion we have booked already is about $35 per person cheaper (there are three of us). But I have a $50 OBC and thinking that if could put it towards the price difference here. But before I change anything, I am really hoping someone out there will be able share first hand experence from both of these excursions.

Thanks in advance for any feedback you can share on either of these!

Precruise pricing for my trip next month is $45/person, but every other week (or so it seems) there's a sale and it goes down to $42. I've been following it for a long time and these are the only two prices I've seen. But the advice you received is best - if you are set on buying the package, go ahead and do it. When (not if) it goes on sale, cancel and repurchase at the lower price. You can't go wrong.

Ignore that sentence. That was from Dynamic Dining, which was assassinated in November 2016.

 

Two dining rooms are used for traditional seatings, two dining rooms are used for My Time Dining. All cruises on the Anthem work the same way as all other ships. There are one or two formal nights, and the rest are called either smart casual or casual, but everyone (pretty much) just follows "casual".

Thank you, Merion_Mom!! I can get down from the ledge now! Phew! I was hoping it was a remnant of the Dynamic Dining because I couldn't imagine them assigning people there and expecting them to dress formal every night. Once or twice we can do!

Thanks for alleviating my fears...

First time traveler on Anthem OTS here. Question for anyone who has recently sailed on Anthem or know someone who has. I understand two dining rooms are reserved for traditional diners - The Grande and Chic. I just read one thing that stated formal attire was required in The Grande every night. Is this true?? And if so, is it possible to request a table in Chic instead?

I agree!!

Thanks again!!

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Thank you. I’ve been pricing limo service but so far it comes in more for us than driving and parking at the port. But it would certainly be much easier and convenient so might be worth the extra $$$.

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Tkerniroc1986,

Thanks for sharing!

My family is considering a similar sailiing on the Magic (not Marvel day at sea though) this November. I'm curious, if you wouldn't mind sharing, how did you get to the cruise port? How difficult was it for you and your family to sail from this port? What advice would you have for other first time sailors from this port? We've cruised Disney several times, but never from NYC.

Thanks!

Recently purchased the "Refreshment Package" for two members in our travel party for our August sailing on the Anthem. Afterwards, I was reading about the Solarium on board, and that you can purchase smoothies there. I called Royal Caribbean to see if our drink package entitles us to these smoothies, to which I was told, yes! I'm a bit skeptical as the representative seemed a bit uncertain in her answer.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this drink package, and if they were indeed able to get a smoothie from the Solarium (or any other area of the ship that might offer them).

Thanks!

I concur with everything already mentioned here. Insurance through DCL is highly over priced. However, one positive plug I would make is based on one experience when we had to cancel a cruise last minute due to Hurricane Sandy. Because we had the insurance through DCL for that one, DCL offered us the full cost of the trip to put towards a future cruise. Now I'm not sure if they still do this, or if it's even worth the much greater cost. Instead, we insure all of our trips now a days with TravelGuard.

One last note... if you have a membership with Costco, you might want to check their travel offerings. We booked our current DCL cruise with them, and they offer a link to purchase a TravelGuard policy at a reduced rate (and better coverage). Perhaps BJs or Same Club offer something similar as well. TravelGuard is already a good value, but if you can get it discounted via Costco or another wholesale chain...

I just saw the number to call...duh...

 

But I hope I can simply use on board as well. :-)

seaotter15, please update this after you call. I will be very interested to learn how this went for you because I was hoping to do the same. Were you able to apply Disney gift card(s) to credit your shipboard account?

Thanks!

YIKES!! I hope not!

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Live near the port, visit often, multiple Disney and other cruises....parking is not an issue you need to worry about. Plenty of it at the Disney terminal, they even built a new parking garage a couple years ago. I personally park outside next to it. Of all the things to worry about, parking at the pier is not one of them.

Thanks!

IMO this is a little bit of an over reaction. While I'm disappointed in what happened over at Princess, and do not condone it whatsoever it was 1 ship in an entire fleet that had this issue. If you think that any for profit company, including Disney, doesn't push their staff to reduce costs as much as possible than you're wrong. It is then up to individual people as to how the respond to that type of work environment and I guarantee you every company has people that will bend or break rules or laws in those circumstances. They are rare and are the exception to the rule, and will eventually be caught, but it happens even to Disney.

I respect both views on this, but I don't think moki'smommy is overreacting. I'm not naive enough to believe that unscrupulous actions like this are not happening in many company to save the all mighty dollar, but when it finally and justly get's exposed, there is a price to pay. The fine in this case is part of that price. Then there is the collateral damage, in this case, lost revenue due to customers choosing other cruise lines instead. The public that learns about this type of behavior on the part of any company has the right chose to no longer give their business to that company. Just because every company in the world may be doing wrong but just haven't been caught yet, is no reason to go on supporting those who have been caught. I think that is a fair position to take.

I have never sailed on Princess. After reading this, I doubt I ever will.

Great topic! This has been a constant debate for me for some time. I've sailed 5 times with each line, and happen to enjoy both. I think the answer to the debate boils down to what you want on your cruise, where you want to leave from, what itinerary you are interested in and how much you are willing to pay for it in the end. I have found that the latter, can be quite a significant difference, but I believe if you have the resources and are willing to pay more, DCL has some certain advantages which you've mentioned here.

This price difference is very significant for my family and I who enjoy cruising and will certainly be able to do so more frequently with RCCL. Plus RCCL leaves out of our home state of NJ year round, which makes cruising with them a very appealing option. The kids clubs on RCCL, while perhaps not quite as nice as DCL, are still excellent. And if you like to gamble, you'll only find a casino on RCCL. Plus RCCL is very innovative and brings a lot of new and exciting features to their ships.

That said, I like both lines very much. And while I believe DCL to be just a tick better, I'm not always sure I can use this argument to justify the price difference. I can certainly afford to cruise more frequently with RCCL, and there's something to be said for that as well!

Thank you chaserdog53. Moki'smommy is correct. We will be driving down from NJ in our own car, so renting a car is not an options. But thanks for the suggestion!

What I was really trying to determine was how big of a risk will it be not to prepay and reserve parking in advance so that we can leverage the 40% saving by staying in a participating area hotel the night before (which we will be doing any way). It seems to me from what I'm reading here and elsewhere that there should be little chance of not finding a spot to park when we arrive.

Still, I'd be very interested in hearing from anyone reading this thread who may have encountered this problem - no spots available for parking at the port when they arrived for their cruise. If anyone had this happen to them, what were the circumstances?

Only in an emergency situation. In that case' date=' only one will be at the DCL terminal (usually the scheduled one). Yes, it has happened, but rarely.[/quote']

 

 

 

Thank you (again)!

 

Based on this, would you agree, there really is no advantage to making a reservation and pre-paying to park at the port? If we stay at a hotel the night before that offers a discount to park at the port provided we pay when we arrive at the port, there should be little to no concern about getting a parking spot it seems.

 

 

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