DaNana

Suggest you check here for a better chance of an answer.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=495

The coast guard does not charge to air lift someone by helicopter from a ship. If they are close enough to the mainland of the US they will probably take you to a US hospital. In more distant locations you may get a charge to be flown off a ship if that is done by another governments coast guard.

 

Medical flights home from overseas vary in cost. If your condition is not that severe your insurance company could put you on a commercial airline, perhaps in first class, with a nurse of physician to accompany you. In the overall scheme of things this is inexpensive.

 

A medical aircraft from the Caribbean is in the $25,000 - $50,000 range to get back to the States. From the far east it is $250,000. IMHO I would choose a policy that covers $500,000.

QUOTE]

 

I am a nurse case manager and have seen the cost of air evac from Phoenix to Los Angeles be greater than $50,000.

We saw David and thought how great an act! Will hope to see him one day in person! You have every reason to be proud!

Where do you meet your driver when getting off in Roaton?

 

 

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Victor is very thorough. Here is part of his email to me:

"When your ship docks, try to get off as soon as possible and enter the dock area. Roatan has two Cruise Ship Terminals -- Please check below for meeting locations for each.

Port of Roatan Cruise Terminal (RCCL Voyager of the Seas): As you exit your ship, look for the Bodden Tours kiosk (it will have a large VICTOR BODDEN sign and will be in position #1 on the dock.) One of our representatives will greet you at the kiosk, locate your name on our list and introduce you to your guide for the day.

Mahogany Bay Cruise Center (Carnival Dream, Carnival Valor): As you exit your ship, customers on Local Independent Tours will be required by Carnival Corporation to exit their dock area through the gates and walk over the hill to the main road. Once outside the gates and over the hill, look for our representatives holding VICTOR BODDEN signs. One of our representatives will greet you, locate your name on our list and introduce you to your guide for the day. At the end of your tour day, we ARE able to drop you off to the entrance of the dock...so you will only have to do this long walk one-way, when you first arrive. You can view the hill behind the red-roofed building here..." Then he gives you a link to print a map. We did not have any issue finding the driver.

Test or whatever, we want RCI back on the WC and not for a couple of weeks! We will be on it and praying we all convince them to come back!:D

I don't want to seem ungrateful but really, 2 months? Hardly a return, more like a drive by. :rolleyes:

I will be looking to book but would really like to see them year round. ;)

Hawaii.

:D:D:DCan you tell this gets my vote? :D:D

I'm not sure if this is true or not because I haven't had it done, but I have read that it's a bad idea because it can sometimes hurt. Someone said that it caused them so much pain that their cruise was ruined.

My sister and BIL were on a cruise with friends. My BIL was going to do this but their friend did it and it was painful. BIL said friend had pain for about 48 hours. Their dentist says it sucks all the moisture out of your teeth. BIL said he was so glad he didn't do it!

Thanks, DaNana and wantocruisemore, for the info. I know Victor is very reputable, but was a little worried that our driver might drop us off at a venue and never return. We'll schedule Monkey Business to be our last stop, which makes sense for the itinerary we have planned anyway. And of course, we intend to tip our driver if he is as good as most of Victor's drivers seem to be based on the glowing reviews we have read.

Our driver never left the area where we were. We could see the vehicle in fact. When we went to the beach, she had friends she met and sat with. When we were shopping, she had friends she went to visit while we shopped. Having a driver leave us, never crossed our minds. Be sure to email and ask for the contact number for your driver so you have it ahead of time. They have such pride for their country and need the money. Be sure to let us know how it went!

Ok..stress queen that I am..reading all the posts about fog under the princess board and these..I am sailing in jan-mar and flying out at 2! I can't sit here for two months stressing about fog making me miss my flight so I remade the flight for the next day:p

Sounds fun! Enjoy the time! Better safe than wishing you had made that decision. Just think, your vacation time will be extended, love it!;)

For those who have taken a private tour with Victor, when did you pay for the tour? We thought you paid the driver at the end of the tour when you were brought back to the ship, but we just booked a tour with Victor and he wrote back that "During your tour day, we will take you by the Bodden Tours office where you will pay for your private Best of Roatan tour in US $ cash." Where is the Bodden Tours office? Since the driver will be dropping us off at places where we will be on our own, we are nervous about paying before the end of the tour as maybe our driver will never return for us.

We paid at the office. We had no issues what so ever. We paid our driver a tip at the end. Victor is very reputable.

I don't see the option to be notified first..??

Here is what my upgrade options looked like:

Upgrade Preferences:

1. I prefer an automatic upgrade
   
2. I do not wish to upgrade my stateroom
   
3. I would like an upgrade but have restrictions
   
   1. 
      
   2. If I am traveling with friends or family and would like our rooms to be near one another
      
   3. I do not wish to be upgraded to Boardwalk or Central Park balcony staterooms (OA/AL only)
      
   4. I do not wish to be upgraded into an accessible stateroom
      
   5. I do not wish to be moved to a lower deck
      
   6. I would like to stay on the same deck as my current stateroom
      
   7. I only wish to be upgraded to a stateroom that is near an elevator
      

You would be well served to read the reviews for your ship from this year to get an idea of how the seas were. You might want to go back 2 years and read them. I haven't been in September. We had the worse seas on Liberty about 6 years ago this time of year. Big ship but we had to hang onto the walls to keep from going back and forth. High winds other times have not effected the ship like that one time. Enjoy your cruise!:)

We have been very fortunate to have responsible people on our tours. The one we did with Victor had just 4/2 couples, which worked great. We decided ahead of getting on the ship, through email, exactly what we were going to do. In May we had a group of 12 in Ephesus and we again had agreed ahead of time. We had plenty of time for what everyone wanted to do. Sorry yours wasn't quite as good.

By the way "wantocruisemore" This appears to be an incorrect statement since Victor is not in Belize.

"Next time we go to Belize we will go to the Mayan canopy and then a beach we can snorkel! with time to shop."

Great pictures, makes me want to be on a cruise again! We took Liberty about 6 years ago this time. I did love the decorations! Await more!

Would hope you are on your Roll Call and someone helped you with this question. Been years since we were there but there is lots near the pier. We actually ate at Senor' Frog's.

The thing to do is NOT to try and get off the ship early, apparenty! Let the masses exit, then proceed at your leisure!

Actually that didn't hold true in March of 2011 on Voyager. We waited until the lines cleared as we did not schedule a tour. We still were about 2 hours getting off the ship and to the shore. Then they brought someone off on a stretcher after us. This seems to be a port intensive issue rather than ship issue, reading here. :cool:

Thanks- it gets so hard because living in the NYC area, I feel as though nobody ever gets dressed up any longer. It's usually jeans, heels and a nice blouse for ladies and men maybe a sports coat. We are just so much more laid back especially on vacation. My husband would never wear shorts obviously to dinner- but as hoping we could get away with nice ones for my 12 yo. Oh well.

And you should be able to get by with shorts for a 12 y/o, except perhaps on the dress night and even then, if that is what you want. We dress up but that is what we like. If you want relaxed, it is Phoenix! You can also use other venues to eat if you feel that is more appropriate. Enjoy your cruise.

Currently a changing target. You might want to check out this thread instead of starting another one. :)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1942652

Welcome to Cruise Critic. This is the Royal Caribbean International board. Pride of America is for Norwegian. You might want to post there or in the Asia boards for more correct information. Hope you find the right cruise for you!

I have done the Mexican Riviera on the Mariner, one of the last ones they did. I can say I was not impressed. The ports were terrible Hated the fact you had to run the gauntlet of beggars and such to get off the ship in pretty much all the ports. In mazatlan they told you to only go to one section of the city, "the golden mile". I could see why. We took a taxi to the area following along on the port map that they give you, nod noticed he was taking us a different route away from the area. He finally did take us to the golden mike area and tried to charge us double for taking us to 2 places. We paid him for 1 and told him if he has a problem the cruise line reps were at the taxi stand we can go there. Of course he took the money and left.

 

If RCCL goes back there, I will not go back.

Too bad you went on your own and had such a bad time, plus it would seem the guy might have felt cheated by an American. This was one of our favorite ports. We used Mazatlan Frank who gave us one of the best tours we ever had anywhere, except recently in Rome. Cabo we took a glass bottom boat out with a group which we got right from the dock area & it was well worth the money. Puerto Vallarta we did on our own and were not the least disappointed. I probably would not do this port on my own again, but at that time it was okay to do so.

I've been on Monarch and Vision, both were booked full. RCI said they will not go back down the Mexican Rivera and put their customers in jeopardy. Carnival spends 2 days in Cabo. Now if I want to spend 2 days there I will fly down and just stay there. I do wish RCI would return and fully believe they would be packed with West Coast cruisers. ;)

We are booked for Nov 2014. Driving from Winnipeg Canada. Very excited to hear the reviews out of Texas.

When in November 2014? We are on November 30, 2014!:D

We emailed Princess asking for a refund of our prepaid airport transfer which we could not take due to the fog delay. We frankly did not expect they would refund it because the delay wasn't Princess' fault (weather being one of those "Acts of God" you always see in disclaimers). But today we received a voice message saying they will refund the cost to our credit card in a few days. Very impressed!

That is great. However, I would have travel insurance to take care of those costs, knowing the possibility exits.

When I called rc and asked they said it was about 90 each way pp or a little cheaper round trip. I have read though that if ur not flying in the day of then they can deny you the transfer but not sure how true After much research on flights and travel from hobby to port we have decided to drive from Vegas. We could jot find anything cheaper than 45 pp each way for ride to port

Jamie

That is new information. I have never heard them denying anyone. :eek: We have flown in the day before and taken the shuttle. We just had to get back to the airport!

You do have to make reservations through RCI. If you use a travel agent then they have to make the reservation.

There are LOTS of chatter about getting to/from HOU to Galveston and back. The best is to go Southwest.